Today is the first day in a 31 part daily series about documenting your everyday life. Please follow along here at the blog during the month of October for ideas and tips and tricks on how to make sure that you’re getting these little details of your life documented. At the end of this post there will be links to all of the days for easy reference once the month is over and you’ll be able to click on the button in the sidebar to view all of the posts.

Documenting my everyday life and the lives of my loved ones is something that is very important to me. I think about my parents and their parents and I wish I knew so much more. What did they do on a Tuesday afternoon? Were there cookies waiting when my mom got home from school? Did my grandmother have homework when she was young? Did she have pets? My parents were actually very good at documenting our lives and I do have many photographs from when I was younger – especially those early years. But I do wish that I knew more about my own life. I have memories for sure and tons of photographs of the big things (and many of the little things) but when I see an old photo of myself I often times find myself looking into the background. I want to remember the little details. The everyday stuff. The stuff that we often “clean up” to make an image facebook or instagram worthy (I do this, too).

This photo below is from the late 70s and I remember this kitchen. I remember the Legos (I loved Legos…still do). I remember the blender (my mom still has it). I remember the paintings on the fridge (my mom saved many of those, too). I remember my play table and the awesome molded plastic orange chairs (that I really wish we still had for my own kids).

photo credit: Carol Graham or Bil Jones, 1979?

I don’t remember the glass doorknobs until I see a photo…and I love those. I didn’t remember that we had a bottom freezer fridge, pretty trivial really, but somehow it’s interesting to me. I love seeing the tubs of PlayDoh on the counter behind me and that my mom stored her pasta in a glass canister (which I really think she still has that in the garage, too). These things aren’t as big and exciting as a birthday party or Christmas morning but they tell a little about my mom’s story as a stay at home mom with a blonde little girl those first few years of my life.

My intent with this series is to give you some ideas about what to capture in your everyday life. One of the biggest things that I want to stress is that you don’t have to have a big fancy camera to do this. You can use your phone, you can use a point and shoot or if you have a big DSLR you can use that, too. Or do as I do and use a combination of the three. I always have my phone nearby and I use that camera often. During this month I’m making the effort to pull out my “big” camera a bit more often as well. After the month is through I will share some ideas on why you want to keep capturing these photographs, even if it feels like you’re just photographing the same thing over and over again. And now that you’ll have lots of images of the everyday “mundane” stuff…then what? I’ve got lots of ideas that I cannot wait to share with you.

But first, be sure to come back each day this month for a new “everyday” topic and see my take on the subject. Something to remember is that everyone is in a different spot in life. I have three teen/tween kiddos with very busy schedules. Some of you may have lots of little ones at home, maybe a preschooler or two, maybe a sweet little newborn. Maybe you’re a working parent, a parent of teens or an empty nester. Whatever your situation, you have a story to tell.

After tomorrow, links will start populating here with each new topic and idea. Thanks for reading and I hope that you play along. If you post on facebook or instagram (carrieowensdaily) I would love for you to tag me or just leave a comment here.

 

day one | this introduction post

day two | mornings

day three | daily routines

day four | bedrooms

day five | youth sports

day six | the home

day seven | dinnertime

day eight | after school

day nine | technology

day ten | everyday

day eleven | relationships

day twelve | seasons

day thirteen | worktime

day fourteen | what we love

day fifteen | recreation

day sixteen | holidays

day seventeen | a series of images

day eighteen | things we collect

day nineteen | phone photography tips

day twenty | wellness

day twenty-one | fashions

day twenty-two | beauty of nature

day twenty-three | where we go

day twenty-four | what we eat

day twenty-five | vacation details

day twenty-six | weekend traditions

day twenty-seven | our hobbies

day twenty-eight | the details

day twenty-nine | we live here

day thirty | documenting you

day thirty-one | projects