30 Days of Lists 4-7

I have been making lists daily, which is pretty good for me. It's a bit tedious making a blog post for each individual list, though, and it seems to be a bit of overkill. Therefore, I am lumping a bunch of lists together.

I made my lists for Days 4, 5, & 6 with Pic Collage and for Day 7 with Photo Grid. I was able to find more stickers to use with Photo Grid. Photo Grid allows for right flush text, and I like that for my lists. Pic Collage allows only for centered text at this time (at least the Android app doesn't have other justification options; the iPhone version I used did). I had avoided using Photo Grid for a few days, because it forced me to choose at least one photo before making my scrapbook page, and I don't always know what I want for a photo when I start making a list and every list even calls for a photo. But I found a way around this by choosing one photo, then deleting it after I have added something else to the page.

Day 4's prompt was, "Friends and family I get to see this month." I'm optimistic I'll get to see my parents - my job is fickle and time off, especially in December, is hard to come by. Since my brother lives nearby, that one is more doable. And the bandmates to whom I refer are fellow members of a community band. When I wrote the list, I was anticipating a concert on December 6, which was successfully carried out yesterday afternoon.

Day 5's prompt was, "Changes I made in 2014." I didn't make changes so much as acquire new stuff, most of it by necessity (or at least perceived necessity - I could probably live without most of the new stuff I have acquired). My car was totaled back in March, when it was rear-ended by another motorist. I had to purchase a new car. My iPhone was stolen in early November (or maybe I lost it, with the result being the same - no phone), so I had to upgrade to a new phone. My laptop was dying very early this year, so I purchased a tablet in February "just because." I found I missed the laptop experience, though, and purchased a laptop in October. I think I should be set for electronic toys for quite some time.

Day 6's prompt was, "Favorite words to write." All I could think of was "diarrhea," "fuchsia," and "hemorrhoid," all of which are fun to spell and write. The meanings of the words do not factor in, as one might find diarrhea and hemorrhoid odd choices of favorite words.

Day 7's prompt was, "Things I think about in the shower." Horror movies have forever ruined me, so the number one thing I think about in the shower is that someone will break in and I won't hear him with the water running and he will murder me. This means someone out there must be watching and listening very carefully to my every move in order to time his entry to coincide with my taking a shower. No one said thoughts are always rational.

30 Lists Day 3

The prompt for Day 3 of 30 Days of Lists was "Photos to take this month." Really, what don't I take? I'll take photos of pretty much anything. The ones that turn out well and don't contain confidential information or people I can't show off publicly get posted on Instagram and/or Flickr and/or Eye Em (though I tend to forget about Eye Em).

While my pages for Days 1 & 2 were made using PicCollage on my phone, Day 3 was made using Photo Grid, a new-to-me app on my phone (follow the link to find the correct Photo Grid - there are several apps named "Photo Grid" in the Google Play Store). Both apps are similar in that they allow for multiple photos to be laid out onto a page and arranged "artfully," instead of in a grid (though grids also have their place!). Both allow for a choice of background colors (though Photo Grid seems to have more color options), text in an array of fonts and colors, and stickers (PicCollage has many more sticker options; I'm hoping I just haven't found the rest of Photo Grid's sticker options, because there aren't many that are readily available).

30 Lists Days 1 & 2

The prompt for Day 1 of 30 Days of Lists was "It's ___ Season." It's December. 'Tis the season for cold and snow and ho-ho-ho and holiday concerts...of course, not all that can fit onto a small Pic Collage page.

The prompt for Day 2 was "It's too early for...." It's too early for a lot of things. I think it's too early for snow, but that's an unrealistic expectation, since I live in New England. It could be worse. I could live in Buffalo New York.

30 Days of Lists Begins Tomorrow

I’m doing this new daily thing: listing. I am not new to listing.  I make lists all the time. And I lose lists all the time. 30 Days of Lists is a new(ish) concept which raises list making to an art form. You join for a month (30 days) and are given daily prompts of what to list about. You can use those prompts or change them. Pretty much their only rule is not to post a list until the prompt has been announced in an email. You can download the entire list ahead of time so you can plan ahead, but some participants like the surprise of finding out what the prompt is each day. I’m one of the planners. Some participants are good about listing every day, some post several lists at once.

I made a cover in order to get ready. Many of us have started by making some sort of cover or by preparing our notebooks or scrapbooks. I have opted to cut down on clutter (meaning I wouldn't be able to keep track of a real, paper notebook for 30 days) by making a digital scrapbook. I did 30 Lists for the first time in September, and I used Pic Collage on my iPhone for the whole project. This time, I have an Samsung Galaxy Note 4, and I am still planning to use Pic Collage for at least some of the December lists (I may try out other apps as appropriate). One of these days, I may actually get around to printing each list out and adding them to a scrapbook or notebook. I envision each cover page as more of a chapter heading, as most scrapbooks should be able to hold more than 30 pages.

Many post on Instagram and Twitter, and you can follow along with the hashtag #30Lists.