Category: Photography

DFW Metroplex, Photo Organization, Photo Organization Coach, Photography, Scrapbooking

Picture Perfect Prints

Jane Sadek

MEMORY KEEPING 101 – GET YOUR PRINTS WITH ME

I Remember the Good Old Days, Too

Remember when getting your printed photos was fun. You took pictures with a camera, not your phone. You used film, not an SD card. You couldn’t look at or share the photo until the film was developed. You’d gather up all your rolls of film and take them to the drug store to get printed. They took your photos and sent them to a lab and a few days later, you could have your photos. Seeing what you shot was like reliving your vacation or event. You even loved the bad photos.

Photo printing became big business and getting your photos back fast became the gold standard. Eventually, we all expected to get photos back in an hour, but instead of a technician in a lab developing your photos, you had some high school kid running the film through a machine that may or may not have been properly maintained, so those pictures might or might not be worth the paper they were printed on.

Along Came Digital

In my opinion, digital cameras were not an improvement. Suddenly, a whole new layer of challenges stood between me and my photographs. Yes, I know all about the improved photo quality and some people might like all that editing, but I liked dropping it off at the drug store and waiting a few day for the photos.

I’ve tried a lot of things since the advent of digital photography – printing the photos myself, taking a disc to the drug store or big box store and I’ve used SO many of the online photo printing services that I could not start to name them all.

An Education in Exploitation

Then a couple of years ago I discovered Forever and it has totally changed my outlook on the whole process, from where I store my images to where I get them printed and why. Have you ever wondered why so many places are so eager to print your photos and why they are willing to do it for such a cheap price? Try reading one of those terms and agreements that pop up as you fill in the blanks on your order. That would be an eye-opening experience.

Basically, when you download your photos to Shutterfly, Snapfish, MixBook, Costco, Walgreens – you name it, you sign an agreement which transfers the rights to your photos to that company. In turn, they do print photos for you on the cheap, but in return, they’ll use those photos for all kinds of things you never dream your photos would be subjected to. We’ve all heard horror stories about people seeing the photos they post on Facebook ending up in an ad campaign or on the dark web or other equally bad scenarios. The same thing happens when you upload your photos for printing.

And print quality? Once I spent a day editing a set of gorgeous vacation photos. I sent them off to Snapfish and eagerly awaited their delivery. The images I sent were sharp, crisp and beautiful. The images I got back were hazy. I’d been in the photography business long enough at that point to know something had happened to my images since I edited them and I was right. The company compressed all the photos before printing, because they could only handle up to a certain resolution. Sure it was all there in the terms and agreements, but who reads those.

So Now I Know

Then I found Forever. Instead of loading my photos onto a commercial site where who know what would happen to them, I load them into my very own online storage that I own. Nobody will ever mine my photos for advertising, sell them for stock photmpress them. When I want to print, I just choose the photos I want out of my account and order whatever size photo I want.

And here’s a tip. You know those letters and numbers on the back of some photos. Ever wonder who makes those up? Ever try to read them and decide what they mean. You can actually control what that says with Forever. That’s a big help.

Another Choice

So, you may be thinking to yourself, but I don’t WANT to store my photos on Forever. I just want to print them! OK, fine! But I have another option. Don’t go to the big box stores of online photo processing. You can print your photos with Creative Memories. Amazing quality, no compression, and yes you can control the print on the back of the photos.

What’s more, you’ll get your images back in these cool little plastic boxes that keeps them all nice and neat until you use them in your scrapbook. Then they are great for storing embellishments. I love them!!

Have It Your Way

So, if you want safe, secure storage along with your very affordable and convenient photo printing. You want Forever. Here’s the link: https://www.forever.com/ambassador/jane-sadek/autoprint/photo-prints

If you just want to upload your images and get them back in nice little plastic boxes, also very conveniently and affordable, then here’s your link: https://www.creativememories.com/photo-prints.html

When you are considering how you are going to handle your memory keeping, please consider me. I have all the answers you will ever need and sometime I have more than one way to do what you want. Come back next and let’s do some more memory keeping together.

DFW Metroplex, Restaurants & Bars, Scrapbooking, Shopping

The Weekend Report

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL HERE – ODDS & ENDS

Shopping Saturday

My Saturday highlight was FOREVER’s Pet Milestones Online Event, but I started my day at the scrapbooking table. I’m working on a personal album, because I will have a client’s album to start soon, and I want to be caught up with my own stuff. Over the weekend I got up to October 2022, so I only have a few more pages to go.

My bestie is a Memory Keeper, too, so she joined me to watch the Milestones program. She doesn’t do it as a business, but she is her family’s historian and has been working with me on albums for years. However, I think she’s about to abandon the traditional scrapbooking route and embrace the digital side of things, because her sons have no interest in her carefully created scrapbooks, but they dig digital.

She enjoyed the Pets focus of the presentation, because even though she’s inherited all her family’s media and memorabilia, her phone is full of cat photos and videos. A number of the segments were devoted to auto print projects and we were both fascinated with how quickly they could be print ready. I still enjoy the creative process, but for those who just want to get it done, Auto Print is auto-amazing!

After the hour long program it was time for lunch. We decided to try the new seafood restaurant around the corner. The Anchor is a casual restaurant and bar. There’s a patio, but it was a bit brisk for that on Saturday, and there’s a bar, but we were there to eat.

You go to the counter to order, get a number to display on your table and then they deliver the food to you. I opted for a shrimp basket and margarita. The food is affordable, but the drinks are a little pricey in my opinion. I guess one makes up for the other. However, both food and drinks were great.

I’m sure they will do fine on that busy corner, but I found the layout a little disappointing. The primary view is the business end of the restaurant, including a peek into the double door leading into the kitchen and the utility sink. Very utilitarian and it certainly embraced the industrial décor vibe, but I’d rather not look at it.

Then it was time to go shopping. I still had birthday coupons burning a hole in my pocket, so we went to Firewheel, where I could use them all. First stop, DSW! I walked out of the store with a new pair of shoes for all of $10. Then on to Kirkland’s, where I scored a 20% off deal on the cute rabbit in the meme above. Next stop was Chico’s and they had a valentine-themed top on the clearance rack. I hadn’t had any valentine-themed clothes for awhile and decided I’d get it for next year. I only had to contribute a few dollars to go along with my coupon. Last coupon stop was White House|Black Market. My coupon would have almost covered a cute pair of earrings, but I opted for a gorgeous bracelet which would take a few more dollars out of my pocket, but guess what! I had earned enough in their loyalty program over the years to pay the balance! Score!!

