I've done it! I've started a podcast! (And it really worked this time!)
So this is episode #1. As such, it's really an introduction to the world. I talk about my interests...my pets...and why I love to scrapbook. My goal for this podcast is to produce a new episode every few weeks, and to chat about the ins and outs of scrapbooking, and why we love it so much.
Hope you all come along for the ride! (and hope the technical parts are way less bumpy than they've been so far. Whew!)
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Technical Difficulties
I've been absent due to some technical difficulties. (Ok, that, and I've been on vacation.)
I'm trying to set up a podcast. I think it'll be alot of fun. I want to use this blog to hold the all important show notes, as well as my normal fun scrapbooking posts. However, I've been having trouble setting that all up. Recording was a breeze. Figuring out the ins and outs of hosting sites and getting the file into iTunes...that's been a bear. In classic Noelle form, I bought several books. (Got a good deal on the one. A Borders employee handed me a coupon sheet, with one that was $10 off 1 computer book. Made my $25 book $15 instead. Not bad.)
Anyways...so the podcast show notes post for Episode one, keeps appearing and disappearing, as I monkey with the whole setup. Don't mind me...I'll let you know when I've finally got this thing licked! I'm a programmer by trade, after all. This can't be THAT hard. (bangs head on desk)
I'm trying to set up a podcast. I think it'll be alot of fun. I want to use this blog to hold the all important show notes, as well as my normal fun scrapbooking posts. However, I've been having trouble setting that all up. Recording was a breeze. Figuring out the ins and outs of hosting sites and getting the file into iTunes...that's been a bear. In classic Noelle form, I bought several books. (Got a good deal on the one. A Borders employee handed me a coupon sheet, with one that was $10 off 1 computer book. Made my $25 book $15 instead. Not bad.)
Anyways...so the podcast show notes post for Episode one, keeps appearing and disappearing, as I monkey with the whole setup. Don't mind me...I'll let you know when I've finally got this thing licked! I'm a programmer by trade, after all. This can't be THAT hard. (bangs head on desk)
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Four Generations
I did the above photo tonight. My grandma passed away last week. I was tasked with going through albums and gathering photos of her for the funeral home. They made them into a photo collage DVD that was played during the calling hours. So while selecting and scanning, I came across this photo that I'd never seen before. My grandpa apparently took it. This picture struck me for 2 reasons: First, I knew my great-grandma had died when I was about a year old, but I'd never seen a picture of her and I together before. (I am the baby, in case you couldn't tell.) Second, great-grandma was suffering from Alzheimers at the time. My grandma had Dimentia when she passed, with is a skip frmo Alzheimers. And honestly...a couple weeks ago, when someone at her nursing home asked her how old she was and she said "23"....she might have already crossed that line into Alzheimers. (she was in her late 80s.)
I thought printing out this picture and scrapbooking it would be a fitting tribute. And since the photo is circa 1970s, I was going with all 70s kitch mod colors. Or trying to, at least. I remember that teal being on alot of vinyl chairs when I was a kid.
So. Supplies. Yeah. Ok, the cardstock is DCWV. The alphas are from Sotheby's. The metal embelly is from Making Memories, as is the epoxy button by the title. The flowered paper was a new paper pack from a company I've not used before, and thus can't remember the name. (Seriously, I should take notes.) The remaining scrap strips and the ribbon were scrap donations from an online scrap swap I participated in. Consequently, I have no idea who made those.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
A Scrapbook, of Sorts
I spent today working on a scrapbook, of sorts. It didn't involve any paper, adhesive, or scissors. But it involved alot of photos. 48 to be exact.
My brother turned 30 last week. Because my sister and her husband were scheduled to drive in from New Jersey for a cousin's wedding this weekend, we opted to celebrate my brother's birthday today instead of on the actual day. As it was, he had his evening college classes on his birthday anyways. So he really was fine with the suggestion.
