Sunday, January 24, 2016

Bed a Day - a different kind of 365 project!!

I must confess right off the bat - this post is not Trader Joe's related (though we ARE having TJ's food for dinner!).  

But it IS 365 days related!  It is about my very first 365 day project, which I actually DID in 2014, but did not FINISH until January 23, 2016.  Cuz, yeah, that's me...  I do not like things to end, remember??  So this project was the precursor to Trader Joe's 365, but (maybe because all of the TJ's reviews??) it did not get completed until after TJ's was done.  

Anyway, in 2014 I decided to do one thing every single day of the year, and that "thing" was to take a photo of the bed I woke up in.  It seemed insane, and I wasn't sure why I was doing it and what I would do with it all, but it turned out I really liked it.  And now that I have made the video I LOVE it!! 

Here is the project in a nutshell:

You can see the video at:  Bed a Day video

Here are the statistics of “Bed a Day” 2014:
  •         Total number of beds I slept in - 22
  •          Pets that got on a bed I slept in – 1 (Lyndsey’s cat)
  •          How many stranger’s beds I slept in - 4
  •          How many hotel beds I slept in - 11
  •          Total number of nights I slept in hotel beds - 23
  •          Number of states I slept in - 12
  •          How many times I woke up and took my photo before David was out of bed – around 164 (some of the photos it is hard to see if he is under the big, fluffy covers or not)
  •         Nights I spent in my “main bed” - 246
  •          Nights I spent in my “secondary bed” - 55
  •          Number of days I forgot to take a photo – 0 (though one time on vacation I forgot in the morning and had to frantically take it in the evening when I remembered)
  •          How many beds of family members I slept in – 3
  •          How many beds of friends I slept in - 3
  •          Number of people that slept in any of the beds with me – 1
  •          Estimated total number of photos taken for this project - 1335

And here are the things I learned
  •           As OCD as the project sounds, it was relaxing and rewarding.  I loved having that one moment every day to focus solely on the photo project.  It felt like a “check in” time and also like “checking something off the mental to do list” before I had even walked down the hall to the bathroom to start my day.
  •          It reminded me of my hesitancy to COMPLETE things.  I have put off compiling, editing, selecting music, and making my video for over ONE YEAR.  It is now January 23, 2016 and I am just now completing the project that I could have finished January 1, 2015.  I do not like “goodbyes”, even to projects.  And this was my first big “do one thing every single day” project, so it was important to me.  I didn’t want to see it end. 
  •          It reinforced a new concept of myself – that of artist.  That was a name bestowed by a person I met this year, and as hesitant as I was to accept it when she gave me the title, I realized throughout the year that it was indeed fitting and how proud I was to have been given it.
  •          It made me consider WHO I was doing the project for.  To try and make it “go viral”?  For the people whose beds appear in it?  In the end I settled on the concept that I was making it for MYSELF and am happy/proud of that.  I usually do things for OTHERS (a concept that was ingrained in me as a child) and I am learning to do more for me.
  •          It made me appreciate my travels more.  I have always liked travelling, but seeing my morning journey laid out before me like this makes me smile and reminds me how much fun it is to explore the world.  I did not travel as much in 2015.  I hope I get back on the road more again this year. 
  •          It made me feel grounded.
  •          It gave me a sense of purpose.
  •          It reinforced my belief that wherever I am (especially if David is there with me) – that is home.
    You can watch the video here:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjNsxAaA__o

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