OLW: Commit-February Recap

I’m really enjoying setting intentions on a monthly basis. For February, I started out with four, and added a fifth shortly after the month began.

1. Complete the Simplified Photos class: I watched all the videos. Frankly, I knew 85-90% of the material presented. I did learn about a new iPhone app called Color Story. No surprise to me, I already had it on my phone and had never used it. I’ll be giving it a try, but most of the time I upload the photos to my computer and edit them in Lightroom and/or Photoshop Elements.

        2. Take a photo-a-day. Accomplished! Here are 29 of them; there were several more.

It’s a good mix of wintery photos, home activities, a couple family events, and quite a few wildlife photos which surprises me some. 

3. Complete the Colored Pencil: Jumpstart class. Also done; I learned a lot in this class and will be applying what I learned over many months. I started a sketchbook for practice images some of which I’ll probably use for cards.

4. Read one book for the Unread Shelf Project. I finished five books in February and three of them were from my unread shelves: Tender at the Bone: Growing Up at the Table, A Pilgrimage to Eternity: From Canterbury to Rome in Search of a Faith, and Hashtag Authentic: Be Your Best Creative Self via Your Instagram Online Presence.

I enjoyed all of them, but I particularly liked Timothy Eagan’s A Pilgrimage to Eternity which includes among many other things, a wonderful history of Christianity and Europe—much of which I didn’t know well. I also got a lot out of Hashtag Authentic. I don’t post much on Instagram, but much of the information in the book was a wonderful refresher about photographing the mundane and the everyday.

In addition to the unread shelf books, I read two new books I borrowed from the library Hill Women: Finding Family and a Way Forward in the Appalachian Mountains, and Miracles and Other Reasonable Things: A Story of Unlearning and Relearning God. After reading the last book, I enrolled in Sarah Bessey’s email subscription program. I’m already using her Forty Simple Practice for Lent and am enjoying the emails she sends with links to many fascinating and inspiring articles and videos.

5. After reading about Honoré’s LOAD (A scrapbook Layout A Day) project, I decided to do a card-a-day. By the end of the month I had completed 29 cards—most of which have been mailed or are ready to be mail in the next month. I didn’t made a new card every day, but some days I made several. You can see some of them here, here, and here. And more will be posted once the recipients have them in their hands.

All in all, it was a great month for the the OLW commitments. March will be much lighter in intentions as we are only at home for 12 days, and most days are pretty packed with appointments, volunteering, meetings, and of course, some social engagements.