Nihao, Cupcake!

A Week in the Life 2011: Day 6 (Friday) in Photos

A few favorites from Day 6. Total number taken: 80 + 18 taken by my 10 year old who took it to his last day of Summer School.

Banana Phone!

Playing back silly videos made the day before.

Let's go shopping!

Released today. Kids want to go see it.

Listening to movie reviews on the radio. They pan The Smurfs saying it is insulting to children and lots of product placements. We will skip it.

Lunch before shopping.

Trying on a bunch of stuff at Nordstrom Rack.

Time to check out.

Another store looking for shirts and more pants.

Waiting for a dressing room.

After watching The Wiz at a local high school, we stop at the store return home by 10 PM and I have to make sandwiches for the Dragon Boat races early Saturday morning.

Thanks for stopping by! I'll post my last day (Saturday) tomorrow.

Happy Weekend!

A Week in the Life 2011: Day 5 (Thursday) in Photos

Some of my favorite photos from Thursday's total of 147:

My ideal breakfast. Sadly I can only have it when I am in the States.

Dad calls from Beijing to chat before summer school.

A hug for Grandma before driving to school.

Mom and Reece stop for a quick morning snack. I had coffee, R a cup of soup. He made cracker sandwiches. Interesting.

We spent the morning school shopping.

Hoping to find some good deals on books. Prices not so low yet and not much to choose from.

Boys making some of their fun videos. All three of them jumped over the camera as it was recording.

Braden is the camera man as they stage a fake fight.

Mom's afternoon snack. The fresh lime makes it.

More videos and acting. Grandma was gracious to allow them to use her catsup and an old shirt to cut up!

Braden did find a book he wanted for 20% off. It included a read-a-long CD.

Another new book for a bedtime story

Thanks for joining me on my Day 5, Thursday. It is now Saturday and I am documenting my very last day since I started on Saturday. Tomorrow I will post photos of Friday, my Day 6.

Are you playing along too? What is your plan for getting your album done? That is the part I have a hard time with. I have yet to complete AWITL album. I'm more prepared this year and have a plan so I am optimistic. I hope to share more about my plan this weekend.

A Week in the Life 2011: Day 4 (Wednesday) in Photos

Some of my favorite photos from Day 3 (Wednesday):

I stole Ali's idea and set up the camera the night before and used the self-timer as soon as I woke up. I have my camera take multiple photos in a row to give me a chance to set myself up and relax. It can only take 4 in a row and the rest come at varying intervals as my camera catches up to itself depending upon how many I set it for. For this photo, since I was already in place and wasn't moving, I took 4.

My link on Ali's blog for the day (#100)! : )

 

A good-bye hug at the airport. Have a great flight! Hope to see you in Beijing in Fall!

 

When in Beijing, I promised him Red Vines when we were in Calif for our summer visit.

 

Taken out the window of my car. This was one of my dad's all time favorite breakfast places.

 

We bought a new wiffle ball & bat at Ralphs.

 

This dog is motion activated and laughs and rolls around any time someone walks by.

 

The boys planted him behind the couch to trick me.

 

Catching up on some Oprah's that I recorded on DVR. I don't get her in China, though she airs there.

 

Grandma's nightly red wine - doctor's orders! (Really)

 

We've been playing lots of Master Mind this summer.

 

You are never too old for sidewalk chalk. I drew the rainbow. He drew the leprechaun and pot of gold.

We finished off the night with a game of Wheel of Fortune!!

Thanks for looking at my favorite 29 out of 134 total photos for the day. How many photos do you typically take on a day in A Week in the Life?

These are how many I took on my other days:

SUNDAY - 273

MONDAY - 79

TUESDAY - 162

Thanks for stopping by!

A Week in the Life 2011: Day 3 (Tuesday) in Photos

Some of my favorite photos from Day 3, Tuesday:

Getting ready for summer school.

He used to be the first one out of bed every morning, but he turned 13 this month and now everything is changing!

The toys sitting outside of the shower door. Still there from last night's shower.

Grandma helps with laundry.

Braden took this photo. He wanted to take a pear to eat at recess but then forgot about it.

Braden took this photo too.

Brothers.

A favorite shirt the past THREE summers!

My necklace fell down the hole by the emergency brake, but I managed to fish it out!

Not sure if his class went in yet - but we spot his teacher down the hall, so back outside.

On the way home, stop off at CVS to pick up more wrapping for Braden's broken thumb.

Picking up some lunch to bring to the fun center!

So determined to pass up his big brother.

First time trying California rolls and he loved them (except the avocado - just like his mom).

Walking home from a lovely dinner.

A beautiful surprise growing out of the sidewalk. Braden wanted to know how on earth this was possible.

I love our neighborhood. What amazing views on our walk home.

This week's homework - done lickity split!

Getting ready for bed.

 

ONE LITTLE WORD STUDENT'S (Ali's class at Big Picture Classes)

If you are a student in Ali's class and want to participate in our monthly blog hop on August 1, please send me an email (link on right side of my blog). I will send you the details. We go live at 8 AM PST, please come back to check out all the inspirational projects from the class. To see past blog hops, click on the link to the left of my blog.

A Week in the Life 2011: Day 2 (Monday) in Photos

My favorite photos from Day 2:

*note: many were left out because we have guests in town and I want to respect their privacy.

>

 

 

OLW MONTHLY BLOG HOP PARTICIPANTS:

Never fear the letter for the August 1 Blog Hop will be in your in-box by midnight tonight. Sorry for the delay, but the show will go on! : )

A Week in the Life 2011: Day 1 (Sunday) in Photos

My favorite photos from Day 1 (Sunday):

Tiger Safari and other India Memories

I'm back for one post, anyway. This happens a lot. I go away on holiday and my routine of posting gets interrupted and I find it very challenging to get back in the groove. It didn't help this time that 48 hours after I returned I got a nasty flu bug. At first I thought it was something I caught in India, but it turns out it is going around here in Beijing at the moment. In fact, my husband is on day #3 of his turn with the bug.

Today I will share a couple of photos and some India memories that I've had written for more than a week now.

In this photo below, see if you can see the tiger in the distance. It was my 'proof we saw a tiger' photo.

I WANT TO REMEMBER: our family joke - 50% of the world's mangos come from India (true fact but we brought it up over and over again during the entire trip).