You work up a thirst when you’re coupon shopping! Or maybe it was the fried shrimp? Anyway, we went to Sonic to grab a soda and the server overheard us talking about my birthday coupons and gave me a large drink for 99 cents. Another score! Then we made our way to the plaza to enjoy the fountain (and a little people watching!) Then it was time to go home.

Lazy Sunday

Sunday was a quiet day. We visited Lutheran church and marked it off the list, which was too bad, since it is so close to home, but it didn’t meet any of our criteria, except perhaps for the decoration of their sanctuary, but that wasn’t enough to get us back.

We had a few stops to make before we went home. Deb and I had visited Tuesday Morning on the way home from Firewheel and I saw a few things I thought Bill might like. I was right and we did buy a Cuisinart frying pan, to replace the scratched up thing we needed to replace, a table cloth and Bill found a treat he wanted to try. Next was Costco for beverages and Bill found a few other things he wanted to try. Then we enjoyed some of our favorite fast food, Cane’s!

At home, Bill retired to the sofa for a little nap and I hit the scrapbooking table. And then the weekend was over.

The upcoming weekend I will be going to a dance competition with my bestie. She’s going to dance and I’m going to be her dresser and moral support. Come back next week for a report on the world of competitive dance, after traveling to NYC and enjoying some memory-keeping.

DFW Metroplex, Photo Organization, Photo Organization Coach, Photography, Scrapbooking

Taking Video to the Next Level

Jane Sadek

MEMORY KEEPING 101 – VIDEOSTREAMING FOR THE SHARE!

Don’t Be a Captive!

There’s a reason we all love YouTube and Facebook, but there are also a lot of reasons we all hate it. If you love video, then I don’t need to enumerate either set of reasons. Perhaps you’ve enjoyed both watching and sharing on these channels. If you’ve ever wished you had more control over the videos you post, then I have an answer for you. If you don’t know the pitfalls and challenges of using these channels, we should talk.

The primary problem with using YouTube, Facebook or any other streaming service for your personal videos is that once you upload them to the channel, those videos belong to them, not you. They have no duty to you. They are doing you the favor of making your videos available to others and they are in control. They can reformat, compress or delete them. Your agreement with them says so. It also says they can data mine them, sell them or whatever they want.

You might have thought you had no choice. You had to be a captive of these services or keep your videos captive on your own device. Forever offers you a choice.

Store Your Videos on Forever

Last week I talked about digitizing videos to which you may have lost access. I touched on the fact that storing these videos on Forever would be a good idea, because DVD’s and thumb drives are not permanent storage devices. Neither is your computer or an external hard drive. I know! Before I discovered Forever I lost an entire year’s worth of real estate photography which was stored on an external hard drive. And your phone is certainly not the right place for these precious memories. We all know the horror stories associated with losing or damaging your phone.

Another answer is to rent space on a cloud – those services like iCloud, Google or Dropbox – but that’s not a good answer either, for so many reasons. If you follow my blog, then you don’t need to be reminded of all the dangers of renting storage, but in case you have missed it, when you use these services, the terms you agreed to allow them to:

  • Mine your photos and videos for marketing purposes
  • Sell your photos and videos to third parties as stock
  • Carry no responsibility if your photos and video disappear
  • Compress and/or reformat your photos and videos
  • Terminate your account when you die
  • Delete your photos and videos whenever they so desired
  • Own your photos and videos
  • Delete your account if you pay

With Forever YOU own your storage. You’re not just renting it. None of those things listed will happen to you. You pay once, you’re done and your photos and videos can be enjoyed for generations to come. Forever guarantees it.

Download or Stream?

It’s easy to share photos and video with Forever, but when what you are sharing is video, which is ok. Your recipient will just have to download the video to watch it. Or you can get video streaming. Then when you share, they just click the arrow. They will love you for it!

If you are an avid fan of video, then you know the value of your precious memories and you can appreciate the convenience of a personal video streaming service. Imagine sending video to your family and friends without forcing them to watch ads! Yes, that would be nice.

I’m not going to sugar coat it, though. There’s a price for streaming, but there’s always a price, even if it is not dollars and cents. The list above is one price. Forcing people to watch ads might be the price. Or paying every month for the rest of your life might be another price.

With Forever, you can chose to pay monthly if you want. The price is the same as you’d pay for similar services, but without being subject to the list of issues I outlined above and a few others we can talk about. This is great if you just want to try out video streaming.

You can also pay by the year and save 15% over the monthly plan – which is great. Perhaps if you’ve had a special event like a wedding or the birth of a child and you want others to easily enjoy and share the videos for a while, this would be the plan which would interest you.

However, with Forever, you also have the option of buying video streaming that will last as long as your Forever account. This means those who enjoy your videos on Forever would never have to download. They could always watch the videos right in account. You can pay for it in a lump sum or pay it out over a year. Then video streaming would belong to you always.

The retail price for this generational legacy is $1600, but with deals and The Club, you never have to pay full price. If this is the right choice for you, then I can show you how to get the best price.

Many of Forever’s customers buy their storage and video streaming as a family. They all use the account for sharing photos, videos, documents and more. It’s an investment for everyone that will be enjoyed by the family members of the future, without those future family members having to pay for it into perpetuity – and some storage solutions won’t even allow you to pass down accounts, even if they were willing to pay for it!

Everything Works Together

The real beauty of Forever is that everything works together. The reason this company even exists is because the founder got frustrated when he found out he needed several different kinds of accounts to do his memory keeping. He had to send his photos one place for digitization, store them in another and make photo books someplace else – and the compatibility of the various accounts was in no wise seamless.

With Forever, you store and share all your media in the same place and all the tools you need are right there. For instance, you could make a digital photobook and include video by adding a QR code. Or maybe a calendar with a QR code that allows a grandmother to hear her sweet grandkids saying hello, anytime she wants. When you’re using Forever, the possibilities are endless.

Video streaming may not be a service you need at all, but if you’re into video, then you should at least think about the benefits you could enjoy. Come back next week and we’ll talk photo printing. I have two choices to offer and they are both great!

ART, Attractions, DFW Metroplex, Museums, Photography, Restaurants & Bars, Road Trips, Scrapbooking, Shopping

The Weekend Report

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL HERE: CELEBRATING ME!

Get ready for a wild ride! It’s my birthday weekend!

Sear Steakhouse

My favorite restaurant in Dallas is Javier’s, has been forever and it was my top choice for celebrating my birthday, this year and every year, but on Tuesday the earliest reservation possible on Friday night was 9:00. That wasn’t going to roll.

