playful.productive.present

Adornit Blog Hop + Give Away

I am so intrigued with the blog-o-sphere and all the interesting connections and ideas that are available to us these days. And today, you have a chance to go exploring, learn more about one of our great scrapbooking manufacturers, meet some new people and possibly win some great stuff -- are you ready?

Today, I am one stop on a Blog HOP and all the fun starts here.

This is a sneak peak of a SUPER QUICK page I made with a brand new kit that Georgana and the team at Adornit created for the Big Picture Scrapbooking annual Take August Off promotion that starts next Thursday, August 6th.

It is bright and happy and fun and includes two sheets of these little letters that I absolutely adore ...

and BUTTERFLIES -- not just any butterflies, but two-dimensional super-cool butterflies that pop right up off your page.

Last summer on a sunny afternoon, Taft came running inside to say "Mom, come quick and look what I found ... and bring your camera! He wanted to show me two little mushrooms that were growing in the grass right behind our mailbox. Do you know how grateful I am that I'm a camera-wielding scrapbooking mom? I know we take too many pictures and sometimes we weary our children with pleas to "look at Mom" and smile, but in the end, they know that we will STOP and smell the roses or photograph the mushrooms. Something in that encourages their sense of wonder and that is a good thing.

OK. The BEST PART of this blog hop for me?  I have 3 of these kits to give away. All you have to do is comment and tell me about one idea you gleaned from "hopping" around. Who did you meet, what did you see ... go explore (starts here) and then come back and tell me what you loved and ...

YOU could WIN! **WINNERS of the Adornit Kits will be posted on Monday at noon

Blog Hop next stop? Julie Hickey 

FIVE for FUN.

ONE.
Anything from Lisa Leonard.

But this is my DROP DEAD favorite ...

Hello? It's a custom laundry line necklace. I can't even stand how adorable this is! Thanks Jenna for the link (love you!)

P.S. I think you'd really like Lisa. Read her BLOG.

TWO.

I might be the last person on the planet to hear about Twig & Thistle, but then maybe I'm not in which case you will want to know and go. My sister Darci introduced me to Kathleen's site. Kathleen lives in Seattle and that alone qualifies her for a visit. I found #3 on my list at Twig & Thistle.

THREE.

I can't even tell you how hip I think these remedies are. Intuitive packaging + great design (LOVE that.) And when you visit the "help I need help" website, be sure to click on the "bored?" tab and build yourself a help T-shirt. I did.

 

FOUR.

How about this adorable heirloom growth chart. Exceptionally clever people (like scrapbookers) could make their own. Others can buy it from the RedHot Target Shop.

FIVE.

 

image from The Candy Blog.

We played a clever game at our family reunion (I'll have to post about it later) for which I "had" to purchase several candy bars. I am now a fan of Hershey Zero bars. Anyone else eaten a ZERO bar and come away impressed?

Happy Day.

Photo Freedom Q+A (long, but worth it)

This post is in response to the following email from Kristi:

Q: Hi Stacy!  I am BEGGING for your help!  I have read your Photo Freedom and BPS books several times.  I have even organized my pictures into your suggested categories.  But then I get lost.  I don't know how to gather photos to create layouts that are not "event" based. So I struggle and spend hours putting my photos back in chronological order and then do all my layouts in that order as well!  The idea of grabbing photos from different time periods to create a layout is so foreign to me. However, last night I was looking at the pages that I created over the weekend and realized there really are not too many memories, stories, or relationships associated with them. I guess where I need help is I don't know how to rethink my approach to pages.  It is easy now because I just make the next event in its chrono order.  But I don't think that I am really enjoying scrapbooking. However, when I sit down and look all these categories of pictures, I don't know what to do! 

Please give me advice!

A: First of all, I feel for you. It is so frustrating to recognize your potential as a story-teller, sense the gap between where you are and where you want to be and NOT know how to get there.

I'm going to give you an overview of how my storage binders and category drawers work to support my desires as a scrapbooker and then I'll highlight a couple of layouts.

