Focus on Life

I know that my recent posts have been scattered from topic to topic. I am trying to work on finding the content that I want to write about but, also keep it entertaining for my readers. At the beginning of this year I told myself that I was going to dust off my blog which I hadn't really kept up with since college and I was going to post once a week. As you can tell that hasn't really happened this year. When I revamped my blog with a new look and a name I thought that it was going to be easy for me to keep up with.

My intentions for the year 2012 was to take a simple word and focus on that throughout the year. Sounds easy enough right? I thought that I chose a word that was suited me well and something that I could play around with. I chose the word "focus." This word pretty much sums me up in many ways. The first reason why this word came to mind was because I am a photographer. I like to think of myself as a pretty good photographer but, I will leave that up to you all to decide.

One of my favorite shots from a recent child session. 

The Blue Angels came to perform at the Little Rock Air Force Base.

I also thought that the word focus would be easy to always come up with ideas to write about for the simple fact that I wanted to use this years to look back over the last few years and focus on how far I have come. This last year a lot of amazing and some not so amazing things have happened. 

A few of the good things:

• I celebrated my 5 year wedding anniversary with the best man that I could ask for. 
• I landed a job in my desired career path. 
• I started riding a motorcycle! At first I was pretty terrified  but, now you can't keep me off!
• I volunteer with the local animal shelter by taking photos of all of the animals so, we have good photos to post and hopefully get them adopted. 
• I have gotten really involved with the local Bikers Against Child Abuse Chapter. 

A few of the bad things:

• My husband got t-boned by semi that totaled out the car (Thankfully he was able to walk away from the accident)
• My husband had knee surgery in January and his boss wouldn't give him more than one day off so, I ended up driving him to work for a few days since, he was still on pain medication. 
• I had to have surgery in April that took me out of work for over two weeks and here it is September and I am still trying to heal! 
• My husband lost his job the week of my surgery and searched for 6 weeks before landing a minimum wage job. 

I think I will leave this list at that... sadly I could go on but, I like that the positive things outnumber the negatives. 2012 has proven to not be a very good year. Even though there were rough times I try to focus on all of the good things that have happened. 

I am going to work on trying different ways to play off of my word I chose at the beginning of the year.

Have you ever chosen a word to life by? if so, what was your word and were you able to keep up with it?

Click Happy!

In what little spare time I can find I spend time reading one of my friends blogs. Most of the time I am at work on my lunch break eating with one hand and scrolling with the other. A few days ago there was a post that I could really relate to. The topic of her post was taking photos. Photography is a major passion of mine so, this post was right up my alley.

"I have this habit when I photograph things. I’ll snap about 400 photos of something, and then I’ll open them up and really look at them. I may adjust the lighting, I may tweak them, and I’ll go through and delete every photo that just doesn’t… work. If there’s a blurry patch, it’s gone. If there’s poor lighting, it’s gone."  - DigitalEraMom.com

I don't think I could have typed those words any better than she did. I spent a few years taking photography classes in college and learning how to take the perfect photo with the perfect lighting with the perfect subject with the perfect focus. There are just times that it is near impossible to capture all of those perfect things needed for the perfect photo in a single shot. Yes, you can take multiple shots throw them into Photoshop and spend a few hours tweaking things until they are just right. But there is no better feeling than snapping a photo and bringing it up on the computer screen and it looking amazing straight from the camera.

I there there are times that I am more critical of my own work than others are. This past weekend I had been hurting really bad due to a little bit of a relapse from a surgery I had back in April but, I was tired of being in the house. A friend had reminded me that the air show was in town. We were able to take our own chairs so, that worked perfectly for me. I was able to go outside and enjoy myself where I didn't have to stand the whole time.

My friend and I headed over to the Air Force Base and after 45 long minutes we were finally being directed into a field to park in that was across the base of the entrance to the air show. They loaded us up on school buses to drop us off at the main gate. I couldn't remember the last time I had been on a school bus. I didn't remember how tall those steps where! After we finally made it to entrance we decided to walk around a few minutes before we found a spot to set up our chairs.

I am a huge Dale Earnhardt Jr. fan so being about to stand beside his car made my day. Of course his car was next to the National Guard recruitment booth. 

But back to my main point of this post. As I was going through all my photos from the air show I took 386 photos and I ended up only sharing 19 of them. This lines right up with what DigitalEraMom was talking about. My professional side of me comes on very strong when I am editing photos and now there are over 350 photos from the air show that are just siting on my external hard drive.

Here is a sampling of the photos I posted on my Facebook Loggins Photography and Design:

Do you take 100's of photos and only use a limited amount?

Be sure to surf on over to www.digitaleramom.com and check out her blog. 

