Us:The Abridged Version Album

Last fall, I took Cathy Zielske's Me: The Abridged Version class. I had taken my brainstorming sheet with me on a road trip thinking that I could use the time in the car to come up with ideas. I ended up asking my husband and son for help. My son asked, "Can I do this too?" Of course he could. What a great record of his personality and interests! Next thing I knew, my husband had decided that he'd complete the project as well.

Before we arrived at our destination, all three of us had brainstormed words for each letter of the alphabet. I worked on journalling for my list of words and started gathering photographs. I typed and sent my son his list of words so that he could journal on his iPad, and I left my husband responsible for his own words and photos. 

I love spreadsheets/tables and often work on my computer, phone, or iPad, so I transferred my list of words, cross references, and honourable mentions to a Google doc. That way I was able to copy and paste right onto the journal cards since I was completing the album digitally. 

I completed the cover page for our album.

I also created a colour scheme for each of us. 

Before Christmas, I had put together most of my pages, but I didn't have anything for my husband or son. Once summer hit, I realized that we had neglected this album. After some gentle nagging, my husband has now finished his journalling, and my son is 2/3 done. I hope that we can find the time to finish this album off this summer.

We're going to print a photo book including all three of us, and I'm going to print an 8x8 photo book of my son's pages for him to keep. I'm so glad that I chose to participate in Cathy's class. It will be an amazing record of who we are right now.

Summer Projects

I'm a teacher. That means that I'm super busy from September to June, but then I have the summer to rejuvenate. That's when I find myself the most creative. 

I'm also a night owl, so the fact that I don't have to work the next morning is helpful. 

Some of the projects I'm working on are new, but many are on-going or projects that I haven't spent time on since last summer (or sometimes longer than that). 

Here's my project list for the summer of 2015: 

1. Trip Planning - Since we're heading to Southern California this summer, trip planning needs to be a priority.

2. Work on my son's album - I need to document his grade 6 year.

3. Finish up the Us: The Abridged Version album - this project got pushed off to the side, and I need to take the time to finish the album. 

4. Update the MLB Quest album - this can wait until later this summer, but Jason went to a game in Philadelphia, and we're going to another Dodgers game, so I will have two pages to do. I also need to get after Jason about some of his jobs for the album.

5. Project Life - I haven't done anything for 2014 or 2015. Yikes - that feels overwhelming. I'm planning to do monthly spreads, and I'm going to start with this year and try to keep up at the end of each month. 

6. Work on my son's art room - we need to re-finish the ceilings, paint the walls, put in new flooring, etc., but I hope that we can start the school year with a proper space for our budding artist to create.

7. Update our anniversary album - for our 10th anniversary, I made an album for my husband highlighting each year of our marriage. It shouldn't take me long to update this album.

I'll be more detailed about each of these projects in upcoming posts.