PRT051 – Location, Location, Location

Have you ever considered your location to be a character in your life? Have you scrapbooked about it? Come listen as the panel discusses ideas for using locations in your layouts.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 4th, 2011 at 10:05 pm and is filed under Roundtable. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

NO_Mom

Liz is such a cute guest. Her laugh is infectious. Great RT BTW!
Margaret

Hey, y’all! I love PRT and am so excited to have a new episode to do my chores to today. You guys bring so much joy into my everyday life. Just pausing the show to ask if it is weird that I pronounce homage both ways, depending on usage. If I were saying “what a beautiful homage to Izzy” I would pronounce it oh-MAHJ (all Frenchy like). If I were saying “we also need to pay homage to Noell” I would pronounce it AH-mij. In no case would I pronounce the h. :)

Next up: I did not have a happy iPad day. I wish I could have had, but I have yet to convince my husband (or myself really) that it can do things that my smartphone or awesome laptop (MacBook Pro) can’t. I was slightly horrified by how many iPads were given and received among my friends and family this year. One iPad costs more than I spend on gifts for everyone on my Christmas list combined. Here’s hoping that the price comes down over the next few years. In the meantime, please please please, Izzy, don’t limit your recommendations to iPad apps!

Okay, off to listen some more.

Margaret (aka Gutsy Mom or Tilly-Loo)
Iceteeeeee

Izzy, I got an IPad! I didn’t even ask for it; “Santa” just knew! How cool is that? Now I need to go back and listen to all the episodes where you mentioned all the things it can do! I am happy!!
Noell, I have never heard it pronounced “omaj” ’round these parts, haha. I’ve only heard the H pronounced. Call me skeptical!!!!
Thanks for another great episode. You guys rock!
http://snowmoon.us Janet

LOVED the topic today – had to stop the podcast to write down my thoughts on where I live. That sparked a ton of ideas for pages to do and ideas to help a client of mine with a completely different project. I’m always delightfully surprised at what surfaces simply by listening to PRT! THANKS!
http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

Janet, I thought of you at one point while Liz was talking because I know
you take all those amazing location photos! Glad you liked it!
Margaret

Back to say that I LOVED the topic today. As someone who moves around quite frequently, I’ve come to learn just how meaningful those pictures of locations (and the things that make those locations unique) are. Before we moved away from Germany, I made it a point to take my camera to all of our favorite places. I took pictures of shop signs, the grocery store, restaurants (including pictures of favorite plates of food), the view from each window in our home, scenes from the walk to my daughter’s school, other people’s homes I thought were pretty, and scenes from our big dogwalk loop. I felt sort of ridiculous doing this–surely I would never forget what these things felt and looked like, right? But here we are only 2 years later and I am SO grateful that I have these photos, most of which have no people, by the way. I am especially grateful that I have a picture of the view out of our old bedroom window of the German farming fields and hills. It evokes such a powerful memory of happiness for me. Anyway, thank you for another great show, and for reminding all of us of how important it is to try to capture our locations in our memory keeping.

Margaret (aka Gutsy Mom or Tilly-Loo)
JeannieB

I loved the location show and the one about scrapbooking where you work too. Keep these type of topics coming. I wanted to suggest a show about ephemera. How do you incorporate it into pages, what kinds of things do you keep? etc.

Also those old museum type things were cabinets of curiosities. I took a class last spring about using art, writing and photography to interpret nature and one of the things they suggested we do is keep a physical journal. Which is exactly what you were talking about, 3-D things that you collect in a certain place. I love PRT! Jeannie
http://www.chalicat.com/blog/ Noelle

I’m only half-way through the episode so far…and I’m loving it. But I wanted to draw your attention to something. You talked about your sponser Big Picture Classes and the promo code. Problem is, it’s January 2011 and your link for the code says it expires Dec. 31st 2010. Methinks the promo code has spoiled. It’s past its due date.

Love the show. I listen in the mornings on my drive to work. And it’s kinda funny, since Noell and I have the same name, when someone addresses her by name in the show, it startles me. I find myself thinking for a split second, that my radio is talking to me!

