The Documented Life Project (2014): The Big Finale!

At long last, here are the last few weeks of my 2014 Documented Life Project! I'm super proud of this book. This is the first time I've stuck with a project from beginning to end (well, if you don't count that hiccup in early summer, but I made up those pages!).  This book now sits on my little conference table in my office in Tallahassee so I can have a little bit of my art with me there.  You can go to this Flickr set to see all the pages in one spot from beginning to end.  My girls started out doing this project with me and got through Week 13 before they drifted off, so you'll see their pages in Flickr too.

Week 48's challenge was to depict gratitude in a creative way. Gratitude fell into my lap this week when I saw this little poem Sarah wrote sitting on her desk (above). When I told her how much I liked it, she said I could have it to put in my journal.

 

Week 49's challenge was to trace your hand. I took a bit of liberty with this one and instead included one of my favorite photos. For those of you with whom I'm connected on Facebook, you'll recognize this as my cover photo! If I remember correctly, those are Olivia's hands. We were at a farm in Gainesville called Dudley Farms with our sweet friend Courtney. This week also included my birthday, on which I had to teach class!, and my first day at my new job.

Week 50's challenge was to pick a fantasy vacation spot. I have this dream trip planned. It includes first flying to Ireland and spending at least a week there, and then flying to Paris and spending at least a week there. There'd probably be another spot or two involved, but those are our main two wishes. Before I lost her at 92 in August of 2013, my great Aunt Livy shared as much of our family history with me as she could remember. I learned that my great-great-grandfather Sauls wasn't born a Sauls. He emigrated from the UK, either Ireland or Scotland, to the US at about nine years old, she believed as a orphan. He somehow made his way south, ended up in Georgia, was adopted by the Sauls family and took their name. His birth name was George McAllister. That explains the heritage of my two gorgeous redheads! I'd love to find my roots through him.

Week 51's challenge was arrows. I cut these arrows out of a pretty soap wrapper I had been saving for the perfect moment.

Week 52's challenge was to document a favorite holiday tradition. That was an easy one for me! On Christmas morning, after the gifts are opened, our tradition is to take our dogs to Big Talbot Island and Boneyard Beach. We have to time it with the tides to get on the beach, but it's always well worth the climb and our gift to Molly and Isabelle.

You can see a few more pictures of our 2014 Christmas visit to Big Talbot here.

   

So above is what the whole book looks like! Below is the cover. I waited until the end to do the cover and ultimately decided to just keep it simple and use a piece of my underpapers and add the year. I love it just like that! As I said at the top of this post, I'm so pleased with this project. I poured hours and hours into this book and though I didn't "document" that much of my daily life, I added the big moments and the little moments that jumped out at me. You can see all my posts dedicated to this project here, or just see all the photos in this Flickr set. And don't forget to check out what the Art to the 5th girls are up to here! Next up I'll start sharing my 2015 DLP journal!