This video is too beautiful to not pass on: One Thousand Gifts

A lovely short video worth watching

http://youtu.be/mnQvp8_41Uo

Monday Love

I have to tell you that I love Mondays. It's a great way to start the "work" week, because what I work on is scrapbooking! It's the day that Trish and I get together to work on various projects. We've gotten much more organized through working together, we've discussed many subjects both deep and trivial, and we've bounced a lot of ideas off one another.

Thanks to this scrap time together, we are more focused on writing our stories, we've clarified what are goals are in scrapping, we've worked on class projects together, we've shared genealogical work we've done.

Today we spent a lot of time going over an upcoming project we are doing together in 2012 - My Lifetime Story, a project that has run on Faith Sisters for the last couple of years. The time wasn't right for us to do it then, but it is in 2012. We've now got a good overview of the project, lists of photos to keep an eye out for and potential stories to write, and a plan for when/how we will do the project.

We've using templates by Ali Edwards from Designer Digitals so our album has a consistent look. We're also planning on using some of Ali's word art brushes to enhance our layouts. We've picked Erica Coombs' Autumnal Collection from Design House Digital for our kit for this year's pages.

How many pages we do for each category is totally flexible since we are planning on putting this into a D-ring album rather than printing a photo book, so we can add pages as we  want, even in future years.

We also spent some time figuring out which parts of Ali's One Little Word class at Big Picture Classes we haven't finished yet. We discovered that it really won't take that much work to finish it up, even though I've felt like I've been really slack the last half of this year in doing the projects. I really love this album so far, and we are going to be taking the class again this year and adding to our albums.

Tonight I'm printing some of the missing photos and journaling pages. I plan on having the journaling pages on my clip board, so I can grab it and get the journaling done on the spur of the moment.

Another project we are preparing for is Stacy Julian's Twelve, again at Big Picture. This is another year-long project. We're not even quite sure exactly what this is going to entail, but we've learned through experience that Stacy's classes are always worth getting involved in.

I have lots of catching up planned for my days off this holiday season. I'm getting two books ready to print - This is My Life, from Log Your Memory. I'm printing mine as an 8x8 photo book, so I've got to proofread and turn my PSD files into JPGs for sending to the printer. I also need to finish up my The Monthly (Cathy Zielske), templates available at Designer Digitals. I'm doing this in 8.5 x 11 format and printing it as a photo book, so again, I need to proofread and create JPGs.

Lots to do, but I'm looking forward to filling my vacation with productive scrapbooking!

Yes, I'm ready for the holidays. We are extremely low key when it comes to holidays, so it isn't a stress for me. I have one more gift to buy because we restrict our gift-giving to just the grandkids. The rest of us figure is we need/want something, we buy it for ourselves. It's not about the stuff, it's about love. That we are blessed with in abundance.

Thankful Thought

P365, a photo by PattiP88 on Flickr.

I'm thankful today to live where roses bloom in December!

Marriage and Aspergers

This is an interesting article about marriage and Aspergers.

Thankful Thought

P365, a photo by PattiP88 on Flickr.

I'm thankful this morning for the beautiful sunrise after the downpours during the night, and the fact that I can sit in my garden in mid-December and enjoy the sunshine.

Divine Composition With Fibonacci’s Ratio (The Rule of Thirds on Steroids)

This is a really good article on using Fibonacci's Ratio in photography. Same concept will work for scrapbook page design:

Divine Composition With Fibonacci’s Ratio (The Rule of Thirds on Steroids)

Unfortunately, the link for the overlays doesn't seem to be working.

My Log Your Memory Logbook 2012 arrived in the mail today. I got the smaller version because I like it to not take up too much space on my work table. I bought the print version this year because I wanted the tabbed month dividers and because I had to many printer issues last year.

I've found the logbook very handy this past year even though I didn't use it to it's full extent. It's pretty much dedicated to my scrapbooking since I use my digital calendar/reminders, etc for the rest of my life. Somehow I like keeping my scrapbooking things separate.

I am very happy with the daily pages for next year. I love the large, online space on each page. I plan on using that space for sketches for scrapbook page design. I'm wanting to continue the sketch process that Tiffany Tillman encourages in her Scraphic Design class at Reneepearson.com. This is the perfect place to keep those sketches organized. Plus I'll be reminded every day by that big blank space that I'm supposed to fill it with a sketch!

