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!

The Documented Life Project (2014): Filling in Weeks 24-29

Happy Friday!  I'm still playing catch up over here, so here are my Weeks 24-29 from the 2014 Documented Life Project.

Week 24's challenge was to use book text. I am an avid magazine reader (it's a sickness, really...). So as I'm flipping through, I always tear out images that speak to me. This was part of a perfume spread. I just loved the colors. I remember this week clearly. I completely lost my voice! I woke up the morning of the 10th sounding kind of scratchy, and by the end of the day I was silenced. For nearly a week! The upside of that was I got to sit out our adult high school/GED graduation ceremony. My husband certainly loved the fact that I couldn't talk for nearly a week.

Week 25's challenge was to cover your tip-in with hearts. I already had this bright scrapbook paper as my tip-in and there just so happened to be a sticker page full of hearts laying in my workshop floor. Bliss! This was our week in Boca Grande, which I blogged here.

Week 26's challenge was to add a Bible verse or quote that inspires you. My verse is actually on the back of one of Roben-Marie's lovely postcards.

Week 27's challenge was to add a cross word, suduko or word search. The background for this spread is more under papers. Love using my scraps. As I'm posting this, I just noticed that I didn't journal at all! The least I could have remembered was July 4! For the past couple of years, we've been going up to Fernandina Beach for the fireworks. It's a great evening of strolling Center Street, grabbing some ice cream and heading to the river for the show.

Week 28's challenge was to add an Instagram or other tiny photo. This little Instragram photo was of the shells that were on the front porch table when Dana and I arrived at our little cottage for the Serendipity Retreat in October 2013. Good Lord, I can't believe that was all the way back in 2013. I hope I get to go back this year!

Week 29's challenge was to make a wish and draw or cut up magazines to illustrate. This was another magazine page tear. When I saw this dress, I just fell in love with it. Of course, it's just a couple thousand out of my price range and I'd have absolutely no place to wear it. Thus, keeping the image was the closest thing to granting my wish. Admittedly, I got a little lazy on this spread (not to mentioned tried to use up some rub-ons I've had forever), as this was the last of my catch up pages, and after completing 13 pages in about two and a half days, I was T-I-R-E-D!

So that catches up my back-fill weeks! I hope to post the rest of the finished book this weekend. There still's plenty of time to join in on The Documented Life Project 2015!  It's free and full of inspiration.  I'll start sharing those pages as soon as I finish sharing 2014. :-)

The Documented Life Project (2014): Filling In Weeks 17-23

I spent three days over the Christmas break glued to my workbench completing my 2014 Documented Life Project. With the exception of the chunk of weeks 17-29, I had done a fairly good job of keeping up!  Those weeks included some of my busiest times of the year at work, the end of the school year for the girls and our annual vacation to Boca Grande.  This week I'll be sharing the rest of my book with you!

 

Week 17's challenge was to photograph or draw your favorite shoes (above). I have three "favorites," but they are more like categories. One is cowboy boots; I have three pairs and am constantly on the lookout for the next pair I can't resist. Next is Converse-style sneaks (or the Payless knockoffs!); I currently have four pairs of those: hot pink, plaid, camo, and floral. But my most favorite by far are the soles of my own two feet. If at all possible, I prefer to be barefoot. As for my girls, I've also included a fun little Instagram pic of their feet. For those of you who have followed the Daily Dose of Awesomeness on Facebook, you'll have no trouble telling who is whom.

Week 18's challenge was to add an inspiring quote to guide your week.

Week 19's challenge was to document a random act of kindness that you've done. Since I was doing backfill for these weeks and actually completed them in late December, I had a hard time remembering much from the actual week other than what would normally be on my calendar for that time frame, so instead I just created a page that I felt represented kindness. That beautiful image came out of an old Papaya Arts calendar.

Week 20's challenge was to use a rubber stamp in a new way. I stumbled across this stamp in the Michael's dollar bin and bought two of them: one for the girls and me and one to give away.

Week 21's challenge was to add embroidery, embroidery floss or fabric to your page. Not only can you find "I love my dog" stamps in the Michael's dollar bin, but you can also find these fun little stickers that were like rick racks of fabric. I used the fabric strips to divide the lines of a quote.

Week 22's challenge was to draw, paint or sketch a house. This is my vision of our little happy shack, full of color. I added a quote that fit the theme. This week was our 19th wedding anniversary. Our very first date was to a Jacksonville Sun's game, so we always try to go to a Sun's game on our anniversary or a date nearby if there is not a game on that date. This year, we had a game on our anniversary, and it just so happened to be the game that won the Suns the Southern League Championship! The dog at the bottom symbolizes a visit to Sunday Funday at the shelter for a photo shoot.

Week 23's challenge was to practice gratitude. This challenge couldn't have come on a better week. That week my girls graduated from elementary school. Their graduation ceremony was on that Monday. We were blessed with six years, kindergarten through 5th grade, at New Berlin Elementary. I'm very grateful for the wonderful teachers my girls had there.

   

Weeks 24-29 coming up next! See more of my posts from the 2014 Documented Life Project here.  And check out everything the gals from Art to the 5th have to offer here!

The Documented Life Project: Weeks 46 and 47

We are winding down!  Week 46's challenge for the Documented Life Project was to incorporate fabric into our page.  Canvas is a type of fabric, yes?  A couple years back, I took Tracy Verdugo's Paint Mojo class; Art 5-ers Roben-Marie and Sandi were there too!  That painting has been sitting around gathering dust, so I decided to cut it up and use it for this challenge.