Setting up and learning how to maintain category drawers is a magical step in the process of finding true photo freedom, because they help you retrieve pictures in the way that you think and according to your lifestyle. HOWEVER, I have come across many, many scrapbookers who think that all you need is category drawers -- that they are the solution to all of our woes. Not so. Ideally, category drawers are long term storage for a very small percentage of photos. If, hypothetically speaking, you make the mistake that I did early on, and put all or even most of the fishing trip photos behind "fishing" in the THINGS We Do drawer, you will have WAY TOO MANY PHOTOS in your drawers and they will not be able to do that magical mixing/aging thing that helps you discover connections between people, places and even generations.

Most of the time we take far more photos that we can realistically hope to deal with. Ever heard me say this before?

Here's the secret: MANY of the the fishing trip photos can be deleted (if you can't do this then they can remain on your computer, backed up on your EHD.) The BEST fishing photos (for me this is usually less than half of what I take) should be put into a highlights folder or tagged for uploading/archiving to Shutterfly (or another similar service) and then printed. MOST of these prints should be slipped into storage binders in chronological order, so that over the course of a few years, you can easily find them and perhaps be inspired to scrapbook them as an event (the fishing trip.) Only a FEW of the most telling fishing photos (perhaps pictures where a relationship is captured or a favorite place is identified or a family tradtion is obvious, etc.) should be lovingly placed in category drawers. ONE or TWO might go behind the fishing tab in the THINGS We Do drawer, but another ONE or TWO might end up in the PEOPLE We Love drawer or the ALL ABOUT US drawer. These seeds of future connection are intentionally planted and then almost as intentionally forgotten.

OK, I think if I understand your question, this is where you, Kristi (and you're not alone) are. Once you have a nice mix of photos in your category drawers and your collection is slowly growing, how do you use them? Category drawers are designed to help you supplement your chronological layouts with those that are not picture-driven, but rather stem from inspiration in the form of a thought, emotion, experience or story. When I feel inspired, I want to be able to put my hands on photos that I can use to illustrate the moment or realization I'm honoring.  

Following the WHY, WHERE, WHAT format for sharing layouts, that I used in my book The Big Picture, here are some insights into how I approached the following layouts.

WHY

I needed to create pages for my FREE Cocoa Daisy kit class. We had just returned from a weekend in Montana, where Geoff snapped the picture (bottom L corner) of me and Addie (our family was geo-caching.) I wanted to perhaps use this photo and do some kind of a "fallish" page, so I went to my Fall tab in the THINGS We Do drawer. There, I found the photo of the leaf. In 2004, this leaf was the last leaf on the tree in front of our house. We have sinced moved. I pulled the photo out and had one of those "Where has time gone" moments. I then pulled my 2004 storage binder off the shelf and found a handful of other fall photos taken the same year. In that moment, I discovered my inspiration -- my page is titled, Reflecting + Connecting and on it I document some of the growth and change that has occurred in our family in the last four years. 

WHERE

This page is in the ALL ABOUT Stacy album, because the journaling is very personal to me. It could just as well be in the Together Forever album that house layouts about relationships in our immediate family.

WHAT

Once again, I learned that it is so vital (for my personal creative process) to just start. In this case, with  product from a kit and one photo. In the end, I realized that it was the Monday before Thanksgiving in 2004 (reference the photo of my Dad cutting the Turkey) that I "knew" we needed to adopt a baby daughter from Korea and here I was in this photo, holding her in my arms. Imagine if I hadn't left things open ... I might have ended up with a geo-caching layout -- as it is, I have something much more authentic. BTW, the other geo-caching photos are STILL sitting in my Fall 2008 storage binder. I love how my system almost automatically helps me prioritize and use my time to scrapbook the more important things.

cool tip: I used the KI numbers cut-out paper and a snippet of the Scenic Route number paper to capture my ages (39 and 43) at the start and end of this four year period of time.

WHY

It was early October 2008 and I was wrapping up my 30 Days Hath September album (for my Have More FUN class) and wanted to do a layout titled, EAT that documented some of the common foods we were eating at the time. I reviewed  photos that I had taken in September and found only two pics (the breakfast parfait for Trey + Addie at the Mongolian BBQ restaurant.) To supplement these photos, I simply went to the EAT & FOOD tabs in the THINGS We Do drawer and found several more -- including Great Harvest bread, cold cereal, mac-n-cheese and more. 

