Wednesday, November 12, 2014

December Daily - the almost finished edition 2013

My December Daily from 2013 is 95% finished. In fact, I could probably finish it in a single evening. Maybe sharing it with you here will encourage me to actually go through with it and finish it for reals. In that spirit, I thought I'd share with you what I've done on it so far. I'm so close to completing it; maybe this will be the impetus I need to actually put this baby to bed.

I chose a 6 X 8 Snap album for my DD last year. It really is a great size; I'd recommend it for anyone to use for this project. I don't think going any bigger is wise, but you might want to consider an even smaller album. As you can see, I haven't yet decorated the cover. My decorated cover from 2009 has sort of fallen apart and needs to be redone, so I'm reluctant to make changes to this cover. It's on my 5% to finish list.  I went with the green and kraft combo because that is the green that most of the interior of my house is painted. I thought this album would look pretty on my coffee table or on a shelf on display because of that. Still, it's too plain as it is right now.

Here's a glimpse of the album from the side with it open.

 The title page - it's a little flimsier than I would like. Maybe I need to add another layer of cardstock to give it more substance. I do love the scalloped edge of that tiny intro page though.

 The title page continued - I don't love it, but I can live with it.

Day 1 focuses on my Christmas tree. (There's a bit of a glare on a couple of pages because I'm taking these pics outside on my glass picnic table in an effort to catch the last of the natural light - sorry in advance.)

And on the other decorations around the house. I really need to journal on the back of the tree page, but I haven't gotten around to that yet.

Day 2 focuses on cooking for my girl each week. I popped up some elements and used some layering on this page which makes me happy.

The next day focuses on our football team winning the state championship for the third year in a row. I thought the repetition of 3 was a cool aspect of this page, plus I like that there's a lot of journaling. Note that the page on the right is smaller to create some variation in the album. I also used a picture collage on the right hand page which is something I haven't done in DD before now.

I didn't have anything Christmasy to say about days 4 and 5, so I included a page about the Big Bang Theory and about my obsession with taking selfies. Day 5 was also the first day that I used a divided page protector in the album.

On day 6, I included a variety of small photos in the page protector that focused on the weather and on my boy bestie having surgery. Day 7 was about the podcasts I listen to regularly. I thought it might be fun to glimpse back at that sometime in the future.

 I chose to include a pic of Sergeant's dog, Lily for day 8 (she was spending a few days with me at the time) and a description of our pep rally that celebrated our state championship on day 9.

Day 10 features a shot of Kelsey and Jake's house and day 11 describes the very mundane task of going to the doctor before the end of the calendar year. I tucked the journaling behind the right hand page to keep it looking clean since there was a lot going on in this spread overall. Notice the scalloped edge on the right page as a repeated element.

I discussed a first date experience for day 12 and one of my friends on day 13. Note that the pic for day 13 was from the summer, but the actual story of the page was just about having dinner together the month of December.

On day 14, I shared the story of giving the ACT while day 15 focuses on a family pic I took of Kelsey and Jake. (The actual picture was taken at Thanksgiving, but I took it with the intention of it being a Christmas card photo, so, for me, it works here.)

On day 16, I included a pic of Kelsey's dog, Ollie, who often comes to my house for sleepovers. Day 17 was a small insert page that was a PL card on one side and journaling about our faculty potluck on the other side. I forgot to take pics of the potluck, but I wanted to tell the story in my album anyway.

This shot shows the journaling from day 17 and a pic of our downtown park lighted for the holidays for day 18.

The back of day 18 has more of our city lights/downtown area featured. Day 19 is a closeup of the ornaments on my tree with a journaling card tucked behind it. Day 19 is another smaller size page to create a little more variety in the album.

I'm not finished with day 20 or 21. I have the base page started for day 20 and the page protector to work with for day 21, but I haven't followed through on those days yet. Add that to my 5% that needs to be finished. (I'm keeping it real here...)

Day 22 is a two page spread that includes a divided page protector on the left and a smaller size insert page on the right. It focuses on our holiday gathering with my best friend's family at her house just before Christmas day.

Day 23 is the back of that small insert page and features a photo of me in front of my Christmas tree before I went to an event at church, I think. (I didn't write it down, so I don't remember 100%.) I like the lighting of this photo a lot.

Technically, I only need to include pages for days 24 and 25, and I'll be finished documenting my December Daily for 2013. In years past, I've gone all the way to New Year's Day, but I know most people probably only document through the 25th. My next step is to go back and finish days 20, 21, 24, and 25. Once I've done that, I could always continue through the end of the month if I really wanted. My final task will be to decorate the cover of my album.

I'm challenging myself to finish these few pages of DD before Thanksgiving this year. I think that's a doable goal and would allow me to focus on this year's DD at that point if I wanted. I'm still not convinced I want to make a traditional DD this year, but I hate to not play along with the project in some way. It's always so much fun, and I love seeing what other people are making during the month.

Later this week, I'll share more pics of other December Daily albums that are in various stages of completion. I hope you'll stay tuned. What are your plans for DD this year?

3 comments:

  1. I love this! You are so close to finishing! Hope you get a chance to do that! I'm still percolating about my DD this year. I have some unfinished projects of my own to finish!

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  2. I love it!! super easy to finish & will probably bump you into the spirit to create your base for this year's ;) I plan to put mine together on our Thanksgiving weekend away.

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  3. Isn't it fun to go back and see what was going on in December that year! I'm also like you in that I never plan my base pages early! :) Thanks for sharing!!

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