I wanna be me when I grow up.

Cases of Intention - OLW March Blog Hop

2012-03-01T10:00:00.002-05:00

If you're here for the Blog Hop - welcome. I struggle with the scrapbook assignment for this month - nine images visualizing your intentions. However, the photo above and the photo below - and the story here (which is the most important part of the scrapbook...telling the story) as well as a few other random shots from this month will make their way into my scrapbook next week when I get them printed. But here, is the story....the most important part.

I could begin my first post in a month (granted - a short month - but still...it's been a month) in a lot of different ways. An apology to the friends I've not responded to - and have missed while I've taken a little break...a lot of excuses about how work has been crazy (when is work not crazy?)...or just a note on being fully exhausted from a lot of travel (four states and the District of Columbia in 10 days - I'm still recovering from the laundry and suitcase explosions)...but it's more appropriate to talk about my word for the year...intention...and how February saw me full of intention but a little light on action. And that...my friend...is the difference between intentions having meaning and intentions being just words. What I desperately want for 2012 is for my intentions to lead to action - and February, while a huge month for me, was a little light on my personal intentions for my life.

Let's review February - just to capture it here. I finished Julie Balzer's excellent Stamp Carving 101 class. I've got LOADS of new stamps that I need to get photos of some of the things I've created with them and get those posted. I also participated in a Mixed Media Postcard Swap using one of the stamps. Another wrap-up post I need to get done. I got a promotion at work. It has been in the works for a while, but I was glad to see it finalized. I also finished up a couple of consulting projects and gave a talk at a national meeting held by one of our vendors. The talk made me anxious, which isn't normal for me - I am comfortable speaking in front of groups, but I felt awkward and weird the entire time. It was well received though and I've gotten tons of good feedback on it. As I said, I spent time in Florida (wrapping up my visit with mom and dad), Ohio (work meeting), Arkansas (consulting), D.C. (national meeting for vendor), and finally, of course, Indiana. I've been home for about two weeks which has been wonderful, but the weekends have been busy so I'm not getting caught up on the backlogs of mail, paper, and other things that stack up while you're traveling....that's a nice segue into what I did last night!

Two of my twelve intentions for this year are 1) a place for everything...and 2) everything in its place.

I wanted a way to celebrate my promotion, honor my intentions, and honor Leap Day! - which should be a holiday in my opinion. I also wanted to kick start my intentions again.

So...I bought some bookcases that I've been ogling at my local consignment store for about two months. When I moved out of the farm house four years ago, I gave up rooms and rooms of built in book cases. As a result, I had, until last night, just a couple of small bookcases that didn't come anywhere meeting my lateral storage needs. Not to mention, I'd actually like to use them for some decoration.

I also got off my duff and put some prints of some of my favorite photos from last year that have been sitting in my studio into frames I've had around for a while so I could display some photos. The photos will most likely get hung in the stairway or over by the front door in the near term, but it's intentions in action...and that's how I wanted to mark the end of February.

I plan to be back to posting at least a few times a week - if not daily - for a while now.

If you were here for the Blog Hop - thanks so much for visiting. I love the OLW prompt for March so I hope you'll come back next month for a more scrapbooking oriented post as I always enjoy the March project so much. Enjoy the rest of the blogs on the hop. You're off to visit Eydie at WhatWeCreate.Net.

Margie            http://xnomads.typepad.com

Melissa S         http://blog.mshanhun.com

Sharyn            http://LaVieEnChic.com

Kimberlee         http://scrapsandsass.blogspot.com

Jill              http://jillconyers.com/

Cheri             http://cheriandrews.blogspot.com

Cindy             www.cynthiacrysdale.com

Jenn              www.studiojenn.blogspot.com

Monica            http://scrapinspired.com/

Catherine         http://myview-catherine.blogspot.com/

Naomi             http://poeticaperture.com/

Jamie              jmpgirl.blogspot.com

Coley              www.coleybelle.blogspot.com

Melissa C          www.smudgetime.com

Donna              http://holimess.blogspot.com/

Monica B           http://questtoperfectimperfection.blogspot.com/

Veronica           www.veronicanorris.typepad.com

Heidi D            http://mommy.heidimdavis.com/

Lisa               http://backtoallen.com/category/one-little-word/

Nikki              www.inkyart.com.au

Devon              http://www.youhadmeatneurotic.com

Amanda             http://scrappnbee.blogspot.com

Brooklyn           www.everysnapshot.com

Kristina           http://hrinspirationfromthe403.blogspot.com/

Jen R              http://jenritchie.com

Kara               http://iwannabemewhenigrowup.blogspot.com <--YOU ARE HERE-->

Eydie              www.whatwecreate.net  

Ruth               http://suburbansahm.blogspot.com

Missus W           http://www.mrswookieswanderings.blogspot.com/

Marilee            http://rose-brier.blogspot.com           

Cindy              http://seriousplay.typepad.com

Kaylea             http://www.myscrappylife.com

Dawn G             www.sunshineandcreativity.com

Rebekah            http://istampscrapcraft.blogspot.com/

Becky              www.becky-handforth.blogspot.com

Orange Gearle      orangegearle.blogspot.com

Katrina            www.katrinasimeck.com

Jo                 http://www.mrsbeee.blogspot.com        

Nicky              Www.seejanebake.blogspot.com

Beth               www.thesingularlyordinary.blogspot.com

Kelly              http://mindingmynest.com

Tere               http://terecontodomicorazon.blogspot.com/

20110301-Florida-_D700453.jpg [Flickr]

2012-02-29T19:27:44-08:00

kicki22 posted a photo:

One Little Word February

2012-02-01T08:00:00.000-05:00

I am on vacation this week - living a few of my intentions (my word for the year) - cherishing family and friend relationships, spending quality time with my camera, and taking time to enjoy the world around me. So, I don't have my finished layout to share with you yet. That said, I still wanted to share something with you to inspire you for February.

