Archive for August, 2010

10 Q&A for today

Monday, August 16th, 2010

I’m answering more of your questions today. Random topics.

Q: Please tell me where you got that wallpaper in your kitchen!

A: The company is Seabrook. The name of the book/collection is Shadowplay. I did a google search and found this page of information. But it was my interior designer friend Joan who found the wallpaper back when we did this, so she ordered it. As soon as we saw this print, she and I both knew this was the one for our kitchen.

By the way, Joan was very instrumental in the recent changes we’ve made to our home the past year or so. She’s the one who twisted my arm to go with grey walls and I’m SO glad. This is another topic for another day, but should you happen to need some interior decorating help and you’re in Arizona, feel free to contact Joan for a consultation.

Joan Hintz (623) 826-8500 | joan_hintz@yahoo.com

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Q: Where do you get the small square canvases for your kids’ handprints? (Shown in this post.)

A: I’ve been getting them at Michael’s and I always use a 40% off coupon because they’re not cheap. I prefer the 8″ x 8″ size. And I recommend using the same size from the time you start, for those of you who might be just starting this now. Back when our oldest was a baby, I went with a small canvas because I didn’t have the full vision at that point and, well … his hand was small. The vision, by the way, is a complete set/grid of all these same-sized canvases with progressive handprints.

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Q: Do you have any photos in boxes or are all your photos in albums?

A: No boxes. All of our most recent photos (from the past 15 years) are either in albums or on our computer and of course backed up. Most of our childhood photos are safely stored and organized in hanging-file-type bins, waiting very patiently for me to tackle that project. And I will tackle it. I am planning to do it digitally so as to make copies of our childhood books for our kids.

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Q: If I were to go through your purse, what would I find?

A: Nosey, nosey. Okay, so here are 5 things you can count on finding: 1) diapers & wipes 2) Ice Cubes gum 3) a pen 4) WetSlicks lip gloss and 5) my point & shoot camera.

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Q: I love the apothecary furniture in your office. Where did you get it?

A: Thanks! Picked it up at World Market. But that was about 4 years ago and it’s not likely they still have it, sorry.

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Q: When you add text to your photos, can you still print that at Costco or do you have to print it on your home printer?

A: You can print any JPG anywhere. When you add text in Photoshop or with any software, you just need to be sure your final copy is a JPG. That’s what you’ll upload & print.

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Q: Are you happy with your Nikon? Are you using the kit lens? Why did you choose it over Canon?

A: We always used Canon. Then 2 years ago, the Nikon D90 came out right before our 3rd child was born, so we jumped on it because it was the first dSLR to have video capability built into the camera. We wanted that excellent SLR quality for our video, not just our still shots. That’s the reason we got a Nikon. Now the video in dSLRs is more common. Honestly, I don’t feel all that biased about Canon vs. Nikon. I’m no pro behind the camera. I just like taking pictures. A good resource for digital camera reviews is at dpreview.com. Oh and yes, I’m just using the kit lens right now.
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Q: How do you find the time to do everything? I’m a working mom and feel like I never have enough time. I bet you don’t watch TV, huh? Is that the answer?

A: You’re a smart woman and exactly right. I hardly watch TV. I wouldn’t say I never watch it. It’s just incredibly limited. I absolutely rely on my toddler’s naps and my kids’ bedtime. I recharge with regular date nights with the hubby. I try to cut out anything in my life that doesn’t fit into one of these categories: essential, enriching, serving. Being overcommitted isn’t all that fun. But being busy and serving and doing … that’s all good. I try not to multi-task if I can help it. I struggle with that, but I’m working on it. I also use iCal to keep all of my commitments organized.
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Q: I’ve noticed that you have a lot of enlarged family photos on your walls. What do you do with the older ones when you replace them with newer ones?

A: I used to hang on to the old prints. But I was never using them again. Enlargements are really cheap at Costco, so as weird as it feels … but in the name of de-cluttering … I throw away the old prints. Besides, I don’t change out the really big prints very often.
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Q: Please tell us about the new school kit. When is it coming?

