Week in the Life 2012: So now what?

Week in the Life: the week after.

I'll be honest. I have really good intentions. That maybe last a day. Such is the case with the daily journaling for Week in the Life. I did Monday...on Monday night. And it was awesome! Last year I didn't keep up so well with the journaling and note-taking, but I was still able to put together an album that I love. So yes, it would be easier in the end if I would keep up daily, but that's not always what works for me. I wanted to share a bit of where I am in the process. Because this is a huge project. Especially if you have >1600 photos like me! Here's a look at my Monday journaling:

Monday's Journaling

A closer look. This is classic: "Where are my keys?" Typical Monday morning.

I'll admit it. I felt pretty good about myself! The behind the scenes: I got off a little early that day which made it much easier to do! So as real life rolled on, my dedication wavered. And that's okay. I tend to do a bit of pre-journaling by writing in various notebooks, etc before I decide what I want to say on the daily sheet. And that's where these come in: 

My arsenal of note-taking tools.

A few things that work for me:

• Planner. Useful for jotting down the main events of the day as well as details. I will go through my photos and see what I've captured to help jog my memory. Can't remember an exact time? That's what photo "details/information" or metadata is for. I found that when I was putting together my album for 2011 that I enjoyed having a few exact times in there. It made it look like I was oh so good at keeping up! Ha ha! Really just looked up the info in iPhoto!
• Grid lined notebook: Love this thing. Sam found it for me at the bookstore and I love it. I can sketch ideas, jot down notes, whatever. I start all my projects in here.
• Cute little notebook: Little notebooks are great especially if the sizes of the pages can be used directly in the project. Bonus if they are cute! This one is from Martha.

Hello cute little notebook!

• Daily sheets from Ali Edwards. I printed these out smaller to fit my project too. I am planning on slipping them in between the photo layouts for additional journaling. I like the small format of my book but one thing I observed is that I wanted a little more details about the week, and these planning sheets are great for that.
• A good pen. I bounce between pens. For the actual daily sheet I am using a Zig Millennium pen in I think the 01 size. Other than that I just keep a variety of pens handy because which pen I use depends on the mood I'm in! Random but true.
• Momento: an app on my iPhone that grabs all my Instagram, Twitter and Facebook feeds. I can also jot down notes each day. So easy. I love it! Day One is also good for journaling.

So that is kind of where I am at right now. I did upload photos from my iPhone and Canon every night. I have also created smart albums for each day in iPhoto. And I have my album and pretty papers and things just waiting for when I have time to work on it. 

Which leads me to reflect about an epiphany I had during the December Daily rush of 2011. I had made my cover and planned my papers but putting it all together and posting all the time just wasn't working for me. I realized that it was ok!

I create because I love to do it. The photos, the moments and the memories are what I want to remember. Thankfully I found Instagram because it allows me to share in a "microblog" format with the photos and make connections with other scrapbookers that I enjoy.

Hopefully this has helped in some way to those who may be a little slower on the production side of things like me. My motto: enjoy the journey and savor the process. It's such a blessing to be able to capture so much of our everyday. It's truly amazing and I am truly grateful for it all.

So how is your Week in the Life coming along? Would love to hear other tips too!