:: mcdougall photography: the blog ::

well this is unexpected

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 04:00:00 +0000

Quick! Your house is on fire and you only have time to grab one item to take with you (aside from children and pets of course)! What is it?

My one thing would be my 1 TB external hard drive. It has every picture I have taken over the past two years, sitting perfectly organized and sorted by date.

Well tonight I was having some problems with it. I unplugged the USB cable and when I plugged it back in, the USB connector snapped off and fell inside of the totally sealed box which doesn't have any screws.

Now what?!

Please keep your fingers crossed! In the meantime I'm going to focus on staying calm and not crying and I'm going to leave you with the dividers for my new book. The dividers in my first book too no time at all and the ones in my last book took way too long.

This new layout is a happy medium:

I'd still love to hear how your Project Life is going. Are you liking it? I like it but I will be looking for something different to use for 2012. I'd love to hear your recommendations!

fabulous friday challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 06:27:00 +0000

Welcome to another week! It's been a good week that started with a trip to Henrys. I wasn't entirely sure about this backdrop when I bought it, but I've been pleasantly surprised and had fun playing with it on Saturday to create my new Facebook profile picture (below).

Here's an outtake, or as I call it, their usual faces.

Hope you had a wonderful week! Thanks for linking up. :)

Just a reminder of the rules:

1. The picture has to be taken by you.
2. The picture has been taken during the past week and it can be a picture you have posted earlier in the week.
3. Link up using the link to your individual blog post and not your main blog address.
4. Please include the Fabulous Friday button (below) in your post to link back to my site.
5. Leave feedback for five other participants. Let them know what you think!
6. By linking up you are okay with me re-posting your photo here if you are chosen for the top five.

the excitement that is saturday night

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 03:48:00 +0000

Tonight's excitement? Some fun with Facebook.

I ♥ the new Facebook timeline.

the month of april

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 03:34:00 +0000

My favourite month so far and I finally feel like I'm getting into a groove.

I find that scrapbooking by month makes the process easier. It helps me move through the layouts faster as I don't have to reinvent the wheel every time.

Thanks so much for your kind comments on my recent layouts! Here are the answers to the questions you asked:

Q. ABC asked how I get my layouts so bright.

A. They are bright because I gravitate to brightly coloured scrapbook kits and due to the processing I do on my pictures. I really like saturated colours and use a series of actions when I process my pictures that pump the colour up. With that being said, there's a threshold. You want to give them a bit of pop but you don't want to overdo it. The challenge is knowing where that threshold is and that's easier said than done when you edit on a laptop screen like I do.

Q. Bentonflocke (who correct me if I am wrong is also on her fourth consecutive Project 365 project - congrats!!!) asked which manufacturers I use aside from Becky Higgins.

A. The answer is whatever grabs me. This kit is by Miss Tiina. I gravitate toward doodles and bright colours so her style works for me. My layouts from March were from the BYOC series from The Lilypad. Each month multiple designers create elements using the same colour pallette. The result is a collection of beautifully coordinated elements and papers.

Looking around the various digital scrapbook stores, journaling cards are all the rage now so they are easy to find and pair up with other accessories and papers.

Q. Georgia and Darla asked what I do with my layouts when I am done and asked about Blurb books.

A. I work full time, so unfortunately I don't scrapbook much outside of my Project 365. With that being said, my 2010 Project 365 Blurb book was 130 pages, so that's a lot of scrapbooking in itself. Because it's sequential, it's a bit easier to bind into a book. The best advice I can give is to create your pages in photo editing software like Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Build the pages to size so all you have to do is download the Blurb software and pop the pages into place.

So that's it! It's a lot of work, but words can't begin to describe how nice it is to have a book at the end of the year.

Or the next year.

*sigh*

Hopefully I can catch up soon. In the meantime, I give you April 2011:

fabulous friday challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 05:07:00 +0000

Happy Friday everyone! You wouldn't know it from my lack of posts but I am still rolling with Project 365---I mean Project 366 (I keep forgetting it's a leap year). I need to catch up on my blog posts, but I am still going.

The weather's been cold one minute and unseasonably warm and rainy the next. There's very little snow on the ground and it's got me a little out of sorts. Wait a minute - this makes it sound like I am disappointed we have very little snow on the ground. I'm definitely not saying that. It's just throwing me off a bit and it's kept me from getting out and taking pictures.