I WANT TO REMEMBER: the taste of magos, especially smoothies & shakes of that flavor, will forever be the taste of India to me

I WANT TO REMEMBER: sharing the excitement of seeing a tiger in the wild with my young sons - nobody was too cool, or too hungry, or too tired, or too young to appreciate the gift of the moment

I WANT TO REMEMBER: our visits to several Indian sweet shops - they were usually air conditioned and offered a refreshing place to rest and try out some of the local food that was of interest to the whole family. We all ended up with our favorites.

I WANT TO REMEMBER: Braden warming up to the locals on the street unlike he does in China.

I WANT TO REMEMBER: Braden making friends on a train with an Indian boy his age.

I WANT TO REMEMBER: an amazing vacation that included the perfect balance of adventure and luxury, excitement and relaxation.

I WANT TO REMEMBER: my real ayurvedic massage in the hotel spa

I WANT TO REMEMBER: croquet with the family on the lawn by the pool

I WANT TO REMEMBER: the family at the haveli where we stayed in Jodhpur - their kindness & hospitality

I WANT TO REMEMBER: the warmth of the people, the country overwhelmed with poverty & filth yet teeming with life (human & animal), culture, color, hospitality & spirit

I WANT TO REMEMBER: the soda cart vendor who sold us 2 7-ups outside the Red Fort - he gave us a fair price and then helped us locate our driver without expecting anything in return

I WANT TO REMEMBER: the service and warmth of the staff at our hotel in Rathambore

I WANT TO REMEMBER: swimming with the kids in the cool pools at both hotels.

I WANT TO REMEMBER: complimentary mango sorbet at the pool as well as the instant trays of ice cold water, sunscreen and spray bottles

I WANT TO REMEMBER: the man who picked us up at the Agra train station right after Reece warned me that this was not a vacation. We were being watched closely with curiosity (not many foreign families hang out at train stations, I imagine). He handed us cold, wet cloths to wipe our brows, ice cold bottled water and took care of our bags. He whisked us off to the Oberoi in Agra with its amazing view of the Taj Mahal complete with live Indian music playing below, an amazing terrace that over looks the palatial grounds with the Taj Mahal in the background, complementary fresh lime juice (also a taste of India) and a golf cart a 100 meters from the entrance to the Taj.

I WANT TO REMEMBER: the protest we encountered that blocked our road to Rathambore. The melee that ensued on the road and how brilliantly our driver handled the situation. He turned our car around in the middle of the road and got us out of there ASAP. We found an alternate road that hadn't been blocked yet and drove through back roads until we were out of the state where the protest was held and safely in Rajasthan. Our safety was not in jeopardy but our road to our next destination was!

I WANT TO REMEMBER: how calm and collected we were in that situation. All of our travel in developing nations and living abroad in foreign lands has prepared us to be calm and not scared.

I WANT TO REMEMBER: how good it felt to feel confident in a land that intimidated me 14 years ago.

I WANT TO REMEMBER: such special times with the kids, sharing with them the magic we experienced 14 years ago before they came into our lives.

I WANT TO REMEMBER: the lessons my kids learned by seeing how kids have it in other parts of the world. Now when I tell them they are being ungrateful for complaining about soggy bread in their eggs benedict, they take me seriously and shape up even if it takes a few minutes.

I WANT TO REMEMBER: the families and other local tourists who stopped us and asked to take photos with us - kids and parents alike.

I WANT TO REMEMBER: how Nicholas still likes it because it makes him feel a little like a celebrity

I WANT TO REMEMBER: thouroughly enjoying the luxury of two of our hotels

I WANT TO REMEMBER: enjoying the two days & three nights of our trip when we were roughing it - two nights in a clean but minimal backpackers haveli and an overnight train (A/C class with private cabin). I felt like I was really visiting India.

I WANT TO REMEMBER: walking the streets, interacting with the people, purchasing things, photographing the sights

I WANT TO REMEMBER: how my blisters that were getting infected miraculously cleared up when we arrived at the luxury hotel after two days in the backpackers haveli!

I WANT TO REMEMBER: how Paul basically interviewed every waiter, waitress, hotel staff, naturalist guide, driver and haveli owner we encountered and ended up knowing more about them than their own families by the time we moved on

I WANT TO REMEMBER: I accidentally drank water from the man selling me 2 SD cards for my cameras - his bottle was the same color as the one I just threw away and was sitting right at my elbow - oops! I live dangerously.

 I WANT TO REMEMBER: buying a mango on the street and tasting its delicious refreshment in the desert heat of Jodhpur (around 117 degrees F)!

I WANT TO REMEMBER: the kids fascination with the ancient observatory in Jodhpur. They wanted to go back to take the audio tour at a cooler time during the day.

I WANT TO REMEMBER: Braden pasting his face up to the window to watch the three musicians playing traditional instruments during our meal. They were so good-natured about it and interacted with him and me as I was trying to take photos. His shyness was hardly noticeable in India.

I WANT TO REMEMBER: how Nicholas loved the special bears and hats the hotel staff left for them on our day of departure

I WANT TO REMEMBER: the fancy dessert plates the staff left for the kids in their rooms with their names written in chocolate - Reece gobbled his down before I could get in there to take photos

I WANT TO REMEMBER: the curious little people in the train station there were fascinated with the foreign family.

I WANT TO REMEMBER: my favorite time is days spent doing 'things' with my family.

 

Two quotes I saw on Steve McCurry's blog that really speak to me:

"The traveler sees what he sees.
The tourist sees what he has come to see."     
- G. K. Chesterton

"The World is a book,  and those who do not travel
read only a page." 
- St. Augustine

 

Other things I've seen on the web lately worth noting.

Here is a blog post by my blog friend Linda who wrote this article in response to a question I asked her. Thanks, Linda! It includes information on British beach huts I never knew I didn't know!

http://linda-lindasphotoblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/beach-huts.html

 

A freebie! Digi poloaroid frames are all the rage and you can get a whole set for free here:

Free digi Polaroid frames

http://www.fuzzimo.com/free-hi-res-blank-polaroid-frames/#comment-8221

 

Some great journaling prompts from Ali Edwards

http://aliedwards.com/2011/05/13-everyday-life-journaling-prompts.html

 

A little late on this one, but an important blog post by Shimelle. This topic is close to my heart as you see poor children without education in developing nations when you travel and I feel so helpless of how I can help. The group she highlights seems to be a great way to do something productive.

http://www.shimelle.com/paper/1067/five-ideas-for-scrapbooking-with-girl-power/

Ali Edwards' Week In The Life 2011 - will you participate?

via us1.campaign-archive1.com

I'm on Ali Edwards' email list and I received her announcement the other day with the summer dates for her Week in the Life 2011 project.

