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DO. NOT. CUT. CORNERS. WHEN. BACKING. UP. YOUR. PHOTOS.
I was getting happy while trying to free of some gigs on my nearly four year old Mac and I let a tech savvy spirit inhabit my body and mind. I now only have 32 -64 KB images of every. single. picture. i. have. taken. since.i. got. my. new. camera. in. december.
I know, I know…there are many tragic things that happen in life and in the grand scheme of things…IT’S NO BIG DEAL.
But, I am still experiencing a bit of a mourning process and it’s taking me a little time to assess the situation and salvage what I can of our year in pictures so updating is clearly going to take a bit longer than usual. Couple this with a reorganization of my office space and the impending school year (year 10 for me, year 1 for Lucas! Big!) and there are sure to be delays.
To answer the obvious questions:
1. No. I had not yet burned to CD/DVD.
2. No. I had not uploaded to my photo processing/online back up site.
3. No. I had not properly copied them to my external drive.
4. Yes. The being that took over my body still knew how to empty the trash on the desktop.
5. No. Copies of the files are not somewhere else on the hard drive.
6. No. I do not use Blogger so I do not have a back up on Picasssa.
7. Yes. I resize all my blog photos in Photoshop before uploading them to WordPress.
8. Yes, I have splurped my blog to Booksmart and I can print a coffee table book with thumbnail sized photos from Shoot. Post. Repeat Daily. I imagine the same results with Notes for Tomorrow. I welcome other suggestions.
Lesson learned.
Once more, with feeling:
DO. NOT. CUT. CORNERS. WHEN. BACKING. UP. YOUR. PHOTOS.
As I mentioned already, I spent my Spring Break with 15 teenagers. I missed my family when I had a chance to, but I stayed so very busy, as you might imagine. I can honestly say that I feel a little bit like I actually had a vacation too! I worked incredibly long and strenuous hours. I was usually up until about 2 a.m. and had to wake by 6:30 most mornings. I have had a lot of trouble adjusting to six hours of sleep, isn’t that crazy?!
My students were so amazing. I wish every trip could be this great! Seriously, I cannot rave enough. I am still recovering as I mentioned, so posting will continue to be light for a little while as I decompress and explore some of the resources I learned about while in Orlando. After all, I was in breakout sessions with the likes of Al Tompkins and Les Rose, industry pros! In addition, I got to network with TV teachers from across the US and I have come back to work completely recharged. I know that teaching TV/FILM is where I want to be and now I have even more tools with which to do it. I am pumped.
Oh, and we won some contests too!
I’ll update this post Monday with the pictures that are on my school laptop. Of course we’re in The Bartlett Express (cover!) this week and should be in The Commercial Appeal tomorrow!
There has been much buzz online in the paper crafting communities about Creating Keepsake’s Kit of the Month for January. Many people jumped on the bandwagon and my friends and I are no exception (they posted about the kit most recently here and here). Yeah, it’s a KIT. Sure, there’s limited personal creative expression, but it has inspired folks from all over to preserve their “every day existence.” I can’t even count how many blogs just cropped up devoted to this “Project 365″ or “A Picture a Day” phenomenon. My favorite professional blogger, Dooce, has been doing this since I began reading her website a few years ago, so I know it’s not a new concept, but I can’t recall when I’ve noticed so many people fired up about the same thing. It’s kind of cool to be a part of something so big. I’m having an opportunity to connect with people I might otherwise never have. That’s not why I’m doing it though. Let me tell you exactly why I was motivated to jump on board.
Since somewhere around July of 2006 I have been nearly paralyzed by the demands placed upon me by my second child. Of course I adore him, but he’s a home wrecker. He tears books, writes on walls, breaks toys for a start. And yes I realize that other people have greater challenges; believe me I’m grateful for my wrecking ball. Just know that I too get looks of sympathy from people sometimes when I take him places. Hell, I get them from my friends.