The scrapbook came into the picture yesterday. My mother asked me if I could put together a digital slide show of photos of my brother from the last 30 years. I had just figured out how to set this up with my Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 in the last week. (After a year, I finally took the time to learn the software.) So I said, sure, no problem. I'd create the slideshow in no-time.
My mother provided me with a collection of pictures that she had located. I had a photo album of my grandparents' that had alot of early pictures. I also had the photo CDs for both my sister's wedding as well as my own. I also had the addresses of his Facebook and Myspace pages.
So having gathered my sources, I set to work around lunchtime today. I scanned and edited photo after photo. I would like here to point out, that some cameras just really did a crappy job with pictures. The Minolta Disk camera I had in the late 80s, took really fuzzy pictures. They scan poorly. But what can you do?
Ultimately, I scanned around 30 photos and had another 18 that where on the wedding CDs, or had already been scanned into my computer at some time in the recent past. I then ordered them all in my Adobe Photoshop slideshow project. I downloaded songs from iTunes (picked from his Favorites list on his Myspace page) and I convered them to wave files. Then I not only added them to the slideshow, but I set the photos to start off the "intro" slide on music cues. (That talent was honed on 9 years of violin training.) All in all, it was pretty nifty amd only took me maybe 2 hours most to set up.
Then came the hard part. I had to save it to a CD or DVD in a format that could be read by a TV or another computer. My first attempts at this with other slideshows in the last week, ended up with low resolution slideshows. Apparently Adobe's default format is pretty crappy on the resolution. It took me another 2 hours of trying formats and then letting my PC have 30min to spool to a file, before I got something that worked.
Ultimately, my brother thought it was funny. My mother loved it. My sister thought it was cool. And I? I myself, am jazzed to use this new skill to setup family heritage photo slideshows for viewing each Christmas. I can't wait to get started!
My brother turned 30 last week. Because my sister and her husband were scheduled to drive in from New Jersey for a cousin's wedding this weekend, we opted to celebrate my brother's birthday today instead of on the actual day. As it was, he had his evening college classes on his birthday anyways. So he really was fine with the suggestion.
The scrapbook came into the picture yesterday. My mother asked me if I could put together a digital slide show of photos of my brother from the last 30 years. I had just figured out how to set this up with my Adobe Photoshop Elements 6.0 in the last week. (After a year, I finally took the time to learn the software.) So I said, sure, no problem. I'd create the slideshow in no-time.
My mother provided me with a collection of pictures that she had located. I had a photo album of my grandparents' that had alot of early pictures. I also had the photo CDs for both my sister's wedding as well as my own. I also had the addresses of his Facebook and Myspace pages.
So having gathered my sources, I set to work around lunchtime today. I scanned and edited photo after photo. I would like here to point out, that some cameras just really did a crappy job with pictures. The Minolta Disk camera I had in the late 80s, took really fuzzy pictures. They scan poorly. But what can you do?
Ultimately, I scanned around 30 photos and had another 18 that where on the wedding CDs, or had already been scanned into my computer at some time in the recent past. I then ordered them all in my Adobe Photoshop slideshow project. I downloaded songs from iTunes (picked from his Favorites list on his Myspace page) and I convered them to wave files. Then I not only added them to the slideshow, but I set the photos to start off the "intro" slide on music cues. (That talent was honed on 9 years of violin training.) All in all, it was pretty nifty amd only took me maybe 2 hours most to set up.
Then came the hard part. I had to save it to a CD or DVD in a format that could be read by a TV or another computer. My first attempts at this with other slideshows in the last week, ended up with low resolution slideshows. Apparently Adobe's default format is pretty crappy on the resolution. It took me another 2 hours of trying formats and then letting my PC have 30min to spool to a file, before I got something that worked.
Ultimately, my brother thought it was funny. My mother loved it. My sister thought it was cool. And I? I myself, am jazzed to use this new skill to setup family heritage photo slideshows for viewing each Christmas. I can't wait to get started!