Bestie suggested the new Sear Steakhouse here in Rockwall and I was really glad, because I have been wanting to visit. I just can’t think past Javier’s on my birthday. We made reservations for hubby, bestie and me at 7:30. Here’s how it went.

Let me say first the food is AMAZING. I loved every bite and so did everyone else at our table. I started out with Lobster Bisque to die for, moved on the the perfect porkchop and topped it off with creamed corn better than my mother used to make. Bill stuck with a Wedge Salad and Deb did have a steak.

Let me also say the service was impeccable. Brandon guided us through a wonderful meal and fielded every complaint with grace. Complaint? Yes, there were a few.

The décor has a cool, hip edge we really enjoyed and the chairs were even comfortable, something some restaurants seem to think is no longer necessary. So what’s the beef? Sometimes, the closer something is to perfection, the more the flaws stick out.

The first jarring detail was the fake red rose in the cheap vase on the table. Had there been no floral offering, we wouldn’t even have noticed. Even the cheap vase would have been alright. What wasn’t right was the cheap fake rose. Any fake flower would have been a disappointment, but this was one of those tightly rolled numbers Amazon offers in bunches of 24 for $12.99. It didn’t even pretend like it wanted to look like a rose. It just looked fake. Don’t want to pay for real roses? I get it. Carnations and lilies are nice. In fact, a more convincing fake carnation would have been passable. What they chose was awful.

So in a critical mood we looked around at the fake roses on all the tables and that’s when we noticed the big bouquet of fake tulips. I will admit these were a better quality silk flower than the rose, but they still looked fake. If they hadn’t been there, we would have had a better view of the lovely fireplace they must have spent a fortune on. And that’s my point. In this case, less is more. Give the fake flowers and cheap vases to a nursing home or something. Just don’t leave them in the restaurant to spoil what is otherwise a very delightful décor vibe.

Other complaints? Seven dollars for sauces. A good steak doesn’t need a sauce, but if you are going to offer sauces with your steaks, just add it to the price of the entrée or if you have to charge something (I looked at other steakhouses, like Lawry’s, and they do have an upcharge, but it’s $4, not $7). My creamed corn was $7. Why would a sauce be that price? We wondered if it was the size, but the corn was a generous serving and when our server showed us the size of the sauce plate, it was about the size of half a business card.

Bread was the final faux pas. They had bread and it was good, but we didn’t get any until we were almost to the main course. As we sat, enjoying our drinks, we asked if they had bread. The answer was yes and he’d bring it as soon as it was ready. We asked for it again when the appetizers were served. Then I got down right ornery about it when they started trying to remove my soup bowl. At that point it was a matter of principle. We had a reservation at 7:30 on a Friday night. If a restaurant is going to have hot bread, that seems the right time to put it on the table. When the bread finally arrived, I scooped of the last vestiges of the best lobster bisque I ever had and then I let them take my soup bowl.

We did have dessert. We shared some carrot cake and it was really good, but it wasn’t chocolate. They had chocolate bread pudding, but I don’t like bread pudding, and they had a flourless chocolate cake, but it was about as generous as the sauce servings and I wanted to share. The carrot cake slice was so big, we actually had enough to take some home, but I forgot the box on the table.

Thanks to Sarah Head of Sarah K Photography! Great photo of us!

Super Sized Saturday

My birthday weekend was only beginning. I had a very busy Saturday. It started with some early morning scrapbooking and coffee with Mr. Bill in the sunroom. Then Deb and I headed across town. First stop was Sam Moon’s. Deb has a dance competition in a couple of weeks and nothing in her jewelry collection did justice to her Latin dress, which has flames sewn around the skirt. She also wanted brightly colors long gloves to go with her shimmery grey smooth dress. We found both and I managed to get out of there without buying anything. Sure I wanted to buy the very big white Easter hat which looked lovely on me, but Easter Sunday is not what it used to be. I’d need to have tickets to the Kentucky Derby or Ascot to justify it.

Next up was the Dallas Contemporary where her son Gino is the Director of Development. They were having an art book fair for the Dallas Library and Gino had a table selling some of his zines and such, with his girlfriend, who is also an artist.

Along with buying a surprise envelope from Gino’s old fashioned vending machine, we walked about the other tables, lingering at the Deep Vellum Bookstore offerings, where Deb showed me a t-shirt Gino had designed. When the girl behind the table started trying to tell us how talented the artist was, Deb said, “I’m his mom.” The girl got all flustered and excited like Deb was a celebrity.

The envelope is Gino’s work, the yellow lady was by another artist at the fair. I would have paid a quarter to get the envelope. I am a big fan of Gino’s work. I’m also a big fan of Shepard Fairey who is currently on exhibition is the galleries. Mr. Fairey’s beautiful and interesting work will be on display through late July and you should go see it. Those are his murals on the collage at the top.

So, for lunch, we stayed in the Design District and ate at El Bolero. Now, this is a restaurant I can recommend with vigor. Is it perfect? No, but they also aren’t claiming to be Rockwall’s “local high end steakhouse” either. It’s just a funky Design District Mexican restaurant with great food and a really enjoyable patio. I had something called the Texas Peach Margarita. That’s reason enough to visit, right there. OMG good!! But then we shared the Nachos de Tejas and they are worth a visit, too. Just go, you’ll love it. We finished off the meal by sharing a Snickerdoodle Bundtlet from Nothing But Bundt Cakes, who had sent me a birthday coupon.

But my Super Saturday is not over! Then I left Deb at a dance lesson and picked up hubby for bowling. I don’t bowl. I hate bowling, but I love my Dots. Polka Dot Powerhouse is an international networking group for women. I belong to the Plano/North Dallas Chapter and I’ve got to tell you, it’s the bomb! Is there great business networking? Of course, take Sarah Head of Sarah K Photography. She and I connected, because Spot On Images does not do head shots and she doesn’t do real estate photography. Our meeting was just a couple of weeks ago and we’re already sharing leads.

However, what’s more important is that Sarah is a new friend. We don’t just see each other at lunch meetings, we also go bowling and we’re both looking forward to the pool party in July. And the same is true for a wonderful group of women I have met since November and have already begun to call friends. Want to visit? I’d love to host you one lunch or dinner meeting. You’ll be hooked!