WHERE

This layout, as mentioned is part of a big 12x12 theme album that documents in detail one month of my family's life. I LOVE projects like this.

WHAT

I use category drawers a LOT to simply supplement other photos in an effort to "fill out" the story a bit more.

WHY

Here again, I was working to complete a project. This is an acrylic 1-2-3-4-5 album and I simply needed somewhat current snapshots of each of my children. I found these pictures behind each child's personality tab in the ALL ABOUT US drawer.

WHERE

This album was sitting in my scrapbook studio, but I just moved it upstairs to a basket in the Memory Room.

WHAT

I'm OK tucking this album away (it is now out of sight) because it was an exploration of my personal growth in 2008 and I'm happy to revisit it as needed. Sometimes I think we worry too much about where all the photos end up and whether or not they'll be enjoyed. I say it's OK to put some here and others there and let go of the angst around who will see what, when. Does that make sense? The reward for me is becoming less about the outcome and more about the process. I LOVE creating smaller projects that help me process memories. I often "store" these projects for long periods and them bring them out again. 

THE ANSWER?

Wow. This is SO LONG -- I'm not even sure I've answered your question, Kristi. I guess in a nutshell the answer is, don't try and replace your chronological layouts. They are what they are. I've given myself permission to crank event layouts out without much expectation of insightful observations. The goal is to every so often (maybe after 5 or 10 chronological layouts) do something that is inspiration based. In other words, start a page without knowing where it will end up. Start with just one thing and allow the process to unfold, knowing that you can go to your category drawers and find wonderful nuggets of memory and connection.

Happy Scrapbooking!

Today ... (from yesterday!)

I started writing this post yesterday at 9:00 am. I wrapped it up at 9:00 pm, but it couldn't get Typepad to post. Weird. It's a NEW day and everything seems to be working now.

Today ... I took an early morning walk with my good friend Kerry. We "caught up" with our lives and it was so good for my soul.

Today ... I helped arrange shipment of class kits to Japan! I'm getting really excited to visit Osaka. I just received the latest issue of CK/Simple in Japanese and my Finish Line Scrapbooking article is in it. It's so crazy to see your pictures and not be able to read what the article says -- it's OK, I'll be working with Nicky Bywaki a wonderful, seasoned translator and I'm sure she won't let me get lost!

All this got me thinking. If I can send these adorable Postcard Highlights kits all the way to Japan, so I can go teach, then why couldn't I teach this fun project online and send kits out to individual students.

What do you say? Who'd be interested in getting a great little custom kit all wrapped up in the price of a self-paced projects class ... leave me a comment if you're interested.

Today ... I followed up on and corrected an unknown download charge on my AT&T bill (things like this drain my energy, so I am particularly proud of myself.)

Today ... I also extended the AppleCare protection plan on my iPhone. That's two painful tasks in one day -- WOW.

Today ... I spent an hour in Target with my kiddos. We purchased birthday and wedding gifts a few BINGO related items (craft project, puzzle, game, etc.) my very most favorite nut mixes and some fun canvas blocks in the dollar section (I have an idea of course -- let's see if I follow through.) We bought cool plaid shorts (on sale) for Trey and Taft, and 4 new summer dresses for Addie because that is all she will wear. 

Today ... Geof had a meeting after work, so I took the kids, except Clark who was cliff-diving with friends (heaven help me) to Pizza Hut for dinner. Haven't eaten at Pizza Hut in years. It was YUMMY and we had FUN.

Today ... We attended a fun wedding reception for Trey's 4th grade teacher. She was Mrs. Childress and now she is Mrs. Hurst and we are so excited for her because we feel a special connection. She has four boys! She experienced an unhappy divorce, but she is now married to another teacher and he is a wonderful, wonderful man and they make an adorable family. Some of the students in Mrs. Childress' class had penpals in Mr. Hurst's class this past year (at a different school) and tonight all the students were invited to a special party where they got to eat cake and watch the wedding video -- how cool is that?!

Today ... I felt productive and back in the swing.

It's HALL Relative (some highlights)

This will be one of those blog posts that leans more to the side of journal entry. I am hoping because I'm a scrapbooker eager to promote personal and family stories I can get away with this -- but, by all means ... skim or skip this all together if it has no interest for you. It will be quite long.

