I Was THAT Kid...

When I was a kid, I would save my money all summer long to buy...school supplies! Yep. That's right. School supplies. I was that kid perusing Sprouse Ritz for several hours drooling over all the pencil boxes, hot pink sharpeners, and Lisa Frank tape. Seriously folks, I don't even know what to say. I asked my mom why she let me waste all my hard earned allowance on that stuff, but I guess there was no stopping me. If I remember right, I even roped my dear childhood friend, Audrey, into going with me and using all her money to buy school supplies as well. A natural leader I tell ya! 

Fast forward many years and I was still addicted. Only as an adult, you know...it's called scrapbooking supplies, and it's an acceptable hobby. I was in paper heaven! I loved pretty paper, stamps, embelishments, you name it. Only I mostly bought and hoarded stuff. I would make cards occasionally for friends, and I even started a wedding album. Good intentions at best.

But this year, I am determined to put Grace's album together and start one for Adon. I have several little books that I've filled with memories of Grace over the last two years and Adon's first journal is already starting to fill up. You know, all those little details and sayings you just don't want to forget. I want to include as much as I can to go along with the photos in their books. 

Thank goodness God blessed me with a man who also loves office supplies. We can never have enough pens here in the Stockman household. He understands my love to create and wholeheartedly encourages me to use my birthday/Christmas/extra money to be artistic. So I splurged right after Christmas and ordered some things from Two Peas in a Bucket. I couldn't wait for the box to get here. I've already used several things just working on Grace's and Adon's albums. I've got a good start, and this is one of the projects that brings me joy, so I want to keep it up. I love the process. There's something fun for me in taking photos, editing, and then putting it all together in a creative way. It's one of those things that I enjoy simply because.


Anybody else out there love paper? How do you store your photos? Did you create any kind of albums for yourself or your children? 

Week in the Life 2011

I'm following along with Allie Edwards and taking her "Week in the Life" Challenge right now. She's a talented "Memory Keeper", writer for Creating Keepsakes, and has a passion for photography and digital art/media. I found her blog who knows how and have really enjoyed and been inspired by her stuff. Go check her out!


I started Sunday. I just took my camera around with us everywhere we went, documenting all that we did. I think I took around 125 photos just that first day! I'll be taking photographs of what's happening from Sunday through Saturday and then working them into a small album the following week. The hard part will be narrowing them down and telling a story with them...ok, who am I kidding?! The hard part will just be following through and completing this project, which is a finished album of the week, but I'm looking forward to that part too.


Here's a bit of what's been going on so far...

Jim & Anna's Cozy Two Story

My first official post ran yesterday over at Apartment Therapy--check it out HERE.


Thanks a bunch Jim & Anna for letting me share your beautiful home!

Some Exciting News...Revisited.

Remember when I shared with you about my audition to become a house tour contributor for Apartment Therapy? I think I mentioned how shocked and thrilled I was that I made it into the second round and got to see my work posted on the website. 

Well, readers' comments weren't something I'd considered when I was working on my audition. In fact, I had completely forgotten how much people comment on what they see and read online, and at the time, I was unaware of just how large AT's audience is. So, I was in for another shock--all the negative comments! 

There were a lot of good and bad things said about my work--probably about 50/50 in the end. And, I'll admit it really threw me for a loop for a few days. I was disappointed that so much attention was taken away from the beautiful home I wanted to show, in part, because I didn't edit and proofread well enough. Now, I know not everyone will like my style--that's ok. But, I will freely admit that there's just no excuse for poor proofreading. It's something I am taking pains to get better at. I am usually a stickler about it and catch all kinds of mistakes in books and other things I read all the time. What I've found though, is that it's SO much harder to catch my own mistakes, especially if it's an article, post, or whatever that I've been working on for awhile. Is anyone ever really objective with their own work?

Through this whole experience, I've learned a couple very good lessons. One is that anytime you put yourself "out there" online (or anywhere for that matter), you are going to get feedback. Opinions, criticism, praise, whatever--people are going to tell you what they really think and feel. Anonymous user names make people feel liberated to share their opinion without consequence. The problem is that there is absolutely no accountability. I think often people forget that there is a real person on the other end who is affected. 