Pinterest Project

Everyone knows my love for Pinterest and when ever I get a chance I am always thinking about what I want to do next. I am still new to this whole homeowner thing. I have only been in my house for 11 months so far and I have only managed to paint three walls in the master bedroom. I am waiting until I find the perfect wallpaper in order to finish the final wall. Where I am going with this is I don't have to worry about what holes I put in the walls! That brings me to talk about another project I found inspiration for from Pinterest.

This is the photo that caught my attention. I knew that I could do something like that. In this photo it is scrapbook paper attached to shoe box lids. I am always the one to find a cheaper way of doing things. The graphic designer came out and I decided to make my own graphics and get cheap frames from Wal-Mart. I stayed with the black and white theme because it will match the wallpaper that I plan on using on the opposite wall. I really liked the idea of using the frames so, when I get tired of the current graphics I can makes news ones and swap them out.

My Final Project:
9 black frames ($2 a piece)
Copy Paper
Push Pins

The world of Pinterest...

I do believe that Pinterest is one of the most amazing website ever! I have spent numerous hours just browsing everything the site has to offer. I used to check Facebook right before I went to bed and first thing in the morning. It might be a bad habit but, Pinterest is normally the last thing I look at before bed and sometimes even when I laying in bed (Android finally got the app months after the iPhone) That was a happy day! I don't know what it is about just browsing a website that can be so relaxing. 

I am sure at this point I have enough items pinned that I could do a craft on a daily basis and have something to do everyday for a few months. I am proud of myself and I have been able to complete a few craft projects so far. I already have the next few lined up. 

I was browsing one day and I saw a lot of pins about jewelry and didn't ways to be able to display it. This is one problem that I had. The home of all of jewelry was one of those 3 tier plastic drawers from Wal-Mart. It is pretty but, it was working for the time being. I pinned a few different ideas and then I made a special trip to Lowe's for a few supplies. 

My project started like this: 

1 Circle piece of wood I think it was 18 inch diameter ($8)

1 package of cup hooks ($2)

1 can black spray paint ($.98)

The master bedroom is going to have one wall wallpapered with a brocade pattern ...once I find one that I like. So, I decided that a circle would work better than a rectangle or square for me. 

I had a few issues getting started because I have OCD when it comes to things lining up. I made sure to measure everything and mark where every hook was going to be placed. My suggestion to anyone wanting to try a project like this wear gloves or something to protect your fingers. My fingers became very sore and I had to get help finishing screwing in all of the hooks. 

Once all the hooks were placed I took a trip outside and spray painted everything black. This helped hide those hooks that didn't go in all the way straight. Once the paint dried I was looking forward to getting all of my jewelry hung up. I threw one more hook on the back side and grabbed a few inches of fishing line (if you know me at all I will find some way to use fishing line...it is sturdy and cheap!)  

Final Product: 

Since, I have a pretty place to my all my earrings now I have acquired a few more :) I might have to make another ones of these or something similar for my necklaces and bracelets so, all my earrings can fit.  

Have you had success with a project from Pinterest? 

It has been a while...continuing Home Organization

As all of you can see it has been a while since I dusted off my blog. At the beginning of the year I thought to myself that I wanted to get my blog up and running again. I did an okay job or a week or two and then I didn't seem to have the time to sit down and write.

Shortly after the new year I had been browsing Pinterest looking for organizational ideas. I really wanted to start the new year off right and get everything in my life organized. I found some great websites and other blogs that had amazing ideas not only for around the house but for day to day takes. Refer to my Home Organization post where I talked about putting together a home management binder. I scoured blog after blog looking for the perfect printable that would fit my needs. Well needless to say I never found any templates that fit me and my life. So, what better thing to do then make my own. (This is where my designer side came out!) So, sadly 6 months after I decided to make my binder I can now share it with you guys. I was so happy with myself when I was able to complete my binder! I went straight to filling out some of the information that was needed in the binder and then it started to get stuck under paperwork on my desk. After 5 months I have managed to find a little time to dust it off.

My question to you: Do you ever set your mind to get something done push yourself until the task is completed then let it collect dust? 

Here are a few of the forms that I created. I started with forms for the very basic information.

Basic Medical Information 

Emergency Contact Information

Monthly Budget

Bill Tracker

Bill Tracker Paid

Weekly Schedule 

To-Do List

What's Cooking Good Looking

Shopping list 

Forms not shown above: 

Favorite Restaurants: A place to keep all those numbers to your favorite take out restaurants all in one place. 

What was that password: If anyone knows me at all they know that I can never remember a password to save my life. This is a form that after I filled it out I tucked it in a safe place in my binder. So, if my binder is sitting out in the open my passwords won't be available to anyone looking through. 

Pet Information: I treat my pets like I would if I had children! Parents always keep medical information for their children in one place so, I thought that is was fitting that I kept all the vet information for my pets in one place.

