Life Caputred in Photography

Treasured moments, fun times and amazing events are all captured in photos. Looking back at what you have done in your life, and the events is amazing. Our family does a lot of fun things, and I take my camera everywhere we go. I used to keep photo albums, and years ago I used to scrapbook. Looking back now at those pages I am almost embarrassed to show them to people! They have weird backgrounds and crazy cut up photos. I have now found a better way to keep your all your memories alive!
Photo books! I have tried many of them; Costco, Inklies, Snapfish, and shutterfly. They just don't display my precious photos in a great way. The photos are too grainy, or the color is off.

The ONLY place I have found is MyPublisher.com. Their books are of amazing quality, something you can keep a life time!

I have made three books using Mypublisher, and I have never been disappointed. There is a little learning curve and some tips and tricks that can make it easier.
Mypublisher Tips and Tricks
1. Before downloading there are a few requirements. You must have 1GB of RAM, and 500 MB of memory. Here is a link to their system requirements page: http://www.mypublisher.com/support/help1

2. Download their software onto your computer. That takes less than 5 minutes.

3. Pick a time line you want to have your book in.
Examples of timelines.
Full year of events, from January to December.

Baby's birth

Trips

Family Fun(all the fun things during a year, or just in a few months)

Birthdays

My preferred way to work on a book is to show a year of events. That way it will include all trips and birthday and family events. It is more expensive as a book than a single event, but it is less expensive than ordering a book for every event. I also like having a single book for an entire year containing all the fun things that we have done.

4. Chose a book. There many different books to choose from, I have only made the "Deluxe." The only difference between the "Classic" and the "Deluxe" is the size. "Classic" is 11.25X 8.75, and the "Deluxe" is 15 X 11.5. Both come in Linen, book cover and Leather. The Linen comes with a window that shows one photo highlighting the book. The "Book cover" is a paper that covers the hardback. Although I love the look of the book cover it isn't attached to the book and easily comes off. The book cover could easily be damaged with out proper handling and care. It does however look fabulous on the book, and give is the best finish look. If you choose one size of book, I would highly suggest staying with that size. Staying with the same size with multiple books creates unity and makes them look neat. That way you can store them in the same place, right by each other. Tip: Once you start a book you cannot change the "Style." of the book. My favorite is the "Best Seller." It gives the option of full page photos, journaling. The "Just Photos doesn’t allow any comments, and the "Story Teller" has large sections for writing. The only downside to "Best Seller" is you cannot tell a story, it limits your comments to just under a photo, or a full page taken up by writing.

5. Downloading photos. When I download my photos from my camera I have my files arranged by year and then months. Usually I have three months in one so I don't have to go into too many files. Three months of photos is just enough photos to collect and organize. Sometimes I will download the photo with the month that it was taken. Sadly last year I lost 1/2 the year when my computer crashed. I had saved my photo book on another computer and was able to finish my book the best I could with my remaining photos. You can export a book to a jump drive and keep it safe incase of failing computers.

Here is how you save your photo book to a separate location. I would highly recommend that you do!

Go to FILE at the top Left. Click on Export file. Bring down the "Save In" at the top and click on desktop. Name your file. Make sure you are saving it as a "Dime Package" Then you drag and drop the dime package into your removable flash drive. Just make sure your drive has at least 2 GB of memory.

6. Making a book. Before downloading ALL the photos you want in a book, think about what photos at going to be at the start of the book. Just download the photos that will be in the start of the book. If you have hundreds of photos to move into your book, it can become crazy to organize them. Plus adding too many photos slows down your computer and can make it really annoying to add photos to a page.(you may notice this at the end of making a book) Start with a small group, and finish the first section of your book before moving onto the next. Delete the photos you don't want to use, so they don't get mixed up. You can reload them if you change your mind. You can add pages as you go if you story increases. It is a little difficult to add pages into already finished areas. You can do it, it just will move all the pages after that section potentially changing the way you wanted it to look. I had to do this several times in my 2008 book. Every time I added a page, I actually had to add TWO pages just to keep the sequence of the pages the same. I would highly suggest keeping a time line and trying to finish a section before moving on.

7. Details. Make sure as you place a photo that it doesn’t have any white on the edges. In the case of black backgrounds, make sure the photos line up on the edges. If you need to you can enlarge or click on the + once or twice. Just make sure the photo is filled in completely. You can also check this in your review before purchasing. Click back into "Make Book" to make adjustments. Spend the extra time necessary to fix problems and review.

8. Writing. Creating a story really helps the viewer know about what is happening. Personally I like to have my photos tell the story, and have people ask me about events.

9. Review. Spend the time to review. Check out each page and each photo. Spend the time to make it perfect. You will be happier if you do.

