For about 10 years of my life, I traveled around the United States (+ a half a dozen other countries) to teach. I have a lot of fond memories meeting thousands of like-minded people who have an interest in getting their pictures and memories preserved, and I am thankful for those experiences.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been to a scrapbooking convention of any kind. While we were in St. Paul, Minnesota for The Creative Connection two weeks ago (you can see the video here if you missed it), we heard that Archiver’s ScrapFest was going on right there in the next town over. At the Mall of America.
Scrapbookers? Mall of America? Sure!
David and I jumped in a cab and went to check it out, and say hello to some friends who were there. You may see some familiar faces here in the video (links to each of them are below).
Yesterday’s post was plenty wordy. I’ll keep it very, very visual today. My friend Megan has been working on a photo gallery wall in their master bedroom and the results are just completely beautiful. Here’s a little inspiration for your day.
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Megan’s wall inspires me personally in 3 ways:
1. The family pictures are a combination of formal portraits and candid shots … taken with her iPhone. Yes, pictures from your phone can absolutely be framed on your wall. I so love that she included those.
2. The neutral colors of all the frames allow the photographs to really pop. (Indeed, spray-painting was involved.)
3. It’s DONE! An actual, real, completed project. The reason that inspires me is because I have many unfinished projects. For example — this lovely little stash of frames has been collecting in our upstairs hallway for a few weeks now. Okay, let’s get real. It’s been months. Many months. In fact, I’m not even sure how many months.
This is what’s currently on the wall. I love the pictures. They’re family classics. The pictures are couples of our heritage – both sets of parents and 4 sets of grandparents. Also adorning the wall (for months) is this magazine tear-out that inspires me. It’s what I’ve been thinking about doing on this wall for quite some time.
I tore it out from a Pottery Barn catalog.
I like my little collection of family pictures. But the wall is quite large and my current collage is small. Too small-scale for the hallway – for sure. See what I mean?
But the pile of frames will sit a while longer. I have far too much going on right now. I have more cool products to develop for you! My priorities are straight. ; )
Okay, seriously – if anyone has a killer idea for this wall, PLEASE share a link. I’m in no hurry to complete the project and I’m completely open to other ideas, especially because a certain someone in this house isn’t convinced that photo collages are his thing. So … a grid? Perhaps 3 giant vertical posters? I don’t know.
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And just like that, I got wordy with a post that was supposed to be purely visual.
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Thank you Megan for sharing your inspiring wall with us! I have a feeling a few more photo gallery walls are going to be popping up. If you want to share your photo gallery wall with me, email submissions@beckyhiggins.com. I would love to see!
It’s my tag line. It’s the meaning behind the products we create. It’s also one of my core philosophies in life. And it’s how I hope to inspire you. In fact, this very simple phrase sums up the foundation of why I even have a blog.
To cultivate a good life means a million different things. That’s why nearly every day I share one specific thought to ponder – and hopefully implement – as we each strive to cultivate a good life (I share these little notes on facebook + twitter). But today I feel the need to elaborate in a way that 140 characters doesn’t allow.
I watched and listened to a remarkable talk on Saturday. The speaker was Dieter F. Uchtdorf. Some of you know him, many of you do not. But his message – clear as day and incredibly poignant – is for every woman I know. I have been thinking about some stuff recently and his talk was the icing on my cake of thoughts. I just wanted to share what’s been on my mind, some of which came from listening to his talk. Someone needs this today – probably a lot of somebodies.
Please, please, please don’t compare yourself to others. Many of you are just too hard on yourself when you feel like you’re not measuring up. Your best friend is prettier. Your sister has the perfect marriage. Your co-worker is more skilled. Your neighbor is thinner. Your sister-in-law is more organized. That woman you see nearly every day in passing is just so put together and always looks amazing (and chances are, you’ve put off even saying hi or introducing yourself, just based on her looks).
I lovingly say – Enough!
Part of cultivating a good life is being grateful for your life. Celebrate your successes – especially the little, everyday successes. Certainly you can and should look to others for upliftment and inspiration and ideas and ways that help you improve. That’s all good + healthy + exactly how we can bless each others’ lives. But when you look at others in a way that make you feel like your life is sub-standard? Well, that’s just detrimental. You know what a lot – a LOT – of women do? We compare ourweaknesses to someone elsesstrengths. I’ve done it. You’ve done it.
Um – hello? Is this fair? Does this make any sense at all? No wonder men think we’re complicated!
