Cathy Zielske's Blog

Great Moments in Fruit Photography

I shot them. Then I ate them.

This has been Great Moments in Fruit Photography.

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Coming on friday: to celebrate the fond memory of Simple Scrapbooks magazine (the final issue is on newstands now) I am going to be participating in a multi-blog giveaway. On Friday, me, my former managing editor (sniff) Angie Lucas, and our former creative editor (double sniff) Wendy Smedley are doing a giveaway that you'll really want to check out. I'll give you a hint as to why:

 

Thanks to the fine folks at Epson, we've got TWO of these amazing Epson Artisan 700 printers to give away, and some cool stuff from Making Memories as well.

Be sure to check back on Friday to enter here for a chance to win.

All week, the former staff and contributors of Simple are giving away prizes and reminiscing about the good old days. Check out Angie's blog for a complete blogroll of all the amazing women who made Simple what it was (and win prizes throughout the week!) Go on a blog hunt and you'll find good stuff to win and read!

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Do you have products or services you'd like to see highlighted here? Email at czdesign@comcast.net for more information on advertising and sponsorship opportunities.

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Do you like cheese products? Me too! Feel free to share your story in the comments.

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Finally, I will leave you with one more thing I like to call: Great Moments in Oversized Glasses Photography.

The Winner of the Studio Calico Kit is…

And that corresponds to…

Lythan said...

Twilight was a winner for me too but I have also enjoyed some of the Lindsey Davis Falco mysteries. Falco solves murders in Ancient Rome and has a wit that I think you would enjoy :)

Lythan, email me at czdesign@comcast.net to claim your prize, and thanks again to Studio Calico for the prize!

Win Studio Calico's May Kit. Are you feeling lucky?

Studio Calico is giving one of their May kits to one of my lovely (or handsome) blog readers. "Playground" is a kit that totally lives up to its name, and will have you wanting to play in your scrap space all day and all night, forgoing all other annoying responsibilities. You know the ones: working, making food for people who live with you, etc.

These monthly kits go fast. Why? Because they rock. Another thing that rocks, that I'm soon getting my hand on are these cool Carter stamps. Something about the type is really cool, and I would love to pair it with a really clean journaling font. I'll definitely share any creations once I get to play.

But to win the kit, all you have to do to enter is leave me a comment and tell me what the best book you've read in the past year is. I know, it has nothing to do with scrapbooking. I'm just looking for good book recommendations. I'll draw a winner after 9 p.m. C.S.T. Thanks, and good luck.

[Comments are now closed. Back soon with the winner. And THANKS for all the awesome suggestions. I'll be reading until i'm 65.]

Tales from the Scale: Special End-of-the-Month Woe-Filled + Scrapbooking Edition!

I know I usually only post Tales from the Scale on a monthly basis, so forgive this one for being somewhat out of the official sequence, as it's coming here on the heels of April (or wait, is it the toes of April and the heels of May?) Either way… I had sort of a come to Baby Jesus meeting with myself over the weekend, and even made a scrapbook page regarding this issue.

(You know if you're making scrapbook pages about it, it's hitting the big time, from a subject standpoint, right?)

The pity party kicked off on friday afternoon, when, while flipping channels, I landed on a rebroadcast of the Season 2 finale of The Biggest Loser. Surprisingly, I'd never seen this show before that moment. I have to pick and choose my reality television carefully, and 9 times out of 10, my vote has to go to either American Idol or Rock of Love Bus. But as I curled up on the couch with a bowlful of Lay's Dill-flavored potato chips and a fresh, sparkling glass of Sprite, I was surprised at just how many times I had to reach for the Kleenex while watching. Pretty powerful stuff, I have to say.

See, my health and fitness journey (oh hell, let's just call it what it is—a bloody diet) isn't going as well as I'd hoped when I began last January. It's mostly because of eating too much and not excercising enough. Yeah, that's pretty much it in a nutshell.

Watching The Biggest Loser, I realized that my casual walks on the treadmill aren't going to do a whole lot to change my physical appearance and that just maybe there needs to be a little more sweat action than I'm getting presently. My muscles haven't ached in years. Something's gotta give.

So, I dug out an old photo from July 2008. I took this photo when Donna has posted her big reveal documenting her weight loss. I took this photo to serve as my "before" shot. Funny this is, eight months later, I weigh 10 pounds more than when I took the blurry shot. I decided it'd be a good motivational contribution to a layout about this issue I have with my body.

And then I made this page:

[materials patterned paper (Scenic Route) + Helvetica and Archer fonts]

One thing I realized in this process, aside from the fact that I need to make some serious decisions about my commitment level to getting into shape, is how much I love the more digital aspects of story-telling. Most of this layout was built in Adobe InDesign, printed out onto photo paper, then combined with a few real world scrapbooking supplies. I don't miss the dimension of elements sticking up on pop dots, or the fact that stuff from my stash just sits unused in my storage bins. I just like that I had an organic inspiration to make a page, and took the digital hybrid approach to complete it.

