Katie the Scrapbook Lady

Time to roundup September!

If you are a "regular" 'round here, ya'll know the drill. If not, well, here's the scoop!

I use this simple tool every month to "roundup" my memories and now I have a ton of great information to use for journaling and scrapbooking. I challenge you to join me in using the roundup tool. You can post your answers on your blog, use them on a layout, or just jot them down to as a record of the month's activities. You don't have to answer every single question and do all the tasks, just do what you can. You will be glad you did!

If you want to show your roundup pride, here's a blinkie for your blogs and/or siggy lines

You can read more about roundups by reading through some of my past posts about them.

What books and/or magazines did I read this month?

What movies and/or tv shows did I watch this month?

What special days did I celebrate and how?

What gifts did I give and/or receive?

What illnesses or health concerns did I have?

What fun things did I do with my friends and/or family?

What new foods, recipes or restaurants did I try this month?

What special or unusual purchases did I make?

What were this month's disappointments?

What were my accomplishments this month?

Anything else noteworthy to record?

Backup your digital pictures to cd/dvd and upload them to an online site or two for an extra backup. Send the links to the online albums to friends and family.

Choose photos (or digital layouts) to be printed out and get that done while you are thinking about it.

Make sure your scrapbooking area is cleaned up and organized. Put away new purchases (or organize your hard drive if you are a digi scrapper)

Look over the calendar for the coming month and make note of upcoming events you will want to capture for your scrapbooks.

Get those memories rounded up!  My own roundup will be a little late since I'm out of town right now - but I will be back on October 2nd!

If you are a "regular" 'round here, ya'll know the drill. If not, well, here's the scoop!

I use this simple tool every month to "roundup" my memories and now I have a ton of great information to use for journaling and scrapbooking. I challenge you to join me in using the roundup tool. You can post your answers on your blog, use them on a layout, or just jot them down to as a record of the month's activities. You don't have to answer every single question and do all the tasks, just do what you can. You will be glad you did!

If you want to show your roundup pride, here's a blinkie for your blogs and/or siggy lines

You can read more about roundups by reading through some of my past posts about them.

What books and/or magazines did I read this month?

What movies and/or tv shows did I watch this month?

What special days did I celebrate and how?

What gifts did I give and/or receive?

What illnesses or health concerns did I have?

What fun things did I do with my friends and/or family?

What new foods, recipes or restaurants did I try this month?

What special or unusual purchases did I make?

What were this month's disappointments?

What were my accomplishments this month?

Anything else noteworthy to record?

Backup your digital pictures to cd/dvd and upload them to an online site or two for an extra backup. Send the links to the online albums to friends and family.

Choose photos (or digital layouts) to be printed out and get that done while you are thinking about it.

Make sure your scrapbooking area is cleaned up and organized. Put away new purchases (or organize your hard drive if you are a digi scrapper)

Look over the calendar for the coming month and make note of upcoming events you will want to capture for your scrapbooks.

Get those memories rounded up!  My own roundup will be a little late since I'm out of town right now - but I will be back on October 2nd!

Simon and Bullwinkle

If you click on the layout it will get bigger and you should be able to read the journaling. This is one of my favorite stories about my daughter - totally worth a scrapbook page! I did this one for the Simon and Garfunkel prompt in one of the soon to be re-released Amazing Month of Memories files. (Hint, watch this blog later on this week for details)

Meredith Fenwick Paper, Hootie Font, CK Good Day font, Katie Pertiet Notepaper, Tracy Murphy staples, pictures from wikipedia.

These are the types of layouts I love to do - love to tell our stories!

Share your opinions with those in charge

Cathy Zielske posted a link to a Simple Scrapbooks Readers Survey.

Cathy also refers to this post on Stacy Julian's Blog (of Simple Scrapbooks and Big Picture Scrapbooking fame) - it is very interesting to read all of the comments. Frankly, it is also a little depressing to read how many negative feelings there are about the scrapbooking world now.

It has become such a global business that it is no longer just a hobby. Truthfully, it can seem like a "machine" sometimes just churning to manufacture money. Go into any scrapbook store and you will find buttons at 3 times (or more) the price of what they would be in a traditional fabric store. This is expensive stuff. And now that there are a lot of books and magazines published regularly, it does seem a bit overwhelming at times. Pair this with the plethora of online galleries and blogs and it is possible to go in to overload.

Surprised to hear this from Katie "the Scrapbook Lady"? Don't worry; I'm not down on scrapbooking. But I am realistic and smart enough to sense a change in the industry, even in the digital world. People want substance, not hype, and there is a limit to what the market will bear.

Personally, I think it is good to see these discussions taking place. Smart companies will do what Stacy and Cathy are asking from us... they will seek customer feedback. If they are really on the ball, they will actually listen to it. The scrapbooking industry is just experiencing what every other industry is going through - the worldwide community is involved and vocal now. There are blogs, emails, and public message boards. Even newspaper articles are allowing public comments that appear at the bottom of an online article. Everyone is part of the equation now, not just a few executives making decisions. Time Magazine got it right last year when they named "YOU" as the "Person of the Year". We are making things happen. Mostly, that is a good thing. Sometimes it isn't.

So take some time and complete the survey and leave some comments on Stacy's blog. Use this opportunity to offer constructive input. Even though I get the majority of my ideas online now, Simple Scrapbooks is still a very valuable part of my scrapbooking world. I love that they are responding the changes in the industry and responding with new things like the Digital Scrapbooking Magazine. I was also pleased to see that there were plenty of questions on the survey geared toward digital scrapbookers.

