I love facebook cause it gives me a chance to get almost immediate feedback on things I want to know! I ask questions on my ‘fanpage*’ many times, and today I wanted to show you some questions and answers. (* since facebook decided to ditch the term ‘fan’ and change it to ‘like’, the word ‘fanpage’ doesn’t make sense anymore. But I just cannot say ‘like-page’, that sounds totally weird! You don’t have to be a ‘can-I-get-your-autograph-kinda-fan’ to get access to my fanpage, if you want the updates just ‘like’ me LOL)

On July 17th, I asked: Dear ProjectB fans of the very first hour: what old kit would you like to see re-vamped? I already did one, but tempted to do another!

2 people answered with the same suggestion, Captured, and that was instant inspiration for me! (btw: they both got the kit for free, as a way of saying THANKS!)

On July 25th, I asked: Time to talk about previews: what kind makes you buy a kit? The stuffed ‘all over the place-can’t hardly tell what’s underneath’ kinda previews? Or the clean and simple ones, where you can exactly tell what’s in the kit? Or do you skip to the layouts right away? Tell me!

Well, many answers were given, and they all were meaningful to me. Clean and simple was mostly mentioned, but the CT layouts were important too. Great info for me!

On August 10th, I asked: What is the one element you cannot live without? Besides paper, picture and journaling, what does your page NEED? Let me know!

This was very fun to read, and inspiring! Strings, ribbons and flowers were mentioned a lot.

On August 11th, I asked: Are you a themed-kit-person? Or would you much rather buy a kit without obvious theme? Let me know!!

Suzanne answered: I like for my theme kits to have enough non-theme stuff in theme to be usable in other ways.

And this is what I always try to do when creating a themed kit!

On August 21st, I asked: Do you use alphas on your page? Do you like alphas included in the kit, do you use basic alphas that will match anything or do you create your own using fonts and styles? Let me know!

Many people said they don’t often use alphas, but would like one to match the kit, just in case. This reminds me I need to do more alphas. Gotcha!

There are more questions, a few unanswered too, but I guess that is because of the time I put it on the wall. If everyone is asleep, no one will answer, right? But, now you see why I use facebook a lot! It’s so inspiring to read what everyone is up to, and what everybody thinks about this hobby. I also use facebook to send out occassional coupons, and all my blogposts will automatically show up on my wall. I have a personal page AND a ‘fanpage‘. Sometimes I wonder if people want to be ‘friends’ or ‘fans’, but if digiscrappers want to friend me, that’s ok. I just don’t want anybody to miss out on the coupons and freebies cause they’re ‘just’ friends, kwim?

So, tell me, are you a facebooker? Or do you Tweet? (by the way: my personal facebook entries get tweeted automatically, gotta love tech ) Love to hear from you!!

(you may notice my facebook is in Dutch )

Let me make one thing clear: although there is at least one iPhone app to actually scrap with, I don’t use that. I scrap on my iMac using Photoshop. But I do make use of my iPhone on a daily basis! Here’s how:

1. Pictures. I use the iPhone to capture everyday life. When Leonie was first born, we used to snap every single moment of her life. But when Julian was born, I suddenly didn’t have time to snap everything. Besides, I was carrying him in my ringsling most of the time, and I couldn’t life the heavy camera without him somehow in the way. My iPhone was way handier, and although it doesn’t take ‘great’ pics like our Nikon D40 (or something, I’m far from pro), it was very usefull to capture memories. And I had the abbility to shoot videos as well!

2. Notes. At first I tried updating our blog regularly by snapping a picture, taking it to the wordpress app, typing a short message and uploading it. But after I had lost a few posts in cyberspace, I became hesitant. Typing on the iPhone is do-able, but for long messages I wanted to use a normal size keyboard! I had the ability to write notes on a little notepad app, but quickly searched for something else because of the typing issues.

3. Dictating. I have no idea what this app is called in English, but it came with my iPhone, and it’s called something like Dictaphone. It has the image of a microphone, and I use it to capture quick memories! I now have several short audio clips with things like ‘yay, new teeth!’ or something.

So, whenever I’m digiscrapping, I’m simply scraping all things together: pictures from our Nikon, pictures from the iPhone (we have a monthly file folder system on our server), my (poorly neglected) family blog, the videos and the audio. I scrap chronologicly, so whenever I hear something like ‘new teeth’, I’m looking for a picture with Julians smile showing off his teeth and scrap those together! It’s a life saver, at least for me!

Julian in the swing, unedited

Here are some handy links I found over time:

1. Using your iPhone camera – Pioneer Woman

2. scrapping iPhone pictures – the Daily Digi

3. best iPhone camera apps – geeksugar

and something funny: wackiest iPhone cases by Webdesigner Depot. How do you use your iPhone for digital scrapbooking? Do you have a scrapped background?

