{ a swoop and a dart }

Finished: September Edition

Welcome to Unfinished, my blog project for 2015! You can read all the posts here to catch up, and please feel welcome to join in at any point!

Today marks the end of the third quarter of 2015—I know—and I finally tackled a tiny tip of the iceberg part of the whole reason why I decided to conduct this little "unfinished" project in the first place: PHOTO MANAGEMENT.

Oh, photo management. It is my Kryptonite. I am oh-so-very-good at racking up the shutter count and oh-so-very-bad at being a responsible grownup when it comes to efficient photo management. I mean, they're all pretty well organized. I have boxes of carefully sorted-by-year film photos pre-2004, and digital photo management programs that are carefully organized by year, month, special projects, etc. I have a fairly hefty collection of printed photos, many which are carefully preserved in regular albums, scrapbooks, mini-albums, even digital photo books. No paying client has ever had to wait beyond a reasonable turnaround for photos. However. Ask my in-laws how many years it took to get wedding photos in an album for them (hint: it rhymes with thrive-and-a-half). It took more than that to get the school photo albums made. I could go on and on and on, but I don't want to bore anyone with my lifelong struggle with timeliness and responsibility.

Hogsmeade at Universal, one of the happiest places on Earth

So: for this month's project, I decided to tackle photos from Universal for The Great Birthday Surprise of 2012. I still hadn't sent Nancy my photos from this adventure, even though

    a.) we went to Disney together in 2014

    b.) we went BACK to Universal together in 2015

(those photos haven't been shared either)

Ahem.

To paraphrase Lao Tzu: the journey of 100,000 photographs starts with editing 357.

With any luck, this envelope will show up at Nancy's house today.

I sat down this week and powered through it all. It isn't that I don't love photos (GOODNESS, I DO); it isn't that I don't love reliving that amazing trip, the biggest harebrained scheme the two of us have ever hatched (IT WAS THE BEST!); it isn't that I want to deny Nancy photographs (THAT WOULD BE WEIRD). It's just that... well, I don't know. Sometimes I am inexplicable. I promise to try harder. In the meantime, I will keep reminding myself of all the photos that have been managed in one way or another and take comfort in knowing that those are stories told. There are just so many more to share.

Did you finish up anything this month? Be sure to check back on Monday when I feature a masterful photographer who probably never acts irresponsibly in the face of her photo catalog : )

What I Did Last Night

All day I kept reminding myself that 6:54 was the time the moon was going to rise over the Sandias, and guess what I was doing at 6:54? NOT REMEMBERING THAT. But we still made it outside to see some of the other fun astronomy stuff. I am a sucker for pictures from across the country and around the world, and the country and world did not disappoint : )

Interesting Things for the Weekend

I am unapologetic for my love of the Muppets and Jim Henson.

I'm feeling some angst over the new ABC Muppets show, to the point of skipping it. (Yes, this was a hand-wringing decision this week.) Even though this interview says one thing, this, this, and this say something completely different.

Maddie's English teacher is excellent this year, and she is bringing home all sorts of hard and challenging thoughts she wants to talk about. If you haven't seen this already, I share on her behalf this weekend. It's a tearjerker.

Speaking of tearjerkers, so is this story. I've always thought Emmett Till's mother was simultaneously one of the bravest and saddest women to ever live.

I got all the laundry done, folded, AND put away in a timely manner this week because I was listening to the Screen Time Part 1 & Part II episodes of TED Radio Hour. Should be required listening for everyone. Amazing.

This might be the most inspiring house tour I've ever seen.

Did you catch that Happy Birthday is finally free? No more obnoxious pseudo-songs at restaurants!

Am I the only one surprised to discover that Elle King is ROB SCHNEIDER'S DAUGHTER? I don't know why this startled me so much, but it did. Aside: we know Ex's and Oh's by heart because the radio station played it at the exact same minute every day when we were driving to gymnastics this summer.

