This past week was one of those weeks where it was just so bitter cold out and dreary…I wanted to pull the covers up over my head and stay in bed all week. I just wasn’t feeling it. It didn’t help that my favorite little potted plant got knocked off the shelf by Shady and broke. Kelly made “Meep” in her ceramics class and I just love him so! Thankfully Nick was able to glue him back together. I’m hoping he stays safe from now on. 

This week in pictures isn’t very exciting because I really tried to avoid leaving the house as much as possible. With an extra day off school for “ice”, that wasn’t too hard of a task. Here below is our week in pictures for Project 365 January 13th-19th….

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The other day, I was looking through some of my 14 years of blog posts and kept coming across my old Project 365 photos from years past. Looking at the pictures from the photo a day projects I participated in made me so happy. In an effort to reclaim this space, focusing on things that make me happy, I’ve decided in 2020 to participate once again. 

The following are my photos from January 1st – 11th. I’m not going to hold myself to super strict rules or standards, but one goal I have is to pull out my DSLR more often to shoot instead of always using my handy camera phone. We’ll see how well I do! Here is my first week of Project 365 2020. …

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Exactly one year ago May 1st, I started a journey of a lifetime. Yes, I got my very first tattoo, but more importantly I started my own 1 Second Everyday Video project.

My friend Cheryl was into her second year of capturing 1 second of video memories everyday. I fell in love with her very first 365 day compilation and decided I wanted to give this kind of video project a try as well. I am so very glad I did. Doing a 1 Second Everyday video project has probably been one of the most fun and meaningful projects I’ve ever embarked on. …

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Do you all remember this project from last year? The Imperfect 365 Project? Over 13k amazing pictures were submitted in 2015 – which makes me so happy that so many you embraced this project! Want to do it again but with #Imperfect366 for leap year?

Check out the guidelines below…what’s great about this photography project is it’s open to anyone and there are no rules! Yay!…

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Hi friends! I hope you all are well and are ready to have a great weekend! The girls and I are headed to Oklahoma City for the weekend to hang out with my sister and to celebrate her youngest daughter turning 18. I may have cried on my nieces birthday… what does that mean I’ll be like when my own kids turn 18? I can answer that for you… a big, teary, mess!

Anyway, I thought it would be a great idea to start the weekend off with a little bit of happiness. How’s that sound? Great! Let’s do it!…

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Instead of making resolutions each year, I always choose a focus word. This word or phrase is my guiding light throughout the year, so it has a fairly large responsibility. Every decision I make I use my focus word as a barometer… how does this decision impact the way I want my life to go this year?

I’ve gone back and forth over the past month thinking about what I want my focus word to be for 2015. 2012 was all about the word “Connect”. 2013 we went on a quest to “Simplify”. 2014 was the year I chose to “Invest”. Now 2015 is here and I have oscillated back and forth between two words. But, after much consideration I’ve finally decided. My 2015 focus is actually a phrase…and it’s a simple one. “Be Happy”….

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I mentioned in a recent Happiness Report that after completing three Project 365’s I needed a year off. I took 2014 off from officially taking/sharing a photo a day but now I’m back and am so excited to do another Project 365!

Most people would share this post inviting you all to join me in my adventure way before the new year…so you could prepare and be ready for your first photo on January 1st. But this is a different type of Project 365. This is a Perfectly Imperfect, no rules, photo a day project! Here’s how it works…

1) You take a photo a day with whatever camera you want to use. I’m going to try to focus on using my Nikon DSLR most of the time as I’ve found when I pick up my “big girl” camera each day, my photography really starts to improve. Camera phones, point and shoots, DSLR’s, polaroids, etc…whatever you want to shoot with, it’s totally up to you!

2) You share your photos either through Instagram with the hashtag of #Imperfect365 and/or I’d really love for you to join our Flickr group of perfectly imperfect participants. For projects like this, I really love the community aspect of Flickr!

3) Give up perfection.  That’s the one and only rule of our #Imperfect365 photography project! What do I mean by that? Well, the hardest part of Project 365 is not giving into that “all or nothing” mentality. If it’s the end of the day and you realize you forgot to take a photo that day, who cares? Just start back up the next day! I can tell you that my kids LOVE my Project 365 photos more than just about anything I do, because it’s a really neat way to look back at the year. They are one of my favorite things too. Who cares if you miss a day or two or five? Let go of perfection and just pick up where ever you left off. Don’t give up simply because you missed a step…that’s silly!

4) This project is open to anyone who just wants to capture moments throughout 365 days. Bloggers and non-bloggers are encouraged to join! Also, you don’t have to be a pro at photography to join! All skill levels are welcome. I’d love to see this community thrive as the most perfectly imperfect group of 365’rs out there! PS – join at anytime! Today, next week, next month…whenever works for you! Also, if you join and share photos, take a few minutes to comment and like other participants photos. That’s one of the best parts of a Project 365…the encouragement from others and connecting through photography!

Will you accept the challenge to capture and share moments throughout the year? I hope so!

Take the plunge and join the free Flickr group today!

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Happy Happiness Report Day, everyone! The photo you see above is of Leah this past spring at Ella’s first communion. I found it while I was looking for an old photo of a recipe I needed and it made me realize how much I miss sharing my Project 365 photos. This photo along with the ones below would most likely suffer the fate of sitting on my external hard drive, never to be seen and enjoyed by anyone. What’s the point of that?

To rectify the situation, I’m starting a “no-rules” Project 365 project for myself. No rules meaning… if I accidentally skip a day of taking a photo, I’ll say oops and move on. If my photo is taken with my camera phone instead of my DSLR, I’ll say oops and carry on. No rules meaning I’m not waiting until January 1st to start. I’m going to start on December 1st…or if I feel like it, tomorrow or whenever. No rules is not within my comfort zone, but the thought of a no rules photography project makes me very happy! I actually think I’m going to call it just that “The No Rules Photography Project”. Sounds easy enough, right?

Here are a few of the photos that I saved from external hard drive purgatory……

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