And just for the record, I still buy the overpriced buttons at the local scrapbook store... they are just too cute for me to resist! LOL!

Photowalking

I just LOVE this idea!

Photowalking is the act of walking with a camera for the main purpose of taking pictures of things you may find interesting.

While not exclusive to digital photography, in practice digital photography makes Photowalking more realistic as a hobby due to its experimental nature, the number of pictures typically taken in the process, and the possibility of post-processing afterward.

While closely related to Street photography, photowalking is differentiated by the main impetus being to photograph things of interest rather than people specifically. It is also often done as a method to practice and improve one's own photography skills rather than a with specific focus on documentary photography.

Photowalking is also a form of exercise as it can take the photographer over the course of several miles as they wander a particular site or neighborhood.

Photowalking is also often associated with on-line photo sharing.

I know there are groups on flickr for this and also http://www.photowalking.org/ is a place to share these types of photos.

Now I'm very motivated by taking pictures so maybe this will help me actually want to go out and get some exercise! I was telling my hubby about the other day and we were laughing about how this might make everything more fun for me. How about "Photocleaning" or "Photocooking"? LOL!

Lately the only place I have been "photowalking" is around my house. The basement is progressing and I've been taking pictures. Next week there will be painting and carpet will be installed. I think I will just lay on the floor and do "carpet angels" and enjoy the feeling!

What a mess it is right now though!

We have sheetrock dust tracked through our entire house and pretty much everything upstairs and downstairs will need a thorough cleaning when this is done.

:::

I'm hoping to do some photowalking this weekend but I will leave you with a beautiful picture my brother took when he was in town last week. This is at Gardner Village

Hope you have a happy day!

did my roundup! Have you done yours?

Feels so good to get this done, and it really didn't take very long! I hope you will take the time to roundup your August memories - you will be glad you did.

Here's what my August was like:

What books and/or magazines did I read this month?

I read a few issues of Real Simple magazine and also the new Martha Stewart magazine called “Blueprint”

Read Eclipse – love this series!

Learned a lot from Time Management from the Inside Out

Studied Computer Tricks for Scrapbooking. Pretty basic info and really aimed more at hybrid scrappers (paper scrappers who incorporate digital techniques) but I felt inspired by the ideas and layouts. I think Jessica Sprague is very talented!

What movies and/or tv shows did I watch this month?

More Alias season 3, some Everybody Loves Raymond and Friends reruns and Mythbusters.

Watched High School Musical and High School Musical 2 with my kids. Also watched the Suite Life of Zach and Cody High School Musical special – LOL!

Went to Hairspray (again – just love this movie!) Is it wrong that I think Zac Efron is soooo cute in this? I mean I am 38 years old and he is almost 20 - LOL! But look at how darling he is!

Did you know he is going to star in a remake of Footloose?

What fun things did I do with my friends and/or family?

We did a lot in August! We went to the Symphony in Deer Valley, a party at Boondocks, Hogle Zoo, and also the Dinosaur Park in Ogden with my digi friend Crissy. Also went to a wedding in our neighborhood.

My Mom and brother came to visit for 6 days and we went missionary shopping, fudge shopping, to Gardner Village and Ikea - we had a lot of fun.

Went to back to school night with my daughter and a scoutmaster conference with my son. He earned his Tenderfoot in scouting. So proud of my kids!

What new foods, recipes or restaurants did I try this month?

Twinkie Sushi – LOL !

What special or unusual purchases did I make?

Purchased carpet for our basement (will be installed mid-September), and a vanity cabinet, mirror and tile for our new bathroom downstairs. We ordered 3 really cool chairs called “Nests” for our basement which won’t arrive until October or November.  They are really unique and I can’t find anything like them online to post a picture. I promise to share photos when they come! And we bought a projector, a sub-woofer and some other stuff so we can have our own “home theater” in our basement. A total splurge but it will be so much fun! Actually the theater equipment cost less than a really big screen TV at least. So we had an expensive month, but we have been saving for this for the last few years so I don’t feel too bad about that.

I also bought a chair for my daughter’s room and after I get her wall painted I will have to share a photo because it has turned out so neat in there. We have done a lot in our house this year and it is nice to finally have “real” furniture instead of using cubes and hand-me-downs for everything. I feel very grateful though that we had all those things to get us through for such a long time!

Of course I bought some back to school clothes for my daughter. I actually even bought some clothes for myself which is very rare since I hate to go clothes shopping! And I bought 2 pair of Mary Jane Crocs in chocolate brown and also in silver – so fun!

What were this month's disappointments?

Over eating and not exercising! Why can’t I learn this lesson?

What were my accomplishments this month?

My blog reached it’s 100,000 visitor mark and now it is at almost 103,000 already.

I finished the Amazing Digi Scrapping Race (12 layouts!) with my digi buddy Rona!

I hosted 3 Wordy Wednesday challenges on The Digi Shoppe blog

Completed 15 digital layouts including 2 “daily somethings” for Ali’s challenge - I really want to do more of these.

Made it through a month of construction on my basement!

Started the homeschool year with my son and we are already making good progress.

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What a great month! And as I look over my August roundup it helps me realize what I want to focus on for September - a great forward planning tool as well as a good recap!