Posts Tagged ‘canvas’

it’s tradition.

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?

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.