I love rainy weekends! It's so relaxing, as if the weather is sending a message to slow down. After a super busy week it's nice to have a day off to hang out with Jeremy, run errands and plan an... | Continue »

In our Did You Know? series of posts, we’ve given you some great ideas on how to customize your blog. If you’d like to take it to the next step and add a background to... | Continue »

Have you entered the June giveaway, yet? Go, go now! I made a few lil pages (a few weeks ago, now)... I'm loving these colors together, at the moment. :) I'm got to thinking while working with the 'Starters' collection... | Continue »

Does a dive into a lake of calm sound really good about now? In my opinion, there is actually one addiction in the U.S. that is socially accepted in fact almost esteemed and that is being a workaholic. You can become addicted to work, where it ends up consuming your... | Continue »

5 Tips for Bloggers! I started my first blog about five years ago, just for fun. At the time I had no particular goals or plans for my blog outside of posting photos of my craft projects and family. Through... | Continue »

Writing and blogging challenges have become popular over that last couple of years. Not only do they help you hone your writing skills, participation can generate a lot of buzz, traffic, visibility and opportunities for your business. One of the most popular blogging challenges that I'm aware of is run by Connie Ragen Green. During a private Q&A call for Online Visibility Secrets students, Connie talked about how her blogging challenges have helped bloggers double traffic to their sites. I've known Connie since 2005 when she first started blogging and decided this was a good time to do a quick... | Continue »

Welcome back to my summer blog tour. I think we should all get to travel the world more often, but that just isn’t practical for most of us. Thank goodness for the internet! I’m taking my blog “on tour” for the next few weeks so we can all enjoy a fun virtual vacation together. Hope you enjoy it! DAY 5 – KATRINA KENNEDY I first found Katrina Kennedy through the Designer Digitals gallery. I used to hang around the community there a lot, but I just haven’t had time to do that for awhile now. I’m so glad I have gotten to know Katrina through the online world. What a cool thing it is that we can connect with people all over the world, even without meeting them in person! I read Katrina’s blog every day, and I’ve also taken several of her online classes. You can read a little more about her in this post, and get to know the great lady behind the lens. She is an incredibly talented photographer, and I love that she takes photos of real life. She is very faithful to the Photo 365 project and puts a lot of thought into choosing her photo each day. (btw, I vote for the log flume photo!) . I love to see pictures of Katrina’s little boy on her blog. He is such a cutie! . I was especially touched by this post about his lucky foot. That might just be my favorite Katrina photo because of the story that goes with it. . I actually took this photo using techniques I learned from Katrina! I just love her Behind the Lens series, so you can imagine that I was downright giddy when she asked if she could feature me in one of those posts! Wow! I’ve got a long ways to go before I’m up to speed with the other photographers she has featured, but I’m totally honored that she thought of me! . She has the most amazing garden! I’m totally in awe of the way she feeds her family beautiful and delicious food from her garden. . From the garden (SOOC) – yum! . I love that Katrina shares her “rejects” with her blog readers! Makes me feel so much better to know that even she gets some of these photos. I’m going to do a blog post with some of my rejects sometime soon. Love that idea! . Do you follow the Red Rule? I’m going to start doing this now! . Be Enlightened – Adobe Lightroom Tutorial. I have no idea how I missed this! I love Lightroom and I’m still very new at it, so I had to pick this up. Really great step-by-step instructions! Only $4.99 at Designer Digitals. . Get Me Off Of Auto – I bought this ebook a month or two ago and I really love it! I have especially enjoyed looking through the photographs from Katrina, and the contributing team members. I really adore the ladies on the Designer Digitals Creative Team so it was fun to see some of their work as well. Only $7.99 at Designer Digitals. . Your Kids Captured Through the Lens at Get It Scrapped. Registration is currently open. I took this class last fall and loved it! I printed out all the lessons and I still look through them on a regular basis. I also took her ‘Your Life through the Lens” class at Get It Scrapped, which is wonderful! I’m not sure when it will be available again but keep your eyes out for it because it is great! Lots of inspiration from Katrina! . Hope you enjoyed today’s tour. Keep your “passport” ready and join me tomorrow for another fun virtual visit! P.S. If you are looking for the cute graphics I’ve used for these posts, they are all hand-drawn by Kate Hadfield and are available for purchase here. One of the kits I used has been retired, but she has a similar pack for sale here. | Continue »