I know that both Photoshop and Photoshop Elements are really the standards for digi/hybrid scrapbooking, and I'm using and demonstrating PSE to create the album pages in my BigPicture class, but I gotta tell you: I hope one day InDesign catches on. For those of you who own the Adobe Creative Suite, you should play a bit more in it. It's a pretty derned powerful thing.

My point is that I love when a story is hovering in your brain and needs to get out and be told, and in a few quick digital steps, you are able to quickly document and save it.

I'm not sure how losing weight and my love for InDesign combine, but the result is a scrapbook page that documents a slice of my life. And telling your own story, even when it's not fun, cute or sexy, is still a good thing. Know what I'm saying?

Anyway, I'm wondering how many blog readers own InDesign and would be interested in learning more about how to use it for scrapbooking? If you're one of those readers, let me know.

Hey, maybe this wasn't such a woe-filled Tale from the Scale after all! Thanks, scrapbooking and technology! Today is the first day of the rest of my sweat-filled, shapely life!

Generation Gap

Aidan, telling me at great length about a strange dream she had last night: "…and Bowser was in my dream, and that was weird."

Me: "Bowser from Sha Na Na? That IS weird."

Aidan: "What?"

Have a lovely weekend.

From the vault, for a limited time

In January 2008, as many of you will recall, some rather sensitive information regarding scrapbooking was leaked into the Internet via this video.

I was going through some old iMovie video files over the weekend, and found a very short follow-up to that piece, recorded roughly a month later, that has been under a gag order of sorts. Until now. I think it explains a lot about the past year, and my seemingly flagrant lack of concrete scrap goodness here on my blog.

I'm not sure how long They will let it remain online. FYI.



The Scrapbooking Indoctrination Aftermath from Cathy Zielske on Vimeo.

Answering a collective question about my class

[Above, a shot from my lunch table last week, as I was previewing the 55 minute narrated Powerpoint presentation that students will download and watch during the first week of my soon-to-launch online class over at Big Picture Scrapbooking. Interesting, isn't it, that Ms. Winfrey's lovely face has worked its way into my class, considering she just jumped on the Twitter bandwagon last week. I feel SO on trend right now.]

On May 14th, my new online class, Everyone Can Write a Little, starts over at Big Picture Scrapbooking. You can read the class description here for more nitty gritty deets (yes, I did just use the word 'deets' because it makes me feel much younger and hipper), but I've gotten one question more than any other and thought, I'll just answer it in a blog post.

The question, in various forms? Why would I use Twitter or Facebook to become a better scrapbooker?

Ah, grasshoppers. I'm no Ashton-I'm-the-King-of-Twitter-Kutcher, but let me tell you the wisdom that I have amassed over the months in which I have been microblogging.

Twitter has become my virtual notebook. Simply put, it's now a place where I Stop, Drop and Write about things going on in my every day world. Whereas I once put them on a piece of paper, to possibly revisit or record later from a scrapbooking standpoint, now… I just log in and type it up, in 140 characters or less.

What i've realized in doing this is that scrapbookers really do get hung up on the storytelling aspect of our hobby, and I truly believe that if you focus on telling little tiny stories from your head and your life, you will get more and more comfortable with writing in general. The more at ease you are with using your written voice, the easier all manner of journaling becomes. With Twitter (and Facebook's) limited character counts, I feel the intimidation factor of writing goes down exponentially.

Remember my little Month of Tags mini book project from a while back? It's a similar thing, this new class, except that you're going to be practicing writing online, and then transferring the stuff you've written that you want to save into a digital template, which will eventually find it's way into a cool album that you'lll create.

For those of you who are leary of the whole idea of doing yet another thing online, I get that. Well, sort of. Actually, I don't. And here's why: both Twitter and Facebook remind me of how much I love to share stories. They can be great ways to share stories and practice using your voices. For good. For memory's sake.

If you are interested to see the types of things I post on Twitter, you can check it out here.

If you have any other burning questions, post them here, and I'll answer in comments.

Have a lovely Monday (or Tuesday) or whatever day it might be in your world. ; )

The winner of the Memory Works Retreat is…[updated info again!]

UPDATED YET AGAIN:

MemoryWorks would also like both Teresa and Leslie to receive a prize package filled with goodies for their generosity. SO miss Leslie (commenter #42) and Teresa (comenter #9), you guys need to email me at czdesign@comcast.net. (and if you ladies haven't seen the video, please watch and it'll make it all clear!)

UPDATED!

I wanted to share with you the email I received from our winner, Lori. It turns out I've actually met Lori on one of my trips to the Minnesota northland. I know a lot of you generously wanted to donate supplies to her to replace what was lost in the fire. Please read this below:

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I am honored and humbled to have been chosen to attend the Memory Works Retreat.  The outpouring of love and support we have received has been very overwhelming...everyday we have seen the hands of God at work in our lives through this tragedy.  From the photo albums that "fell" out of the house the night of fire when the rest of the house collapsed, to finding my wedding ring in the rubble on demolition day, to most recently over 23,000 files being recovered off my melted hard drive.  It has been one miracle after another.  We have been so blessed.