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Finding Photo Subjects
I subscribe to several scrapbooking magazines. (Gives me something to read on lunch.) I've also invested in a number of scrapbooking books on various topics. As I flip through page after page of scrapbooking layouts, I'm struck by one thing. These people have perfect photos. Not only seemingly perfect photos, but photos of all these events, from the mundane to the monumental.
I'll tell you right now, that's not what I have in my collection of photos. When I go places, I try to remember to take my camera. Sometimes, I'll get to where we're going and take a whole bunch of pictures. But more often than not, I won't pull my camera out at all. Or, worse yet, I will forget to bring my camera in the first place.
Honestly, ultimately what I end up with is a ton of pictures of my cats, many of which have bad lighting, are out of focus, or both. I rarely end up with pictures of people. I'm not even sure why that is. Perhaps it's an unconscious extension of my natural aversion to having my own picture taken. (My wedding day was torture, in that respect. Cameras EVERYWHERE, all pointed at ME!) Perhaps I just don't want to subject other people to what I perceive as torture.
Or maybe I'm just lazy and forgetful. I would lean towards laziness when it comes to having the camera present but not taking any pictures. I once came back from a trip to Disney World with 5 pictures. Admittedly, I was with my parents and my dad snappeda thousand pictures, I swear. But still. 5 pictures? From Disney World? Who cares if I had been there 5 times before? Laziness.
So my struggle with photos then, is not that I can't organize them. (I have an effective system that works for me.) Rather it's that I don't have pictures that are good enough, or of a wide enough variety to effectively scrapbook at times. (Hmmm...47 layouts of cats in various sleeping poses, anyone?)
Well I will tell you this. It is still early Spring in. I have a new purse, with a new wallet, that means I now have room to carry around my camera, if I so choose. I have a wedding coming up this week. I sent in the applications for our 2009 zoo memberships. I have a trip in a few weeks to visit my sister in NJ. And I'm mentally planning several camping trips and trips to visit other area zoos. I will vow now...to take my camera...and take pictures. I will take pictures of people I love and places I visit. I will get up the courage to ask other people to take my picture with these people and at these places. And I will utimately end up with a vast collection of subjects for my Scrapbooking enjoyment!
I'll tell you right now, that's not what I have in my collection of photos. When I go places, I try to remember to take my camera. Sometimes, I'll get to where we're going and take a whole bunch of pictures. But more often than not, I won't pull my camera out at all. Or, worse yet, I will forget to bring my camera in the first place.
Honestly, ultimately what I end up with is a ton of pictures of my cats, many of which have bad lighting, are out of focus, or both. I rarely end up with pictures of people. I'm not even sure why that is. Perhaps it's an unconscious extension of my natural aversion to having my own picture taken. (My wedding day was torture, in that respect. Cameras EVERYWHERE, all pointed at ME!) Perhaps I just don't want to subject other people to what I perceive as torture.
Or maybe I'm just lazy and forgetful. I would lean towards laziness when it comes to having the camera present but not taking any pictures. I once came back from a trip to Disney World with 5 pictures. Admittedly, I was with my parents and my dad snappeda thousand pictures, I swear. But still. 5 pictures? From Disney World? Who cares if I had been there 5 times before? Laziness.
So my struggle with photos then, is not that I can't organize them. (I have an effective system that works for me.) Rather it's that I don't have pictures that are good enough, or of a wide enough variety to effectively scrapbook at times. (Hmmm...47 layouts of cats in various sleeping poses, anyone?)
Well I will tell you this. It is still early Spring in. I have a new purse, with a new wallet, that means I now have room to carry around my camera, if I so choose. I have a wedding coming up this week. I sent in the applications for our 2009 zoo memberships. I have a trip in a few weeks to visit my sister in NJ. And I'm mentally planning several camping trips and trips to visit other area zoos. I will vow now...to take my camera...and take pictures. I will take pictures of people I love and places I visit. I will get up the courage to ask other people to take my picture with these people and at these places. And I will utimately end up with a vast collection of subjects for my Scrapbooking enjoyment!
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