December (almost) Daily

I first saw the idea via the Studio Calico newsletter, with the launch of their December Daily kit (and we all know I’m a sucker for a good kit). A bit of a google took me to Ali Edwards’ site, and gave me some food for thought. I really liked the idea of slowing down, taking the time to stop and record the little things in this crazy busy time of year. And so I threw it out there for some accountability – December Daily was going to be a thing.

I pondered my options. It was only a few days to the start of December, so ordering anything in was out of the question. I also liked the idea of possibly doing my album digitally (which I have since abandoned). And then, I decided, let’s keep it simple. Stash only. Which then led me to designing a set of digital papers to print at home and use in my album. Ok, so maybe that should have been keep it simpleISH. I had a lot of fun playing around with designing these, and in the end, came up with 24 papers that I then printed (on regular print paper, on my HP Photosmart 8230). I have since made the papers available for purchase and instant download in my Etsy shop – you can find the listing for the papers HERE.

In the end, I decided to roll with 6×6″ pages, and 3×4″ photos. The I couldn’t get my fonts to behave in photoshop, and rather than pull my finger out and learn how to make InDesign do what I wanted it to, I instead hand lettered the dates, scanned them in and then printed onto my pages, which didn’t help in the whole “getting behind further and further” debacle. But Now that most of my jobs are cleared out, I’m ready to do a bit DD sprint and catch up – that’s my plan for tomorrow, any how. So far I have done three pages:

In the vein of keeping it simple, I am keeping the journalling just a quite note about what was happening that day. Photos are printed at home, every couple of days so I can get 2 photos on one 4×6 sheet. I have a pile of paper and cardstock on my work table so I can knock a page out quickly. I’m keeping embellishments minimal. My process is print photo, print date on card, chop some paper, whack it all together with double sided tape. No fussing. No overthinking. Just get it done. It may not be the most arty of layouts, and it may not be Pinterest worthy, but they are done and recording our real life. And to me, that is the entire point of this project. Celebrating the magic of Christmas.

Today we kick off the final week of school. Another two teachers gifts headed out the door this morning. I have a dolls quilt that must be finished today, another three mugrugs to make, and a spot of baking to do. I’ll call the day a success if I complete the dolls quilt and one mug rug. Butterfly is unwell, and I think Beetle if following suit. Better now than next week. Last Monday before holidays, and I plan to kick it’s butt before it kicks mine. Look out to-do-list,I’m coming for you. Have a great Monday!