 

As soon as we arrived at Reid Ranch, Darci (in her Einstein wig) introduced our 2009 theme, of It's HALL Relative. She conjured up a very cool "special law of Hall relativity" that was captured in the equation ...

conveniently printed on the back of our T-shirts and this poster. 

The E is for eternal families, the BC squared is the two people (Briggs + Connie) that fell in love and founded our family. The 3 cubed over "GL" represents the 27 offspring doing their best to live the gospel of Jesus Christ (gospel living) and the 2P is the priesthood power that will provide the necessary ordinances of salvation and family binding to strengthen us and keep us together.

After each person was highlighted in our morning and evening gatherings (we called this "Name that Relative" and we used a fun quiz from the SS special issue, Quizzes and Questions) then they had to stand up and sign the poster signifying their commitment to the equation. Very clever!

 

We kicked off the afternoon with a rousing game of Kick Ball, and then enjoyed all kinds of other ranch amenities including ...

 

archery

horse back riding and pony rides (for the little ones)

 

and swimming.

There were several competitions, including family Olympics. Pictured here is the RED team (The Hot Tamales) who took away the GOLD.

 

Competition was tough -- we have some serious athletes in our family, but Trey will tell you that it was his perfect score in the basketball shoot-off that sealed the deal for the Tamales. He was awared MVP.

We played other crazy games. This one required goggles and garden gloves and eventually led to a box full of squirt guns.

We enjoyed a hilarious and very entertaining talent show.

 

Here, the older girl cousins are leading the youngest girl cousins in a dance with tu-tus. These are the moments that I can never seem to adequately capture with my camera -- luckily, uncle Jon got this dance on video!

 

We did so much in three days! We enjoyed a hot hike to the top of a near by peak. These are the boys that made it ALL the way!

 

Grandma even held a bake-off for the grandchildren in the mess hall.

As well-planned and executed as all of the activities were, the highlights for me were the quieter times when I observed ...

 

My brothers and their wives and ...

 

our children, interacting and helping and enjoying each other.

 

I especially love to see one generation influencing the next. To me, that is what family is all about. I'm sure part of my nostalgia in all of this is the fact that I'm getting older. Part of my appreciation is the fact that my children are entering their teenage years and are therefore naturally less enamored with their parents. They look to and need the influence of my siblings, who are much cooler!

Raising a "big" family is exhausting. It takes lots of time and sacrifice. There is very little down time and what seems like endless laundry and food preparation. I loved growing up in a big family, but there were times that I resented being the oldest of five children. I didn't get the same amount of attention from my parents that my friends with one sibling got. I had to help my mom a LOT. I did more than my fair share of "babysitting" and I sometimes wondered if it was all worth it. And yet here I am the mother of five children -- go figure. This past week was a HUGE reward and reminder that it is most definitely worth it. There is nothing in this world, no amount of money or prestige or any other accolade that could compensate for the absolute joy of being together and seeing our children develop friendships that will strengthen and encourage them. LIFE is very good.

Perhaps I should have shared these photos first? Oh well ... as a recap, this is the Parley Briggs Hall family, consisting of my father and mother (Briggs and Connie) and from L2R, Chanda, me, Darci, Theron (directly above my dad) mom, and Cougar. It's hard to believe that I am now the age my parents were when I thought "they are getting so old." My brothers are bald and even my sisters are both 30-something now -- Wow! Thanks to the example of my parents, we all enjoy generally good health and lead an active lifestyle. It was an absolute delight to be with ALL of these people I love so much and mingle with their individual families.

It is crazy that my boys are so grown up. We do reunions every other summer ... Clark will be 18 and headed off to college at our next reunion (yikes!)

 

I'm not sure which of these pictures I like best. Tafty refused to smile in all of the pictures we took, which of course I didn't realize until the whole photo shoot was over -- Addie tended to make up for his lack of enthusiasm however!

Theron and Kristin live in West Jordan, UT with their kids: Nika (13), Skye (12) and Dayne, who turned 9 at the reunion!

Cougar (and Hillary) are next. Their oldest is Payton, born just 10 days after my Trey. They also have Julian who is Taft's age, Parley (heads off to kindergarten this year) and little Delaney who is 14 months old.

