Digital Scrapbook Designer Trish Jones is having a closing out sale at her store.  From now until Aug 31 you can purchase a pass to download the entire contents of her store, including over 200 collections and 21 kits for just USD $19.99.  Then you have until the end of September to download everything you want.

You can purchase a pass to the store here.

When I purchased my Nikon D50 two years ago, the only other choice from Nikon was the D70. At the time the D70 was an older camera (little did I know the D80 would be out in a few months) but more expensive. The D70 did have a feature I was interested in, a commander mode for the flash system. The mode meant that the internal flash could trigger an off camera SB800 flash unit.

In the end the D50 won out because of (IMHO) the better picture quality right out of the camera. I later purchased the SB800 flash as it had a commander mode built in, meaning that I could mount it on the camera to control a 2nd off camera Nikon flash (SB600 or SB800). I've never bought that 2nd flash to do that though.

A while ago I read on Strobist that the SB800 would work wireless in a legacy mode with almost any camera, so I though I'd try it out with the D50.

To set up the D50 to control the SB800 wirelessly:

1. Access the D50's menu system and select Flash Mode, Manual. Select the level of on-board flash you want. If you want the off camera flash to do most of the lighting then select 1/16 (the minimum).
2. Turn on the flash (while off camera).
3. Hold the "sel" button down for 2 secs to access the menu.
4. Arrow right to select the wireless menu.
5. Push the "sel" button to select.
6. Arrow down to select the SU-4 option.
7. Push the "sel" button to select.
8. Hold down the "sel" button to exit the menu.
9. The flash should now say remote.

When done:

1. Access the D50 menu and select Flash Mode TTL.
2. On the flash, hold the "sel" button down for 2 secs to access the menu.
3. Arrow up to "off" and push the "sel" button to select.
4. Hold down the "sel" button to exit the menu.
5. The flash should now say TTL (or whatever mode it was in before setting to remote).

Have fun using your SB800 with your D50 or other camera.

Today's thought isn't specifically craft related although applies to many of us "crafters". I was struck by an article over at MSN called "The High Price of Too Much Stuff" which talks about how the rise in credit card debt also coincides with the rise in the number of square feet of storage facilities available, even though the square footage of our homes has also increased during the same period. So it seems that not only are we buying more stuff, increasing our personal debt, and building bigger homes to store it in; we are also having to rent storage facilities because we still have too much.

This really hit home with me. I've only been scrapbooking for 4 years and have been through the cycle of consumption to out of control proportions and have now had to develop my own 3 step program (don't buy anything new, use what you love, purge what you don't love).

As a new scrapbooker/stamper, I quickly found that my need to own (but not necessarily use) craft products was out of control. I had never experienced anything like it before. The products were so beautiful and had so much creative potential and I needed a selection of everything just to get started (I'm not one of those "drive to the scrapbook store and pick out 2 sheets of paper for a specific project" type gals). Credit cards got used, making that great product or deal not so great once interest was factored in.

At first the products were pretty to look at, storing them was a form of home decor, and acted as an inspiration for what to create next. But once there was too much to fit on the shelf and I had to use utilitarian storage options, the products became a trigger for guilt (the guilt of how much was spent, and how much sat unused). Not only that, I was now having to spend money on storage and organization just for these supplies (and justify it). While I used some of the products to make scrapbook pages, cards, and other projects; after just a couple of years I had more product than I would use in a lifetime.

What opened my eyes to my "problem" were two things. The first was meeting a friend with probably 5 times more stuff than me, and more debt than me. I've often heard that it is easier to see your faults in someone else rather than yourself, and in this case it was. While she had all this stuff, she still wanted more. She thought that if she could purchase a house with a dedicated craft room and buy storage solutions, the problem would be solved. I could see that the problem wasn't storage/organization related, but a need to have it all and still want more. I've seen this in many crafters and often wondered why. Well I think it is because every product comes with so many new creative possibilities that to not purchase something, in some way, seems to be to put a creative ceiling on yourself which doesn't sit right with anyone who likes to be creative. The reality though, was that I was much more creative when I could see my stuff and knew what I had, and didn't feel guilty about it.

