trimmingthesails

ZIZO in January (14)

Dozens by now, would be our norm - but this winter we can count the frosts on the fingers of one hand. Helena's lovely meme on Zooming In and Zooming Out, along with my little point-and-shoot, brought me to our ivy-clad fence ...

And recalling all the lovely contributions I've seen so far of distance and close-up, it's been salutary to remember that focussing on the big picture can mean missing the details of the right-here-right-now ...

With warmest good wishes for a mellow midweek, wherever you are :).

Outside and inside ...

The Outside
I've been measuring books. I know - not quite in the same class as the killer first ten words of Rinda's wonderful post. But if you're going to produce a photobook, getting the right size for your purpose matters. Abi and Amy's beautiful volumes are 12"x12" inches and I can really feel the pull of those glorious large photo pages. On a practical note, I think that size is going to be a bit large and heavy for me: if I live long enough to reach LOL (Little Old Lady) status, I'll be a little sad if I don't have the strength to manoeuvre my books off the shelf and onto my lap. So I've been a-weighing and a-measuring ... 

 ... and balancing the sizes from Snapfish and Blurb, along with Amy's comment that the Blurb books don't lie flat, the fact that some of Snapfish's can, plus the possible benefits of using the Blurb plug-in for In Design, along with the portrait/landscape dilemma, the desire to have more room for story perhaps than photo ... too many choices to balance! I'm finally settling for an 8"x10" Blurb book (about the size of The Repurposed Library above); a double-page spread has more of a square look than would be the case in landscape and might be easier to design.

The Inside
This has also needed some weighing up. Though I really like the concept of Project Life, such a lot of my enjoyment in digital scrapbooking comes from playing with design - the same structure for each page is not going to keep my interest. On the other hand, experience tells me that designing every page from scratch will almost certainly result in zero production! So - my solution is to divide the year into four blocks of three months, roughly corresponding to the seasons, with a different theme for each section of my Day2Day 2014 book. Since I love magazine design, I might as well design myself one! In January-March, I'm taking a dotted line and a semi-circle for a walk and seeing how they develop; here's how the template possibilities are looking so far ...


Many of the photos will be details and close-ups, I think, rather than large panoramic or scenic views - life here is relatively stable and uneventful! And it will be perfectly possible to have an entire page or spread of just photos if warranted. I'm also hoping to include some of the lovely memes which are around, as regular features.

My Clean and Simple side is nicely satisfied with this. My Artsy one, meanwhile, is bouncing on and off the furniture chanting "Boring, boring ..!" Please excuse me while I try and get her under control - back soon :).

Simply A Moment (January 2014)

Welcome to Simply A Moment, the first for this year. And without more ado ...

If you have a moment you would like to share with us, please do link up below; it is always such a joy to read shared moments across the world! Wishing you all a creative and joy-filled Thursday ...

Just a quick reminder ...

... that it's nearly the middle of the month (always tricky finding the exact middle of a month which has thirty-one days!), and almost time for Simply A Moment ...


I'll be posting tomorrow, the 16th, with the Linky. If you would like to share of moment of your life with us, then it would be lovely to see you and please do join us. Your recording of a moment might take the form of a blogpost, a photo with or without a few words, a scrapbook page, even a video snippet :). Should you be new to Simply A Moment, you might find the following links and the pdf helpful. Looking forward very much to being back with you tomorrow!

From Blurry to Clear ...
Download Simply A Moment Ideas

 

 

When simple isn't ...

... quite so simple, what's a scrapbooker to do?  I have been following all your thoughts and creative plans for this year with great interest and enjoyment ... My one-sie solution last year was for everything in the same place - digital pages mounted on card, mixed with paper scrapbooking and the odd bit of fabric fun, all in a spiral-bound album. Well, it didn't work out. I found I was wondering why I was sticking whole printed but digitally-designed pages onto high quality mixed media paper, and feeling intimidated by the same expanse of beautiful surface when it came to dropping colour onto it, or doodling. Longing to keep a record of my days, a handwritten diary just looked so boring that even I couldn't summon up the interest to turn a page. There were avidly-read books on journalling and drawing, and a descent into near-paralysis ...

And then there was Project Life. Everywhere. I umm-ed and ahh-ed, and ooh-ed with admiration at the lovely pages I saw - but, you know, I have not quite been able to feel my way into it. Finally, the penny has dropped: there are two of me in here,  and the simplest solution is to give them each something different. So, here are the 2014 plans for ...

The Would-Be Artsy One
She has a souped-up diary, with inspiration from The Documented Life Project on Art to the 5th. Over there, you'll see that a Moleskin is being used as a planner-cum-art-journal. Mine has a few adaptations ...

          The Documented Life Project                                                   Me

          a Moleskin, Week-to-View                                                        a cheaper two-days-per-page diary
          'tip-in' blank water-colour pages added to every spread          'tip-in' pages every couple of spreads
          curved with the additional pages: slim at the spine,                 lies flat, pages removed from hard
          fat at the outer edge                                                                 cover and rebound with a Bind-it-All
          acts as a daily planner as well as art-journal                           not a planner, more a record of my days
                                                                                                           and a reflective journal, including One
                                                                                                           Little Word etc.

I have prepared mine to last six months, and will see how it's going by June; it also needs to fit it into my bag! Should you be interested in The Documented Life Project, there is a useful short class, costing twelve dollars, which has several videos, instructions and ideas for decorating the Moleskin cover - but it is not essential. The 'tip-in' pages are fixed in place along the outside edges of the Moleskin/diary pages with washi tape, opening outwards, so you can make your planner as colourful or as subdued as you like. And so far, so good; my Would-Be Artsy feels it's quite manageable and ticks all the boxes, with plenty of room for additional expansion if needed. 

My Would-Be-Digital-Diva is, however, champing at the bit, so I am off to give her something clean and simple to be getting on with - and I''ll share that next time :).

One photo & twenty words ...

Is it too late to wish you all an enjoyable and creative New Year? I hope not :). And very many thanks to each of you for wonderful cards and warm good wishes, and to Abi for hosting this lovely meme ...


Recent weeks have been frantic, busy, sad, anxious and happy here - in varying amounts at any one time - but we are all recovering (including Dad) as we wend our way into January. There are scrapbooking and journalling plans drifting across my desk and as soon as I corral them into order, they'll be right here. In the meantime, our lovely blogging community has some lovely reads awaiting you - ready, steady ...!