Project Life - Ideas for Photos and Stories

In 2010, I did Project Life or as I knew it then, Project 365, which I read about in Creating Keepsakes Magazine. I took at least one photo per day and scrapbooked them.  It was a great experience and developed one of my favorite albums of all time. A couple of pages from that album are shown below.  I'm planning to do this again next year.

I want to be sure my 2013 version covers our day-to-day but isn't a repeat of 2010.  I've started by listing many of the topics I photographed and journaled from 2010.  Some will be repeated to show what has changed.

1. Home improvement projects
2. Everyday meals
3. Favorite recipes
4. Hiking or other exercise
5. "Date" days
6. A favorite piece of jewelry or object in the house
7. What a family member (outside your household) is up to on any given day
8. Everyday things the cat (or dog or hamster or whatever) does
9. Board games or puzzles
10. Daily TV rituals (for us it is Jeopardy)
11. Everyday chores - dishes, laundry
12. Winter chores in the yard and garden
13. Snow chores and snow fun
14. How the routine is different when a spouse travels
15. Socializing, dining out with friends
16. Little luxuries we take for granted like the electric blanket
17. Shopping habits (so different now than a few years ago thanks to the Internet)
18. Signs of Spring
19. Spring cleaning
20. Spring planting
21. Scrapbooking and card making activities (crops, classes, etc.)
22. Our work activities
23. Family events such as weddings, baptisms, reunions
24. What's growing in the yard
25. Preparing for a vacation
26. Family vacation with the grandchildren
27. Vacation - just the two of us
28. Honey-do lists
29. Organizational projects
30. New clothes or shoes
31. Self-care rituals such as a pedicure
32. The night sky or a rainbow
33. Ergonomic adjustments (I had to make a lot of these that year)
34. Our technology
35. Favorite parts of Fall
36. Holiday rituals - tree trimming, egg decorating, baking, presents, etc.
37. How we spent our Anniversary, Valentine's Day

Figuring out what I haven't yet covered is a bit like staring at the pantry trying to decide what I don't have before going to the grocery store.  Here are some things I've thought of so far. I'm sure the list will expand:

1. New Year's Resolutions and plans for the year
2. Sunrise and sunset
3. Ways we help others
4. Running errands  (almost all my photos were made at home in 2010 or were taken on special trips)
5. The view from my front porch in different seasons
6. People who make our lives easier like our hair stylists  (The barber is seriously the only appointment my husband is ever on time for.)
7. More family and friend photos
8. More on how we use our technology in our daily lives both the old and the new stuff
9. Funny things my parents say
10. The little things that drive us crazy
11. The little things we can't live without but never appreciate
12. Progress updates on our New Year's Resolutions
13. The town we live in
14. What's the same or different about places we visit than where we live
15. Televisions shows and how we watch TV differently than even a couple of years ago  (Yeah for Hulu!)
16. Volunteer work
17. Work challenges and successes
18. New people we meet
19. Sample topics of conversation
20. Typical everyday outfit
21. Favorite item(s) of clothing
22. Talking on the phone or Skype-ing  (There's something new from 2010!)
23. What we love about where we live
24. What we hate about where we live
25. New things we learn by taking a class or by experience
26. That quirky little habit your spouse has that you adore
27. That annoying little habit your spouse has that drives you crazy
28. More photos of the two of us together
29. Morning routine
30. Books we read
31. Birthday traditions

These lists are just a guide in case I get stuck and can't come up with something to photograph or get in a rut.  I do remember in 2012 catching myself taking a lot of photos of food.  Hmm... I wonder if there is something else I need to examine there.  Nah, we'll just let that go :-)

Aparently, I can't quite let it go, I picked a food themed page as one of my favorites from 2010...

Often I found a theme to the photos I would take in a given week.  Diet and Exercise are usually hot topics in the new year.  I did a recipe card theme to the page using a small photo from each day.

This spread covers 2 weeks with unrelated photos about the everyday stuff in our lives.

Personally, I prefer traditional scrapbooking over the photo and journaling card pocket pages.  I think those have many benefits, I just like to use my photos in my regular scrapbooking.  Over the next couple of weeks, I'll share some other thoughts I have on Project Life/365 and my plans for doing this again in 2013 including a video.  If you are considering this project, I hope you'll visit often and find some inspiration here.

I'd love to hear your ideas and plans, too!  What would you like to capture in the new year?

Thanks for visiting!