For those of you who are not familiar with the Week in the Life project, it is a project Ali Edwards used to teach at Creating Keepsakes University. For one week you document as many details of your life as you possibly can. You do this by taking photographs, collecting memorabilia (brochures, business cards, menus, packaging, clothing tags, receipts, emails, snail mail, ticket stubs, programs, anything you can think of that relates to your life that week) and writing down details about each day. And finally compiling all of this information into an album.

What an amazing keepsake this can be!

Ali is doing A Week in the Life in the summer this year - July 25th through July 31st, 2011 - and she encourages others interested in documenting their lives, to join along. (Click the link above, just below the photo for more details and examples on her website.) I love that she chose summer this year since it offers a different routine than the other three seasons, especially for those of us with kids in school, for example or teachers.

Summer is especially different for our family since we go back to our home country during that time. I have spent a lot of time recording the details of our lives abroad, but surprisingly I have not done a good job of capturing the details of our lives when we go home in the summers. I'm typically tired, jet lagged and want to relax so the camera stays packed away.

A Week in the Life seems like the perfect motivator for me to to pay more attention to the routine of our summers. We stay in California for several weeks and develop routines. The kids go to summer school, we visit our favorite food stores, and I do a lot of shopping - stocking up on clothes for myself and the kids, buying lots of food and other goodies we can't get in China (but that's a post for another day). We catch up with friends, visit favorite restaurants, go to the beach on Fridays and walks to the Village and the library and take picnics at the park. So many special details to capture.

I'd really like to do this project. But the reality of it sounds overwhelming - especially while away from home. I will admit that I have attempted this project before. I have taken lots of photos all week long, collected memorabilia and written things down about our routine at the end of each day, but I've never put anything in an album. I've contemplated doing it digitally but it's the traditional method that appeals to me.

So will I try again this year? I'm seriously considering it. Will I actually complete the album? In order for me to succeed, I've come to terms with that fact that, I will need a plan and I wlil have to do a good deal of prep work - something I typically avoid. As I evolve in my scrapbooking, I am becoming more realistic about prep work.

I'm thinking of coming up with a formula for each week that includes divided page protectors for photos and memorabilia as well as 8.5 x 11 page protectors for journaling and maybe one accent photo. None of these ideas are original. Many amazing albums have been designed before, but I feel strongly about designing my own album however simple & unoriginal it might be. Who knows, maybe someday, I will get over the need to design it myself and I will give in and use one of the templates available on the market. But at this point in time, I am imagining planning out my album before hand and getting an album ready to go before that last week in July arrives. I will then insert memorabilia each day and hopefully jot notes down on preprinted journaling cards that will slip right into the page protectors. Once I print my photos my album will be almost complete.

I can dream!

Only time will tell if I actually complete it. At least I'm being more realistic about it this time.

How about you? Have you ever done a Week in the Life project? Have you started it only to stop part way through? Or have you been like me - documented everything all week and never put anything in an album? If you completed your project, what helped you make it to the end?

Or if not, what got in your way? Please tell me. I'd love to learn from you.

And finally, will you do a Week in the Life project in 2011? What is your plan?

Another Day in Photos, Part 1

 








 

Cute little piggies, that aren't so little any more.

 

The last one is me building some Ikea drawers for my desk. Used the self-timer. None this week with me and anyone else. Gotta keep bugging my family or remember to set up the timer while other people are around.

Part 2 of Another Day in Photos HERE.

 

My Day Hour By Hour: Wednesday, April 14

A Day in Photos: April 25, 2011 

Beijing Week in Photos - 365: Project Life

This week I have more than one photo on many days. Does this ever happen to you? You can't choose just one photo to represent your day. How do you decide? 

In my album, if I have a day that doesn't have a strong photo - it doesn't tell anything new about our family, our habits, our home, our city, or the times we live in - I may skip one day and use two photos from one day. Other times, I will just print both and save one for scrapbooking another way at a later time. 

Sometimes my deciding factor is the orientation of the photo. I like my photos horizontal.

I'd love to hear how you handle the 'more than one photo a day' dilemma. Do you have an underlying philosophy in how you choose your ONE photo? Please let me know in the comments.

 

Sunday, May 8

For Mother's Day, my kids made me a Power Point presentation in lieu of a card. 

Monday, May 9

Now that our schedule has changed around a bit, I can watch all the boys' swim lessons on Mondays. I love that the pool is in our apartment complex - so convenient. So after I watch the first 15 minutes of this lesson, I go home and make sure dinner is ready when the older boys get home. They are both working hard, perfecting their strokes so that they can swim their personal bests.

Tuesday, May 10

Since I've started meal planning, I am surprising myself with all the cooking I am doing on a regular basis. This night while I was making dinner (falafel), I cooked up some marinara sauce from scratch in preparation for the lasagne I was making the next day!  Most of those items in the picture I hand carried back from the States with me at Christmas time. The only items I bought here are the small bottle of dried basil (though there is a replacement from the States in my cabinet), the Extra Virgin Olive Oil & the balsamic vinegar. Yes, I even packed some iodized sea salt to bring back with me! 

 

Wednesday, May 11

Paul had a work lunch this day for his staff and wanted to bring nicely decorated cupcakes made by his wife, but with all the schedule changes, in the end, he forgot to tell me the final date in time for me to decorate. He ended up, the morning of, pulling out all my decorating supplies, frosting the cupcakes I had in the freezer, and dipping them in sprinkles. Better than nothing!

 

Thursday, May 12

Nicholas is sneaking a taste of the dough.

Reece asked me to make oatmeal scones. I was already in the kitchen so I obliged. I don't mind making these because they have a good deal of fiber. I use half whole wheat flour and of course a lot of oatmeal because they are oatmeal scones. I also use canola oil spread instead of butter. They are still likely quite high in fat, but at least it is good fat, right? Even though I made many mistakes with these, they still turned out tasty according to the boys. 

