Mariphone Photos

 Brownie the tarantula...our new pet.

 Dad and Justin as lego characters...according to JoJo

 This cricket died as I was choosing a filter for the photo.  I looked back at the cage and the tarantula had it in it's mouth.

 Jill and Fluffy

 Matanza feast

 Worst weather day:  Snow, sleet, hail, extreme winds, rain all in one day.

Freezer full of meat from pig we butchered.  

Blah Blah Blobbity Blah

Today I was reading Jennifer McGuire's blog, and I thought to myself, "Self, how does one keep motivated with scrapbooking ideas?"  I mean seriously to come up with new, fresh, and inventive ideas so often, how do you not burn out?  I want to know this.  I find myself hitting Delete, Delete, Delete of blog after blog that I used to find joy in.  Now I look at projects and blog pages, and I just want to hang myself...not literally.  Not that they don't have wonderful, beautiful projects, but because I just don't have the juice to make something happen within myself in the scrapbooking realm.  Why is this?  And I'm sorry to burden you all with this because I know you have heard it before.  Thanks for sticking around those of you who joined and thought you were going to get amazing and useful project ideas.  I subscribe to monthly kits and I receive them and I love them, but all they do is sit on shelves.  The fact of the matter is I LOVE scrapbooking, I do.  I love the creativity of it.  I love the memories of it.  I love taking pictures for it.  I love the cute products.  I just want to know why every time I sit down at the computer to choose photos for printing I just cannot do it.  I just want to get over this, as this little rut/slump/wall has lasted for about a year now.  Ugh, thanks for listening or reading, I guess.  And thanks for ignoring all of the run on sentences.  There are quite a few in this post.  If my high school English teachers saw this they would have heart attacks.  Have a good night :)

Oh, and P.S.  I am still totally enjoying project life.  I will try to get March Photos up soon.  This month has gone by so fast.

Planning your Pages Part 2 (My Notebook)

Sorry this post took so long.  I've started this post about five times and never finished it.  It was hard to begin and to explain.  So, I just decided to show you a few parts of my notebook and explain them.  


My notebook has my sketches, picture pages, and album page order in it, as well as random bits of journaling.  


It is divided into two main sections.  The first section starts at the front working forward, and the other starts at the back working backward.  These pictures show you the front of my notebook where I plan my pages.  So I have the title a the top.  So lets go with the very first one that says Baptism.  I wrote down how many photos I wanted for that layout.  The numbers are image numbers I wanted to print.  Then, I drew a sketch to the side to see how to layout my photos.  (That big splotch on the bottom is distress ink).  The checkmark means that I've already printed the photos.  That way I will know where I left off.  The X's across the section mean that I have already completed the layout.

Now, this is the back of my notebook.  I have it divided by each boy with the layouts in their album.  I do this so I know the order of the pages.  I also know if I can make a two page layout or a single page.  I don't like to have blank pages in my albums.  The check mark means I've completed the page.  The big X means that I'm done with all of the layouts on that page.

In addition to those two main sections, I have a page full of different sketches and journaling ideas.  I hope this makes sense.  Next in the series, I will show you how I plan a specific page for a layout.

Back Online

I was out of town for the last few days...I'll be back later with a post.

Project Life February...Finally

 I'm sorry, in my haste to post this, I didn't edit or crop the photo.  I just wanted to get it up.  I am so loving the 4x4 photos.  I love how there is space to journal underneath them.  I am so excited for March's layout!  I already have a lot of photos for the spread and we're only 11 days in.  


If you're participating in this too, leave a link in the comments so I can check it out.

Mariah Recommends....

You know that I am the authority on most things...that is my own personal belief.  Please don't ask Erik.  Anyhow here are some things I am recommending at random.

*Postal Pics (you heard about this already)
*Instagram (ditto to last statement)
*Just a note on the last two...I am working them into my project life album...I am LOVING the 4x4 look.
*Country Music you must have:  Somethin' Bout a Truck, Dirt Road Anthem, Toes, Chicken Fried, Crazy Girl
*You must read the Sookie Stackhouse Chronicles-I am rereading the first book for the third time.  My goal is to make it through the entire series again and then buy the last two books.  I love these books.

*The Dark Hunter Series.  These books are so good.  I love the Greek Mythology in them.  The stories are so good and so touching.  The Characters are amazing.  They are considered romance.  They are pretty racy.  But I love them.

*Blogging.  Do you have one?  You should.  I love that I get to blog.  I love that I get to record my thoughts for my kids, husband, family, random people such as you.  Thanks for taking time out of your day to see mine.  But really, I encourage you to BLOG.  It doesn't matter what about, but do it.  Make it private or make it public.  Just do it.  I promise you won't regret it.  I love this little place I get to come and write.  If you want to share your's please leave it in the comments.  I will visit.  And I do have a few readers out there that might visit too.

*A good camera.  It doesn't have to be super pricey and expensive.  I would recommend a good DSLR.  

*Sharpie Pens

These pens are awesomeness for journaling or just writing checks to pay the bills.

Wow this post covered quite a range.  Have a great night!