Slow Down Sunday

After such a busy weekend, we were ready for a quiet Sunday. We visited another church. It was Church of Christ. While it was a good sermon and there were nice friendly people, the acapella music and the uber-plain sanctuary did not fit the model church in our head. We were going to try Lakepointe’s Classic Service, but it’s an 8 AM service. The goal is to get Bill to go with me more frequently and he was never going to attend at 8 AM. So, the search continues. We’re going Lutheran next week. Trying to find a mix that fits a born Baptist and a raised Coptic pair is not easy.

After church, a quick trip to In & Out, because we had a coupon. Because it was a coupon kind of day, we decided to visit a few of the stores who offered me birthday coupons. We picked up some stuff for the house at Target and At Home, but I saved the DSW, Chico’s and WHBM for shopping with my bestie. Mr. Bill was on the sofa for his nap by 3 PM. I read a little bit and started organizing photos for next album, but ended up just playing my favorite game on my phone.

And that’s it! Come and visit me next week when we’ll enjoy a little more Travel Talk about NYC and some Memory Keeping 101, before the next Weekend Report.

DFW Metroplex, Photo Organization, Photo Organization Coach, Photography

Accessing & Preserving Your Video History

Jane Sadek

MEMORY KEEPING 101 – OFF THE SHELF AND INTO YOUR LIFE

Reclaim Your Video Memories

From old reel-to-reel home videos to moments recorded on phones, video memories have been a part of our media landscape for a long time. My family never went down the movie path, so my personal experience with them is limited. However, I have a lot of customers whose memories are more video than photograph. Forever can handle that, too.

What I usually hear first from video clients is they have a stack of tapes/reels somewhere and they don’t even have the equipment to watch them. I have both good and bad news to deliver at this point. The good news is, Forever CAN convert those tapes/reels to digital. The bad news is, there is no watching service to give you a report on what the video contains before the conversion. It is during conversion the subject matter becomes knowable.

So, whether your tapes/reels have riveting moments of well-shot action or hours and hours of poorly shot videography (which would cure insomnia), you get the good with the bad. The good news is this. Once the footage is digital, there are lots of great apps and software out there with which you can turn the yawners into jewels with just a little editing. So, while we all wish our parents, grandparents and spouses were better videographers, at least we can save the good parts for future generations.

What Does It Cost?

I’m not going to lie. Pricing digital conversions is tricky. A small Forever box is regularly priced at $60 (but there’s always some kind of deal going on, so it will never be that much). That price includes the conversion of two “items” in Forever-speak. An item can be a VCR tape or a 50 ft reel (or 25 photo/slides for that matter, but we’re talking video today). If you put two VCR tapes or two 50 ft reels or one VCR tape and one 50 ft reel in the box, digitizing them will be covered. However, the boxes will hold more than two videos, and Forever encourages you to fill them in order to save shipping, but that’s where it gets confusing.

I go over this with everyone who ships in media to be converted, but often they are so excited about the project they don’t hear me. Then we have sticker shock and I hate that. While you can fill the box to the brim, whatever you put in there beyond the first two items cost extra at the regular price of $30 per item.

So, at regular price, if you had 5 tapes/reels. You’d pay $60 for the box, $90 for the extras and then shipping and taxes would be added to that. That’s $150 to reclaim your memories (at regular price) and that’s a pretty good deal – a lot better deal than storing tapes/reels you can’t watch.

Now, the more tapes/reels you have the larger that number gets. If you’re currently storing boxes and boxes of these things, then we need to get together an discuss strategies. We can watch together for the best specials on conversion. Perhaps you have family members who would share the cost with you. You could join Forever as an Ambassador for a year and enjoy that discount on your conversions. And there’s always The Forever Club to help you budget your memory keeping expenses.

Special Considerations

Certain types of media come with certain restrictions. For instance, let’s say you sent in what you thought was your wedding tape and it was all I Love Lucy reruns. It’s always best if you have some idea what’s on your media and if you don’t, please understand our technicians need to be paid for the time they spend on your material, even if it’s not what you thought it would be.

There is nothing Forever can do about the missing wedding footage and they are not allowed to reproduce copies of copyrighted material, so you’d have a conversion mess. At least if it were blank, you could get back 50% of your money, but to pay for finding out you didn’t have the wedding tape you thought you did, that would be a really bad day. Thankfully, we don’t run into many bad days.

While it might be obvious I Love Lucy or Batman Returns are copyrighted, there are other things that might not be as obvious. Take wedding videos by a professional videographer or game clips from your child’s team or video you bought at a dance competition or swim meet. Because you paid for these tapes, you might think that you own the rights to them, but in most cases you do not. Technically, you are supposed to return to the videographer who created the original.

While this is technically true, in many cases, it could be virtually impossible to find the videographer and honor the copyright. So, if you are only digitizing the copyrighted media for your personal use, then you can sign a waiver releasing Forever from any responsibility, should you be sued for improperly use of the footage. I’m warning you though, don’t turn around and use it in a “for profit” project or you could end up in the middle of a very serious law suit.

Just, in case you are wondering, if you have documents like birth, death and wedding certificates, or census and deed records or any publicly available documents, those are not copyrighted. Digitize away!

What If There’s Something Wrong with the Video?

Forever will do the very best it can to digitize whatever video you turn over to them – even if it is broken or damaged. I’ve heard many heartwarming stories about people who doubted Forever would even be able to digitize a single frame of a tape. They thought if they could get back anything they’d be lucky. To their amazement they got back a digitized copy and they couldn’t even tell there had been any damage on the original. Forever cannot guarantee you’ll get back something that looks better than the original, but that could actually be the case in many situations.

So, How Exactly Does it Work?

Well, first choose the box you think will best fit the media items you want digitized, then let’s talk so I can be sure you’ve taken advantage of all the discounts available. You pay for your box, shipping and the covered items up front. You can also choose to get thumb drives or DVD’s if you like, but we should talk about Forever storage and streaming. Soon your box will be delivered.

Materials for packing your box, packing instructions, a worksheet and your shipping label will be inside. Follow the instructions and fill up your box. I’ll be happy to help you with this step. The worksheet will show you what’s included with the purchase of the box and give you an estimate of the amount you will need to pay for extra items. Put the paperwork in with your media and put the shipping label on the outside. The let Fed Ex know there is a pick-up or just drop it off at a box or office. You can keep an eye on the Forever Box Center to know what’s going on.

When Forever gets the box, they audit the worksheet and the items you have packed, to make sure they are correct. Then they’ll start digitizing. It’s all done right here in the good old US of A and lovingly handled by gloved humans, rather than machines. The difference is noticeable take a look at the “A step above the rest” section, on the lower part of this page to see why Forever is better: https://www.forever.com/ambassador/jane-sadek/digital-conversion

When you items are digitized, Forever will notify you that your videos are in your box center. The images will stay in your Box Center for 60 days, giving you time to add them to your Forever account, download them to your computer or whatever. They’ll also ship your stuff back, along with any DVD’s or thumb drives you’ve ordered.