In other music news, Bridget and I were driving back to school from her orthodontist appointment this week and heard the original Rhapsody in Blue on Performance today performed by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and it was amazing. I have never heard anything but the full orchestral version for some reason and it is maybe 1000 times better when performed in its original jazz orchestra form. WOW. Totally worth listening to (I'm looking at you, Mama)

Speaking of orthodontist appointments, Bridget had a rough one this week—and is now getting used to a palate expander for the next 3-5 months. Yikes. I took this picture of her yesterday after gym because she needed to feel tough—it's been a hard week for her all around. It was inspired by Kate T. Parker's Strong Is the New Pretty project which you should definitely check out.

News I can use, and maybe you, too. The coyotes are awfully close by—last night there was one who lost its pack and was walking around our neighborhood hollering (sounded like a monkey, actually) and woke me up. I almost got out of bed to record it for the NPR Backyard Sounds submission but apparently I was only 73% awake, and didn't actually get out of bed. It was LOUD, though.

We are getting very excited!

That's a lot of links. Have a great weekend!

Finding the Funny

Angie Lucas and I were guests on The Paperclipping Roundtable yesterday, invited to share our "writing-with-humor" schticks. You can listen to the episode on iTunes (subscribe to the podcast while you're at it—if you're a crafty type, it's always a fun one!) or at Paperclipping.com. Today we're sharing dual blog posts with a few of the tips we mentioned in the episode; you can read Angie's post here.

Perhaps you are familiar with the inspirational posters that turn THINK into an acronym to provide a test for teaching kids how to interact and respond with others:

THINK

... is it true?...is it helpful?...is it inspiring?...is it necessary?...is it kind?

We have a little joke in this house that they're missing one at the end: is it funny?

Of course we don't advocate making fun of others in a mean-spirited way in our house. Nothing could be further from the truth. But then again... we do value humor around here—perhaps at an equal level to the other THINK principles—because the ability to poke a little fun at ourselves is a way to survive and build connections with each other and most importantly, a way to approach the world with a smile and a light heart. And when you consciously choose to look for the funny side of things, you find it. Sometimes sooner than later, but we generally get there. Eventually.

The stories we love to tell over and over again are the funny ones: Matt's "knucklehead stories" from when he was little that always follow the same formula—what should I have done? What do you think I did do? The time I drove myself and a five-week-old Bridget to the Oakland airport, 90 minutes or so from home, only to discover in airport parking that my diaper bag (containing not just baby supplies, but all of my carefully typed itineraries/directions/rental car information) was still at home, sitting on the bed... that's a good one. The We Had a Bat In Our House in 2012 story is a crowd favorite, as are just about all the throw-up stories we can rattle off (sorry, but it's true). Matt's trackerjacker story has become comedic legend, as has his I Fell Up the Escalator In Front of 20,000 People at the Pentagon story. His newest addition to the collection, I Missed an International Flight and Lived To Tell the Tale, is also destined to become a classic in the Canon of Dillow Family Stories. Our funny stories aren't always the "look what happened to me" variety, though; we love to tell the one about Gracie manipulating the experiment in instant gratification by turning the timer off and swiping all the chocolate chips.That time I wrote about My New BFF still makes me giggle. Bridget's ability to tell it like it is regularly cracks us up (see above). And sometimes, just pointing out features of our personalities is enough to get me going. As is this picture.

I am convinced: finding the funny is a practice. Sometimes we find ourselves funnier than other people find us (not naming names, not naming stories) but it's worth it to tell funny stories and develop a mindset in which safe sharing—meaning, people are laughing with you and not at you—is encouraged. Of course, it's worthwhile to document these stories, too. Whether you write in a private journal, a public blog, a shared scrapbook, a letter to a friend—it's absolutely worthwhile. But it isn't always easy. Here are a few ways to make it easier:

1. Own it.

It's hard to capture funny stories when you don't have any—but far easier when you consciously accept that life is just absurd and bizarre sometimes. What else is there to do but acknowledge your role in it and laugh? This is not to encourage anyone to be a class clown in school, work, or life, but it is to encourage everyone to simply set down the self-imposed shame that comes from making a fool of oneself. Or worrying about the potential of making a fool of oneself. We all make fools of ourselves. People who make fun in a mean way lose their power when you've already acknowledged it as true. When you aren't afraid to poke fun of yourself, you give others permission to as well—and to laugh together in the process. Once you've made this decision, funny stories are easier to find.

