February has come and gone, and I have to admit my blog posts were pretty paltry. I plan to recover nicely from that by being a lot more active in March. This will be no small feat given my individual and family activity level; March is historically INSANE for us but I am determined. I've always believed that time is made for the things one truly cares about and I do love creative expression.
So I'll start things off here with a list of things I want to accomplish in March. I love the idea of going "public" with one's goals as another way to anchor them firmly in one's mind and schedule, so here goes:
- Today I started Jessica Sprague's self-paced photo editing class. I am very excited about this as I really appreciate learning more about the many ways you can use Photoshop for photography and art. And while actions make it fun and easy to edit photos, I'm pretty stoked about using commands within Photoshop to bring out the best in my photos. Jessica's teaching style is unique and effective. Her classes include videos you can watch while doing each task. You can start and stop them as you follow along, and there's always assignments and self-check evaluations after each lesson. And the self-paced format is perfect for me as with my schedule it can be difficult to keep up. This way I can work on it as I have time. I completed the first lesson today and it's my goal to finish this five-lesson series this week.
- I finally decided on a format as to how I want to capture key memories from 2008 and 2009. I'd been rolling around several ideas in my mind for each and have settled on a one-page Karen Russell layout and also a small hybrid (paper and digital) mini album for 2008, and a digi album and interactive page (also made from Karen Russell Narrative products for 2009. I'm hoping to start both 2008 and 2009 layouts this month.
- Scott and I just got back last week from three days in Disneyland. Had a blast and will be doing a digital album on that adventure. Stay tuned for some of Scott's magnificent Flip video footage. You haven't lived until you've ridden Big Thunder Railroad with him while he's videoing the ride in progress and interviewing those seated around us -- too funny!
- Anyone who knows me knows that I very often seem to spend more time, energy and passion on organizing my pasttimes than actually doing them, and there's more than a bit of that planned for March. I've already purged through all my inspiration files and lessons, and am now cleaning out my Web favorites so as to be able to find the things I want and need to. Seriously, there are, I believe, THOUSANDS of bookmarks and they're pretty hodgepodge when it comes to categories so I'm taking some time each night to work through those. These include everything from blogs to photography sites, from online stores to Photoshop tutorials.
- I also just bought a new 500 GB Seagate mobile EHD as another backup for all my images so I'll be putting that in order. Can't afford to lose my photos, and while I have a triple backup system right now, I've got to get some of this stuff off my desktop hard drive. The Seagate is beautiful -- Ruby Red in color and a perfect match for my new Dell laptop and wireless mouse. Whoever knew I'm be such a tech nerd?
- I'll also be going through my scrap room and cleaning out items to prepare for Scrapbooks-Etc. semi-annual yard sale. This is cool, as I can sell old items for store credit. I don't do as much of this shopping as I used to but it's nice to have this option for keeping my paper products up to date.
So, with all this, family birthdays (Liz, Scott and Stacy), March Madness and a workload that just won't quit, it should be a pretty eventful month. Hopefully, when it ends I can report on my accomplishments.
Oh, one last thing: I think the world may soon be coming to an end. Guess who beat the best-of-the-west LA Lakers this afternoon without Amare' or Steve Nash in the game? That's right ... those unpredictable, frustrating, gotta-love-them Phoenix Suns - woohoo! I feel sorry for Terry Porter (but not enough to bring him back). GO SUNS!
Okay, totally LOVE your blog!!! That picture in your banner makes me swoon with jealousy---it's gorgeous! I need someone to shoot ME instead of ME!!! Also, we are truly twins separated at birth... I'm originally from Phx and the Suns rule in our house. Numerous times this week while doing Jessica's videos, my husband is next to me "watching" the suns game + stats on his computer because we are not in the valley anymore and too cheap to buy an NBA pass to watch all the games on TV. We too cheered BIG TIME when that game got won w/no Nash and no Stoudemire! My husband is for sure a die-hard always-a-suns-fan and I'm looking at our Suns wall calendar in our office as I type.
Let's stay in touch with this digi/photo business, its so darn fun!!!!! Oh goody for me, an online friend!! hahahaaaa! (promise I'm not a stalker!)
Here's me: special_offers@comcast.net (the e-mail I use for anything online related) Drop me a line!!
Posted by: Michelle | 03/10/2009 at 11:08 AM