And that’s it. I, of course, would love to discuss the benefits of storing these precious memories on your own Forever account. DVD’s and thumb drives are not permanent storage devices. Someday folks will look at them the way you would look at a 78 rpm vinyl record – if you do have a device to play it on, chances are it won’t sound the way you though it would.

One of the best reasons to choose Forever as your online storage provider is their video streaming service. We’ll talk about that next Thursday.

ART, DFW Metroplex, Museums, Photo Organization, Photo Organization Coach, Photography, Restaurants & Bars, Scrapbooking, Shopping

The Weekend Report

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL HERE: FAVORITE PEOPLE, PLACES & THINGS

Friday Favorites

On Friday night I met some of my favorite people at a place which is destined to become one of my favorites, Rosini Vineyards. Friday night usually finds me safely tucked away at home, but this week I was invited to join a group of girls from my real estate world at Rosini’s, a couple of our favorite agents and some folks from the lending and title world. Names and stories will be forever a secret, but I can tell you about Rosini’s.

I have no idea why I haven’t been there before. I have been invited to several occasions hosted there, but I’ve always had more demanding things on my schedule. I added it to my list of things I wanted to do, but hadn’t gotten there, yet. Now I want to go every Friday. The thing is, the space is small and you need to make reservations and making reservations is one of my challenges. Hubby likes spontaneity and doing things by the seat of our pants. In his defense, when we do make plans ahead, something usually comes up and we’re scrambling to get to whatever plans we made.

Do plan on making a visit, however. Get out your phone and make a reservation, because it is so worth it. The ambiance is great, the food is good and so is the wine. They had a musician entertaining and he was smart enough to play in the background so there was good (and hysterical) conversation around the table.

I ordered a Charcuterie Board for us and it was both lovely and tasty. Most of my friends were sharing bottles, but I wanted to taste more than one wine. They don’t show it on the menu, but they also offer tastings. I’d hoped to be served a flight, but instead you have to keep going back to the bar to get the next taste. I didn’t buy up cases of anything to take home, but most of the selections I tried were quite nice.

Favorite Things on Saturday

I woke up early on Saturday (big surprise, right) and hit the scrapbooking studio (another big surprise). I’m doing my travel album for 2022 and the best news there is that there was travel. Covid kept us close to home. We weren’t afraid of the disease. We just didn’t want the hassle or the travel photos with of masks. I’d finished up New York and set out on our Club Med Sandpiper Bay trip and before the weekend was over, I had worked my way to St. Louis for Joyce Meyer.

But that was just the tip of my Memory Keeping iceberg. FOREVER was having their Family History Online Event. I wanted to watch it live, because if I didn’t, where else was I going to find three hours in my schedule. Some friends and customers were planning to come join me, but a variety of things got in the way. Still I hooked my laptop up to the TV and settled down for a wave of ideas.

There was a lot of good information there, but most of it really wasn’t applicable to my own memory keeping journey. I’m not a genealogy enthusiast, I no longer have an older generation to video and I haven’t quite embraced video as my own media. I get it. FOREVER’S Family Research Services are amazing and video freaks need their own streaming service. I’m not those people. At least not yet.

However, there was more. They walked through the digitization process and the advantages of their storage. They also dug deep into the Auto Print products, which are amazing, but just not in my thing. What I did walk away with was a new appreciation for QR codes. I’m always challenged by which photos and words to put on a Christmas Card. With QR codes, I can not only put a QR code which will lead to an entire file of photos (or a video), but I can actually add an audio file which would allow me to say what I wanted to say without having to fit all the words on the card. Watch this space later this year and see if I do it!

My ever faithful bestie did come by after her dance lesson for the final sessions of the Family History Online event and we shared a pizza. The information relit her desire for memory keeping which is the whole purpose of the event in the first place. It would be hard to get my fire to burn any brighter.

Amazing Sunday

Sunday was an orgy of things I love to do. It started with Bill and I visiting my next door neighbor’s church. She is very active at First United Methodist Heath. While attending church is one of my favorite things, church shopping is not, but that’s what we’re doing now – again.

FUMAH is a happening place. I thought their photo-focused Lenten activities were genius and they have an active Women’s Group. There were several other things I really liked about it, but it’s not exactly the right fit for me. It’s a little on the liturgical side of things and the sermon was expository and topical, rather than exegesis. The music was lovely and they mix contemporary with traditional music, but they also broadcast the words on the wall without any music. I hate trying to follow some song I don’t know without being able to look at the music. I know this is the direction most churches are going, both in teaching style and music, but I’m looking for the unicorn.

From there we went for coffee and Bill wanted to try Dunkin Donuts. We both get tired of Starbucks, but Dunkin is not the answer. They don’t have a coffee fixing place. They just add the sugar and cream themselves, but not to Bill’s taste. The hot chocolate was a mix and they don’t have low fat or skim milk. However, the conversation was great and I did love my sausage and cheese kolache.

Next up was a visit to the Dallas Museum of Art and a stroll around Klyde Warren Park. We’d almost gone to the museum last Sunday, but had gotten distracted wandering around Deep Ellum and Uptown. Probably a good thing, because a new exhibition was opening and it might have been crowded.

I’m a member of the museum at the Ambassador level, but I’m not much of an Ambassador, because they’ve gone digital and I never know what’s going on. There was a time when my mailbox was full of all kinds of invitations and magazines from the museum. I loved it – but now everything comes to my email and email is just a lot of noise. They send me too much, so I just delete most of it and then when I want to know something, I have to go looking for it. If a subject line does catch my eye, then I have to print it out and it’s going to be in black and while and then it’s going to get lost on my desk, because it looks like everything else. So, the DMA & I aren’t really friends anymore.

Anyway, I did go and for some reason, they wanted to scan my membership card when I came in. I wonder what they scan if you aren’t a member. Then I had to go stand in line to get my tickets to the new exhibition. That is one good benefit of membership. I can take several people a day to the museum and get them into the exhibition free. You should call me and I’ll take you to this new exhibit, it’s gorgeous.