I also like the numbered list at the bottom. One of the suggested uses is to keep a Grateful list every day. I'm thinking I may go with that suggestion.

As you can see, the monthly calendar has large squares to jot down whatever you want. I usually use this to keep track of when my online classes start and stop so I don't book too many at once! Yes, I'm such an addict, I can easily schedule too many classes simultaneously.

I punched holes so the pages fit in the binder I am currently using. Right now, the logbook is just held together with 3 book rings. I plan on loading about 3 months at a time in my binder so it stays thinner and when I do my monthly roundup I'll pull out the month past (once I've gleaned what I need from it) and add a new month.  The logbook has the potential of being a bit of a diary/almost smash book. If I've filled it with enough writing, sketches, and miscellany, it may be worth keeping at the end of the year.

A new feature on the printed version is the tabbed dividers, which are also pocket pages. I'm thinking that these will be handy for stashing small bits like receipts or brochures I want to keep, small odds and ends of life. Since I'm mostly digital, they may get scanned. Another option is to keep an album with lots of baseball card type page protectors and small journal cards as a memorabilia file. Sort of a Project LIfe but just for the stuff. I've always tended to throw the "stuff" away, but I'm thinking that there is value in keeping a small amount of cultural memorabilia around. So, those little pockets in the monthly divider pages may be very useful as a gathering place for the little bits of daily life and commentary until I decide what to do with them. Potentially I could just keep them in the logbook, too. Lots of options here.

Basic conclusion: If you scrap, and if you don't, this is a great little calendar/logbook. There's more to it than I've described - these are just my personal favorite features. Check it out if you don't have yours yet!

~Patti~

Sshh - these are a surprise

Untitled, a photo by PattiP88 on Flickr.

Look at these lovely little gems. They're for my two granddaughters who live nearby. I wanted to get them for the girls last year, but by the time I saw them, they were out of the right sizes. I only wish they had purple for the little one, but she's OK with pink, too. Such little princess shoes!

And I love buying Toms. Not only are they comfortable, but as you can see by the tag, when I buy a pair of shoes there, a child in need also gets a pair. That makes me happy.

Thankful Thought No. 7

So thankful for this stunning sunset. The red was amazing. The photo doesn't do it justice.

Thankful Thought No. 6

My daughter took our sweet little E, who has multiple developmental, genetic challenges, to the library to get her own library card. She needs it for school because they sometimes take field trips to the local library for books.

The requirement is that the child be able to sign their name. Which she can do. The librarian had issues with her parents telling her where to sign! Even though he was told that she is autistic. Then he had a huge issue about how she signed it. He then suggested that she just use her Mother's card, even though she can't use it when her mom isn't there, which would be when on a field trip for school, which is why she needed one. Sheesh!

Here's the problem with how she signed her name. I'm not sharing the full photo here for privacy and safety reasons, but she wrote her first name and the first letter of her last name. At that point she was out of room. She solved the problem by continuing to write on the line below, but backwards, which is a totally creative solution if you ask me. Just as logical as starting on the left, which really is inconvenient. Makes me wonder why we ever started writing left to right rather than serpentining down the page!

I'm just thankful she can sign her name. Go E!

Patti

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Recording a Life Story as it happens

The photo is my current iBook shelf. I have many more iBooks, not currently loaded on my iPad. A bit of my mundane life. Which is very different than how I read and acquired books until just recently.

This is an interesting post, especially for those of us who document our everyday, mundane lives.




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Thankful Thoughts No. 5

How was your Thanksgiving weekend? Mine was exhausting! But the new roasting pan from Costco worked great, we all liked the gluten free rice stuffing, and the Especially Good Sweet Potatoes were just that - delish.

Today I'm thankful for such a rich life. Which isn't at all the same as saying we're rich. Unless you are comparing use with the vast majority of people in the world. Then, yes, we are rich. Even though we're feeling the economic crunch pretty strongly right now. When one takes the larger view, we are so rich.

Thanksgiving time is a good time to think about how our predecessors lived and how far we've come. I'm only the second generation in my family to be born in America. And when my grandparents were homesteading, they travelled by horse and buggy or train. They had no electricity in the house, and no running water. The well was a quarter mile away. Just getting water was an effort, especially in the winter. This was on the Great Plains, with below zero weather and blizzard conditions a normal occurrence.