Gracie's toddler hair will never not be funny

2. Observe and listen to other funny people.

Storytelling is an art, whether in written or spoken form; it is so much easier to develop a skillset for telling a funny story when you listen to other people tell funny stories. My two personal favorites: Mike Birbiglia and Tina Fey. They have a sense of timing when it comes to revealing key details that borderlines on absolute perfection. They don't reveal too much at a time, they don't try too hard to smack you in the head with humor, and they're self-deprecating but in a way that steers clear of being mean-spirited, which is important to me. (Mike Birbligia's line "I KNOW. I'm in the future too!" will never not be the funniest line ever.) I never sit down to write a story with their formula in mind, but I do think it helps to identify what it is about other funny people that appeals to your own sense of humor and construct a basic set of principles that guide you when you write.

3. Write as you would speak.

Angie touched on this in her post when she mentioned the idea of varying sentence structure with brevity; when you're working to capture a funny story, you simply wouldn't share it out loud in flowery complete sentences. I think it becomes easier to capture this more natural storytelling style when you actually share funny stories out loud with regularity, because you're then just relaying a story you've already told vs. trying to come up with perfect sentence structure from scratch.

4. Don't try too hard.

Not everything is funny, and there is no expectation to turn everything that happens in ordinary life into a comedic legend. Sometimes a spade is just a spade : ) Artificial attempts at humor are simply not funny. A common problem in writing is the frustration of feeling as if something is translating as forced; you know it as the writer, and it definitely won't resonate with a reader, either. There's also a middle-ground: chuckle-worthy, but not laugh-out-loud funny. Knowing where something falls on the humor spectrum is an important skill. When the really funny stuff happens, you'll know.

Mostly smile-inducing and/or chuckle-worthy, except for one thing...

a little closer look, hee—poor Bee

5. Experiment with other formats.

Angie's tips for experimenting with a variety of writing devices are such good ones; sometimes things are funnier when you present them in an unexpected way. Like Venn Diagrams, which I happen to think are one of the funniest ways ever invented to present information (possibly why I was so often at odds with math growing up—I think things are funnier when they're not used as intended, haha):

an ode to HHT Syndrome, a documented medical condition in the Dillow house

So that's that. I want everyone in this family to recognize, speak, and write the true, kind, inspiring, helpful, and necessary things in life... and the funny ones, too.

In Our Library Bag

We've settled into a good routine for visiting our branch library, visiting about once a week and checking out about 15 picture books and 5-10 novels at a time. We haven't started exploring any other libraries in the system (I think there are 18!) because our branch is by far the closest, though still much farther away than I'm used to. But I haven't felt like I've really needed to go elsewhere yet—the mark of a good children's room to me is when I can find old favorites, plenty of new-to-us titles, and a healthy new books display that I can sweep into our library book bag in one fell swoop.

No one has busted me for sweeping all the new books into our library book bag in one fell swoop yet. Another mark of a good children's room.

Gracie, Bridget and I still manage to squeeze in a few picture books almost every night; I'm always on the hunt for good picture books that appeal to older kids, or at least have some stunning illustration if they're too easy content-wise. They are developing a real eye for different styles of effective illustration which makes my nerdy illustration heart so happy. Because so many books are passing in and out of our house these days I thought I'd start sharing more regularly some of the ones we've liked the most; of course this occurred to me only after I've returned a bunch that we loved (and didn't write their titles down or take pictures) but better late than never, I guess.