Let me take you back to 4 years ago. We weren’t parents yet. We went to bed, not knowing that the next day, we would have a little baby girl in our arms! Tomorrow we will celebrate Leonies 4th birthday, and in The Netherlands that will mean the start of school. Of course the schoolyear already started, and she was allowed to start 2 weeks early, so she’s adapted to that. Today we had a little party too, cause Leonies best friend turned 4. It’s amazing those girls only are one day apart and are such good friends! She of course will be a special guest to our party tomorrow

I have a special thing for you too! A chance to win coupons to my store AND coupons to Persnickety Prints! All you have to do is create a page/project using my stuff (freebies allowed too) and upload to my store gallery. The details are here, enjoy!!

Today I did something brave. (well, actually it was last night, but the effect became visible today) Something I rarely do. I said no. Ok, I did say more than no, maybe it was more of a ‘no more’, but it still was rare. And I hope this will help me control the chaos in my head. I used to be pretty quick with things, my brain could solve a puzzle AND read a book at the same time, so to speak. But apparently 2 pregnancies put an end to that. Or maybe it’s a small residu of pregnancy hormones? Don’t know… and I don’t know if I’ll ever get ‘my’ brain back. I need my brain to focuss on more than one thing at the same time, OR I need to have only one thing to focuss on. Since I cannot do the first, I chose to do something to have the last. I sent an e-mail to all my co-workers explaining what my life looks like now. Some may think I’m an idiot, some have already said WELL DONE (and they made me smile ), some may not care at all. I just hope it’s of my chest and out of my brain, so I can focuss again! Gosh I wish I wouldn’t have to focuss on so many things…

Ok, on to the next thing: another new release day!! Yes, you must have already heard: Elemental Scraps will from now on release new products on Fridays. What a great way to start of your weekend!! Here’s what I have this time (and it’s also Color Play weekend!):

Some of you may already recognize this, since it used to be part of a collab. Now available as mini-kit, Afternoon Daydream, and it’s on sale too!

A set of cardstocks and a set of interview pieces, matching Septembers Color Play pallette! I thought it would a fun idea to interview our children once a year, and document their favorites at that moment. If you like to do this too, you can use the interview pieces as jumpstarters! Color Play items will be $1 only the first week, then they’ll go up in price. Here’s your chance, happy shopping! I’ll leave you with some CT inspiration, and I’ll see you back tomorrow!

(btw: almost 600 fans!!!)

I did talk about simplifying life a few posts back, right? Well… then why am I coming up with all kinds of projects that take TIME to develop? I already had something in the works, I was going to start it somewhere in September, but then a CT member came with a supercool project to develop alongside! I’m totally enjoying it, but it takes soooo much time! I don’t have time!! It’s hard to choose between something fun and something that has to be done. Working outside the house has become ’something that keeps me from home, family and the fun things’. And the schoolyear has only just begun, first week flew by! Leonie is enjoying herself though

Remember the blogpost I wrote with all my dreams and goals? I’ve been thinking about ways to keep track of my progress. I don’t want to make huge goals I can never reach. Like the saving, I don’t want to say: I will save X this month. I’d rather say: hey, by doing this, I actually saved X more than usual! That is something I’ll have to work on.

Because I still need extra time, I started searching for tips and tools to save time. A teething baby that needs his mommy isn’t much help, but hey, that’s why I want to stay at home. To have more time to devote to my kids, I don’t want to worry about my ‘other job’ that needs attention too. I think I have been ‘working’ in some way or another for the entire past week, while I only work for 3 days. How did that happen?

Ok, timesavers!

iVillage has 13 timesaving tips for busy moms (that’s me!)
Real Simple has 18 time saving tips (heck, they have tips for EVERY thing!)
Raising Small Souls has 12 (specially like #2!)

And my personal tip for us moms with little ones: you can do so many things while you carry your baby with you when he/she needs cuddle time! In stead of holding your baby in your arms, comforting him/her or trying to get him/her to fall asleep, you can wear your baby in a baby carrier and have your hands free to do some boring chores around the house! Invest in a good carrier (I myself have a Mei Tai and a RingSling) and you can carry your baby around and save time! I’ve said many times: if Julian decides to become a chef, it’s because he watched me cook so many meals while sitting comfortably on my back! LOL

Ok, this post cost me several hours to write, so time still is an issue here. Hope you have better luck! Here’s a sneak peek to tomorrows release at Elemental Scraps!

HUGE I tell you LOL I’ll be back tomorrow to show you what it’s all about!