Darci and Kevin live in Lehi, UT and have three children: Ty (6), Brooklyn (almost 4) and the cute little man on Kevin's lap is Cache (18 mos)

And last (but NOT least) this is Jon and Chanda's adorable little family. The Seiters live in Gilbert, Arizona. Lucy is almost four and Liberty is 14 months. Chanda announced that she is expecting a baby next March -- we are so happy for Chanda because she has only a small window of childbearing years due to some pretty serious health issues. She is such a good mom and we like to boast that her girls are the smartest of all the cousins!

We are still buzzing with stories and funny family moments at our house and we LOVED having everyone together. We are so THANKFUL to Darci (and Kevin) for all the hours of preparation and hard work in bringing us all together. It was AWESOME and we can't wait until 2011.

PS. Family, don't forget I'm in the process of building and refining our photo sharing website, where we can upload, share and print our reunion photos. Here's the link hallreunions.shutterfly.com

NOTE: if you have a reunion or other summer event that involves lots of people and several cameras, you should seriously look into setting up a share site -- they are very cool!

We're HOME!

Can you believe it?

We had a wonderful family reunion with my extended family at  Reid Ranch in central Utah in the Uintah mountains. Darci and Kevin were in charge this year and did an amazing job. I have to be honest and tell you that I actually had limited access to a wireless signal, but I was having way too much fun and couldn't stand the thought of "missing" something in order to post.

I guess I'm one that believes in taking a break now and again.

We pulled into the driveway last night at almost 8:00pm and we left SLC at 8:10 -- the ride home seemed to fly by and the kids all got along surprisingly well. I was dreading the drive all in one day and it was MUCH better than I anticipated. Geoff emptied the car and had it cleaned and vacuumed within an hour (seriously) and I set to emptying all the suitcases and making three HUGE piles of dirty clothes, which I started processing right away.

We had church at 9:00 this morning and I taught Relief Society, so I had to get up early to finish preparing. My lesson was based on a talk that President Monson gave, called Be of Good Cheer, a great message about having faith and choosing optimism in what can be a very confusing and discouraging world.

I came home and realized how tired I was, so I took a nice nap and then finished unpacking and putting things away and we enjoyed a nice walk to the park this evening with our neighbors.

I haven't yet opened my email (too scary) but I will as soon as I post some reunion highlights --- I'm headed to bed and am eager to get back in the swing of things.

Hope you are ALL well.

Winner announced in Pocatello, ID

We made it -- at least this far. We've gone swimming and are now nestled in our beds (watching three different TVs) The kids are in heaven. Photo note: Contrary to visual evidence suggesting otherwise, Chase was having a really good time!

Highlight of the trip thus far: Miss Addie kept her pull-ups dry most of the drive. We only had one wet diaper. I brought our little toilet topper along and she is becoming a rest-stop pro.

In other news, Clark saw Harry Potter at midnight on Tuesday, so he stayed home with Addie last night and the rest of us went. I probably should have kept packing rather than blowing several hours at the theater because I didn't do a handful of things I really wanted to do before leaving (Oh Well, I really enjoyed the movie) and now, I get to announce the WINNER of my little camera strap contest from the lovely town of Pocatello, Idaho.

kismet art said...

Wow Stacy, I have taken a few classes at BPS and really love the new look, you really have made it easier to move around your site. I'm signed up and looking forward to your new class!

Thank you, Kim

Kim,
Email me your snail mail addy and I'll get your prize in the mail!

cute little princess.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if all women felt this pretty when they looked in the mirror?
Kind of sad how our natural self-admiration fades away as we grow and allow outside influences to alter our perception.

I think we should decide to just be beautiful.



Little Miss Addie who now sleeps in a big-girl bed wakes up and comes downstairs between 5:30 and 6:00 a.m. Mommy is trying to adjust to the idea of sharing her once quiet and alone time. She's finding that its not that bad. Little girls given something to do (dress up in Cinderella garb) make enjoyable early-morning companions.

note: not entirely sure why I'm speaking about myself in the third person. I've wanted to post these pics all day. Some days are like that. I'm going to bed now.

good stuff + a chance to WIN.

Busy, busy days and the blog is generally the first thing to fall off the to-do list.
But today ... I've got lots of good stuff.

