Archive for October, 2010
Wednesday, October 13th, 2010
The challenge: With your camera in hand, look straight down on your subject. (More details in this post.)
The results: A lot of people standing on chairs, first of all. And just loads of terrific submissions. I love how many of you are participating in these simple photo challenges. Even if you don’t submit a photo, many of you are trying something different with your camera. Attempting a new angle. Go you!
Top ten: It’s actually not. I can’t narrow down any more than I already have. So here are my top 13 favorite shots that you submitted.
 Photo by Celina. Fresh from the garden, these carrots are incredibly photogenic and beautiful, aren’t they?
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 Photo by Riikka (in Finland). Yes, she stood on a chair for this shot. We should all take a picture of our little ones playing like this.
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 Photo by Anne. Taken just as they were about to break for t-ball practice. Fun twist on a family portrait. Dad’s even holding the baby. We just can’t see that far up.
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 Photo by Courtney. Looking down this guitar turned out to be quite the artistic angle.
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 Photo by Alison. From this angle, I love how the focus landed on Olivia’s eyelashes.
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 Photo by Chrystal. Did your stomach turn a little bit when you saw this? Mine too. She took this photo at the Willis (formerly Sears) Tower in Chicago and mentioned, “I had to force myself out on the ledge & look down.” It’s worth noting: Love the shoes.
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 Photo by Augustina. Life with twins. Love that they both fit in the sink. Love that this is from straight above. Love that she’s carving out a few seconds here and there to document this life.
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 Photo by Holly. She took this shot of her “fun little mini desk”. I’m going to guess she’s a teenager? Holly? Yes? I wish I had a picture like this of my childhood desk or dresser. All the little stuff that I valued! Everyone with pre-teens and teens: Take a picture like this today.
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 Both photos by Melissa (in Australia). First, her pregnant belly. I never took a picture of my pregnant belly from this angle and now I wish I did. Then, a fresh perspective on getting a shot of her little girls. Ah-dor-a-ble.
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 Photo by Debbie (in Australia). Another great picture that everyone should take of their child studying or working on homework.
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 Photo by Sue. Watering her little cucumber plant on the balcony.
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 Photo by Bianca (in Australia). I’m naming this my all-time favorite of all the submissions from this photo challenge. Love the straight-down angle on a baby’s crib. And it doesn’t hurt that this sweet babe is deliciously beautiful, isn’t she? She clearly enjoys those sweet butterflies that dangle from above. Bianca, I’m hooking you up with a free digital Project Life book.
Great job, everyone! I’m inspired.
Tags: photo challenge results
Posted in photography | 14 Comments »
Tuesday, October 12th, 2010
What is Whippy Cake? Oh, you know … just the cutest hair accessories ever! These have been in my hair at least every few days lately. LOVING.
I adore the designs. They’re versatile to work in both my hair and my little Claire’s hair too. And the quality? Impeccable. The girl behind it all? Ultra creative, super sweet, witty and delightful … Becki. (You’ll get a sense of just how charming she is as you skim through her blog.) PLUS — She does the most fun things with hair & makeup and oozes of beauty-related talent as well so check out her hair tutorials and tips.
Becki would love to give $40 worth of free Whippy Cake products to one of you. Want some of this? (Yes, you do.) Leave your name, city, and state. Winner will be announced on Thursday this week.
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Totally unrelated but equally cute, cute, cute: Kara Layne is now offering a new product with her photography services that rocks. They’re 2×3 mini brag books and they’re adorable. Check out the miniature goodness here.
Tags: becki, give away, whippy cake
Posted in style & design | 771 Comments »
Monday, October 11th, 2010
Quick item of business: Our randomly selected winner of the FREE digital Project Life book is … Joanne Villet (United Kingdom)!
And … Rebecca Foxworth (California)! You, my dear, are the one who has inspired many to try the picture-a-day concept specifically for these last 12 weeks of 2010. So YOU are getting a free 2nd copy of your digital Project Life book as well!
Both of you shoot an email to projectlife@beckyhiggins.com and we’ll hook you up.