** Noelle W. (NoelleCatMom when I’d visit Paperclipping Live)
http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

Hey, Noelle — Thank you for the heads up! I just updated the entry. We
already had the code extended — we just didn’t remember it said that on the
website. It’s works fine!
Angela

I was listening to your podcast while walking my dogs. I never thought of taking pictures of my neighborhood. I live in an area that was almost completely wiped out by the Cedar Fire in 2003. My house was one of the few houses that made it through that disaster. As I kept listening to your podcast I became aware of my surroundings. I don’t remember what my neighborhood looked like before the fire. I have pictures of burnt houses and of houses being reconstructed but no picture before the fire ….sad. I wish I had taken a picture of our local ‘watering hole.’ It was a quirky place. Tomorrow, I will make sure I take my camera. Thanks for the idea
Cara

Great topic today. I’m a Canadian and I grew up in Nova Scotia, but for the last 12 years I’ve been living in France. I’ve been here long enough to be past the fairy tale part of living here. So much so that I’ve been feeling really negative towards our home. It’s not the house so much as the location, we have gypsies around the corner and these aren’t the romantic movie gypsies (though there are some nice groups). These one throw their garbage in the river and are just making a mess of the place. Plus the view from the back of our house is my husband’s warehouse yard, full of roofing supplies and insolation. :P This episode made me think of the good things about this place. It’s full of history, our neighbourhood was a military base and our house and it’s twin across the street were the officers’ quarters. When my son needed a last minute picture of his house, we found one online, on the first page of google images, when we searched ‘histoire’ and the name of our town. It was from 1895 and there are soldiers walking around and our big huge 150+ year old sycamore maple is there as a baby. There’s lots of places like this in our town nestled amongst the modern bits. Thanks for getting me to notice them again ;)

Oh and btw, the French pronounce hommage like ‘o-magic’ but without the ‘ic’ ;) There is technically a third syllable but no one really pronounces it. I think maybe in Quebec, they pronounce it like Izzy, but I’m not sure. French is not my first language however, so maybe I’m wrong ;) In English, I say it like Noell ;)
Lisa

Hey there. This is the first time I’ve commented on the show (although I love every one of them!) but I just felt compelled to say how strongly I connected with this week’s topic.

It felt great to hear that others also think that it’s a crucial part of scrapbooking to record and scrap the places and things (rather than only people) that are so important to us.

I was born in Birmingham, UK and at 18 moved to France for 18 months to work. After returning to Birmingham for a few years, I then moved to Cambridge and then to Manila then back to Birmingham, onto a smaller British town not far away before making my final move here to Germany to be with and then marry my German husband. Each of these places has become home to me, but Germany feels like “the one”!

I can honestly say that each of these locations (and the many actual homes I have lived in at each place) have had their own distinct influence and impact on my life – each one clearly represents a chapter in me and when I look back on past experiences, I always relate the memory to where I was at that time. Now when I look back, I can recognise how each location has changed me and formed the person I am today. Luckily, I have many photos of most of these places to support the memories I have. I have been recording these feelings and memories on my pages since I started scrapping in 2006 and knew from the beginning that this type of page was necessary for me. When I go back to my birthtown to see my family, I try to record the places that are missing in the story (my school, the church my mum got married, a certain tree on the way to my grandmother’s that represented the “Christmas Tree way to Nanny’s” forever after etc etc). A lot of my pages are about places (and things) rather than people and it was great to hear the panel confirm how important they also feel such topics are.

Even though Germany is now my “HOME”, I still go around like a tourist and make sure I take lots of photos of the town, the culture, the details so that I can record my life here! It is such a critical part of who I am. Isn’t that what scrapbooking is all about?

This show struck such a chord with me and I want to thank you for that. Great job and keep up the good work!
http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

Yes, definitely grab that camera! I bet you could find pictures from others.
I’ve been taking pictures around different parts of my neighborhood over the
past few years and I love them! I have some plans for those, and I hope to
eventually have a class revolving around what I do with them!
http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

It’s funny to hear all the different versions of hommage! I had no idea! But
maybe it’s because everyone says it differently that it never clicked for me
before!