Contrast that to my life now. I live in a balmy state, in a four bedroom house someone else built for us, with all the conveniences. Hot water or cold, whenever I want, with the minor inconvenience of sometimes running out of the hot water if we've tried to wash towels, run the dishwasher, and take a shower at the same time.

I read an article talking about how discontented Americans are. I think it's partly because we tend to have such a narrow focus, and we have a culture of "you deserve more." And I'm not talking here about people who need a helping hand due to loss of jobs and homes. It's those who have so much already who seem to feel like enough is never enough.

Here's a great little video about how gratefulness can change your life.

Thankful Thought No. 4

I'm so thankful for this little girl in our lives. I don't take any day with her for granted.

It was touch and go from the beginning. Due to problems with the pregnancy, the doctors told my daughter that this baby had a 50/50 chance of making it to term. They took their chances.

There were concerns right at birth - they checked her for kidney problems due to certain physical anomalies, but her kidneys seemed fine.

Then, she was losing too much weight right after birth. She was very sleepy. My daughter had to wake her up every two hours to try to get her to nurse so she would gain weight. Around the clock. It worked, she started to grow.

As she grew, we started noticing other problems. A little slow developing, staying very small (this in a family of large, delightfully fat babies). We called her "Peanut".

She was very late climbing stairs, and refused to come back down. Then we noticed her eyes turned in a bit. Since her mom had strabismus as a baby, and it was successfully corrected with surgery, we figured like mother like daughter. A visit to the ophthalmologist proved otherwise. She has a very small optic nerve and partial blindness. We're still not sure exactly how much of her visual field is missing, but we know the lower part of it is because she would always fall when there was even a slight level change, especially in new territory. She has optic nerve hypoplasia, which means her optic nerve didn't completely develop. This is often associated with other mid-line brain abnormalities, so she has to have tests for hormone levels done about every six months. Lots and lots of needle sticks. And yet a casual observer would not know she has vision problems, and we are very thankful that her blindness isn't more severe. Many children with this are totally blind.

Then she caught a virus that the other children had, but she didn't get well. She kept getting more and more lethargic. Back to the doctor, who was inclined to say it was just the flu. Thankfully there was a nurse at hand who also worked for a geneticist. She suggested some tests, and that was when we found that she is really low in carnitine.

Carnitine is a substance that our cells require in the production of energy. When it is low, the muscles, including the heart muscle, have no fuel to run on. We still don't know for sure the exact cause in her case. She has done so well on supplemental carnitine, and does so poorly without it that they didn't want to do the testing required to find out since it would necessitate taking her off the carnitine for a period of time.

Her language development has been very very slow, although she is obviously an intelligent child. She is in a special needs classroom, and she has really grown and developed under their care. Her speech is still limited though, but she is communicating so much better than before.

She also has autistic-like behavior patterns, though she isn't a classic example of autism. She used to ignore anyone who wasn't in her little circle of known family members. And she never initiated playful interaction. That has all changed as time has gone by, for which I am very thankful. She now will initiate play with her sister - such a joy to see, even if she is often too rough and tumble.

A newly developed test has show than she has DNA deletions in three different places, some of which are known to cause developmental delays. The next step is to test her parents to see where this investigation will lead.

It is a relief to know, on the one hand, that these are genetic issues and no one could have done anything different to effect the outcome. On the other hand, it's forcing a recognition that these problems will be with her for the rest of her life, which is a source of grief.

But oh, that girl can light up my day! She is happy so much of the time, full of enthusiasm and energy. I'm so thankful that she survived to be born, that she is such a tough little girl in some ways, that she continues to grow and learn, and most especially for those wonderful "Hi Grandma"s accompanied by huge hugs and kisses. What a gift she is!

Thankful Thought No. 3

Here's another thing I'm thankful for: Online scrapbook classes! I love taking online classes because it gives me the opportunity to learn from designers I admire, most of whom have a strong background in design as a profession. What an opportunity!

I am not yet done with all my projects, but I'm closing in on the end of Scraphic Design Core with Tiffany Tillman at reneepearson.com. This is one of many online classes I've taken and loved. I've taken a scrapbook design class at Big Picture Classes with Cathy Zielske, which was amazing. Tiffany's class added to the knowledge I was already putting into practice. Our scrapbooking styles differ, but the principles can help you make better pages no matter what your scrapping style.

