The Challenge......

I can't believe we are already into January! In a few short weeks I have Morgan's 5th birthday, CHA, and Disneyland! We still have Christmas decorations to put away! Is anyone else in the same boat as me? It's practically time to get Valentines together for Morgan's school party! At least it feels that way....
When I first started my December daily album it really helped get me in the holiday spirit. Unfortunately, the rest of the month whipped by so fast I didn't finish it!
I hate feeling like I "failed" at something... I don't like to start things and not finish them. That's why I didn't really make a New Years Resolution. One of my projects for the 2peas Garden this month was a pillow box. Inside is a letter to myself. I wrote it to my future self and on 1.1.10 I'm going to open the box and read it again. I wrote about my personal goals for the New Year, and I'm anxious to see what kind of person I am on 1.1.10 when I read my letter again. I hope I am an improved and happy girl! In it I wrote about things I hope to accomplish for myself and the kids, and things like that. Not specific goals like "I hope to lose 15 pounds" or anything like that. Just general things like wanting to work out more, and working out towards a certain number of times per week. And cooking more. And making hair appointments at 7-8 weeks rather than when my roots are driving me nuts. lol
With attainable goals in mind, I wanted to pursue another project in my family record keeping. I first talked about it in this post. I admire anyone who was able to do Project 365 and take a photo a day. I honestly could never do it. I didn't even finish my December Daily! But I love the concept and the idea of summarizing your daily life.
The December kit at Studio Calico had a package of Jenni Bowlin 6x6 calendar cards. At the time I didn't know what to do with them, because they were for 2009. And they weren't large enough to use for a family calendar. And I don't have a place to set them as a desk calendar or anything. Instead, I decided to pursue my own project for 2009.
The concept is this. Whether you take one photo in a month, or 30, it doesn't matter. The object of the "game" is to record your life. And at the end of every month, you go through the photos you have taken, and do a layout summarizing the happenings that month.
My plan is to do 2 page layouts, and use the JB cards each month. At the end of the year I plan to turn my 12 layouts into an album for 2009. I thought that would be fun. There was a discussion similar to this on 2peas and someone called it Project 12. I love that idea. But I think I'll have to come up with another name for it....
You could use the cards on each layout as part of the design, or you could even use the cards in your 2009 album as a page divider for each month. Maybe you mount them on cardstock. Maybe you put them on a transparency. Maybe you punch a hole in one corner and just put them in front of your monthly layout. It doesn't matter. I just thought it would be fun to use them with your monthly layouts.
I thought it might also be fun to make this a monthly challenge here. And because they are so super cool, I even have a very generous sponsor for January.
This is the challenge: Do a layout for January. Link me to it by February 15. I'll start a thread on February 1st to link to. After that I will draw a winner from those who participated and you will get a fun prize for playing along.
How does that sound?
To start, I wanted to give away a set of the Jenni Bowlin calendar cards:



You don't have to use these with your layouts... I just wanted to share what I'm going to use for mine. And you don't even have to play along with the monthly challenge, but I hope you will! Leave me a comment here about what you are doing this weekend, and I'll draw a winner at the first of the week.
Steve and I didn't have any luck finding a couch the other day, so we are taking the kids to the inlaws and hunting again today. We really need one! We are hoping to make it a long afternoon and have plans to go see Benjamin Button if we find something. I hear it's 3 hours long, though, so we might be cutting it tight on time. But I really want to see Brad Pitt! lol Last night I somehow fell into watching Legends of the Fall, and I'm allllll over some more Brad Pitt lovin' today. hee heeee.

Wish us luck! Happy New Year!

Davinie