This week, I'm giving you all a Sneak Peek into another one of my hotel studios as we find ourselves on the road once again. I'm lovin' it...that I was able to continue working on my project a Week in the Life...no matter where we may find ourselves this crazy summer.
This week we found ourselves at the Embassy Suites in Concord, NC and as soon as I had un-packed our regular suitcases...I'm was moving around the furniture to set up my in-suite Studio...
That ottoman was fantastic and I'd seriously consider getting one for the Love Shack if we didn't have recliners...lol I found the desk chairs to be somewhat bulky and low...so most of the time I found myself standing up when I needed to crop my photos and papers.
My main focus this week was sorting and cropping the photos that I had already printed for the first two days of my Week in the Life 2011 album. Because this is my first time in participating in this project, I am basically figuring it all out as I go! To keep things as simple as possible, I printed all of my photos the standard 4"x6" size and I also purchased the Memories photo sleeve/page protectors to hold these standard sized photos. My album pages are all different than Ali's format this year so it has been a bit harder for me...but that's okay...I'm up to the challenge. Ali provides us all with a wonderful guide for completing this project and she continuously reminds her readers to...do what works best for them ;)
The next thing I did {to keep this project simple, and do-able for myself} was to go out and purchase a few coordinating, scrapbook paper stacks. What? You are all probably thinkin'...I'm sure that I have loads of papers that would have worked, right here on hand at the Love Shack. However, most of my papers are sorted by color and I just didn't want to dig through my stash and try to come up with those that would work together.
It was also my goal to find a color-way that would coordinate with my digital title and cover pages and before I print these {as large, full-page photos} I will go into publisher and customize the colors to match the green, purple and turquoise colors that are from the double-sided, 12x12 paper stack ;)
My next step was to measure and cut the scrapbook papers so that they would fit into the photo sleeves...so I made myself a "cheat sheet" because I kept forgetting the measurements...lol
For the first page in each day's set of photo-sleeves, I decided to make a "standard" daily title by hand-stamping the day of the week onto lightly colored papers (cut to fit into the 1 3/8" x 6" spaces). Then for the actual date for each day, I used my traditional black, embossed label machine and punched out the black tags with the dates (i.e., 07/25/11) for the 2 3/8' x 1 3/8" spaces.
So I continued to place all of my 4x6 photos into the page protectors according to their cronilogical order and navigation (portrait or landscape ;) AND I cropped some to fit the smaller sized slots where it was feasible and then I placed the scrapbook papers into the rest of the open areas. The documentation will be added once I've finished printing and placing all of my photos for the rest of the week. The actual journaling will be printed and/or hand-written onto white card-stock and mounted wherever I can fit it onto the coordinated scrapbook papers. In the meantime, here's a sneak peek of how a two-page spread is coming together:
Along with the full-size title/cover pages, I have also decided to add my blog posts for the week by cuttng, pasting and printing them onto 8 1/2 x 11 presentation paper...in lieu of the expense of printing them as actual photos. Just did not feel it was a necessary expense...these pages are more about documentation than about the photos ;)
Soon I found my groove and I was humming right along! Don't you just love it when you find your mojo?
Before the week was out though, I ran out of photos to crop and place into my page protectors. So I spent my time catching up on my documentation and notes. Then I worked on sorting and cropping more photos on my computer for printing next week...that is until the internet went down! The hotel had a satelite dish...which went down everytime we had any inclement weather ;{
Like on Thursday when we this really bad storm...this one out of no where...fast and furious! According to the news later...there were a few mini-twisters that had touched down...one even tipped over an airplane at the small regional airport in Concord. But like I said...it was fast and it was over in no-time and the sun was coming back out again. The best part was that it brought some cooler weather with it and that it broke this terrible heat wave that we've been having. We actually got to sit outside on the patio and eat a few times since the temperature dropped down to the low 80's...woo hoo!
Did you notice that in the first photo...you can't even see the Marriot Hotel across the parking lot? I also said furious...remember...lol
Well now we are home, safe and sound at the Love Shack and I'm looking forward to printing more photos this week for my Week in the Life 2011 project and hopefully have most of this album assebled next week for Studio Sneak Peek Friday.
Fondly, Roberta
Love that you turned your hotel room into your studio, Roberta! And I like the way you are laying out you WITL project!
Posted by: Jennifer | 08/13/2011 at 10:53 PM
That is awesome. You sure know how to get projects done even when you're on the road. I got inspired by this project when you started it. I was going through all my students photo's that I had taken last school year and I was really blown away by all the changes each one had gone through- some of my boys really grew up and I guess I hadn't realized it because I see them everyday. So, next year when I have thee 8-11 year olds I'm going to make it a habit of taking a picture of them a day for all 180 school days and then create an album for their parents at the end of the school year. I think it can be done.
Thanks for always inspiring me!
Posted by: Cortney Lyon | 08/14/2011 at 10:07 AM
Your book is looking so good! And you are so organized!! I love that you brought your studio with you. Glad to hear you had a safe trip... welcome home! :)
Posted by: Jennifer | 08/14/2011 at 04:34 PM
My back can verify that she did bring her studio with her...LOL
We are BOTH such geeks!
Posted by: DH | 08/15/2011 at 12:06 PM
You could make a studio out of a cardboard box...You are so funny!! I love the journals you make and the week in a life ones are great...
Posted by: Denyse@Crazy Beautiful Life | 08/18/2011 at 05:32 PM