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Friday FIVE for January 27th, 2012

January 27th, 2012

ONE.

Shut.Up.
There is actually a fun run that is all about COLOR.

I know.
Crazy.
The even better thing is that I know about this run because Shannon sent me the link.
Thanks Shannon!

To learn more, watch this YouTube vid or visit the The Color Run website.
Registration opens in like 19 locations on February 1st.

I’m considering signing up to RUN in living color this May in Seattle — only problem, the race is on a Sunday and I really like to observe the Sabbath and not do things like this, but I’m super tempted!! BUT … IF we got a big group together AND if we all went to church together too … we could wear white I LOVE Color T-shirts and sing hymns as we run, right??

TWO.

Fiskars’ famous orange-handled scissors are a design icon.
I have poignant memories of my mother yelling (in a nice way) for someone to find her “orange-handled” scissors. They were her best scissors, so they turned up missing quite often!

These scissors are celebrating their 45th anniversay.
You can help celebrate HERE.

THREE.

This AMAZING book, James Mollison: Where Children Sleep …

I feel like I may have blogged about this before, but that was before I actually got my hands on a copy. My copy arrived on Wednesday and I haven’t been able to pull this away from my children since. The format of kid photo opposite photo of room and a small chunk of very readable text is the trick!

The diversity is amazing and the contrasts stark and in most cases alarming. Seriously, if you want to give your kids an education in sociology and culture in a very engaging and readable format, this is your book. Trey was blown away and kept saying, “Mom, read this one!” I love the power of photography to create awareness — on most pages about the abundance with which we live!

FOUR.

I just recently blogged about the website 1000Memories and the mobile device app, Shoebox — since then I’ve had the chance to visit with Michael, a member of the Shoebox team and I just really like what these guys are doing! Take a minute to watch co-founder, Jonathan’s TEDx talk and the little Shoebox Stories clip about Abbey — then go download the App and get started scanning your one-of-a-kind pictures. It’s super EASY and super IMPORTANT!

FIVE.

Method.

I’m sure I’ve blogged about Method before. I LOVE nearly every product I’ve tried, except for anything with a verbena scent, which I actually returned to Target (it was that nasty!) Anyway, I listened to a presentation that Method co-founder Adam Lowry gave to entrepreneurs at Stanford (click to watch!) and it just made me LOVE the company and the products even more. I love well-designed and good-for-the-world products and the people who make them!

I’m thinking that with teaching my class, I can probably eek out a Friday FIVE every other week or so, other than that — my blog will be a back burner thing. BUT I’m here and happy and plugging along. If I upload photos later, I’ll show you the cute Valentine cards I whipped up this morning for visiting teaching. I LOVE that I have a ready supply of pattern paper and ribbon — makes life so fun!

Happy Friday.

Posted in Friday FIVE | 23 Comments »

Stuff I LOVE Right Now.

January 19th, 2012

With CHA just days away, it is a good time to talk about scrapbooking product I love. I haven’t done a post like this in a LONG time, so here goes …

Scrapbooking | Mixed Media | Altered Art
SMAK stamps from Unity Stamps!

Awesome pattern paper in awesome colors!
Style Essentials from Echo Park

LOVE.

FUN & EASY Mini Book from Amy Tan and American Crafts!

I’ve been “Pinning” Away (get it, like pining away — only pinning!) All Day!
Btw… there’s more where these came from on Amy’s blog.

Btw … it’s SNOWING at our house today. We had 4″ this morning when I dropped these CUTE kids off at the bus stop and we’re approaching 8-9″ now. I’m thinking tomorrow will be a SNOW DAY for sure! Needless to say … I’m looking forward to a short, but inspirational (and SUNNY) trip to Anaheim for CHA!

Posted in Kids, SB Product Info | 17 Comments »

Friday FIVE for January 13th

January 13th, 2012

Wow. I took Seth Godin’s advice today and have gotten so much good creative work done. I feel super-productive, except that I forgot all about this blog post that I was too tired to finish last night!

I’m pretty crazy busy with my online class, but I’m so enjoying everything about it–the ongoing preparation and especially the chance to build a new community and interact with so many fabulous scrapbookers. We are still working fast and hard to get all of the kits out the door. Registration exceeded our estimate, so we have been waiting for additional product to arrive and the last of it came yesterday evening, so my sweet nanny Jennifer (who is so very capable) is overseeing the packing/shipping — Yay!!

