It's time to scan in the 50's, 60's and 70's!

For years, I've been wondering what to do with the 1,000s of slides my Dad had stored in the basement...that we never saw. It was such a production to get the carousel out, set up everything in the right order...I mean, we just never looked at them. So last year, I decided to splurge on a $99 scanner with an accessory for slides, and started the massive task of digitizing everything (if you can afford it to have someone else do it, go for it!). I decided not to make it a task I hated, so I made this a relaxing, no deadline multi-tasking activity while I watched a favorite TV show. I used my laptop, put up my feet, placed the scanner next to me on the couch, and started scanning. I now have about 1,500 slides scanned in (there were quite a few that I decided we didn't need since they weren't identifiable), each in their own folder: 1949, 1950, etc. all the way to 1983. It took me about 6 months of scanning at a very relaxed pace, and what a great feeling of accomplishment to have that precious history of our family finally archived!

And then here's the fun part...now that I had all of that stored digitally, it was a breeze to turn it into a meaningful book! I put one together for the whole Wells Family Early Years, and then, when my Dad was being honored last month for his life full of service in Latin America, I put together a book about his adventures and honors through the years (and I made DVD copies for everyone, complete with 1950's music background). I was feeling a bit creative so I didn't use one of My Memories Suite's pre-designed templates. I just picked a background that looked a bit antique, and tried to make it look like I had some brown leather on there, and some brass brads. I'm not a designer by any means...but did I do ok? I especially love the picture of my Mom and Dad heading out to a fancy party...I always thought they looked like movie stars! My Mom kind of reminds me of Eva Gardner and my Dad is a cross between Clark Gable, John Wayne...and bit of Ronald Reagan thrown in. Have you tried scanning your family slides that are gathering dust somewhere?

Heads up for anyone who values the sacrifices of our men and women wearing the American uniform!

I just did an interview with Brad Baldwin who runs a hi-tech blog...and this interview was all about the other important thing I do with our company to preserve the history, the sacrifices of our US Military servicemembers. I'm president of our Remember My Service Division which pulls together all the content that Unit Historians and Public Affairs Officers throughout the military are already collecting, and then making it meaningful and relevant for each Servicemember...something they can take home and share with their children and grandchildren to help explain what they did to preserve our American freedoms. So if you know anyone in the military...send them to my video interview about Remember My Service!

Mother's Day book

Yes, it's time to start thinking of your Mom...or your Grandma. I'm putting together about 4 books right now...I won't tell you about all of them just yet (you'll have to check back later), but with Mother's Day right around the corner, there is NOTHING that will knock your Mom over more than a complete book of all her family members, each one getting their own page. I just have each of my 6 siblings send me one email per child (with that child's name in the subject line). They are allowed to attach between 4-8 photos, and then send one paragraph about what the child did during the year. I save them all into their own folder on my computer. Then I just drag n' drop the photos and the text into the predesigned templates...no uploading or anything. Believe me, the only way I can even think about finishing 4 books in the next few weeks (doing a few minutes here and there), is because of My Memories Suite..no kidding. Now I'm using a very simple, basic photo layout here...very clean look. But you can choose incredibly detailed and intricate templates if you like.



And since we're talking about Moms...one of my favorite memories of my Mom is when I was 14 and I had just overheard a bunch of people saying that I was a bad singer. I was crushed, and my Mom spent the weekend building my confidence back up. She's always seen her role as my encourager...not the one who has to tell me that you might as well not dream big since most people fail anyway. It was a great "pay back" day when I actually got to record and publish a couple of CDs...years later of course. So how about you? I'd love to hear about your Mom!


Before I go into detail on really getting started with digital scrapbooking on my next posting, why don't you first make sure you have a good organizational system for all the great memories you're capturing with your camera(s). Here's what I do:

1. Download the stuff off your memory card! (Yup, very basic here)

2. Have a main "My Pictures" folder, and within that, have folders by YEAR, and within those, folders by MONTH, and inside those, folders by EVENT (ie Halloween, trip to Yellowstone, etc.)


That's probably enough work for now :). Really, the biggest job for memory preservation is just making sure that you keep your content organized for easy, fast retrieval.



As I sign off, here's a sample page of a book I'm finishing for some dear friends back East that we don't get to visit near often enough but love them to pieces...Pres and Helen Blake from beautiful Connecticut!

What's new with you?

Ok, here's one. I had dropped off my youngest in preschool, rushed to a class at the University, and barely made it back to be the last parent to pick up their child. There was my Jacob standing with his teacher patiently waiting for me, and as soon as he saw me, he ran down the hill into my waiting bear hug, exclaiming, "Whenever I see you Mommy, my heart pops out!"

Yup, that's a sweet memory. I try so hard to write all those down...on the back of a receipt, or a paper napkin, is usually where it lands. "We do not remember days; we remember moments" (Cesare Pavese, The Burning Brand), and those moments I never want to fade away. It's definitely not easy to capture everything...but it is important to capture something, and then reflect on, those memories that make us feel positive, good, happy. Some of you have more happy memories than others...but much of how we feel about ourselves is what we choose to focus on about our past. That's why I want to dedicate this blog to the sweet memories in our lives, and what we do to preserve those memories so we can easily reflect on them.

So for this week, since we're heading into the freshness of Spring, I want to focus on a moment when everything was brand new, turned upside down, completely different...maybe a new job, a new family member, a new house (that's us in our very bare living room a few years ago). Sure, lots of stress whenever there's something new...but it's also a time to start over, start fresh, recommit and regroup. Just take a big breath, and smell the fresh air (if you can). When we were building this house with two very young girls in tow, all I really remember is always trying to make sure that no one picked up a rusty nail, and no one fell down the open staircase...you worry a lot as a mom. But I also remember the smell of the 2x4s and the fresh dirt all around the foundation...and all over my children...and their huge smiles. It was scary to take out a mortgage...but you know, it was an adventure. What's new in your life? And how are you going to make it GREAT instead of another source of stress?

So that's my start to this blog. Next time I'll tell you more about my favorite digital scrapbooking software,My Memories Suite by Polaroid (did I mention that I'm really biased?), because I want to show you how easy and fast it is preserve your memories so you don't feel the "mom" guilt for not doing anything with your photos and videos, those memories that mean so much. But for now, you can check out clips from our new infomercial on the link below..and I'll catch you later!

http://www.mymemoriessuite.tv/