Stop punishing yourself. When you do this, you are stopping your progression. You have your happiness in a holding pattern. It’s so unfair to you, and in fact – it’s unfair to the people you love most, and who love you most. Whether or not you think it affects you … it does. It affects your self-worth and your confidence. And when these things slip, your most treasured relationships can be affected.
Here’s the truth. We all have trials. We all have insecurities. We all have a million weaknesses. While it’s tempting to look at someone else and think “they’ve got it all” or “they’re life is so perfect” … you’re forgetting that they’re human. You’re forgetting that they have things going on in their life that you don’t have a clue about. Heartache, loss, pain, burdens, fears, health issues, emotional concerns, family struggles. I assure you – their life is not perfect.
Be gentle with yourself. And be gentle with others. Do not be so quick to judge. Do be open-minded about what you can learn from other women. Do not be fooled into thinking the grass is greener on the other side. Do look at how blessed your life is – even with the challenges you’re facing.
You are remarkable. You undoubtedly are aware of areas in which you feel less than remarkable. Perhaps you yell at your kids too much or you don’t give your husband enough attention or you hold grudges or you’re a gossip or you’re not taking care of your body like you should or you’re not a good homemaker or you don’t volunteer enough or … Okay, obviously we all probably feel like the list is long.
Again, I lovingly say – Enough!
Take one weakness and work on it this week. Don’t complain about it. Don’t dwell on it. Just take action to MAKE A CHANGE.Today.
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By the way … This will brighten someone’s day: Congratulations to Tami L. in Trabuco Canyon, California! Out of over 1,500 entries you were randomly selected to receive all that STUFF from The Creative Connection! Email customerservice@beckyhiggins.com with your shipping address and we’ll get that out to you this week!
You know I love you, right? Seriously. David and I talk often of you (readers, customers, friends). We are so grateful for such loyalty and kindness and support that oozes from you. And I talked about that in my keynote presentation last week. YOU are why I do what I do.
On that note … There were many generous sponsors at The Creative Connection. Anyone who merely showed up and attended the conference was given lots & lots of goodies. Well, guess what? David attended with me. And while I enjoy all the fun stuff, David is, well … not quite as interested. And I certainly don’t need two of everything. So you know what that means? We decided to lug it all home so that we could give it all away to one of you! What you see here is just some of the stuff.
Leave your first name + city + state for a chance to win.U.S. address only.
For the record, I’m feeling pretty fun right now. A video + 2 giveaways in one week? Dang. I am like one big party. But I assure you that while you see just the fun side of things, there is a lot of hard work happening behind the scenes. More projects and products in the works. Exciting stuff.
Oh, and we have 2 winners from yesterday’s Bel Kai giveaway. Congratulations to Lisa W. in Petersburg, Michigan and Lee D. in Florence, South Carolina! You can both email customerservice@belkaidesigns.com and they will hook you up!
Did you see my little video this week? Remember the part where I was browsing the Handmade Market, and I was totally loving the Bel Kai jewelry? Well, I did buy a few things there. Love. And you know what else? The Bel Kai girls and I all agreed … my readers would love a giveaway. Are we right?
Bel Kai wants TWO of you to win $50 worth of product for FREE! Check out their oh-so-pretty stuff at belkaidesigns.com and leave your name + city + state here in the comments of this blog post. We’ll randomly select and announce the winners Friday this week.
This morning I woke up to temperatures in the 70s. The 70s! Since this is still technically Summer … and I technically live in Arizona (a.k.a. the desert) … these temperatures are a little glimpse of heaven. It’s actually dipping below 100 degrees during the peak of the day here. People: There is potential for gloriousness right around the corner.
Do you know what this means?? Fall is really coming! I know I’m not alone when I say: Fall is my FAVORITE.
The best part ever, is that this “Fall Fever” I seem to be catching right now is coming at just the right time. You see, I’m headed to St. Paul, Minnesota this week for The Creative Connection where the high temps are in the 50s and 60s. Are you kidding me? I’m so giddy. Must pack cardigans. And perhaps a scarf?
TCC is a gathering of women with passion and creative talent and ambition and entrepreneurial spirits. I’ve never been, but I love the idea. And since I was invited to participate, I will soon be mingling with these fine people … in cool, Fall weather! I will address about 500 attendees on Thursday during a keynote luncheon panel, along side Stacy Julian of Big Picture Classes and Nora Abousteit of BurdaStyle.
Because of this commitment – and what seems to be a million other things swirling around right now – I will be taking a short “blog break” and you may not see a new post here for several days. So … I’m going to leave you with lots of pretty pictures. Claire (nearly 6 now) urged me to bust out the Fall decorations and she eagerly helped me decorate the other day.
