Month: December 2010

I like to keep it honest ’round here. So I have a confession…

It can be a stressful, overwhelming time of year. I had about an hour today where I just wanted to opt out of the whole mess. Oh and I know my full crazy was showing when the weird man who approached me (for unknown reasons – but I suspect looking for change) at Bart in San Francisco’s Union Square ran away after I made eye contact with him. Yeah. I was MAXED OUT. I’m ok with admitting that too. I warned Jason I was a hair away from just loosing it and throwing a big ‘ol hissy fit right there, and I could not take any more. and to please for the love of god help me remain sane + not!!

A lunch at Gott’s, some yummy food & dessert shopping (Ferry Building), and a few samples later helped to restore me to a little better mental place. Not to mention my determination to have a good attitude and focus on the good. By the time it was time to move Buddy the Elf (our elf on the shelf) tonight, I had a bit of a chat with him and things are looking up.

We’re going to keep on making merry, carry on, and do so with a smile. It’s ok if you get to a place of being overwhelmed, maxed out, even full on crazed woman that can scare people with one look. What really matters is where you go with it. Do you stick with it? Or fight until you beat crazy back with a candy cane/cheery stick?!

I’m always a “try to look for positive” person – today was definitely no exception. I kept on breathing, trying to ignore my eye twitch, and looking ahead. Kept reminding myself of what was good here & now, and all the festivities I’m preparing for and how wonderful it all is. (even when I couldn’t quite believe it)

It’s the most wonderful time of the year dang it. And this girl is DETERMINED to be cheerful. Alright fine. I brought myself home some Macarons from Miette… aka one of my favorite treats ANYWHERE AND EVER… and that’s been big time helpful.

I don’t condone use of sugar as mood enhancer… but do what you gotta do in desperate times my friends.

PS – it would seem (of course, since I was gone all day) the USPS has decided to release quite a few of my letter and package hostages. A very excellent mail day sure did help me re-focus and smile.

The photos are edited, uploaded to sites, and ordered. Now comes step #2: Organizing/preparing to scrapbook them! I will confess I rarely do a “full album” in my scrapbooking. I just tend to take moments and layouts as they come, and I don’t usually have a vacation or event big enough to fill a whole book.

A week in Disney World though, certainly has enough photos & memories to get it’s own book!!

So it begins. How will I stay organized? What will I do with the 300+ photos I printed? When am I going to find time for this? Well it’s pretty easy, actually. I bought (pre-trip) an American Crafts D-ring binder album + divided page protectors. I’m putting the photos in (sometimes 2 or 3 to a single slot) based on how I envision they’d be scrapbooked. In other words, all the Princess Lunch photos are all together. The meeting Mickey pictures are on same page. Magic Kingdom castle shots? Same page… you get the picture. I’m NOT concerned with “the order” outside of keeping pictures likely to be scrapped together, near each other.

So when I want to scrapbook something, I do NOT have to go in order. I can go in and pull the photos I want. In the meantime, the rest stay nice and organized AND in a way my family can see them if they would like. There’s no rush or pressure – I can go at my own pace.

If I end up with photos I like/want to keep in album but don’t want to scrap? EASY! Just leave them in the page protector in the album. I *LOVE* divided page protectors and how they + D ring album = scrapbook heaven. What happens to the page protectors I empty out? Well that’s easy! I save them for the next time I want to organize some photos/have them saved in this method.

For now I’ve got a rapidly filling album, and they joy of no pressure. Also the pure bliss of knowing that these photos are organized… even if the rest of my studio is a mess.

I should probably do something about this place… oh well.

Happy Crafting.

I’ve used Scrapbook Pictures on a number of occasions, especially when they run a special (like free shipping or discount on prints) – and I’ve always loved the quality of images I get. They offer auto-correct as well as the option of having a person look at/correct imgs for you – which I think is super cool. When ordering they make it very easy for you to order special papers, sizes, and other options for individual images. I really appreciate that. They also have THE BEST selection of papers & sizes. SERIOUSLY. I don’t think I know of a site that is better in those regards.

Pricing is fair, and I’ve had good experiences. At 0.14 for a standard 4×6 photo, it’s only a penny more per print than my 1hr Costco, and WAY better quality. So why aren’t they my for sure go-to photo place? First of all, I wish they took PayPal. Secondly while I appreciate that I can look at and order specific sizes of pictures easily, it drives me NUTS that I have to put 1 page of photos in my “cart” at a time. Depending on my print needs, this could mean that I have to select all, add to cart, and repeat for quite a few pages. *groan* Finally, I don’t like that they do not send a shipping confirmation and that sometimes they seem to take a lot longer than other sites. In this order I placed on 12/11 it was not shipped until 12/15. That’s not bad… but it’s also not fast.

As expected, I was very happy with my prints in this order. I *loved* how my hipstamatic iPhone photos came out!! (and that I could order small square photos!!) All my photos looked great – including the “test” that I sent through. One that purposely needed some color correction.

So where does that leave me? I highly recommend them, especially if you want a fancy paper or an unusual size, and want to have it come out beautifully. They’re not perfect – but darn if they don’t make this scrapbooker happy once she gets her prints!!

I haven’t been real impressed with Costco, and I’m looking for a new photo printing service. I divided my Disney World photos into approximate thirds, then sent off to three different places. Today I judge the first batch…

I chose www.shutterfly.com because I had a $10 certificate to use there, simple as that. Everything was fine with the ordering process here, prints are 0.15 each for 4×6, and the process of getting prints was simple enough. It’s very user friendly, there are a lot of photo products to choose from, and I can see why it’s popular.

They were the first to deliver my photos – a BIG plus in my book. In fact they’ve beaten the other places by at least 2 business days on this end, as they’re the only ones I’ve received!! Got my photos out and am satisfied with the quality of both paper and the look of my prints.

Except one thing: I purposely sent through a “needs color correction” photo just to see how they’d process it (I did this with all 3 places) and it came back looking sepia tinted. Seriously – it’s monotone brown/reddish

(above is my image – color fixed up at about what I had expected)

So what’s my verdict?

* Easy to use, fast, value priced, lots of photo book and other product ordering options

* Wouldn’t trust to “auto correct” photos for me

I would order again (vs Costco) because they were faster and I liked the quality better. But knowing that I have to make sure each and every image is where I want it color/correction wise is a down side for me. I like my photo processor to fix up the minor color stuff. I also don’t like the lack of sizes, paper options, and other “advanced” features that other photo sites offer.