As we transition to February, this month's prompts involve seeing your word in the world around you - as seen through the lens of your camera. Want a little inspiration? This beautiful video was featured, I believe, on Shutter Sisters, on January 21 (although, I now can't seem to find it on their web site). A beautiful bit of inspiration to kick start your month of seeing your word.

One Word Project from Christine Sneddon on Vimeo.

All together again [26 - 30/366]

2012-01-30T20:38:00.001-05:00

Dad and Sam (the golden retriever) arrived today. I get a couple of days with them before I head home on Wednesday. It's nice that we're all together.

I've really enjoyed visiting with Aunt Idris and Ron on Saturday and then a wonderful dinner with my friend Julie and the adorable Milo yesterday. The weather has been gorgeous and I've thoroughly enjoyed the visit.

After dad arrived today, he napped a bit as he had driven basically straight through from Indiana. I made lunch and then we headed to the beach to grab these shots. We made dinner (shrimp stuffed flounder - yum!) and now mom and dad are both lounging in their respective chairs while Sam rambles between licking my face and collapsing on the floor next to dad. At moments like these, I'm reminded of the "Happiness is..." series from Peanuts...I'm pretty sure one of them was "Happiness is a dog sleeping at your feet."

I leave you today - and possibly until I'm back home - with a few shots from our trip to the beach today. The first two are HDR shots - the rest are basically straight out of the camera.

Move More, Eat Well, Weeks 3 and 4

2012-01-29T13:38:00.000-05:00

As we come to the end of January, I've missed one weekly Move More, Eat Well post already. And that is quite simply because in Week 3 I pretty much fell off the wagon. I'm trying to get back on again - and being in Florida this week has helped. Nothing like the call of the ocean and a sun-drenched pool deck to motivate you into action.

I wanted to share with you a link to an article featured on Lifehacker this week about the impact of sedentary living on our lives. As a person whose job often calls for long periods of sitting on teleconferences and webinars I identify a lot with this article. The good news...all we have to do is get up and move around at least once per hour and move for 30 sustained minutes at least once per day.

The Squirrels are Watching [26/366]

2012-01-26T20:56:00.000-05:00

This gorgeous view is a quick walk behind the swimming pool which is right across from Mom and Dad's lovely place here in Florida. I didn't get a lot of time outside today as I was working a bit today. The rest of the trip is pretty much all vacation.

I did get some time outside today to take in some of the natives though. These guys are everywhere!

And, I'll close this short post today with another beautiful view of the waterway behind the pool.

Greetings from Florida [24 & 25/366]

2012-01-25T18:27:00.003-05:00

I am not a car person. There is humorous story from my college years involving a paper plate and the antics of a bunny rabbit in which I attempted to tell a Ford from a Honda. You see....I am just not a car girl. That is, except for this one car. And, there she is waiting for me after dinner at Mulligan's near Sebastian, Florida. It's a RED, FORD Mustang. Now, I'll admit, it's just a rental so our relationship will be short lived, but if I'm going to be cruising up and down the coast of Florida, I might as well be in this beautiful machine.

I'm enjoying a little fun in the sun with my mom who is staying here for a while. Today we enjoyed a little beach combing followed by some pool time and just resting and visiting. A few of my photos from the area last night.

I Burned The Grilled Cheese [21/366]

2012-01-21T22:35:00.001-05:00

I'll get to the title (and the oh - so - embarrassing photographic evidence) in a minute (or rather, my friend Gayle will get to it in a guest spot towards the end of the post). I'm at Gayle's for the weekend - enjoying a weekend of television, movies, and joint computing while we watch South Carolina vote returns (marking the first time in U.S. history that no candidate has won two of the first three primary elections) and talk politics and other current events.

I rarely talk politics. It's not that I don't care - in fact I care very much. I'm truly passionate about the freedoms provided in our great nation - especially to women - and the foundations of democracy on which those freedoms are built. Chief amongst those is our right to vote. As a female who owns property, votes in every election, holds a job outside the home, travels freely without a male escort, and enjoys all of the freedoms afforded an American by the power of a piece of paper - the U.S. Constitution - I am amazed at the power of this democratic nation.

However, I feel about the actual field of knowledge known as politics much like I feel about learning a language. I just feel I can never learn enough to be fluent enough to have an intelligent conversation and part of what I truly worry about politics in America is that we run on emotion rather than intelligent conversation. Emotion and passion are important, but not more important than logic and reason. Gayle is far more knowledgeable about politics than I and will gladly talk with me about it and I don't feel like an idiot when we talk and she has to shore up my knowledge on things like brokered conventions, super delegates, why in the world Iowa gets to retain first in the nation status when they can't pull off a certifiable election and all these other adventures we all get to try to bone up on every four years. Where logic has (finally) reigned in politics a bit this week - SOPA and PIPA bills have been pulled, at least, for now. I agree that intellectual property needs some new protections - but these actions weren't right.

Okay...back to our normal blog stuff...

Gayle got a new computer that arrived on Friday so we've spent a great deal of time chatting for a few minutes, followed by moments of key and mouse clicking, then more chatting. She had a Sony Vaio during her graduate program - and now has another one. And...it's blue...which in this world is a very good thing.

I've spent time getting to know my camera a bit better. Gayle's cats, Riley and Kealy, are both fun to photograph so they spent much of their day playing model for me. You'll notice they didn't get too stressed by the activity - Riley never even bothered to open her eyes.

So, back to our title. In our friendship, Gayle is the politics expert, but I'm the chef. Even in her kitchen I often make dinner (after all I love to cook and she doesn't). So, here is Gayle to tell her version of the story behind the title and the photos she had to run to get the camera to take.

