Scrapbooking – Long Island Chick

MIA All Summer and Disaster

Kathleen — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 13:51:24 +0000

So this is the first time, since May that I actually visited this blog. I can’t say that I have been off on wonderful adventures, sipping cocktails beach side during the summer, etc. Nope. Had a pleasant summer with my kids – stayed local and went to the beach, hung out around the pool and played World of Warcraft (more than I would care to admit to!). Oh, and dealt with my Windows Home Server crash. Crash??? Yeah – the system that backs up every computer in the house and is supposed to be our safety net, well crashed. Both disk drives started to fail and ALL OF MY DATA was on those drives. Pictures, videos, thousands of dollars worth of digital scrapbook supplies – all locked up on a 2 TB drive. Most people don’t even know what a TB or terabyte is. Its a shitload of storage in a nutshell. And me, Queen of the Geeks and should have known better, did not have my photos from 2010 and later backed up. Bad girl.

Sigh. I’m going to fast forward past all the gnashing of teeth, hair pulling and general despair to the good news: I recovered all of my precious memories. Every last one of them. And, I didn’t have to remortgage my house to have some astronaut recover my data in a clean room. I used two programs – Knoppix and Clonezilla and they literally saved me not only my sanity but thousands of dollars. Now data recover is not for the faint of heart nor the average computer illiterate. Both these programs are Linux based – they don’t use Windows for an operating system. Talk about stepping out of my comfort zone. The are also open source so they did not cost me a dime.

The problem with recovering data from the disk drive was that although the drive showed up in Windows, I could not explore the drive to pull the data. CloneZilla and Knoppix allowed me to do just that. Folder by folder, I transferred my data to an external hard drive (EHD) which was a slow, painful process. Thankfully, the damaged files were ones I had backed up. I’m still not even done though – my iTunes library is on that disk but I’ll get to that eventually. The irreplaceable data was my primary concern.

So now I’m going to be a good girl and come up with a back-up plan. Scary thing is, there is no foolproof method. During my hours of frantic research I came across a sobering fact: all media is destined to fail. All media…did that sink in yet? You back up to a CD or a DVD religiously? Eventually they will degrade and fail. EHD backup – FAIL. The only real safe way to safeguard your photos is to PRINT THEM OUT. Well, in light of this, I am going to create multiple backup systems – DVDs (multiple copies), EHD and an online backup system (which I need to investigate).

So that was my summer – how was yours?

Yeah We Are Going to Disney..Again: How to Get Fresh Photos

Kathleen — Mon, 07 May 2012 18:20:32 +0000

Our family is getting ready for our annual Disney World trip and this year I am very excited. We skipped last year because we were in somewhat dire financial straits. If you go every year like we have been doing since 2002, you tend to get a little jaded about the Mouse. So our excitement is mounting and it is going to be a little different this time because…my friend Jen is coming with her two boys! My boys are thrilled to have two friends to pal around with. Nick is a year younger than Ginger and Jonathan is a year younger than Ryan. So we will have 8, 9, 10 and 12 this year. What is also cool is that Jen’s boys have barely seen Disney so we will get a fresh perspective with them.

One of my greatest fears is to keep taking the same, old pictures at Disney. Everyone gets shot in front of Cinderella’s castle, fireworks etc but I look back at photos from past trips and there is a trend. So this time, I’d like to step out of the box a bit and mix it up. I found a great website, the Disney Photography Blog for tips, tricks and inspiration. I particularly enjoyed their post about Family Photography and making it fun. He set up some really cool shots, from different perspectives, that we will have to try in Disney. I have some fun photos, especially this one of Ginger from 2010:

This was another fun shot of my mother-in-law on Toy Store Mania:

Travel Hyper has a printable list of must-take Disney Photos:

I also found another great list here and I love some of the suggestions such as getting a shot while you and your family compare hand prints with the stars found in the Great Movie Ride in Hollywood Studios. I also love this idea for the World Showcase in Epcot:

World Showcase: When visiting Epcot a big part of the experience is visiting the different Pavilions in the World Showcase. A great way to remember each stop is by taking a picture in each of the countries wearing or holding something that represents those specific cultures. If you can get some sort of landmark in your pictures that represent the countries you visit that is a great idea too. For example, in the France Pavilion, you can get the Eiffel Tower in your shot by setting up between the United Kingdom and France Pavilions.

So, I’ll be getting my camera cleaned and ready for our upcoming trip and looking forward to getting some varied shots this year. Do you have any suggestions for me? What are your favorite Disney photos?

No Photo Is Better Left Untouched!

Kathleen — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 11:22:14 +0000

Most photographs, even professional ones, can benefit from some retouching. Some need to be put through a thorough workflow to correct white balance, exposure issues or some may just need little tweaks here and there. Lightroom and Photoshop offer a myriad of ways to correct problems and allow photographers to be creative with their photos. I enjoy working with MCP Actions for Photoshop – I recently picked up Jodi’s Fusion and Eye Doctor Actions and played around with them a bit.

I decided to try something subtle on this picture of my son Ryan from his first trip to Disney World at the age of 18 months:

The tweaks enhanced his eyes and the catch lights, while smoothing his skin and making it more creamy.

I’ll be playing around with these actions to see what other recipes I can come up with to enhance my photos!

Scrapbooking Trends: Doodles

Kathleen — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 16:41:59 +0000

Among other things, doodles are very hot in scrapbooking today. And why not? They are so much fun and easy to work with. I think the most difficult aspect is making sure your layout isn’t too busy or that the doodles get lost in the page. This scrapbook page I just completed features doodles from Wish Bliss Studio at After 5 Designs. I also threw in a cute, doodled banners – banners are also trending right now.

Sometimes, deciding what to scrapbook can prevent you from actually scrapbooking. Looking at years and years of photos can leave a scrapbooker at a loss as to where to start. My new mantra – JUST START ANYWHERE! I am not going to scrapbook chronologically – it is too restrictive. I imported several photo folders into Lightroom and I just previewed a general imported file when I came across these wonderful photos of Matty & I from 2003. As I am usually the photographer, there aren’t that many photos of me. By taking self-portraits, I was able to capture a special moment between myself and my son. I also don’t believe in using every photo either. Just pick the ones that speak to you or tell a story.

Black Friday & Weekend Scrapbook Shopping Deals!

Kathleen — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 23:16:34 +0000

For all of you digi-scrappers who are shopping from home on Black Friday through Cyber Monday, I thought I would share some digital scrapbooking deals with you:

Jessica Sprague’s Site: Offering 20% off all classes until December 31st and offering an adorable free Christmas Kit when you spend $20 or more with the coupon code JSCWW2010

Oscraps: Various designers offering sales – some just for Black Friday and some for Friday and Saturday ranging from 20 to 60% off!

Sweet Shoppe Designs: offering 40% off Friday & Saturday, November 26th & 27th; 30% off Sunday November 28th and 20% off Monday, November 29th

Funky Playground: Offering 40% off most of the store for Black Friday only!

Scrap Matters: is offering 30% off all CU, 40% off all PU, and spend $25 and get one free collab of your choice on Black Friday only!

Divine Digital: Offering their “Shop Your Heart Out Weekend” offering savings of 20 to 90% off for the entire weekend Nov 26-28th!

If you have any deals that I haven’t posted, please add in the comments. Happy Shopping!!!