... mostly. I'm intrigued that a number of scrapbookers seem to be eschewing Project Life this year - because so little happens now in a week that it's hard to find things to report? Looking back to last January, I am amazed to realise that within the space of four weeks, we had family from Germany to stay, travelled to Ireland to visit relatives, and made two weekend trips to London. I don't think we've been more than a few miles from home since 2020, and as for traditional 'first footers' at New Year, we may be having ours in mid-summer at this rate :).
So for the foreseeable future, pages may have to emerge from a clutch of similar moments, or a theme, or an interesting design that catches the eye. Looking across our photos of walks, benches seemed to feature, so this is how it panned out ... (Click for a clearer view).
For the memory-keepers among you, I'm wondering how you've decided to document this year? Is the staying-so-close-to-home leaving you feeling "What's the point?" or are you finding new ways to record this strangest of times? Wherever you are, I hope it's more comfortable than our minus 3C (26F) here! Warm good wishes to you all ...
I've found it hard to come up with interesting things for my blog. Every day is pretty much like the last and walks around here don't really have interesting scenery.
I love the big "sofa" you found. That is quite something.
Posted by: Dee | Friday, 15 January 2021 at 09:53 PM
wow what fabulous photos...I love the 'sofa' bench! I am also jealous not only of your picturesque surroundings but also the snow...so pretty. I fell in love with travellers notebooks in 2020 whilst documenting covid and I continued to use them throughout the year...and will do so in 2021.
Posted by: furrypig | Saturday, 16 January 2021 at 12:24 AM
I have not scrapbooked chronologically for many years now. But for last year, I decided that I wanted an entire album to document the pandemic. As it turns out, upon looking back, we did quite a lot while staying at home! We had many quarantine projects. We walked more and took part in virtual challenges with our family. I made many new recipes. I stitched (needlepoint) more, blogged more, drank (a little) more and watched a ton of movies! I'm excited to complete this album for posterity!
Posted by: Barbara | Saturday, 16 January 2021 at 11:49 AM
Oh, Alexa, I LOVE this layout and how it documents your walks and your ingenuity (taking along the bubble wrap) plus the ongoing pandemic (& controversies over rules and such).
As always I'll continue to scrap whatever inspires me, but also plan to scrap each month the following month as I did last year. Despite the fact that we stayed home all last year (except for that two-day funeral trip), I had plenty to scrap & create a nice album. We definitely missed travel and family/friend time, but hoping the last part of this year things will open up some.
Posted by: Melissa Gross | Saturday, 16 January 2021 at 01:23 PM
Yes I can see the difficulty in journalling or scrapbooking if every day is feeling the same. I find I certainly have to put more thought into it. I do a monthly scrapbook page with 9 photos which encapsulate the month (18 if it's been a busy month). I forget to grab the camera when I'm at home, so lockdown has been a good discipline to photograph more indoors. Keeping this monthly log also prompts me to find new things to do, so I have something interesting to fill the page. The new book I'm reading, the pickle I'm making, the Zoom theatre I attended, finding focaccia bread, using home grown pumpkins in soup. Not as exciting as trips to Paris or art galleries, so I've had to concentrate more on the smaller joys. Love your theme of benches and as always, a beautifully designed page. Hoping there's a small joy today which you can use in your scrapbook xxxxxxxx
Posted by: Paul | Monday, 18 January 2021 at 09:29 AM
I like all those benches & places of rest photos. We too have had some broad interruptions of the stay at home rules as a few walkers locally have discovered; it was the not keeping 6 meters apart that brought those walkers to a halt.
Posted by: Mary-Lou | Monday, 18 January 2021 at 12:25 PM
It’s taken me three days to write this comment since I wondered what year marked the end of my scrapbooking. I would have told you it was 2019, but in fact the last pages are November 2018. Looking at them makes me a bit nostalgic, but at the time it was the best decision. Nonetheless, there are two years totally undocumented by photos. I doubt that anyone will find much interest in my diary/journal where I have recorded the major events. Perhaps I should put EXPLORING new ways of documenting on my OLW list for this year! Love the benches! I have an affinity for them, and probably could do a collage of all the benches I’ve photographed over the year. Sadly, we didn’t sit on many of them, so your photos are much more evocative!
Posted by: Karen Walker | Tuesday, 19 January 2021 at 07:35 PM
I think you've settled on a solution that will work for you and still tick all the creativity boxes. :) That's what's brilliant about our hobby - you can make it work in so many different ways. :)
Look at your snow! Barely a flurry in West London.
Posted by: Ruth | Friday, 22 January 2021 at 03:37 PM
Yes, in Victoria we were barred from travelling far for many months last year. All I could do was go for walks with a friend. It makes for a tedious chronology (Monday - walked, Wednesday - walked, Friday - walked) x 15. Good idea to bunch the photos together and create pages based on a theme. We were lucky to have glorious sunny winters days for many of our walks. It must be very different in the snow.
Posted by: Esther A | Sunday, 24 January 2021 at 10:26 PM