MORE | January

It’s been some time since I’ve attempted a year-long digital album project, and though I’ve chosen a guiding word every year since 2009, I’ve not always made an album to accompany it. I often have talismans, or a post-it note on the bathroom mirror, or some token to remind me of my word. This year, I’ve decided that I’d like to get back to that practice. I spent the better part of a snowy Sunday afternoon re-familiarizing myself with Photoshop Elements and the prompts/templates via the Ali Edwards-led course. [Note: the process was a disaster challenge, but I did remember to save all of the .psd files with all of my written content before I messed up too much.]

I find this practice to be more fulfilling and manageable than new year's resolutions!

My hope is that by the end of the year, I’ll have a pretty and fulfilling little 6” x 8” book that will have recorded my journey to more. I had forgotten how much I enjoy the process of drilling down to get to the heart of why I chose a particular word. This has been a rewarding exercise!

For those curious, previous years were:

2009 - balance

2010 - focus

2011 - do

2012 - open

2013 - nourish

2014 - grace

2015 - flow

2016 - light

2017 - play

2018 - be

2019 - slow

2020 - harmony

2021 - brave

All of my guiding words were met with varying degrees of success - and all had an impact on my life, some more profound than others. Some years they were chosen in conjunction with my Core Desired Feelings. I really am a wordie!

Do you choose a guiding word? Does it find you or do you find it? Like MORE, my words usually show up sometime around November.

Materials used include templates from Cathy Zielske and Ali Edwards, content prompts and embellishments from Ali Edwards, and digital papers from Karla Dudley.