Archive for August, 2012

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5 photos that inspire : marcy penner

Wednesday, August 15th, 2012

Photographs are windows to our memory. Reflections of our life. Reminders of our blessings. Each Wednesday we will feature 5 personal favorite photos from a Creative Team member or a friend. These will be 5 photos that remind of us why photography is so beautiful and why documenting the everyday is so important. The goal is to leave us all a little more inspired to cultivate a good life and record it.

To jump-start this new weekly blog series, I give you – Creative Team member Marcy Penner.

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It’s hard keeping up with kids and trying to photograph them. On this day my boys ran into the house and told me that they found a wagon wheel at the creek.  So, I grabbed my camera, followed them out and snapped this shot of them pulling it out. They’re obsessed with anything western right now (hence their plaid shirts) so I’m glad I dropped what I was doing to follow them outside and capture their excitement in their treasure.

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I don’t take a lot of pictures of my house. It’s a work in progress for sure. But I want to document the progress we’re making. So instead of taking of photo of a room that is NOT pretty, I document our projects by taking closeup shots. They still tell me what we’re working on, but it’s a great photo all on its own.

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More projects. Ha ha. Our current outdoor project is building an outdoor kennel for the dogs. We’re taking that opportunity to teach our kids about building and tools. I snapped this photo with my camera phone to remember how independent and helpful my oldest son is becoming.

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The photos are not always great. This photo, for instance, is overexposed. But to me the actual story behind it is more important to me. It’s a simple thing. Documenting his chore that day. But the way he jumped right to it, with a “It’s my turn to shine” is something I always want to remember…. whether the photo is stellar or not.

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My boys are always wanting me to take pictures of their Legos or stealing my phone to take pictures themselves. It’s really neat to see their perspective or document the things that they are interested in.

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You can learn more about Marcy here, and check out more of her everyday photos and Project Life pages on her blog.

 

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Posted in family & children, photography | 5 Comments »

jonathan.

Tuesday, August 14th, 2012

David, Jonathan, me in Maryland 2 weeks ago. My mom got that shirt for him a while ago and it’s the truth: Colon Cancer IS a real pain in the butt.

When we all found out that my brother Jonathan was diagnosed with Stage IV Colorectal Cancer last December it was like someone punched me in the stomach. I can’t even begin to imagine how that news affected his wife and children.

But he fought. And he continues to fight. He’s been through a full course of radiation therapy and continues to undergo chemotherapy. Jonathan is strong and amazing in so many ways. He is a devoted husband and father, insanely talented (including the very coolest architect handwriting you’ve ever seen), and incredibly selfless as he serves tirelessly in church and his community – all his life.

Of the 1,200+ blog posts I have published, there has never been a more difficult post to write.

Our family learned recently that the chemotherapy has lost its effectiveness and the tumors continue to grow. To say this is breaking our hearts is an understatement. Jonathan’s suffering has consumed me. I think about and pray for him constantly – as well my sister-in-law, their children, my parents, my other 4 brothers. And there are many, many more (his employees, colleagues, students, youth at church, friends, neighbors) who are heartsick about what Jonathan is going through.

Our family has a tremendous amount of faith and there is no question in our minds about God’s eternal plan of happiness for every person that comes to earth. I don’t usually use my blog to share much about my personal life and I haven’t said much about Jonathan’s battle or how it’s affected us this year. But there is something really special about a community of people (you being part of my community) who can make a difference in someone else’s life when they face heavy challenges. I’ll come back to that. First I can’t help but share a few pictures.

The cowlick. The shirt. Honestly, could he be cuter?

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Me + my brothers + sisters-in-law a dozen years ago. Jonathan and his enthusiasm in the top-right.

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A couple years ago when we met up for lunch during his layover in Phoenix. We live on opposite sides of the country so we were happy to get even just an hour or so with him as he passed through town for business.

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David and I went to Maryland to be with Jonathan and his family in February. This was a day or two before another round of chemo.

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Hanging out during chemo. My sweet parents have literally been by Jonathan’s side during all of this.

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Jonathan & Tina have raised Eagle Scouts. Last week Jonathan mustered up all the strength he had to be there for Tyler and Spencer’s big night.

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My mom has spent much of her time keeping her hands busy, crocheting blankets for family members lately.

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Taken just 2 days ago. Back: Spencer is 15, Tyler is 18, Tina is Jonathan’s sweet wife of 20 years.

Front: Garrett is 11, Jonathan (just 42 years old by the way) and Kristyn is almost 9.

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Every. single. day is precious.

This is true for Jonathan. For his family. For all of us. Even though our family is spread out – from China to the western U.S. to Maryland – each of us has been able to spend time with Jonathan in the past several weeks. What an honor – although a heartbreaking and humbling experience for each of us. And yet it has been an incredibly enriching and blessed experience. I love Jonathan and his family with all of my being.

