randomness

A "Ten on Tuesday", but on Thursday. Works for me!

1. I think what's on my mind the most is the situation in Haiti. I still haven't seen all that much coverage on it - I think I've been somewhat avoiding it. I do listen to reports in the car on talk radio though. Breaks my heart, especially where the children are involved. Erin Cobb, a fellow blogger and photographer, listed some great ideas on how we can help with the relief effort. If you maybe still haven't found a way to help, and want to, see her blog post here and maybe one of her ten ideas will speak to you. I am always moved by her willingness to help, as well as help us to make a difference right alongside her.

2. Just have to say here that I have been in this weird state of "la-la" land where I'm sort of acting like I'm on vacation, but technically, I do have a lot I could (and should) be working on. I take December and January off from work which means that I'm not taking any sessions (except for newborns). But its supposed to be a time to clean up work stuff, get things in order for the new year, as well as get some household/personal stuff done that otherwise gets put on the backburner through the year. As usual, I have not accomplished nearly as much as I hoped. My "to-do" list is still huge and we are over half way through January. Sigh...

3. On the personal side of the "to-do" list, I have been working on my 2010 scrapbooking project called "Project Life". Basically it involves taking a photo a day and then scrapbooking those photos on a weekly basis. Just one photo a day. In the end we will have a year's worth of photos that more accurately represent our lives - all the everyday stuff mixed in with all the big event and holiday stuff. If I never get any other scrapbooking done for the year, at least we will have this book with a year's worth of stories and photos. I am so excited about this! The Project Life kit was designed by Becky Higgins, my favorite scrapbooking celebrity. Beginning tomrrow (Friday) her kits will be available again on Amazon.com. If you like to scrapbook and feel very overwhelmed about trying to get it done, check out Project Life. It doesn't even have to be about taking a photo a day and documenting every single day. You could document a week at a time or a month at a time. Whatever it takes to tell your story and get those photos in a book. She is also offering a digital version. Check her out!

4. Speaking of taking a photo a day for Project Life, I've been posting our daily photos in my "Photo of the Day" blog. The plan is to prep my photos at the end of the week for my book so that's about when I'll update the blog. Working out well so far.

5. Have to talk about the scrapbooking thing a little more... There have been times over the last few years when I have considered giving it up. I just don't have time. I am not a spontaneous, fly by the seat of my pants type of scrapbooker. It takes lots of thought and planning out my pages and I just can't keep up with that. Add to that, I am always so busy with client work that I don't have time to keep up with my own photos. Yet... I am ALWAYS thinking about scrapbooking. I yearn to do something with all the beautiful photos I have of my family. I yearn to tell the stories and document the little tid-bits of life that unfortunately are forgotten all too soon. I think about it in the car and before sleeping at night. I stalk Becky Higgins' and Ali Edwards' blogs because I am so inspired by them. I still receive Creating Keepsakes magazine (and have been since 1999). I go to crop nights at least once a month, though I don't accomplish very much and more than anything just appreciate the time away. The thing is, I AM NOT READY TO GIVE UP ON SCRAPBOOKING.

Project Life is a different approach to scrapbooking - its a simplified approach where everything is laid out for you, minus the photos and the journaling. I can do this. I still hope to create books for each of the kids where I do a little more traditional scrapbooking. But I am letting go of the idea that it ALL has to be fancy pretty. Putting most of the photos in slip pages is better than nothing and I'm going to embrace that method as well. At this point I know I will never catch up and if I don't simplify it, it will never get done.

6. And yes, I just went on about simplifying the scrapbooking process, but there are a couple other books that I want to begin working on this year - these are books that I think would be treasured by my family after I have gone. I want to create a family recipe book with our favorite every-day family recipes. I may not cook very often, but every family has certain meals that are special to them and I don't want them to be forgotten. I still wish I knew how to make my mom's pork chops and rice recipe. I want to begin Emma's school years book, but I'm waiting on this one because Becky Higgins may be coming up with a kit for this... And the last book I want to begin this year is a book about me. Yep, you read that right. A book about myself and all the random stuff that makes me "me"!

7. Okay, all our holiday cards are still up and I'm finally feeling like I need to take them down. Makes me kind of sad, but clearing them out is also very refreshing. I'll share what I do with all our holiday cards soon... It might shock you, but I love it!

8. It's almost Girl Scout cookie sale time! Emma is now in a Daisy troop and cookie sales start next week??? Or maybe the week after, but soon! Let me know if you'd like to order any from Emma... We'd appreciate your support! I'm so excited about Emma being in Girl Scouts.

9. Now that the kids are going to bed earlier, FINALLY, I've actually been watching some TV these days. I find myself loving Grey's Anatomy, Brothers and Sisters, and Cougar Town. There are others I enjoy also, though I tend to just "catch them", like The Forgotten, Better Off Ted, Scrubs and Ugly Betty. I'm not into any reality shows and I am choosing to keep it that way. Oh, and Lost... Daniel got us hooked on Lost through Netflix over the summer so we saw all episodes from the pilot through the last season. Talk about being glued to the tv. We are patiently waiting for February 2nd when the new season starts. We can't wait!

10. I am such a camera snob... Trying to get in the habit of always having our little point & shoot in my purse since I can't and won't always take my big camera with me when I'm out and about. For instance, this week with all the rain, there's no way I'm going to carry around my nice camera. So I've been using the other and its just so disappointing - it only goes up to 400 iso so all my shots are blurry and using the flash looks horrible. This week's photos are all about the rain and I'm just having to accept the fact that they won't be the greatest of photos. It's not always about that, right?


Wow, such a long post without any photos! Hope you all stay safe and dry! I'm accomplishing the "safe" part, but I'm a little weary of wet jeans. :)