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

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

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!