The funniest mistake I made was when I couldn't figure out why the dough wasn't sticking together. I had already turned it out onto my surface lightly dusted with freshly toasted oatmeal. Then I glance over and noticed, I forgot to combine all the dry ingredients with the wet ingredients! DUH! That shows you how much canola spread (butter) is in the dough! There was enough that it almost stuck together - it was crumbly. Of course I threw it back in its original bowl and added the wet ingredients. Then the dough was much easier to manage!

This is not the first time I've made this. I think I was just tired.

I doubled the recipe and still, they were gone within 24 hours.

#3

The nighttime view out our playroom window.

 

Thursday, May 13

Right after school on Friday, we had plans to go with one of Braden's friends to a place with a rock climbing wall. His mom was running a little late, so I got the boys a yogurt for an after school snack. Then they played at the playground right in front of the school. 

#2

Braden's first time to try rock climbing. I was so impressed, he climbed to the top two times - once on the easy track and once on the next level up. He's very determined and athletic. The first go round he was motivated by his friend's success. The second time, he did it because he had confidence from the first time.

#3

When the boys can't settle down, we will have one of them fall asleep in our bed. When we were heading to bed this night, Paul sent Nicholas back to his room by himself. He was so asleep he got disoriented in the living room. Just stood there looking confused and wobbly until finally he settled himself in the chair and fell back asleep. The next morning he did not remember a thing!

 

Friday, May 14

Reece has this new habit (last several months) where he likes to tap his fingers in between his knuckles. It makes this loud rhythmic sound. It drives me a little nutty, but he thinks it is a cool skill he has acquired. And according to him his friends are all quite impressed. He even heard that some of the kids in the younger grades are trying to learn how to do this. So far, he is the only one with this gift in the whole school! I do my best to be tolerant but sometimes it just isn't appropriate (like at a restaurant) and other times, I just need a little silence!!

#3

I had to take a picture of this sign in the window of a cell phone store that we saw on our walk home. Angry birds is such a popular game these days. It is just as popular here in China as any where else apparently. My kids are very familiar with it although we do not own it. We don't do much game playing around our house especially now that our Wii doesn't work. There just is not enough time in the day. And we'd rather spend our weekends out and about or having a family game night with Cranium games, Rumikub, 5 State Rummy, Pictionary Cards, etc. The kids might not agree with us (though they do love family game nights), but they manage some how. We do own the app Plants vs. Zombies but as a consequence it got removed from my iTouch when its use was abused.

LOAD511 Day 10: Catching up with Project Life & Day 11: Always on the go!

I did not post my layout from yesterday, so today you get to see my layout from today and yesterday! Aren't you lucky?

LOAD DAY 10 - Catching up with Project Life 2010

 

Click here to see everything Project Life/ Project 365 on my blog.

LOAD DAY 11

 

 To see everything related to LOAD on my blog (includes how to prepare for LOAD Blog Hop) click here!

 

EXCITING BLOG STUFF COMING UP...

Don't forget I have a guest poster coming up soon. I will be announcing more details soon! And plan to come back on Saturday for a very fun blog hop. More details on that soon as well.

Stacy J’s Finding Photo Freedom Class Giveaway! | Paperclipping

If you listened to this week’s Roundtable episode, then you know Stacy Julian’s Finding Photo Freedom class is now available for purchase and she is giving away TWO seats to the Roundtable audience!

via www.paperclipping.com

If you haven't taken Stacy's Library of Memories class yet, now is your chance to win a space in her new version of the class - Finding Photo Freedom! You will NOT regret it. It is so worth your time.

Go to the link right below the text above and it will bring you to the blog post on Paperclipping.com where you need to leave a comment telling why you need to take this class.

I will keep my fingers crossed for you. Melissa, one of my blog friends, will be one of your wonderful coaches. She's awesome. (I am a coach this year as well, but I will be a coach in the alumni classroom.)

And if you win, let me know so I can be excited for you.

Ok, don't wait, go over there now and enter!

Another Week in Photos (Project Life/Project 365)

Sunday, May 1

We went for a late lunch at Moss, our favorite Japanese-owned bagel restaurant in Beijing. They had available some origami papers and laminated instructions. They asked for a 10 kuai donation, you took some paper, the directions and made some origami figures to be given to survivors of the earthquake and tsunami. Being a lover of Japan and a childhood lover of origami, (I spent many hours folding paper. ) I couldn't resist. Reece, Braden and I all made a few items to place in the basket to be sent back to Japan.

Monday, May 2

The biggest news in a long time. US Navy Seals go into Bin Laden's compound in Pakistan and kills him. A huge long weekend for news with Friday being the royal wedding and Monday being this.

#2

Since the weather has turned spring-like we have been getting on our bikes and riding somewhere in Beijing for the day. This day we went to Houhai, a nice lake in the middle of the city surrounded by hutongs (old-style courtyard homes on narrow streets) to have lunch at Hutong Pizza. The pizza is rated one of the top ten pizza places in Beijing. It was pretty good. Afterwards we had an ice cream while sitting on a bench next to the lake and then we rode home.

Tuesday, May 3

It was a holiday weekend. Originally, the government wanted everyone to work and have school on Saturday and then have Sunday, Monday & Tuesday off of work and school. A week or two before the weekend they changed their mind and let people have Saturday & Sunday off as usual, have Monday off but go back to work and school on Tuesday. Therefore, Reece & Nicholas went back to school on Tuesday, but Braden still had the day off.

Braden's school plans their calendar well in advance so they did not change the holidays on such short notice, not to mention, they never have the kids come to school on the weekends - something I really appreciate. Six consecutive days is too long to attend school or go to work - so much less productivity all around!

Anyway, we spent the morning catching up on weekend homework. This is some of the primary class Chinese characters he is learning. After homework was done, we walked to Ritan park to climb on the rocks and go in the jump house - his request. It was a wonderful day together that reminded me of last year when he only went to school 3 times a week. Watching my boys grow up is bitter sweet.

 

Wednesday, May 4

Paul called just before I had to go pick Braden up from school. He needed our passports to get our new work and residence visas, so right after school Braden and I had to ride to his office. He met us in the parking garage (all bikes) and we went upstairs for a quick frozen yogurt at FM Cafe (fro yo and french fires).