The name of the exhibit is Saints, Sinners, Lovers, and Fools: 300 Years of Flemish Masterworks. While I loved the art, I thought the first half title was hyperbolic. There are images related to all those nouns in the exhibit, but it is Flemish Masterworks, so there is no scandal. To my disappointment, the information on the wall is fairly sketchy and they have no audio tour or QR codes for more information. So, if you are not a fan of classical artworks, you’re going to have a hard time connecting the title to the artwork. You’ll be strolling through quickly and heading somewhere else.

However, if, like me, you love to see gorgeous figurative art from the past, you’re gonna love this one. Breathtaking altarpieces, intriguing portraits and even some vanitas. We went through it, double back to see it again and then enjoyed the third view also. After a quick stop in the gift shop we headed out to the park.

It seems there have been changes every time I go – probably because I don’t visit it often enough, but they’ve actually added new fountains at one end and upgraded the playground at the other. There are still lots of food trucks, but the restaurant is now Mi Cocina. Our visit was leisurely, but we didn’t really linger very much, because NorthPark was up next.

I love NorthPark. I wish I had a life that allowed me to go every day. I want to shop all the stores, look at all the plants and art and eat at all the places. Bill never wants to go, because it’s impossible to find a parking spot, but this time was different. They have reserved parking for low-e and hybrid cars. Bill has a hybrid. We parked next to a handicapped space and were right in front of an entrance.

I had a birthday gift card to spend and I wanted to go to Pandora. I upgraded my basic bracelet, because the arthritis in my thumbs just didn’t like the one I had. Now, I can get it off and on easy peasy. It will get a lot more wear. Their new thing is rose gold, but thank you, I’ll stick with my silver.

We enjoyed our stroll through NorthPark, especially the kid’s art they had on display in front of Macy’s, but I was dismayed to discover few things are where they used to be. It’s a big game of fruit basket turnover and while I didn’t recognize many of the new players, I fear some of my favorites my be out of the game, because something called Blue Nile is going up in the Brighton spot and I can’t find Brighton on the directory.

I came home from NorthPark very happy with my weekend. Next week we’ll have more New York, more Memory Keeping and another Weekend Report. Please come back to see me!!

DFW Metroplex, Photo Organization, Photo Organization Coach, Photography, Scrapbooking

Digital Scrapbooking with Creative Memories

Jane Sadek

MEMORY KEEPING 101 – A TOTALLY DIFFERENT DIGITAL

There’s more than one way to skin a cat. We’re not talking animal cruelty here, I’m referring to the old saw which pointed out most jobs have more than one way to go about them. You say po-TAY-to and I say po-TAH-to. Same veggie, different pronunciations.

Well, Creative Memories has their own interpretation of digital scrapbooking and it’s not a photobook at all. It really is a scrapbook. The coverset is the same coverset you’d use for their traditional albums, but instead of a solid bookcloth or one with decoration embossed on it, your album can have your own photos on it, just like a photobook.

The Best of Both Worlds

My scrapbooking hit a bump in the road when digital came along, because Creative Memories hit a bump in the road. At the time, it just looked as if management was abandoning the traditional scrapbookers who had made them the premiere memory keeping company in the world, but it turned out they had abandoned a whole lot of stuff. We’ll just leave it at that. They went bankrupt and have been totally reorganized and refocused, but those were rough days in the scrapbooking world.

At the time, it seemed as if you had to stay on the traditional scrapbooking road or take the exit to digital everything. There were no solutions which embraced both formats.

I wasn’t ready for digital back then, so I stayed with traditional scrapbooking, but there was no good source for traditional scrapbooking supplies (except the huge stash of CM supplies I had bought up to meet the quarterly quota, which thank goodness is no longer a thing!) I eventually found another scrapbooking supplier which had the same style pages and coverset as CM, so that period of photographic unrest is not apparent on my scrapbook shelves.

Then CM returned and it felt like coming home. At first, I still wasn’t ready for digital, but these days I heartily embrace the CM solution for both traditional and digital scrapbookers. At first glance it looks like a traditional scrapbook. The construction of the coverset and the format of the pages is the same as the CM traditional album, but a closer look reveals the personal images printed on the coverset, just like they are on a photobook.

But wait there’s more! You can create a digital coverset for your traditional album if you want to stick with traditional pages, but want a personalized coverset. Or you can select a beautiful traditional coverset for your project, but all of your pages can be designed and printed digitally. And you have to know where I’m going now. No matter which coverset you choose, your pages can be both traditional and digital. The point is, you don’t have to choose.

Making It Work for You

Now, if you are a scrapbooker yourself, then your mind is exploding with possibilites. If you’re not a scrapbooker, then let me tell you why this is such a good idea. The photos and memorabilia for a Baby Boomer are going to be primarily analog. Generation Z is going to be totally digital. Generation X-er’s are going the start out analog and melt into digital, while Millenials might have anything.

I do custom albums for all generations. Baby Boomers and Millenials are easy. Baby Boomers generally want a traditional album, because that’s a more straightforward way to address their photo mess – even if they turn around and have the album pages digitized, it’s just simpler to work with what they have. Millennials go for online albums, because that’s how their brain works and they don’t want to kill trees.

With Generation X and Millennials, what they have in the way of photographs and memorabilia depends a lot on which direction their parents leaned. If like me, their parents had a hard time letting go of their analog camera and printed photos from the drug store, then the record of their lives, at least at the beginning, will be analog. Then there will be a period where some items are digital, but others are still analog. If their parents instead embraced the digital age from the very beginning, then they generally go the route of the Millenials, but they might print a photobook for their parents. (And that’s what Forever’s for!)

Since Gen X’ers and Millennials have both traditional and digital items, they might feel it would be necessary to make a choice, between scrapbooks and photobooks, but they don’t. It’s not necessary to digitize all the analog stuff to go in a photobook or print all the digital items, so for a traditional scrapbook. With CM digital, you can have a traditional scrapbook with both traditional pages for analog and printed pages for digital. Some people even get their digital items printed and add traditional photos or decoration to the printed page. There are no rules!! Only solutions and I can bring you all of them.

What Do You Have and What Do You Want?

I started the Memory Keeping 101 series the same way I begin my conversations with a custom scrapbook client. What do you have and what do you want? You answer may be that you have a little of everything and you’d like a solution to embrace both analog and digital. Well, here’s your solution. No matter what you have, CM has a scrapbooking system which will do either or both. Just give it all to me and let me at it. Or you can do it yourself. I’m here to help either way.

Come back tomorrow for The Weekend Report if you need suggestions for your weekend and on Wednesday, Travel Talk will be focused on NYC. On Thursday, we’ll be back to digital solutions from Forever.