That’s fascinating to hear about your home. I love that you found your old
sycamore maple in it’s baby stages! Wow! And even if your neighbors and
surroundings are ideal, you have an interesting story! I remember we had a
large gypsy “family” move into an apartment complex we lived in a while
back. It’s very fascinating…
http://www.scrapworthylives.com Stephanie Medley-Rath

Well, shoot, now I have another project to do. All kidding aside, I recently moved to a new town and had not really considered doing a page or a book specifically about our new town/home. (It is a tiny town and at first it doesn’t seem like there would be enough to fill up a book.) But now I am definitely going to do this. I am going to work on collecting photographs and ephemera this spring and put the album together this summer. It will make a great mini-book. BTW, it is because of PRT that I am all about mini-books now. As always, great show.
http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

Thanks for sharing! When you say you lived in Manila — do you mean in the
Philippines (I lived there)? Or is there another Manila somewhere else?
http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

There are a lot of stories from small towns! Sounds like a fun project to
me!
Lisa

Yes, I mean the Philippines! I loved it there – I know you said you lived there too, were you also in Manila? It was the best time!
http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

Yes, I lived in Pasay for 6 months — I LOVED it there. I miss Pasay so
much. I also lived in Makati for about 1.5 months — not long enough to
really make an emotional connection to the Makati area. I really loved
Manila for all it’s big city third world craziness.

Oh…I want to go back. Which part of Manila were you in?
Lisa

Oh, wow! I lived in Mandaluyong (really near to Megamall) as the office I was assigned to was there but the main offices were in Makati and I often had to make the 3 or 4 km journey across town for meetings which as I am sure you know, would sometimes take me 2 hours or more! I loved Makati for the shopping, the bars and the more upmarket side of life, but Mandaluyong was a bit more real! I always said to people back home that Manila was the best and the worst place in the world, all jumbled up in one huge place! I loved it. I was there for about 15 months and long to go back for a visit sometime but it’s such a long way away! I managed to see a bit of the country which was great and overall, it gave me great perspective to take back to the UK. The Filipino friends I met there were so fantastic – I miss them all. I could talk about it all day!
http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

Me, too! I never get tired of talking about the Philippines, though I wonder
if my friends and family get tired of me somehow always relating an
experience there with whatever we’re talking about! :)

I vaguely remember Mandaluyong. I went to the Megamall only once I think. I
found it overwhelming, honestly! I’d been in Pasay — which is the most
gritty place I’ve ever seen in my life. For a long time I had only shopped
at outdoor markets. Nobody I knew wore makeup. So when I finally got to go
to the Megamall, it all seemed so worldly and glamorous and I just didn’t
know how to feel there!

I also remember that I was really excited to have a chance to eat some
Italian food at the mall. I only ate Filipino food while I was living there
and I loved Filipino food but I was excited for a chance to have something
different. My filipina friend wanted Asian food b/c she wanted rice. I told
her she would survive without rice for one meal. We sat down for the Italian
and within just a few bites I thought I’d vomit from all the heavy cheeses,
lol, and I hardly ate any of the dish, it made me feel so sick! Oops. My
friend never said, “I told you so,” or anything!

Remember all the matching uniformed employees walking around the city? That
was so interesting to me.

And yes — I totally relate to what you’re saying about it being the best
and the worst place — though I can think of a couple places I’m sure must
be worst. The Philippines is the most amazing place in the world — very
troubled and so very, very fun and loving.
KatieScott

Sort of can’t believe that you didn’t tie in any iphone apps to location because the Google Maps & Google Earth are pretty cool for getting pictures of places in your life that maybe you are no longer near but want pictures of that place.
Katie Scott

Awesome show btw – & great topic :)
http://www.liznessstudio.com Liz Ness

Hey! Thanks — you’ve made my day! =)
http://www.liznessstudio.com Liz Ness

Oh, Katie, you are so right! My son LOVES Google Earth — he’s six, but has a geographic understanding of a seventh grader — all because of Google Earth! (He’s, recently, started making the 3D buildings for some of the locations that interest him — it’s pretty cool.)
http://www.liznessstudio.com Liz Ness

Thanks Noell, Izzy, and Julie — what a fun show! I just went back to listen to it again and feel even more inspired. LOVE the Roundtable!
http://www.liznessstudio.com Liz Ness

PS: LOVE the Nanny Actives, too. What wonderful and authentic captures of daily life and people. Beautiful!
Lisa

Funny! It sounds to me as if your experience was a bit more “real” than mine!

I had a corporate job so I was mixing with a lot of foreigners and wealthy Filipinos but my team kept me grounded and they were some of the ones walking around in matching employee uniforms. One for each day of the week. It did me a lot of good to spend a lot of my time with them and not to get caught ip in the whole expat community.

I treasure each and every moment of my time there and even though it was a long time ago now (1997-8) I can still feel how I felt while I was there. I try not to take anything for granted in my life here in Europe and am very thankful for my time there. I had some of the best experiences of my life during that time! (I didn’t want to offend anyone by saying it was the best and worst place – I meant it in a good way!)