I'm still working on the final project for Scraphic Design Core - well, truth be told, I haven't started it yet, but hopefully it will get underway in the next few days. Since the process begins with inspiration, and my inspiration is usually photos first, I need to spend some time with my photo library finding the right pictures for the final project. 

My scrap process has definitely been influenced by Tiffany's lessons. I pretty sure I'm ending the class with a stronger sense of design that when I began it. The next step is incorporating what I've learned into my scrapping process. My design checklist will be by my side until it becomes a habit. 

Another designer I've taken classes with and learned a lot from is Ali Edwards. I just recently worked on a travel album based on her Scrapbook on the Road class. It was fun to create, and great to have along on my trip. I finished up when I got home by printing a few favorite photos to include in the album. I've posted a few of the pages on Flickr. For some reason, the photos are all out of order on this link although they appear correctly in other views. The rings I used are too large, they'll get exchanged for a slightly smaller size soon. I didn't publish a lot of the photo pages because they are of family members and I respect their privacy. But this will give you a taste of it.

Thankful Thought No. 2

P365, a photo by PattiP88 on Flickr.

I am so thankful for my garden, and for living in Hawaii where I can enjoy beautiful blooms all year round.

Thankful Thoughts

I'm very late getting started on this project but it's time to start.

Thankful Thought No. 1 - Travel.

I recently took an amazing trip, and I took this photo while flying between Los Angeles and Dallas. There are several things that amaze me about this. One is just the view of America that one sees from airplane windows. It is so varied. This photo documents the abrupt change from desert wasteland to irrigated farmland, somewhere in the Southwest.

The other thing that amazes me about travel is just how good we have it (in spite of all the hassles with Homeland Security measures). My grandparents travelled to America from Norway via ship, then they traveled across the country to Montana on the train. It took many days of travel to get where they were going. The trip from Norway to New York was over 3,500 miles. In contrast, I traveled about 3,800 miles in just over twelve hours. For that I am very thankful!

2012 Memory Logbook

The 2012 Memory Logbook from Log Your Memory is now available for ordering. I'm excited by the changes in the format. For one thing, it is now available in looseleaf format, so you can use it in your own binder. Since I've got a binder I'm used to using for this purpose, I'm glad to have the looseleaf option. I ordered the 8.5 x 5.5 size like I did last year. I'm very glad not to have to print this out. But if you want to save money, you can print the pages yourself.

Another change this year is that the 2012 Weekly Challenges are a separate purchase, which gives the customer more flexibility.

The Logbook is a great gift for a scrapbooking friend, and don't forget to buy one for yourself :)

Just click on the graphic above to order, but hurry if you want the Early Bird discount!

Photography

P365, a photo by PattiP88 on Flickr.

The last few days have been full of photography fun.

First of all, I'm trying to get done with all of my assignments for iShotThat at reneepearson.com before I leave on my trip.This shot is for an assignment to photograph everything I eat for an entire day! This is my first photo for today, which I'm also counting as my P365 photo. All taken on my iPhone.

I have to say it's so nice to have the iPhone 4S with it's 8 megapixel camera. I'm enjoying the better picture quality combined with the ease of use of the phone camera.

On Monday, Trish and I were inspired by a digital scrap booking assignment we were working on to go on a walk and photograph textures.

We had such a great time, and found fabulous textures, all within a block of my house. I'm sure the neighbors wondered as they drove by why on earth we were photographing the dirt! Tree bark, rust, scarred concrete, you name it. I can't wait to have time to play with these!

Today's photo

This sweet honeysuckle is growing on our fence. Photo was short in HDR Foto, edited in Camera+. It's my photo of the day.

You can tell I don't get out much - almost everything I shoot is in my yard. It's a good thing I'm in Hawaii - I have some kind of bloom all year round.

I have to get out on the street this weekend though, for a street photography assignment in iShotThat at ReneePearson.com.  I do take photos of my family, but you won't see much of that online.

Did I mention I bought an iPhone 4S last weekend? It was my birthday present (paid for mostly by me! with help from dear Kristel & Dirk). My old phone was cracking after having been dropped on concrete, and I was planning on upgrading as soon as the new phones came out. It's rather a bad time, with two trips coming up over the next 3 months that I also have to pay for, but the 8megapixel camera and Siri swayed me. Not that Siri is necessary, but I sure do like it. I just have to get used to using it more.