Guest Commentary by Gayle:

So we went to make supper, not a big deal. As usual, Kara took control of my kitchen, which I'm relieved to sacrifice. The sweet potato fries were happily baking in the oven, and the grilled cheese was being produced. First, Kara placed a top piece of bread with butter side down (on the cheese) instead of up. No biggie; she caught it almost immediately and then quickly fixed it with a swift flip. In seeming seconds I look back to see the sandwiches are pretty well on their way to Charred-land! HOW did that happen? Kara is a master in the kitchen! I look over and see the burner is set to "HI" - holy cow! I just couldn't pass up this opportunity, so I sprinted to the living room to grab Kara's camera so there would be proof of this rare debacle. With all of us, it's good to know we're all human. (And yes, the sandwiches were re-made!)

Art Journal Every Day [19 & 20/366]

2012-01-20T09:10:00.000-05:00

Last October, I took Julie Balzer's "30 Days In Your Journal" online class. The class was excellent and I really did get into the habit of working in my art journal for 10 - 15 minutes every day. I love Julie's classes - she is a great instructor, hugely interactive in her classrooms. They are also "forever" access - which is going to be one of my new requirements for any online class I take. I go back and watch videos from this class regularly - getting to re-watch a technique is like re-reading a book you love - you find some new thing to it every time. I really dislike classes that you pay for that don't give you "forever" access to them.

This is the first time in a very, very long time that I've been in a regular journaling habit - I normally fall off the wagon - getting bored with it after a few days. But now, with the creativity (and permission I've given myself to not care what the pages look like - they definitely aren't all pretty) of the art journal and the promise I won't make this some long soul searching activity (although some days it is), I've stuck with the habit for four months. I thought I'd share a few of the page elements that I really like thus far.

Art journaling gives me a place to play with my supplies and try out all the inspiring and creative ideas I find without feeling as though I have to "make something" out of it. This page just uses one of the two interlocking stamps we made yesterday in Julie's Stamp Carving 101 class, ...

...and this page let me try out the cool tutorial for making your own paper tape.

I also get to try out things I see on Pinterest. This pin...

Source: wishstudio.com via Kara on Pinterest

...turned into this painted background for a page (it's the page I started journaling on today so it will get more decoration on it as it goes...

And, I get to turn "mistakes" into something prettier. Both of these elements didn't go as planned but in the end turned out looking like something artsy and fun.

If you live pretty much anywhere in the Midwest you're going to get some sort of weather other than sunshine and fair winds today and tomorrow. I say, stay safe and make some art. What do you plan to do for this snowy weekend?

Handmade Books and Stamps [18/366]

2012-01-18T22:45:00.000-05:00

I went to turn on my blow dryer this morning and it wouldn't come on. Anyone have any thoughts on why that might have happened? :-) So, my Crayon Art project now has the cost of a new blow dryer added to it. Oh well - I still love the piece.

Back to our regularly scheduled post...

I've made a few handmade stamps before. I enjoyed it so much, I decided to take Julie Balzer's class - Stamp Carving 101. It started this week. The introductory lesson was the little heart. I'm not a big fan of hearts, but I did decide this tag could act as a background in my One Little Word page for January....Not bad in the end (sorry the photo below showing the finished piece in the layout isn't so great - I took it this morning in very dim light).

I'm probably most excited about the fact that Julie suggested (and I'm using) Speedy-Carve (the pink square the stamp is made out of) rather than the grey lino stuff. Speedy Carve, as the name implies, is so much faster and easier to carve. The second lesson in the class goes live tomorrow. Can't wait to see what we're doing next.

I'm also doing a sort of class with Artists of the Round Table using Alisa Golden's book, Making Handmade Books.

This is a rather cool group - you each buy the book and then one or two group members make assignments out of the book and facilitate your work through the book. Our goal is to make all 100 structures. We started with two of them which were both fun, quick and easy.

Any big weekend plans?

Project Life Tuesday, Week Two

2012-01-18T06:11:00.001-05:00

I started off this week's Project Life on Saturday, gathering up a few items I knew I wanted to include in the layout. A big part of the week was the arrival of my new D7000. When I was exploring some of the free printable art and elements at 101 Pretty Printables, I came across the "Hello Lover" printable from Missie Krissie and thought that would be appropriate to add to the layout to celebrate my new arrival.

This was also one of the first times I've used the number/day stickers that come in the Project Life Core Kit. I saw the idea on someone else's Project Life post to use them like bullets to call attention the little bits from each day.

I used the small squares page protector as well as a 4 x 6 verticals page protector this week. Last year I was locked into the traditional design, which got really old and boring for me. I like switching up each week so far and knowing that whatever design decision I make this week, I have to live with next week. In addition to those two pages there is a 6 x 12 insert with our trip to Ikea and Jungle Jim's.

I cut apart a couple of photos and continued them into the next square to get most of the 4 x 6 width out of the photo - you can see that in the evening photo just above my smiling face. I also cut apart the car wash photo from last week's Scavenger Hunt Sunday and used it as "background" to fill in the space with some of the other journaling cards. As you can see, a bit of gluing/taping is still needed to hold everything in place.

You can see the insert with the receipt from Jungle Jim's in this shot and notice that the Hello Lover printable moved over a slot from its original location.

I also did a bit of trimming on the photos of Lindsay and the snow fall in the middle slot at the top. I also cut down the photo of my camera to just 3 x 4 and will be putting the week number and dates in the little box below it that is cut from one of the Core Kit title cards.

I'm glad that I only had to use cell phone photos for a couple of weeks. I am really happy with the way the two trail photos turned out, but most of the others weren't what I like to feature. Will be nice to get back to regular photos in next week's album.

I'm getting ready for a good bit of travel so my Project Life posts will most likely have to take a hiatus for a few weeks.

