My current favorite thing is...

A wonderful app I just discovered, Collect!

I'm all about little projects that capture moments in time; I have a notepad devoted to the funny things my kids say (I once wrote a tribute to my daughter based on her sayings). I also love projects that take course over time--I've participated in several monthly "photo a day" challenges on Instagram and of course there is my book a week for a year activity.

Scrolling through Instagram recently a blogger (Ellie Petrov) I follow posted a screen shot of a calendar that had pictures on each day--of her life. Reading the caption got me further interested. The text: 365 Days. 1 Day, 1 Pic, 1 App. The picture: A calendar with personalized pictures on each day. The outcome: A record of your year, one picture at a time.
Before you roll your eyes and say, "Sara. I follow you on Facebook/Instagram/(enter any other social media site). I think you have this covered." Let me just explain why I think this is so cool.

First of all, this is not social media. This is your record--just for you and whoever you decide to share with (technically, you can share this on your social media accounts but the app itself isn't a social site). Secondly, I share a lot on various social sites, including a fair amount (translation: a lot) of pictures on Facebook and Instagram. But unless I remember to put every picture I post on Facebook into an album (which I try, but fail at this) it's hard to go back and track everything due to how Facebook displays things. Just try to scroll through your page on Facebook. The further back you go the more stuff is omitted or out of order. You certainly get a feel, but it's not a perfect system.

Then there's Instagram. Oh, how I love Instagram. I share a HUGE variety of pictures on this site. They vary from photos of my kids to how I wear my jewelry and even graphics I create for this blog. Even though, unlike Facebook, all the pictures ARE there and in order--it can be hard to filter through all those photos. I use hashtags on each of my pictures as a way to organize them into "albums," which is helpful, but regardless, Instagram is more like an ongoing stream. So while I love both of those sites, this app allows for a more focused dedication to a year in your life.

So here's the deal with Collect. It allows you to import from your camera roll or take a picture and load it to the appropriate day. You can load more than one picture per day, if you want, but I kind of like the idea of just picking one picture for the day (although I have cheated a couple of times with a collage of a few photos as my picture). You can add a caption, too--which, being the wordy person I am, of course I do. Then, at the completion of a year, you have documentation of every. single. day. You'll of course get all the big events, but you'll be surprised at the quiet times you'll capture, too. And it takes all those moments--big and small--to create a year.

It gets even better! The app is free (awesome, right?) and you can do everything I mentioned above on the free version. But there are a couple of upgrades that you can buy. The Creative Pack ($1.99) gets you more creative features for exporting, printing and sharing your pictures and the Videos Pack (also $1.99) allows you to share you photos as video slideshows. I have not purchased either, yet, but will more than likely buy the creative pack, at a minimum.

I feel like I can hear some of your questions...

Afraid you'll forget? Don't be--turn notifications on! They'll come through on your phone to remind you to take your daily picture (or to at least upload it to the calendar).

Think it's too late to start? No! I didn't start until this week and you can go back and import pics from your camera roll for those previous days. And be honest--who doesn't have at least one picture from everyday already on there? (Or is that just me? Awkward...)

What if you forget or don't have a picture from a previous day? Who cares! It doesn't have to be perfect and it's still going to give you a fantastic visual history at the end of a year. Plus, who's to say you need to do it for a year. I think even having a month history would be awesome, let alone a year. Plus if a daily photograph seems to hard, maybe a weekly photo? A bi-weekly picture? Don't stress yourself out with guidelines, just have fun with it.

What if it's 10 o'clock at night and you suddenly realize you haven't taken a picture yet and don't know what to do? Easy! Take a picture of what book you're reading, or what evening snack/beverage you're enjoying. Or step outside (as long as it's not -40 degrees or anything) and take a picture of your block at night. Or take a picture of your outfit for the next day (if you're a planner and organized enough to set it out...that would NOT be me). Or how about a picture of your planner, how you spent your day. I could go on and on. The things that make up your daily life will be just as fun to look at once the year is up as those super cute pics of your kids/pets/self/etc.

Want to take it up a step? Have a theme! How about a daily gratitude calendar: everyday you take a picture of something you are grateful for; for the fashion-lover: take a picture of what you are wearing everyday (how cool would that be-a year's worth of outfits!); readers: take pics of your books (I imagine this would be more like a weekly installment, but still very cool to have that visual record, especially since books are so pretty); fitness gurus: a year in a healthy life (pics of your healthy snacks/meals, workouts, motivational pics/quotes); have your own business: a picture devoted to or about your biz (think: behind the scenes).

Once the year is complete (or however long you decide to do it for) you have so many options for what to do with it. The blogger I follow printed hers out into a photo book and gave it to her husband for Christmas. What a great, easy, relatively inexpensive gift idea! Or create an album for yourself and your family. Here are step-by-step directions for printing out photo cards and six other suggestions from Ellie's blog.

Ok, I'm a little too excited about this app so I should probably stop (and no I'm not getting paid or anything for this endorsement I just think it's that cool). If nothing else I hope I've inspired you a little--even if it's not to download this app.

What's your favorite app that you use daily? I have another app that I use to create the graphics I post to the blog that I'm totally in love with, too...perhaps another post in the future if anyone has any interest.

xo Sara

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