I had a burst of unexpected energy on Wednesday night, so I cleaned up the homework table and pulled out some Valentine’s decorations. I’m amazed how happy little things like this make me and how much I am now thinking of Valentine things to do and make and have fun with. I grabbed all of the Valentine images that I have tagged on my computer and put them on the digital frame, so that there is a constant stream of past Valentine’s images — I love it when I do this for specific holidays! I’m absolutely going to order some of these Paper Coterie cards for Addie to give out and send to cousins and I’ve pinned some very CUTE ideas on Pinterest that I want to follow-through on!

Jennifer snapped this photo of Addie yesterday and I LOVE it. The only thing better than a sleeping child is one completely absorbed in a happy and quiet moment of play. Addie is in LOVE with her “misspunzel” doll and all that long hair! Just wanted to share.

So, this really is going to be a Friday FIVE …

ONE.

Colored Rice.
Totally got this idea off of Pinterest — we had a big bowl of make your own snow (the just add water kind) over Christmas break and Addie loved playing with it, but it was getting old and a bit stinky, so we made up several EASY batches of colored rice, mixed them together and now she has something else to dig through — it keeps her happy for long periods of time and it sweeps up remarkably well!

TWO.

Toilet Paper blotter.
Got this idea from my friend, Nancy.
Wrap a couple of rubber bands around a roll of toilet paper and use it to soak up the extra water in your brush or dry your paint brush all together. It stores away easily and saves a ton of paper towels! Addie has used the one on the right for almost a whole year!

Three.

Apples For Jam.

This is an AMAZING cookbook and feast of colorful memories that my sweet friend Veronica sent me as a wonderful surprise. I’m making my way through it, slowly and savoring every page. Each chapter is a collection of recipes and memories, cataloged by color! In the green chapter there are recipes like broccoli soup, spinach and ricotta cannelloni, pea and potato mash, watercress omelette and peppermint crisp pie! Mixed in among the recipes are tiny pictures of Tessa’s kids’ art and handwritten childhood memories — it is so beautiful. Here’s Link on Amazon.

FOUR.

Story People Charms.

I’ve ordered this charm/necklace three times and given it away three times! Last fall as I began to pull together ideas for my Twelve class and contemplated making such a huge commitment to online teaching. I remembered this necklace and ordered it again! I’ve been wearing it a lot and I LOVE it. I photographed it for the postcard that is going out in the product kit for my class and I’ve had some questions about how to get one! Here’s the link — but I just realized this particular charm isn’t listed right now. I’m sure if they get enough emails, they make more!

Note: Story People is the website where you can learn more about the imaginative world of artist and storyteller, Brian Andreas

FIVE.

1000memories.com and ShoeBox

I just learned (yesterday) about this super-cool new website (1000memories.com) and FREE iPhone App (ShoeBox) that will help you scan and share your old one-of-a-kind pictures. I just downloaded the app and scanned my first picture — one that I grabbed from my family tree drawer, for my grandfather James McDougal. In literally seconds, my phone took a picture of my picture (scanned it) and it is now part of my collection. Technically I would have to have two photos to make a collection — but that will happen later today! The other COOL thing about this website/app combo is the social media aspect of it. You can follow people and people can follow you, so hopefully you have some tech-savvy extended family members that would be willing to scan the one-of-a-kinds that they have, so you could all share and exchange information, etc… If not, I’m sure you have some tech-savvy friend and it’s ALWAYS fun to scroll through old photos.

I adore companies that tackle big ideas and get the help of millions to do it.
I hope you’ll visit 1000memories.com very soon.

You could follow me …
Happy Friday!

Posted in Friday FIVE | 22 Comments »

Take Twelve!

January 6th, 2012

Registration for my class, Twelve has closed, but it’s NOT too late to celebrate 2012 with dozens and dozens of great ideas. For example, check out the latest e-book from Ella.

It’s called Take Twelve and it looks REALLY, REALLY fun.
I pursued the 12 of the 12th (photo taking activity) a few years back and really enjoyed it — this book will help you with that and so much more!

The really cool thing is you can save 12% on this book, until–you guessed it, the 12th (that’s next Thursday in case you are wondering!)
Click HERE to learn more.

I’m loving getting myself, my family and my home back into a “normal” routine and I so love that January organizing/cleaning bug — I’ve been bitten!
I just got off the phone with our BPC team and we’ve planned our trip to CHA–which is always so much FUN to look forward to. Things are just really looking and feeling good — I hope that is true in your corner of the world.

Happy Friday!

Posted in Books | 9 Comments »

Hello Monday …

January 3rd, 2012

I know it’s a Tuesday, but it feels like a Monday and it feels GREAT.

