Amy Kingsford

I was intrigued the minute I saw Nicole Cole's Everyday Videography class at Studio Calico.  I've never been the videographer in our family-that responsibility has fallen mainly on my husband and now my oldest son who has shown some interest in making his own YouTube videos.

But after watching the promo video for the class I knew that I wanted to learn to take my memory keeping to this new level.

The course itself was great, just what I needed to get started making my own everyday videos. In fact, one rainy day I binge watched the first three parts of the class and before I could finish watching the fourth and final video I was inspired to press pause and start recording our lives.

Here is the first of what I'm sure will be many of our everyday videos:



It's not perfect, but I'm so happy I took the time to make it!

NOTE: Nicole's Everyday Videography class is not currently open for enrollment-but should she or Studio Calico offer this class in the future I highly recommend it!

I had the opportunity to take some fun Easter photos of my friends' family this past weekend. It was a nice opportunity to practice with my new camera and fall even more in love with my prime 35mm lens.

I always have so much fun shooting this family, they are so laid back and fun and well they're just plain adorable! Plus they have a new addition - so it was fun shooting their little one for the first time.








Thanks for taking the time to look! And a big thanks to this cute family for making me a part of their memories :)

As you might have noticed, I've been struggling over the past several months to find the time and motivation to scrapbook.  Some months I struggled to get even one layout finished and I started to see the number of photos I was taking dwindle as well. But I was determined to keep the memory keeping fires burning.


So last November I decided to make one more last ditch effort at making Project Life work for me. Rather than trying to start right in the busiest time of our lives though, I gave myself permission to hold off until the new year and  I decided instead to spend the months of November and December gathering my supplies and my thoughts.

Below I've shared my plans for my 2015-2016 Project Life album and the products and tools that will help me along the way.

The Plan

LETTER-SIZED: With all of the great 9x12 albums and protectors that were released last year I decided to stick with my beloved letter-sized format for this project not only because I love the compact size, but also because I can include any regular layouts I make over the year in my album as well.  

AUG 2015-JUL 2016: After looking at my photo log I decided to play catch up and date my album back to August 2015.  For some reason the start of the school year has always felt like a more natural starting mark for our family. Its when we are most organized and geared up to tackle a new year; its when we take our family photos and its when I send my boys off into the world another year older and another year wiser.

MONTHLY SPREADS: I've decided to go for a monthly approach consisting of 1-2 spreads and a "Currently" section to honor myself a bit more in my memory keeping.  This section will utilize the 9x12 protectors with all those cute little 3x3" pockets and will consist of an anthology of the tv shows, music, books, and trends that I'm currently into.  

HYBRID: I'll be using a mix of both physical and digital products and will be doing the bulk of my printing at home.    

My Tools

 NIKON D7100 | Nikon

I'm so excited about my new camera. Its my first DSLR (shhh don't tell anyone) so there's a bit of a learning curve but it will definitely keep me snapping photos this year!

My Title Spread

Supplies: Studio Calico Lollipop and Arendal Documenter Kits.

Supplies: Storyteller Kenner Fillers by Just Jaimee; Through the Years by Amber Labau Designs and Studio Calico Lollipop Documenter Kit

Hi there! To say that its been a long time since I last posted, is a bit of understatement. To say that it has been an eternity might be a bit more accurate.  And to tell you the truth I've agonized over my first post back for months. What to say, how to say it, how much to share, whether or not to apologize...

But then I realized that my blogging is really just about recording everyday life and sharing bits and pieces of it with all of you. And sometimes our lives demand that we make sacrifices and we set things aside for a time, to pick them up once the dust has settled. So rather than waste time dwelling on how sad it makes me to have gone these last several months without blogging I'd rather just pick up where I left off...

And what better way to do that then to give you a glimpse of some of my fondest moments from the last year!

2015 was a year of hardship and growth for our family. We lost, we loved, we changed and we let go-all the while growing closer as a family.

Below is a collage of fifteen photos that record some of our family's most memorable moments from the past year and captions giving you a bit of insight into our year.

My husband and I make it a point to try to read to our boys every single day. Because we know what a difference it truly can make.

We go to the library 2-4 times a month and I let each of the boys pick out a handful of books that they are interested in.

We buy Scholastic Books on Caleb's reading level, centered around characters he loves, in an effort to keep him interested in reading.

We read at all times of the day including in the morning, after school, at dinner and at bedtime.


It made me very happy to hear from Caleb's teacher at this last Parent-Teacher Conference that she can tell that we read to him and not only that but she can see the difference it has made in his reading and comprehension skills between the first of the year and now.

I also see a difference, one that has nothing to do with "reading accuracy or fluency" or "phonemic awareness," or "benchmarks,"  but rather a growth in his love for reading.

While its important to me that my son be able to string together a sentence and be able to read and understand others' sentences, I also want him to be able to access all of the magic and knowledge that reside within books.

And that is why we started reading chapter books together at night before bed. We started last September when we read The Tale of Despereaux as a family after receiving the book at a school function.


Soon after Caleb asked if we could read another book together. We chose The Boxcar Children because both my husband and I remembered reading this book as a child. From there we moved onto The Best Christmas Pageant Ever and then Stone Fox.

At the beginning of the year with the help of Caleb and my husband we chose thirty-six more chapter books to read, for a total of forty--one for every week of school.

You'll find our reading list below with links to Amazon, where you can find more info about each book including a synopsis, available formats and prices. (NOTE: These links are not affiliate links, but merely a place for you to find more information out about the book should you like to.)

Hi there! I've been meaning to find the time and inspiration to share another template with you for quite some time but after the holidays, life didn't really slow down as I had planned.

I can't really complain though, I've gotten in quite a bit of quality time with my family, I've been really enjoying cooking as of late and I've been getting things tackled in our home and finances that I've been meaning to do for years. All of this, however, has meant a lot less time for scrapbooking.

Yesterday I finally found the time to sit down and put together a sketch for you, based off of this page that celebrates my oldest son's unique sense of style.

Caleb just turned seven this week (yay!) and I thought what better way to celebrate than to pass along this freebie inspired by one of my favorite recent memories of him.

Wonderful You by Amy Kingsford | Supplies: Amber Labau Designs: Wonderful You Kit and Pocket Cards; Valorie Wibbins: Hello Haberdashery (MPM Addon).

But first, the story behind this page...

This photo was taken outside of Joann's.  I needed to make a quick run to the craft store and Caleb insisted that he wanted to go.  I agreed and told him to get his shoes on quick.  We were just out the door when I looked at what he was wearing--his long john pajama top and bottoms with his favorite shark shirt and a pair of shark print shorts layered over top. He must have noticed my apparent disdain for his choice of clothing because he said "WHAT?! I play for the Sharks and this is my uniform." I breathed deep and took his outfit in again...I could definitely see the theme and to his credit he had successfully mixed different densities of the shark pattern and avoided any real clash of colors and he had also come up with a creative compromise to my "no tanks or shorts during winter" policy. I ruffled his hair and said "Go Sharks." And we made our way to the store. I decided in that moment to "live and let live." The years of him needing to THINK and DRESS and ACT LIKE EVERYONE ELSE were hot on our heels and I chose to celebrate that which makes him special rather than wishing he was like anyone else on the planet.

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Download The Templates and/or Sketches

Happy Scrapping!

 

I've played along with Ali Edward's One Little Word now for the past 6 years. And each year after some consideration I was able to quickly hone in on "one word" that spoke to me and that I felt could guide me through the upcoming year.

*Download printable wordart below