A: Yes, we are developing a kick-bootie school kit. A lot of thought is going into the organization and system and design and everything. It’s going to be very fool-proof, user-friendly, perfect for the non-scrapbooker, and will cover all school years, from preschool through high school, in one kit. Plus, it’ll be versatile enough for homeschool use and even students outside the U.S.
The next round of Project Life kits (yes, that’s plural) should be available in time for the holidays this year. Since that has been a priority, the school kit will be come out after Project Life. The plan is early 2011. You know this is the place to come for all the latest scoop.

recording a child’s imagination

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

Claire has an imaginary friend. But we don’t dare call her “imaginary” because Claire will fight you on that one. Sally is real.

Because these “friends” are completely age-appropriate and because this is right in line with cultivating creativity in our children, we let Claire go on and on … and on about Sally. And she most certainly does. She’s a total Chatty Cathy right now.

Every day this thought runs through my mind: I wish I could record her saying these things. I know many of you relate. Younger children truly do say the funniest things. But the thing is, we can’t tape a personal recording device to our kids. That’s just too weird. And we can’t have them repeat what they say because that’s just not genuine.

So this morning as Claire was telling us more about Sally during breakfast, I decided that starting today — I am going to record everything she tells us about Sally. And so I picked up my notebook (where I keep all of my creative brainstorming for so many different things) and a pen and … I began to write. I recall doing something similar when Porter and his “friends” — Mad Ducky and Bambi — were little.

This is a start to what’s going on with Sally at the moment (so much can change in a day):

Since this notebook is handy at all times, I will jot a note down whenever Sally comes up. Then what? Well Sally most certainly will have a place in Claire’s scrapbook, wouldn’t you say?

Do what you can to record your child’s creative thinking and imagination. Don’t feel guilty about what you wish you could have recorded in the past. Start now. Take pictures of them when they get in their own little world. Write down things they say right when they say it so you can record it as accurately as possible.

Not a scrapbooker? Keep a journal. Not a writer? How about this: One journal per kid or one journal for the whole family. Heck, everyone can contribute if you want. Whenever anyone hears something funny come out of someone’s mouth, just jot it down in the journal. Doesn’t have to be beautifully constructed paragraphs. Just get something down on paper. Quotes are a great start.

They grow up so fast.

back-to-school is on-the-brain

Monday, August 9th, 2010

For so many of us it’s that time again: Back-to-school. This means back to a more consistent schedule, an earlier bedtime, and usually a quieter house for some chunk of time during the day. It also means that order, routine, and organization are totally on the brain. They’re my little magic words right now. Focus words.

For the love of all things orderly, here are a few projects going on around here:

[ LABEL-HAPPY ] You know I was all giddy labeling every single thing that we packed in Porter’s backpack. Love my label maker.

[ MEAL-PLANNING ] I asked you guys last week to share your meal-planning systems and boy, did you ever. Thank you! Tons of great input, and plenty of you relating to this desire to be better organized about planning and carrying out meals. I haven’t even made it through all the detailed comments but something that popped up over and over was e-mealz. Many of you are using this online service and the Higgins are giving it a try! Thanks for the recommendation. We’ll let you know how it goes. All I know is I was so happy to do my grocery shopping over the weekend based on a list that I didn’t come up with for once. We’re looking forward to some new recipes too.

[ PROJECT LIFE ] For those of you who are in a similar boat, I’ve fallen a bit behind on our Project Life this summer. No worries. Try to schedule a block of time each day for the next week or two (or whatever you need) to do catching up. For example, my method of doing Project Life is the POTD-way — taking a picture every single day of the year. That part is easy for me. Check. Done. Got it. As for the journaling, I’m scheduling 30 minutes in my daily routine until I’m back on track with that. Another option is to just go back over the months you still would like to do, and just do a two-page layout for each month. As in – choose 7 favorite pictures from each month, add a journaling note to go with each one – and you’re done!

[ PERSONAL YEARBOOK ] You may remember that little project I’ve been doing in Porter’s classroom at school the past couple of years. Click here for a re-cap if you missed that. The end result of this project is a personal yearbook for each child. I am officially set to go with this again for the new school year – in both Porter’s 2nd grade class and Claire’s preschool class. I know a lot of you are interested in doing something similar.

Good News: I will be sharing downloads (free, of course) that will be the templates for these pages that will work for an entire school year. No more waiting for me to post the next month’s stuff. No more figuring out how to create your own pages. I’m going to simplify the entire process for you so that you can confidently volunteer to do this in your child’s class. So stay tuned. I’ll be sharing more information about how to get started, what supplies are needed, and of course the free downloadable page templates.

aliens & finnish names & facebook

Wednesday, August 4th, 2010

This is pretty much a “random topics” kind of blog post.

