according.to.kim

December 12 of 12

The 12th and final installment of my 12-of-12 project! December 12 was a great day for this. It was a Saturday and it started with Overnight Oatmeal -- one of my favourite breakfasts. Later, we went to Yellow Grass to celebrate Christmas with my side of the family. A very good day, indeed.

I'm so glad I did this project. It was totally doable from a time perspective and I really enjoyed it! I now have 12 scrapbook layouts that offer a pretty good glimpse of what our life was like in 2009. (I have more journaling on the actual layouts -- one sentence per photo.) I'm not doing 12-of-12 again this year, but I may just do this type of project again in the future. I think 9 on the 9th would be nice, or maybe 10 on the 10th...

November 12 of 12

November 12 was not what I expected. Instead of being at work all day, I was home with the flu, and as a result I got a whole different set of photos -- which was nice, I must say!

October 12 of 12

Here are my photos from October 12, the day I traveled to Las Vegas. What a great coincidence for me! While I was en route, Neil and the girls were having Thanksgiving dinner in Avonlea (second row, second photo). I ate supper at a place called Beijing Noodle No. 9, inside Caesars Palace. The last one is a self-portrait in my room, just for fun. Otherwise, I think the photos speak for themselves!

September 12 of 12

I made sure to get my September page done before October 12, and I just finished it last evening. Deadlines are good! September 12 was a nice day for photos. To sum it up, I tidied up the back yard in the morning, and in the afternoon we visited the McKell Wascana Conservation Park and then Dutch Growers, a greenhouse in our neighbourhood.

I'm taking photos for 12-of-12 again today. I mistakenly tweeted that this is the second month in a row that I won't see my kids all day on the 12th. Just realized that it was August, not September! For today, I have asked Neil to snap some pictures of the girls when he goes to Avonlea to get them (and have dinner with them). Otherwise, I should be set for a good day of photos. Heading to Las Vegas this afternoon!

August 12 of 12

August 12 was a tough day for this project! I had to go to work AND the girls were in Avonlea the entire day. Despite these challenges, I managed to find enough things to photograph and my grid turned out alright. The first few shots are all about going to work and then going for lunch with my coworkers to Saigon by Night; I was really glad this was the day of our lunch date. After work, I did some weeding in the front yard and spent some time taking photos in the back yard. Thank goodness for the garden! Later, I labeled school supplies and we watched Hell's Kitchen. These represent August pretty well, as does the photo of Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life, the book I was enjoying at the time.

Looking forward to September 12--a Saturday with my family!

July 12 of 12

I started last Sunday with some yard work (weeding and cutting rhubarb) and ended with some scrapbooking (photo album scrapbook of our 2008 summer vacation). A nice balance. In between, I helped Madeline make cards for the two birthday parties she attended that day, and helped Sophia get some photos for a scrapbook she started working on. Georgia was happy (as usual), our red poppies were blooming nicely, and Neil prepared a great steak dinner that we enjoyed on the patio. I also capped off the day with a Mojito -- so pretty with a sprig of mint from the pot on our backstep.

Fabulous free tutorial

After posting my June 12-of-12 photo grid, a comment from Maureen had me thinking perhaps I ought to write some instructions for creating a photo grid. Hence, I was absolutely delighted to see a fantastic video tutorial by Cathy Zielske on creating multi-photo grids, posted just yesterday on Ali Edwards' website! Not only that, CZ provides a downloadable PDF of step-by-step instructions as well as some free graphics for monthly snapshot pages on her own website. Awesome! Check it out if you're interested in creating photo grids now or in the future. I adore them, as you know. Can't wait to whip up my 12-of-12 grid for July!

P.S. There is another method of creating a 12-photo grid using a png template, also by CZ (which is what I've been using), but the method explained in the tutorial video (and pdf) is more versatile than using the template, so I'll leave it at that.

