The 365 Project

The 365 project is not new, I've been an avid scrapbooker for years and the idea of taking a picture a day and documenting your year through your scrapbook has been done for awhile now, but to be honest the idea of taking a photo everyday, printing those photos and then creating a scrapbook to hold 365 pictures sounds like a lot of work!!! Last year January 1st a friend of mine took a picture with Instagram of her daughter and #hashtagged it with her daughters name and 365. I loved the idea so I jumped on the bandwagon!! Thanks Allie!! Last year I took a photo a day with Instagram and dated each photo and put our own #hashtag. Now that 2013 is over I have 365 memories of our year, little moments in time. Some are snapshots in the moment others are cute and posed. What I love most is 2013 was a bumpy one for us, my hubby had 2 different back surgeries and I had gone back to working full time, its been stressful but at anytime I can click onto our #hashtag and scroll down the feed and remember all 365 moments that were good!! Weather it was a family shot of us snuggles in our bed all together or the picture of our kids running in the field at the park, or that amazing day we had at the beach or the one with peanut pouting ...I love them all. Now the part I'm excited for, I'm taking those 365 pictures and making a book through Shutterfly. I will update this post when I'm finished and have the book!!! Until then....it's January 3rd....,jump on the bandwagon with us and find a special moment in your day and freeze it!!!

Here's what you do!! 

1. Join Instagram! It's a free app. 

2. Take a picture, put on a cool filter (I like the one that makes my skin look flawless and I look skinny lol)

3.  Date your photo. Some people do day 1, day 2, day 3 and so on I like to date them 1.1.14, 1.2.14 etc. 

4. Pick a creative #hashtag to keep all your photos under. 

            *My Instagram is private so only friends I allow to follow can see my pictures but if I take a picture and hashtag #cutie if you click on #cutie you will see 4000 other "cuties" lol pick a #hashtag only you will post too for example our hashtag is #ourlastname365 (not really but you get the idea) 

5. Don't get discouraged if you forget to post just go back or post 2 pics from the same day and date them different. The fact is in 365 days or 5 years your not going to say hey, we went to that park on the 7th not the 10th.......

6. Disclaimer........I figured something out....I would go to my husbands pics and #putourhashtag 

yeah.....it doesn't work. 

It will take you to the hashtag but not actually post your pic to it. So on December 31st 2013 I clicked on my hashtag to see I only had 345 pictures and not 365......ahhhhhh.....yep those 20 something pics....all ones I tried to snag from the hubs! So make sure you post the pic and you hashtag your pictures!!! 

Side note: if your new to Instagram you can post 1 or 1000 pics a day on your account the purpose of using the same #365hashtag is so you can only see the pictures you designated for the project. It puts them in their own category. 

If your confused ask someone you know who uses Instagram....they can explain lol 

I'm typically very private when it comes to pictures of my kids on my blog but I wanted to show an example of how much they really do change in a year!!! Where did my babies go!! 

Here are a few more moments from our 2013......365project 

Our perfect day at the beach day before the hubs had his back surgery.

The day I had off work and we went to the farm to pick strawberries...you both ate more than you put in your basket! 

His first T-ball game 

The pout pout cuteness 

The day the hubs sent me this picture from the aquarium while I was at work and I cried because I know just how lucky I am to not only have healthy happy children who love each other but a wonderful partner in life who values Fatherhood as much as I do Motherhood!! 

These are the moments I would have forgotten about, not intentionally but they would be lost in the daily grind of life and work and grocery shopping and paying bills and well the stress of it all. I want my children to have wonderful memories and I want to preserve those memories for when I have teenagers running in and out of the house and I just want them to be little again. 

I'm an emotional, sentimental mess but looking at these moments makes my heart burst and allows me to realize just how good life really is when you really focus on family and love! 

Soooo, what are you waiting for!!! Post a few pics, make up the dates you've missed and join in the memories!!!! 

Please post any questions or comments in the comment section and I will write back to them!!!!

Happy 2014!!!!

Love, Taylor