It’s great to hear that you enjoyed it so much too!
Lisa

Funny! It sounds to me as if your experience was a bit more “real” than mine!

I had a corporate job so I was mixing with a lot of foreigners and wealthy Filipinos but my team kept me grounded and they were some of the ones walking around in matching employee uniforms. One for each day of the week. It did me a lot of good to spend a lot of my time with them and not to get caught ip in the whole expat community.

I treasure each and every moment of my time there and even though it was a long time ago now (1997-8) I can still feel how I felt while I was there. I try not to take anything for granted in my life here in Europe and am very thankful for my time there. I had some of the best experiences of my life during that time! (I didn’t want to offend anyone by saying it was the best and worst place – I meant it in a good way!)

It’s great to hear that you enjoyed it so much too!
Amanda

Hey guys, I just finished listening to the show on my new ipad! I had no real desire for one, but my hubby secretly loves PRT (he always hangs around when I’m listening!) and he decided I needed one… So he bought me one today!!

Izzy – if you could start talking about how amazing some other things are, such as new cars, cricut machines, men who love doing all the chores, etc. it would be greatly appreciated! Lol!

Love the shows, can’t wait for the next one :)
http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

Hmmm, we’ll have to try that and you can let us know if it worked! lol.

I think it would be funny if you told us his full name and then all of a
sudden we said it one day. ;)
Shannon McPheeters

Hey I’m sure most of us have figured it out by now but… If you want to get the most out of your BPC discount just buy more than one class at the SAME TIME!!!! I just purchased Ali’s One Little Word and Yesterday and Today along with Darci’s Decorate Life and was able to use the code to get the 10% off the whole shebang! Just food for thought on a way we can support the show and get quality scrapbooking education all at the same time!
http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

…and get more savings!

No, I didn’t realize you could do that. Never thought of it before! Thanks
for sharing!
AnnieB

On dictionary.com the little “speaker” pronouces homage with the ‘h’, like Noell did. It’s how I’ve always heard/pronouced it, as well.
I love the Roundtable and look forward to it each week. Actually, I’m kind of hoping you will opt to air twice weekly!!! (Hint, hint)
http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

Ah-ha!
http://www.spinstertales.com/ Diane C

As always, a wonderful and thoughtful show. As Noelle, Julie and Liz were talking about scrapbooking home and the people and places that includes, I couldn’t help but think about one of my all time favorite books.
The Oxford Project by Peter Feldstein and Stephen Bloom. I don’t know if any of you have seen or heard about this book but it basically began in 1984 when photographer Peter Feldstein offered to photograph the residents of Oxford, IA (pop 676) for free. He converted an old store and put up fliers and one by one all the residents came out to have their picture taken. He didn’t do much with them at the time, but rediscovered them 20 years later in a box in his storage room. These images inspired him to return to find the people he had photographed and brought writer Stephen G. Bloom with him to record their stories. I can’t even tell you how powerful the stories that emerge from the words and images of these residence. You see how people have and have not changed over 20 years. Births, deaths, marriages, struggles and triumphs. It is essentially the scrapbook of a small town.

Anyway I thought that as scrapbookers, you and your blog readers would share my adoration of this book. Let me know what you think.
http://www.liznessstudio.com Liz Ness

What a cool concept — thanks for sharing the name of the book — I’m totally going to go look for it! =)
Girlwhoscraps

Hey Noell,
I haven’t listened to this show yet, and am not sure if you take “requests,” but someone I would LOVE to see on the show is elise blaha cripe from eliseblaha.typepad.com. I love her simple approach on mini books, goal setting, small buisness, and just life in general. Awesome show! Thank you for the wonderful year!
Amy K

I first listened to this episode in the car, then had to go back and re-listen at home where I could jot down some notes.
This show inspired me tremendously (they all do actually, but this one in particular spoke to me because of the current projects I’m working on).
Our oldest is graduating from high school in June, so I’ve been working on some different memory keeping projects (through both tears and laughter), aside from her regular scrapbooks.
As I was listening to you all talk about locations, I’m thinking…..how cool would it be to go around to her favorite local places/establishments and take pictures to incorporate into these projects for her and write about them?
Thank you for the great ideas and continued inspiration!
~Amy

P.S. Noell, I too pronounce homage as you do, and have never heard it the other way. Interesting!
http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

That’s a great idea! I so, so wish I had done that with all the places I
lived in high school! (I went to three different high schools!).
JoRoFan

