Choose what defines you – and your space.

Just finished reading this post “Why I’m Taking All of My Daughter’s Toys Away” by Jean Flatterud and I couldn’t help but be awed, inspired, and a tad frustrated (at myself) by it.

The gist of the post is that packing up all of her daughters toys (things foisted on her daughter by herself and others) allowed her daughter the room to have creative space and to choose things for herself.

Amazing! Love her daughter’s reaction: “Mom? When I come home… May I please make some more art in my room before I go to bed? Pleeeeaaaase?”

I’m awed by this on SO many levels.

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High School in a Box

A collection of medals and awards from high school.

I was a star student. I’m sure people hated me for it, but I have always been me and I don’t apologize for that. I remember with both pride and embarrassment the number of school assemblies during which I was called down to the floor to accept some kind of medal or award.

What I’m struggling with now is what to do with them!

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Its not about the stuff!

Reading an ad in a 2005 issue of Better Homes and Gardens (an ad of all places) I found my new mantra, “It’s never about the stuff.”

Peter Walsh, organizing expert from Clean Sweep writes that “clutter holds people to the past. I have to hold onto this because it was my mothers. I spent a lot of money on it. …Or because I may need it in the future. Clutter actually prevents people from living now…”

To that. I say yes! but I also say don’t forget the great memories from your past. It’s never about stuff… It’s about the stories. Find a way to cherish them while letting go of the stuff!

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Drooling over my newest find!

I’m so crazily excited over my newest weapon in my war on clutter – this time digital clutter – it is almost embarrassing. I love to take photos – they tell stories in such a rich way. One of the nastiest things about digital photography is how easy it is to amass hundreds of photos, dump them onto your hard drive, and never name them, or sort them.

Most folks will tell you how super-important metadata is when organizing your photos. I’ve been slogging along with the software that came with my camera. While great in some respects, tagging photos with metadata was horribly slow and tedious. My photos were left tagless. Poor photos.

No more. Enter Picasa. Yes, I know, I’m a noob.

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Photography Frustration – Why I Need a Macro Lens

Captured with a reverse macro, these snowflakes glitter like fairy wings.

Today, I attempted to take a bunch of photos for my Object Lessons. I had great muted natural light coming through the windows since it snowed all day today and decided to take advantage of it. It turns out, most of what I’ve collected for my object lessons are rather small trinkets best photographed up close, which is best accomplished with a macro lens.

Do you see the gorgeous (IMO) photo above?  I took it a year or two ago using a reverse macro lens. Otherwise known as the “poor man’s macro,” a reverse macro is when you take the lens off your SLR camera, flip it around (so the part that is typically attached to the camera is pointed at the subject) and you either hold it there, steady with your hand, or you attach it via some other method. This allows you to get very close to your subject get an interesting photo, and not pay for a macro lens.

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