So for this week I'm going to go back to a month ago. Here's another shot from the modeling pictures I did with my cousin.

It's your turn! I can't wait to see what inspired you this week.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Just a reminder of the rules:

1. The picture has to be taken by you.
2. The picture has been taken during the past week and it can be a picture you have posted earlier in the week.
3. Link up using the link to your individual blog post and not your main blog address.
4. Please include the Fabulous Friday button (below) in your post to link back to my site.
5. Leave feedback for five other participants. Let them know what you think!
6. By linking up you are okay with me re-posting your photo here if you are chosen for the top five.

the month of march

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 20:01:00 +0000

Moving along and slowly catching up. Project Life is going well and I find myself moving away from Becky Higgins's kits at this point. There are plenty of other designers who have kits with journaling cards so I have decided to mix it up a bit. Step away from the usual and do my own thing.

So here's March. Moving on to April.....

fabulous...sunday?

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 15:38:00 +0000

Sorry everyone. It's been busy around here and I am so sorry I am only just posting this now.

Here's my favourite shot for this week. It was taken a few weeks ago at the rink. Ethan was hiding at the entrance to the ice surface and didn't want to go out.

Now it's your turn. I can't wait to see what you photographed this week! I'm going to leave the link up open until end of day Tuesday.

Just a reminder of the rules:

1. The picture has to be taken by you.
2. The picture has been taken during the past week and it can be a picture you have posted earlier in the week.
3. Link up using the link to your individual blog post and not your main blog address.
4. Please include the Fabulous Friday button (below) in your post to link back to my site.
5. Leave feedback for five other participants. Let them know what you think!
6. By linking up you are okay with me re-posting your photo here if you are chosen for the top five.

fabulous friday challenge - post up a bit late

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 07:31:00 +0000

Hi everyone! My apologies - the Fabulous Friday post is going to be a bit late this week. I'll have it up tomorrow night. Sorry for the inconvenience!

the month of february

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 02:35:00 +0000

Thanks so much for the kind comments on my Blurb book! I really appreciate it. It was fun and it's nice to look back on an entire year of photographs and stories.

I find the stories are the most important part of Project 365. In almost every case I remember taking the picture, but I frequently forget the story behind it. The crazy things the kids said or other important things happening on a particular day. They are stories that I never would have remembered had I not documented them.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Thoughts on Project Life so far? Liking it. It's easy and the coordinated sets are nice. Not totally diggin' the Clementine set I used for these layouts though. It had less elements than the Cobalt set I used for January and it's just not my style.

But that's okay. It's done and I'm moving on to March. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that one day I might even catch up. Maybe one day I'll send a book to print in the year it was photographed and scrapbooked.

Highly unlikely, but a girl can dream.

Are you doing Project Life? I'd love to hear how it's working for you!

fabulous friday challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 03:50:00 +0000

Happy Friday everyone! It's been a week of the stomach flu here and there hasn't been anything fabulous about that. But today I submitted my 2010 Photo a Day book to Blurb for printing and that's pretty fabulous in my opinion. I may even have cried a little bit.

So it's done! And if the quality turns out as well as my 2009 book then I will be one happy camper. If you are looking for a top notch book publisher, Blurb is the place to go. The quality is impeccable and the service is amazing. The book will take two weeks to print but if it's like last time, I will have it within a week.

For those of you who asked questions about my book, my book is the Large Square Blurb book. It's 12 x 12 in size and 130 pages (22 pages longer than last year - apparently I got a bit carried away). I created my scrapbook layouts as layered tiffs in Photoshop and once I was ready to go to print I flattened the tiffs and converted them to CMYK. Then they were popped into InDesign, a high res PDF was created and it was uploaded to Blurb.

That's what's worked for me for both of my books. It was quick and easy and I didn't have any problems. Hope this is helpful!

Photo A Day by Jennifer McDougall | Make Your Own Book

Now it's your turn. What was fabulous about your week? I can't wait to see your posts!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Just a reminder of the rules:

1. The picture has to be taken by you.
2. The picture has been taken during the past week and it can be a picture you have posted earlier in the week.
3. Link up using the link to your individual blog post and not your main blog address.
4. Please include the Fabulous Friday button (below) in your post to link back to my site.
5. Leave feedback for five other participants. Let them know what you think!
6. By linking up you are okay with me re-posting your photo here if you are chosen for the top five.

day 5 - the orange bowl

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 01:30:00 +0000

It's Orange Bowl time again and I'm not talking about football.

