Abilene's Weekly Photo Shoot

Oh my dear goodness, I still cannot believe little Abi Lou has been with us for one whole year. What bittersweet joy!

While I was pregnant with Abilene, I stumbled across this: Clara's Weekly Photo Project from the blog Young House Love. How thankful I am for others sharing their ingenious ideas with the world.

Clara wasn't even a year old yet when I first saw the project but I could see just how much she changed from week to week and I was floored by the amount of growth a baby goes through in the first year of life. I knew I had to do the same with Abilene (and hope to do the same with Baby #2).

By no means do I intend for this post to be a tutorial. Credit is due only to Shelly at Young House Love. Her tutorial on how she created Clara's Weekly Photo Project can be found here.

The project was an absolute blast though and I do want to blog about that. I'm definitely not a photographer and there are many days that I wish I had gotten the camera out with Abilene but didn't. Doing this weekly photo project ensured that I would have the camera out, at the very least, once a week. The more I had the camera out, the more I was able to get other shots of Abilene that I will appreciate when she's older.

Oh hey there, little booger.

I completed the project basically the same way Shelly did. I bought a new piece of fabric for every week (just a yard, probably averaged to be $4-$5 a piece), slapped a white onesie on Abilene, stood on a chair above our bed to get an aerial shot and used photo editing software to "stamp" the circle, number and the word "weeks" on her outfit. I didn't have Photoshop so I used Picnik (UPDATE: I'm now using PicMonkey to edit Andrew's photos. Picnic was great but it's no longer a resource that is available on the internet.). Picnik worked great for what I needed it to but, because it's not as advanced as Photoshop, I did have to catch photos of Abilene in which her limbs weren't in front of her chest or tummy.

Like this one.

Picnik (well, free Picnik) didn't have the ability to layer or erase so I couldn't put the numbers underneath a leg or an arm. I also couldn't wrap the number around her body if I had a shot where she was rolling over.

Shelly could do all these nifty things in Photoshop (super jealous) but there was no way I was going to let not having that software stop me from documenting Abilene's growth. In the end, everything worked out just fine. I was even able to get a little more creative one week by putting the number on Abilene's back when she just so happened to look up at the camera for Week 31.

The use of props on holidays was especially fun - like when I gave Abilene a "4th of July sparkler" made with pipe cleaners that she effectively poked her eye out with (wouldn't recommend that prop if you plan on doing a weekly photo project).

Pre poke-your-own-kids-eye-out picture.

Having the opportunity to document some other milestones - like Thunder's 3rd birthday - was also super fun.

It was so interesting to photograph Abilene as she got older. In the beginning, she stayed wherever I laid her. I could take as many pictures as I wanted for as long as I wanted.

Those were the days.

Then Abilene gained the ability to roll over which involved me having to reposition her a lot more.

Mid turn.

Theeeen, Abilene could actually crawl away and the weekly photo project officially became a two man job.

Clearly had no intentions of cooperating.

Either the hubs or I would take the picture while the other person threw gently tossed Abilene onto the fabric hoping she's stay put for the split second it took the camera shutter to open and close (that's what it does right?). Abilene would immediately roll over and start to crawl away so whoever wasn't taking the picture would scoop her up again and start all over until we had a couple shots to work with. She loved it.

Totally a game to Abilene.

Taking the weekly photos also allowed us to get some close ups of her face that just looked cute because she was on fun fabric.

Like this one.

Don't want to forget her gummy little smile.

Or her chunky little cheeks.

Or how much she looks like her Daddy.

Or those itty bitty feet.

It was definitely a blast to do and I'm so thankful for sticking with it for a whole year. Shelly had continued to take pictures monthly of Clara for Clara's second year. I haven't decided if I will do the same yet or not. Shelly also made a small quilt and a birthday banner out of the fabrics used for the photos. I would love to do something similar with the fabrics and have some running ideas on Pinterest like maybe this quilt...

You can find this Cathedral Quilt tutorial here.

or these pinafores...

You can find this Crossover Pinafore tutorial here.

Who knows what I'll do! Actually, who am I kidding? We're having another baby in three months. It will probably be all I can do to just keep up with another year of weekly photos of him! Here's to trying though!

If you have a little baby brewing in your belly, I definitely recommend putting this project at the top of your "Baby To-Do" list. It's well worth the time you'll put into it.

And if you're interested in what her pictures looked like for the whole year, here they are for your viewing pleasure!

Here's to happy, growing, little babies!