 

Thursday, May 5

This summer Reece & friend, Elliot, worked on a script for a movie. Reece was so excited when Elliot finally emailed him a copy so that he could get to work revising and editing it. I am sure they will work on it more this summer when we are in California.

Friday, May 6

#2

We were behind this cart on our morning commute on bicycle. I always get a kick out of these mobile pet stores. You can't see the aquarium full of gold fish sloshing around while we were turning left across Chang'An Street. He had a special cover taped on it so no fish sloshed out. I wish my picture turned out better.

 

Saturday, May 7

Reece woke up early as usual. He found his Lego Bionicle encyclopedia and was studying different Bionicles trying to make his own creations. 

 

For everything Project Life/Project 365 on my blog, look for the links on my right-hand side bar.

Have a great day!

LOAD: Day 9 - Catching up with Project Life, Part 2

 

I am slowly but surely catching up with my 2010 Project Life. This is my layout for Day 9 of LOAD (LayoutADay.com). The whole project for me is about embracing imperfection. I am taking a straightforwad, no frills approach. I take one photo a day (most of the time), write one card per day and then throw in some ephemera when I think of it. But in the end, our lives are documented, no?

Are you doing Project Life? Do you take a photo a day? What is your approach?

 To see everything related to LOAD on my blog (includes how to prepare for LOAD Blog Hop) click here!

Click here to see everything Project Life/ Project 365 on my blog.

 

Some exciting news! 

Coming up in the next couple of weeks, I will be having a guest blogger! That's all I can say right now. Can you guess who it is or what they might be blogging about? 

I'm so excited about this. I think her expertise will really complement mine. She loves to do something I blog a lot about, but her approach is different than mine. Any ideas?

 

LOAD Day 6: Catching up with Project Life 2010

 

 

Doing a Layout A Day (LOAD) can get a little intense, so I like to break it up with some easy projects like catching up with Project Life. I finally got my mid-April through June photos from 2010 printed. Today I trimmed some of them down, put them in the page protectors and finished up my journaling cards and I was complete with my layout for today. And it feels good to be one page closer to 'catching up' with my 2010 album. 

Click here to see everything Project Life/ Project 365 on my blog.

To see everything related to LOAD on my blog click here!

 

FAMILY x 12 Inaugural Blog Hop TODAY (And lots of other good stuff on the blog like Embrace the Camera & LOAD)!

Welcome to the FAMILY x 12 Blog Hop! Thanks for stopping by my blog.

There are a group of six blogs participating today.

What is FAMILY x 12?

It is a personal project inspired by Tara Whitney. The goal is one family photo per month for a year.

I realized not too long ago that we did not take a family photo during our trips to Singapore or Japan in 2008. That is inexcusable! Those were special and rare opportunities and I missed them.

I realized I needed to make more of an effort to make sure these photos were happening.  So when I saw this: 6 People 12 Times on Tara's blog, I couldn't resist.

How easy is it to flake or forget about this project? Very. How important is it to make taking family photos a habit? Extremely! So, this blog hop was born.

 

JANUARY 2011

This was the very last moment of the month of January, Hawaii time. I piled everyone on the couch and hit the self-timer a few times.

 FEBRUARY 2011

Our first visit as a family to the Forbidden City. Click here to see photos of our snowball fight at THE FORBIDDEN CITY.

MARCH 2011

I actually never managed to get a photo in March so I had my youngest draw a picture of the family. Click here to hear the story behind it.

APRIL 2011

On the local Qing Ming holiday, we took a cooking class that taught us how to make traditional pastries. Click here to see Qing Ming pastry class photos.

 

Since I love to see photos of our family through the years all in one place, I thought I would share this layout that I made in 2009. I have yet to fill in the journaling (still) but I will do that this month! Promise. ENJOY!

To see everything related to FAMILY x 12 on my blog, click here. 

Now, don't stop here! You have six more blogs to visit! Melissa is next on the list. If you should get lost along the way, come back here and you can find a list of all the blogs and get back on the right path. Thanks so much for joining us. If you want to start a project of your own, send me an email (June Family x 12 Blog Hop in subject line) and we can include you in the June 5 blog hop!

Margie  http://xnomads.typepad.com/blog   <--- HERE
Melissa  http://www.melissagross.blogspot.com <---- Next stop
Carol Anne   http://www.scrappingthoughts.com
Ruth  http://www.chattycraftyartypig.blogspot.com
Jo  http://www.mrsbeee.blogspot.com
Sharis  http://www.airbs.blogspot.com

Patricia http://patoliveira.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/ <--- last minute addition (she may not be on the other participant's blog, but please come back here and click on her link to see her post.)

 

(If you're here for EMBRACE the CAMERA, keep scrolling.)

MAY 2011 LOAD DAY 4:

Here is my layout for the day. Another digi one. I know I said I would do a traditional layout today, but I keep finding digi photos that inspire me. Maybe tomorrow??

To see everything related to LOAD on my blog click here!

 

EMBRACE THE CAMERA

For the last few months as I ride my bike around the city, I've been trying to figure out how to get photos of me and my little rider while on the bike. The best thing I have come up with is reflections, but how to do that while we are riding and both hands are on the handlebars? More recently I've been riding my bike with my camera around my neck waiting for opportunities to take pictures. I will pick the camera up with one hand, aim in the general direction I want and press the shutter button. This is the best reflection I got. My face is blocked but my little rider looks cute.

I link up over at andersonfamilycrew.blogspot.com every Thursday.

 Because being in our family's photos is important! 

 

TIMELY SCRAPBOOKING IDEAS

There is an interesting post over at Paperclipping.com where Noell Hyman shares her ideas on capturing current events for our scrapbook pages. I thought this was very timely so I wanted to share the link in case you are interested.

 

PHOTOGRAPHY GUEST POST on Saturday

Coming up on Saturday (UK time), I will be the guest blogger over at Lorraine's blog, The Vue from Here. Lorraine is in the market for a new camera. She is frustrated with the limitations of her point & shoot camera and wants to upgrade to a DSLR. She has enlisted the help of five DSLR users to share their experiences and knowledge to assist her in making her decision.

Today is the forth day of the series, when guest poster, Sue, tells all about her TWO DSLRs and lenses.