The other issue that has prevented me from keeping myself active in my craft room is the sheer number of pictures I began taking once I finally got a digital camera. I used to joke that digital was the worst thing that ever happened to me. I was only half kidding at the time, but I wanted to keep every single expression that I captured. I’m in a twelve step program for this now and I’m making progress. So, instead of working on Evan’s scrapbook, I continued to stockpile supplies and take pictures, all the while reading magazines and books by the big names. Then, something magical happened.
I allowed myself to abort my quest for chronological order.
Sure, some of you have never had this problem. But for those of you who have; this is a very big deal. I made a mini album of Lucas’s soccer season and I was so proud. I loved the feeling of actually completing something. It was liberating. And the best part was that I could sit down with my son and we could look at it together. Granted, we look at this blog often, but there’s something very special about something you can hold in your hands that your mother made for you. That is not lost on him. And I want that for my darling Evan too.
(Yes, I realize he doesn’t have any clothes on. After the fourth time he took them off today I decided he might benefit from a natural consequence, the cold. And yes, that’s my husband in that picture on the lower left goofing around and taking his own photo while I’m having contractions in the background. I had two epidurals that didn’t take, so I basically went natural. It was quick and not really so bad.)
And so, Project 365 is important to me because I plan to do the following things as a result of using it as my only family album of 2009:
I will complete Evan’s “baby” book since he’ll be three in April (I cover everything for the first three years). This is where I left off:
I do still have a few more layouts to go in Lucas’s too, if we’re talking full disclosure here:
(I need to learn how to take photos of my layouts without the glare too, apparently. Oh wait–advancing my photography skills is that other big reason! Oh, and taking fewer pictures; that’s HUGE on the list of reasons why I’m doing this.)
I will follow through on the conceptual projects I am currently undergoing concurrently:
I have one of these for each boy where I have reserved a page for the letter I write to them at each of their birthdays. I’d like to also include their birthday picture, maybe even a listing of some of their favorite things and foods, friends and the like. (8.5 x 11)
This is what each of their 8 x 8 albums for Christmas’s looks like. I think it will be so cool to have year after year in the same place, just one after another.
And I plan to do the same with the two of these I picked up recently for all of their Halloween costumes. (4 x 6)
I have two of these 8 x 8 post bound albums and have been printing 5 x 7s of “moments” that stand out to me. There will be two of these as well, of course. Here I am leaving the hospital with Lucas. We were there much longer than we intended and it was overwhelming to see the sun again. The full story doesn’t belong in his baby book, but I could tell it here.
This is a one up that I plan to convert in a family cookbook. I’ll take photos of our favorite meals and put the recipe in there. I’ll cover the “Memo” section with card stock and share a tidbit about where we got the recipe or the person we got it from.
Maybe I could even begin work on “Baby Carrie’s” book. The outside looks like the ones for the letters to my boys, but the album itself is a 12 x 12 instead. I think Evan looks a lot like me.
I will undoubtedly be able to finish this album, Going Green, about our first family camping trips last summer. Thanks for the use of your Zutter, Amy! You’re so generous with your tools and talents! Did I mention that she’s the one that brought us all together in the first place?
I also look forward to converting the two ATC/gift card holders I bought (thanks for the gift card to the scrapbooking store, honey!) into “Baby Teeth” holders for each boy.
And finally, this is a 6 x 6 that I’ve started working on just for me. Things I like, experiences I want to reflect upon. It’s place for me to play with the more feminine embellishments that I can’t manage to work into albums full of boys!
As you can see, I’ve got my “work” cut out for me. Better get to it. Snapfish is offering free shipping for a couple more days, and as you can see, I’m a little behind on my printing.
Oh, and look! Here’s my Project 365 album all loaded and ready to go! I’m pretty pumped!
My dear friend from college, Luanne. I lost touch with this fine lady many, many years ago (the truth of the matter is much more complicated) but she is now back in my life and I couldn’t be more pleased. Really, old friends are the best friends. I am so excited to introduce her to you all because, not only is she a friend of mine, as you are, but because she is also a talented paper crafter (as you are as well). See? You’re connected already!
