The Memory Bee

January 4

Today feels like the first day of the new year with my husband back to work and getting back to a "normal" schedule on this first Monday of January. As I mentioned before, one of the main things that kept me sane in 2020 was making these little books with a photo or collage of photos for each day of the month. It gives me so much satisfaction to have 731 photos printed and the days captured in this way. 731!! Considering that I haven't printed photos in ages, this feels like a huge accomplishment, and though not every one of the photos is of something "important", it makes me really happy to look back over the last six months and see all the good days and good times.

I've finished my book for December with these layouts...

Remember, this book is only 3 1/2" x 5 1/2" so these photos are tiny, but just big enough to capture the memories! I've started my January book, covered in "vintage" Anna Griffin paper again and wrapped in a special ribbon from Paris. (I need to return to get more pretty ribbon!)

Right now I can't imagine what will fill the pages since I don't have anything scheduled this whole month, but that is part of the challenge... it actually motivates me to get out and do something, just to have something to add to my book. It forces me to think about specific good things that I could take photos of and that's a good thing!

I've chosen my word for the year after a lot of deliberation - I'll talk more about that soon, and I've started a huge project... organizing all my photos from all the years of my life. UGH - more about that, too. What a difficult project!

I hope you have a good day to start a good year! Love, Debby xoxo

(There is still time to sign up for the class learning all about how I make these pages and more with my iPhone that I'm teaching this coming weekend. The class info is HERE.)

January 1, 2021

Happy new year!! I continued the tradition of taking a photo of our house on New Year's Eve and I'll take another one today with January 1, 2021 on it. We had a quiet night and stayed home and watched The Highwaymen movie on Netflix.

Last March I took the first screen shot of the ones I would do monthly, recording the increasing and unimaginable number of deaths from COVID. I couldn't comprehend 30,000+ and my mind can't wrap itself around the current numbers. That's a lot of families who are missing loved ones now.

I'm going to continue making my little books in the new year... this is the opening photo for my January book...

And this is the collage for the first page... I love the year 2021 with the word hope formed with just a few little strokes. We all need hope as we begin a challenging new year.

As I wrote yesterday, I thought 2020 was going to be the BEST year. For some reason, I love even numbers and to have 2020 as the start of a new decade and the meanings we've attached to it when we refer to 2020 vision, I had no doubt that it was going to be a great year. Of course, we never know what a year will hold, but none of us imagined where we are now and what we've gone through this past year. I'm usually a pretty strong person, but this year has been rough - I've cried a lot - for my own disappointments but also for the suffering of others. My heart breaks for so many. My faith is strong though - I trust God as much or more than ever and depend on His love, justice, mercy, and grace for myself, my family, friends, and our country.

I've thought about giving up my blog other than using it as a place to post class information, but I think I'll carry on a little longer and talk about some things. My family's lives have changed, and my grown children have asked me not to blog about them anymore, which I totally respect, so it's not a newsy family place anymore, but we'll see what I can think of to share in the days ahead.

Thank you for reading and for your encouraging comments, messages, and emails. Wishing you peace in the new year! Be gentle with yourself! Love, Debby xoxo

(By the way, there is still time to sign up for my January 9 or 10 iPhone Little Books class where I teach everything I know about using your iPhone to make photo collages, journal on photos, and add titles to photos, getting them ready to print as 4x6 photos. The optional class kits are sold out, but I've gotten super good feedback on the class content from those who took the class in December. If you can't attend the Zoom class live, you can still watch the recording of the class that is sent to you afterwards. I'm not teaching the Android version of the class again live, but you can purchase access to the recording of the live class I taught in December. The link to read all about the class and sign up is HERE.)