June 12 of 12

A quick look at my June 12 of 12 photo grid -- the influenza edition of my 12 of 12 pages. The girls had had the flu that week and I was desperately trying to avoid catching it, or at least minimize symptoms if I did get it (see the second last photo), plus H1N1 was in the news having been declared a global pandemic the day before. Nevertheless, June 12 was a lovely day. The sun was shining, everyone was feeling well, and we were all at home all day (I had the day off work and there was no school; we would've kept our kids home anyway). The girls enjoyed having their cousin here, too; they hadn't seen her for a whole week as she had been at home with the flu as well. The four of them played outside all day.

I know I've said this before, but I can't help saying it again: I love doing these pages! I enjoy the process and I love having a slice of life recorded each month.

May 12 of 12

A quick peek into my life last Tuesday, which included going to work, dance class, and soccer. For the curious, the third photo shows Mosaic posters hanging in the Cornwall Centre. Also, I love that light green Sweet Potato Vine in my planter!

April 12 of 12

Glimpses of our Easter Sunday, set up for my April 12 of 12 scrapbook page. I love doing these. So simple.

This evening is strangely quiet. We had no Brownies, Sparks, or dance class due to the Easter break. Sophia and Georgia (and Sherlock) are in Avonlea, and poor Madeline is sick with a fever and cough. She fell asleep on the couch 30 or 40 minutes ago while I was working on these photos.

I'm awfully tired too. Madeline tossed and turned and coughed much of the night, so Neil and I didn't really get to sleep until after 3:30 a.m. (Neil even went to Shopper's at 1:30 a.m. to get cough medicine). I stayed home from work this morning so I could sleep more, but it still wasn't enough. I may actually turn in early tonight... Since I won't be reading bedtime stories in the girls' bed, I won't be having my usual evening nap either.

March 12 of 12

My twelve photos from March 12. It's a good thing Neil and the girls took some photos while I was at work because I would've had a hard time coming up with twelve on my own. Work days can be a bit boring. And this day in particular was not a great day for me. I was in a bad mood for various reasons, but I'm glad the photos don't reflect that. I look forward to the 12th being on a weekend next month!

February 12 of 12

These are my twelve photos from February 12. I really enjoy putting these photo grids together in Photoshop Elements. I use a template created by Cathy Z, available here: 12/12.

This weekend, I realized that another 12th will be here shortly (how'd that happen?!), so I decided I'd better get busy and make my pages from January and February -- and then I went ahead and did that even though it was not on my huge to-do list for the weekend. Oh well; I think it's good to squeeze these things in once in awhile!

I went super simple and created another template for the words. I thought about playing around with letter stickers or stamps for the date/title, but decided against it; I need this process to be fast! Plus, I chose not to go deep or reflective with the text, so it's just a straight-forward list of what the pictures are about. Now that I've done this, future pages will be very quick and easy. Here's the end result:

Related: The 12 of 12 blog and my photos from January 12.

Scrapbooking day

This is my grid of 12 photos from January 12. It depicts a pretty typical Monday for me/us -- work and the girls' dance class in the evening. The only exception was Sophia getting her birthday party invitations ready to distribute.

In a couple hours, I'm going to a friend's house for a day of scrapbooking. I thought I'd post now since I may not get home before midnight. I still have quite a bit of work to do to gather my projects and supplies, as well as food to share, so I'd better get moving! My goal today is to finish or at least get further ahead on projects I have already started, so even though I'm behind on a lot of regular household stuff, it will be great to get these things done too.

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Today I'm thankful for:

• my hobby
• Photoshop Elements
• Neil's willingness to do laundry

First day for 12 of 12

I carried my camera around today snapping pictures for my first 12 of 12 ("twelve pictures of your life - the twelfth of each month"). This photo captures a view I enjoy on weekday mornings as I walk through the pedway between the Bank of Montreal and the Cornwall Centre on the way to my office. I like this picture and I'm glad to have it. See, that's one of the things I love about projects like this -- taking photos I wouldn't have taken otherwise.

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Today I'm thankful for:

• my camera
• the nice walk between my bus stop and office
• end-of-season clearance prices (both knees were shot in Sophia's ski pants and I was able to buy her a new pair today for only $10!)