At the start of January I began a new year-long photography project: Life In 52. The idea is simple – to take one photo a week for each week of the year. It’s a lifestyle photography project, documenting little snippets of my life that I want to remember.

The project is being hosted by Sarah Cornish from My Four Hens Photography, who I had the privilege of learning from directly on my solo trip to Colorado at the photography retreat she ran last year. When she announced this project I decided to use it to put into practice what I’d learned.

There is a Facebook group dedicated to the project, where participants can post their images each week to share their work, hold themselves accountable and also in the hope of being featured on the blog on the Life In 52 website. Go have a look at it – the collection of submissions (and the stories behind them) are breathtakingly beautiful and inspiring each and every week.

I’ve had three of my images featured so far – one in Week 6 of the project, one in Week 9 and one in Week 16. I’m so proud that they’ve been chosen. I’m looking forward to putting together my final collection of images at the end of the year – all fifty-two images that will sum up the story of 2018 as it was for us.

Here are my submissions for Weeks Twenty One and Twenty Two:

WEEK 21

“When she went to bed last night she left Teddy on the floor outside her bedroom with a note that said “He needs to go in the bin!”.  I knocked on her door and went in, with Teddy, to find her sobbing.  Gently I asked her what was wrong, knowing it was important.  “It’s just that sometimes I feel like I don’t need him any more…and then I miss him and feel bad I’ve hurt his feelings”.  I gave Teddy back to her and she hugged him tightly and sobbed some more and we cuddled together whilst her tears dripped down her face and soaked my TShirt.  As she gradually calmed down I stroked her hair and told her that it was ok to still need him sometimes and that we would never, ever throw him away because he’s been there for her since the day she was born.  She looked up at me and I knew that she felt better, even if she didn’t know why.  My littlest one, the one who has the biggest heart of anyone I’ve ever known, the one who feel things so very deeply…I hope you never change.  I hope you always have this intense love and the ability to be honest with how you feel.  It’s a very special gift.  These little stories, they’re important.  They’re part of who we are.  They may not be pretty, but they’re us, and I’m determined to share more of them.  I asked her if I could take a photo of her whilst she was feeling like this and I think she realised how important it was to me to capture the moment we’d shared together.  I’m so glad she said yes.”

WEEK 22

“Rainy road-trip afternoons call for board game marathons (thoughtfully provided by our AirBnB hosts).  Here the husband is teaching our middle girl how to play draughts and I taught her how to play chess too.  She surprised me and really got into both games.  I haven’t played for years and it brought back so many memories of when I was younger!”

You can follow along with all the other submissions from the Life In 52 project on Instagram by following the hashtags #lifein52 and #m4hlifein52. And you can see the featured posts from the group each week on the Life In 52 blog (updated every Monday).