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Traditions have been on my mind. Little traditions that document life and preserve personal history and family history. Like getting each of our kids’ handprints on a canvas every time they turn a year older. (We just had 2 birthdays last month.)
I’ve talked about these canvas handprints before – here and here. But I don’t think I ever mentioned how I identify each of the handprints, telling how old the child was and when we did each respective handprint. So here’s a look at the backs of those canvases. Just used a skinny Sharpie marker for the labeling.
Here’s Crew’s entire collection as well:
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Another “small” thing I did recently is have Claire write the entire alphabet together on one piece of paper. I love seeing the whole alphabet together and of course I’m a sucker for my kids’ handwriting. Perfect combination. Porter did this when he was about this same age (you can see it displayed in our play room in this post). I’ll try to remember to have Crew do this in a few years too, when he’s about 5 and learning to write. So I guess this has become another tradition of sorts.
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How about you? What’s one little tradition you do — as a family or as an individual — that has to do with documenting life and preserving your story in some way?
Tags: birthday, canvas, handprints, tradition
Posted in family & children | 50 Comments »
Friday, October 8th, 2010
And the winner of this morning’s most outstanding bed head award goes to …
Way to go, buddy. I know that was a whole night’s worth of effort. This one deserved some recognition.
Happy weekend, everyone.
Tags: crew
Posted in Uncategorized | 14 Comments »
Thursday, October 7th, 2010
My philosophy on preserving memories? ANYthing you’re doing to capture & record life in the form of pictures, video, journal-writing, scrapbooking … anything … is just awesome. And most of you are doing something. And that’s just so cool.
For me personally, the primary way I document our family’s life is by taking at least one picture every single day. I include this collection of daily shots, each accompanied with brief journaling, into a book. I’m going on 2 years strong of doing this. Most of you know that this is what inspired the development of Project Life. Of course many of you are telling your story with a picture-a-day as well. You know what it means for you. For your family. For your posterity.
This philosophy has resulted in more everyday pictures that are more valuable to us than 200 pictures at Disneyland or 75 pictures of an Easter Egg hunt. We’re getting more pictures like these…
Daily rituals:
Porter’s latest project:
Claire’s latest portrait:
How we get the wiggles out before bed:
A little party preparation:
A little afternoon craving:
And the way we kicked off a recent date night:
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Here’s a thought. This is for those of you who are not currently taking a picture-a-day.
Maybe the picture-a-day concept intrigues you but it feels daunting, overwhelming, impossible. Maybe you wonder, “But when would I start? The beginning of the year? On your next birthday? An anniversary? Just whenever? (The correct answer is: Any time is a good time. Pick a random day and that’s a good day!)
Perhaps you’d like a little “trial run” with this philosophy to see how it works out in your own life before tackling an entire year. A fellow blog reader — Rebecca in California — recently pointed out to me that we’re approaching the last 12 weeks of 2010. She thought of this idea, shared it with me, and I’m passing it along to you. (Rebecca, thank you!)
One of the digital Project Life books is designed for 12 layouts (originally intended for one month per layout for a full year). What if … you took a picture every day for these last 12 weeks of the year?
Because I am personally loving this philosophy in my own life and because I continue to read comment after comment and email after email of happy “Project Lifers” who are doing the picture-a-day — I’d love for you to try it and see for yourself. So here’s what we’re gonna do:
- For a limited time, we are putting the digital Project Life books on sale — 25% off both sizes! Starting … NOW.
- All new customers who sign up (meaning you set up an account and start a project but don’t necessarily need to make a purchase) will get $5 credit applied to their account.
- All those who either already have an account or they sign up now, will have a chance to win an additional FREE copy of the book they publish. This would be today’s GIVEAWAY! Leave your name, city, and state or country and we’ll randomly choose someone. But first — be sure you’ve created an account HERE. It costs absolutely nothing and you are absolutely not obligated to purchase anything. Creating an account means you can start uploading your pictures & adding your journaling to the already-designed book whenever you’re ready. It’s super simple.
NOTE on timing: Go ahead and get started this weekend with your own project if you’re interested in taking a picture-a-day for the last 12 weeks of 2010. You could start this Saturday or Sunday … depending on how you want to display your weeks. Personally, I’m a Sunday-through-Saturday-kind-of-week girl.