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In situations like this it’s easy to feel helpless. David and I want to do something that will help Jonathan & Tina’s family during this incredibly difficult time as they face so many challenges and ultimately, as they transition to the next chapter in their life. The financial burdens they are facing are unquestionably very difficult.

Anyone who would like to send a donation to Jonathan’s family will have the opportunity to place their ad on my blog sidebar. The ads will be published on September 1 and stay there for 2 months – through October 31. As you know, I don’t have ads on my blog. I have never monetized my blog. This is a very unique opportunity to do something so helpful while also enjoying the benefits of fantastic exposure for your business. 100% of the donations will go to Jonathan’s family.

Anyone who would like to donate – even in a small amount – can most certainly do so without necessarily having to place an ad on my blog if you don’t want to.

Whether you are a company or a family or an individual … whether you already know Jonathan personally, or you don’t … whether you want to place an ad on my blog or remain anonymous in your donation … email brandi@beckyhiggins.com with what you’d like to do, and she will let you know the next step.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for even considering to help Jonathan and his family.

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Hug your family. Spend more time together. Don’t let unimportant, trivial things take away from cultivating stronger relationships with those who matter most.

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Posted in family & children | 277 Comments »

creative team inspiration: august edition

Monday, August 13th, 2012

As usual with the monthly offering of inspiration from our fabulous Creative Team, I will share just one or two little pieces from each of their respective Project Life albums. And then – whenever and wherever you want to see more – just click on the person’s name and it will take you to their blog where they each share more details, more information, more pages, more examples of how they’re using Project Life as a memory-keeping system.

We completely adore how each person’s style is so unique – in photography, with their journaling, and how they bring it all together in their albums. As you see how others are doing Project Life, our hope is that you will feel an increased desire to document life, and that you’ll be more in tune with what your own personal style is. No matter how you slice it, it’s all good. It’s your story.

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That would her handwriting on a Scrapbook Divider. Simple. Clever.

Liz Tamanaha

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Sheri Horton

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MaryAnn Perry

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Cathy Zielske

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Michelle Wooderson

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This is the brand-new Design J Photo Pocket Page – awesome for Instagram photos with 3×4 Journaling Cards.

Deb Duty

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I so love the play-by-play in her “day in the life” journaling.

Lindsay Teague Moreno

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Monica McNeill

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Jennifer Woodbury

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In case you’re wondering about the rest of our Creative Team, they’re still around. Summer just tends to be especially crazy and we weren’t able to gather layouts from everyone in time for today’s post. However, they all have plenty of Project Life sharing on their respective blogs. You’ll want to check them out too:

Ali Edwards . Jessica Sprague . Kelly Purkey . Marcy Penner

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Posted in scrapbooking | 9 Comments »

Project Real Life: registration is OPEN.

Thursday, August 9th, 2012

It was October of 2011 that I announced I would be teaching my very first online class in the 4th quarter of 2012. Someone please tell me - how is it possible that time has flown by so fast that it’s already time for registration??

Friends, I hope you will consider signing up. I have never done anything like this before. I’ve taught many live, in-person classes. I’ve written several books. I’ve made plenty of videos and published hundreds of blog posts. But developing content for an online class is its own category – and working on this has been a labor of love.

I am so very grateful to Big Picture Classes for inviting me to be a part of their vision – bringing education & inspiration into the comfort of your home. Stacy and I go way back and like many of you, I adore her and want her to live next door so we can be trail-running buddies and I can taste-test her recipes. It is so, so, so fun for both of us that after all these years of working side-by-side in the scrapbooking industry, that we are once again working TOGETHER on something really special. I feel very blessed to be able to utilize the infrastructure that BPC has in place, as the home base for my class. Plus, I just adore working with the whole team there.

Let’s get down to the details, shall we? I want you to be as informed as possible as you decide whether this is for you or not.

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Q: Where do we go to sign up for your class?

A: Click HERE for the registration page on BigPictureClasses.com.

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Q: Are there a limited number of seats?

A: NO, that’s the beauty of online classrooms; there is a seat for everyone!

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Q: When will the last day of registration be?

A: October 10, 2012 at 10:00pm PST.

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Q: When does the class start?

A: October 4, 2012.

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Q: How long will your class run?

A: It covers the whole 4th quarter of this year; my last week’s worth of material will be shared December 26.

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Q: How much will it cost?

A: $99

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Q: Is your class open to people living outside of the U.S.?

A: You bet. Anyone, anywhere.

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Q: What will be the purpose of your class?

A: My goal for you in taking this class is that you feel enriched, motivated, and inspired to cultivate a better life – and truly liberated in the way you approach the documentation of that life. You will get a healthy dose of my personal real-life insights about both of those areas – creating and documenting a good life. Sounds vague, eh? Keep reading.

