When my sister Jessica came to visit, she taught me how to make it. It was then that I completely understood why Jess & Majdi’s friends were always talking about this soup on Facebook. One other amazing thing is that ALL the Lamoreaux children and Troy LOVED it. YAY! Healthy food we ALL love is a big win around here.

Being a scrapbooker I documented the soup story for posterity. I love that marriages in our family mean expanded horizons, recipe books and hearts. I seriously can’t imagine my sister Jessica without Majdi – they are just meant to be together. I also now can’t imagine my life without this soup!

I created this layout using a template by Cathy Zielske. I must admit there is a part of me that feels guilt for always using templates, but seriously there should be no shame in templates! Especially when there are so many great time-saving options out there.

For those of you who asked on Facebook, here is the recipe. You can also find other awesome Abbas family recipes (many of which are vegetarian) in this book by Majdi’s Aunt and Uncle. Personally I can’t wait to make the Stuffed Swiss Chard & Dip.

Someday I really hope to compile a family recipe book with memories – anyone have ideas/templates for that?

How do you keep your supplies organized?

What do you recommend for supplies?

If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you know that in my personal workflow I convert PNG files in kits to TIFF (LZW compression) and then import them and keyword everything in Lightroom.

There are many reasons I like this workflow – the first of which is that converting my PNG files to TIFF is like a room addition to the file format. The TIFF format allows me to save metadata inside the files. This means that if I ever lose my LR Catalog, my files would still have all their metadata embedded.

Yet after a couple of years of doing this, I am learning there are many reason this method isn’t for everyone. Here are just a few:

• It isn’t simple – it complexifies supply workflow.
• Time – this system is really difficult to keep up with – it takes double the time to organize as you have to first convert and then organize.
• The process of getting your files from PNG to TIFF can be difficult technically. It really is an advanced process that can be very frustrating.

To put it simply, it works for my creative workflow, but I am finding this process doesn’t really scale for everyone. So for the past six months I’ve been trying to find other options and ideas. I’ve been thinking about how to do things differently – opening my mind to new ideas and workflow.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the easiest thing for Supply Workflow would be a system that isn’t dependent on one type of software or program – something that works with everything. In a perfect digital scrapbooking world that would start with how designers name their files.

The Designer Piece of The Puzzle

Most every type of software program has the ability to text search. Meaning that one can type a word in a field and the software will search through files to find matches. The best place for that information is in the filename.

Currently many designers name their files with designer name, kit, and a name of the element. One thing I love is designers who name their papers and elements with descriptive names that I would search for – i.e. colors, what, etc.

When they do, it basically means that you can use your organization software to search the items and find all the relevant items without any extra work. It won’t be as customized and accurate as your own system tags, keywords or categories, but it is probably the easiest way to find what you need.

A New Vantage Point

The bottom line for organizing digital supplies is finding what is most important to you in your workflow. There are so many different ways to do things – so many different software programs – so many different workflows… and so little time.

If you really want to be organized with BOTH your photos and digital scrapbooking supplies, you will want to really think about your time. Specifically the time you will have to spend supporting your system.

You also need to think about how important longevity is to your system. For example, 50 years from now people will truly value the keywords, tags, captions in our photo files. However, I’m not sure that the same can be said about our digital scrapbooking supply files.

Bottom Line

To answer everyone’s questions – when it comes to supply organization for the masses – I am working on it. I’ve been marinating in ideas, trying new technologies, testing things back and forth and I’m still working on it. The good news is things are coming together and I should have some solutions/ideas and options for you all early in the summer.

In the meantime I’d suggest working on organizing your photos. Supply organization is fun because it helps us to be more creative. Yet I hope we can keep perspective because in 50 years it won’t matter if your posterity can find the perfect red polka dot paper from your supply collection – but being able to find that photo of your son graduating high school in mere seconds? That is going to be important.

How About You?

I am really interested to know if you feel your photos are organized, supplies, etc. What order did you create workflow for each (i.e. supplies and then photos or photos and then supplies). Do you feel organizing helps you to be more creative or less creative? Do tell!

Lately I’ve been working on little projects for people I love – graduation announcements, cute quote handouts and a Mother’s Day surprise for Aunts and cousins. Fun little projects – they seriously keep my creative heart happy.

My to-do list has reached the point of… well… just WOW… However, if you know me, I love having things to do! Yet I am also working on slowing down enough to well, be more present in the moments. A couple of weeks ago I came across the Kindle edition of this book and I’m seriously loving it.

