The Monthly is Cathy Zielske's answer to the project 365 photo documenting craze that has gotten a lot of popularity in the last few years. Cathy (like me) can't commit to a daily regimen of taking photos.  I thought after my Daily December 2008 that I was ready for the Project 365 so I tried it back at the beginning of 2009 and it lapsed after a few weeks.  Trying to remember to take a photo daily, especially in the Winter when you can't go out (or don't want to), is really hard work and I admire anyone that can actually do it.

The Monthly is Cathy's solution to documenting the real moments of your life without the pressure of taking photos daily or on any schedule. In fact, the system she's devised allows you to take as many or as few photos as you want during the month. Basically it's a set of templates from designer digitals that includes a title page, a monthly title page (12 variations), a journaling page, a journaling and photo page, and several other collage templates for Photoshop or Photoshop Elements.

Back to 2009, these photos are still largely un-scrapbooked and held prisoner inside my computer. So I thought it would be a good idea to test drive her system using the photos I took in 2009.  So here goes.

Title page

Monthly opener

Journaling page

Like most of my projects, we'll see how long I can keep doing this :) but I'm feeling better about those photos already knowing that I can simply "slap" them onto a page and call it done.

We got a new paddling pool for the back yard now that we have to fit 3 kids in (plus any of the neighboring kids that want to come over). Yesterday the kids spent the afternoon in the yard and "I" tried on K's sunhat and sunglasses. Is this a sign of things to come....

Been neglecting the blog lately (it's the end of the school/dance year so lots going on):

I sold my copy of Photoshop CS4 and bought a Dell 24" monitor.  It's in transit but is scheduled for delivery on Monday!!!  It was a one day sale, $289 down to $189. It will be 2nd screen to my laptop.  I have CS5 suite now.

I just finished a quilt top, just large layer cake squares in Basic Grey Blush fabric (yum!!).  Will turn it into a duvet cover for K's room. The photo is with only the rows sewn when I was doing a sanity check to make sure none of the pieces were upside down or in the wrong position.




My vacation scrapbooks (digital) just arrived from Blurb.com. I'm in love. They did a great job. I got a hard cover 12x12 and 6 - 7x7 soft covers ($12.95 each!!). The whole order was $150 (the large album was going to be $125 on it's own at Creative Memories so I vote blurb as being better value for money). Will definitely use Blurb again.

I'm so excited to read on the Kobo Reader blog that a software update will be released at the end of this month, although you can also sign up for the beta testing program and get your hands on the update earlier.

This is what Kobobooks said:

"Through the last 30 days, we have also been working on our first software upgrade for the Kobo eReader, focusing on what customers have been telling us. Our software is complete, and we are just working on the final touches on the upgrade process. The upgrade will be available the week of June 28th and we will make sure you know the minute it is available. For those that want to upgrade sooner, we are offering our beta program to partake in the software trial sooner.

Here is a sampling of some of the improvements we are making:
1. ePub Font resizing. You will be able to load Adobe ePubs with fixed font sizes (set by the content publisher or originator) and still be able to resize the fonts with your Kobo eReader.
2. Hiding 100 Free eBooks. Some customers have told us that they actually don’t want the 100 Free eBooks in their way, so we have added the ability to hide the 100 Free eBooks we provide. We are working on a wide range of other organization features for a separate release of our desktop software coming in the future.
3. The “Off” Screen. The challenge with eInk screens, is that even when they are off, they look like they are on. We are working on making this a lot more clear to everyone, especially those who are not experts in eInk.
4. Sleep Mode. We are introducing a new “sleep” mode, if you have left your device inactive for more than 5 minutes, it will go to sleep. This is helpful in managing battery life, and it’s also a behavior that people have come to expect.
5. Low Battery. Some of you have found situations where your battery runs down faster than expected. We found the problem, and fixed it. We’ve also improved how we tell you that your battery is low, and you are running out of time to finish your chapter. Lastly, we have improved this shut down process so it is clear that you have run out of battery, and your Kobo eReader needs charging.
6. Installation. Some of you Windows XP users have had difficulty installing the Kobo Desktop. We did a poor job communicating what version you needed, so we’ve fixed that and for those customers that don’t have Windows XP, Service Pack 3 – we are bundling in everything you need."

In the meantime, I *heart* my Kobo Reader.  It goes everywhere with me, it's light and fits into my purse.  I have a couple of light scratches on the glossy bezel (possibly from keys in my purse?) but no scratches on the display area.  The battery life has been fine and I've been reading for a couple of hours daily. 

If I'd have known just how convenient having an eReader is, I'd have gotten one a lot sooner.  You know when you go to the doctor and they show you into the doctor's examination room but you have to wait 10 mins, well out came the reader. Funnily enough, when the doctor came in he wanted to see it too!

To read my original Kobo eReader review click here.

As any mother of a son knows, while a son can be silly, goofy and rough, sometimes they can be sweet too. J picked this dandelion and proudly gave it to me like it was a red rose or a sweet bouquet.

K has been playing soccer in the local league for 6 year old girls. She's actually proved to be quite good which really surprised me as I thought she'd inherited my natural athletic ability (as in none at all). Instead she gets right in, tackling and stealing the ball from the other girls. Of course she does have one advantage, that of being about 6 inches taller than most of the girls her age which makes her a little more intimidating.

These shots were taken at her game. I'm not sure what blogger is doing to the photos but I've noticed that that they are much more vibrant on blogger than they appear on my screens at home. I processed these using Scott Kelby's updated 7 points system. His system is quick and easy in Adobe Camera Raw CS5 compared to what it was when his book first came out (because you had to use CS3). The new version of the 7 points system is available on www.kelbytraining.com and (considering you can buy 1 month access for $25) is much cheaper than buying the now outdated book.

This morning "I" and I spent some time in the park outside our back yard.  For those of you that have never set eyes on our home, we have a grassy area (the park) outside our back fence and a gate in the fence to go out.  The grassy area is mowed once a week and there are several trees there.  It is flanked on one side by the "forest" a small area the size of a single lot but that contains dozens of fully grown ponderosa pines. The older kids love to play in the "park" and the "forest" and the best part is that I can look out the back door and keep an eye on them. Unfortunately for "I", I only let her out accompanied by an adult (she is only 22 months after all!) and we have had bears in the back yard in previous years.

Today she got to spend some time out there without the kids (they were at school).  She wore a new dress I picked up at the Gap for $11.99 (reduced from $30 or something!).  Of course I wasn't going to let her out there looking so cute without subjecting her to a photo shoot :)

Took the kids to San Diego zoo.  It's amazing to think that there were so many animals they'd never seen in real life or even in photos (only cartoons). They were surprised how big the animals were because you can't really get scale when watching on TV or reading a book.

Here's a sample of what we saw:

I am slowly starting to dig myself out from under 700 photos of Disneyland, the Oregon Coast, San Diego Zoo and Sea World.  I've started with the smaller groupings of photos. 

There were taken in San Diego at the part in our camp site "Campland on the Bay", which by the way is *highly recommended* if you ever find yourself needing a tent or RV camp site in San Diego.  It was quite close to Sea World (just across the bay) and you could even watch the fireworks outside. Great playground, swimming pools, and small private beach.