 And I love getting larger images out of the camera. My old point and shoot is slowly falling apart, and is only a few megapixels more. Of course it has a small zoom, but most of my shots are up close and personal anyway, so I'm not missing that tons.

Another reason for my purchase was that I use my phone a lot for videotaping students, and having the better video capacity will be a plus.

iOS5 I love. Oh, and I upgraded to OSX Lion, too last week. It went without a hitch. It just took me all of one morning to get it done.

Bellows

Beach 1, a photo by PattiP88 on Flickr.

I snapped this picture with my iPhone 3GS out at Bellows this weekend. It was edited on the iPhone with PhotoFX, Camera+ and Pixlr-o-matic apps.

Have I mentioned I'm having fun in this class? It's great to now about all these iPhone apps, most of which are free.

The only downside, now that I have my iPhone 4S with the bigger megapixel camera, is that the 3rd party apps haven't caught up yet & still save in the smaller format. This photo is roughly 3x5 at 300 dpi, as it is cropped. New photos taken with the iPhone 4S are roughly 8x10 at 300 dpi.

More iShotThat! fun

Dear reader:

I'm having great fun in the iShotThat class at ReneePearson.com for iPhone photography.

Today's assignment (well, the one I did today anyway!) is using a sweet little program called HDR Foto, which you can download for free from iTunes. With this program, you tell the camera to get the light reading from two different spots and it takes two photos based on those readings and combines them. This works great when you have an area that is blown out and a dark area and you want details in both places to show up.

In this shot, the light was bright on the orchid on the right and the bloom on the left was pretty shadowed. So I told the app to sample from the blown out area and the shadowed bloom. The camera took both shots & combined them. Then I played a little with a few settings (Polarize effect mostly) framed it, and voila!

If you have or get an iPhone and want to learn how to have fun with the camera, take this class next time it's offered.

Note: this is taken on an iPhone 3GS - I'm hoping that there will still be 4GS's in the store tomorrow morning. I can't wait to play with the 8MG camera! It's my birthday present from my adult children and myself. Sweet! Hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on one before the end of the month at least because I have a trip & I need to take great photos of my gorgeous little granddaughter.

Patti

Grace, not Perfection

Here's a blog post with a lovely freebie that is perfect for my One Little Word:

Grace Not Perfection

Here's to the Crazy Ones

This is a link I want to be able to find again and again.

Here's to the Crazy Ones


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Connectivity and Creativity

Here's an interesting video from Steven Johnson on creativity:

Where Good Ideas Come From

I Shot That!

iST, a photo by PattiP88 on Flickr.

I'm currently taking a class at Reneepearson.com titled I Shot That! It's for learning how to do more with your iPhone camera. Good fun.

This shot was taken with my iPhone using Camera+, with a grunge effect and frame added.

What if?

What if the guy who sold everything he had to buy the incomparable pearl, was God and you were the incomparable pearl?

- copied from Lifestream.org


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Passing of a genius

Many words are being written about the death of Steve Jobs. The reason lies in how he lived.

To quote Scott Bourne:

So what are we doing today that matters? Mr. Jobs spent every day trying to change the world through amazing design. That was his “why” and how he mattered. People don’t care what you do - they care why you do it. And in his case, Steve Jobs “why” was - he thought the world would be better if it was better designed. He delivered that design via technology.



“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” (Steve Jobs - June 2005)

Live your life like it matters.

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Software anticipation

I'm waiting in great anticipation of this software release. I've been saying for awhile now that I wish someone would release software designed specifically for scrap bookers with layers and and editing capability and ease of access to both your photo library and digital supplies. Check out the video:

Scraproom Software

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Layout a Day

My stack of layouts from LOAD, a photo by PattiP88 on Flickr.

Trish and I have just completed The Mother LOAD over at Big Picture Classes. This is my stack of paper layouts I did this month. There are also a handful of digital layouts that aren't printed yet.

I really dreaded doing this class, because I've always thought of myself as a slow paper scrapper, and I'm mostly digital, but Trish twisted my arm to join her. Trish and I decided to do mostly paper layouts in order to get some of the photos in our category drawers into albums. I assumed it would be really tough to keep up with this class.