Orange bowl = the stomach flu.

Owen came down with it last night and Ava came down with it tonight after dinner.

As much as I could use some help dropping the extra ten pounds I put on during 2011, I don't think I'm up for this.

day 4 - rules were (apparently) meant to be broken

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 01:15:00 +0000

The Great Purge of 2011 took place on Boxing Day. Our unfinished basement was finally organized and cleared of a pile of junk and baby stuff.

The kids gained a new play area and have been having a great time in the basement. I think we need a rule refresher though.

The funniest thing is my yell from the basement was "WHO WROTE THEIR NAMES ALL OVER THE BASEMENT STAIRS?!"

Fairly obvious I'd say.

day 3 - nerd alert

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 01:00:00 +0000

This picture is horrible (and it really bothers me that I cut my nose off) but whatever. For the first time in ten years I have new glasses.

I've also discovered there's a promised land a mere four floors under me. It's called underground parking and it's incredible. I'm really going to miss it next week when I'm parking ten minutes away outside with the rest of the riffraff.

day 2 - monday night in the cold aweeeena

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:45:00 +0000

My boys. Future skating superstars and ladies men. Each uses a different approach. The stronger skater (Owen) woos the ladies by begging them to skate him to the stands to see his mother and the slightly weaker skater (Ethan) falls repeatedly so the ladies have to pick him up.

Both approaches work quite successfully I might add.

day 1 - happy new year

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:30:00 +0000

Happy New Year everyone!

Would you believe I got this shot on the first try? Further proving how much easier it is to work with adults than children.

It's a good thing it didn't take long. We were outside for about three minutes when Owen stuck his head outside and yelled "Hey Mom - some kid in here is crying."

He's so sensitive.

project life - january 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 19:57:00 +0000

While my blogging fell apart towards the end of the year, I did complete my third year of photos. And since I'm only just putting the finishing touches on my 2010 book, I have a lot of work ahead of me putting 2011 together.

I've been looking for a system on and off for the past year as anybody who has scrapbooked their 365 can tell you, it's a monster job. I needed something I could do quickly and efficiently and the past two books have taken hundreds of hours to put together.

The problem is that well thought out and consistent looking systems are few and far between and they the majority of them involve me starting from scratch and reinventing the wheel on every spread. I don't have the time for that.

I had heard about Project Life by Becky Higgins, but all of the samples I had seen were paper-based and I'm not returning to that. The mess, clutter and the idea of printing out my pictures and going back to that method makes my head hurt. It would also mean that I would have to revert to thick binders on the shelf with no easy way to make a copy for each of the kids.

But...I looked into it again and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there is a digital version. That makes me happy.

What I like most about it is that it's pretty standardized and there's lots of room for journaling. I also like the idea that there's limited white space for me to play with. As much as I love white space, I always find the need to fill it.

So here we go. January 2011 done with Project Life.

So what are you doing? Are you doing project 365? Are you scrapbooking it? I'd love to hear about what system and supplies have worked for you!

fabulous friday challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 03:08:00 +0000

Sorry I've been MIA everyone. It's been crazy around here and I haven't had time to blog.

The Elf on the Shelf went...okay. There were five days where Sam was so pissed at the kids' behaviour that he did not return out of protest...and they didn't care. His presence or lack of really didn't have much impact on their behaviour. They were just as crazy as they usually are and I quickly grew tired of coming up with new stuff for Sam to do late at night when all wanted to do was go to sleep. So...it was fun (at times) and we'll probably do it again next year, but I am relieved that it's over.

In the meantime...still taking pictures. Project 365 has exhausted me over the past three years but I am still. taking. pictures. I just can't stop. I want to stop, I just can't. So we'll see where that goes.

My main project right now is my Blurb book with my 2010 pictures.

Yes. You heard me right. 2010. As usual, I'm way behind but I'm getting there. Once this bad boy gets off to print I can focus on wrapping up my 2011 posts and my 2011 edition of the "Year in Review". Hopefully you'll be seeing that on the weekend.

In the meantime, I haven't really taken anything fabulous lately, but here's a sneak peak of the dividers from my 2010 Blurb book:

Now it's your turn! I hope you had a great holiday and I can't wait to see your shot for this week.

