Memory Keeping Week 3: Disaster Photos

So this week has been a huge bummer for memory keeping.  I was SO excited to get my photos back from December to be able to dig into my December Daily, only something went horribly wrong.  Out of 80 prints, only about 20 are usable.  They are blurry and smudgy and weirdly out of focus.  I have random duplicates.  And many are just poorly framed from a design perspective.

Many of them came from my phone.  As a person who almost never prints photos from my phone, I had no idea that the would turn out like this.  I have been so crushed that it has just stopped me in my tracks.

So I am at a bit of a quandary about what to do.  Here are the options as I see them:

1.  Reprint in smaller sizes and hope that the blur, etc., as unnoticeable in small size as it was on my phone.

2.  Try to crop, clarify, etc.  I know how to do this in a small way through iPhoto, but I kind of feel like it would really require Photoshop.  I am far from a Photoshop expert (i.e. I only know how to open the program), and at that, it is downloaded onto my laptop (i.e. my old computer). 

3.  Suck it up and salvage what I can by cropping, tossing or designing around the blur to get it done.

I am starting with #3 to see what I can salvage, but if anyone has suggestions about iPhone photo printing, I would be very happy to hear about it!

So, as you can see, I still don't have something in my little window on the front.  I will label it at some point, but I wanted to make sure there wasn't a quintessential picture to put in there before I did the cover.  Now, I am just hoping for some decent pictures... :-(

I chose the Project Life format to try something new.  This is my first real attempt at it (other than to throw my best friend's wedding photos into one with random cards, which wasn't my finest design work, let's just say...).  We will see how it goes...

For each day, I did a number journaling card.  I did the red chipboard hung on the twine.  They were all attached to Close To My Heart's holiday release paper.  I added a sticker to each bottom that was appropriate to the theme of that page.

So enjoy these and let me know if you have phone photo printing tips!!!

Healthy Mom, Happy Life: One Stupid Thing Part 1

When I decided to start a blog, I was a bit confused about why people blog certain things.  Sharing intimate details about your life is something I was raised to avoid.  Proper ladies didn't do that.  (Of course, the reason I know that "Proper ladies don't do that," is because that statement was regularly repeated to me when I was young and had a very loose tongue about personal and family details!)  But as I have become more of a blog reader and appreciator, I have come to particularly value women who are honest about their health, their weight and their body image.  About their struggles and their triumphs, about their journeys.  Their openness helps many of us feel like we are not alone.

Since my early twenties, I have struggled with my weight.  Since bearing my children, I have been carrying somewhere in the range of 40 extra pounds, about every two years losing 15 or so pounds and then gaining it back.

I live in the land of beautiful women in Miami.  One of my dear friends commented to me about a year ago that she felt like she had really let herself go now that she was up to almost 110lbs from her usual 98 lbs.  She is such a beautiful woman, and honestly, I think the last time I weighed 110lbs was when I was 10 years old, so I was shocked and a little offended by her statement.  It would take anorexia or a major health crisis for me to get to 110 lbs.

Because I love her, and I am a decent friend, instead of speaking my mind and saying she was being ridiculous, I assured her that she was gorgeous and that that extra 10 pounds was only noticeable to her.

And of course I took offense.

Don't we all believe that when someone points out their obviously non-existent flaws that they are in fact trying to obnoxiously point out our significant flaws?  I was certain she was commenting on my weight loss needs, not her own.

It took me a while after that conversation to realize that she was being honest and real and vulnerable to her good friend about her insecurity.   She was truly not commenting on me, she was confiding in me.  And it finally occurred to me that no matter how beautiful or thin or fashionable, we all feel the weight of our insecurities in our self-image.  To her, those 10 pounds were just as significant as my 40 are to me.  They made her feel bad about how she looked, made her feel like other people were looking at her or judging her.  Those 10 pounds, that should be of so little importance, nullified all of her other incredible qualities as a wife, mother, volunteer and friend because they drown out the positives in a sea of feeling unworthy.

I have experienced this.  I truly wish I was alone in this experience, but I am not.  In fact, I don't know a single woman who doesn't have some sort of insecurity about her body.  The experience of having my feelings about my body overwhelm my Ivy League education, the love of my children and husband and family and friends, my competence as a nonprofit leader, my creative talents, my kindness as a human being....  In my irrational heart and mind, this one, stupid thing overwhelms all of those incredible, positive things in my life-- in our lives.

I don't have an answer to the problem of body image outranking the other, far more important positive things.  But I am hoping that the catharsis and the reality check of writing my journey down will help shine light for me (and maybe for you?) on the problem of the One Stupid Thing.
  

Cardmaking Mondays: Pre-Made Die Cuts & Buttons

Hello, friends!

Please forgive my absence, as I have been struggling with the technology and trying to take photos without good lighting.  I have figured out a way around it (hopefully!), but it has taken the time that would have gone into writing my blog posts over the last few days!  :-)

I am a cardmaker above all else.  I noticed recently that I reach for the same supplies each time it sit down.  Some call this a style, but I think mostly it's laziness for me.  I reach for the things that are WITHIN reach, as everything else sounds like a hassle.

My friend Karen Grunberg suggested that I  do 52 Tags to try out some new (or new to me these days!) tools and products, but honestly, tags just aren't my thing.  So bring on a year of cards!!

Week 1- Pre-Made Die-Cuts

This week, I began with pre-made die cuts.  I love them, I buy them constantly, and then I forget to use them!!  I am starting into the Valentine spirit, so here are some papers and a ruffle from Glitz, twine from Maya Road (love their twine!) and the die cut is from Dear Lizzy (Lucky Charm).  I added a little Pearlex to the die cut just to give it a little shimmer.  I didn't want to overwhelm it, but it just needed something shiny.  Heehee!

Week 2- Buttons

I never set out to own a huge jar of buttons.  Honestly, I am at least as likely to screen print a baby outfit and add a button to that as I am to add it to a card.  But in an effort to stashbust (and see what all the fuss is about), I wanted to get 3 buttons onto a card.  I failed, but I got 2 on, and I love the results.  Maybe there is something to this button thing after all....

 The buttons, enamel dots and chipboard are from My Minds Eye, the flowered paper is from Dear Lizzy (Polka Dot Party), the stripes are from Glitz.  The glitter tape is from Recollections.  The embossing folder is from Cuttlebug.

Thanks for checking in!  Hope those who went to CHA are home safely (or are getting ready to Play! with Big Picture Classes tomorrow!).