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My baby is officially a teenager today.
If there's a mantra for the life Coleman has lead thus far, it would have to be go big, or go home.
The term half-assed will never apply to this one. That's for dang sure.
Happy 13, Coleman Z.
You just keep going. We'll try to keep up.
Love, Mom
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OBSERVATIONS: The coolest picture I've taken all year is featured in this week's album. (Okay, I don't know if that's true, but Aidan busted out some leftover sparklers and tried to create the Deathly Hallows logo while I shot a long exposure. Seems like a bit of magic to me!)
Another week, another Project Life spread. Without further adieu, shall we?
This week marked the first week of the year in which my 16-year-old decided to give driving a fair shot. So far, so good. She may get that license some day afterall.
I also played with a new app called Layout for iPad. I used images from my Photo Stream to create the collage in Layout, then sent that hi res file to my main Mac and dropped it into a Tiny Template. I think the results are pretty cool. iPad 2 and higher users can check out Layout here.
Ah bone spurs, you are most definitely not going to be a friend, I can tell already.
Cole's baseball season also wrapped up this week. Such a growth season for him, even if they didn't make the playoffs.
And speaking of Cole, who turns 13 next Monday, duuuuuude! Stop growing up!
Here's my weekly recap:
And that, Project Life lovin' friends, is all I wrote.
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I'm going to tell you something today that I try to convey to just about anyone who'll listen: my house and my life are not perfect.
Don't get me wrong. I'm extremely grateful for the home in which I dwell and the life that I'm fortunate enough to lead, but you're not going to find perfection in either one.
This lack of perfection gave me an idea for a new way of taking portraits and it began with my 16-year-old daughter's perfectly trashed room. Her idea of cleaning is to take every item in her room and pile it up on her bed. Sounds like a great start, right? The problem is that many times, the pile gets made and stays for days at a time, forcing her to carve out a tiny sliver of the bed on which to sleep while she procrastinates tackling the inevitable.
Because this is just so her, I was struck with the idea to prop her right in front of said bed, and shoot a portrait that truly captures an authentic slice of her real life.
And the results made me giddy.
I'm tired of the idea that a portrait should be perfection. Yes, I have some nice spots in my home in which to shoot, but this shot? This shot shows me a real slice of my daughter's life; something messy; something imperfect; something quintessentially her.
I want to challenge anyone out there to take up the Real Life Portrait Challenge. How can you photograph the people you love using a less than perfect background? I can only imagine the number of women out there with a perfectly trashed [insert the room here.] Have you ever thought how that could be the ideal spot for a portrait?
What about in the room you've been trying to paint for the last year? Or the garden project that's hit a wall? Or the mismatched furniture in your family room that you keep thinking will look so much better once it's all replaced?
How can you look at your perfectly non-glamorous life for a slice of portrait perfection?
THE REAL LIFE PORTRAIT LAYOUT PROJECT
Today I have a digital package download for you to create your own page built around a perfectly imperfect portrait. Here is the project you'll be making:
The digital package includes everything you need to create a hybrid page as I've done, or a fully digital layout. Also included are a set of printable PDF instructions that will walk you through the steps using Photoshop Elements to create this scrapbook page.
Click on this link below to download the digital package:
Here's to seeing real life in creative and authentic ways. And heck, if it takes the pressure off of shooting for perfection, all the better.
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Aidan Zielske has a new 13-inch MacBook Pro.
She's been using my 2003 PowerBook for years. It allows her to do practically nothing, save for surf the web and listen to music. If you unplug it from the wall, it dies. If you walk by it too quickly, it dies. If you exhale too exuberantly while in its vicinity, well, you know the drill. Suffice to say it's been on its last legs for about four years.
I made a deal with her a few years ago: you save up half the money, and I'll put up the rest.
With her new nanny job, she was able to meet her end of the bargain, so off to the Apple Store we went.
This is what pure joy looks like to Mac Heads.
I mean, look at how happy Alpha, our Mac genius was on our behalf.
I'm just going to say it: there is something truly sublime about walking into an Apple Store with the intent to buy.
Then we got home and the real joy ensued:
We approach every part of the process with extreme reverence.
Aidan will be taking this computer to college in just two years. I decided to put up half the money because a) she got all As during her sophomore year, taking subjects like Physics and Algebra 2 and b) I'm an Apple geek and will take any excuse to buy new equipment.
Plus, mama can always use a write off here and there, right?
Here's to where you find joy. Ours happens to live in a geekified tech land.
Where, pray tell, does yours live?
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The winner of a spot in iShot That! the art of iPhone Photography taught by Jim and Molly Newman is:
Alinor, email me at czdesign@comcast.net to claim your spot! Enjoy the class. I've heard nothing but great things about it.
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OBSERVATIONS: I'm a day late posting this week. The whole week has felt behind from the get go. I usually put my Project Life pages together on Sunday afternoon, but last Sunday we were up at our family cabin on Gull Lake and my computer and photo printer where nowhere to be found, thankfully. We headed up for a quiet weekend which included a funeral for Dan's great aunt Felix. Subsequently, nearly all of my photos are from a 24-hour period. I love how that can happen during a week in which you take very few photos. Shall we take a look-see?
