Inspired

365 Grateful

This week…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope your weekend was fulfilling in all ways.

 

365 Grateful

I’ve been thinking of doing a "365" project for a few years now (I know, I don't exactly rush into things!).  I hadn’t gone ahead with it because the idea sort of, ok, completely intimidated me…I’ve done month long projects several times and have found that although I’ve been thrilled with how many photographs I’ve taken and excited by the challenge of pushing myself to “see” things in my world that might otherwise have gone unnoticed,  by the end of a month of doing this daily, I’ve always been relieved when the pressure is off!   So with that in mind, I was hesitant to push it to a whole year!

The other day I came across Haley’s site at You Can’t Be Serious!  In 2009 she decided to do a gratitude journal with Polaroid photo’s and opened it up to others to join her on a Flickr site.  Two years later, she’s now teamed up with film maker Toni Powel and together they’re working on creating a film of the same name.  I've sporadically kept a gratitude journal but the idea of a photo/gratitude journal appealed to me.  Although I don’t have an actual Polaroid camera, I do have a phone/camera with a polaroid app!  This appealed to me even more because it’s something I always have with me and it also eliminates the need to do any post processing…the app photo is funky and fun just as it is.  It sets the tone for the focus to be on the gratitude rather than a technically “good” photograph...which takes away a lot of my "self imposed" pressure.

The “scrapbook” is a  Blurb Book and I’ve set it up so that the PDF pages are ready to go and can be added to Blurb as I go along. (the photo's below can be clicked on to enlarge)

 

…the cover

 

…introduction

 

…and a first few pages

 

 

I liked the idea of creating a “scrapbook” style of book with the faux polaroids…they just seem to work well together.  The templates for both the left and right pages are already made, so I just need to copy the photograph, “drop” it in, and write my few lines of journaling.

 

Time will tell just how easy (or not) this is for me to keep up, but I love the whole idea of bookmaking so much that I’m sure I’ll make it through, even if I stall with the pages now and then!  I'd be interested in knowing if any of you have done a 365 photography project of any kind and how it went.

 

What you focus on expands, and when you focus on the goodness in your life, you create more of it. Opportunities, relationships, even money flowed my way when I learned to be grateful no matter what happened in my life.

- Oprah Winfrey

 

…and always dear friends, I thank you and am so grateful that you’ve stopped by today…