Ali Edwards 365 Inspiration

This week Ali Edwards posted a week in her life for her 365 book. I always find her blog inspiring, full of things I want to try to emulate. So I was excited to see her posting on a similar project as ours. If you click here you will be linked to her posts about her 365 album. I will put a link on my side bar so you can go from here to Ali's blog in a click.

State of the Economy Post

Since tonight is the first State of the Union Address for President Obama I have been inspired to do my own state of the economy POTD. My challenge to you this week is to do the same. Sometime this week post about the economy and it's affects in your world. Has it changed your spending? your income? or your appreciation of what you have? Are you worried? content? or maybe not affected at all? Do you have someone else's story to share? a prayer for someone who is hurting because of the recession? There are many ways to document this time in history that is so worth remembering. I will put up my "State of the Economy" post sometime today on my personal blog. Can't wait to see what you come up with. Share a comment if you wish to inspire us all.

POTD Adventure

I was thinking of giving you 365er the challenge for next week to reach beyond your everyday boundaries to take you POTD. To make an extra effort to stage a scene, or venture out somewhere that you normally wouldn't go to capture a moment in time.

I thought of the idea because today I was going to do exactly that. Check out my personal blog for a story on January 22nd titled All Dressed Up and No Place to Go part 1 and 2. In this case my POTD turned out to be a little more of an adventure than I had planned. An example that you never know what seeking your POTD may turn into.

So go for it. Venture out this week and take a photo, journal about it, maybe even write about how you didn't want to do the assignment in the first place. Take a mini adventure and feel free to share what you did in the comments.

Construction

Just wanted to say thanks to all the girls who came out to the class last weekend. Wish I had remembered my camera so I could have got a POTD with the group. I'm a bad 365er...next time.

The class was labor intensive. No fault of the participants, but the project construction took twice as long as I had planned. Thanks to everyone for your patience!! and for your superb cutting and pop dotting. Who knew that pop dots could be so time consuming. Anyway I promised that I would give you pics of those final inserts so here they are.....

Should Every Photo Be A POTD?

Wow, we are one week into the project already. I hope that everyone has at least one entry for the week. Maybe some have seven?

Today I want to take a moment to talk a little about the challenge of getting a photo of the day (POTD)...

On occasion we may have something to say but no photo to go with it. The thought we have in our head may not even pertain to the day specifically, it may possibly be something random. These are important parts of our lives and should be remembered. My suggestion...write down the thought; journal it before it leaves your brain. A picture can be added later. So take a picture that day if you need to, or wait to capture the moment another day. Possibly look for a past picture that fits the words. If it is one of those situations where a photo just doesn't work, an option is to simply leave the photo sleeve in the book blank, and we will make some cute embellishments on the 16th to fill it in.

Yesterday I took a snapshot to go with my thought of the day....

What a gross photo! I tried to take it from all different angles to get the right image, but this is the best I could do. I don't know that this shriveled up chicken will make it in my album. I might just journal about my easy way of preparing dinner, and my thankfulness for convenience foods. Happy for not having to live in the days when they had to catch their own game. To be living in 2010, when as a mom, you don't have to even cook your own poultry to have it ready for the table.

So last night the ball dropped and it is officially a new year. A great time to get started on our 365 project, or if you are not ready, choose to do nothing, and use today as the first of many days to be abbreviated. Don't feel any pressure to start right away if you are not ready. It will not matter in the long run....trust me!

Maybe today should be a day to gather your thoughts about the theme of you book. Are you doing random happenings, your favorite things, babies first year, or a compilation of things in your past. There are so many possibilities. Or it would be great fun to do a month to month themed book, where each month has a different focus. If so, decide what this first month of the year will be dedicated to.

Or start out simple by just getting organized. Go out and buy a new notebook to do your journaling in, or take some snapshots of what the new year in your world looks like, without any idea how you may use it later on.

Start by writing some journaling. Possibly your first entry will be about how you brought in 2010, or your thoughts about what the new decade will bring. Resolutions, new beginnings, things to avoid, what you rose to in the morning, even if it is dirty dishes from the night before (actually, that would make a great photo).

Start out this project with what you feel comfortable doing. Today I want you thinking, no matter where you are at on understanding the project, just get your brain focused on the next days, all 365, what ever they may bring.