One we especially liked this round:

Snow White and the 77 Dwarfs by Davide Cali and Raphaëlle Barbanègre

The story itself was OK. But the illustrations... WE LOVED THEM. Totally worth the price of admission.

This spread was the best. And yes, we read every single dwarf's name. Argle-Bargle! Beetroot! Akimbo! The entire book uses this rainbow effect and it's really fun.

Another favorite:

Lillian's Right To Vote  by Jonah Winter and Shane W. Evans

We decided this one might need to be added to our permanent collection. It's inspired by a real-life Lillian who campaigned for President Obama door-to-door at 100 years old in 2008. The book follows her walk to the voting booth, remembering all the steps along the way that brought her to that moment. The illustrations are beautiful. It's also a great introduction to the importance of voting and voting rights.

I still haven't told the story here of how the girls and I participated in the final leg of the 50th anniversary commemoration of the Selma to Montgomery march this year, because I think I've just been holding it close. This was our favorite page.

Here are some of the others we've really enjoyed lately. Of these I especially loved The Really Awful Musicians; I love when a book starts out as kind of silly but ends up being a total history lesson (in this case, about the origin of music orchestration). I was surprised by how much I liked The Opposite, which is odd and charming and wise with extremely good advice. One of my goals this year is to figure out how to get some little girls to love non-fiction, so I usually take a look in the non-fiction shelves for good new stuff—Curious Critters has impressive photography that appeals to all ages. Saturn Could Sail does in fact have plenty of fun facts, and they're presented so well. Call me a book snob, but it's just hard to get excited about old/bad children's non-fiction. There aren't too many things worse in a library than old/bad children's non-fiction. Hold on, let me show you: 

Spotted while volunteering at Maddie's library last year in Montgomery

Overall her library last year was fine and the librarian was truly exceptional, but whoo boy, I know a school district that desperately needs to pony up some cash for non-fiction acquisitions. I rest my case. 

: ) 

Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument

I am sitting on hundreds—possibly thousands—of photos I want to share, print, do something with... so instead of starting at the beginning I decided to tackle the most recent ones, because, logic. Or lack thereof. But we went to one of the most unique places we've ever been on Labor Day, so it seems like a good start! Kasha-Katuwe National Monument (also known as Tent Rocks) is less than 60 miles from our house; because I am a good pseudo-New Mexican, I follow a bunch of great tourism bureau-type Instagram accounts and the minute a photo from this place popped up I knew we had to go. Unfortunately, everyone in the entire state who wasn't already at the Mountain West Brewers Fest had the same idea, but we managed among all the people without any major meltdowns, which is something of a victory for anyone who knows the Dillows.

This place is truly surreal. President Clinton established it as a national monument in 2001. The name "Kasha-Katuwe" means white cliffs in the Keresan langage of the Pueblo de Cochiti, the native American people whose pueblo is adjacent to the monument. The rocks were formed some 6-7 million years ago via volcanic eruption from the Jemez volcanic field. According to the BLM:

[The eruptions] left pumice, ash, and tuff deposits over 1,000 feet thick. Over time, wind and water eroded these deposits, creating canyons and arroyos, scooping holes in the rock, and contouring the ends of small, inward-leading ravines into smooth semi-circular features. While fairly uniform in shape, the tent rocks vary in height from a few feet to 90 feet. Bands of gray are interspersed with beige and pink rock along the cliff faces.

Another way to put it: amazing.

We headed straight for the Slot Canyon trailhead, which is a winding trail through some very narrow, tall rocks—but later opens up into some fairly difficult rocky climbing before reaching the ridge. Bridget couldn't get enough of the climbing parts.

We learned the legend of Apache tears, which are tiny pieces of obsidian found everywhere along the trail. According to the legend, a group of Apache warriors ended up getting cornered without weapons on a ridge; instead of risking capture, they joined hands and jumped to their deaths. After learning what had happened, the Apache women's tears turned into these rocks. You can't take them out of the monument, so we took pictures instead.