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Q: What will be the final results of your class?

A: We are covering so many areas in which we can all cultivate a better life, so I believe that taking this class will result in you having the perfect life. Just kidding! For real, these topics we’ll be talking about, and these ways we’ll be documenting our life over the next few months, will be very enriching. Our eyes will be opened a little wider to how we approach our not-so-perfect life. I think we’ll all feel more motivated to embrace the real life that is ours. And of course document that life along the way.

As for tangible results, we will be completing 12 Project Life layouts over the 12-week course. I’ll have oodles of photo challenges to get the wheels in your head spinning about how to document everyday life. Be prepared to keep your camera handy the whole time. I’m also pretty confident that you’ll be tackling an organizational project or two in your home. There are also several other optional projects/challenges/tasks (homemaking, decorating, scrapbooking “older” photos, etc.) that I’ll be presenting. Did I mention optional?

The beautiful thing about my philosophy is that I have a NO PRESSURE approach to teaching. If you want to enroll, check the classroom weekly and sit back while you watch my videos and read my material and do nothing with my assignments or challenges, I have no problem with that. If you want to create extensive to-do lists based on the ideas I’m sharing, then I can keep you very busy. You will set your own pace. I’m there to offer suggestions and hang out with you a little through the holiday season that will soon be upon us.

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Q: What will we learn that we can’t already learn from your website?

A: Excellent question. I share a lot right here on my blog, for free. All the time. On a regular basis. For free. At no cost. Doesn’t cost you a dime. What’s different about developing content for a class that people pay for, is the cohesiveness that strings through all of the content, pulling it all together for a much more effective impact on lives – resulting, hopefully, in some seriously eye-opening experiences.

Similar to developing products, I have put a lot of thought & energy into how my class content will resonate with you, and how I can add value for you. Countless hours creating slide show presentations, videos, handouts, etc. This is totally a step above blogging when it comes to not only the preparation, but the outcome.

Each week I’ll be sharing content and ideas with you (including hanging out in different spots around my home) that have not been addressed on my blog. I’m diving in a little deeper on organization, time management, homemaking, traditions … all that good stuff that makes up LIVING LIFE.

Interested in seeing the 12 topics that we’ll cover? Here is the PDF: ProjectRealLifeCalendar

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Q: What is the difference between Project Real Life and Project Life?

A: Project Real Life is my class – what this big, giant blog post is all about. Project Life is the line of products that I have developed to take the guesswork out of memory-keeping. If you’re new here, you can see what Project Life looks like HERE.

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Q: Did you say something about getting a set of cards with the class?

A: Indeed. Anyone who enrolls in the class will receive a set of exclusively-designed Project Life cards (3×4 and 4×6) that are not available anywhere else.

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Q: Is this class going to be self-paced or will we have weekly assignments?

A: This is an instructor-led (that’s me!) class with weekly updates for 12 weeks. I will be interacting on the message boards and galleries. The content I share will all be centered around cultivating a good life in the midst of reality. You can absolutely participate on your watch, and no one is holding you to any sort of “deadlines”. If that’s what you mean by self-paced, then yes.  : )

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Q: Will the class have chats?

A: Yep. Apparently I’m even doing 3 live video chats. Sounds fun!

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Q: I have never taken an online class before.  It is all written out?

A: I’ve never done this either – how fun to try this together! There are beautifully designed handouts and worksheets, but there are also videos, slide presentations, chats and the chance to interact with all of the other students as well. There will be transcripts available for videos and slideshows.

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Q: Will you be discussing how to organize our photos?

A: You bet!

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Q: Is this class suitable for Project Life beginners?

A: A thousand percent, YES. If you have never touched Project Life – you are so going to dig this. If you have never even scrapbooked EVER – oh boy. You will really love this! I am not about complicated gadgets and intricate techniques that leave you with glitter in your hair and sores on your fingers. I am ALL about a simple solution for documenting life. Stick your photos + written memories into Photo Pocket Pages. No adhesive. No fancy trimmer. Just get it done and LOVE your album.  : )

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Q: Will the class be beneficial for those of us who have been doing Project Life for a few years now?

A: Absolutely. If you’re already a Project Lifer, you understand the simple nature of the system. There’s no need for a class to teach you “how” to do Project Life because all you do is place items in pockets and that is all. Zero education needed. My class is far more focused on cultivating a better life. Recording life will already come naturally to you.

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Q: Will this class be beneficial if I am doing Project Life via Shutterfly or your digital elements?

A: Sure! No matter what your approach (phyical products + prints or doing it digitally) – the concepts of what we are doing are still the same.

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Q: Once we have registered, will we always have access to the gallery, files & other items from the class?

