Right before we traveled to China, I asked my friend Elise for her advice on memory keeping with a child. I was (and am!) intimidated by the responsibility or documenting Nova’s childhood in an organized way (cough-cough). I was mainly asking her advice on organizing photo books and storing files, but Elise said to me that the BEST thing she had done for documenting her kiddos’ childhoods was 1 Second Everyday. I watched her videos (here and here) and CRIED … a lot.
So I downloaded 1 Second Everyday and started, just a week or so before we left for China. When I shared my project with Jeremy he was initially pretty disinterested. I have done a LOT of projects like this through the years, most of them highly annoying to him. Haha! But after we had Nova for just a few weeks, he watched back the seconds we had collected in China and he told me to “keep doing it no matter what”… it was so special.
Now every few weeks or so he asks to watch the whole collection back. It gets more special each time.
For people with small kids, it’s amazing because you can see them grow and you can capture all the little stages that come and go so quickly.
We plan to use this app to make a video of our first year with Nova. Three months in, I guess we are already 1/4 of the way there—it’s crazy!
Here’s my 1 Second Everyday spanning from November until last week:
You can see a noticeable difference around January 1, when I started to use A Color Story filters to edit each clip. I like how they make the tones a bit more consistent, but I don’t do too much editing—just throw a quick filter on.
I do skip days. If I don’t get a clip that day, I don’t go back and try to fill it in. I just let it be. I decided to do that because I can be a perfectionist about these things, but I’d rather just keep it natural. I also decided not to use music just because I kind of like the randomness of the natural sound.
Anyway! I have LOVED this creative project. It’s easy to keep up with and so meaningful to our family!
– Elsie
35 Comments
I’ve loved the 1 second project ever since I first heard about it. I love your video, Elsie! And props to you for not being hard on yourself for missing a day or two. 🙂
Charmaine Ng | Architecture & Lifestyle Blog
http://charmainenyw.com
I haven’t heard about this app yet but it looks amazing! Such an interesting way of capturing your life. And how heartwarming to see the first months with Nova via such a video 🙂
I love this app! I’ve been doing it since 2016, when my daughter was 6 months old, and it’s been great to see her grow into a 2 1/2 year old. I also try to capture her friends and as many family members as possible, so she’s familiar with them, too. It’s been tons of fun and an easy way to journal this period of our lives.
I’ve watched 1 second videos but didn’t know there was an app for it! What a special way to capture small glimpses without lots of the extra work it would take to capture it the “traditional” way. I’ll have to share this app with friends and family for their little ones. And maybe for my very invested dog mom/cat mom friends too!
Love this app! This will be my third year and I don’t plan on stopping. While I don’t have any children, we recently got a puppy so in addition to my yearly “life” video I’ve also been capturing our puppy’s first year, can’t wait to see it all together!
So sweet, thanks for sharing the video! I love the natural sounds instead of music. I think you will be happy to hear them some day in the future.
Nova is so cute and I can’t wait to see her cute hair once it has grown a little longer.
I finished my first full year this NYE and it’s the best thing I’ve done for documenting everyday life. I’m keeping it up this year and can’t wait to show my kids when they’re older!
I love 1SE! I started in January 2016 (inspired by Elise) and am still going strong. Best memory project EVER!
I made a video on this app a couple of years ago and I love it! Just by chance I happened to get a second with my now husband in it amongst a group of people on the day we first met.
How amazingly special!
I love this app, I got it after you mentioned it, a few months ago and I’m so glad I did! We are also a 1/4 way through our first year as parents. My daughter Is 3 months old now and it’s so fun to see how much she’s changed. I also like that Live Photo’s work too! ????
We did this for our kiddo’s first year, and I love it so, so much! We did ours from birth, and seeing him develop from a little infant to almost a little kid walking around, is absolutely amazing. Possibly one of my favorite projects ever.
I downloaded this app the day I saw it on your instagram and have been using it since 1 Jan!
I watched your very first one and loved it – seeing its continuation really strikes the difference – how much she has grown and all those little moments spent together. Just precious! This app is a real treasure for creating memories!
Nova in a tutu ! How completely adorable. It’s amazing how well she’s adjusted.
That is so adorable!
