This week …

Our friend Pete came and started tearing apart our deck.

Weather and wind where we live make it almost impossible to use a deck as it is intended to be used. For this reason and the fact that I really want to move operations upstairs so I can do my work and manage the hub of my home (kitchen, laundry, homework) we are …

turning this space into my NEW office! Yipee! My creative studio will remain downstairs, but I’ll be able to do most of my daily work from right off the kitchen! I’ll keep you posted on the progress!

This week, I took Addie to the dentist for her first “official” visit. It seems her very petite mouth has caused some crowding and FOUR little cavities–in spite of faithful brushing and flouride drops. She was absolutely cooperative and very brave. We did have a very good Love and Logic moment when I tried to convince her to tie her helium balloon to her wrist and she refused. Once outside the balloon lasted about 31/2 seconds before the above-mentioned wind sucked it right out of her hand. I said “Bummer!” She chattered about it all the way home. My guess is on Monday (her first filling) she might just tie that balloon on!

This week, I discovered fullbars and ate them for my afternoon snack — they are yummy! I’m on day 6 of my annual get in shape for spring program. I’m always amazed how good water tastes after just 3 days of no sugar. Anyway, I found these at Costco and thought, what the heck. I’ll try ‘em. I generally do really well until about 3:30pm and then I’m just plain hungry, so I eat one of these, drink a full bottle of water and I can go upstairs, finish preparing dinner and not blow it!

This week, I was asked a great question on the Library of Memories message board. It went along the lines of this, “How do you organize your scrapbooking-related photos so that they are not mixed up with your family pictures?” This is a great question and I have a GREAT answer (if you have a Mac and use iPhoto that is)

I have lots and lots of pictures that I take specifically for my online teaching, my website and blogs and for other scrapbooking-related projects (my work.) About three years ago, my friend Steve Holdaway showed me how to create a new iPhoto library. It took me a year to convince myself that I needed two libraries and to get everything converted, but I LOVE this approach now.

Here’s how you do this:

Completely close iPhoto. Hold down the option (alt) key and re-open iPhoto. Make sure you continue to hold down the option key. This window will appear. Click on the “Create New…” button and create a brand new library. As you can see, I have 3 libraries …

I have my general (family pictures) library. I am learning to use Smart Albums inside my folders to implement my digital organization that supports my personal Library of Memories.

I have a business library. This is where I upload pictures of pages, projects and other stuff related to my work. I recently started another library where I imported older digital images from the other computers in my home. This is also where I’m importing the hundreds of “family history” scans my father in law has sent me. I don’t want these images bogging down the family library that I use every day. When I’ve sorted through all of these and decided which to keep, I can incorporate highlights into my main library.

To switch back and forth between iPhoto libraries all you have to do is close iPhoto all the way and then press and hold the option key while you re-open; the choose your library window will open and you can select the library you want to work in!

Hope this makes sense. I’m sure there is a similar solution with other photo software programs as well. But, seriously Apple ROCKS (just had to say that)

Next Week, I get to be part of ReneeTV and a two-week series called Meet the Pros. I’ll be do a live video chat on Tuesday, March 9th at 7:00pm pacific time. My topic is digital work flow (yes, even traditional scrapbookers like me need a digital work flow.) Visit ReneePearson.com to learn more about my chat and all of the others!

Q+A  Here are few additional answers to recent questions.

Hey, What software did you use to put the slide show together?
I’m just now learning to use iMovie, thanks to Kayce and Clark, but my comfort program is actually Keynote (Macs version of Power Point) so I quite often build a slide show in Keynote and then simply export it as a Quicktime movie. This is what I did for this little flick.
I’ll be sharing my first attempt at iMovie on the blog sometime soon — it was something I created for a lesson at church.

Where did you get the chalkboard in your kitchen?

So, this is a frequently asked question. I do LOVE, LOVE our daily chalkboard in the kitchen, pictured most recently in this post. I purchased it at a little boutique-y store here in Spokane, but I found something similar at Ballard Design, called Hampton Message Board Shelf. Whenever you need to find something on my blog, just scroll down and use the search box on the right hand side. It works 95% of the time for me!

How do I find the books Photo Freedom or The Big Picture?

Right now these books are difficult to find (and PLEASE don’t pay some crazy price for them!) Both books are sold out. This means they cannot be order from the publisher anymore. There are copies in distribution channels. I’ve had several LOM students find both or one of my books at an Archivers’ store. And several have called an Archivers’ store and had them shipped to them. I am trying to negotiate the rights to these books, so that I can make them available again, but this may take awhile!

How do I find Mary’s gallery to see the rest of the “finish line album” you mentioned in the “Random Love” post?

Actually, there isn’t a gallery where you can see Mary’s album, there was just a ‘peek’ of it on the scrapbook page I shared. However … Mary is sending me several of her pages (along with other students) and I’ll be sharing these in the upcoming Finish Line Scrapbooking class at BPS. Stay tuned!

How do you organize your odd sized photo’s?

have four shallow drawers by Memory Dock. My drawers are labeled Us, People, Places and Things — I store enlarged prints and other odd sized photos in these drawers. I often place a sticky note in my storage binders (where I keep the bulk of my unscrapped photos) to remind me that I have a related photo in one of my drawers. Please note that the Memory Dock line of products has been discontinued, so current supplies are limited. You can find shallow drawers like these from other online retailers.

Have a GREAT weekend!