When the price on the Amazon Kindle dropped by $70 recently, I decided to go for it as I had been curious for some time about the electronic reading gadget. When I turned it on and went to the Kindle Store, I noticed that there is an option to subscribe to thousands of blogs, each for $.99 month. That piqued my curiosity. I have no idea how many people actually read blogs on the Kindle or if anyone is making money from their blog being available on Kindle, but why not list it? Finding out how to submit your blog... | Continue »

chair project 1, originally uploaded by Le Silly. .. I am loving this chair .. so much you can do with Mod Podge. I have tons of the stuff and never once really truly used it .. and I will... | Continue »

How often should you repeat Tweet your own content? Twitter has exploded with spam and shameful self-promoters, all hawking their goods and deals with nary a word of conversation exchanged. How much value is really to be gained with Tweets... | Continue »

Since I started doing this sugar wean in January where I'm trying to get from eating 80g of sugar/day down to 25g whether from natural or added sources, one of the things I have noticed is that I have been craving greens more like kale, arugula, and spinach. Admittedly, last year, I did start making a conscious effort to eat greens every day, and perhaps, now that I have been cutting down on the sugar, the green cravings are rising in its place. I will take it because it's nothing but a health win all around! Although, admittedly, it's been... | Continue »

My former corporate marketing self came out the other day when I saw this sign in the deli counter @WholeFoodsChrAZ. I love companies who are willing to use humor and modern day slang in their ads as it is rare. So seeing OMG! in a store sign was really refreshing because other than texting and social media sites, where do you see OMG! It was also a nice play on letters with GMO. Those of you who work in marketing both on the corporate and agency side know what I'm talking about, so I thought you too would appreciate what... | Continue »

I had an interesting exchange on Google Buzz the other day. In response to my post on Facebook Fan Pages, I had an exchange with Scott Medlock about the importance of being where your clients/prospects are in order to efficiently manage your social media activities. Scott said that he used the Dr. Pepper method of 10/2 and 4 to connect on social media. Not being a Dr. Pepper drinker, I had no idea what 10/2 and 4 referred to and Scott was kind enough to elaborate: Remember the old Dr Pepper line...Have a Dr Pepper at 10/2 and 4? I... | Continue »

The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. - Anne Frank Just a beautiful thought to share today. Have a wonderful weekend! | Continue »

Looking for a way to give your blog a new look? A well-designed font can help give your blog personality, and help it stand out in the crowd. We've partnered with Typekit, a great new... | Continue »

For the last few weeks I have been quietly playing along and figuring out a strategy for myself related to doing one of these year long projects where you document life by taking a photo a day. Some of you... | Continue »