Christmas is mostly down, kids are back at school and I’m at work. I dusted my upstairs office and mopped the floor and even cleaned off my desk (please note: I just put everything in one BIG pile, but I cleaned it off!) I’m LOVING the excitement of a new class (Twelve.) and can’t wait to get downstairs to work on more content and scrapbook pages — so far so good! Since I’d rather be hanging out in my classroom than blogging (sorry.) I thought I’d post a quickie promoting something that I’m excited to be a part of …

Kelly Rae Roberts and Beth Nichols teach an online course called, Hello Soul. Hello Business. all about dreaming and working soulfully in business and I have been asked to contribute a little about my own experience launching and nurturing Big Picture Classes. I’m 113% honored that these girls would ask me to be a part of this course …

They are delightfully fun, uber talented women who practice what they preach. I listened to Kelly when she sat on a panel at The Creative Connection and I was struck by her humility and candor, two traits that I admire in this world where the opposite is so readily available.

Read this snippet about their intentions …

“We want to inspire a new generation of business owners who build businesses with soul, infuse them with beauty, and have a positive impact in the world. We want those business owners to flourish, embrace abundance, and make more money than they thought possible doing what they love. And we want you to be part of that.”

If you would like to learn more about this course, click HERE.

And have a WONDERFUL Monday, wait …Tuesday!

Posted in Business | 12 Comments »

My New Year’s Eve plans …

December 31st, 2011

Yay. The cousins are here.
My brother Cougar and his family have been in Seattle with Grandpa and Grandma and they are traveling home via Spokane! We ALL stayed up very late talking and watching Cowboys and Aliens (much better than I thought it would be) and we just finished a big pancake and scrambled egg breakfast.

I LOVE having all these kids here.
It just makes me happy to be surrounded by family
The house is a MESS and I’m 100% OK with this.
I’ll deal with it on Monday.

We’re all headed over to our stake center (church building) in about an hour, to decorate for the New Year’s Eve dance–since I’m in charge! We get to blow up several hundred balloons and rig them up so they will fall down at midnight! It’s hard to believe that 2011 has come to an end … it’s even HARDER to believe that my class, Twelve (likely) opens is about 12 hours!!

I’m definitely feeling those pre-class jitters (in a BIG way!)
I’ll be checking in as soon as we get the church cleaned up AND I get home … which will be sometime next year!

Posted in Family | 16 Comments »

WIN a seat in Twelve.

December 28th, 2011

It’s giveaway week over on the Big Picture Classes blog and today, the giveaway is for Twelve. Head on over, leave a comment and enter to WIN!

I’ve answered all the questions left on my Monday post.
Please read through the comments and my replies.

Today, I want to share a little bit more about the yearlong aspect of Twelve.

My Muffin Tin Full of Embellishments!

I think the best way to describe the 12-week 4Experts class is to say that it is the preparation for the yearlong experience. As usual, I have selfish motivations in teaching this class. I WANT to SCRAPBOOK MORE. I want to get back to a place of regular, inspired scrapbooking where I know I am telling meaningful stories. I have been in this place before–I was there most of the time that I was editor of Simple Scrapbooks magazine and most definitely there when I was writing my books, The Big Picture and Photo Freedom. Since the magazine closed and I don’t have as many big projects or regular deadlines—and in reality due to the health challenges I’ve experienced—I haven’t been in this place for a LONG time.

As remedy to my personal dilemma, I am teaching Twelve.
Twelve is a class that I will be actively teaching ALL YEAR LONG …

Each month you will receive content on the 1st and 12th of the month, along with 24 emails, delivered on the 1st through the 24th. I will be sharing my 12 pages each month and I will talk about the What, Where and WHY of those pages, much like I did in The Big Picture. I will be on the message boards multiple times a week, answering questions and interacting with students.

In short, this is the BIGGEST commitment I’ve ever made in my professional work in this industry.
Twelve will be HUGE for me and I sincerely believe that it will be hugely helpful for anyone else who commits to it.

We are going to have LOTS of colorful, playful, creative and inspired FUN.
If you have additional questions, leave them below!

Posted in BPS Class INFO | 54 Comments »

Let’s talk Twelve.

December 26th, 2011

I’ve been fighting a cold for exactly one week and as you might imagine, I have with the exception of regular doses of Alka Seltzer Cold Plus, completely ignored it and pushed ahead in my pursuit of Christmas preparations.

Addie and her hat box!