The second thing was wanting to try digital scrapbooking. I'd always been a computer geek and had used Photoshop to edit my digital photos. I liked the idea of digital scrapbooking because of the techniques you could achieve digitally and the fact that I didn't have to worry about my kids getting into my stuff when I left a layout only half done. The problem was that I couldn't continue to purchase more paper product if I was going to be creating layouts digitally. So I knew that I would have to clamp down on my buying habits.

Going "cold turkey" is not only difficult but is likely to result in a relapse :) so to contain my spending, I joined a stampers 10 club and restricted new purchases to that only. While $250 over 10 months sounds a lot, it really isn't for a stamper/scrapbooker (I have spent more than that in one month!). While it is a stamping club, I still have patterned paper, cardstock, consumables (like glue, glitter, ink, brads, ribbons) available. This is a great way to budget purchases if you have a "problem".

Today I notice with interest that Nikon has released the world's first DSLR with video capabilities.  This new camera comes hot on the heels of the new Canon 50D which was just announced, but appears to blow it out of the water and for $400 less too.  The new camera is called the D90 and is an upgrade to the D80 model.  This model features video in up to 1280x720 resolution (i.e. HD720p), has live view mode, usable ISO3200 and 12 megapixels. 

While I won't be ditching my D50 just yet (it's still got lots of life in it), it follows that these features will start appearing in other new Nikon models coming in the future. For those of you that don't have a DSLR but want one, there's never been a better time to buy a DSLR. 

I'm pretty excited to have signed up for Cathy Zielske's "Design Your Life" scrapbooking course through BigPictureScrapbooking.com. The course is designed to teach basic design principles for scrapbooking. This is the first scrapbooking course I've taken that isn't to learn digital.

As part of the pre-work, we created a page with 9 equal squares that explains who we are as scrapbookers. Here's mine:




Credits:
Meredith Fenwick, Everyday, Fruitpunch (red solid)
J Baechtold, Woodland Berry, BG4 (green solid)
AWP, Vinegar and Brown paper, Paper1 (kraft)
Jessica Sprague, Home Away From Home, RedExotic (red pattern)
Jessica Sprague, Home Away From Home, brownsolid (brown solid)
Krista Ring, Autumn Beauty, paper7 (green pattern)
Michelle Coleman, Wonderful, paper 2 (red dot)
Princess Pamela, Abby, Brownfloral (brown floral)
DesignsByShelle, My Guy, BG1 (green dot)
Jessica Sprague, Stapled Heart
Rhonner Farrer, 2 Peas September 2005 kit, wordart
Cafe Digi, Life's Journey, lgwords
Angie Briggs, Doodles 5, Family
Raspberry Road, Endless Ephermera, Item30
Katie Pertiet, Stamped Moments, Photos
Katie Pertiet, Stitched Journaling Strips 3
Amy Martin, StandUp207, PaintStrokes4
VT Portable Remington and 28 days later fonts

I'm really excited today to see that Adobe has announced the new version of Photoshop Elements 7 which will be released at the end of September.  While it doesn't have a ton of new features, it includes:

Photoshop Elements 7
- an Actions player (available on the Guided Edit tab)
- a blur filter designed to smooth skin
- a scenecleaner function to element unwanted elements from your photo
- a text search in the organizer
- a brightness control for the grey interface (to make it easier to see)
- a smart brush tool which allows you to select an area, apply a mask and adjustment layer, all in one step

and with the Photoshop.com membership version ($40 more)
- new integration with Photoshop.com (previously Photoshop Express) an online editing and sharing site

You can read more or pre-order an upgrade copy (with free shipping to Canada) at the Photoshop Elements for Windows web site.

C got back from the Ear Nose Throat specialist today.  The good news is that he only has a swollen epiglottis (the flap of tissue that stops your food going down the wrong way into your windpipe).  He will not require any biopsy unless the PET scan shows otherwise.  Now we just sit and wait for the PET scan (in Vancouver) to be scheduled.