A: Any class you take at Big Picture Classes is archived in your account. It’s something they call Forever Access and it means that you will have all of the ideas, inspiration and information that I share to keep and refer back to again and again. It also means that you can LIVE your life and not worry too much about keeping up every single week!

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Q: Does the class cover other ways to document using Project Life besides the weekly approach?

A: Yes indeedy.

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Q: Is this class designed to help us get caught up with past photos or is it a present, going-forward type of class?

A: Yes. And yes. I love it ALL, so we’ll cover the spectrum.

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Q: Will I be able to take your class using my iPad or do I need to be on a computer?

A: All of the content in a BPC classroom is iPad friendly – how cool is that!?

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Q: Will you be offering your class again in early 2013?

A: Nope. We may offer it again in 2014, but the best thing to do is take it now and know you can refer back to it at anytime!

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Go on. Register. As soon as you do, you’ll have access to a fun presentation I pulled together. See you in class!

 

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Posted in holidays & seasons, scrapbooking | 110 Comments »

ten for tuesday.

Tuesday, August 7th, 2012

1. Have you seen our new video? We worked with the awesome team at Epipheo to create this super short video that explains – What is Project Life? It’s smothered all over the website, making it very easy for newbies to spot. It’s so exciting to see how liberated so many of you feel using this system for memory-keeping and I would be tickled pink if you felt inclined to share with a friend or two – or your whole group of facebook friends.  ; )

2. The past couple of weeks have been deeply challenging, bitter-sweet, and overwhelming for me and for David – and for a lot of our family, actually. I got enough comments about being “missing” from my blog and social media last week that I wanted to just put a little reminder out there: “I work hard, but my work is not my life. I am a wife and a mother, a daughter, sister, friend, and volunteer.” (From my About page.)

3. Receiving your new products? As most of you know, lots of new products have been showing up on Amazon during these past couple weeks (crazy timing for me, personally, but so super happy that so many items are in stock!). We are really stoked to hear that so many of you are receiving your products and LOVING them. Please remember that if you happen to have any product issues or questions about your order, facebook is not the place that we can best serve you. Email customerservice@beckyhiggins.com so that we can properly address any questions you may have.

4. When will (fill-in-the-blank) be back in stock? We have this beautiful page on the website called PRODUCTS. If ever you are wondering when certain items will arrive, please check out that page because every single product has a note with the most updated information we have on estimated arrival timing. Whenever we find out that something is due to arrive a little sooner or a little later than we thought, we update those dates. That is truly the best way to know timing on new arrivals and re-stocked items.

5. All the Project Life Binders that have been sold out just showed up on Amazon yesterday, in case you missed those announcements on facebook + twitter yesterday.

6. Speaking of social media, I appreciate how so many of you appreciate all the product updates but I’m sure we’ll all be excited when my blog returns to “normal” again. In the meantime, please remember that one of the main reasons I have a blog is to support the philosophy of my brand and share information about my products. It’s a very seasonal thing around here. When new stuff is being announced, or around the time that new stuff arrives, of course I’m going to share, share, share in that direction. The rest of the time, I’m less about product focus and more about inspiration for cultivating a good life, and fun ways to document life, and other random + fun ideas. I’m super glad you’re here whenever you choose to be here and thank you for the many notes of “I love it all” from those of you who are especially loyal.  ; )

7. Project Real Life. I can’t believe it, but we’re just 2 days away from registration opening up for my first online class. It’s called Project Real Life and thanks to Big Picture Classes, the 12-week course will be available to anyone, anywhere in the world. Everything (price, content overview, registration info, etc.) will be published Thursday. I hardly know how to even market this class to you – my readers, customers, friends – because the heart + soul + thought + time that I’ve been putting into this is almost not comparable to any other project I’ve ever done. It’s not like a collection of blog posts. It’s a totally different level of sharing and I am so excited to be a part of this upcoming experience with many of you.

8. Never-before-seen. Speaking of new stuff and exciting things … guess what I’ll be sharing in the next couple weeks? Project Life: Baby Editions, Childhood products, and even the 2 new Core Kit editions for 2013! I can’t wait to share the designs and share the designers with you! Stay tuned. All of this stuff actually shows up later in the year but I want to share loads of visuals with you so you can plan.

9. I could really go for a few bites of Garrett’s Popcorn – caramel + cheddar mixed together. Super random, but a friend mentioned her upcoming visit to Chicago and now that is stuck in my head.  : )

10. Choose happy. As difficult as the past couple of weeks have been for us, personally, I am reminded yet again how this human experience is sometimes full of challenges, heartache, and downright very difficult trials. There is also so much opportunity for love, elation, growing stronger, being better. This is exactly as life should be. It is my prayer that we don’t lose hope in the difficult times – and that we choose to be happy no matter what our circumstances or limitations or stresses. I love that happiness is a choice.

Posted in products | 57 Comments »

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