Lightroom Before & After [17/366]

2012-01-17T22:13:00.001-05:00

Tonight was the second (and final) night of the Lightroom class that my friend Diana and I took together here in Indy. We were both retaking the course because we both took it originally right after we purchased Lightroom, so we didn't know what we'd need to know/want to know/actually use. We both agreed we got a lot out of both classes.

We focused in tonight's session on the "Develop" module. In the Develop Module you can adjust exposure, detail (sharpening), tones, highlights, and more. You can also do graduated filters and adjustment brushes. That was the part that I really didn't get in the class when I took it the first time - and playing with it on my own hasn't really gotten me there yet, so I was glad to go over all of that again.

I was so excited, that I came home to practice some of what we learned on some of my Alaska photos from my trip with mom and dad last May. So, a few before and afters.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

And, my personal favorite...BEFORE

AFTER

Best tip of the night...When you're trying to crop a photo in light room and you want to switch the direction of the crop rectangle (so from 4 x 6 switch to 6 x 4), just hit the X key on your keyboard!!! The backslash key (\) also lets you toggle between before and after views - very, very handy to check your work if you don't like the split screen views or it isn't practical for what you're working on at the moment.

I've got lots of notes. I hope to get those all typed up and I'll post them here for you if you want to download them.

Hope you had a wonderful Tuesday.

Long Weekend for Some Abstract Art [15 & 16/366]

2012-01-17T07:21:00.001-05:00

We had a long weekend here (which sadly has come to a close). As you can tell from the pictures, there was some lying around as well as some art. After the IKEA and Jungle Jim's trip on Saturday, Sunday was a lay around the house, pet the dog and cat kind of day. On Monday, I helped a friend set up her new television and DVD player and then decided I needed to get a bit of art done.

I saw this pin on pinterest early last week and was dying to make something like this for my studio.

Source: megduerksen.typepad.com via Kara on Pinterest

I stopped at Jo-Ann Fabrics this morning to pick up some ribbon to edge the new curtains I got at IKEA (the project I probably should have worked on but that wouldn't have been nearly as fun). As I was walking through the aisles I noticed they had all of their canvases on sale. In looking at them, I realized one of them was damaged (a small tear at the top of the canvas). I know from past experience, JoAnn's sells "damaged" goods at a significant discount if you just ask for it at the cash register. I knew the tear wouldn't matter for this project since that would be covered up by the crayons.

I grabbed the rest of my items and as I was walking toward the front, I saw the crayola aisle. The box of 96 crayons was also damaged. (Forgot to grab a photo of the damage to the canvas, but did grab this one of the crayons.

After the discounts for the two damaged items, I have less than $10 in this project. Awesome.

After I saw the original pin on Pinterest, I searched around for a few others and found several, but none of them had a good "tutorial". In truth, this is a really simple project, but there are a few things to know before you start so I thought I'd put one together. (By the way, if you want to see the others, they are on my Arts & Crafts board which you can see if you

A lot of folks have done some truly creative things with this art including cute "rain" portraits.

On with the tutorial.

You're going to need:

about 85 crayons in colors you like (for a 24 x 36 canvas)
a 24 x 36 canvas
a hot glue gun
a blow dryer
A good bit of old newspaper/cardboard/other material to protect your work area during the blow drying
some good music to listen to while you're blow drying (it's fun to watch the drips form, but the process is a bit slow and tedious - the music helps)
about two hours (and I'll admit, I had no idea it would take this long)

I started by laying out all the crayons in the order I wanted them in. This involved several deep conversations with myself like, does periwinkle go between aqua and denim or between lavender and violet. And, where in the world do you put Purple Mountain Majesty and Razzmatazz. I swear crayons were not named this well when I was a kid.

After the crayons got placed, I experimented a little bit with whether I wanted them straight across or wavy. I liked the look of wavy as I was laying it out, but decided to stay with straight across.

After finalizing the order and the wavy vs/ straight debate, I set up my hot glue station. You need to attach the crayons to the canvas using a line of hot glue. I just put down a line of glue long enough for two or three crayons at a time and pressed them into the glue. In total it took about 1 1/2 glue sticks (which was good - because I only had two).

Once I thought I had everything attached, I stood the canvas up to make sure - only one crayon fell off and had to be reglued.

A few notes/tips on gluing:

I made a very conscious decision to keep the color names facing out. You might want to think about whether or not you want that or if it doesn't matter, before you start gluing.
Also, I was so worried about keeping the ends of the crayons at the top of the canvas (where I was placing the glue) right together, I wasn't paying good attention to whether or not the tips of the crayons were straight. Mine weren't completely. This is a pretty "random" project, but if there is one thing I could have fixed, I would have taken more time with that placement and gotten all the crayons straight up and down. Not doing so means I have a few gaps where there is more white space showing through on the canvas.
Finally, as you near the end of the canvas (if you're completely filling it with crayons like I did), do a test fit to make sure everyone will fit back on the canvas. If I hadn't done so, black would have been out of luck - and for the why on that, see number 2 above. Instead of losing black (I really wanted to start with white and end with black), sepia went on to another job (which you'll see in a moment).

I wanted to give the hot glue a minute or two to harden up, so I decided to do a test on a piece of canvas board. You certainly don't have to do this, but even seeing the photos on Pinterest, I was still a little skeptical about how all of this was going to work. I'm glad I did this step because it let me get my blow dryer set right - and learn the importance of NOT MOVING YOUR HANDS if you don't want lots of splatters. (So if you do grab some tunes to listen to while you do this, don't get into the groove too much or you're going to spatter wax everywhere.) You're going to get some splatters and that adds to the beauty of the project, but if you want nice, straight drips, you have to hold your hand very, very steady. So, my sepia crayon helped me out a lot, even though he didn't make the final cut. I found using my blow dryer on the hottest heat setting and the lowest air flow setting worked for me, but I think it will vary a lot by blow dryer. I keep a test canvas board I use to test paint and other stuff before I apply it to a project. If you don't do that, you could use cardboard.