ALSO NOTE: Ziblio is the platform for digital Project Life. If you have questions, concerns, or need customer support at all these guys are really terrific and super helpful. Please direct your questions to them: (877) 209-1560 or support@ziblio.com.
Alright — are you in? Want to try the daily picture-taking? If you’re already doing the daily thing, feel free to leave a comment and share your thoughts too.
Tags: digital Project Life, sale
Posted in scrapbooking | 137 Comments »
Wednesday, October 6th, 2010
{ Retreat: final thoughts & a winner }
In the last post I shared some thoughts on retreat. And after reading through 300 comments, I see that this desire is common among us. To retreat means to recharge, reflect, recommit, review, remember … RENEW. To retreat helps (most of) us be a better spouse and parent and friend and giver. When we make a little effort to create soul-nurturing time, we are better for it. And everyone else around us benefits. Most importantly, our family.
So thanks for sharing your thoughts. Thanks for telling us how you retreat. And as always, thank you for stopping by and being a part of my blog. You are dear to me.
Now. People. All this talk of who needs a getaway scrapbooking retreat and it’s killing me. You ALL deserve one! So thank goodness this is a completely random selection because I could never hand-selected one winner based on their comment. Congratulations to Angela! Angela, your cousin Teressa nominated you and said this about you: “She is the toughest person I know. Her husband had an accident a year ago and has a very serious brain injury. She not only has cared for him, her 5 kids and all their school and athletic activities but also has had to take on a full time job. She could use some time because she is the most amazing woman I know.”
Angela, go ahead and email lorimuse2@yahoo.com and they’ll hook you up with free admission to a much-needed scrapbooking retreat in Utah next month! Teressa, you are thoughtful and selfless and a obviously a dear friend to nominate Angela. Thank you for your example.
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{ Photo Challenge }
I want to emphasize again why I do this. The purpose of the occasional photo challenge is to inspire you to try something different with your camera … to keep photography interesting for us all … to encourage you to take more pictures of your everyday life.
This week’s challenge? LOOK STRAIGHT DOWN. Look at the difference between these two pictures:
Is one picture better than the other? Most certainly not. But I personally find the top view more interesting and more of what my actual view is when ironing clothes.
Another example:
Anything wrong about the regular view of Claire’s closet? For sure not. Again — it’s just trying a different angle.
So this week, stand directly above something or someone to take a picture. It may mean getting on your tippy toes. It may mean standing on a chair. Be sensible and careful. I don’t want any emails telling me you got on top of a chair and toppled over and cracked your wrist. None of that, okay? If you’re interested in submitting a picture to me, email it to projectlife@beckyhiggins.com. Submissions due by Saturday 10/9. I’ll post my top 10 favorites next week … for the love of sharing off your talent and keeping us all inspired.
If you’re not interested in going with the challenge or submitting a picture, perhaps you’ll at least now feel inclined to take a picture of something as mundane as your ironing table or closet. I would have loved to have a picture of my mom’s clothes in the 60s. Or my own clothes when I was little. Just something to think about.
Tags: closet, ironing board, photo challenge
Posted in photography | 27 Comments »
Monday, October 4th, 2010
A retreat is the act or process of withdrawing. It can mean to step away from the usual stuff in your life. It can mean that you play hard or relax a lot. Or maybe both. It can be a solitary thing. Or with a group of people. Sometimes going on a retreat means going somewhere far for an extended period of time. Sometimes it means slipping away for an hour to get a pedicure. A retreat is what you make it.
This weekend I had a bit of a retreat in my favorite place in the world — our home. I’m here all the time, so the surroundings were quite familiar. My family was all here too. Nothing unusual. But I took a break from a lot of “regular” stuff. I kind of ignored my to-do list. I gave a cold shoulder to the computer. I didn’t get out much. Instead, I stayed in my pajamas most of the time and we played, cooked, relaxed, and read as a family. We also watched and listened to inspired men & women speak on solid principles like faith, morality, gratitude, priorities, respect, integrity, work, service, etc. I am so grateful for modern technology allowing for this kind of goodness to be broadcast right to our television. I absolutely loved every minute of it.
