Holiday Journal 2011 :: Finished.

Yay! My holiday journal is complete. I am in love with how this journal turned out. Love it. Some of the pictures didn't print that well (printed at home, which usually works well, but my printer was acting up ;)), but I'm still happy with it. I blurred out a few photos for privacy reasons, but I feel like you still get the idea of the layout of the page. I plan on adding a few more photos to the back of when my sweet in-laws were here the day after Christmas, but am calling it finished for now :)

For the patterned paper on the left, I printed out a sheet of this free printable wrapping paper.

For Day 18, I printed this gorgeous free printable by Emily of Jones Design Company, found (via pinterest) here.

Go here to see the first half. So glad to have another one of these finished. I loved looking back through this one from last year (2010). And this one from the year before (2009). It's neat to see how my style and approach have changed each year. I'm loving it :)

Holiday Journal :: December 1-11

A peek into my Holiday Journal / December Daily thus far. I'm going for super simple this year. And wow is it hard. There is so much I want to put in to it (pictures, every single detail of the day, etc), but I'm really trying to keep it to one spread per day.

I'm having a challenging time with the 4"x6" layout and having to work within that size. Last year, my journal was 6"x8" and that worked well. My autumn journal worked well in the 4"x6"; naturally I thought it would also work well for the holidays. So, although I feel somewhat constrained by the size, I'm also feeling somewhat free with having tight parameters (does that make sense? ;)).

I like the small size in that:
+ I have to be creative to get everything in one spread.
+ I can print a regular 4"x6" photo and put it in the book with no trimming needed.
+ It's a challenge for me.
+ I like how it works well and has a cohesive feel sitting next to my autumn journal.

I'm still pondering what to do with Day 9 - this is the day my hubby left for Haiti. Thinking about writing thoughts about this day, the trip, etc. Excited to still think about this one.

autumn journal: final update

I know, I know, it's December, but I wanted to share my final autumn journal update. I had been working on the last several pages and finally got to the point of just wanting to get it done and move on to December. So, it's finished!  I am loving having this cute little book of our fall season. And I am loving how it is a nice, broad overview of the past several months. *Edited to add: For this set of updates, the photos were printed on regular white computer paper.

Thank you for your kind comments along the way with this journal - this is the first time I've ever documented an entire season and it was so helpful to have encouragement through your comments. Thank you :)