The other thing this test allowed me to see was how much potential for splatter and drips to surrounding surfaces there would be so a great deal more protection was added to the work area. If you were doing this outside on a sunny spring day or in the garage that wouldn't matter to you as much. The other thing (in my super safety conscious mind) is I think you and anyone else actually working in the area need to stay behind the blow dryer. The wax in this doesn't get super hot, but it's still hot so be careful.

So, the only thing left to do (after turning up the volume on your tunes a little bit - blow dryers are not quiet) is gently and steadily apply the heat from the blow dryer to the crayons. This is more exciting than watching paint dry, but it's still a slow and somewhat tedious process. To do a 24 x 36 canvas like mine it took about an hour of blow drying time.

I didn't hang it up last night as I'm still deciding which wall it is going on in the studio, but I did grab a few more close up shots, so I'll leave you with those, as well as a couple more of the dog and the cat - who both thought blow dryer noise for an hour was a bit obnoxious.

Move More, Eat Well - Week 2

2012-01-15T07:30:00.000-05:00

So, second week in Move More, Eat Well. And, a tough week as classes started this week so it means long hours, some pretty heavy stress, and a lot of time chained to the desk. I am happy to report that I made progress.

I focused on the Move More part in last week's post, so this week I wanted to focus on Eat Well. Let me begin by saying, "I love to eat!" Eating is a social, emotional, and creative activity for me (okay - eating isn't creative, but cooking is - and then I've got to eat it!) To reach my goal weight by November, I'm supposed to limit myself to between 1100 and 1300 calories a day. Luckily, I love veggies so some days that hasn't been as hard as it sounds. However, giving up really delicious food or a social meal with friends isn't something I will probably never be willing to do. So, I'm working very hard to adopt Alton Brown's moderation idea. Dr. Oz featured him on a recent episode and my friend Gayle sent me the link - it's a quick video and good if you can be a moderator: http://www.doctoroz.com/videos/alton-browns-superfood-list.

While I'm not at all an abstainer (it's just not in my DNA - except for sodas at the moment - I have given those up completely!), you might find this interesting as well from one of my favorite books, The Happiness Project. Author Gretchen Rubin talks on her blog about the one question you should ask yourself and answer if you're trying to eat better - http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2012/01/trying-to-eat-better-ask-yourself-this-important-question.html.

Have any great healthy recipes or quick meal ideas. Drop me an email with those or better yet - add them in the comments.

IKEA and Jungle Jim's [14/366]

2012-01-14T20:12:00.002-05:00

Last Friday night, after we had dinner out, my work buddies Chuck and Cherry Kay and I decided we'd head to Ikea and Jungle Jims today. As the week went on, we added our friend Marnia who is now retired. The four of us laughed and talked all the way down and all the way back from Ikea/Jungle Jims. The time together was fabulous.

I have to confess, I forgot to take pictures at Ikea. The entire experience was completely overwhelming. I found a few really great things at great prices so I'm extremely happy with my shopping experience. After Ikea, we headed to Jungle Jims. For those of you not from the midwestern U.S., you may have never heard of Jungle Jims. The simplest description...it's a grocery store - a really, really, really big grocery store. However, if you want to get a better idea of what Jungle Jims is - watch Jungle Jim himself tell you all about it.

I did play with the D7000 a bit more today and I'm now going to go and work on tweaking all the settings some more. I did discover the on board "fish eye" setting today which I used to transform this photo. Hope you're having a great weekend.

First Photos [13/366]

2012-01-14T00:09:00.003-05:00

It was a big day today. The end of the first week of the semester always brings a sigh of relief. It was miserably cold today with wind chills dipping into the negatives and....drumroll please...my D7000 was waiting on my front porch when I got home today! Since you couldn't be here to unbox it with me, I took photos :-)

The box from Jack's, after I brought it in the house and opened up the packing tape...

Clear away all those peanuts to reveal some Nikon-ny goodness.

And, finally her box emerges from the safety of its packing peanut carriage.

It's her first portrait!

Because it was so cold today and I had no idea how long she had been sitting outside waiting for me to get home, I waited a LONG time before I charged the battery and started using her. I wanted her to warm up completely so she didn't go into some sort of bizarre shock. I'm totally rocking the two SD cards - one is holding the RAW images and the other the basic JPGs - even so, at the higher MP, I'm only going to get about 100 images on my 4GB cards - ugh! All of the other settings and features and knobs and dials - well - let's just say I'm going to be shooting in program mode for a few days until I figure out where everything is.

So, you know I took some photos, right?

Of course, I did.

Fluffy was serving as my model through several test shots until I got the ISO adjusted - none of which were pretty. About the time I got everything adjusted, she decided she needed a break so art guy filled in for a few.

After her beauty break, Fluffy did return. Don't you think this look says - "Oh joy...the camera is back?" (read that in the most sarcastic voice you have). She got a good belly rub afterwards so all in all, I think she was pleased with the deal.

One other thing to share today. One of my intentions, inspired by one of Gretchen Rubin's "resolutions" in The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun, is to "Change the Lightbulb". (BTW - if you haven't read it - it's a great book!) What does that mean you ask? It means, when some small inconvenience is bothering me, fix it. Now, you might be thinking, "Well, duh!" But the fact of the matter is, I have the tendency to throw these things on a to do list or, (probably more likely) just completely ignore them, and just allow myself to be a little irked every time I run up against one.