Wallet Contents: If any other couple is like myself and my husband. We have separate credit cards for our emergencies. This form is a nice tool to figure out exactly how many credit cards you have and which ones carry balances. Once you write down all the credit cards that you have in your possession you might want to rethink how you make purchases. I know after we did this we were kinda shocked by the amount of plastic that we have. 

What spent what??: I made this form with intentions of bringing home receipts and writing down how much we spent on a weekly basis. Well needless to say this is a form that still sits blank in my binder. No matter how hard I tried I could never remember to get a receipt when I was asked and then when I do get receipts they normally end up in the bottom of my purse and become to wrinkled that they become unreadable!

Overall, I think that I did a good job of putting together forms that meet my needs but, I have had a few issues with sticking to them. My husband and I come and go at different times of the day so, when we get a few moments to spend together we take that time. After working all day and coming home to make dinner I don't always find the time to pull out our home management binder. 

My question to you: How do you find time to keep up with your home management binder (if you have one) or even update your planner or to-do list? 

trying to focus...

So, as you guys can tell it has been a little while since I have posted anything. Let's just say that life has been crazy lately. I know I probably said that in my last post but, really it is crazy. Since the last time I have blog I have finished well to this point my home management binder (now to make myself use it!) I thought that spending the time and making this binder it would be something that I would check. But now  I am starting to think that it is just one more thing that I need to remember to check every day. The only part of it that I have really been using is the weekly menu! Boy has this helped when it goes to grocery shopping. We have been sitting down each Sunday and figuring out what we want for dinner for the week. This week I only spent 30 dollars on groceries because I already had the other things that I needed. It is amazing how planning out our meals can help you spend less when you go shopping for groceries. I really wish that I could get better at checking the other sections as well. But you know me I refer back to my little black planner for everything.

Do you guys have any suggestions for keeping up with something new?

My mind has been pretty frazzled lately. Work has really been killing me. We have been down a person in our department since September or something like that. It feels so much longer! The work keeps stacking up on me. I have a to do a list a mile long. I have to do lists to do to lists! But the good news they hired somebody today! As long as all of the paper work gets done in time she will be starting next Monday!

My husband also just has knee surgery this last week. It wasn't anything big. His knee cap wasn't were it was supposed to be to the doctors had to go in a cut some of his tissue so his knee cap could move back to where it was supposed to be. The day at the surgery center was really long. All they told Randy was his thing was at 10:30. So we figured that was the time of his surgery so we got there at 9:30.... well he needed to be there at 10:30 so we were already and hour early. Always best to be early then late right? Once they got him checked in and got his IV started they told us it would be able a 3 hour wait for his surgery. He didn't get taken back into surgery until 2:30. That made for the start of a very long day. I knew that everything was going to be fine but as I sat out in the waiting room I still had the stress of Randy being asleep during the surgery because you never know what all could go wrong. Everything went really well and he ended up with only two little incisions. Randy was in recovery longer then he was in surgery. Now he just has to wait for recovery.

Focusing on things these last few weeks have been pretty difficult.

How do you guys get back on tasks with what you are trying to do when there is so much going on?

Home Organization...

I have taken the time this evening to set aside some time and work on focusing on my simple little word FOCUS.

There are many times that I find myself coming home from work trying to get food put together for dinner and then most of the time getting onto the computer and catching up on Facebook and trying to see everything that I missed throughout the day while I was at work or when I have the chance I will cuddle up on the sofa and turn on the TV. Being able to sit and focus on just watching a movie doesn't seem to happen all that often. Even when I am just lounging on the sofa my mind is running a thousand miles a minute. These past few days I have noticed that I do not take time for me to focus on myself.

I have always looked at myself as an organized person. I may not always be show it on the outside but, in my brain everything is organized and when I have the time I work to do everything I can to get organized and stay that way.

The other night I got off work and I finally had some time to sit down and get on pinterest. I have found myself slightly obsessed with that site. (Find me a person that hasn't fallen in love with that site) I have found many ideas on there that I would like to try out this year.

My FOCUS for January is going to be working on home organization. I have learned the hard way that if you aren't organized at home you can't be organized in the rest of your life.

I found a pin that I followed to a blog and I have set a new goal for myself. I want to create a home organization binder. Most of the time when people make these is when they have kids and trying to keep every's schedules straight. But I think if this is something that I get started now and stick with it, it will only makes things easier when more people come into the picture.

My first task to creating a home organization binder is to find the free printable that I want to use or just create them so they are specific to my needs. I am giving myself until the end of January to have this complete.

Have you thought of making a home organization binder? I would love to hear your thoughts.

I will be sure to post a picture of my final product and maybe even a few in progress.