The week proves to be full of great information. Head over to The Vue from Here all this week for some fantastic information on DSLRs and great photography conversation. We are all taking questions, so head on over and ask away. And feel free to contribute your own expertise to the conversation!

To see everything related to PHOTOGRAPHY on my blog click here!

Family Photo Blog Hop Info

FAMILY x 12 Mini Blog Hop  - May 5: I will have a mini blog-hop to showcase my monthly personal project FAMILY x 12. If you are taking a monthly family photo (or would like to start) and would like to join us for a little motivation and light accountability, leave me a comment or send me an email and I'll be in touch with the details. (A family photo can be whatever you define as family, even if that is just you and your spouse/partner or you and your cat [dogs count too]!)

Self-Timer Madness Part 2

It's time for Embrace the Camera again! I took the task of getting myself in pictures to a new level this week.

I really wanted photos of me:

**naturally interacting with members of my family

**with my husband (we hardly take any more photos of just the two of us and NONE of us interacting naturally - all posed)

The magic tool, was my camera's SELF TIMER! (To read more detail about my strategy, visit this post.) My husband and I were kissing when we heard some little giggles coming from our 6 year old. In the photo below we were glancing at him. We thought he was giggling at our kisses, but he was laughing at how sporadic the camera was taking photos (click on link above that explains my strategy).

I had set up the timer again, trying to capture us cooking together, but my husband kissed me again.

I told him we should cook so I could get pictures of us cooking together.

He responded, 'I like pictures of us kissing!'

How could I refuse?

It did get me to thinking about the last time we took a kissing picture. I can't remember. When we were dating, we used to do it a lot.

But since?

Could it possibly be on our wedding day 14 years ago in May? I'm not really sure, but it is possible. You can bet, I'll be on the look-out now for any kissing photos taken after our wedding day.

How about you (other married people out there)? When is the last time you've kissed your husband in front of the camera?

If you can't remember, you really should give it a try. Don't worry almost all cameras have a self-timer so nobody else even has to be there. (You don't need a tripod - my camera was sitting on top of the microwave.) And I won't make you post it to your blog - but you can if you want to use it for next week's Embrace Your Camera!

I promise you, it will make you feel like you did when you were first dating! So, give it a try.

 

Next week's goal - a photo of us arguing. Haha! Just kidding.

A Day in Photos

My Day Hour By Hour: Wednesday, April 14

See More Days Here

Self-Timer Madness

The simple thing that made me smile this week is the SELF-TIMER on my camera. All of these photos were taken on Saturday with the SELF-TIMER.

We were cooking together in the kitchen and I wanted to catch us interacting together. I love what I captured.

My camera allows me to take as many photos in a row as I want (I'm sure there is a limit - I don't know what it is). I set it to take 10 in a row. It can't do that many in a row without pausing to catch up. The first 4 or 5 take immediately and the rest are taken randomly as the camera 'catches up.'

I love how it did that. Then it caught us naturally. The first 4 or 5 photos were typically awash, but the rest were great. The biggest trick was getting it to focus in the right spot. Sometimes I was lucky, sometimes it was off, but the expressions overshadowed that lack of technical perfection.

We spent so much time in the kitchen on Saturday. First making homemade lasagne.

Then sugar cookies. I agreed to make sugar cookies if the kids helped me since I don't like making sugar cookies if I can help it.

It was the kids idea to spell out Easter inside the eggs.

How I Approach Project Life & Our Beijing Week in Photos (April 10 to 16)

I must know my readers well or be a lot like many of my readers, because the winning answer on my poll so far was half written by the time the poll went up! (Don't let that stop you from taking the poll, if you haven't already - please visit the post below this one - it will just take a moment of your time - it's only one question!)

Most readers who answered want to see how I approach Project Life/Project 365. (Continue on after the photos to read a brief overview of my approach.)

First, though, I want to thank all of you who have so graciously taken the time to answer my poll and or leave me comments! You're the best!

THE WEEK IN PHOTOS

Sunday, April 10

We rode our bikes to a nearby park that includes rides for kids including bumper cars and drive-it-yourself boats. Most parks in Beijing offer these carnival like rides. We finished the day off with an early dinner at a Japanese restaurant that serves okanomiyaki - a favorite of ours when we lived in the Kansai area of Japan.

Monday, April 11

Starting the day on Monday, we were greeted by the spring window washers. "Good morning!"

 

Tuesday, April 11

Daystar was off for the day due to parent/teacher conferences, so while Reece was at his interview at BCIS and Braden was sick on the couch, Nicholas played the XBox Connect that Dad brought home from work for a few days. The first at home game console that does not need a controller to play.

 

Wednesday, April 12

Braden was home sick all week. This was day #3 and we were checking in on his temperature once again. (Inspired by an Ella Publishing eZine article, I documented this day Hour By Hour, click here to see my post and my scrapbook layout.)

 

Thursday, April 13

Being silly with Dad. Dad was helping Braden brush his teeth. Braden thought it would be a fun idea to stick his toothbrush on Dad's bald head. And it stuck (suction cups on the bottom of his toothbrush). I suppose that is one advantage to being bald.

 

Friday, April 14

Reece and Nicholas are pouring over the WS cookbook Nicholas got for his birthday. They forgot we even had it until I pulled it out and reminded them of it. I told them they could make breakfast in the morning and I would help. They thought that was a great idea! Hurray!

 

Saturday, April 15

They made a giant baked apple pancake which was enough to feed our whole family with leftovers. They didn't love the recipe. It was too 'egg-y.' We will try this again and adjust the recipe to our family's liking. They enjoyed making breakfast so much that they woke up early on Sunday, wouldn't let us out of our room because they wanted to surprise us with popovers. So sweet of them!

To see all other posts featuring my weekly Photo A Day wrap up, click here.

 

PROJECT LIFE/ PROJECT 365 UPDATE

3 or 4 times a week, I upload my photos into Lightroom.

Next, I rate my photos. Soon after my photos are uploaded, I quickly go through and star my photos. I have a 3 star system. And I go through my photos two or three times first giving all good ones 1 star, then I go back through the 1 stars and upgrade a few to 2 and occasionally I upgrade some to 3, but they have to be worthy.

From those 1 stars, I choose potential POTDs and then keyword them as POTD (Photo of The Day).  I often have more than one photo from the day keyworded as such. A keyword is like a tag, so the photos are easy to sort later on. (Please let me know if you are not familiar with keywords or tags and I will post a screen shot in the next few days to explain what I mean - specific to Lightroom.)

While I am doing this, I also keyword my photos (especially if I have starred them). I usually focus on the names of who is in the photo, location and any other important facts (i.e., special event, relationship, personality trait) I want to remember.

I try to rate and do basic keywording before I upload any more photos, so I can keep track of which ones are finished.

At the end of the week, I view all of my POTD photos. This is very easy to do in Lightroom due to their easy and powerful sorting and cross referencing features. I make sure I have 1 or more photos per day. I narrow it down to one photo for each day. If I have two appropriate photos for one particular day, I will let it slide. (I often leave the keyword POTD on more than 2 photos, but I only export maximum two photos per day to be uploaded to my blog.)

I upload these photos to my blog and write my little blurb. I use this information to jar my memory when I go to write on my journaling cards.

All my POTD photos for my Project Life album are horizontal. A few weeks into last year (my first year doing Photo A Day), I made this decision for a few reasons:

*I don't want to take the extra time to resize my photos to fit the smaller vertical pockets for the Project Life album.

*I don't want to have to worry about how many vertical and how many horizontal photos I need for any other type of multi-photo album page if I decide on that format for 2011.

*To make this project do-able for me, I had to make it as simple as possible! This decision supports that criteria.

NOTE: Every once in a while, I have the perfect photo that is vertical and I am OK with that, but 95% of my photos are horizontal.

*I like the uniformity when looking at the album too. I do not like a vertical photo placed in the album sideways.

Once a month I go through my POTD photos for the month. Sometimes I have 10 or 15 POTDs from one day. I try to narrow those down as much as possible. I do not mind printing more than one photo per day. I plan to use one photo per day for my album and keep the other favorite prints around for scrapbooking purposes. This makes sure I always have a few recent photos to scrapbook.

2010

Since I stopped printing photos for Project Life (BeckyHiggins.com) last year in mid-April, I am also trying to get the rest of those photos printed, so I am going through the rest of the year, one month at a time, making sure I have a POTD for every day.  

For the weeks that I didn't take a photo everyday, I make sure I have at least 7 for the week. I decided to make the rest of 2010 a 7 photos a week project. I am starting mid-April and printing them out by month until I get them all printed. I am currently waiting for mid-April through June. They should be here tomorrow. I will then start putting them in my Project Life album along with much of the ephemera I had been slipping into my album throughout the year.

As I get my pages from 2010 complete, I will share some here. I do not personalize my album much besides adding ephemera and writing on the journaling cards. I knew if I tried to get cute with it, I would never get it done. Besides I am a simple scrapbooker in the purest sense of the word.

Let me know if you have any questions about my system or if you have any tips to share? And if you post your Photo A Day album, please leave me a link in the comments, I'd love to stop by and see it.

 

 

Future Posts You might be interested in:

**how I organize my photos

**how I use the techniques of professional photojournalists to take more meaningful & interesting photos of my life & family

I'm working on these posts right now!

My Life, Hour By Hour

via www.ellapublishing.com

On Tuesday I was checking out the latest articles on Ella Publishing's free eZine. I particularly liked one written by Elizabeth Dillow where she made a scrapbook layout that documented one day in her life by taking one photo every hour on the hour.

Great idea!

I am a total sucker for any strategy that documents daily life using a camera. If I hear of some new way to do it, I just have to try it! And I do as soon as I can.

I've done A Week in the Life (Ali Edwards) twice, I've done a month long project in one of Stacy Julian's classes at BPC, I've taken a photo a day for a month using a prompt from the very first BPC class I took way back in 2007 and I'm on my second year of Project 365 (taking a photo a day for the entire year). Oh, and I've also taken daily photos for Shimelle's Journal Your Christmas.

Do my photos ever make their way into an album? Not usually.

Does that ever stop me from trying out the next idea I hear? Nope.

So, Tuesday night before I climbed into bed, I started to prepare. I set alarms on my Blackberry, my computer and my iTouch to give me a warning at quarter to the hour and on the hour 'Take a Photo', they read.

I woke up at 8:15 AM. My youngest son was was up numerous times during the night and was sick for the third day in a row which meant I didn't have to get up at any special time to take him to school. [My husband gets the other two boys ready in the mornings since they leave the house at the same early hour (7:15).]

8:30 AM

The first thing I did was text Braden's teacher to let her know that he still wouldn't be at school.

 

9:00 AM - Still under the weather but wanting to eat, we moved out to the kitchen for breakfast. As a treat I bought these - just for kids- oatmeal packets. He is choosing which two to mix together.

 

10:00 AM - Checking email with a cup of coffee. Still haven't left the kitchen since breakfast.

 

11:00 AM - Heading for the game table/work table to do a layout.

#1

 

#2 Taking some fever reducer at 11:00 AM

 

12:00 PM - We went downstairs to our little import store on the campus of our apartment complex. Had to get food for dinner. Click here to see my menu plan for the week. [Braden was trying to lift the very heavy basket that I had left there because it was too heavy for me to carry around while shopping. The two women in the background are mincing my meat and I have no idea how it could have taken them so darned long. We were waiting a good ten minutes. Luckily, I had other shopping to do while I passed the time.]

 

BONUS PHOTO: I had to include this one. We were riding up together in the elevator and I made some comment about how I hoped the elevator would arrive soon before I dropped my heavy load. My little boy said, "Why don't you give ME some of that stuff to carry?"

1:00 PM - Braden has a snack while Mom puts away the groceries. What I bought: minced beef, C&H light brown sugar (they only had two bags left on the shelf so I bought one because once they are out you never know how long it can be until they get more in - sometimes months), Kettle tortilla chips were on the clearance rack (chips are so expensive I rarely buy and at home we only buy tortilla chips to go with salsa) - Dad made some tasty homemade salsa since no place to buy fresh salsa in Beijing, potatoes, onion, Italian whole wheat saltines, apple juice (Braden requested since he wanted to try the new juice on the shelf - how does one say no to a sick little boy), Taiko brown sugar (from Japan - this is some intense brown sugar, so heavy with molasses, so I plan to mix with the other light brown sugar - my preference is dark brown sugar which they haven't had at our store in a very long time), oranges, apples, Wonder Milk yogurt (strawberry & plain)

#2 - right after I took the first pic, the phone rang - it was my husband (in a way I am documenting two peoples' days, so I gave myself permission to take two pics some hours)

2:00 PM - Taking the opportunity to make a scrapbook page while I am stuck inside (3rd day in a row) with a sick little boy.

3:00 PM - Working on a hybrid element for my page (I'm on the floor because I am too lazy to put my computer back on the desk to plug in the printer, so I sat right down next to it.) while Braden gets some coputer time.

 

4:00 PM - Getting out stuff to make dinner while going back and forth between the kitchen and the game table working on my page.

5:00 PM - My oldest two boys arrive home and head straight for the kitchen for something to eat.

#1

#2 Making an afterschool snack. (Because I am a second born child, I have to include two photos so as not to exclude any one!)

 

6:00 PM - Dinner comes out of the oven. It's ready for when the older boys come home from swimming lessons. Their lesson are just downstairs in the apartment pool. On the menu tonight - Diner Meatloaf Muffins (first time I've ever made meatloaf for the family) and mashed potatoes. Thumbs up from two, thumbs down from two. Everyone loved the mashed potatoes.

 

7:00 PM

Another bonus photo - I took a peek out the window waiting for the older boys to walk home from their swimming lessons that end at 7:00 PM.

 

Photo #2 - Checking in with the progress at the game table - the page is almost done. Just need to paint the stars, figure out how to fasten them down and write the journaling.

The real photos:

Taking Braden's temperature - 99.1 degrees F

 

His recently re-discovered light saber kept him company on the couch all day.

8:00 PM - Bedtime story - tonight was my turn to pick: Frederick by Leo Lionni

#2 Reece is finishing up his homework at the kitchen table. He usually likes to work at his desk, but Nicholas is already in bed with the light off. (With the warmer temps and before the government allows the air conditioners to be turned on, it gets a little stuffy in our apartment in the evenings, so my kids are always taking off their shirts!)

 

PHOTO REMOVED

 

9:00 PM - Downloading my photos since my memory card is full!

10:00 PM - My husband did a little work while he was waiting for me to relax on the couch and watch a little TV before bed. (I took a pic with me too, but the angle was so awful we both looked distorted).

 

THE LAYOUT

Originally I had no intention of putting these photos into a layout right away, however, while in the middle of writing this post and uploading photos throughout the day (very slow internet connection in China), I was catching up with fellow students' blogs from Blogging for Scrapbookers and I discovered that another student from our class had a layout featured in the Hour By Hour article at Ella! I didn't know that when I reblogged the article. In fact, I didn't discover that until just before I was about to publish this post. 

It turns out my fellow student, Kim Byrns, did a digital layout for the page call. And she is generously offering that template as a free download on her blog.

After all the complaining I did at the beginning of this post about never using my photos after taking them, and then having this template practically handed to me, it was obvious what I needed to do!

THANKS, KIM! Now my photos are already in a layout! Project done!

 

 

COMING UP ON THE BLOG

ALPHANUMERIC Blog Hop

*Sunday, April 17 - Alphanumeric Blog Hop for fun! This one is hosted by blog friend, Mel from her blog, I Speak Melsh. Stay tuned for more details. This one sounds very, very interesting...

ONE LITTLE WORD Blog Hop

*May 1 - OLW Monthly Blog Hop (One on 1) - I host this blog hop every month on the 1st. It is a blog hop for students of Ali Edwards' One Little Word class at Big Picure Classes. You can still sign up for the class as well as the blog hop (if you are a student). For the class, go to BigPictureClasses.com and for the blog hop, go to the OLW classroom message boards and there is information on how to sign-up in the Chit Chat section.

FAMILY x 12 Mini Blog Hop

* May 5 I will have a mini blog-hop to showcase my monthly personal project FAMILY x 12. If you are taking a monthly family photo (or would like to start) and would like to join us for a little support, motivation and light accountability, leave me a comment or send me an email and I'll be in touch with the details. (A family photo can be whatever you define as family, even if that is just you and your spouse/partner or you and your cat [dogs count too]!)

 

Just for Kids Survey: My Brilliant Idea for Journaling!

One of my favorite things to do is interview my kids. For as long as I can remember, it has been a birthday tradition around our house. (Click here and here to see posts about their interviews.)

My husband video tapes and I write down all of their answers in a notebook. Someday I plan to splice together all of the footage and I will be able to see my kids grow up right before my very eyes. Unfortunately, I have not done a good job of keeping all of these things in an easy to find and organized system, but someday I will! And then we will have the best video and the best scrapbook on the planet.

I don't reserve interviews only for birthdays, you see. I find any excuse to sit my kids down and ask them some questions. I just love getting that little glimpse of who they are and what they like at any given time. When all the stars align, I even make a scrapbook page with the information. When that happens, I'm always so proud of myself since I have a hard time putting info I collect into finished projects! But I digress...

As the kids have gotten older, they are less excited about answering my silly questions and they are even less excited about writing out their answers.

One thing they do love, however, is everything COMPUTER! So, this is where my genius idea came in...

SURVEYMONKEY.com!!!

Can you see where I am going with this one? I opened up a free surveymonkey.com account and typed in all of my questions, set up my survey, and then sat my kids in front of the computer and let them go to town. Of course my 12 and a half year old answered every question 'I don't know this quiz.', the first time around, (I have no idea what that means, by the way. Perhaps it is a 12 year old's attempt at cheeky humor?) but once I set him straight he co-operated and answered them all.

There are some limitations to the free account at Surveymonkey.com. The most limiting one is that you can only make ten-question surveys. My cheapskate solution? Create another ten-question survey. That's better for the short attention span of a teen or pre-teen anyway, right?

If you would like to see an example of the first survey I created, click the link below. I think I got the questions from a BigPictureClasses.com class I took at one time or perhaps it was an old Simple Scrapbooks special issue.

Click here to take survey

Let me know what you think! Do you have any ideas to share on getting precious information out of your kids? Or other difficult people? I have yet to get anyone in my extended family to fill out one of my questionaires.

Maybe it's time for me to try Surveymonkey on them!!!