No time for new projects right now. No interest in buying any additional items. Just using what we already have. A little dash of Fall has now been sprinkled over the Higgins home. ; )
The picture of that adorable purple dragon is Porter six years ago – when we lived in Ohio. Makes me smile every time I see it.
This is one of the many free downloads I have in my Free Stuff section. Look for “Home is Comfort” in the sidebar (available in four colors).
Check out the details of making over my little pumpkins in THIS POST.
Last year I blogged the how-to on this pumpkin frame project HERE.
I am a fan of having “older” pictures around the house and incorporated into decor. This picture is 6 years old and still a favorite … plus perfectly fitting for Fall. And these childhood pictures of me & David? They’re a year-round classic in our home. Isn’t David the cutest?
If you’re interested in seeing how we decorated last year (slightly different … always fun to change things up a bit, right?), HERE is that 2010 blog post.
I believe that one of the greatest keys to success is surrounding yourself with talented people. I am so proud of each of the the designers who have had a hand in our company. I’d love you to take a moment to get to know a little about the designers that are the magic behind the look & feel of our products, as well as this website. You can find them HERE. Just click on their names to learn more.
I found a wooden LIFE sign months ago. I got it because I could totally picture it in our home office with little letters that spell PROJECT right above it. And then … I found those little letters at Hobby Lobby! And of course I would be painting them white.
Naturally, with the gloves on and the spray paint out, I wanted to spray something else as well. Something I’ve really been wanting to make white for a while.
Everything was painted and ready to finalize. And the letters sat around for weeks, waiting for me to prioritize hanging them.
Until today. The letters are hung (with my favorite hanging velcro ever; I talked about it in detail here) and the project is no longer on my to-do list. It’s done.
“Project Life” is not only the heart of our company and what we DO, but it’s so much about what I BELIEVE … which is … that we should cultivate a good life and record it. Those 3 pictures of each time we had a new addition in our family, represent why I do what I do on a personal level.
I just had to take a moment to share a fantastic discovery I made today. My parents (who are in their mid-70s) are finally retiring, and have decided to sell their house, buy an rv, and travel. As the only daughter, it’s now my responsibility to keep all the family photo albums and heirlooms that have been passed down.
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This afternoon I began sorting through some of the items from my maternal grandparents. It has been an amazing experience. Apparently they both believed in documenting life, and they saved every postcard, letter, diary, and so on that they ever wrote or received. Going through some of their items today has been a trip back in time! I know how important the idea of documenting our life story is, and I just wanted to share that I apparently come from a long line of “Project Life”-ers, even if they didn’t have the materials back then to archive stuff properly. How wonderful it has been today to share all this rich history with my own children! How much more poignant because I never met my maternal grandfather (he died many years before I was born), but in his mementos today I have felt him very near to me.
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I wanted to share a few of the things I’ve come across today. I’ve attached a photo collage that includes (clockwise from top left): all the bills/receipts for the building of my grandparents’ farmhouse, two tickets to a 1920 dance, a receipt for $20 for payment of the doctor’s fee for delivering my mother (at home on the farm), a giant wallet containing all my grandfather’s crop locations for each year (he meticulously drew each year’s crops out on paper and listed how many bushels he got of each), my grandfather’s driver’s license from 1941, a grocery list, and my mother’s and grandmother’s war ration books from WWII. I also found post cards and Valentines my grandmother received (from 1909-1930), my grandfather’s war registration cards for WWI and WWII, and even the straight razor he used to shave with (still in its original case)! All in all, this has been an unbelievable adventure today.
As I’ve looked through all this priceless documentation, I am almost transported back in time to the early 1900s. And I am once again mindful of just how important Project Life is. Documenting everything, including the mundane everyday things that we don’t think are important (like grocery lists), will one day paint a picture of us for the generations to come. How awesome. So thanks for being such a big supporter of all of us who believe in documenting our life story. You rock!
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My name is Sabrina Pobst, and I live in Oran, Missouri. And I love Project Life and what it has done for me. Amen. : )
Okay, so if you’re following the news of what’s coming this Fall … you know we’re no longer offering a full Project Life kit (reasons outlined here). So you probably have heard of the Project Life CORE KIT, and possibly saw the first sneak peeks of the new little white box shown here.
Let’s have a closer look inside the Project Life Core Kit, shall we? Today’s post is loaded with pictures so you can really get a feel for what comes in the Core Kit. These images are of the Turquoise Edition and the Amber Edition. We don’t have samples of the Cobalt and Clementine Editions yet, which is why they’re not shown here. But the contents are the same. Just different designs.
