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may 9, 2007 volume one | issue eighteen This week I want to share some thoughts with you about capturing life: the life of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Peace, Ali capturing life Yesterday I spent some time digging in the dirt. I always feel really alive when I am outside planting, watering, puttering, etc. While setting up my new schedule this past week I was able to allocate time (also known as: MAKE TIME) for two of my favorite things that make me feel whole: reading & gardening. I grew up in a home that definitely advocated getting outside: swimming, gardening, weeding, bikes, fishing, soccer, golf, etc. If the weather was decent (and even sometimes when it wasn't), you could find my family outside. All kinds of those memories came flooding back yesterday as I was changing out dirt in some of my older pots. My hands were dirty, my pants were dirty, and I was happy. All those memories would make great content for a layout or two - a story about my family. Memories that go along with being outside for me include: � riding bikes around and around the cul-de-sac (and up and down the hill as we got older) until my Mom would ring the bell for us to come in for dinner � racing my brother on our bikes as we rode to the local outdoor pool in the summer � getting soaking wet and cold playing soccer in the rain every weekend in grade school � watching my parents work together in the garden � walking outside into our backyard and seeing all the color and the hanging baskets that my Dad had lovingly created while listening to sports or talk shows on his little portable radio � cold drinks � slip & slide down the hill in the backyard (and the resulting grass or plastic burns that always seemed to go along with all the fun) � the smell of the BBQ � the smell of fertilizer and the amazing aqua color as my Mom mixed it in a giant garbage can to feed all the flowers in our backyard I had to think a bit to remember all these bits of my life - they didn't all flood back to me. But as I sit here and type this out they are beginning to flood - I am totally looking forward creating a layout that showcases these outdoor memories (with or without photos). This is a big part of my personal story that I have not documented yet. Today, as an adult, I am getting ready to have my backyard landscaped for the first time. Lots of wonderful, crazy firsts happening around the Edwards' this year. I can't wait to have a place to gather and eat and simply be outside. And make sure I am really living my life everyday so that Simon will have awesome memories to reflect back on when he is older. So that he will know what was important to me and to Chris and that those values will guide him in the future. I realized yesterday, as I was happily digging in the dirt, that I was capturing life. I was capturing pieces of my life that I had not thought of in years. I was capturing it through my memories, through the thoughts and images that were playing in my mind as I was creating new ones by simply digging in the dirt. My point today? Capturing life is not always documenting our right now. Sometimes it is capturing pieces of the past that we want to remember, that make us who we are today. We all have memories - some are good and happy and beautiful in that hazy summer afternoon twilight sort of way; while others are sad, traumatizing, frustrating and dark. Having both makes us real, makes us human. In life art you have a choice - not all stories have to be or need to be told. It is about finding a balance with the truths of your own personal life. For me, documenting both the good and the bad helps me process my life as a whole. Some of my stories appear in my life books and others are kept closer to my heart (maybe documented through words in a private album just for me). Again, part of being a life artist is realizing that you can choose how you want to document your life and maintain your own personal truths. As you go about this next week, be conscious of activities that bring up memories. Grab a notebook or set up a file on your computer and start jotting them down. Go a bit deeper to capture those moments that linger on the fringe of your memories. Maybe you will remember parts of yourself that you had lost connection with, or pieces of your heart that are willing to stand up and have their story told. everyday beauty challenges Last weekend I participated in an online crop on the Creating Keepsakes Message Boards. Below you will find the four challenges from that day - hoping they will spark something creative in you. Choose any or all of these challenges and share them with me and others on my blog next Wednesday, May 16th. Beautiful Everyday Challenge: What is beauty to you? What is your definition of beauty? You have five minutes to run around (wherever you are right now) and take as many photos as you can of beauty right in front of you. The focus here is on everyday beauty. If you don't have access to your camera/printer/etc you could