Case in point? The headphones on my desk at work. I spend an inordinate amount of time whipping my headphones on and off. Because they plug into the USB port on the front of my PC AND because I don't want them taking up space on my desk, I usually toss them on top of the PC tower under my desk. However, I often miss. Which means I have to crawl under my desk and retrieve them from wherever I've pushed/kicked them to. Not good for my mood and not good for the electronics. Enter...my lifehack. (I am a huge fan of the web site Lifehacker and for those of you who still think I know a lot of stuff about technology...that site is one of the prime reasons I do know about and keep up with stuff.)

I grabbed what I had on hand which was...a super large binder clip (I think it's a 1" clip) and some sticky-backed velcro. I keep sticky backed velcro EVERYWHERE. There is some in my toolbox, in my desk drawer at work, my desk drawer at home, and my studio. If you couldn't use sticky back velcro (as it is very sticky and most likely won't come off) you could fashion something out of the ultra awesome Sugru, use a 3M hook (they probably also make some sort of 3M ultra removable sticky stuff) or magnets if your surface is metal (which mine is so I could have gone that route, but electronics...magnets...never a good idea).

You probably don't need a photo to show you that you stick one side of the sticky-back velcro to the back side of the binder clip, but, what would my first lifehack be without step by step photos?

And, finally, stick the other sticky back side to the area where you want to hang your headphones. I then just flipped up the silver part of my binder clip to create a more natural "hook" and hung my headphones. They've been mounted like this most of the week and all is still well so hopefully it's a pretty solid fix for something that has been driving me nuts. I'm already in the habit of hooking them back in their new home after each use and retrieving them (the part that had made me nuts before) is so easy.

I'm off to Ikea with some friends tomorrow (huge YEAH!!!) and then just hanging out around the house on Sunday and taking a friend TV shopping on Monday since we have a long weekend. Do you have big plans for the weekend?

Just Lounging Around and First Snowfall [11 & 12/366]

2012-01-12T21:26:00.000-05:00

I'm sharing two photos today to "catch up" with the date. For some reason, when I started my postings for the year, I posted one day behind and it was starting to mess me up. So, the top photo of Fluffy is just a shot of her paying attention to something other than the camera, which is odd. Normally, when any camera comes out, she is all over it. But, whatever sound had her attention must have been riveting. She has taken over this cat bed since it got freshly washed last weekend. She's ALWAYS in it.

The second photo is one of my 12 on 12 photos. The goal, take 12 photos on the 12th of the month and create a layout of those. I decided to use the square, framed photo format in Vignette on my Android to capture these. The most notable thing today...as you can see in the photo...we got snow. Not all that much - about an inch as of the time this photo was taken, but it certainly left sideways and drives pretty slippery. Traffic was okay though so that was good.

Big news from yesterday is my D80 isn't going to be repaired. Long story, but I might be interested in someone who would attempt to repair it and will repair second hand cameras (Nikon will not). So if you know someone, let me know. But, I decided trying to track down a reputable servicer who was going to service my camera was going to be a near impossible task so I purchased a D7000 yesterday! It will arrive hopefully tomorrow. I'm very, very excited.

Today, I was able to use some frequent flier points to buy a ticket to visit mom in Florida. She is snowbirding and dad will join her in February. It will be good to get in a little sun now that the skies have turned grey - (okay - so I can't complain about our weather so far - but 80s with a warm ocean breeze is always a balm for the soul).

Happy Friday.

Peaceful Morning [10/366]

2012-01-11T22:02:00.002-05:00

I love mornings. I love the peace and quiet of them. Whether Lindsay has always felt this way, or whether she has learned this from me, I cannot say. However, before I leave in the morning she always takes a last trip outside. If she gets to stay out long enough, this is ALWAYS the picture out our window. I love catching her watching the water, taking it all in, and just resting in the peace of the morning.

Ten on Ten - What I forgot in Lightroom [9/366]

2012-01-10T22:22:00.002-05:00

Still without the D80 here, although I did finally hear from the Nikon service center today. This shot was taken with my camera phone. As Lindsay and I returned from our walk last night, there was just one bright, shining star in the western sky. I have very little astronomy knowledge so I can't tell you what it is or what the significance is, but against the deep blue of the sky at nightfall, it was brilliant. The photo was pretty grainy coming out of my phone, so I decided to try a texture on top of it to give it that aged photo look. I'm not terribly unhappy with the result. I like how you can still see the reflection of the houses in the pond and the last whispers of the sunset peaking through the trees - and - that star is still shining brightly.

For the first time, I'm linking up with Shimelle.com's 10 on 10. On the tenth of each month, you make a list of ten things - any ten things - and share it on your blog. So, since my friend Diana and I took the first night of our two night light room class tonight, I thought I'd share ten things I learned in Lightroom, but forgot...

Right click makes things happen. Okay, so truthfully, I don't think we saw this in the class the first time we took it (yes - we're retaking the same workshop we took previously), but there is a LOT hidden in light room if you right click on various features. Being the nerd I am, I would have normally already tried this everywhere, but for some reason, I didn't. My favorite...right-clicking on the little arrow buttons that hide/show your side panels will allow you to lock those so they can't just disappear on you.
If you have multiple monitors, you can control their function using the little monitor icons. (That's not rocket science either, but again - for a nerd like me, the number of times I've had an image stuck over on my second monitor and couldn't figure out how to get rid of it...it's mind-boggling.)
Toggle through the various views quickly using keyboard shortcuts:

G - grid
E - loupe (one photo at a time)
C - compare
N - survey. To remove photos from survey mode, select them and use the forward slash (/) key

