What's Up????

If there's one thing that REALLY bugs me about blogs ... it's when there are no updates for a very long time. I've been irritating myself to no end on this front. BUT I have a list of reasons. 

This is the very best one ...

This is my BFF ... she lives thousands of miles away so we rarely see each other face to face. 

She was my matron of honor. We're talking over a quarter of a century of friendship.

This is her oldest daughter. I've known her since before she was born. She was my sweet flower girl.

Now she's a mommy.

And she's a grandma.

We don't have any idea what I am. Who cares?

I've been away from paper and tools, basking in this place called "baby love".

Everything in the whole world fades away when there's a baby to hold and gaze at.

Now that I'm home ... a routine might fall back into place. Maybe ...

READY ... SET ... GOALS

It's always a good time to set goals, but for some reason it's highly motivating to do it on January 1st. Maybe it's because we feel like we have company.  Here I am to make all of you part of my company by announcing my 5 paper creating goals for 2012.

1 - Take a photo every day. This starts as a digital process, but eventually winds up being paper.

2 - Post a card on my blog every week. Of course there will be other material each week, but at least one card keeps my blog just a little bit fresh when life gets crazy. Here's my 2nd card of the year. Thankfully Operation Write Home has something call the mid-week throw down. So if I miss the sketch challenge OR can't come up with something on my own, that's where I'll be turning for help.

This is too easy. Tear some circles of paper ... glue them on top of each other and call it a flower.

3 - "Finish" three scrapbook pages each week. That sounds loftier than it is. I start lots of pages, but I'm not a good finisher. So this is my motivation to get the final touches on my pages. Everything is designed to fit in a book somewhere and I'm setting this goal to make sure that happens.

Here's what I have for last week. This was easy because I was at a scrapbooking weekend. I actually had more than three to choose from. It's what happens this week and on that makes this the most challenging goal on my list.

You can see from these three that I make pages about everything. And you'll also get to see that I use all kinds of different products even though I am a CTMH consultant. For me this blog is more about paper (and encouraging you to use it) than it is about business. 

4 - Stay current with 2012 scrapbooking. I don't want yet another year to get jumbled up in my half finished work from the past several years. I already have 2012 photos to take care of.

5 - Mail a box of cards to Operation Write Home once per month for the whole year. You can jump in and help me with this whenever you want to. There's nothing quite like knowing you're helping someone else be a blessing to his friends and family.

So now you know. For the most part you may not know how I do. BUT I hope you'll follow along at least to watch me stick with the weekly cards.

The Good Ol' Days

Do you remember when you put film in your camera?  Once you came to the allotted number of exposures (less than 40) you had to take or mail that film somewhere to actually see your pictures. It required patience. Wasn't it exciting to go pick up your prints OR find them in your mailbox??

What did every single company do with your roll of film?  They printed your pictures on PAPER!!!  And some places would make two or more copies of every photo so you could give extras to your family and friends. We put the pictures in albums or frames or in a box or a drawer somewhere. They were available to look at without a device.                              

FAST FORWARD ......  Now you have a digital camera and you take more pictures than ever. You get carried away and take photos of everything and it's fun!!!  BUT are they printed on PAPER??? Can you show them to anyone without carrying your camera or your computer with you? OK, you post a couple to facebook. Maybe you even use an online company to share with family that's far away. That's very cool. I actually joined facebook just to see pictures. It's been a pleasure to see weddings and babies and the every day life of people I don't get to see every day. What would happen if we were together in person?  Would you show me your memories on your computer screen?  Ask someone over 40 ... it's not the same.

I miss paper pictures. 

"PRINT YOUR PICTURES" is kind of a soapbox of mine. It just seems like a massive amount of photo memories are bound to get lost and forgotten over time as we trust them to live on forever out in cyberspace somewhere. So I stand firmly on that soapbox ready to "preach it" to anyone who will listen. I want to make sure paper pictures don't get become a thing of the past. 

Don't worry ..... I'm just as guilty as you are. Let's help each other. I'll get pictures printed if you will. "It's so overwhelming!!!" Yes it is. Some people are years behind. It's hard to imagine catching up OR paying for all of those pictures. Here's my advice and this week I'm going to follow it. 

Start with NOW ... take a look at the photos from your most recent event or download. Print the top 10 pictures of that event and pat yourself on the back. You've gotten started. It shouldn't cost you much more than a dollar depending on where you shop. If you did 10 pictures a week you'd have over 500 pictures printed in a year.  People will be impressed and ask you how you did it. A wave will start of people printing pictures on paper just one event at a time. 

WOO HOO ... it's a paper picture revolution. Mr. Eastman would be proud.