We got a nice timer shot at the top—we took our good old time up there because were were a little worn out.

But it was the best kind of worn out, because this was the view.

"Man is not himself only...He is all that he sees; all that flows to him from a thousand sources...He is the land, the lift of its mountain lines, the reach of its valleys." :: Mary Austin

It does us so much good to go exploring outside.

I put a whole bunch of other pictures in two albums on Flickr, if you want to see more! Color photos here, black and white ones here. And yes, this is just some of them. Ha!

 

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September's Unfinished Interview: Amy Tan(gerine)

We're nine months into this series (catch up on the rest here) and I'm excited to welcome Amy Tan for September's interview! She has worked in multiple creative industries over the years and knows a thing or two about finishing up projects—or not.

Welcome! While most scrapbookers know you from your Amy Tangerine line of products, you actually have a background in all sorts of creative endeavors. Can you share a little about the path you’ve taken as a maker through the years?

Of course! I grew up in a household where my parents both made stuff. On weekends my dad built furniture, my mom sewed dresses, and I remember seeing that they always kept themselves busy with various creative projects. They also often talked about owning their own business - I think they were hoping for a restaurant, where they both could work together or maybe even owning a franchise, but they never actually pursued it. Fast forward to high school, I took my first sewing class senior year and ended up making my own prom dress (I combined 2 different patterns and chose the softest champagne colored fabric I could find). I also got asked to make a friend's prom dress and it felt so cool bringing her idea to life and getting paid for it was a nice bonus. In college, I was studying Industrial Design at Georgia Tech, and my love for fashion was being put on hold a bit. Until I started doing some custom designs for friends - making dresses for fraternity formals and other random occasions. It was something I really enjoyed doing and being somewhat compensated for my time was a perk. I say somewhat because the entire process probably took me 10-15 hours and I charged $100.

I was also feeling challenged as an ID major, spending a lot of time in the studio on projects, but only receiving a B or a C. I decided I was better off transferring to study Fashion Design & Marketing after my sophomore year and my parents were supportive of that decision. Then I met a photographer while answering phones part time at a modeling agency in Atlanta, who asked if I ever thought of being a fashion stylist. Turns out I enjoyed shopping and pulling clothes and worked as a freelance stylist when I graduated college. I was also hostessing at a restaurant a couple nights a week as well as working as a contributing editor to a magazine. I produced and styled photoshoots for a while and then made hand crocheted arm warmers. A store ordered them, I got some press in WWD and Lucky Magazine. In the spring they asked me "what are you going to make next?" and I said, "I don't know, tank tops?" And then I made hand embroidered tank tops and sold them to about 10 boutiques around the US. A store owner called me one afternoon and told me that Cindy Crawford was in Glamour magazine wearing one of my designs. I was shocked and decided then that perhaps I had a viable little business. And I decided I should pursue my own collection of reconstructed tanks and tee shirts with hand embroidered details.

I signed up for a tradeshow in NY and then felt my first taste of success with stores ordering from around the world. But months later, producing and shipping the hand-stitched items proved to be a bit challenging. An opportunity came up for me to move to Los Angeles in October 2003, and I took it. A week after arriving in Los Angeles, the owner of the business that paid for my relocation let me go. I had just bought a VW Beetle convertible and was living out of a hotel room with 3 suitcases. I hadn't even found a place to live and my furniture was somewhere in middle America. I took some time to get myself settled and enjoy the laid back lifestyle here in LA and freelanced for Hudson Jeans, designing a collection of tee shirts for them. I got to know vendors around LA and decided several months later to start up my tee shirt line once again.

We had a successful little business that kept me very busy, but then as the economy was going down in 2007, I could feel a shift. I walked into a scrapbooking store, signed up for a class the next day and immediately fell in love with the hobby, the people, and the products. In 2010, after being on the design team for American Crafts for quite some time, we met up and talked about a possible collaboration. I debuted my first collection with them in Chicago at the Summer CHA in 2011 and just released my 9th collection, Finders Keepers. I've taught papercrafting both online and in-person, around the world.