And truth be told, I mostly got caught up on the weekends. But I have learned that I can do a handful of nice layouts in one lazy Saturday morning. Who knew? For me one of the keys is to get organized. First by pulling a stack of photos, enough for a lot of layouts, and putting them into a project folder. Having my embellishments, inks, paints and scraps in drawers by color is also immensely helpful. Liking simple pages also helps. Keeping my focus on the story and then the photos helps keep the layouts simple and therefore fairly quick to make.

In addition to getting lots of layouts done,  I've used up lots of bits and pieces of paper and embellishments (hello scraps!) that I've had laying around in my scrap room unused for a long time.

In fact, it's been such a positive experience, I plan on keeping up the tradition of doing 4-5 paper layouts every weekend I can. Maybe I'll finally get my children's childhood photos out of the drawers and into albums. It's about time, since they're all adults!

Another project!

I decided rather on the spur of the moment to attend a workshop in Dallas in early November. Part of the incentive, in addition to the workshop itself, is that I can visit my daughter-in-law and grandbaby who live a short flight away. So Monday I made the decision and bought the tickets. Which then lead to another project.

I've been waiting for a trip so I had an excuse to purchase Ali Edwards' Scrapbook On the Road class. It's a travel album partially prepared ahead of time to take along on your trip, and add journaling and ephemera as you go and after you get home.

I just started working on it tonight. So far, it looks like it's going to be fun to make and fun to use. Ali's projects are always creative and inspiring. I'm using mostly materials I already have on hand, though I am going to have to order a few things I want to include. I've decided to go with a neutral color scheme so that any ephemera I pick up on the trip with pop rather than compete. Since the main impetus for the trip is the music workshop I'll be attending, I'm using some of the music-themed papers I have in my stash, to create pages for journaling and whatever else I want to use them for.

It's been many years since I've been in Texas - I'm really looking forward to good barbecue!

TextFX and other classes

Somehow this post got lost in my drafts folder and never got published:

I just wrapped up participating in TextFX at Renee Pearson, and I have to say it was a very good class. Tiffany is a great teacher, and I learned lot watching the videos and doing the projects. My titles will never be the same again!

One of the great things about classes at reneepearson.com is that students have forever access. So if you have a chance to take this class when it's offered again, I highly recommend it.

Next up on my schedule from reneepearson.com:

Check them out

Simply Sunday

P365 Day 24, a photo by PattiP88 on Flickr.

This lovely rose passed so quickly from full bloom to this. I've taken a photo of this rose from it's budding stage. They pass all too quickly.

I'm linking up with Rebecca Cooper's Simple Things Sunday just for fun.



There are always some really lovely photographs linked there. Check them out.

And, here's another link, this time to a lovely story from a fellow Simply Music teacher. I love the generosity and kindness shown by many people in this story:
Khamis and Alam
My plan for the day:

1. teach for a few hours
2. work on my LOAD project to catch up
3. celebrate how much I've gotten done with LOAD this month
4. enjoy our lovely garden in the evening light

Have a lovely, simple Sunday!

Finding Photo Flow

I had the opportunity to participate in the inaugural class:

The next session opens up for registration next week at Finding Photo Flow. If the site isn't up when you visit, check back later - there's some site construction going on this week.

I encourage you to take the class. Even though I've been working on my digital photo flow for years, really, I found the class very helpful and I learned new things. Kayla has spent so much time and effort researching and preparing the class materials, and I know it will be even better now that the class has had it's first "on the road" experience.

Kayla uses Lightroom. But don't worry if you don't. She includes really good information on a lot of other programs. Warning: you might decide that your current program doesn't do what you need it to. I use iPhoto, and it works well for me, but there are a few things you need to know about how it handles metadata and how to get the information embedded in your files.

If you think you don't need metadata or a good back up plan, visit the Library of Congress and check out their videos about preservation of digital media. I think most people are really unaware of just how fragile digital media storage is.

But back to Finding Photo Flow. Kayla is a great teacher, very quick to answer questions, and is very much present on the forums, so there is lots of interaction and assistance.

Sign up and find your flow!

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The Tell-Tale Heart / Le Coeur Révélateur

The Tell-Tale Heart / Le Coeur Révélateur, a photo by Luna The Moon Girl on Flickr.