The second lesson though, is don't let that stop you! After giving myself a few days to wallow in self-pity (I know. It's never fun or pretty) and wish it had turned out differently, I began to realize just how good this experience was for me. Fear is something that stops a lot of people from ever even trying to do something they dream of or aspire to be. Fear of failure, fear of what others will think or say, fear that even their best just won't be good enough. We all have our reasons for choosing not to try. 

So some people pointed out typos I should have caught the first time around, some in really snarky ways, some just didn't like my writing. So what? In the end, I had a lot of fun putting it together, I gave my best, and I was still alive. I know, sounds dramatic right?! But sometimes you have to ask yourself: what's the worst thing that can happen to me or come out of this? My dad once got fired from a job. It came as complete shock and surprise. He'd given his best--and for whatever reason, it just wasn't good enough. I remember talking with him about it months later. He said that after living through one of his worst fears, he realized he was ok. He was still alive, still surrounded by the ones he most cared for. Life was still moving forward and so was he. That really made an impression on me. 

Turns out, I was also ok. The whole AP thing was a great learning experience. It left me with a thicker skin and a real desire to improve my skills. It was fun and exciting and really humbling all at the same time. 

And then I found out a few weeks ago that Apartment Therapy wanted to hire me after all! The editor referred to my audition experience as a "trial by fire". I made it through, and am a little more tempered now knowing how people can respond. But you know what, I'm still just as excited to get started! 

So thanks for all your support and encouragement. 

And if you're a local with a big or small, unusual, interesting, or well cared for home or apartment or if you know of someone who has a place that inspires you--let me know and please pass the word on! I really like Apartment Therapy's mission of making wherever you're at a place you like to be, which is one of the many reasons why I'm looking forward to doing this. Now I just need some homes to photograph!

Some Exciting News...

Go HERE, please!

Some of my writing and photography is being shown on Apartment Therapy's website. 


A couple months ago, I saw an ad on their website. They're searching for more contributers who can write/photograph for their "home tours" column. I thought, "why not?!" So I contacted a dear family friend, Jennifer Mackey, and asked if I could raid her house. She lives in an amazing place, and she graciously obliged and answered the home tour survey of all the basics about the house. I wrote up the intro, snapped and edited the photos and sent them in.


I thought that was that. Just a fun experience. Then, they contacted me and let me know that my work would be posted on their website--I'd made it through to the second round! It's definitely exciting. I have taken a look at some of the competition--it's tough. There's a lot of talented people out there. So, I don't expect to get hired, but I had a ton of fun doing this and still can't believe I even made it this far!

Ignore the typos (oops--there are two I caught too late!) and show me some comment love over there!

Family Photos

We hung a large frame on the wall the afternoon before Grace was born. It's been waiting all this time to showcase a picture of the three of us. We've tried to get one a few times. This is our latest attempt. Geez is it hard to get a picture where all three of us are looking at the camera, let alone looking happy! 

I thought Beej and I had it bad. I'm a blinker and Beej always feels awkward fake smiling--which usually translates into awkward looks for him and closed eyes for me. We always thought it was a miracle that so many of our wedding photos turned out looking decent! But now, toss Grace in the mix and getting a good photo is that much more difficult.

Do you have this hard of a time getting just one photo?! 

I'm still not completely satisfied, but thankfully we can just try again another day! 

OUTTAKES

Our Christmas present to ourselves last year was a new digital camera.

It's been fun experimenting with it.

This is me trying to explain "shallow depth of field" to Beej.

We still have a lot to learn about this camera.

I do love to take pictures and have ever since I took my first photography class
sophomore year of high school.

What's your favorite subject to photograph?

You try resisting those cheeks!

I have so few photos of Grace and me.

That's because I'm usually the one behind the camera, which I prefer.

BJ gladly switched places with me this afternoon.

I love the result.