Cathy, you actually know who I am...I own the scrapbook store, Once Upon A Page, in Pequot Lakes.  We have met a few times when you have been "up north".  I have read many of the comments on your blog of the very generous and kind women wishing to send me scrapbook supplies....though again I am humbled that they are so willing to share....as you now know, I do not "need" any supplies.  Though it is impossible to replace everything I had, I certainly have access to many supplies that I will need.

From the bottom of my heart, I thank you and all of your blog readers for the opportunity to "get away" for a few days and get back to doing what I love....scrapbooking!  It has been a rough couples of months and we have some busy ones ahead as we begin to rebuild our home.  I now have something exciting to look forward to and I am so grateful for the opportunity you (and the blog readers) have so generously given to me.

Thank you so much! 

Lori Westlund

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Also, one blog reader, named Lisa, has generously offered to share her frequent flyer miles with Lori to make it easier to get her there. Now THAT is awesome. Visit her blog here.

I appreciate all the emails from people who wanted to help and donate supplies. Thanks again, everyone!

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Wow. I've done a few retreat giveaways, this one for MemoryWorks, and last month, one for Reflections, and I asked you to tell me "Why do you need a getaway?"

It is humbling, and heartbreaking to read some of your stories. From Lori in Minnesota, whose house burned down, to Talitha who wrote, quite simply: "I have 7 children. End of discussion." The range of what our lives can throw at us is so incredibly broad in its scope. Truly.

It is hard to simply resort to the Random Integer Generator to choose a winner, but I really feel that is the only way to be fair and impartial.

With that, here's a video to show you how the Generator works, and to reveal the winner of the retreat.

(And this is going to freak you out mildly in a good way. Because it kind of did me.)

(And FYI: The video quality on this is low res web stream, and that's not what you see in my classes, when you take them. I'm just sayin' ; )

If you're a winner, email me a czdesign@comcast.net.
Winner of the Retreat Giveaway from Cathy Zielske on Vimeo.

Win a free pass to an awesome scrapbooking retreat

How does a free pass to attend a weekend scrap retreat sound? Aw yeah. MemoryWorks is bringing some serious rest, relaxation and creativity to scrapbook enthusiasts of all levels by offering three days of non-stop inspiration, including eight class workshops from top scrapbook companies, like BasicGrey, Pink Paislee, Cosmo Cricket, Fancy Pants, Rusty Pickle, Sassafras, My Mind’s Eye and We R Memory Keepers. 

The event is being held on June 18-20, at the Davis Conference Center in Layton/Salt Lake City, Utah, and could be just the thing you need to recharge your scrapbook love. Featuring a keynote address from the ever-inspiring Miss Kolette Hall, guests at the retreat will also enjoy nightly crops, including a Chocolate Crop event, with an all-you-can-eat chocolate fountain. Mmmm. Scrapbooking, no kids, and chocolate. PERFECTION!

This giveaway is a $349 value, and all you have to do is tell me why you need a getaway. Sound good?

I will close comments on Sunday night and draw a winner by Monday morning.

Until then, if you want more details on the event registration, click here.

Good luck! And have a great weekend imagining how much fun you'll have if you win.

 

[comments are now closed]

How many Zielske's does it take to change a light bulb?

I have an overly futuristic space light in my super-modern doesn't quite go with the rest of my house kitchen. I simultaneously love it and hate it. Love it, because it's an overly futuristic super-modern space light; hate it, because it's a pain in the tushka to change out the bulbs.

For those of you just joining us, the reason I have a super-modern kitchen is because we got picked to have it remodeled on a show called Kitchen Renovations, which aired (and is still airing, strangely enough) on the DIY Network. It was a really cool thing to have done, and I've amply documented it through our lovely scrapbooking hobby, making a layout which some of you remember was in my first book, right through to a totally cool before and after album (which appeared in some issue of Simple Scrapbooks, but I honestly couldn't tell you which one.)

 
(click on layout to see it larger in a new window).

All that's well and good, but back to the bulb changing.

A few weeks back, I enlisted the help of One-Three to help me twist off the light globe so I could get at the bulbs. It takes two people to get that inverted dome off—one to hold the stainless steel fixture, and one to twist off the dome.

Once it was off, I swapped out the three bulbs, and replaced the dome in the stainless fixture, or so I thought.

See, I'm never quite sure if it's twisted back into place all the way. It's never a smooth twist. It's always like, "Uh, yeah... I guess that's in."

Well this time, I guessed wrong. Wrong to the point that two minutes after I'd figured, "Eh, it's in," it came crashing down onto the kitchen table, exploding and shattering all over sweet little One-Three, who was just trying to do her algebra homework. No one was hurt, thankfully, but Cole shrieked loudly enough from the other room to nearly break window glass, and One-Three? She just sat there silently, a bit shell shocked, while I began methodically removing glass shards from every single space on and around her and in my kitchen at large.

Long story short: I was able to order a replacement globe and it just arrived the other day. (There's actually another story about me wigging out on Dan because I just KNEW we'd never be able to replace the globe and that now we'd be the family living in a kitchen with a broken light fixture until the end of time, but that's for another day…)

I picked up the fresh dome, returned home, and once again enlisted the help of One-Three. At last, success! But this time we weren't taking any chances.

We've found it only mildly annoying during meals.