I just wanted to share this lovely photograph by Luna the Moon Girl, one of the people I follow on Flickr. I love everything about it.

"Set regular time to create things for the sheer joy of it"

The title is from this blog post:


http://michaelhyatt.com/why-i-hope-to-die-empty.html

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P365 Day 20

P365 Day 20, a photo by PattiP88 on Flickr.

Here's today's pic. Take in the early morning sun. I plan on photographing this little flower through it's short life span.

New project today: creating digital tags to print & put on a ring for mini-journalers throughout October. I had fun playing with stamps and papers and blending modes today creating a different stamp for each week of the month. Pics may follow. Who knows!

I plan on having them & a pen at hand when I'm sipping my morning coffee. Hopefully I'll write down what's on my mind that day. I may or may not use them on layouts. Time will tell

Got my meds today to see if my crazy heart arrhythmia will calm down. So far - nada. But it may take awhile for the benefits to show up.

Other news: I've managed to keep up with LOAD, even though every day hasn't been a paper layout using my printed photos (which is the main thrust of my LOAD project). I'm tending to spend part of each weekend "catching up" with the paper layouts, and so far am quite happy with the results. I've got 17 paper layouts done (the remainder have been digital), and plan on producing another 5 or so this weekend again. Part of my goal here: clearing out some of the stuff stored in this house!

Granted, the photos are just taken out of drawers and put into albums, but no one but me would see them in the drawers, whereas someone just might look in an album. If not now, in the future.

One more thing: this week Trish and I found a treasure trove in the Digital Archives division of the Library of Congress. Tons of good information there about digital storage and back-up and just how short-lived digital storage really is. Check it out: http://digitalpreservation.gov/

P365 Day 16

P365, a photo by PattiP88 on Flickr.

Inspired by a blog post I can no longer find about photographing your clutter. This is a corner of my kitchen table. Taken on my iPhone and edited with Camera+

LOAD update

P365 Day 15, a photo by PattiP88 on Flickr.

Here's my P365 photo of the day. This is my handsome grandson.

But he's not the subject of the post. I'm celebrating the fact that I have managed to keep up with LOAD, or at least to always get caught up!

Total layouts since the start of September: 20. I've done 17 paper layouts and the rest are digital. This is a record number of paper layouts for me. I have never ever worked this fast! I'm glad I took LOAD to push my view of what's possible.

I do what paper layouts I can during the week, but if I get busy and don't get them done, I know a bit of concentrated time on the weekend will make it possible for me to catch up. This past week, I "owed" four layouts by the weekend. But it was a breeze to get them finished Saturday.

There were a few layouts along that way that I didn't think I liked that much, but when I look back over my stack, I'm actually pretty happy with them all. Since my paper stash wasn't huge to begin with, I'm sometimes having a bit of trouble finding paper that fits, but my color drawers are a big help in finding what I do have quickly, and my Sizzix is getting more work than it ever has creating titles for pages.

I'm focusing right now on getting old photos of my youngest son scrapped. I've got most of those stories done and will soon be moving on to photos of another child. Since I came to scrapbooking late in my parenting years, and I did nothing with our photos before then, I've got quite a bit of material to work with.

Once LOAD is done, Trish and I are going to continue working our way through our category drawers to get as many of those stories told as we can. We're motivated by the fact that she has to move next spring, so reducing what has to get packed and re-established in her new home is a priority. I'm playing along because otherwise I don't have a lot of motivation to scrap prints these days, and there are a lot of stories waiting in those drawers.

Simple Pleasures

P365 Day 11, a photo by PattiP88 on Flickr.

I didn't get this photo posted the day I took it. As with all my P365 photos, it's taken with my iPhone and played with in Camera+. Today I'm jumping in with the fun on Rebecca Cooper's website:

Rainbows always make me smile. This one popped up one lovely evening when we were out on the deck. We see double rainbows often, but I'm always fascinated by them.

This one was too close to us to get in much of the rainbow, but it ended up being a complete, huge arc in the sky.

Truly one of life's simple pleasures. May your Sunday be blessed.

This Week

P365 14, a photo by PattiP88 on Flickr.

First of all, this photo is of a few gifts from my one of my very sweet granddaughters. She loves to draw and color and paint, and was so thrilled to discover a hidden art box in my pantry the other day.

This is a bright spot in the week, which has been full of other things that are potentially very stressful.