Happy Friday!

Just a reminder of the rules:

1. The picture has to be taken by you.
2. The picture has been taken during the past week and it can be a picture you have posted earlier in the week.
3. Link up using the link to your individual blog post and not your main blog address.
4. Please include the Fabulous Friday button (below) in your post to link back to my site.
5. Leave feedback for five other participants. Let them know what you think!
6. By linking up you are okay with me re-posting your photo here if you are chosen for the top five.

fabulous friday challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 03:40:00 +0000

Happy Holidays everyone! Thanks so much for a wonderful year and please have a safe holiday season with your family!

I didn't take many pictures this week and what I did take pictures of was nothing to write home about, so instead here's one of the shots I used for this year's Christmas card.

These smiles are the result of bribery. Each child got a piece of Hubba Bubba for their efforts. What I'd like to know is which one of these monkeys chewed theirs up and placed it inside of Ethan's boot.

I can't wait to see your fabulous shots from this week! Happy holidays!

Just a reminder of the rules:

1. The picture has to be taken by you.
2. The picture has been taken during the past week and it can be a picture you have posted earlier in the week.
3. Link up using the link to your individual blog post and not your main blog address.
4. Please include the Fabulous Friday button (below) in your post to link back to my site.
5. Leave feedback for five other participants. Let them know what you think!
6. By linking up you are okay with me re-posting your photo here if you are chosen for the top five.

day 349 - winter wonderland

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 02:27:00 +0000

It's a damn good thing Sam found coffee filter snowflake instructions on google. It's been a long time since he was a catholic school girl and his memory is pretty sketchy.

fabulous friday challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 06:53:00 +0000

It's that time again everyone! Thankfully I found my groove again during a weekend photo shoot. My cousin asked me to take some shots of him and we had a great time (after the boys wrestled and knocked my backdrop to the ground - that part was not so fun). It was so nice to take pictures of a subject who doesn't move around, takes direction well and can wipe it's own nose.

Thanks for a great time G!

Just a reminder of the rules:

1. The picture has to be taken by you.
2. The picture has been taken during the past week and it can be a picture you have posted earlier in the week.
3. Link up using the link to your individual blog post and not your main blog address.
4. Please include the Fabulous Friday button (below) in your post to link back to my site.
5. Leave feedback for five other participants. Let them know what you think!
6. By linking up you are okay with me re-posting your photo here if you are chosen for the top five.

day 348 - streamer barricade

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 06:41:00 +0000

Tonight Sam built barricades across the kids' bedroom doors. They were a bit confused in the morning, climbing under them until I told them to run through them. It's strange. When I want them to be good, they're bad. When they have permission to be bad, they're good.

Ava summed it up best on the weekend in the car on the way back from Christmas shopping on Sunday.

Ava: "Hey Mom! Wanna know how I can tell my brothers apart? Ethan always looks like he's going to do something bad and Owen always looks like he's sorry."

I've explained the differences between the boys for almost four years so people can tell them apart. Ethan has a more pronounced cowlick, Owen is more outgoing....I gotta say this is the most accurate assessment I've every heard.

There's a reason why he's sorry Ava. It's because he's usually two minutes ahead of his brother. He already did something bad and he's getting in trouble for it.

day 347 - the night owls

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 04:54:00 +0000

Am I the only person with kids who don't fall asleep until 10 pm? Their bodies are in bed by 8 but their little mouths don't fall asleep until 10.

Sam is getting too old to do nightly setups that late. A day is going to come where Sam falls asleep before the kids and forgets to hide himself. All hell's going to break loose that day so it was time for a request to be made.

day 346 - another day down

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 04:13:00 +0000

Apparently I can't subtract as there are 13 days to Christmas.

Oh well, neither can the kids.

day 345 - come fly with me

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 04:09:00 +0000

Sam's hiding spot tonight. I have to agree with Owen. It was kind of creepy sleeping with him hanging from the ceiling fan watching me.

I would like to point out that no elves were hurt during the taking of this picture. The kids wanted to turn the fan on to see how far he could fly (and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't curious myself), but they refrained and he survived this particular adventure.

day 344 - story time

noreply@blogger.com (Jennifer) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 04:03:00 +0000

Story time. Pretty tame compared to the other stuff Sam's been doing lately, but mommy is feeling uninspired tonight.