inthemoment

At the zoo

I'm writing quickly tonight (but at least I'm blogging)! We spent a fun-filled day with Chloe, Chas, Liz and Charlie at the Phoenix Zoo, and I'm going to quickly share some photos.

This first one is pretty cheesy, taken by the folks at the zoo. But it's a nice service they offer and provided the only photo of all of us. I'm not sure if Chloe's looking down was a result of the morning sun or her shyness but I was able to get some nice photos of her later in the day. (As always, click on the photo to see an enlarged version.)

 

Our first stop after breakfast was the giraffes, a favorite of ours. Scott and Chas enjoyed watching them close up.

   

Chloe had her face painted Dalmation-style to match her stuffed puppy.

And a day at the zoo would not be complete without a camel ride. Cheers to Papa Scott for his willingness to climb aboard and smile the ever-present "Blue Dog" grimace for the camera.

 

Finally, feast your eyes on what is arguably the most brave and adventurous 5-year-old on the planet, our dear Chloe, as she scales the climbing wall. Indeed, she put many to shame, particularly an adult or two who went up just prior to her. (And kudos, once more, to the Pure Digital folks for bringing to market the Flip Video. I love this thing and truly hope its new owner, Cisco, doesn't screw it up! Please bring down the price of the high def version and I promise I'll buy it, especially if you make it lime green.)

There will be more later as I have (take) time to edit photos. --jh

March whirlwind

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!