I’m actively practicing the art of being present. We live in such a fettered time – so many things pulling us in different directions – so many things we think we “should” do. It is so difficult to be Here when we are thinking about the next thing “there.”

Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Blogs – they all take us on electronic excursions. Sometimes those places are fun, social and inspiring, yet I am finding that limiting the social media in my life helps me to be “here” and when I am truly “here” my most creative ideas flow freely.

Since I starting teaching Finding Photo Flow I’ve been thinking a lot about Flow in my own life. I ask my students to look at the river of their Photo Flow to find obstacles, beaver dams, uncomfortable places and then examining the obstacles and seeing what they mean and how they can be worked with to create flow.

From my students I have learned that often the obstacles we face are opportunities to better understand how our minds work. For example, if every time I am sitting down to practice my Photo Flow and I get to captioning each photo I feel stressed, my flow is trying to tell me something. If I’m keywording and captioning and then finding I never want to take photos or download from my camera – my flow is telling me something I need to listen to.

So many times we try and push the obstacles away – power “through” them – get “around” them and yet when we do, we only push on to find them repeatedly occurring – often in just a slightly different form.

To the student finding stress when captioning every photo I suggested sticking to just keywords and captioning only when inspired. Sometimes flow isn’t about choosing everything we CAN do. Sometimes it’s about choosing less so we can have more moments in real life.

The more I’ve thought about flow with supplies and photos, the more I think about flow in my own life. The river of daily things I do, the things that go smoothly and what the obstacles and rough patches are helping me to learn. Living with flow in life is a process – it’s something I am working on refining so things are smoother, less chaotic and peaceful. Yet the process of creating more peace and flow in life isn’t always easy!

A few weeks ago I came across this and felt it pretty much summed up life for me right now:

For about five months Troy and I have been consciously working to simplify – not completely understanding why we both felt compelled to do so. Lately we are beginning to see tidbits of the why – first with Kate’s diagnosis and now a job change for Troy. Still we are in that slightly chaotic sifting place of motion & change and we are just literally going with the flow as things shift, making little tweaks here and there to refine and work toward the end goal of living simply.

Even with all this change I LOVE where I’m at. This place is hopeful, exciting and refining and I am learning so much more how to trust my intuition and just to go with the flow.

I am so grateful to you all for your kind comments and emails regarding my daughter Kate. She is doing much better as we are learning ways to support her nutrition, sleep, schooling and of course basketball so she can function at optimal level doing them all. We have a series of really great weeks and then a week where things flare up and aren’t so great. We retrace steps and try to find the trigger and then work to make things better. It is a journey and we are learning.

I am also finding flow in this online blog space – working to find balance between teaching, blogging, social media’ing, and just being. I have posts residing in my mind that need to be written – they will get here in time.

If there’s one thing I am learning so very clearly these days – it is that “here” is what we make of it. It is also a place we can deliberately choose to go, create, or be…

How about you? Where is your “here?”  Are there “here” places you spend a lot of time and yet wish you were “there?”  Is “there” your future “here?”

Wishing you all a happy “here” wherever it is for you.

Chuck hasn’t always been my dad, he came into my life about 14 years ago when he married my mom. He’d been a bachelor his entire life and then married my mom and BAM! He instantly had not only a wife, but also five grown children and GRANDchildren!

Our family is like one of those fun patchwork quilts – if you saw us all separately you would never put most of us together. We are an eclectic group of cultural and geographic backgrounds, faiths and philosophies. The one thing that brings us together is LOVE.

Today I’m grateful for a dad/grandpa who:

- Is so present in everyday moments. When you spend time with him, he’s there 110%.

- Still has fun wearing crazy pajamas

- Inspired my current Starbucks hazelnut hot chocolate habit with his love of hazelnut coffee (my waist isn’t so grateful )

- Knows how to have FUN – seriously – the above photo was taken when Grace and I met the grandparents in Vegas for a quick 36 hour fun filled trip.

- Brings out the best in my mom – I love who she is with him.

I could go on and on – suffice it to say that today is his birthday and I am profoundly grateful to have him in my life.

Love you Dad.

It was late March and a good day was about to go bad for Bridgette. A thief had broken into her home. No one was home, thank goodness, but the thief got away with several items including her iMac and her prized DSLR camera. The police dutifully took the report and assigned a detective to the case. 

Little did the thief know that Bridgette’s iMac had Backblaze Online Backup installed with the Locate-my-Computer feature set to “Mapping is On”. Using another computer, Bridgette simply used a browser to log into her Backblaze account. Once there she clicked on “Locate my Computer” and was presented with few simple guidelines,

1. Prepare a restore of her data,
2. Change her Backblaze account password and
3. Report the IP address of her stolen computer to the police.

