goshery

using Instagram to document a road trip.

 

Last August I went on a road trip with my family - my parents, two brothers and my sister-in-law.  Six adults in a van traveling from Minnesota to Colorado and back.  We made the 14 hour trip in one day (each way), leaving at 6 a.m.

Shortly after the trip started I took a photo and posted it on Instagram with the hashtag #familyroadtrip and the idea came to me that it would be fun to document the entire trip in that way.  I took pictures, wrote captions and posted them.  At some point along the way I thought it would be fun to make a mini album using all of those posts, which kept me motivated to continue documenting the journey.

Once we got home I ordered photos using Persnickety Prints.  Since it was fall and Christmas shopping was on my mind I decided it would be fun to make an album for myself and also for my family members that were with on the trip (a total of four albums).  While I waited for the photos to arrive I went through my Instagram feed and wrote down the captions I had used.  Then I printed each caption along with the hashtag on a piece of white card stock, rounded the corners and added a piece of washi tape for some added interest.

The albums were a hit at Christmas and were really fun to make.  Here's a look at some of the pages from the album:

We had an unfortunate incident involving the police in South Dakota that resulted in a traffic ticket.  While he was talking to the driver (who shall remain nameless but may have been my older brother) I snapped a quick photo and hoped that my iPhone wouldn't be confiscated.  The caption for this photo reads, "Rut Row.  A little snag in our journey".

Several hours into the trip I was a bit restless and . . . bored.  The company was grand, but a person can only spend so many hours in a vehicle before they just want to get out.  The caption for this photo was, "I. AM. SO. BORED."  But it was sunny, so there's that.

We talked for quite a while about the proper hand-on-wheel position.  It's the kind of conversation that may last just a few minutes on a regular day, but when you have hours + hours together in a vehicle you tend to go a little bit deeper into the conversation.  That is the blessing of road trips, and also the curse.  The caption on this photo was, "Quite the 10 & 2 debate going on in this car".

Eventually I reached the end of my rope and just want to BE THERE.  I used a napkin to write out my plea, HELP ME!  The caption on this photo was, "Another 1.5 hours?"

At one point my parents were in the far back seat and I was in the middle seat.  I looked back and they were both intently looking at their iPhones.  Oh, technology.  The caption on this photo was, "I wish they would quit playing on their phones and talk to me".

The last photo I posted was of the rearview mirror to signify the end of our trip.  The caption on this photo was, "The sun is setting behind us as we finish the final leg of our journey".

The albums I used were 4" x 4" We R Memory Keepers mini albums purchased online, white Bazzill card stock and the Calibri font.  I typed the captions in Word and used the drawing tool to add the lines above and below each caption.  I created the first caption page and then used it as a template for the rest of the pages so that they were all the same.  I like consistency and I don't like to recreate the wheel, so this approach worked well for me.

Having this little album is a great way to remember our road trip, and it made a quick but meaningful gift.

NOTE:  The captions pages are very clear in person but a little blurry in these photos since they were in page protectors.

2012 craft goals.

Welcome to 2012!  This year I'm setting both personal & craft goals in an effort to bring focus to the things I want to accomplish in 2012.  I'm hoping that having clear goals will keep me on track.

Today I'm going to share with you my 2012 goals for my craft business and tomorrow I'll share my personal goals.

This goal is kind of broad so let me elaborate a bit.  I love to scrapbook using both traditional albums and mini albums to document my stories.  This year I want to find new, creative ways to document my stories which will include traditional scrapbooks, mini albums, my blog and video entries.  I was going to put a number on this but decided that it's not important how many ways I document stories, as long as I get them documented.  So throughout the year I'll be sharing new and (hopefully) creative ways to document stories.

You know what they say, practice makes perfect.  I've learned some very basic things about Photoshop in the past year but there's so much more to learn.  I might enroll in an online class, or I may just continue to learn as I go but either way I want to move from absolute beginner to at least advanced beginner.

There are several blogs that I follow and one way to get me to cross a blog off my reading list is if they rarely - or infrequently - add new posts.  I enjoy blogging but sometimes I have a hard time thinking of things to say that I think will be interesting to my readers.  What I plan to do in 2012 is share with my readers what's going on around here - from craft projects to home decorating projects to life stories.  I'll do my best to keep the content interesting and relavent.

Somewhere . . . anywhere!  On-line would be great (blog or craft site) and hard copy would be great too (magazine).

In order to meet (or exceed!) these goals I need to make sure I spend more time crafting.  It's easy to let life get in the way - the house needs to be cleaned, the lawn needs to be mowed, etc.  My hope is that having these goals clearly defined will keep me on track and move crafting up near the top of my to do list.

Check back tomorrow to read about my personal goals for 2012.

 

Inspiration

Photo courtesy of AFP

Last night my television was tuned to CNN as I watched the Chilean mine rescue, which continues at this moment.  Did you watch?  Talk about inspiring!  If you aren't up to speed on the story or if you haven't seen any of the images I really encourage you to do a quick internet search and see for yourself.

The coordination involved in the rescue, both above ground and below was simply amazing.  The 33 miners that have been trapped for 69 days have been involved in their rescue since Day 1, documenting their journey and doing every task they were assigned, including piling up rocks for the rescue tube to rest on when it arrived in the mine.

The spirits of these men?  Simply inspiring.  Not only have they managed to stay alive and work together as a team, every video clip of them that I have seen has shown smiling men, often singing the national anthem.

The President of Chili has been at the site for each and every rescue, welcoming the families of the miners as they arrive and greeting each miner like a long, lost friend.  I don't know anything about him, but he has certainly impressed me through this ordeal.

Oh.  I dont' know what else to say.  I'm so inspired!!!