ART, DFW Metroplex, Performing Arts, Photography, Real Estate Photography, Restaurants & Bars, Scrapbooking

The Weekend Report

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL HERE: GADABOUTING

Eat, Shower and a Show

After a hard week in the networking trenches, I decided to give myself a morning off. The first thing I did, bright and early, was to hit the scrapbooking table. Recently, most of my memory keeping business has been digital. I have some traditional albums on the books in March, but for now, I have the opportunity to work on my own albums – but I really can’t call it work.

The current album is my 2022 Travel Album and I’m putting together the pages for my NYC trip, which you’re reading about on my Wednesday Travel There posts. Have you ever been having so much fun that you forget to take pictures? Raising my hand as the guilty party. What was one of the best trips of my life will have less pages than some day trips I’ve been on. I got in a couple of hours, but then the phone intruded and I had a shower gift to wrap. After having coffee hour with Mr. Bill, I got ready for the day.

First up, lunch with bestie at Casa Mama. Deb loves their brisket and spinach quesadillas. I’m still looking for my dish. Because I just pointed at an item with Tex-Mex in the title I ended up with sour cream on my entree. Not what I wanted, but not their fault. It wasn’t like the frittata I had ordered once, drizzled with sour cream which wasn’t mention on the menu. So I ate the sour cream enchilada, begrudgingly and promised myself I wouldn’t order it next time, because as much as Deb loves those quesadillas there will be a next time.

Next stop, a baby shower for a soon-to-be mama from church. She’s a delight and it was a joy to see how happy she was with every gift which was offered. My hand-made card got more mileage than anything else I had for her, so I was grateful for my scrapbooking skills. After the shower, I had a little more time for my NYC album before we headed off to the theater.

As a Christmas Eve treat, Bill and I went to SIX at the Winspear. It was a great show and we didn’t fall off the balcony, but the ticket price and parking cost did take a bite out of our budget. Still we’d decided we wanted to see more live theater in 2023, so we bought tickets to a show at the Mesquite Arts Theatre (MAT) – Neil Simon’s Plaza Suite.

Now, MAT, is community theatre, so the actors and actresses are all amateurs, as are many of the tech folks. Hence our tickets were $18 a piece. Quite a reduction from the triple digit nosebleed seats at the Winspear. Of course, Plaza Suite is a much scaled down type of performance – no music and no fancy costumes, even when the pros are doing it.

The play was presented in the Mesquite Arts Center Black Box Theater. Other black box theaters have offered theater in the round, but this is just a ground level stage with tiers of seating and we sat on the front row. No complaints. We certainly got our $18 money’s worth. Some of the comic timing was a little off and the costumes look as if they came from the thrift store, but we were entertained.

The second act had a little faux pas that made it a little funnier. The characters were supposed to be getting sloppy drunk, but as the water/drinks sloshed all over the actors and the stage, it was apparent they’d gotten a little sloppier than they intended.

There was also a little costuming mishap in the third act. I’d noticed the strappy pumps on the actress didn’t fit very well and being a shoe freak, I was distracted by how she was handling her blocking with misfit shoes. Then it got worse, one of the straps broke. The blocking required her to fling herself from one end of the stage to the other with great drama and I anticipated her shoe tripping her up somewhere along the way. She stayed upright and the shoe stayed on. She has my undying admiration. I’d have had to find someway to kick those offending sandals off my feet or I’d have been glued to one spot.

All in all, it had been a great Saturday. I spent time with people I love and enjoyed some of my favorite activities. That’s what a weekend is about – even if you do have to field a few business calls and texts.

A Sunday Adventure

The first thing on Sunday is usually the same old thing – church. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, my pastor is leaving, so I am thinking about changing churches. Nothing against my old church, sometimes God just has some place else He wants you to be. I’d been feeling some restlessness before I found out the pastor was leaving, so it made sense to follow my instincts, especially since this church had never felt like home to my hubby.

So, this Sunday, unlike it has been for several years, Mr. Bill and I headed out to church. Bill and I come from very different religious backgrounds. He grew up in an orthodox liturgical church with all the incense and ritual. I grew up in no frills evangelical churches. It beats me how people from really diverse religious associations ever make it through marriage – say a Catholic and a Jew or a Muslim and a Baptist. We just have a difference in worship, not beliefs, and after 28 years we still haven’t gotten it all figured out.

We visited Christ Church, an Anglican Church almost around the corner from us. We’d belonged to another Anglican Church at one time, but Bill had gotten tired of the rector’s preaching style – a little too much on the personal sharing side for him. When he quit going, I did, too, because it was way off on the liturgical end of things for me to sit through by myself. It was one thing when he was with me, but by myself it was all stand-up-sit-down-fight-fight-fight. However, we thought there had been enough commonality there, that a different teaching style might make it work.

Long story short, we like Christ Church Rockwall (which happens to be in McLendon Chisholm). The sermon was really good. The music would do. It wasn’t all the chants I’d hated in the Episcopal Church, but it wasn’t traditional hymns either, which is what I like best. While it was contemporary worship music, it wasn’t the flavor that drives me mad – rock and roll music with hours of repetitious choruses focused on how wretched I am, instead of how wonderful God is. I’m also not big on hand-waving and thumping drum beats.

So, it stays on the list of potential churches. We’d have like to see more diversity in the congregation, but that’s not a deal killer. We are working on what our next target will be. He’s thinking Methodist, which I usually call ‘church light,’ but I’m keeping my mind open.

After church we went on one of out rambling adventures. First we tried Downtown Rockwall forcoffee, but Fire & Fable was closed and Book Club Cafe was too crowded. After coffee at yet another Starbuck’s (Don’t you get tired of Starbuck’s?), we headed towards the Dallas Museum of Art, but never made it. We hit a couple of Deep Ellum spots, thinking to get lunch, but the volume killed our appetite. (Does this mean we are old?)

Then we happened on Uptown, looking for sustenance. We stopped in West Village and took a stroll. We decided we were definitely old, because the trendy gluten-free, veggie heavy venues didn’t sound at all like what we wanted and Thai is just not a fave with us. Thank goodness for the Village Burger Bar. Home again, home a gain jiggedy jig, to follow up on calls we’d gotten during the day and I did a little more scrapbooking.

That’s it for the week. Next week, there will be more NYC, more Memory Keeping and another Weekend Report. Please come and keep me company on my adventures.