10. Purchase. Once you get to the purchase you are almost done! Lots of time and energy put into this little book! This time ordering my book I had a few dilemmas with the download. Every time my photos got to 50 uploaded, the computer would come up with an error message. ("Failed to generate project for upload") I tried to upload numerous times and it would always stop between 50-60 photos. I called for help, even changed computers. I almost gave up hope, but these were my photos I lost with my computer crash. I finally counted up 50 photos in my book, deleted the page, then reloaded the page with the same photos. I did the same with the next page, finding the area around 60 photos. The book loaded, and I got my book. Something was wrong with the pages in that area of my book. So, if you are uploading and the computer seems to stop at a certain number of photos, TRY this idea. Hope it works for you too!
If you are downloading the software for the first time, you have the option to sign up for the email, DO NOT do so until your book is ready!!! They give you a coupon good for a "Buy one, Get one free." The coupon expires fairly quickly, so don't sign up for the email until you are ready to purchase.

Yearly I have seen a coupon for 50% off you book. If you can wait, and don't have a time restraint, then waiting is the way to go! I saved over $200 on my last books. I ordered two of each, one for each kid. I waited for the 50% off sale so I didn't have to pay $400 for books! With that coupon I figured that my photos cost me about 20 cents each. They are beautiful, just like a hard print. PLUS they are in a book beautifully displayed for my enjoyment.

I LOVE my photo books! Finally I have my photos in beautiful books that I am proud to share!

http://www.mypublisher.com/

If you want access to my book to see what I have done, email me and I will send you the link.

20 Stickers...Catch Them Being Good!

Kids are so challenging and can have serious effects on the stress levels at home! Past experiences and knowledge has taught me that outburst, yelling and any physical punishments are nothing more than an adult tantrum. Your tantrums are not teaching your kids to behave correctly; you are showing them that you are not in control. Even though I had that knowledge, the fighting and relentless resistance to my requests got really overwhelming. The noise that comes from fighting is so extremely nerve-racking to me!!! Over the last year the stress and frustration in our home reached beyond extreme. Crying, yelling and tantrums were not just something my kids did. All of my many hours reading parenting books and parental education seemed to have spun down the drain. Then I came up with the “20 Sticker” idea. The main focus is that you as the parent are rewarding ANY positive behavior or success. You WANT your kids to do something good so you can reward them. Catch them being good, and reward that behavior.

20 Stickers : Catch ‘em being good!

Reward good behavior with a sticker. Once 20 stickers are on your chart, the child get a reward of their choice. Giving stickers should be completely random at the parents discretion.
Good Behavior could be helping siblings w/o being asked, putting on shoes with out being asked, NOT complaining when asked to do homework, a sweet smile or hug, positive behavior or expressions, , doing anything nice or helpful. REWARD IT!

In the beginning give out lots of stickers for all the good behavior you see. Then after the first reward is given, then you can limit it a little more. They will point out their good behavior, and I just say “I get to catch you being good, but that was NICE!!!” Sometimes I will give a sticker for something I ask to be done; “Help your brother get his shoes on, please.” If it is done with out complaining, the sticker is rewarded.

Reward: Let YOUR CHILD choose the reward, you can help and make suggestions. It should be their choice, within reason. Begin making normal family activities a reward, don’t just give it freely, use it as a reward.

Reward Ideas: Trip to the dollar store for a $5 shopping spree, dinner out with mom, go to the movie of your choice with popcorn, sleep over at grandparents, anything fun that they come up with. (No trips to Disney, unless you want to make that something they can work for with 20 charts….AND you already plan on going! )

Our sticker chart put where everyone can see, BUT the kids can't put their own stickers on.  The stickers I use are also in a secret place so I am the only one to access them.

Enjoy!

New Years Resolutions!

Did you know you are 10 times more likely to do something if you write it down??
It's TRUE!

Write down your resolutions.
Make a list of things you would like to accomplish over the next year.
Places you would like to go, improvements you would like to see.

Motivation is the key, and writing it down keeps you on track.

I saw an interesting segment on Studio 5, and I wanted to share it!
You will be amazed at what a new hobby in your life will do!
(and what it will do for your brain!)

http://studio5.ksl.com/?nid=71&sid=9131744
Best wishes to all for a happy and eventful New Year!

Why MIGRY???

You may be asking "Why MIGRY?" (Mig-ree)
When my first baby was born I struggled with his colicky midnight crying. One day I found myself standing in the library looking the huge amount of parenting and baby books. Overwhelmed I checked out my maximum of parenting books. Lugging thirty heavy books to the car I thought “There has got to be an easier way!”


From that point I have checked out Almost all the parenting books out of the library. The information I learned is priceless to me. I just wish I had a source that I could have gone to with a question, and learned it the easy way.   Why keep something good secret???  If you can help someone or make someones life better by giving them something you know....HOW AWESOME IS THAT???  Especially for that other person!

Thus, MIGRY was the idea. When I find something fun, interesting or educational I try to share it. By sharing it, everybody wins.

If you have something you want to share, and don't mind me posting it....PLEASE send it to me.  Not only would "I" love the idea, others may benefit from it as well.

Best Wishes for the New Year 2010!