Here’s one of my favorites from vacation although the web version is more washed out than I wish. I never seem to "see" the bokeh when I’m taking a photo and always surprised when it shows up.

I’ve spent quite a bit of time here recently. In December I went to three of the Apple workshops (free). One was on Leopard, the newest Mac operating system, one on i Works, and one on iPhoto. They were all excellent overviews of the programs, and I’ve been using a lot of what I learned. Today, however, was my first appointment at the Genius Bar. This morning I opened up one of my subject specific email folders and discovered that everything in the folder was gone. I started looking around and there were significant losses in nearly all folders, but a few still had all the saved emails. Dates didn’t seem to be related. Not all folders were empty (but most were). My Christmas folder had 2 of perhaps 50-60 emails with receipts, scrapbook projects, and other goodies that appeared in my inbox during December. Why were two still there? The wedding folder from 2006 lost nothing. It appears totally random. We couldn’t figure it out, and sadly, neither could the resident Genius at the Apple Store who was as perplexed as we were. Who’s to know? One of the features I haven’t started on Leopard is Time Machine which backs up your computer to an external hard drive on an hourly basis. It’ll be working before I go to bed tonight!

We’ve had intermittent internet for the last several days, so I’m a day behind.

Friday 1.5.08:

Perfume
   

A fragrant liquid. Show us ‘perfume’ in your space.

I couldn’t decide which view I preferred so here is the original and an "antiqued" version from the effects palete in the new iPhoto 08 program.

And here’s today’s self-portrait. I’ve wanted to try this ever since I saw Kirsty’s before the holiday.

Her Space:  My Space is back in action. Lots of white here and cold too!

I’m feeling pretty successful, even though it’s only January 3rd. I’ve managed a layout every day and a photo on the photo blog each day as well. I’m keeping up with grading papers too! Here’s today’s layout which adds another page to this year’s Journal My Christmas album as well as for the Get a Load of This class on BPS.

Yesterday I finished my Creative Calendar. This will be the third year in a row I’ve kept a little calendar where I record the number of layouts, cards, and projects I complete each month.

I’m also determined to use only supplies I have on hand this month. Actually, until April when I know I’ll get to visit a great scrapbook store in North Carolina, I’m determined to buy only adhesive. It’s time to use up the stash!

I have lots of photos to share, but haven’t had time to edit all of them. I continue to be frustrated with the color calibration on my computer. It’s not too bad when I print, but photos get pretty washed out when I save them for the web.

We had a great Christmas. Two in fact. One on Christmas Day when Matt, Tracy, and I opened a few gifts in the morning. At four, Tracy’s family arrived and the party began. Here’s a layout I did of the new family band!

Journaling reads:  "Tom surprised Jill with an accordian for her anniversary. She was once an award-winning accordian player, and she hasn’t l0st her touch. Tom, Jill, and Greg created a special program for our family Christmas celebration. It couldn’t have been more fun."

Sarah and Adam arrived on the 29th when we had our "real" (more stuff) Christmas. It’s been nice to have everyone around, although both Sarah and I are not feeling up to par. Everyone except me has one more day off. I have to wrap my mind around going back to work tomorrow. Just not ready yet.

It was a "techie" Christmas for me. Much to my surprise I got a hot shoe flash for my camera. The learning curve is not as smooth as I wish, but I’m already getting better.

One of my New Year’s Resolutions is to improve my photography skills, so now I have more equipment to play with. One way I’m planning to improve is by doing the Project 365. The link takes you to an article that explains all the benefits of taking a photo a day. I’ve tried in 2007 and some months been pretty successful. I also printed out their Photo Resolutions for 2007 to help keep me on track.

Speaking of the New Year, I chose a new word for 2008. I adopted this from Ali Edwards last year and found focusing on a single word very helpful. This year I chose commit. There are a few goals I’ve set year after year that never seem to be met completely–like the Photo-a-Day.

Paper Source’s motto:  "Do something creative every day" is another goal I work toward but never seem to meet. I’ve joined a huge group of folks at Big Picture Scrapbooking for the free Get a LOAD of  This class. Our goal is to scrap 31 layouts in 31 days. That should get me off to a good start. Here’s today’s:

Another unstated goal is to start doing some digital scrapbooking and hybrid scrapbooking. This layout has a photo I applied "soft light" to as the background paper. Not too easy to see on the scan, but I’m pleased with how it came out.

I had two big projects I hoped to finish over vacation, but neither are started. Hoping to work on them tonight. I did finish reading Bridge of Sighs, Richard Russo’s new book and our book group choice for January. Loved it, but it’s long!

Happy New Year!