Great show and great topic!! I live in Manhattan and listened to the episode earlier in the week. I was thinking about how New York City is like no other place in the world. Then today, I got onto the subway (like I do every day) and had no idea that it was “No Pants Subway Ride 2011”. Yes, you heard that / read that right! At least 30 people in my subway car had no pants on. I just kept thinking, where else could you see something like this! (I came to find out, it took place in other cities too, but still…). I’m doing Project 365 this year (actually using Shuttercal.com – Thanks Stacy Julian for the pick of the week a few weeks ago!), but I was too embarrassed to take pictures of the participants, so instead I took pics of the actual subway car and station. Now I can’t wait to create a scrapbook page about the NYC Subway that I take every day and the different things I’ve seen / experienced on it!

Speaking of New York City, I know that Julie, one of this week’s guests lives here. I had never heard about Speedy-Carve and never thought about carving my own stamps, but she made it sound so interesting that I took a look at her website and saw that she’s teaching a class about it next month at a local craft store. I’m totally signing up and can’t wait to meet her in person. I listen to the show every week (and the digi-show of course) and feel like you and all of your guests are friends. I even purchased a MacBookPro on Black Friday! (Thanks Izzy!) Anyway, keep up the good work! I can’t wait to see what 2011 brings!!
Pingback: Photo-Capturing Your Important Places | Paperclipping
Hokiecoyote

I actually lived and worked in Bridgeport when I was with the Department of Transportation. I wish I had taken photos at work back then. The funny thing is that I spent my first day in CA driving through Bridgeport on the 4th of July. I was 22 years old with everything I owned in my little Toyota and I was completely surrounded by Hells Angels bikers. What a memory and what a location!
http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

Some of our friends from the tech community do a no-pants day on our light
rail here in Phoenix! I’m sure the tradition started in NYC though. ;)

Enjoy your new MacBookPro! I love mine!
Kari

This is one episode that has my mind overflowing with ideas! My elderly parents will soon be moving out of the home where I grew up – and now I have so many things that I must photograph and document before the house and land become someone else’s. It made me a little sad to think that my childhood home will not be in the family anymore in such a short time.

It also made me realize that no matter how much I wanted to leave home and go to the big city of Minneapolis for college, my little hometown of 2,000 people is a big part of me and should also be documented and photographed. I really like the idea of photographing it from a strangers point of view – what would you show someone when they come to town to visit?

Anyway, I’m going to have to start logging the hundreds of thougths and notes on Evernote (thanks for recommending that), so I don’t forget anything. The list will be long I’m sure.

Thanks again for a great episode and for getting this topic out there – I have lots of work to do! Keep up the good work!

Kari in Minnesota
http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

Awesome — thank you for your thoughts!

You reminded me of my grandparent’s home that was so deeply rooted in my
heart. Grandpa built it and it was so unique. My brother and sister and I
still mourn the fact that they had to sell it not long before they died. I
still fantasize about eventually buying it back, even though it’s in the
middle of nowhere. I never got to go back one last time, but I hope we have
enough photos already to eventually be able to make a little scrapbook
memoir for that house.
http://www.xnomads.typepad.com Margie S

I’m very intrigued by the Nanny story. I live in Beijing and have been studying photography here. I have been doing quite a bit of street photography myself. I occasionally join the Street Photography Now project sponsored by a street photography museum in London: streetphotographynow.wordpress.com. Two friends and I meet once a week and wander the streets just taking photos. I’m so excited to look at her pictures for inspiration. Thank you very much for telling us about this story!
http://www.xnomads.typepad.com Margie S

I should also add that Beijing changes by the day. They are tearing down all the old neighborhoods at a rapid rate. I feel like I need to do my part to help preserve images of what it used to be like. I often feel I should be out there more and also be braver since it is literally disappearing before our eyes. There is always that shyness that goes along with photographing on the streets. Luckily, most Beijingers do not mind their photos being taken and many seem to feel complimented by it.
http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

Oh I am in LOVE with this project! Thank you for sharing. It’s going to be
my pick for this week.!!

By the way, the link is wrong seems to go to a blog that hasn’t really
gotten started yet. I did some googling and found this link –

http://streetphotographynowproject.wordpress.com/

Not sure if it’s the same group you’re participating with but it’s good. :)
http://www.paperclipping.com Noell

That makes me so sad! Yes, get yourself out there!

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