Here is a list of the contents. This card comes in the kit so that when you receive it, you can easily and conveniently verify that you got everything you should be getting.
Project Life Core Kit: Turquoise Edition with the lid off:
You can set the box inside its own lid – or not – and place this on your desk, in a drawer, or on a shelf. It’s tidy and organized and compact. Yum.
Something we’ve added that used to NOT be a part of a kit, is a stack (60) of blank grid Journaling Cards. These little 3×4 gems will be sooo handy for extra notes, stories, lists, little photo mats, or however you end up needing them. Part of your Project Life album, or other scrapbooking, or other random projects!
And of course you get like a million (okay, so closer to 380) of the decorative journaling cards as well, that are compatible with the rest of your Core Kit components.
And those bi-fold cards are super handy when you have more to write on some occasions.
We aren’t leaving you hanging for that very first page of the album … or the last page! There are cards that are specifically designed to slip into the front and back pages of your Project Life album. This isn’t new; We have always included these in the kit.
What IS new … is that we now have printed on the back of each card, the suggested placement … so there is no confusion for those of you who want to follow the layout design exactly as we intended it to be.
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Alrighty. So do you get it? Do you feel like you know all about the innards of a Project Life Core Kit? The bottom line with the Core Kit is this: It’s all the core components of what you would need (besides your pictures) to complete an entire album … (and then some, because there’s so much stuff!). Obviously the other key component is the Photo Pocket Pages. You’ll want to get a Big Pack of 60 (Design A), or the Variety Pack of 60, or whatever packs of 12 that give you exactly what you want.
I won’t interject with more notes. Now I’ll just show you similar pictures of the AMBER Edition.
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Both the Turquoise Edition and the Amber Edition of the Project Life Core Kit will be available as early as October. The Cobalt Edition and Clementine Edition will be available as early as November.
Want to see all our products in one place – current and coming-soon?
Want to know when specific products will be available?
Want to download a copy of our catalog? (It’s 3 pages, but hey – it’s still a catalog!)
I am pleased to share with you our newly updated PRODUCTS section of beckyhiggins.com.
Look around. Click on products to see them larger (and we’ll soon be adding more detailed images and product information for the items as well). Download & print the catalog if you’d like. Watch the Project Life video at the bottom, if you haven’t seen it.
If you have friends who are overwhelmed by the very thought of scrapbooking, share this with them. Help them to understand it doesn’t have to be complicated, time-consuming, product-focused, and expensive.
I put my heart + soul into simplifying the process of memory-keeping because I totally get how busy you are. I also get how important your pictures are to you. Me too. And … me too! That’s why I am committed to sharing products and inspiration that are solutions.
I know you’re doing your best to cultivate a good life. I also know your life is absolutely worth recording (no matter how uninteresting some of you think your life is!). Keep it simple so that your story – your family’s story – is not left untold. This is why I do what I do.
Many of you are very familiar with the “big white box”, as we have affectionately come to know it. (If you haven’t seen the very fun collection of Happy Customers pictures, it’s worth a peek.)
As you know, Project Life used to be offered in a full kit with the binder and Photo Pocket Pages and all the core paper components and … well, everything. But as you know, we are changing the way we offer our products – giving you more flexibility and freedom to choose only what you want. If you missed the explanation about that, be sure to check out our recent Fall Products Q+A post.
So I wanted to share with you the NEW “little white box”. I will soon be sharing more information + details about the Core Kit, including pictures and a list of exactly what the Core Kit contents are. In the meantime, I thought you’d enjoy a glimpse of the new size.
And … because it has been a tradition for customers to take a picture with their big white box, naturally the tradition will continue when everyone begins to receive the NEW product this Fall! We will soon be seeing pictures like these:
No, these people do not actually HAVE the product. These are personal friends who willingly let me take their pictures with the new little white box (Project Life Core Kit) so that I could help you imagine what kind of picture you’ll soon be able to take. : )
Turquoise and Amber editions arriving October. Cobalt and Clementine editions arriving November.
We have some very special friends - the Fuchs ("fewks") family - that are adjusting to a "new normal" with their special-needs daughter who had a terrible accident and is now confined to a wheelchair. You can read all about it HERE
For the benefit of Claire's family - and also for the benefit of many generous sponsors - I opened my blog for advertising for one month only! This is temporary + the ads will run February 1 - 29, 2012. 100% of the ad fees have gone directly to Claire's family.
Because of the nature of this fundraiser and the need to keep the entire process very, very simple - we are not taking any more sponsors at this time. Anyone who wants to reach out to the Fuchs family with a note of encouragement, or a letter in the mail, or even a cash donation, can find that information HERE