 

I was hesitant to cut it off the canvas frame at first, but once I made that first cut and realized the new possibilities, I was so glad I did! I was never going to do anything with it in the state it was in, so why not find another use for it?  It was a 30 x 30 inch canvas, so I now have a lot of painted canvas I can cut up and use for other projects.  You can see the painting here.

Week 46 was my last week at the college, so it was a very emotional week for me. On that Wednesday, my students surprised me with another going away party. They totally had me fooled.  They missed two week's worth of our regular Tuesday SGA meetings due to an event the first week and the Veteran's Day holiday the second week, so my SGA President, Irene, asked if we could have a meeting on Wednesday.

When I walked down to the meeting, I was met with the whole group and a large banner that they had created and all written notes on. There were flowers and tons of food!  I was amazed they were able to keep that a total surprise for me.  I'm two weeks into the new role, and while I'm enjoying it, I definitely miss having the students around. My new office is entirely too quiet!

Week 47's challenge was to add a map of our town, state or country and document about the map. Being a native, life-long Floridian, of course, I pulled out my state.  I added to it by highlighting where I've lived in Florida, favorite places and the change I'm currently navigating. This was my first week between jobs, so it was quite a nice lazy week. I definitely needed to decompress, so I spent much of the week playing in my studio, along with a day photographing pups at the shelter.
    

I'll be working from home this upcoming week and then have two weeks off for the Christmas break, so I'll be wrapping up the Documented Life Project 2014 and getting ready for 2015! See all my DLP posts here, and check out what the amazing Art to the 5th gals are up to on their blog here.

The Documented Life Project: Week 45

Week 45's challenge was to add a tab to your page, and it was a special treat because I was able to incorporate something from Lorraine Bell, one of Art 5!  Lorraine had posted a question in our Facebook group -- I can't even remember what the question was now! -- and then selected one lucky person to receive a little surprise from her.  I was that lucky person!  And what I received from her was a beautiful tag!

I received my package the week the challenge posted and automatically my brain switched "add a tab" to "add a tag." Truly I thought I had the best luck!  That week's challenge was to add a tag, and I just received this beautiful tag from Lorraine!  Once I had completed my page and went to check the challenge for the next week, I saw that Week 45 was, in fact, TAB, not TAG!  So I added one cute little pink tab on the inside spread. Blonde brain. :-)

On the inside spread, I glued in some painted deli underpapers and a "Go With the Flow" that Olivia came across in a magazine and cut out for me to put in my journal.  

This week's highlights included a nice going away gathering that my staff and students put together for me. They invited the entire campus and a few friends from other campuses, so it was fun to be able to see everyone. One of my colleagues came up with a neat collage idea as a going away gift that she put together during the gathering with little somethings that everyone who came brought with them to add.  We wrapped up the week with a trip over to Tallahassee for the FSU Homecoming game.
 

See all my Documented Life posts here, and visit the Art to the 5th blog for everything Documented Life Project and all that the Art to the 5th gals have to offer here.

The Documented Life Project: Week 44

Week 44's challenge for the Documented Life Project was to incorporate real or drawn leaves onto our page. The first thing that came to mind was a leaf print stamp I had from Alisa Burke.

 

As I've been working through my sticker stash on this project, I managed to use up another sheet on the interior spread!  (Do you find it odd that I have a gazillion stickers and piles of scrapbook papers, yet I've never been a scrapbooker?  I believe I have obsessive-compulsive issues with pretty papers and stickers...tell me I'm not alone...) 

These "what if" and "it happened" stickers were included in the stickers that came with the Moleskine. They probably were never intended to be used together, but I thought, together, they posed an interesting thought, don't you think?  

The highlights for this week included three lunch dates with old friends and colleagues. I was working in lunch dates as I was preparing for my departure from the college! This week also brought our annual Fall Fest on campus, a little bitter sweet as it was my last one, and Halloween!  I wrapped up on the week Sunday at the shelter photographing the pups. 

See more of my Documented Life Project pages here, and check out the entire project and everything else the Art to the 5th gals have going on here. 

The Documented Life Project: Weeks 42 and 43

As we are getting close to the end of the year for the Documented Life Project 2014, I better start posting two weeks at a time to catch up! Here are week's 42 and 43.  Week 42's challenge was "stars." I used one of Roben-Marie's postcards as the tip in this week, and it just so happened to be stars, so I used her stars as the inspiration for my stars!

This week was all about knowledge dumps, as in sharing my knowledge of my roles at the college prior to my departure.  Commencement was the biggie.  Also had my dear friend Mauricio Garcia on campus that week doing a presentation for the students.  I always love Mo's talks!  We wrapped up the weekend with the girls having a friend over for a sleepover and me heading into the shelter Sunday morning for a photo shoot with the pups.

Week 43's challenge was "sketch what you see right now."  I've always struggled with my drawing skills, so this was definitely a challenge for me, but I did, in fact, sketch what was right in front of me: my work bench, window and window sill, and what was outside my window. All those little "bottles" in the window sill are spray inks. (I have a ton of spray inks.) That "Happy Shack Designs" up at the top is actually a painted wooden sign my friend Gypsy made for me.

On the inside spread, I used a poppy stencil and embellished with paint pens and a thick Sharpie marker.   This week's highlights included camping at Flamingo Lake for the weekend. We set up camp right next to Hailey G's grands and enjoyed a great weekend with friends.

Each week, this journal has become harder and harder to work in and photograph due to its thickness!  Glad we only have a few weeks left!  I'm ready to get started in my new journal for 2015.  See all my Documented Life Project posts here, and check out the Art to the 5th blog and all things Documented Life Project and more here.