Aidan brought one of her best friends up for the weekend and they slept in a small cottage right on the water, just down the hill from the house. My favorite thing of the weekend? Boat knitting. That's a first.
In other news, Cole got a cell phone.
I couldn't resist taking a screen shot of his first call to me. That, and saving his first text exchange. Oh, the things we scrapbookers love to save.
Here's the recap card for the week:
And that is all I wrote for Week 28. Have a great weekend!
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One blog reader will win a seat in iShot That! the art of iPhone Photography taught by Jim and Molly Newman.
ABOUT THE CLASS: Think you need a bulky, pricey DSLR to get great photos? Think again.
The most popular “camera” released in the last few years is the Apple iPhone. In iShot That, learn to take advantage of iPhone’s built-in photo functions, plus the very best free and low-cost apps available for editing, organizing, and sharing your work. Create memorable portraits of family and friends. Capture your world with street photography. Transform everyday snapshots into eye-catching images. With iShot That!, iPhone’s photo power is at your fingertips.
Jim and Molly Newman are a husband & wife team based in Portland, Oregon. Jim is a longtime photography junkie who’s recently all but retired his bulky DSLR in favor of the lightweight, virtually invisible, infinitely inspiring iPhone. Molly is a former editor of Digital Scrapbooking and a regular instructor at reneepearson.com.
TO ENTER: answer this question in the comments below: do you scrapbook the photos you take on your phone? I'll choose a winner on Sunday night!
Comments are now closed. Check back to see if you're the winner!
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There are two things I've been a bit preoccupied with of late: gratitude and screened back type and graphics. (Well, there's actually three, if you count hot flashes, but I digress…)
I was toying with the idea of creating a new gratitude layout template and then thought, why not just make a whole album? Whenever I approach beginning a new album project it has to be something I can actually complete or make good headway on from the get go. Enter the Album of 'Fuls project.
This template set, designed for use in Photoshop Element or Photoshop, is meant to be either fully digital or hybrid. My project is digital to hybrid, as I printed the entire thing out at home onto photo paper and cardstock. There are five spread concepts to cover: things you are thankful for, grateful for, hopeful for, joyful about or mindful of.
I wanted to share the start of my album with you today beginning with the album, a 6 x 6 ring binder from We R Memory Keepers that I picked up at my local Archiver's store.
All you need to complete the album (aside from the written and photographic content) are photo paper and cardstock. Here's my title page:
Each large word comes on it's own layer and depending on what background color you choose, you have to play a bit with the Opacity on each type layer to get it just right. I had to bump all of my opacities up 10 to 15 percent beyond what they are set to in the template itself. The title 'an album of 'fuls' uses a free font, Lobster.
Once you drop in your content, you simply print with the Crop Marks option turned on (found in the print windows of both PS and PSE). Trim and you're ready to pop into the album page protectors.
Here are the rest of the spreads:
I see this as a continuing project that will let me focus on gratitude, hope and mindfulness, all things I'm shooting for in my life as I continue to evolve and take stock of what matters and what inspires me.
I especially like the idea of focusing on what I'm being mindful of. This can have so many implications for a person who's working through some of her, well, you know, crap.
I designed a simple binder label to share with anyone who'd like to do this album project as well. You can download it here and customize it for your album. It fits into the We R Memory Keepers 6 x 6 binder.
Here's to the 'fuls in your life!
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Aidan has a nanny job this summer, caring for our next door neighbors' kids for six weeks. It's a huge thing to go from never having a job to having one that's pushing 40 hours. I'm really proud of her for doing it. She loves the kids, so that's a big bonus as well.
I came downstairs to make my lunch yesterday and looked out the front window to see her in the street, soaking wet, fending off the hose.
I couldn't help but grab the zoom lens and shoot away.
Plus, I caught the culprit as well.
We can all agree that sometimes your boss can really muck up your life.
I mean, who out there hasn't felt totally hosed at the end of a long day, right?
My first job was working as a snack bar attendant at the Roller Fair Skate Deck in Everett, Washington. It worked out perfectly with my figure skating practice hours, plus… all the free soft serve I could eat.
What was your first job? Let's take a stroll down First Job Memory Lane, shall we?
p.s. My second job was working at Chess King where we sold Michael Jackson Thriller jackets. But that's a story for another day…
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I'm happy to announce that I'm running my Ten Tips for Better Type mini workshop again this September through Big Picture Classes.
This two-week workshop is designed to give you the nuts and bolts basics of working with type/fonts on your layouts. I know people like to use fonts and I'm here to give you timeless tips on how to make them look better on your pages. This is one area of design I know inside and out and I've boiled down my best tips to pass along to you in this class.
The class includes a 45-minute video presentation, along with step-by-step videos and handouts to help you put your knowledge about great type into practice.
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