We had a WONDERFUL Chrismtas Day—filled with delicious food, fun gifts, worship and family time and then more celebrating with good friends last night. We ate more, talked and talked, played games and then all watched one of Chase’s new movies, Captain America. After everyone left, Geoff and I sat down to unwind with our puzzle. The next thing we knew it was 1:00am. Since I went to bed on Christmas Eve at 1:30am and woke myself up at 5:30am (I always wake up well before the kids wake up!) I decided to sleep in this morning. I completely missed Geoff getting up to play basketball with his buddies and Clark/Trey leaving to go snowboarding. Addie came and sat in my bed and played and whispered on and on with her new Tangled doll—and I kept right on sleeping! I’m up now and realizing just how messy everything is and just how OK I am with the mess. It’s evidence of yesterday’s abundance. I think I’ll go read for a little bit and then start in one corner and work my way through!

I do want to begin talking a little bit about my NEW (classroom opens January 1st) class, Twelve. Because this is a really expensive class, I feel obliged to begin by explaining a few things that might not be super clear in my class description. I want to do my best to explain YOUR potential investment …

Custom Journals by Paper Coterie!

ONE.

While this class is billed as a 3-month 4Experts class, it REALLY is a year-long experience. We’ll spend the first 12 weeks setting ourselves up for 52 weeks of inspired scrapbooking which will result in (potentially) 12 layouts/projects each month.

TWO.

Registration includes a special snail-mail package with some really COOL items (including the beautiful journal you see pictured above) that each have a specific purpose in the creative process I will be teaching!

THREE.

You will receive 24 emails each month (January through December) AND we’ll celebrate “Dozen Day” on the 12th of each month, when the classroom will be updated with a new handout and a slide show of my 12 pages/projects. Our “Dozen Day” next December (on 12.12.12.) will actually be an online event–as in BIG celebration–of all that we have accomplished.

You need not worry about the amount of content this class includes. Trust me, I will be keeping you inspired and busy ALL YEAR!

OK, this is the briefest of overviews …
I’d LOVE to answer any specific questions you might have.
Please leave them in the comments and I’ll be back tomorrow with answers.

ALSO … I was a guest on the Paperclipping Roundtable a few weeks back and did a pretty good job of explaining my class at the end of the hour. If you haven’t listened to this podcast, you might want to have a listen! Here’s the LINK: http://www.paperclipping.com/prt092-the-two-page-layout-show/

Happy Monday!

Posted in BPS Class INFO, holiday | 110 Comments »

Merry Christmas.

December 25th, 2011

I love that Christmas fell on a Sunday this year.

I absolutely LOVE the new videos that the LDS church is producing on the Life of Christ.
They are available as a FREE iPad app, on the iTunes store.

I downloaded this app a couple of weeks ago and Addie watches them over and over.
The introductory videos are of Christ’s birth, but more Bible stories are in production and will be added as updates down the road.

The sole purpose of these videos is to enrich people’s understanding of Jesus and His teachings and help them mexplore biblical environments, watch scripture-based videos and photo slideshows, and discover interesting facts about biblical accounts.

What I find interesting is that while these videos are beautiful, they are NOT fast-paced, snazzy or attention grabbing in any app sort of way, so (I believe) Addie is truly drawn to the stories themselves. She has had lots of questions and we have therefore had some wonderful conversations about the true meaning of this season and the giver of the ultimate gift.

As a mother, nothing makes me happier.

Merry Christmas!

Posted in Faith, holiday | 8 Comments »

Two More Sleeps!

December 23rd, 2011

Can you believe it?
My blogging has been quite disappointing, this I know, but I’m 98.7% ready, how about you?

Here are a few of the pictures that I’ve been taking for the 12 Days of Christmas class …

This would be Taft and our “neighbor gifts” (Stephens White Hot Chocolate)

Some of our Christmas books, in my newly painted table/cupboard (an antique phonograph table that I bought at a garage sale 18 years ago!)

Our snowman corner by the front door, where the “guess the candy jar” sits.

Our “memory” tree on the other side of the front door.

Our Santa collection. I generally add a new Santa each year–I hadn’t found one this year, and then Taft won this …

little guy at his school party. I think he is a perfect addition!

Here’s hoping your holiday weekend will be filled with happy memories and some good-old fashioned down time!

Just in case you’re NOT done baking and would like an easy, but delicious recipe to add to your collection, this is what I’m making today …

Caramel Brownies

1 German chocolate cake mix
1 bag of small wrapped caramels
2/3 cup evaporated milk
3/4 cup margarine1 cup walnuts (choppped)
6 oz. chocolate chips

Melt the caramels and 1/3 cup evaporated milk together in medium saucepan and set aside. Mix together the cake mix, margarine, 1/3 cup evaporated milk and walnuts. Spread one half of the cake mixture in a 9×13 pan and bake at 350 degrees for 6 minutes. Sprinkle chocolate chips and drizzle melted caramel over partially baked mixture, drop remaining cake mixture on top. Bake 15 minutes more and cool completely.

Super. Yummy.