She has a blog devoted to her altered art, her personal life and her daily photo (again, isn’t she just like all of us?), so please check out her world! And…if you realize that she is uber cool, like I have all over again, you can also head over to her website. She was a member of an online paper crafting community and they went and changed everything up, making things more complicated for the core members. So, because necessity is the mother of invention, she and a friend took matters into their own hands and started over. They have had quite a bit of success in just a few months and I found the forum to be much more inviting than other sites I have been to. I’m usually terribly overwhelmed and at PaperArtistsOnline(PAO), I feel that I’m (almost) getting it at the ground level, which is just right for me. Go, show her some love and get to know her. She’s a pretty cool cat. Caveat: her Project Playlist is pretty hardcore, so turn your volume down. 
Yep, that’s me. I am on a roll. I have spent all morning transferring blogs, creating blogs and getting my virtual world all straightened out. And this is where the magic happens!
To my handful of readers: I will not move again for at least a year. Update your blogrolls, I’m at WordPress now, ladies. Go ahead and check out my new daily photo site while you’re at it. You might just find you wanna make the move too!
No, not the entire household. Just the blog. Some of you might remember that I was kind of forced into moving from Blogger to this site some time back as the comment function would no longer work. When I got onto forums and requested help I never got to the bottom of the problem. It was very important to me that the (four? five?) people who actually read this blog be able to comment and so I switched. Five dollars a month was a steal for the peace of mind that if there's a problem I can use the "paying customer" line.
Well, now it's time to cut back. Everywhere. And so, yes, it is just $4.95 a month, but how quickly it is that these many little monthly expenditures add up to quite a bit. And so, I've moved to WordPress. I'll miss you TypePad; you've been good to me. Perhaps I can migrate back some day. There are a few bugs with the importing of data right now, but I'll get it cleaned up in no time. Check me out over there.
Keeping track of where I am in this undertaking, that is. And the writing itself.
I have re-imported now, so the font should be consistent throughout. Talk about learning HTML on the fly! Thank goodness for my students teaching me how to do some basic edits for italics and so forth on MySpace.
My next task is to reassign the labels and fix the capitalization.
For now though, I am going to crank up some Pete Yorn and fly through this house like a crazy lady and clean up! Matt has ambitiously taken the boys to the zoo so I can get a much-needed break. And I am losing it just enough to think of being able to clean without children underfoot as such.
I have been trying to "get to know" TypePad so that I may make an informed decision about whether or not to make the switch. In so doing, I discovered the import/export feature in TypePad this morning.
I couldn’t believe my eyes. I have certain OCD-like issues. For instance, I was seriously distressed about moving my blog to TypePad because all of my previous posts would still be hanging out at Blogger.com. And there was really no way I was going to move them all manually, because, really, what would be the point in that? None of the times or dates would be right. It would have been pretty silly. Now, I know that this shouldn’t be a big deal, but this is coming from someone who alphabetizes her CDs.
I just discovered Melissa over at suburbanbliss a few days ago and saw that she started out on Blogger, then moved to TypePad. She just left all her stuff over there. If only I could be such a free-spirit. Never in this lifetime, unfortunately. If ever I say, "I’m just going with the flow," just know that the translation is something like, "Trying to relax my sphincter about this because I think that is what a normal person would do."
TypePad anticipated this about me. Which is one of the reasons they are worth every penny of the $4.95 per month I’m going to be paying. Another reason: the step-by-step directions I found in the Knowledge Base actually worked.
I have been having some problems with my Blogger account, so I thought I’d take a chance on TypePad.
Clearly, I am enjoying the blogging and I have kept at it for almost a year now. Why not use some capital letters? After all, I do know how to punctuate. That was never the problem. The problem is that they still taught shorthand when I was in high school and no one told me that it would be a stupid choice. I cannot type very well at all, I’m afraid.
Luckily for me the title that I originally wanted for my URL was available. And I can’t help being amused at the irony of "typepad" following it.
I was considering beginning to capitalize my Blogger posts…the move to TypePad made that a reality. (revised 7/21)
