Week in the Life

Today I have started a new challenge, a somewhat huge one at that- documenting this week of our life, via photos and journaling and hopefully, bringing it all together in a digital album in the near future.
Ali Edwards is the guru behind this awesome idea- she is simply inpsiring and I am in awe of her talent in digital design, photography and writing.
The concept is very cool but it is a huge task, one that I hope I can keep up with and keep the momentum going.
As you know, I love photos just a little too much, so this project presented a great opportunity for me to practice different techniques and get a little more creative with my shots.
Today, already I can say that the project has been worthwhile- I took the time to play with settings: I changed the white balance to cloudy and tungsten; I took the same shot with different shutter speeds and ISO's that presented me with a range of creative outcomes- some were great and some were horrible! But I felt like the challenge of getting the right exposure in every shot was a little easier today. So after a week of snapping, I can't wait to see what I learn.
I ended up taking 100 photos with my DSLR and 16 with my iPhone. I then selected ones that I thought I would use for the final album and edited these in Photoshop. Once again, I learnt a few more tricks to enhance my shots twofold, so again, this can only be a good thing!
I then selected photos to put onto 2 pages that will make up my Monday spread. These pages or templates are from Ali and are fantastic and all editable to suit my preferences, such as colour and text.
Throughout the day, I took notes on what we did at certain times; funny quotes; what we ate; observations and anything else that was part of our normal everyday routine.
Before I started, I also wanted to include some number facts and decided to tally 3 things today- the number of hugs & kisses we had from dawn to dusk; the number of books we read and how many strawberry punnets we ate! A little quirky but I loved the outcome (Let's just say we are an affectionate, book reading family!) 
I haven't yet documented my notes, so there is still a bit to do for today, but I am stoked with what I achieved today, both in the photo snapping and the after process (which I always struggle with in other projects).
Going digital and using photoshop has definitely simplified things and I am glad I went this way.

Below are the pages and what I have done so far (click on them to enlarge)- there was nothing special about today, but that is exactly what is so good about it- it is celebrating simple things in life that we sometimes take for granted.
I am already looking forward to what tomorrow brings us and hope I keep this enthusiasm going!