Day in the Life | Marcy Penner

Back in June I participated in Ali Edwards' Day in the Life. I went into it with a vision of keeping things simple and easy. I didn't want to stress myself out. This was important. I was pretty sure that complicating it would mean I'd have a bunch of photos sitting on my computer and no project to show for it.

And that wasn't what I wanted.

I pretty much knew I wasn't going to be able to carry along a piece of paper and a pen along with me all day. And I knew myself enough to know that I'd also probably fail at using any kind of app on my iPhone to record times and events. So in the end all I did was rely on my photos.

I let my photos do the talking. I relied on the time stamp of my photo and the photo itself. I knew I wasn't going to be journaling this great big epic story about my day. I wanted photos and bullet points... and for that this worked perfectly.

And did I mention it was stress free? I'm a big fan of less stress.

page protector (Design F)

At the end I folded a ticket in half and stapled it on the edge of my page. I stamped the date on it with the intention that this would make it easy to find in my Project Life album, basically acting as a bookmark.

(supplies : kits - Steinbeck add-on, Marks & Co 4x6 paper pad; page protectors - Design F page protectors; tags - large white tags; die cuts - Silhouette Cameo; other - watercolor paper, watercolor brush, transparent watercolor papers)

I'm looking forward to adapting this project into a Week in the Life too. I love the idea of trimming down a pocket page protector or using a smaller size. Using one page per day and including all seven days in the middle of a Project Life spread (or in place of) would be a great way to include Week in the Life in your normal, everyday Project Life album. A simplified approach. Add a tab on each page with the date, or just numbered 1 through 7, and you're good to go.

I also like the idea of maybe documenting each hour. Capturing what happens at 8am, at 9am and so on. A neat day to day comparison and a different take on the topic.

Whichever way you decide to tackle Week in the Life I hope you enjoy it... now, and when you look back on it years down the road. It'll be worth it.