For the past few months I have been retreating early in the morning, before our children wake up. This time is a gift. Sure, I could sleep just a little longer. That would be nice. But I am choosing to arise a little earlier to spend time in total silence, hearing only the prayer in my heart and the words that I am reading. Silence. Stillness. Such a gift. As I go to wake up the kiddos I have already established my tone for the entire day. A happier, more grounded, more peaceful, more grateful tone.
I will leave it at that and not get too personal. (After all, I don’t personally know 99% of you reading this. And 99% of you don’t know me — personally.) But I wanted to bring this “retreat” subject up because I know without a doubt that some of you are in need of a retreat. Perhaps a daily retreat — even just 30 minutes — to start your day. Not enough hours in the day, right? Then what gives? A little less facebook? A little less TV-watching? Maybe turning off the radio on your commute just to be alone with your thoughts?
And what about retreating with your spouse, for those of you who are married? I’m a believer in regular date nights and getaways together and even full-blown vacations with just the two of you — if it’s within your means.
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I’ll step down from my soap box, with hopes that a few of you might feel motivated to figure out a way to retreat in your own life.
Now … let’s have a little fun and do a giveaway on this fine Monday, shall we? Speaking of retreats (how perfect!), there is a Paper Muses scrapbooking retreat at Hidden Springs Ranch in Altamont, Utah. This November 18-20 weekend is their 7th year doing this. The retreat includes lodging, all catered meals, 4 classes including supplies, prizes and giveaways. They would like one of my blog readers to win a FREE pass to this retreat ($400 value). Super cool. And I bet “super needed” by you or someone you know?
Anyone is free to leave a comment regarding retreats and perhaps share what works for you. If you specifically want to be considered for this Utah retreat, be sure to note that in your comment. A randomly selected commenter will be announced on Wednesday.
And I promise my next post will be more visual and less text. ; )
Tags: giveaway, morning routine, paper muses, scrapbooking retreat, time management, utah retreat
Posted in family & children | 312 Comments »
Friday, October 1st, 2010
In the Valley of the Sun we’re still in the triple digits. Um. Triple digits. It’s October. It’s not right. Right?
But … it’s where we live and it is home and we do love it here. And have the best Winters ever. And as for this “Fall” weather? It is what it is. This is the desert. “Fall” just comes way later than the rest of the world. Besides — the forecast tells me we might actually be below 90 degrees for high temps next week. Time to bust out the sweatshirts on those chilly mornings in the 60s.
Enough about the weather. I just want to give a little shout-out to my absolute favorite month of the year. October means more than cooling temperatures, although I do find that to be awesomely refreshing. It is also when David & I each turn a year older. I have loads of wonderfully fun October memories in my life. It also happens to be a year ago – October 2009 – that we were launching our new business and working like mad to create the original edition of Project Life.
By the way, I’ll just say it again and again — THANK YOU dear readers. Thank you for being a part of all of this. Thank you for being part of the Project Life movement. Thank you for stopping by the blog. I know many of you have even made it a daily routine and I just want you to know how much I appreciate your interest and your loyalty and your comments and your sharing.
So where was I? Ahhh yes … October. As we see the change in seasons and as we anticipate the upcoming holiday season, I do hope that we can all make an effort to simplify the upcoming holidays in our own families and not do too much, not spend too much.
Moms: As for that holiday with all the candy (I get sick thinking about all. that. candy.) … you may find yourself attempting a little photo shoot of your dressed-up goblins and princesses.
(The scene in our garage 4 years ago.)
If it goes a little something like this picture, don’t get uptight. Take a step back. Take a deep breath. Have a laugh. Have a moment where you feel gratitude for the blessing that is your life, your family. And keep snapping. Because the “perfect” pictures aren’t the ones you’ll treasure in 5, 10, 20 years.
Capture real life. Embrace your real life. And do what you can to record it.
Tags: costumes, fall, motherhood
Posted in holidays & seasons | 12 Comments »
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