She gave the police the IP Address information she collected, but was told that IP address tracking would take a few days as her ISP would have to provide the address of the thief.

But, Bridgette didn’t need to wait a few days. The Backblaze Locate-my-Computer feature also allowed Bridgette to “Map This”. When a stolen computer is connected to a Wi-Fi connection, “Map This” can show a street map along with the longitude and latitude of the location of the computer. When Bridgette gave this information the police they were able to quickly locate the thief without having to wait for the ISP to provide the location.

The police surprised the thief and recovered most of Bridgette’s property. After a bit of police department paperwork Bridgette was reunited with her DSLR camera and her iMac with Backblaze Online Backup. 

The Locate-my-Computer feature is included in the Backblaze Online Backup service for no additional charge. To see if your system has the Locate-my-Computer feature activated just log in to your Backblaze account and see if the “Mapping is On” button is selected. We at Backblaze hope that you will never have to use the Locate-my-Computer feature, but if you do, please follow Bridgette’s lead and report the information received from Backblaze to law enforcement and let them find your system.

To celebrate, Backblaze is offering a coupon that will save new customers 10% off their initial purchase for a limited time.

Code: locateme10

Expiration: 31 May 2012

Applies to: Initial purchase only

Discounts: One month – savings $0.50

One year – savings $5.00

Two years – savings $9.50

Notes: The Coupon Code must be applied to the sale on or BEFORE the expiration date.

You can sign up for Backblaze here. Please note this is an affiliate link – it helps me to keep the lights on around here! I think that I should also disclose that I’ve been a happy Backblaze customer for almost a year now – I can’t imagine my online life without them – Backblaze is truly a service I wholeheartedly adore.

When we finished our discussion I had so many ideas I thought it would be fun to share a few quick tips on how lighting can change everything in your photos. Keep in mind I share these tips knowing that I am such an amateur when it comes to all things photography.

Photography is kind of like philosophy – the more you learn the less you know.

Where is The Sun?

I remember a time when I would just run after any photo I could get at any time of the day. I had five kids under 9 – I ran a lot. Then I discovered something photographers call the “golden hour” it’s that beautiful time right after the sun rises and right before it goes down.

Perhaps a better way to teach this would be to illustrate what doesn’t work – harsh mid-day sun.

This photo was taken midday which is often the worst time to take photos. The light was almost shining straight down which casts unflattering shadows all over her face.

Contrast this with these photos taken in the magical evening golden hour -

Another way to work with light is to go into buildings (like your garage) and use that beautiful morning sidelight to create rake lighting:

Lighting is everything when you shoot photos. One thing I found very interesting is that landscape photographers who want to shoot a certain landscape will often spend 24 – 48 hours in the location watching the light at different times of day to compose the shot they want.

Most of us don’t have that luxury but it never hurts to scout out a location before your shoot and to think about the directions of light at different times of day.  Even in your home – watch the light in different rooms during the day. This is a photo taken in my dining room next to a sliding glass door during that magical golden hour…

Honestly the secret to great photography is light.

It is the photographing of ordinary things, in extraordinary light, which results in extaordinary photographs. – David Young

Most of my work is done in the evenings after my kids are in bed. The house is quiet, and I sit, thinking and writing and working. Another thing I’m never without – my music and headphones. One little creative quirk – when I’m working on creating I often will be listening and working and one song will come on and it makes something click for me where I get into a literal groove of pushing out content. When that happens I hit the repeat button in iTunes and listen to it over and over again until I am done creating.

The funny thing is the message of the song often has nothing to do with the work I am creating…  In some ways it’s pretty laughable…

For example, last summer when I create the very first class of Finding Photo Flow it was Foster The People’s Pumped Up Kicks that played over and over while I cranked out content…  I seriously probably listened to that song over 100 times…

It was awesome until my teenager came home and educated me on what the song actually meant and said.  It really is a sad song about a kid and a gun.  Ouch – sad I didn’t get that! Obviously part of my routine doesn’t include singing along…

Needless to say I found a new song the following month when I revised the FPF content again…

That month it was Death Cab Cutie’s Monday Morning…

She may be young but she only likes old things,
And modern music it ain’t to her taste,
She loves the natural light, captured in black and white,
She sees mirages of mountain ranges,
Within a blink of her eyes it changes,
Back to the open plain, oh no she can’t explain.

I cry out “Love keep your arms around me”,
I am a bird that’s in need of grounding,
I’m built to fly away, I never learned how to stay.

