my love/hate relationship with my dear imac

Oh how happy I was the day I got my imac. It zipped right along like a dream. No waiting. Everything just popped right up on my screen like magic. I. was. in. computer. heaven.

Fast forward three years and I am waiting and waiting for applications to start, or not start in some cases, most cases these days. Particularly when using photoshop and iphoto. That dreaded colorful, rainbow, spinning ball teases me with whether or not my application or website will open up.

Julia, from Apple care, was very helpful in helping me reset certain things. For the most part it seems to be humming along,  with a little hiccup here and there. That little hiccup being mainly the use of photoshop and iphoto. So, I have 231 days left on my apple care and I'm hoping my computer will not die on me.

So, here's the question. Do I buy a new imac, mac pro, or just go for a super duper macbook pro as my main compy? I do not want to have to buy a new computer every 3 years.

So my question to you is what would you do? What do you have? What computer could you not live without?

I love my giant 24 inch imac screen, but lately, a love affair it has not been.

Digital Designing

I have taken the leap into scrapbook digital design. It takes a bit more work than the average Joe may think... but it is really worth it. To see your own ideas, creations come to fruition. It takes time. It takes creativity. It takes patience and overcoming frustration. It takes a whole lot of tweaking. I am enjoying the process of learning and creating. However, I have a tendency to get caught up in what I'm learning that I can all too easily become too distracted and obsessed with it to the point where other things are somewhat neglected in my life (housework, cleaning, exercising, family, etc). You get the point. Am I alone out there? What I'm trying to get at is that it's important to find a balance between family, work and play.  One without the other and I'm left feeling a bit frustrated at the end of the day because I realize that I can not do it all - all of the time. It's a hard balance to find. I'm still working on it. Hopefully I'll find it soon. In the mean time, I suggest using a timer and setting it for 15 minute chunks of time.  This is working for me and it helps clear my head... not to mention I actually get some housework done too. :)  What do you do to find balance in your life?

Blogging for Scrapbookers

I have signed up for Blogging for Scrapbookers with the hopes of "scrapbooking my life in pictures" more often; by getting the thoughts and feelings down before they dissipate... as I have years of photos from the past without any journaling to go with it (or very little, or on pieces of paper, random journals here and there) rather than all in one spot. SO, the goal for me is to write my stories on here and (here is the hard part for me) downloading those photos off of my camera and into my blog, within a reasonable amount of time (like a day or two) and having ALL of my stories in one place... so it will be easier to paper or digital scrapbook those stories when the inspiration strikes.  I would also like to figure out what would be the easiest and fastest way to add photos to my blog... Picasa web album maybe?

This photo is one of those that have not been scrapbooked or written about, until today. This is a photo my oldest son, who is now, ahem, 10. There are soooo many stories waiting to be told! I am inspired and truly excited now!

Project Life

Becky Higgins has been an incredible inspiration with the introduction of Project Life. I have to say that it took me a year before I truly grasped the whole idea and went with it. It has truly changed the way I scrapbook and how I see LIFE. I am no longer mulling over ideas and layouts, but I am actually getting photos and their stories into scrapbooks! I hadn't really had the time or the creative juices to complete layouts... busy, busy, busy with kids, household duties, etc... and not being able to focus on a layout. With Project Life I am now regularly downloading, reviewing, and printing daily photos to put into the album. Just little snapshots of our little life together. It has been great. No pressure. Just documenting daily life. Nothing fancy. Plus, whenever I feel like it I'll just add other mementos to the album from our life be it report cards, a receipt from Gap, or ticket stubs. What I like the most about it is telling my stories and documenting it with photos.  That's  not to say I don't still think about doing layouts. It's just that I've removed the pressure from myself to "keep up" and knowing that I am still documenting our life together.... just in a different way, is liberating.  Plus at the end of the year I'll have something to show for it. Whereas in previous years I had intentions of doing layouts, but  never getting to them.  What I like is that is Simple. Less is more. I can handle that.