365 layouts & a few random notes

1. Congratulations to Michelle V. in Sparks, NV! Michelle, Karlee would love to send you the market tote. Drop her an e-mail at karlee_fuchs@yahoo.com and give her your mailing address, okay? Enjoy that tote!

Getting back on a few of your recent questions ...

2. You've been asking to see full layouts from my Project 365, so here you go. One from May and another from June. Just gives you an idea of how I'm preserving our family's memories ... one day at a time.





3. Do I have another book in the works? Nope. Happily enjoying a slower pace of work these days. I did 9 books in 8 years. I think I'm good for a while. : )

4. New recipes? Yikes. It has been a while. Okay -- added a new one today.

5. On the note of photo editing, be sure that whenever you edit something, that you save it as a JPG ("save as"). That's the type of file it needs to be in order to print like all your "regular" digital images, will are also JPGs.

Enjoy your weekend.

the tote is back

For those of you who love the sewing talents of this amazing woman, Karlee Fuchs (pronounced "fewkes") ... this is for you. Some of you will remember the popular handmade market tote bag that she did. That darling fabric is out of print but she found more and is pleased to bring it bag on a limited base.

Click here to see the bag.

Want the tote, but really want it for free? I smell a give-away in the works. It's been a while, right? Let's do it. Karlee is giving away her market tote to one of my blog readers! Leave your name, city, and state in the comments and we'll choose a random, lucky winner.

life story pages to print

Last week I got to be a part of helping about 160 teenage girls in our church (and 40 youth leaders) get started on writing their life story. This took place at Girls Camp, which is an annual Summer tradition for the girls in our church, ages 12-18.



They decorated a cute & quick cover, including a current picture of themselves.



The rest of the time was spent starting to fill in the blanks in their life story. I encouraged them to finish most of the writing at home, on their own ... when they weren't around other people. I think minimal distractions = better writing.



I wanted to share this with you too, in case you want to do this with the youth in your area, or with your kids, or whoever you want. Remember: This is very specific to teenagers. And it can work for boys too. You can always just take the concept and create your own version.

TEEN.life.story.pdf

And I know some of you still need to write your own life story. This condensed version of an autobiography is quite simple. A fully-detailed life story, complete with pictures would certainly be ideal. But let's get real. Most of us haven't made that a priority. So this is better than nothing. In fact, it's great. If you were gone tomorrow, this would be absolutely treasured by those around you. I encourage you to print it & put it in a little binder & fill it out sometime soon. No one can tell your story better than you can.

That said, here's the version for adults. In other words, those whose teenage years are behind them. : )

ADULT.life.story.pdf

By the way, the binders are "half pint" binders, or in other words, they hold papers that are 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" (which is half the standard size). If you can't find them at your local office supply shop, look online. Just do a search for "5.5 x 8.5 binder".

four friday favorites

Favorite recent purchase: The Bowler camera bag. Featured in the recent issue of CK, it was love at first sight. You can find it here and it's also on Amazon.



Favorite YouTube find: Piano/cello duet (arrangement by Jon Schmidt). Click here. Just beautiful.

Favorite random photo backdrop: A damask plate. I was taking pictures of my sweet new friend Paige when I saw a damask plate in my kitchen and a heard the *bling* in my head. Lightbulb moment. Big Sister Emily held the plate about 18" behind Paige (who was in her mother's arms) and I love the results.



Time to invest in some damask fabric. It'd be a bit more "full coverage" than the plate. It only worked because Paige is so tiny.



Favorite art: Porter lovingly presented his latest to me. I am told that this is me taking toast out of the toaster for him and it all takes place in my store (appropriately called "Mom"). And that's our garden down in the corner.

some recent POTDs

POTD: Picture of the Day

I am taking a long time to "catch up" (is there ever such a thing?) on a bunch of stuff. Work, house, laundry, e-mail ... and I'm in charge of the "craft" project at Girls Camp this week. I'll share more on that later.

In the meantime, here are a couple of my Project 365 daily pictures from our time in Maui.

June 30th:



July 3rd:



And back at home base ... taken of Porter's bedroom door:



Finally, a little harvest from our banana tree:



Hope you're enjoying your week so far.

back from vacation

We've been spending some time on the beautiful island of Maui, which is why I've been a blog slacker lately. You could say I was"happily slacking" on lots of stuff while we were away. Such a great get-away.



I'll be back to regular blogging soon.