Meet Porter’s alien friends. These are his latest creations. Porter and his friend Cameron spent hours drawing unique characters, organizing them, and playing with them. Kind of reminds me of his recent dinosaur art.

I shared some thoughts on how to nurture creativity in our children earlier this year. Going along with my 7th point in that post, this is a little reminder to photograph your kids’ art. They should be proud of what they create and of course you want to show them that you’re proud of them too. Getting out the camera helps instill that feeling.

For example: Porter and Cameron drew a bunch of little aliens and cut them out. I invited them to arrange their aliens on a piece of cardboard I had so we could snap a picture, which of course they were game for doing (see above). To take it a step further, they each laid next to their art to be in the picture too. This is Cameron and his aliens:

The result is that you’re not only preserving their art, but you’re capturing their age and stage of life at the time of creating that art. By the way, the boys love that it looks like they’re standing against a wall. This is what the scene really looked like:

Poster board on the floor (you could also use a blanket or sheet or even the floor itself). I intentionally did this right next to windows where I could get beautiful, natural, indirect lighting.

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A couple other mentionables today:

1. FINNISH NAME PLATES. My mom picked up a couple of “Saara” Finnish name plates for those who commented about that name (pictured here). But no one has claimed them. If you are Saara or know a Saara, please send an email HERE with a shipping address and my mom would love to  send you a Saara name plate. First come, first served. Attention: Cindy with a daughter “Hanna” — we saw your note and my mom needs your shipping address as well.

2. FACEBOOK. I need to address this Facebook Friend thing. For those of you who have sent me a friend invitation, I wanted to let you know why it hasn’t been accepted. You may notice on my facebook page that I have zero friends. And yet there are lots of folks getting my feed because they “like” me (I like you too, by the way).   ; )

That’s because I am set up as a page, not a personal profile. A facebook page is for businesses and organizations and the like. The difference is that anyone can get my facebook feed if they “like” my page. To be “friends” means both parties have to accept each other and then they get each other’s feed. I know I simply can’t keep up with that much feed.

My point: If you have invited me as a friend on facebook, that’s why I haven’t accepted the invitation. If you’d like to receive my feed, just go here and click on the “like” button next to Becky Higgins LLC (as shown here).

calling all meal-planners

Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

The beginning of a new school year is right around the corner for us. Our summer has been full and flexible and inconsistent. Our meal planning? Inconsistent at best.

So I’m thinking a lot about schedules and structure and consistency and how much I look forward to all of that back in our life again here soon. Specifically, I’m thinking about meal-planning. And I’d like to ask you — how do you do it in your family? What’s your system? How do you plan what you’re going to eat on what days? How often do you shop for food? Do you repeat the same meals every 2 weeks or every month or something like that? Do you try new recipes very often or not really? Do you keep all of your favorite recipes in one place? Do you use any online recipe organization service that helps you?

I’ve tried different things over the years but I’m ready to try something different. So leave a comment and let us know — what’s your system for meal-planning?

And yes, if I’m feeling pretty good about whatever system I settle into, I will most certainly let you know.

target inspires me.

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

Nope. No association with Target. I don’t know the folks that run that empire. I’m just a consumer. I just love walking through the place. Thankfully I’m much more of a window shopper than an impulsive spender.

Target always seems to inspire me, even if I’ve seen the same stuff on the shelves a million times. When I run in real quick for two things, I have to resist letting my eyes wander beyond straight ahead. Because if they wander, then my body sort of follows my eyes and the next thing I know, my five-minute-run-in turns into 20 minutes.

Anyone else with me on this? I was there (again) over the weekend for some back-to-school shopping (hello, giddy-ness).

Remember how I was talking about those skinny notebooks in my travel photography post? They have some darling ones right now. Even in itty-bitty sizes. Yum.

Here are a few more of my favorite things eye-candy finds at Target right now:

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{ added note }  : Noticing some comments about Target and politics … and just wanted to mention I’m in the dark on this one, sorry. Clearly I need to google and find out what’s going on. (I’ve been reading a lot lately and watching no TV, so pretty much in the dark on news-related topics.)

Anyway — the point of this post is to share some inspirational designs. That’s all.  : )