I didn't forget this one - I don't think I'd ever seen it before or tried clicking on it. In the Library module, the Paint Can (if you can’t see it, toggle your tool bar back on using the “t” key or go to view > show toolbar – you may also need to click the little drop down arrow to the right of the toolbar to display it – see the next item for more on that one) can be used to quickly “paint” photos with various attributes such as keywords, labels, flags, ratings, metadata, etc. The most fun, though, is rotation if that is screwed up. Be sure to click the Done button when you're finished.
That toolbar where the paint can is – has a lot of features. And they have a mind of their own in turning themselves on and off. To see what you can turn on and off, click the drop down arrow at the far right end of the toolbar. Most important one – a slider that lets you make the grid preview images larger.
All that information that is included in the grid view with your picture previews - you can toggle that on and off with the letter j.
Tab and Shift-Tab will hide and show all the side, top, and bottom panels.
In the, “I’m still not sure I understand this” category, you can apply labels as well as keywords. I think that Labels get added to the metadata of the photo while keywords don’t but I’m not sure if that is actually true. Labels can be added with the paint can to quickly color on color labels (this is actually a little fun and would be good for scrapbookers/artists wanting to sort things by colors)
Your different zoom views are identified at the top left of the navigator window (just under the Lightroom logo). You can toggle through these using the z key.
And, while this has nothing to do with Lightroom, it was a good selection. If you're taking multiple bracketed shots (for HDR) and want to mark the beginning and ending of a bracketed set, take one non-bracketed photo of your fingers on your left hand making an L. After you've taken the bracketed set, take a photo of your fingers on your right hand making a reverse L - thus "bracketing" your photos in between your fingers.

Have a favorite lightroom tip I didn't share - leave it in the comments. I put all of mine above, along with some screen captures to show the various areas, into a quick download file. You can grab the PDF version here, or if you want to edit it and maybe add your own tips, you can grab the word version here. I've released it as Creative Commons, Share and Share Alike, Non Commercial. Feel free, if you edit and make your own, to drop a link in the comments so others can benefit too.

Project Life Tuesday, Week 1

2012-01-10T07:30:00.000-05:00

I am hoping to do a somewhat weekly post on the progress on my Project Life album. When I'm traveling, that may not be possible but I plan to not get too far behind.

This is the cover page for my 2012 Project Life album. I may change out the photos and I still have some writing/embellishments to add, but the layout is pretty much set.

My first week's layout. I added an 8 1/2 x 11 page protector with a printout of the email announcing the One Little Word Blog Hop in between the two pages of the layout. I am using a mixture of different page protectors this year - keeps this more creative than just the standard protectors you get in the old kit.

My page on the right (shown behind the email in the shot above) is a 3 x 3 page protector with 4" squares throughout. This might become my new favorite arrangement. The journaling cards are laid in beside cutouts of some art work I doodled on during the week. I put the other three journaling cards on the back of the 8 1/2 x 11 page protector.

Something that is working really well for me thus far this year is that I have put the journaling cards by my bed so each night before I go to sleep I write on the card for that week. Since I don't know exactly which photo I'm going to use until I start putting the page together the text won't always match up, but I could always rewrite something if I needed to.

I need to add date stamps to the bottom right block and then this will be finished.

Fresh [8/366]

2012-01-09T20:53:00.002-05:00

I love fresh berries. I picked up these beautiful raspberries and blackberries on my trip to Costco on Saturday. I also got a huge container of grapes that I washed, took off the stem, put in baggies, and stuck in the freezer. Frozen grapes are an AWESOME snack.

Hope your week was off to a good start. I think fresh is an appropriate title to this post, since we started a fresh, new semester today. All in all things went well, although there were a few hiccups that may take a while to work out. Are you starting a fresh, new semester somewhere?

Nice Long Walks - Scavenger Hunt Sunday [7/366]

2012-01-08T20:50:00.000-05:00

I'm linking up with Ashley Sisk's Scavenger Hunt Sunday today.

One Color

The red text on my pedometer in this photo on top of a doodle I've been working on this week.

Laundry

Even a car has to get laundered once in a while. The best part - Lindsay in the back of the car barking like crazy at the water and the brushes. I think she believed she was under attack.

Empty

I couldn't believe how empty the trail was yesterday when Lindsay and I went for a nice long walk. It was so beautiful - folks didn't know what they were missing.

One Dozen

The snail mail pack from Stacy Julian's class "Twelve" at Big Picture Classes arrived in the mail this week. The journal is beautiful!

Soft

The colors of this sunset were just so beautiful - the sky looked like a soft blanket.

And, I'm thrilled to announce that the winner of the One Little Word Blog Hop is giveaway is commenter #18 - Sharyn! Your prize pack will be on the way once we finalize connections!

Move More, Eat Well - Week 1

2012-01-08T18:00:00.000-05:00

"We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons." - Jim Rohn
Welcome to what I intend to be the first of 52 weekly update posts on my progress in Move More, Eat Well. Two of my intentions this year are to 1) Move More and 2) Eat Well. I'm assisted in this effort by the very cool Cathy Zielske and her class, aptly named "Move More, Eat Well" at Big Picture Classes. After one week in the class, I'm really happy to say that I've found an amazing amount of inspiration and support in the classroom. The class is not hard core scrapbooking, crafting, art or photography (things BPC is somewhat known for) - what it is though is hard core support. Cathy is ALWAYS on the message board and she is so very supportive as are all the class members. There are creative/scrapbooking/photography prompts each month and the format is simple, quick and fun to do. However, that's not the focus of the class - the focus of the class is on Moving More and Eating Well.
The video above, from YouTube, was shared in the message board this week and I thought everyone might enjoy it. The quote is from a productivity newsletter I subscribe to but I thought it fit where I am with my journey to feel healthy.
Cathy also suggested we join a free site called Daily Mile which I thought was a great idea. I've logged several workouts this week. If you want to friend me, you can click here. You should also see a little widget for the site that shows my progress in the left menu bar, just below my twitter feed updates. The site also lets you connect Garmin devices, Nike+, Androids and iPhones. The Android App I'm using is called Daily Miler and it does only bare bones updating of a workout on the site, but that has worked well this week. You can download that here if you have an Android phone: DailyMiler for Android on AppBrain.