Just purchased two (there's a 2 for $35 deal) of these very cool seat belt camera straps I've not yet done anything "custom" with my strap and I know there are many, many options out there. As soon as I saw these, I knew what I had been waiting for. Betcha can't guess what color I purchased??

If by chance you are NOT one of the 260,000 plus subscribers to the Photojojo newsletter, you might want to head on over and make that right. I LOVE getting their newsletter twice a week -- full of fresh ideas and hip tutorials for making photography more FUN.

Today's tip is the How to Make Moving Pictures (just like Harry Potter) and it is so COOL. Click here for an example.

In other news, my friend Michelle over at The Examiner, has posted an interview she did with Elizabeth Dillow. Elizabeth is one of our featured teachers at BPS and she has a new project class, called Marking Milestones. Head on over and grab up some special "Examiner" savings. 

And finally, I'd like to post a LONG-OVERDUE response to this email, that I received back in April. I've edited it a bit for length.

Stacy,

I just found your blog a few days ago through a link at

Katie the Scrapbook Lady. I had no idea what BPS was. I googled it and found the website.  I’m still somewhat stumped.  So what is “the Big Picture”?  I get that you are an on-line training site. I read the FAQ which seemed liked great logistical assistance, I looked at the mission.  Yet none of this tells me what is different about your classes than others.  Nothing tells me what you mean by “Big Picture.”
 
Normally, when I encounter a website trying to sell me something and I’m not sure what they are about, I just move on.  There are tons of other resources.  However, I loved Simple Scrapbooks magazine and really admire your work. I particularly like that so many of the magazine layouts were about scrapping for yourself and your spouse.  It seems I’ve stumbled into the back door of Big Picture Scrapbooking but I can’t help but wonder if there aren’t going to be others like me.  I’ve read Simple Scrapbooks for the last year at least, subscribe to Scrapbooks Etc, am a member of Split Coast Stampers, download from Designer Digitals, and follow several blogs.
 
So how is it that I’ve never heard of BPS and still don’t know what it is after visiting the site?  I spent many years as a corporate trainer and I know that you can do all the publicity in the world and some people are still clueless.  Maybe I am in this case yet I think there is a hole here somewhere and I thought you would want to know about it.
 
Thanks for listening! 
 
Lisa in NC

My response to Lisa (and anyone else like Lisa)

I want to thank you for writing me and being honest about stumbling across Big Picture Scrapbooking and not knowing what we really do, or how we are different in the marketplace of online education.
I don't think you are alone (in your confusion) and for this reason, we have been working hard to better position and explain ourselves. We recently launched a new and improved version of our website and I have just finished an introductory class that is free to all registered students. BPS was founded on the same philosophy as Simple Scrapbooks magazine and while I am saddened by the loss of this magazine, I am encouraged by the opportunity to have BPS be a resource of ideas, inspiration and instruction for Simple readers.

I'm extending a personal invitation to you, to come take the Start Here with Stacy class. It is my hope that this classroom will help clarify what we do, how we do and most importantly why we do it.

Have a wonderful day!

If you made it this far ... I invite you to come take my new FREE class. In fact, if you sign up and leave me a comment, I'll put your name in a drawing to win the other lime green seat belt camera strap I purchased. I'll announce the winner on Friday evening, before we head out of town to a family reunion.

Bingo update.

In my house, the success of any summer program (or any other program for that matter) depends on my willingness to make adjustments as we go. We've made some tweaks to the way we are playing BINGO this week and the Summer Bingo group over at Facebook has been MOST helpful!!

Here are the new cards for Trey/Taft for this week [Download SUMMERbingoJuly12] and Chase's cards [Download BingoChase] for the next two weeks.

Several of the bingo items are now green. These are MUST-Dos. You cannot put your FREE sticker on a green square and you must do them. Additional squares are now blue. These squares are worth a bonus ticket, just for completing the square.

I also adjusted, expanded and printed a new Ticket Rewards [Download TICKETSrewards] sheet. We just got done having a family meeting and a few more rewards came out of that collaborative effort.

We had a busy, but wonderful weekend. This morning I've been running around trying to get organized for the week and now I'm headed to lunch for a friend's birthday and then back for my weekly check in with Kayce. Always LOTS to do.