I ♥ Postal Pics

Remember, in my last post how I'd mentioned that I ordered pictures from Postal Pics?  Well, I got them yesterday because the mailman was kind enough to drop our mail at the door.  (lost key situation was already mentioned)  Anyhow I LOVE the pictures.  I love the 4x4's I got that I used Instagram to edit!  They are the perfect size for scrapbook layouts.  I love, love, love them.

Let me tell you just a bit about postal pics.  You need to have an iphone.  In my case, I have good old Mariphone.  Download it from the App store.  I ordered all of my prints directly from my phone and it was really, really easy.  Instagram automatically crops your images to 4x4, but you still have the option to use a 4x6 photo.  

The print quality is awesome.  It is much better than Walgreens 1 hour photo.  The paper is thicker and the color is better.  Let me just say, I secretly hate you 1 hour photo, and I won't be using you again unless it's a dire emergency.  The price for the prints is very reasonable.  I cannot speak about delivery time.  That would just be unfair as I have no idea how long the pictures sat in my mailbox.  

Now onto Project Life.  I'm not sure how many of you are participating in that project.  I saw this awesome idea from Ali Edwards for our Monthly family photo.  Click here to see it.  You're using a full page photo for your layout.  I am scraplifting this idea for March.  I will be working on my layout tonight, hopefully.  I have just been so EXHAUSTED this week.  I love my Project Life "project."  I really want to do a weekly project, but I'm so afraid that I won't be able to keep up.  

I'm in a quagmire so why not some new products?

So, you know that thing called Project Life?  Well, I'd really love to share it with you, but I don't have any photos.  Why is that you may ask...um because someone...I'm not pointing fingers...at least not in my own personal, general direction, has lost the mail key.  That's right!  It's gone.  We have no idea what happened to it.  I asked Erik to leave a note for the postman.  Did that happen?  No, it did not.  So, I'm going to try and remember to do this in the morning in the midst of getting shoes out from under the trampoline.  Oh, and they have to be frozen solid because the water may turn on during the night, and it will freeze.  Plus, I will probably be getting arrested soon...Just kidding but I got a ticket a couple of weeks ago and they don't have it on file yet so they want me to call back the day after I'm supposed to appear in court.  Doesn't that mean they write a warrant for your arrest?  Well, I for one don't want to be bent over the hood of my car on the side of the road while my kids sit in the back asking why Mommy is a bad guy.  So, I will kindly call again tomorrow and see if they have it.  And if they don't, I will be in a slight panic...and if I don't blog for a few days consider the fact that they probably don't have internet access in jail.

I also know I'm late on my little series...and it's coming up soon.  We were so busy this weekend, and I was playing realtor today.

Here are some cute new products from my website..I love them.

These are the new BoBunny Products  Just click the link and it will take you there.  I LOVE BoBunny.  

Planning Your Pages Part 1

First, lets talk about photo storage.  You downloaded them from your computer.  Now what?  Having the advantage of once being a "PC" I can tell you how I stored my photos with a PC.  But let's get to that in a bit.  I use a Mac now, so basically I put my SD card in the slot and my photos directly load into iPhoto.  They are beautifully organized and arranged by date, event, person, and place.

 
When I had a PC, I would download the picture from my camera and store them by date in My Pictures.  So, for example I would say this download is from pictures I took on August 28 to Sept 12, 2009.  I would create a folder named that at drag all of the photos into it.  And to consolidate later, I would arrange them by year so all 2005 photos would be dragged into the 2005 folder, etc.  

I had to manually move the files over and create folders for them.  And that is not a big deal, I just wanted to show you that way too as most of you probably have a PC. 

Okay, so now let's move onto how I plan my pages.  You will need two things.  At least I need these two things.  One is my notebook, and the other is Photoshop Elements.  Elements is available for free trial from Adobe.  I have an older version, and it works for me as I do most of my photo editing in Photoshop CS5.  Elements is easy to start out with and navigate.  I use it to create photo collages...which I still haven't figured out how to do in Photo Shop.  Elements is also very affordable.  I think its around $100 or so.  I would really encourage you to download the free trial and see how you like it.  And I can help you get started with any questions you may have.

Next, my Notebook.  My notebook is CRUCIAL to my planning.  In fact, once I thought I lost it and I almost had a real, actual heart attack.  (just kidding but it was close).  I keep all of my sketches and page plans in there.  I am going to talk about it in my next post because there is just a lot of stuff to go over.  I will try to get that up tomorrow.  

  

February Family Photo

Here is our family portrait.  It's a beaut.  It is so HARD to get a good photo of us.  But I do have to say that the cat was not actually harmed in this photo.  It looks like Wolfie is strangling her.  I can assure you that she is just fine.  I love our cat...she loves our kids and she lets them wear her like a scarf.  It is amazing to me that they all still have their eyes...ha.

Anyhow, as I quick update, I have been very busy these last couple of days.  I will be posting my February Project Life Pages as soon as I get the photos.  I am waiting for them to arrive from Postal Pix.

I will also be updating my series this weekend as well.  I haven't had time to type it up yet.  Thank you for your patience.  And I wanted to share this picture of JoJo because he is the cutest little cookie monster I ever saw.  I washed his face like ten times and he still had oreos on them.  Plus, he needs a haircut.

Oh, and my dream came true (5D Mark III)...but I can't actually afford it... :(