Putting the week in the rear view [6/366]

2012-01-07T09:21:00.004-05:00

Still learning how to live without the D80. I'm not sure I could have gotten this shot with it (at least in a way that doesn't look as bad as this ;-), but I would have gotten more than the one chance I get with the slowness of my camera phone. That's one of the biggest challenges thus far - the camera phone is just so, terribly slow.

The view from my rear view mirror yesterday afternoon was gorgeous - color was fantastic, light was bright - and it was 58 BEAUTIFUL degrees - in January - in Indiana - oh ya! However, the photo just didn't turn out so I made it black and white - gives it this sort of gritty "looked like an accident and she didn't really mean to take it" look.

Had a nice dinner with Chuck and Cherry Kay and then the three of us shopped Costco together and planned a field trip for next weekend to IKEA (I'm so excited - I've never been!).

The pup and I are off to walk the pond and then run a few errands today. Then, I think...some time in the studio in between emails and paper work and all the other weekly catch up you have to do on a Saturday. I'm thinking about picking up a movie from Red Box for the first time - anyone have any recommendations?

10,000 steps [5/366]

2012-01-06T06:36:00.000-05:00

I wear a pedometer pretty much every day...and most days I don't get much over about 4,000 steps - even though the goal most health experts say you should strive for is 10,000. Well, yesterday, on just an average workday, I made it - 10,000 steps (+ 3 for good measure). Not easy - but I'm excited to keep trying to get back there again.

Our weather here in Indiana is gorgeous, at least for early January, so I'm planning to get out and take big walks on Saturday and Sunday. Do you have any big plans for the weekend?

Serendipitous Sunset [4/366]

2012-01-05T06:46:00.000-05:00

I am an absolute sucker for sunsets - and the one yesterday evening was just grand. I worked from home yesterday, but in the middle of the day found that I was developing a migraine. I tried a bit of Excedrin Migraine, but that didn't hit it. Since I'd been sitting all day (I'm way less active when I work at home than I am when I have to walk around the office) I decided maybe the pup and I needed to go grab a walk. So, leash in hand and winter coat on, we hopped in the car and headed over to our gorgeous neighborhood state park. The fact that I have a state park, almost literally in my back yard is one I try to never take for granted - but I very often do.

We did two laps around the pond (about a mile and a half) and I grabbed these two shots with the moon in them - the one on the left before our walk (I called it Moon Walk) and the one on the right just before we headed home (which I called Good Night Moon).

As we made the short drive home, the sky kept getting more and more color in it along the horizon so I stepped out the back door with the pup and grabbed the shot above as well as a few others over on my Flickr page. These were all taken with the Droid X and then I offloaded them off the phone via USB (a step I often don't do with phone photos - I often just rely on the preview versions that get uploaded). Since I'm still without my D80, I thought I should grab those higher quality images for use in Project Life and other memory keeping later on.

Why is it a Serendipitous Sunset? If I hadn't worked at home, if my meeting hadn't gotten cancelled, if I hadn't left at that moment to take Lindsay for a walk, if we'd done just one lap around the pond instead of two...I would have missed one of the most gorgeous sunsets. You see, just moments after I snapped that photo above, I took out the trash and all that gorgeous color was basically gone. Moments, little ones, make all the difference.

I didn't Move More (one of my intentions for the year) yesterday than the day before (I only did about half as many steps) so decided to get a little more activity in before I headed back to the computer for more work (tis the season for round the clock working). (And now that my garage has some room in it since all the bed boxes are out of there - yeah! - there is finally some room to get started on this project.

Remember the wine cabinet I bought back in December? If not, here is another photo of it taken yesterday - I'm going to call this one its official "before" shot.

I sanded a bit on the top to make sure the thing was actually made of wood (there are two coats of paint on it and the grain was hard to seem - which we'll understand in a moment), but the sides and back I still wasn't sure about so I grabbed my sanding block and went to town on the back. It may be particle board (hence no real grain), but that still counts as wood. See the wood look in the middle.

Since I was so motivated after the walk (and wanted to avoid work a bit longer) I decided to grab the Dremel trio I got for my birthday and see how its sanding drums would work on the "moulding". It's all straight wood (no filigrees or other fancy-schmancy patterns), but these could be a little hard to get at with a traditional palm sander. And - let's be honest - I have been dying to play with my new toy!

Dremel...brand new...never used...after I finally read the instructions closely enough to figure out the magic combination of buttons and screws to get the sanding drum in there.

Dremel after first use! Yeah!! Thanks mom and dad! Awesome Birthday gift (and Santa brought me a whole kit of Dremel attachments - he's so smart - that Santa!)

And, the results - it did a really good job of getting through the paint really fast (way faster than my hand sanding was doing). It felt like the paint was "peeling" off - I can't think of a better way to describe what it felt like.

I can't get all the way back into that corner with the Dremel so I'm going to have to do some pondering on that. I won't be able to do the top and back with the Dremel - will have to use the palm sander for that, but between the two, getting the old paint off won't be too much of an issue. My palm sander that I picked up at a garage sale several years ago for $3 (yep - piece of masking tape with the price was still on it) won't power on anymore (or there would have been more sanding happiness to show you) so - Aunt Idris and Uncle Ron - thank you for your Christmas Gift to me - a gift card that is soon going to transform part of itself into a new palm sander.

I'm thinking of staining the top a deep, dark brown (it seems to be real wood from the little bit of sanding I've done) and then painting the rest (creme, tan, red???). Thoughts or ideas on other finish options or color choices?