He woke up this morning with this blog post in mind. And he ran right out and posted it. And it’s still making me laugh. If you know American Idol and you know Nacho Libre, you’ll find this funny.
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Two things I’ve learned thus far from living in Southern California…
1. Weeks go by faster here then they do in Ohio.
2. As long as you have a pair of sunglasses on, everything is cool.
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At this moment I feel happy. And I know it is due in part to the many things I am getting accomplished at this very moment.
I am drying sheets that were washed this morning because Zoe peed the bed.
I am washing sheets that were wet this morning because Charis peed the bed.
I have three babies taking naps.
I am answering an email on one screen while posting to my blog on another screen.
I am sending product out to our Layout Design Team at Scrap Girls.
I am backing up stuff to my external hard drive in the background.
I am washing dishes in my dishwasher (this is the first time i’ve had one of these in my 6.5 yrs of marriage. i hope i always will.)
I am looking at my to do list, already thinking about my next action item.
I am thinking about a book I was reading this morning and processing how rich it was. (And I should add that I was reading the book while on the treadmill. The multi-tasking never ends).
Life feels good to me this way.
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I discovered block posters from Tara Whitney’s blog. So I’m thinking you could do this with digital scrapbooking layouts you create. Interesting.
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A wiki is a living, changing, user-created encyclopedia. You might be familiar with wikipedia which is a whole encyclopedia done this way, on all topics. The idea is that everyone has input, thus creating a rich, diverse source of information. Everyone can add. Everyone can edit.
Scrapbooks, ETC. (Better Homes and Garden Scrapbook Magazine) has started a wiki in hopes of building the most extensive stash of Scrapbooking info anywhere.
I went in and added some stuff, specifically to the digital scrapbooking section. It looks brand new, but if this thing takes off, it could be huge. The idea is a great one. I’m going to keep an eye on it and see if it grows. Just thought I’d tell you about it in case any of you were geeks, like me, and wanted to check it out and add your two cents to the scrapbooking conversation.
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Note: Tutorial written with screenshots from PSCS2 on a Mac.
Open all of the .pngs of the digital layout template of your choice. (I’m using the 8.5×11 size of the ScrapSimple Digital Layout Templates Layered: Drawn, Layout number 2.)
Holding down shift, drag all of your .pngs on top of each other into the same window. Holding down shift helps the layers to line up properly.
Create a new document at the size you want your card to be. I like to make my cards 4.25 x 5.5 so I can get two cards out of one 8.5 x 11 piece of paper. So I created my new document at 11 x 4.25, 300 dpi.
I added a guideline to the center to show me where my fold would be. To do this I went to View>New Guide and chose to add a new vertical guide at 5.5 inches.
Holding down shift, I highlighted all of my layers in the layer’s palette. Then I chose Link Layers from the drop down menu of the layer’s palette.
I want my digital layout template to fit on the front of my card, so I’m going to resize it. To do this I go to Image>Image Size and change the width to 5.25, making it just slightly smaller then my card size.
Then using the move tool, drag the template into the blank document.
You can close your other document, but DON’T SAVE, or you’ll overwrite one of your digital layout template pngs.
Now you can follow the digital layout template instructions to create a custom card. Add different papers, embellishments and alphas. And feel free to delete any of the digital template layers you decide you don’t need. Make it your own card.
Ingredients:
http://www.scrapgirls.com/store/product.php?id=7267&cat=
http://www.scrapgirls.com/store/product.php?id=6344&cat=
http://www.scrapgirls.com/store/product.php?id=5628&cat=
http://www.scrapgirls.com/store/product.php?id=5385
http://www.scrapgirls.com/store/product.php?id=7050&cat=
http://www.scrapgirls.com/store/product.php?id=7291
http://www.scrapgirls.com/store/product.php?id=5367&cat=
Tutorial written by Mandy Steward
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Today I’m focusing on getting organized and making priorities for my day-to-day schedule. I was able to arrange some things in my life to free up some time, and now I want to make sure I’m using that extra time wisely. Because I have the strength of achiever I have a hard time if a day ends and I don’t feel like I’ve accomplished something. So I need to get myself into a daily routine that helps me to celebrate my successes, no matter how small they may be. For me personally, it is important that I not only manage my work schedule, but that I also allow time for talking to God, being with my family and taking care of myself. If I don’t commit to making these things priority, no one will make them priority for me. It’s my decision. And I’ve found if these things suffer, my work suffers, and my life suffers.
I found a simple video today about this. Interesting that I came across this on the day I vowed to get organized. So I’m off to sort my To-Do list and make my plan. Pen in hand, moleskine journal and calendar open. I’ll be back once I’m more focused.
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After a bad day on Thursday, Tony and I decided to take our family to the beach. We ate an early supper at home and then drove to the beach. We got there in time to get settled in on our own little section of the coast and watched the sunset as the girls played behind us in the sand. Nehemiah sat on my lap and watched the waves.
And as we sat there talking, I thought, this is so good. What if I hadn’t left my home tonite? What if I had just sat and wallowed in my my grief and frustration from my day? What if I had decided to just get back to work instead of taking a break? What if?
Sometimes we need a breath of fresh air. Sometimes what we really need is to walk away and gain a new perspective.
And as we’re sitting there I think, darn, I should have brought my camera.
And then, since I was already in a pensive frame of mind, I realized, you know what? It’s okay that I didn’t. I don’t always have to capture every single moment. Sometimes I just need to be able to just live.
Scrapbooking has done a number on me. When you work in the industry, it can take over your life, and you have to be careful what all you let it grab hold of. It’s great to want to capture my family in photos and to want to get stories down on paper so I don’t forget. The problem comes when I become so obsessed with documenting life that I quit living it.
Had I brought my camera, I wouldn’t have been cuddling my son or having a conversation with my husband…a conversation both of our hearts needed to have. Had I brought my camera I would have snapped pictures of a moment, but the moment would have been vastly different.
I vaguely remember a line by Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan that speaks to this. Matt Damon is talking about the last time he saw his brothers and Tom Hanks starts to mention a memory with his wife and then he stops, looks at them and says, “No, that one is just for me.”
Sometimes it’s okay for memories to be just memories. And it’s even okay for those memories to just be ours. Sometimes living needs to win out over documenting.
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Thanks to Angie Pedersen for posting on her blog a listing of Scrapbooking Magazines in the US.
Why did I think there were more then this?
Why did I think there were more then this?
- Creating Keepsakes: http://www.creatingkeepsakes.com/
- Simple Scrapbooks: http://www.simplescrapbooksmag.com/
- Memory Makers: http://www.memorymakersmagazine.com/
- Scrapbooks ETC: http://www.bhgscrapbooksetc.com/
- Digital Scrapbooking Magazine: http://www.digitalscrapbooking.com/
- Scrapbook Trends: http://www.scrapbooktrendsmag.com/
- Scrapbooking & Beyond: http://www.scrapbookingandbeyondmag.com/
- Somerset Memories (formerly Legacy): http://stampington.com/html/somerset_memories.html
- Paper Crafts Magazine: http://www.papercraftsmag.com/
- Scrapbook Dimensions Magazine: http://scrapbookdimensions.com
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Just finished reading this and this.
Two great marketing books I stole from my husband. And shame on me for even marking in one of them and dog-earing the pages. (I’m sorry Tony. I swear I didn’t know it was a pet-peeve). Poor guy didn’t even get to read the books first. He’s got so many books he’s reading, I was hoping he wouldn’t notice if I borrowed a few. Anyway, excellent reads if you’re into the marketing/publicity sort of thing. The Naked Conversations one is about blogging, which is way cool.
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