Between designing products, teaching, creating blog content and actually scrapbooking, you must have a lot of projects going at any given time. How do you keep track of everything—and stay motivated to see a wide range of projects to completion?

I'm not a very organized person by nature. I never had to make my bed when I was little, my parents were always telling me how much of a mess I would make (and I was not good at cleaning up), but I always had fun creating and making stuff. To stay on top of the plethora of projects, I have implemented several systems that work for me. I use Google Calendar, which syncs to my phone and my computer. Since I seem to always have my phone with me, it's handy and works for me. But I am a visual person, so I make a lot of lists and write things down in various planners and notebooks. My key to staying motivated is that I truly love what I do. I don't necessarily love every single aspect of it, but I do find the process incredibly fulfilling and rewarding. Plus I have an amazing team and support system.

What is your policy for shelving something that just isn’t clicking—come back to it later or ditch it if it isn’t working right away? Do you struggle with project guilt if you let something go?

It really depends on what the project is. If it's a personal scrapbook layout, I have no problem making adjustments or ditching it all together. If it's a client's project, I find that it's better to enlist the opinion of others who I trust and then come back to it when we have figured out how to make it work. I once read that adaptability is a trait you must embody to truly enjoy traveling, but I think it is also true for work and life in general. I think I struggle with reverse guilt - I used to have a very hard time saying no to stuff. Mainly because as a freelancer for so many years, I would never have turned down a paying gig. I would always say yes if I was available and even when it was not paying, I thought of it as an opportunity to learn. This often happened when I wasn't completely sure of what I was doing and I was thrown into situations that I had agreed to. I would just find ways to be creative and make it work. Plus, no one ever really stressed the importance of "letting go" to me. It's something I have had to really learn on my own as an adult. Turns out letting go doesn't have to be scary, but it's essential to make room for other projects that need my time and energy. I give myself plenty of grace when it comes to letting go of personal projects when I am no longer feeling it, or when I just have other priorities. I think it's ok to just let things be unfinished sometimes.

I mean look at this Australia album. I had a goal to finish it a month after the trip in March. And then I said, definitely before my next trip there in September, but look at it now. It sits just as it did when I made that first goal. And I am going to be making new memories in Australia anyway, so this can just be for a while. And if I feel like going back and finishing it up later, then I will!

What are your best tips for getting back on track with an unfinished project?

Go at your own pace with it. Work on it when you're feeling super inspired to do so. Sometimes it takes more time dreading something than actually sitting down and figuring out the first steps in getting you on your way to progress.

Do you have any lingering unfinished projects you’d like to wrap up before the end of 2015?

Umm, yes! A ton. Since we're just talking paper projects, I have a few. I want to have Jack's first and second birthday recorded, a December Daily album done, and maybe filling in some holes in my current albums with pocket pages. I get annoyed when I see those empty spaces. I may just fill them up with cute and inspiring cards and photos and call it a day. We shall see how that goes.

Amy Tangerine has always had a fresh outlook on life. Growing up in Chicago, she wallpapered her room with fashion magazines and dreamed of a life of visual creativity. By the time she was 23, she had founded the popular and award-winning handcrafted t-shirt line Amy Tangerine, featured in hundreds of retail outlets around the world, including Bloomingdales, Neiman Marcus and Barneys New York. But it wasn’t until 2007 that Amy discovered her true passion: scrapbooking. What started as a slice-of-life hobby blossomed into a full-time, fulfilling business venture that includes signature collections with American Crafts, her own book, celebrity events, consulting services, and teaching workshops all over the world. Most of all, she loves helping others tap into their creative sides. When she's not at home in Los Angeles with two mischievous Jack Russell Terriers, her long-time partner, JC, and their adorable son, Jack, she is traveling, finding great places to eat, and doing her best to enjoy every moment.

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