This seems like such an amazing app and Elise is so right that this is an awesome, and non obtrusive too, way of documenting a childhood & life in general. Adore your gorgeous video, Nova is so lucky to have you documenting her life for her to look back on in years to come, what a great mum you truly are!
Holly from The Art of Being Holly xo
I have been using this ever since you posted about it on your blog or IG (I forget which)! I made 2 categories – 1 for everyday life and 1 for creative projects…which pushes me to do a little arting everyday, so that I can at least get that 1 second clip. I love that you can set reminders to shoot your clip – that’s super helpful.
The only thing is, I haven’t figured out how to export yet…I think need to tinker with it some more. I didn’t realize there was a paid version….even for Android? Maybe this is why I can’t export, lol…
Fantastic-simply THE best idea ever!
….and no music makes it real- please keep on doing this 🙂
This is such an awesome idea! And a fun, easy way to memory keep… downloading the app asap for sure! 🙂
Claudia | claudianorris.ca
This is my third year using 1 Second Every Day. It is by far my favorite project. I cherish the videos and go back to watch them often. Friends and family regularly comment how much they love them & love to be featured in them. Keep it up! You will never regret it.
Found myself filling up and smiling at the same time. I think it’s a wonderful idea, and what a beautiful little daughter you have. Lita xx
Been using it for over a year now and love the memories!
I have a request for the color story app: since you posted the tip about using filters for video I have been clearing up my badly lighted vids with a color story. When saving, they get the date of editing instead of original date, which doesn’t work well with 1SE. Any way to solve that issue?
There’s a work around for 1 Second Everyday.
We did that because it works better for IG stories. xx!
I love this video! So much cuteness, and it’s going to be so special to look back on! I started using the app at the start of the year and I’m loving it so far! I have a video from almost every day since my son was born in September so I’m also slowly going back and making a separate one for his first year too! This is one of the best projects ever!
I started with 1 second Everyday when I saw Lucy Knisley’s videos about her son Pal on Instagram and when my son turns one, I’ll have an almost complete video from his first year. Every time a month ends I compile a video of that month and send it to my family, my sisters both live abroad. This way they get to see some of our/their little nephew’s everyday life and are so thankful for it.
I just want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH for sharing this! I downloaded the app last night (even though there’s mixed reviews for Android) but I gave it a go and loved the outcome! The only thing I need to do is organise my media in order. So happy with it so far. I can’t wait to create one for each of my 3 boys xx Your family is so beautiful by the way. So happy for you guys xx
I love this app! I started using it on New Years Day this year and am so thankful for all that’s been captured so far. The “second” of Nova in bed with the dogs is the absolute sweetest.
I LOVE this app so much! I’ve been using it to document life for a while. We just had our first baby three weeks ago and I’ve been doing a 1 sec a day especially for her – so sweet to watch back! Can’t wait to see how she changes over the first year <3
I have been using this app (found through Elise too!) since about 3 months in with my daughter. Every 6 months I edit and post an update. I have loved using it sooooo much. I fell off with my journal when my daughter was around 6 months old (she’s now over 2) and would have felt like I missed so much if I hadn’t kept up w/ 1SE. I’m also super relaxed about it, not stressing over missed days. You can’t tell at all when you do a compilation since it’s just 1 second that’s “missing” (or more, but still).
i love this app. i started with a free one called the daily snap, which was OK, but 1SE was worth the purchase. i’ve been trying to do a video for each month, but like you said, i’ve had to relax a little bit and not worry if i miss a few days. it’s still helping me to capture more memories! that’s the main thing. and how fun to be able to look back and see nova grow 🙂
I downloaded this app as soon as you posted about (the first app I’ve paid for though I’ve bought filters on A Color Story =))
I was wondering, do you use a special app or program to make your fun vacation (and other) videos? We are going to San Diego with our two year old next week and I’d love to take some videos (shows so much more sometimes).
oh man this made me tear up it’s so beautiful! and i have a winter babe too! winter thea kennedy 🙂 if only every child in the world was this loved. <3
hej Elsie, I started using this app after I read about it here, I totally identify your urge to document your babies’ lives well. I started using the app since my little girl arrived, and I can’t say just how much I love how her 1SE is turning out <3 Thank you so so much for the besssst tip ever!