also grab a magazine and cut images from a magazine. Upload your photos. Crop using your computer or print and crop with a 2x2 (or so) square punch. Gather them all together onto a piece of cardstock. Add journaling that addresses each of the things/places/people and why they are beautiful or represent beauty to you. You can view my layout here. Beautiful Product Challenge: What is your favorite product? What have you been hanging on to because it is just too beautiful to use? Now is the time - create a layout that celebrates someone you love and use that beautiful product you have been hanging on to for ages. Because you know what? There are so many more beautiful products to enjoy and experience out there just waiting for you. May layout is titled "This is beauty" and is a simple documentation of a beautiful everyday moment - my favorite thing to scrapbook. I love this Basic Grey paper and the polka dot stamp from Savvy Stamps and I have been waiting for a chance to do something with a little pink in it ☺. This was a perfect opportunity. See my layout here. Beautiful You Challenge: Create a layout that celebrates the beautiful person YOU are today - right now. All you need: (1) one photo of yourself - if you don't have one grab your camera, take your own photo by holding your arm out in front of you or take a photo of yourself in a mirror and print at home. For your journaling, name 3-5 reasons why you are beautiful. Maybe you have never done anything about yourself before. Maybe it is hard for you to immediately identify what makes you beautiful. Now is your chance. Today, do this for you. Do this for your family and your kids. Let them know why you believe that YOU are a beautiful person. Note: Think about how many photos you have of yourself. If you are like most women, you are usually behind the camera rather than in front of it. Make sure you are in your albums and YOUR story is being told. No one can tell it better than you. See my layout here. And this one is from my Mama - she loves 2x2 squares too! Finding beauty in Nature. Whatever is nature around you: flowers, trees, shrubs, sunsets, ocean scenes, etc. For me, finding beauty in nature is a joy. I love it so much that I take hundreds of pictures of nature scenes. Then I can never decide which photos to use, because I see the beauty in all of them - even the dandelions! My challenge for you is to take some photos or use some from your collections where you have so many to choose from that you have trouble deciding how to use so many photos in a layout. My photos are from an April springtime walk around the neighborhood, at our home in the Seattle suburbs. I took all the photos during a one-hour walk. There are so many good photos it's really difficult to decide which ones to use. So I decided to use all of them! 1. My first step was to crop all my flower photos in IPhoto into 2x2 squares. This allows me to crop the area that I want to focus on in the photo. 2. Import them to Photoshop and resize again to 2x2 and 300 dpi. 3. Open a new canvas 8x10. Add the 2x2 photos, arranging in a manner pleasing to you. 4. Print. 5. Trim in strips and glue to 12x12 cardstock or any size you desire. See Pati's layout here. inspired by � From my friend Lain Ehmann: Beating ourselves up because our thighs aren't thin enough, or because we still haven't perfected the art of 'positive thinking' hasn't made us happier or the world a better place. The biggest paradox in trying to change ourselves is that nothing happens until we embrace who and how we are right now, imperfections, perceived flaws and all. Because if all those self-help books and tapes and articles worked, we'd all be size Zero, gourmet-cooking, multi-lingual millionaires, right? What DOES work is self-love, self-acceptance, and self-care. And since you are absolutely, positively wonderful just the way you are, celebrate the first annual Freedom from Self-Improvement Day May 15, 2007 Celebrate all week long at www.freedomfromselfimprovement.com � I posted this on my blog earlier this week, but it is worth a second mention here in the newsletter. Lisa McGarvey (one of my all time favorite artists) has a great explanation and visuals of storing both 8.5x11 and 12x12 layouts (+ other cool stuff like kids art work and enlargements) in the Two Peas Creating Garden this month. If you have been thinking about doing this you have to check out her album. Copyright � 2007 Ali Edwards/AE Design/Life Art Media. Please do not reproduce any content without permission. Ali Edwards, author of A Designer's Eye for Scrapbooking and A Designer's Eye for Scrapbooking with Patterned Paper, is Creative Editor of Creating Keepsakes magazine where she writes a monthly inspiration column called Studio A . She is a wife, mother, artist, writer, and seeker of balance. Owner of AE Design and Life Art Media, she conducts life art workshops around the globe. You can find her online on her blog or contact her through email at ali@aliedwardsdesign.com
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