December Daily® is a project created by Ali Edwards to celebrate December by capturing one story per day for the first 25 days of December. You can find information about it here.

I have completed two out of six December Daily® projects so far. Not too bad for a busy mom that often has December be the busiest time of year work-wise as well.  The others are in various stages of "hopefully getting completed someday" and while I am fine with that for now, I really do hope to complete more than I have incomplete. 

And yes, sometimes life just throws you curve balls and there isn't really any way to complete them at the time. 

And that's okay too. (which is what happened last year.)

Well, I actually have more than two finished if you count my two little photobooks from Artifact Uprising created on my phone using the Collect App + AU. Click here to find out more about Artifact Uprising. Click here to find out more about the Collect App. 

For an older video of mine showing how to export photos in your Collect App, click here. I'm hoping to share more about the process of creating my photo books but this will give you some more information in the meantime. 

And I've captured the month of December in my Project Life® so I do have things to look back on to help me finish up. And thankfully I take lots of photos, so I have those as well.

So as I unpacked my books this year in the big move, I started looking through my albums and it made me realize that I do tend to complete more of the album in the years I have a plan.

I do best when I have an idea of where my photos and journaling will go. And when I have some foundation pages and templates set up in advance. 

So this year, the December Daily® magic hit me earlier than usual and I've been adding things here  and there to my foundation pages.

My main goal is to keep it simple and use things that spark my joy. Simple as that. 

So here's a video sharing pages that I have in progress right now. Things will change as I get a chance to add the photos, words and finishing touches. (Bring on the glitter!)

But the main thing that stood out to me as I walked through the album was the idea of building. For me this is a process. It's about building in flexibility but also building a framework / a foundation so I have an starting place.

And it gets me excited about the process and is a creative retreat for me when life gets stressful and busy. Even if all I do is walk by my album and touch some supplies, it calms me. The act of slowing down and thinking about how thankful I am for my family and the focus on living our story first helps me make my interactions with my family more intentional and loving. At least I hope it does.

Anyways, here's a video walkthrough. I have pictures to post but that would take actually editing them and getting them up. So, for now a video will have to do.

And one last thought: one of my favorite things about the project is the idea that by crafting the story, it inspires me to live my story. It may seem crazy to prepare this early, but I find it really helps me to plan activities that are meaningful to us and live more in the moment.

Thanks for watching and for your support. And thanks Ali for creating a wonderful project and community. xoxo