trimmingthesails

October 15: Month In Numbers

It's thanks to Julie's inspirational Month In Numbers (waving, Julie!) that I have gathered up October fragments and snippets before they faded into oblivion and brought them together for a double-page spread in our This Is Life 2015 photo-book. I think it'll be fun to look back on these in years to come - a kind of miscellany. Given the glorious riot of colour in our autumn this year, I was a little surprised to find myself wanting something more subdued and tranquil - perhaps it's the influence of the November mists this week! (Click on the image for a new window and clearer text).

And for any of you who have embraced Project Life, this would be completely do-able in paper and card too; Julie has some great ideas for getting started in her tutorial here. Oh, and wouldn't it also be a great feature in a December Daily? Food shopping costs, numbers of presents or cards bought/received/made, how many ornaments on the tree, visitors across the threshold - I think I'd better go and make a list myself :).

My Month in Numbers (April15)

Hello to you and welcome! Up here, I've been working on finishing April's My Month in Numbers, brainchild of the very talented Julie over at Notes on Paper - Julie always provides an entertaining read, so if you haven't popped over, then do :).

It's been fun playing around with the grid format in my This is Life 15 photobook, and a great way of scooping up all those little bits and pieces of life that might not make it onto a weekly or fortnightly page. I could see this working very nicely too for any of you who are doing a paper version of Project Life; as Julie points out in her super tutorial, there are numbers attached to every story. And you don't always need to have a photo either; I've popped in some screen shots from websites in mine. (If you'd like a closer look, click on the image for greater print clarity).

 

Deciding on a format in advance and then just adding things as and when they occur, helped to keep it moving. Which is what I really need to be doing, as my Bank Holiday Brain is only just catching up with the fact that we're sliding into mid-week already! Looking forward to calling in on you, and being back here soon ...

 

Month in Numbers (Feb 15)

I am at a loss as he opens the top two drawers in turn, peering in briefly and then closing each. I am not sure what he's looking for, though it seems to be connected in some way to something he was remembering aloud with me before it grew thin and trickled away. He opens the third a few inches - just far enough for me to glimpse the piles of photos lifted from albums long ago, slipping out of elastic bands into shifting and faded layers like the memories he is trying so hard to find. I know that some have a name or a date on the back, but - with his aversion to recording personal or family history - most do not and never will. "Might something in here be of help?" I venture. He tilts his hands back, knuckles close to his shoulders, then slams the drawer firmly shut. He stands motionless for a few seconds, then sets off with his walking frame away from me, one hand raised: do not follow me.

I acquiesce. But my heart goes with him ... In a little while, I will bring tea, and he will smile, and we will sit together and all will be well. In the meantime, I slide onto a chair at the kitchen table and look at the not-quite finished gathering up of the scraps of my own life for last month. I am learning how hard it will be to have a sense of the shape of my years, if there is not a place where the bits and pieces, the flotsam and jetsam, can be safely held for the days when internal memory fails. The sudden thought of a scrap album or a photo book as my memory's external hard drive makes me smile - Himself would understand that concept! I make a mental note to tell him when he returns from his turn to be with the Littlies. Slipping the last few photos in, I add a final paragraph and a date, and press Save. Julie, I am grateful to you for your wonderful Month In Numbers! Here's the February 2015 edition from up here ...

 And now, I think, it's time I was putting that kettle on :).