DFW Metroplex, Photo Organization, Photo Organization Coach, Photography, Scrapbooking

Digital Scrapbooking with Forever

Jane Sadek

MEMORY KEEPING 101 – Artisan, Scrapbooking, but Digital

Digital Photo Gifts and Photobooks

You know the names – Snapfish, Shutterfly, Mixbook, SmugMug, etc. etc. etc. You go there. You drop your photos into a template. Maybe you can edit some, maybe you can’t. You can make gifts with photos, like blankets, coffee mugs, calendars and ornaments. You can also make bound photobooks.

Ever try to contact their customer service? I have chatted online. Either you’re talking to someone with a name five miles long that you can’t pronounce or it’s a bot. Doesn’t matter. They can’t help you, because if it is a real problem they don’t have a script for it. So they elevate your problem and good luck with that. I’m still waiting for my email from my elevated customer service call concerning a Christmas Card order a few years ago.

Quit that!! You can do all of that and more on Forever. Highest quality images, best quality products, quick turnaround and amazing selection. Here’s the difference. Those other guys are the big box store. Forever is me. Now I’m not doing all the work, but you have me so you never have to chat with a bot. I have Forever, so whatever it is that you want to do with your photos, I can get it done.

Since the main focus of my business is custom scrapbooking, I don’t spend much time trying to transform Snapfish customers into Forever customers. In fact, if you’re already memory keeping, then good for you. That’s what I want. I’m happy to tell you why I believe Forever is a better way to go, and I would love for you to buy these services from me instead of them, but my real target is people who just have a mess and want me to fix it. I would love it, if next time you go to print photos or make a calendar/coffee mug/photobook/blanket, you gave Forever a try, but what I want most is for you to keep on memory keeping.

And Then There Was Artisan

I’ll be honest with you. I don’t do all that photo gifting stuff for my own purposes. Perhaps that’s because I don’t have kids, grandkids or pets, but I think the real reason is because I’m a scrapbooker. I want my photos and memorabilia in an album, not on my coffee mug.

Because I’m a scrapbooker, I’m used to starting with a blank page, so all those photobook templates frustrate the heck out of me – even Forever photobook templates. I tried. I really tried and I ran, not walked, back to my traditional scrapbooks.

Then I discovered Artisan! With Artisan I can start with a blank page. Oh, they have all the templates in the world, if you want them. In fact, the training videos assume you want to use templates and teach from that standpoint, so my learning curve was pretty steep. However, after a few sessions, I skipped to the part where they just told me what the various buttons did, without telling me how they worked with templates. I haven’t looked back.

I still prefer traditional scrapbooking. Perhaps you know my husband and I own a real estate photography company. I sit at a computer all day long managing photos – downloading, uploading, receiving and delivering. When my real estate photography day is over, I would prefer to move to the scrapbooking table and do things manually. Don’t get me wrong, I will do digital photobooks, for my clients, for gifts and occasionally just for myself, but it’s just not my first love.

If like me, you just want to keep doing traditional scrapbooks, then you should at least allow Forever to print your photos. Here’s why they are the best:

Taking It to the Next Level

If digital scrapbooking is your thing, then before I go, I should tell you about Pixels 2 Pages. It’s an online community of digital scrapbookers. These people are serious about it. They even have retreats where they get together with their computers, either virtually or in person, to scrapbook. You can try it out for free for a month.

Online communities are not my thing, but they might be yours. I have met some of these people in person and they speak a language I don’t even understand. I think it’s easy to learn, but again, I’m primarily a traditional scrapbooker. I’d rather talk about the latest Border Maker or Punch, but, as I said, that’s me. I just wanted you to know it was there if you wanted it.

That’s all for today! We’ll visit the Metroplex tomorrow and go to NYC on Wednesday, but on Thursday, we’ll get back to Memory Keeping 101.

ART, DFW Metroplex, Gardens, Restaurants & Bars, Scrapbooking, Shopping

The Weekend Report

Jane Sadek

TRAVEL HERE: NOT MUCH TO REPORT

Busy Saturday and Sunday, But Boring

It all started Friday morning when the photos arrived from the editors. I don’t want to go back there, but suffice to say, it did not go well and Saturday morning I was still chasing various shots. Granted, this sort of thing very rarely happens and everyone is granted the opportunity to make a mistake, but we had several humans making several mistakes all on the same day. How lucky can you get?

And speaking of being human, I had planned to crock pot a meal on Friday, which did not happen, so while I was madly emailing and texting on Saturday morning to solve all the problems, I loaded up my crockpot. As a start, I added the orzo at the beginning, rather than holding it until the last 30 minutes. So what do you do at that point? It had already sucked up much of my liquids and I wasn’t going to waste food, so I just cranked it up.

Then it was back upstairs to do battle with the editors and when I came down a little later, the crockpot had decided it wasn’t in the mood to cook. Thankfully, with a little technological encouragement – unplug/plug, off/on, try another setting – it decided it would cook my meal.

And speaking of On and Off – Bill had expressed a desire to go to a nursery and start shopping for spring planting. Between Snowmaggedon and the recent Ice Storm, we barely have anything alive in our beds. So, I totally understood the need, but visiting the nursery when the temperature is hovering between the high 40’s and low 50’s didn’t sound like much fun. He agreed it was probably too chilly, so I touched base with my bestie and planned on connecting for lunch.

But then he decided he wanted to run some other errands, which sounded OK. Except that he lollygagged around so long that my bestie finished up her dance lesson. That was not such a big deal, because we all just met for lunch, at Ephesus Bistro & Grill in Rowlett.

My second visit by the way. Ephesus is a great little local place to get Mediterranean food. The hummus has great chunks of chickpea in it, so you know it’s fresh. Bill and I shared a Beef Kabob and she had Chicken Roulade. Both were great. The only thing I warn against is the falafel. When I got it, the inside of the ball was not as done as I like – but that’s me. I prefer the patties over the balls for that reason.

After a morning of dancing and a big lunch, Deb was ready to go home and take a nap. Bill and I headed out to do our errands, but somehow ended up at Covington’s Nursery. It wasn’t quite as chilly as I thought it was going to be, but chilly enough. I think it should be nice and warm when I hang out at the nursery.

We try to shop at Covington’s whenever we can afford to, but they are a little proud of their merchandise. They are without a doubt the most knowledgeable in the area, so we do buy a lot there and we always go to them first for advice.

Sunday was not much better. After I did my greeting job at church, I did get a few pages of scrapbooking done. We also went out and bought each other the Valentine’s Gifts of our choices. We hit another nursery – less expensive, but also less stock and not much in the advice department. After that we hit Red Lobster for dinner.

Yawn, yawn and yawn! Come back next week for more travel, more memory keeping and another weekend report!