Now, I'm all for project 365 (taking a photo every day for an entire year). In fact, I wrote a rather lengthy article on it for The Daily Digi and it is full of amazing links and resources. I have a different idea for a 365 project this year though. This is something I've had on my mind for awhile now and taking Ali Edwards' Yesterday Today class last fall just cemented the idea for me. I'm calling my project for 2010 a backward 365 project, although it could technically be called a backward million as well. LOL! You see, I don't need to work on the habit of grabbing my camera everyday because I pretty much do that already. I take a TON of photos each year. I'm capturing life's little details. My 2009 photo file ended with almost 2000 photos in it - and those are just the ones that made the final cut! I probably shot over 4000 photos last year. I will keep on taking photos this year of course, but I'm starting to realize that there is no way for me to keep up with that rate of production from a scrapbooking perspective. I'm ok with that because not every photo needs to be scrapbooked. But every photo really does have a story behind it and quite often there are only a few people that can tell that story. With newer photos I'm able to easily record some of the details even if I never do another scrapbook page. I blog about them. I load them into my flickr photostream and give them titles and tags. Older photos just exist in piles and boxes though. With each passing year, it becomes less likely that their stories will be told. Even the basic details of who, what, when, and where are easily forgotten. Even worse is that the stories can die if the people who remember them do. So this year I'm going to focus on bringing those stories to life. I may not do this every day, but I will think about it every day. It is a huge part of my photo organization goal on my list of things to do in 2010. Not only do I want the photos to be in order, I want the stories to be told! I'm not just talking about the "big stuff", I also care about the little memories. Things that nobody would know about the picture if I (or someone else involved) wasn't there to explain the details. If you lived in Utah in the 1970's, you might remember this boat ride at Lagoon. I remember thinking it was pretty neat! Lagoon seemed fun in those days. I really don't care for it much now. Those blond girls in back of me were family friends. Me and my Mom in Disneyland circa 1977. I have vivid memories of spending hours looking through the Disneyland ticket books trying to figure out what rides we would be able to go on with the 'E tickets" - I'm really dating myself here! Back in the "old days" you couldn't just go on any ride you wanted to, you had to use your allocated tickets wisely. I'm pretty sure this was the first time I remember going on a plane ride. I'm also quite sure that we didn't go on another airplane trips for several years after this. My Dad started his own business in the bedroom next to mine. Love all the details in this picture that my Dad could tell me about. My Mom could also fill in some of the blanks here. I don't know of anyone else who could though. This is my husband at the age of 20 in Japan. He's the one with the bag. It recently dawned on me that he is the only person in the world who can tell me what this picture is about. I don't know who the other guy is. The only thing I know is that this was somewhere in Osaka because there is a sign that says so. If I don't somehow extract these memories from him, nobody will ever care about a big box of photographs that resides in our basement. ... The trick with this project is that it isn't something that I can just do on my own. I'm going to need help, especially from my family. This project isn't on their list of things to do in 2010 (it is probably on my Mom's but certainly not my husband's) so I'm going to have to be a little persistent. I have been emailing photos to family members a few at a time and asking them to send me whatever details they can remember. Sometimes it isn't much, but other times I find little gems of information. Here's a simple example of an old photo and what I found out when I asked my Mom about it. from my Mom - This photo was taken in our apartment in Millbrae, Calif.(prob. 1972) We had bought that couch at Sears and it had to be moved in through the window because our entryway was too narrow. And yes, it had to be moved out that way too. As a side note - that couch followed us for years, and eventually became the 'big green enchilada' that Zach trashed. Ah, memories. Someday I will have... | Continue »

I do hope that you will create a vignette and come share here on Wednesday. | Continue »

Don't miss my post today on The Daily Digi because there's a fun freebie for you to download! I've already blogged about some great ideas for holiday gifts right here, but I thought I would add on a few little things I have found recently. 8 inexpensive gift ideas from Woman's Day I have my eye on this fisheye lens adaptor from photojojo. I don't know much about it, but it looks really cool! Might have to tell Santa about this one. mini business cards from MOO. I love mine! In fact, I really need to order some more. I used a variety of my favorite photos to make my cards and people always comment on how unique and fun they are. And here's a great sale if anyone is looking to buy PSE 8. I love this software! Photoshop Elements 8 and Premiere Elements 8 software will be deeply discounted from December 7 – December 21. These limited time offers include free shipping and do not require a promo code. These discounts are only available through Adobe’s online store and call center.(1-800-585-0774) Holiday Discounts (Available from Monday, December 7—Monday, December 21) $40 discount for Photoshop Elements 8 and Premiere Elements 8 Bundle.Only $109 after US$10 instant discount and $30 mail-in rebate $40 discount for Photoshop Elements 8 Plus and Premiere Elements 8 Plus Bundle. Only $139 after $10 instant discount and $30 mail-in rebate $30 discount for Photoshop Elements 8 for Mac. Only $69 after $10 instant discount and $20 mail-in rebate For more holiday fun click this button: | Continue »

Recently I answered a question on LinkedIn about what kind of camcorder to use to shoot videos for a blog. Thought you might appreciate the answer as well. By the way, the Answers feature on LinkedIn is a great way to 1) demonstrate your expertise and 2) boost your visibility! Back to my answer. When I got clarity from the person asking, it turns out they planning to shoot fitness training videos. I recommend the Flip and/or a simple webcam. But then it depends. What is the purpose of the videos and what do you want to achieve with the... | Continue »