Handy time waster.

I don't know how I found DamnInteresting.com. I guess that doesn't matter. I passed that first article onto my husband because it was interesting (wish I could remember what it was {this one possibly or maybe this one }). Anyway, let's just say he's an addict. He'll send me three or four links a day some days. They're always interesting. Random stuff that you don't need to know to survive but grab your attention and hold it. Then you start pushing the "next" button and you're a lost cause.

Pass it on.

Week in the Life. (Update)

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I'm a firm believer I just wish I could figure something I liked that was also quick and healthy because I don't want to get up any earlier on the mornings I go into work than I already do. (I know, I know cry me a river.)

Usually I exercise every weekday morning before I do anything else (eat breakfast, whatever). I need to get it out of the way or I'd never do it. I'm getting better at that whole thing though and I'm beginning to actually enjoy it... sweating and all.

At work, I have a wonderful office that has a heavy sturdy door that locks. Unfortunately, I will be loosing the office and being moved to a cubicle in the coming weeks as the guys have hired another golf architect and little me doesn't need an office as much as he does. I will cry rivers of tears those last days - but everything must end.

After work yesterday, I read Photo Freedom again and have started the process of sorting all of my albums and photos from the last few years. I will also need to start working on my computer storage as well. I have loads of pictures but finding anything isn't always easy. I'm hoping Stacy Julian's bookStacy's Blogwill help.

If you're interested, Photo Freedom is a system for sorting, filing and managing one's photos for scrapbooking and crafting. I know too well how frustrating it can be to be working on something and spend half the day looking for an image (or five for a project). I discovered this particular joy when I was creating my friend's birthday present (an album with pictures from our entire friendship spanning more than 20 years). IF only I had had some easier way. I have the gist of Stacy's system but it was only recently - too late to save me any time for my earlier project. (Note to self - upload pictures of album).

After many readings over the past week or 10 days, I have started sorting my albums by decade (a sort of presort). Our apartment isn't equiped with loads of space so I know the next few steps will be agonizing. I am looking forward to the day when I can just flip through a drawer or an album or a computer folder and find exactly what I wanted.

While Stacy's Library of Memories (known to followers as LOM) might be time consuming in the set up, the idea of it makes it worth all the agony of sorting and organizing. If only I could hire someone to do all that for me - but I'd miss half of the point and I've already found that out.

Just doing the initial sort, I found some wonderful pictures that I had forgotten about that made me laugh or were bittersweet since my dad's passing. I know I will only ever have more photos and the longer I put off doing the grunt work the harder/longer the sorting process will be. My husband and I had some good laughs over pictures we had taken early in our relationship. It was an amazing experience.

After the sorting into years, Stacy recommends using a limited number 3-up albums to hold a collection of these photos that will be "active" scrapbooking - current events if you will. I already have a collection of albums and pages from back before I scrapbooked and everything went into 4X6 pages from centuries plastics so I will be repurposing the albums I already have since I don't care much about looking pretty in this case. While I'm rearranging these albums, I will start pulling images for the 4X6 drawers I purchased today (they should be here on Monday - Yeah!) for Stacy's category drawers where she puts photos she wants to scrap but are no longer in the active albums. These drawers have four different themes "us", "people", "places" and "things" - I'm not sure if I will keep Stacy's categories or not we'll see once I start using the system. Stacy also uses "cold storage" for images she doesn't want to get ready of but doesn't think she'll scrap when she cleans out her storage albums to move in new photos.

I'm excited about the process but dreading the actually nitty gritty work. I know the results will be worth the cost in time/money but I'm anxious to get it all out of the way and move on to my next thing.

Enough about that. I'll post more as I get going.

Before work today, I ran a bunch of errands and tried to get the cement off my car from the works going on in the apartment complex. It didn't come off in the carwash so I went into the office and talked to one of the managers. She'll be getting back to me tomorrow or Monday I guess with what the contractor has said/suggested. I hate dealing with that kind of crap but I also want my car to look as pretty as it did before the cement landed on it. It could be worse though.

Week in the Life.

This week I started following Ali Edwards'latest challenge - to celebrate the everyday for a week by taking pictures and making notes of the little day-to-day things we tend to loose in the shuffle. I love her blog. I read it every day without fail. She just comes across as such an amazing person.

I've been cleaning all afternoon. T took me to our favorite restaurant for dinner and then I reorganized my bookcases - pulling some books to donate to the library. It doesn't look like much yet but I think it looks better than it did... Preparation! That's what I should call this cleaning thing. Since we all know that on Friday, I will have bought lots more books at the library's book fair.

Preparation! I like that.

HDR Photography

I love High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography. I love all the new bits of information you find hidden when you combine the files together. It gives me that little rush that I got from developing photos in the darkroom but without that nasty chemical smell or worrying if I wound the film properly or any made any other mistakes in the developing film/photo phases. Mistakes I am good at.

One of my favorite sites for HDR photography (with some great tutorials too) is Before the Coffee. I love the images Ferrell McCollough creates and his candor on the various programs available to acheive HDR. His book Complete Guide to High Dynamic Range Photography offers great examples to those who want to learn HDR and those who just like looking at the pretty pictures.

I don't think HDR works well for every shot but it can be a fun way to experiment or get a complex lighting shot to work.


If at all possible, use a tripod. Any movement from handheld shots can ruin anotherwise great image. Take your time (this is the one I have trouble remembering). Try different angles and don't always go for the easy shot. Most of all, have your camera with you because you never know when a great opportunity will arrive.

All images are my own creations.

Create art and share.

I love the work of Kal Barteski, [i] LoveLife!. Her paintings are just amazing and her blog is always charming. No matter what my mood seeing what she writes about I find myself smiling and just happy to have checked in with her. Seeing her stuff makes me wish I felt comfortable with paints and drawing. She just comes across as such an inspiring person - someone who finds joy in the simple moments of the day that we sort of forget about and that is amazing.
I have to keep that in mind every day. I'm not as good about that as I would like to be. I get bogged down in the little details that float in front of me and miss what is important.

That said, I'm going to go and create. Later.