First of all, our autistic granddaughter's teach told my daughter that it looks like E is having small seizures. The doctors had warned of the possibility years ago, and she's already been checked for them once when she was around two years old. They got her right into the doctor and he said it sounds like it could be absence seizures. She's scheduled for an EEG (I think that's it) to check it out.

And, this little girl's daddy had to go in for tests for something else this week and now we're waiting for biopsy results. Cancer or no, he isn't well, and he's the sole breadwinner since my daughter homeschools the old two children. Life could be changing in many ways for them.

My older son had to fly back to Afghanistan on Friday, his R&R over. The next 9 months will be very long for him and his girls.

Plus, I'm trying to figure out a few health issues of my own. We've got a direction we're looking in, but time will tell if we're right or not.

Many things to potentially be stressed about. Sometimes it seems like there's never an end to issues. One gets settled and another crops up. But I think that's just life. And many people have many more challenges than we do.

Here's a little video that brings that home:

http://youtu.be/oJrZzgrH2sA

This young man has got to be one of the most determined people I've ever heard of to recover and apparently thrive. And it makes most every day trials look very small in comparison.

It's not that the week has been all bad either. I've gotten to do a lot of scrapping with Trish, which is always a good thing. The weather has been gorgeous, in spite of the heat. We've eaten good food all week long, I'm having a party for my students this evening, just a relaxed evening of potluck dinner and piano playing.

So this week is a real mix. I'm grateful for all the good things that have come our way this week and prayerful for the others.

P365 Day 8

P365 Day 8, a photo by PattiP88 on Flickr.

Here's today's pic. I missed a few days, but that's life.

I am currently cutting back on said cup of Joe to see if that effects my arrhythmias. So far, no. But I'll give it a little time to see if the effect of being caffeine free is greater after a few days. I'm thinking (and hoping) that they aren't a result of caffeine, since I don't normally imbibe too much of it, and I miss my morning cup! On the other hand, I'd rather give it up than have to take medication from here on.

On an entirely different note, here's a thought provoking article on the current job situation and what it's all about:
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/09/07/rushkoff.jobs.obsolete/index.html

P365 Day 6

P365 Day 6, a photo by PattiP88 on Flickr.

I'm late getting this up due to days of headache misery, but here it is.

P365 Day 5

P365 Day 5, a photo by PattiP88 on Flickr.

Here's today's photo - taken in dim light since it was late on a cloudy day. I almost forgot to take a photo today! This gets to be more of a problem as I go along.

In other news, I need to make 2 layouts for LOAD tomorrow. I'm finding the process easy since I've got a story list I'm working through, and my photos are organized, thanks to Library of Memories/Finding Photo Freedom. I'm making simple layouts, with a focus on telling the stories I want to tell, and utilizing clean, basic designs. I find I'm using my Sizzix a lot of title work. I'm missing the flexibility of digital titles! But it's OK - I'm getting lots of old pictures scrapped and stories told, and that's why I'm doing LOAD in the first place.

I'm managing to keep up with both FindingPhotoFlow, currently underway at Digiscrap 101 and TextFX at Renee Pearson's online classroom reasonably well. I'm enjoying both classes and learning new things/refining my processes.

Trish and I have also started a project of going through Reneé Pearson's Digital Designs 2 lessons (from the book) whenever we can. So far, it's loads of fun.

So, I'm keeping very busy doing things I love to do.

Thanks for checking in.

Patti

P365 day 2

P365 day 2, a photo by PattiP88 on Flickr.

It's such a lovely morning, and I love the sunlight on the papaya. Taken with Camera+ on my iPhone 3GS

P365 Day 1

P365 Day 1, a photo by PattiP88 on Flickr.

Katie the Scrapbook Lady has inspired me to take up Project 365 again.

I tried this once before and fizzled out. This time, I'm going to make it simpler by focusing on iPhone photos, in a square crop. I have no idea if I'll do anything with these photos other than post some of them here & on Twitter.

Katrina Kennedy posts a monthly photo idea list at Capture Your 365 that I hope will help keep me inspired and playing with new photo ideas.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Big Idea Festival

I participated recently (in fits and starts) in the Big Idea Festival at Big Picture Classes. I get busy during the week and don't always get to class assignments, but I managed to catch up over the weekend and got the project done.

Here are the photos from my project: