{ a swoop and a dart }

Ten on Tuesday: Links List

My favorite #accidentalselfie yet, from the Montgomery Zoo

1. OH MY GOSH. This is so good. Though I am skeptical of the claim that Aussies love pumpkin pie, especially since my attempts to introduce it in New South Wales ended me up on the International Smuggling Watch List.

2. I think this is great—way to go, Bic!

3. This is hands-down the most intense and well-reported story I've ever heard on This American Life. It's a must-listen, though here's a disclaimer: the internet archives version is a little more censored than the podcast version. Still, I recommend listening to the podcast version with headphones or after children have gone to bed, because it illustrates how absolutely terrible and complex the situation is.

4. Great, life-saving idea.

5. Touché.

6. We LOVE THIS SHOW.

7. I haven't giggled so much about something on the internet in a very long time.

8. These are on sale this week and I'm debating getting Maddie some.

9. Halloween Decision Day is this week and Gracie is leaning heavily toward this. I might need to fly Abby in to help.

10. I've been dreaming of visiting here, which is highly unlikely at any point in the foreseeable future, but still.

And a bonus:

Matt and I did this when there was a discount coupon recently, and we're both VERY IMPATIENT FOR THE RESULTS. We're hoping for more than trace amounts of Melungeon (Matt) and Scandanavian (me). We'll see.

This post is part of a list-making project called Lists With Friends 2014, an effort to document the year in lists of all types. I love lists, and I love a good project.

 

 

That Scrapbooking Blog Hop

My lovely and wildly talented friend Erica tagged me for a scrapbooking blog hop thingy that's making the rounds on the internets... she also accused me of not posting enough about scrapbooking here, and she is right. This has never been so much of a scrapbooking blog, eh? She might have a point. Here goes!

1. What am I working on right now?

The big answer to this question: getting my act together. This is code for "not much is getting done but I have big plans." Sadly, I feel like I'm in this space more than I'd like to be. It might be related to the back-to-back(-to-back) moves, it might be related to having three school-aged children. It most assuredly could be mitigated a little more with better to-do list writing. The more specific answer to this question:

+ a logo design project for Katherine
+ Wizarding World of Harry Potter albums... from 2011
+ addressing the multitudes of Disney pictures from our wonderful trip this summer and desigining a plan for them
+ straightening up my Aperture library and making some hard decisions about what to do next now that Apple is killing off Aperture (sigh)
+ distributing some undistributed photos far and wide
+ creating some gymnastics mini-albums for the girls
+ planning which Christmas gifts will be handmade and which won't for 2014
+ designing Christmas cards to be sent the day after Thanksgiving
+ evaluating some new options for professional/creative work in 2015
+ evaluating some options for a 2015 personal project
+ saving up to replace my Canon 5D with a Canon Mark III
+ I'm going to stop here because this list could seriously go on for 100 more lines.

Look! A hastily-shot, not cleaned up photo of my table to illustrate that it has been used recently, just not enough. And family, there's the stapler everyone's been looking for. Ahem.

2. How long does it take me to create a project?

If I'm under deadline, a project takes me the time between when I finally quit procrastinating and the deadline. If I'm not under deadline, it can take years. Ha. This is not my most endearing quality, I know. As for a single scrapbook page, it always takes longer than it looks like I should have taken—simple does not equal fast, necessarily. At least not for me.

3. What are my favorite things to create with at the moment?

Photos and words, always. Beautiful patterned paper. Things that are used in ways they weren't intended to be used.

4. How does my writing/creating process work?

I think about things a lot, much like any good woolgatherer worth her salt might. I am a notebook scribbler, and sometimes I make myself lists of things I want to write about on this blog (or scrapbook pages I want to make that don't end up on this blog). I don't keep a journal beyond this blog, unless you count the hundreds of emails I don't ever delete or letters I don't throw away, which are a wealth of personal history. Whether I'm writing something here or scrapbooking with more visual elements beyond photographs, it all comes down to the story first; everything else falls into place after I've identified the story I want to tell. I've often thought I could benefit from some sort of personal editorial calendar so the process wasn't so random, but I might be too old to teach new tricks at this point.

5. How do I become inspired and stay inspired?

My sources of inspiration are really the same no matter where I am: How magazine or graphic design websites/books, downtowns, getting out of town with my camera in hand, occasionally Pinterest, always looking at children's book illustration, and hanging out with like-minded creative people discussing creative plans. If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's this: there is no way to stay inspired indefinitely. Believing that is possible is a surefire invitation to bang one's head on a wall. The creative ebb and flow is not only natural, but crucial to sustaining creativity over a lifetime.

6. What is my signature style?

I'm never 100% sure how to answer this one. I guess I'll say: simple, graphic, and ever-so-slightly esoteric. I love design principles more than new product, and I love good photos and stories best of all.

 

The point of this blog hop is to tag three favorite scrapbookers so they can in turn answer the questions the following week! I have a cast of favorites, but for the purposes of this particular hop I will tag:

Linda Barber (who could scrapbook with sticks and twigs and cheapie construction paper and still make me gasp in admiration at her perfect design)(she doesn't do that, but she could)

Angie Lucas (who is a super-genius when it comes to cleverness and journaling and meaningful scrapbooking)

and Wilna Furstenberg (who has already answered the questions when I wasn't looking for someone else. But I'm tagging her anyway because she has a new and wonderful workshop opening up this week at Big Picture Classes, and it will be amazing. If you don't know her, you should!)
   
    

Quizapalooza Giveaway Winner

Random.org selected #5:

Which happens to be Lynne!

Congratulations, and thanks for playing along : )

Caption Rewrite, Plus a Giveaway

I posted this photo of Bridget running up the stairs at the gym on Instagram yesterday, with the caption "Bee, post-gym." As the picture sunk in, so did the story—enough that I wanted a chance to redo the telling of it.

What I should have written instead:

Lately I have to hold my breath when Bridget runs up the stairs after gymnastics, not sure if she'll be bouncing up the stairs with excitement over some new skill attempted or deflated by a self-imposed sense of defeat brought on by a disproportionate ratio of exuberance to strength or endurance. She has impatiently waited for over a year to be promoted to pre-team, and now that she's there, she's discovering it is a far harder place to be than she imagined. Do we encourage her through the transition until her muscles and skills catch up? Do we start to firmly suggest other sports, even though her heart has always been at the gym? Is she pursuing gymnastics because it's become the family business, or does she genuinely love it, too? Is there anything worse than a kid who is afraid to voice her true opinions?

It is so hard to know. Even when you ask her, it's still hard to know the right thing.

When I saw the light falling on these stairs yesterday, I hot-footed it over to catch a picture of it. I knew she would come up the stairs before the sunshine shifted, and I wanted to get a picture of her in that light, too. She was four parts unhappy-exhausted to six parts happy-tired last night when the shadows fell away, so we'll continue to wait and see for now.

•••••••••••••••••••

You know who is really good at teasing the stories out of people and pictures? Angie Lucas. Her newest Big Picture Classes workshop kicks off tomorrow, and I'm excited to share a free spot! Here are the details:

There's no question about it: your story matters.

And there's no easier, faster, or more satisfying way to tell your story than through quizzes and questions!

Introducing Quizapalooza, a 5-week interactive workshop that makes it simple to share meaningful stories in your scrapbooks, journals, and Project Life albums—or even via your blog or social media channels.

Your instructor, Angie Lucas, has carefully curated more than 180 questions to help you capture fascinating tidbits about all areas of your life, including:

Who: The People You Love
What: Objects, Ideas & Experiences
When: Past, Present & Future
Where: Places that Matter
Why: Reasons & Explorations

It is a fact: Angie makes people better writers and storytellers. Her workshop is full of questions that won't let you fall victim to the generic caption, whether you're a scrapbooker, a blogger, an Instagrammer, or some combination of all three. Leave me a comment here to be eligible to take her class (normally $39) for free! Registration will remain open until September 24. I'll announce the winner tomorrow so you can jump in on Day 1!

[Giveaway now closed, thanks for playing along!]

 

Then/Now

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, Colorado Springs, 2010 | Montgomery Zoo, Montgomery, 2014

Ten on Tuesday

1. It's Wednesday. I know.

2. I don't recommend forgetting to put the gold filter in the coffee maker before setting the timer the night before. The coffee will be drinkable, but not very desirable.

3. Did I mention we had to replace our beloved Cuisinart coffee maker because the cabinets come down so low in this kitchen that it didn't fit? This wasn't even a problem in The 1938 House. I guess we could have just kept it on the dining room table, but... now it's ground coffee for us because ain't nobody got time to grind beans separately this year. We bought a DēLonghi coffeemaker because it was short.

4. It works out for Matt to pick up Maddie today; it also isn't a gym day, so Gracie and Bridget ride the bus to Little Korea (their Monday/Wednesday afternoon bus stop is like momentarily being in South Korea). THIS MEANS I DON'T HAVE TO DRIVE DOWNTOWN TODAY. It feels like I've won the lottery.

5. Are we the only people who are shocked and saddened by the killing-off of the 160 GB iPod Classic? I think we might be. Ours is a 2008 model. It can't last forever, and there won't be a replacement.

6. I KNOW I'm not the only person shocked and saddened by the killing-off of Aperture. The Aperture user websites I frequent are full of people like me. This might be the first time I've ever been dreading the big September Apple announcements, because it's been looming for months.

7. Oh, princess. I'm sorry.

8. Homemade watermelon sorbet: a huge hit. That Jeni is splendid, alright. 

9. Maddie got all haughty with me yesterday about my lackadaisical attitude toward the Metric system. What can I say? What you're like as a 4th grader will pretty much be what you're like as a 41 year old, and I remember very distinctly not caring that much about the Metric system back then, either. Heh.

10. There are so many good movies coming up! Gracie most recently pointed out this one:

 

Recently (In Photos)

We ate muscadines off the arbor (awesome).

We walked in some very sad footsteps.

Learned about yarn painting...

...and animal cells.

I tried to hack a Lifeproof case with a vase but it didn't really work.

Ellie and I stopped to smell the zinnias.

I shook my fist at Sam's Club in my head. Really? September 5?

I scrapbooked for Laura Kurz's class, Pen & Paper.

I had a super-fun date with a bunch of second graders to talk about public speaking (and marveled at how this school hangs up student work everywhere! This shouldn't really be a marvel, but an expectation, I know... we're still adjusting after a really hard year last year).

I shook my head at the sheer amount of bags it takes to get us through the day (and Matt's bags aren't even pictured, or our Tues/Thurs dinner-in-the-car bag)

We met up with some dear friends but didn't think to take a group photo until after everyone was hot, hungry, and tired. Heh. They had way more fun than it looks here.

I added another author (Daniel Wallace) to my list of authors I've met (that will make a good list! Stay tuned).

We had dinner at the home of an old friend of mine; Maddie and Eden were in utero friends, and went to a lot of grad school classes together at University of Wyoming before they were born. And now they're 12 : ) Eerie coincidence: Eden, P, and T (pictured above) all share the same first address, as they lived in the same house on base in WY (though not at the same time). Ha.

Gracie turned her old Graceland shirt into a really awesome decorative pillow. She is getting good at the sewing, this one.

I turned these strawberries into ice cream. Better than turning straw into gold, right?

Happy Monday!

15 Second Review: Sam's Club Pillows

I haven't been sleeping very well lately and decided I needed a new pillow. Instead of my usual Target $5 pillow purchase, I grabbed some standard/queen "Hotel Luxury Reserve Collection" pillows when I was at Sam's Club on Thursday. It is the best pillow I have ever slept on and I woke up this morning in the middle of a dream about how good my pillow was. The end.

A Friday List

1. Time to announce the winner of a signed copy of Big Fish! Random.org chose:

Which happens to be:

Yay! I'll be meeting Mr. Wallace on Saturday morning, so expect your book next week : )

2. We are still mostly hobbling to the finish line by Friday.

3. I have finally figured out which logo belongs to Auburn and which belongs to Alabama. I still can't remember which school had its trees poisoned by the angry person, though, and can't figure out how an elephant and "roll tide" go together.

4. It doesn't really matter, because I've decided my Alabama team will be Alabama State anyway. The campus is pretty and the magic parking spot I recently discovered there cuts 20 minutes off the time it takes to pick up Gracie and Bridget from school across the street, which creates a debt of gratitude that cannot be emphasized enough. Also, some of Maddie's favorite teachers this year are ASU alumni. Go Hornets!

5. This was the most interesting thing I heard on the radio this week. Apparently it isn't new, but as I was subjected to Robin Thicke or OneRepublic every single time I tried to listen to non-NPR radio last year, I am especially appreciative of 104.9 The GUMP. Upon further inspection, I've decided I like the sound more than the meaning (eek).

6. I can't get enough of this picture of Euclid Avenue in downtown Cleveland, 1920.

7. I'm a contributor to this cool class from Studio Calico, and it sure was fun to actually scrapbook for the first time since moving to Alabama.

8. This and this arrive tomorrow and you'd think it was Christmas Eve.

9. I do not get the appeal of these, though Grace and Bridget sure seem to love them. (?)

10. Add these to my unreasonable list of demands  wish list when Matt retires from the Air Force.

This post is part of a list-making project called Lists With Friends 2014, an effort to document the year in lists of all types. I love lists, and I love a good project.