The night is gonna fall and the vultures will surround you,
And when you’re lookin’ in the mirror what you see is gon’ astound you.
But all these lines and greys refine, they are the maps of our design,
Of what began on a Monday morning.

Monday morning, Monday morning,
Ooh, ooh,
Monday morning, Monday morning,
Ooh, ooh,

The night is gonna fall and the vultures will surround you,
And when you’re lookin’ in the mirror what you see is gon’ astound you.
But all these lines and greys refine, they are the maps of our design,
Of what began on a Monday morning.

Oh yes the night is gonna fall, and the vultures will surround you,
And when you’re lookin’ in the mirror what you see is gon’ astound you.
And all the glow of you from inside the room,
Is burning on inside of you, it all began on a Monday morning.

Monday morning, Monday morning,
Ooh, ooh.

I can honestly say that song got me through more than a few all-nighters… A few other favorites that pulled me through - Bella’s Lullaby (piano version) by Tallesin Orchestra, Mylo Xyloto by Coldplay and Every Teardrop is a Waterfall by Coldplay.

Music has always been a big part of my life. I remember in the 70′s my parents always had a great LP player with speakers and so many vinyl records (yes I had bright orange and green bell bottoms to match!) My sisters and I would listen to those records endlessly…  I still can’t do a road trip without Fleetwood Mac. :)

Lastly the weird song that is helping me to create my lates class and inspired this post –  Lullaby by the Cure… Not sure if this means I am close to dropping off the creative deep end – I just go with what moves me, you know?

Which brings me to you. What are the soundtracks of your life right now? What helps you to run, work, dream, create?

What songs do you hear that instantly bring back memories of a specific place and time? Have you ever recorded those memories for posterity?

Please share!!

So why not celebrate with two four chances to win? The first is a seat in Finding Your Photo Flow 101. Simply head over to Jessica’s blog and enter for your chance to win a set in FPF101. Did I mention that while you are there your comment will also enter you to win a seat in the talented Kerri Bradford’s Silhouette: Oh The Places You’ll Go? Oh the goodness!!

If you are really feeling lucky, head on over to Kerri’s Blog for a chance to win Frame-Ups and Special Effects.

Now for the giveaway we’re doing here.:) I’ve been on a vintage photo kick lately and in the spirit of bringing old photos to life, we’re giving away a seat to This Old Photo by Jessica Sprague.

In this class you’ll learn:

• Recommended techniques for scanning old photos, slides, and negatives into digital format
• Strategies for organizing your digitized vintage photo collection
• Techniques for editing vintage black-and-white and sepia-toned photos to rebalance tones and ease the damage of age
• Techniques for early color photos (60s-70s) to correct color shifts and fading
• Techniques for fixing over- and under-exposure
• How to remove dust, scratches, stains, and even creases and folds
• When to use which of the Photoshop editing tools to solve specific issues

Just leave a comment and let us know what vintage photos you’ve got stored away that could use some help – or anything else you want to say!  We’ll pick a winner this Friday!

Lastly, for an extra chance to win just head on over to the JessicaSprague Facebook page and comment!

Hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday!

**P.S. If your comment doesn’t show up immediately, don’t worry, it’s there and should show up shortly!

***** GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED – Congrats goes to Anna!!***

1. Crop and Edit to my taste (some images look better in black and white, creamtone, etc.)
2. Keyword the images with Who, What, Where, When. I’m finding that I’m adding a lot of new keywords to my list for these earlier years in my life.
3. Change the metadata date for the images. Metadata > Edit Capture Time. There is no way to know the exact date so a lot of times I just guess a close date.
4. Caption the images. The stories in retrospect – wow!

I did something different this time. I got a little adventurous and included a week of photos on ONE page. yes I did – can you believe it? Not sure how it will pan out but so much happened in the past three weeks it felt ok to include them all together.

I’m feeling a bit less than my creative self lately. Although when put in the proper perspective I need to focus on what I AM doing not what I think I SHOULD be doing. Seriously…

One of my biggest character defects is making simple things so difficult that I give up. Self-defeating I know, but I’m guessing there are a few of you out there who sometimes do the same…

So today I am grateful for simplicity – for a project that cares more about photos and tidbits of journaling than perfection. Honestly I can’t wait to see the finished book of my 2012.

****  P.S. Anyone else listening to the CS6 launch this morning? Hello Creative Cloud. Wow. Still absorbing the changes for Photoshop and the Creative Suite… It seems everything is moving to the cloud…even our beloved Photoshop…

Hope you all have a great Monday!