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Stories in Hand

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I signed up for Jessica Sprague’s free course “Stories in Hand” a little reluctantly since Cathy Z’s Design course is pretty time-consuming. But I knew all Jessica’s videos are available to you forever once you’re enrolled so I went ahead. I’m certainly glad I did, and I’ve been able to keep up with both classes. Jessica’s class is all about collecting–collecting the stories of your past and your present. She provided digital papers, tabs, titles, and over 1,000 journaling prompts to download and print. Here’s the finished binder and a little notebook to record current stories as they happen:

Binder

OpenBinder

This week we’ve been looking through the prompts and making checklists of stories we remember as we read the prompts. I’ve been amazed at all I’ve remembered! Compared to most of my friends I have always felt my memory of growing up has been pretty poor. Reading through these prompts and talking about them with Tracy has created three pages of possible story topics.

StoriesChecklist

I’ve typed up two of the stories on Google Docs.com. That’s another benefit of Jessica’s classes–I always learn about some new website or technological trick I didn’t know about before. It’s already been a lot of fun, and I’m looking forward to doing more of this on my own once the class is over at the end of the week.

Design Your Life: Week 5

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Cathy’s class is half over, and I already know I’m going to miss it. This week’s focus was White Space, and here are my layouts.

July4w

I managed to do the whole photo square in PSE 6.0. I think about doing this a lot, but rarely does it work out so well. And so quickly.

DiRosaw

MonthOfw

Cathy suggested using this format every month. I once started a monthly scrapbook recap. I think I did six or seven months, but didn’t keep it up. This would be much easier to do.

Yes, it was.

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It felt historic.  And it was.

Barackw
(Photo from the Obama website.)

VOTE!

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I have voted in every presidential election since I was old enough to vote, but today felt different. It felt historic. We were at our polling place at 6:25 am along with two of our neighbors. We were driving out of the polling place at 6:35 am, so no wait for us. Go vote, even if you have to wait. I do believe every vote makes a difference. Especially this year.

IVoted1w

Happy Halloween

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I had a much better than average Halloween as I helped with my friend Sandy’s field trip today. We took her kindergarten students to a local nursing home where they knocked on residents’ doors for treats and sang to the residents at the end of their “tour.” They all wore crowns of colored leaves, and brought the pumpkins we painted last week as gifts to the residents.

PaintedPumpkinsw

Here at home, we gave up carving pumpkins after the kids left home. I found these cute metal jack-0-lantern bags at Michaels several years ago, and they do a good job of greeting our sparse collection of treat or treaters.

PumpkinsattheDoorw

Hope your Halloween was a good one!

Design Your Life: Week 4

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Week 4 continues the study of repetition in design. For scrapbookers that might be repetition of color, embellishments, photo size, or page design. For our first assignment, the repetition of the black photo mats is the most obvious, but also the two fish stickers. I’m not much a fan of stickers, but I liked them here. I used quite a few “old” photos from previous years this week. In the Real World Color assignment, the photos were taken 16 years ago! 

Assignment 1:

Rememberw

Assignment 2 was a mini-book:

Titlew

Adamw
Sarahw
Mattw
Tracyw
Karenw
Summaryw

Real World Color Assignment:

Gettysburgw

Design Your Life: Week 3

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Once again, I’m finishing up at the last minute. Tomorrow we’ll get new assignments for Week 4. I am loving this class. This week the layouts came together a little more easily, but I’m spending a lot of time trying to find the right photos and get them printed in the right sizes as well as taking care of color choices and other elements. But the end result has been worth the time.

Graduatesw

Perfectw

The first two layouts were for this week’s focus on repetition–color in both of mine.

PointReyesw∂

This was the Real World Color assignment that Cathy posted: gray, white, red, and green.

Reflect

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Today’s prompt at HS, MS, HS is reflect:  A process in which light is thrown back after impinging on a surface, or to think, meditate or ponder.  Find ‘Reflect’ in your space. My favorite of the following three is the first one which I took as I got back into the van after taking photos at the Southern Vermont Art Center. The second photo is a reservoir in Vermont that we pass each year on our way to Manchester. And the leaf in the puddle was taken just a block from our house in Highland Park.


Vanw

ReservoirReflectionw

Leafpuddlew

Design Your Life: Week 2

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We’re on to week 3 in Cathy Zielske’s Design Your Life class, and I have just finished the week 2 assignments. I’ve taken a lot of online courses but this rates in the top 2. Barbara Carroll’s Photo 101 class on BPS was another fabulous class where I learned so much. Cathy’s class is on graphic design principles. We’re working from sketches which is really pretty unusual for me. Getting the measurements just right is proving to be a time consumer, but I’m happy with the results. The first two are based on asymmetrical design principles, and the third one is the weekly Real World Color assignment.

Fallbeautyw

I’ve never cut photos in the gutter before. We’re using 3-ring binders and I’m not sure I like it as much once it’s in the album.

Youw_3

I’m learning a lot from the message board as well. Cathy provides pdf. files for the journaling boxes (as well as other goodies.) This week I learned that I can drag the pdf. file into Photoshop Elements and change it, write on it, whatever . . .

Sjw

I got this assignment just before we left last weekend to spend some time with my brother and nieces. They were great about letting me take their pictures, and helping me with the journaling. I doubt that my own two children would be as cooperative, although in fairness, they are more tolerant now that they are older.

Baked

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Today’s prompt at HS, MS, HS is baked: To cook with a dry heat without exposure to a flame. I am not baking today. We’re off to Niagara-on-the-Lake with good friends for a weekend of theater, good food, and wine tasting. But I do have a new toaster/convection oven which I love. It has a huge interior but takes up very little of my scarce counter space.

Bakedw

Hold–as in “hold on tight”

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Today’s prompt on HS, MS, HS is hold: To have, or keep, or embrace an object or person. This is Dan, a friend of ours who came over to trim a branch hanging over the yard. I’m afraid of heights so I didn’t watch most of the action.

Danintreew

Orange

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I’ve been a lurker on We Spy: You Spy for several months, but this week’s challenge–Orange–was too perfect to miss. There was lots of orange on our trip last weekend.

Leavesw

Orange leaves.

Pumpkinsw

Pumpkins.

And my favorite:

Lollipopsw

Halloween lollipops.

Dip

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Today’s prompt is dip: To put something down quickly into liquid. We saw these amazing kite sailors outside of Santa Cruz, CA this summer. They flew through the air, dipped down into the cold Pacific, and flew back up into the air. There were about 20 of them, and it was an amazing sight.

Kitediver1w

Autumnal

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Autumnal: A characteristic of or occuring in Autumn. Find something autumnal in your space today. Today’s prompt couldn’t have come at a better time. Tracy, my brother, and I spent yesterday hiking in Minnewaska State Park. The autumn colors are at their peak, and it was the perfect fall day. Here are two favorites, although I’m sure I’ll be posting some more from both our hike and our day in Vermont on Saturday.

Autumnal1

Autumnal2w

Look

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A rare second post in one day. Today’s prompt from HS, MS, HS is Look: To view or investigate. Find ‘Look’ in your space. I guess this is really “THE look,” but I’ve always loved this photo taken after my daughter’s wedding. It kind of symbolizes for me the fun attitude she and Adam have always shared. So it’s an “oldie but goodie.”

Lookw