Thanksgiving Themed Playlist

In my last post, I wrote:

"A Thanksgiving playlist is something fun to do, whether they are songs that are about giving thanks or just songs that you're thankful for. Creating and listening to a playlist you love can add enjoyment to your weekend."

I started a playlist of songs that relate to giving thanks, getting together, autumn and some songs that kind of  stretch the theme - like Washing Dishes. I started with songs I already had, then searched for suggestions on Google and Apple Music. When I was done (the first time), I loved that there were 55 songs in the playlist for my Revive55 Thanksgiving Playlist.

I then removed ones that I didn't like when I listened to them or read the lyrics.  As I removed some, I added some to keep the number to 55. 

Here are some of my favourite lyrics about giving thanks or being grateful. I'm actually copying these from my 2009 blog post on my original blog My Life Is Like A Song.

I want to thank you

for giving me the best day of my life
Oh just to be with you
is having the best day of my life
(Thank You by Dido)

Thank you India
Thank you providence
Thank you disillusionment
Thank you nothingness
Thank you clarity
Thank you thank you silence
(Thank U by Alanis Morrissette)

Some call it faith, some call it love.
Some call it guidance from above.
You are the reason we found ours,
So thank you stars
(Thank you, Stars by Katie Melua)

Who can live without it, I ask in all honesty
What would life be?
Without a song or a dance what are we?
So I say thank you for the music
For giving it to me
(Thank You for the Music by Abba)

Didn't expect any of this
But it's really nice,
Didn't want you to cause a fuss
But it feels alright.
So thank you very much,
It's really nice to know
That you enjoyed the show
(Thank You Very Much by Kaiser Chiefs)

And I thank you for choosing me
To come through unto life to be
A beautiful reflection of his grace
See I know that a gift so great
Is only one God could create
And I'm reminded every time I see your face
(To Zion by Lauryn Hill)

Got my dreams, got my life, got my love
Got my friends got the sunshine above
(Happy by Natasha Bedingfield)

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again
(Lucky by Jason Mraz)

And I thank you for bringing me here
For showing me home
For singing these tears
Finally I've found that I belong here
(Home by Depeche Mode)

Well tonight
Thank God it's them instead of you
(Do They Know It's Christmas by Band-Aid)

Who will rise?
It would be so nice to hear you say
"Thank you for the good times"
Before the good times fly away
(Thank you for the Good Times by Oasis)

Oh its such a perfect day,
I'm glad I spent it with you.
Oh such a perfect day,
You just keep me hanging on,
You just keep me hanging on.
You're going to reap just what you sow,
(Perfect Day by Lou Reed)

Generosity is the key
Yeah
Thank you very much
(15 Minutes Away by K'naan)

Nothing is perfect man
That's what the world is
All I know is I'm enjoying today
You know cause it isn't everyday
That you get to give
(Take A Minute by K'naan)

Outside the sun is shining,
seems like heaven ain’t far away
It’s good to have you with us
Even if it’s just for the day
(Exitlude by The Killers)

Ah la la la la la life is wonderful
Ah la la la la la la life is meaningful
Ah la la la la la life is full of
Ah la la la la la life is so full of love
(Life is Wonderful by Jason Mraz)

I'm thankful for the blessings

and the lessons I learned

with you by my side

(Thankful by Kelly Clarkson)


And finishing with a song of the beauty in the world...

I see trees of green........ red roses too
I see 'em bloom..... for me and for you
And I think to myself.... what a wonderful world.

I see skies of blue..... clouds of white
Bright blessed days....dark sacred nights
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world.

The colors of a rainbow.....so pretty...in the sky
Are also on the faces.....of people going by
I see friends shaking hands.....saying...how do you do
They're really saying......I love you.

I hear babies cry...... I watch them grow
They'll learn much more.....than I'll never know
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world
(What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong)

Here are some of the songs on my playlist:

The Thanksgiving Song by Adam Sandler
Crowded Table by The Highwomen
Washing Dishes by Jack Johnson
Thank You For the Music by Abba
What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong
Perfect Day by Lou Reed
Grateful by Jewel
Look For The Good by Jason Mraz
Thank You by Dido
Happy by Natasha Bedingfield
Thank U by Alanis Morrissette
Life is Wonderful by Jason Mraz
Thank for the Music by Amanda Seyfried (Mamma Mia!)
Beautiful Day by U2
Better Together by Jack Johnson
Autumnsong by Manic Street Preachers
Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen
A Thousand Suns by Hey Rosetta!
Home by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros
Harvest Moon by Neil Young
Give Thanks and Praise by Bob Marley & The Wailers
Autumn in New York by Billie Holiday

etc.

For anyone interested, click here my full Thanksgiving playlist on Apple Music.

Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

I want to thank you

for giving me the best day of my life

Oh just to be with you

is having the best day of my life

(Thank You by Dido)

Next weekend is Thanksgiving in Canada. It will be a Thanksgiving like we have never experienced before. So how can we celebrate and be thankful when we can't all get together? 

I think that celebrating Thanksgiving is still important and it can still be wonderful in a different way even if we can only be with our loved ones with a socially distant visit, phone call or video call. 

Are you normally so busy preparing, travelling, hosting or visiting for Thanksgiving that you often don't get to truly enjoy the weekend? Of course we love being with our loved ones but maybe we can love or at least accept the COVID gift of time and space. 

Be Grateful

Thanksgiving is a time to be grateful so hopefully you take a moment to reflect on what you are thankful for. My friend Brenda is offering a free 10-day gratitude experience starting on Monday October 5th. Click here to sign-up for her daily emails or join her private Facebook group.

Eat

We can try a new recipe or prepare a more time-consuming meal that we may not make when hosting others. Here are some ideas from Canadian Living to try. Even if there isn't enough people for a whole turkey, I have purchased turkey breast, drumsticks and thighs separately in the past. It's a great way to enjoy turkey for two or four. A rotisserie chicken is also a great option. We can make the celebration extra special by setting a beautiful table and using our most special china, silverware and crystal. 

We can support our favourite restaurants by visiting their patio or ordering takeout. While working on this post, I started getting ads for catered meals. That's another great idea if we don't want to cook.

Decorate

We can celebrate by purchasing new fall decorations and taking the time to decorate our table, house, front porch or deck. I've just added pumpkins to my next pick-up grocery order to ensure I don't forget. This could also be a good time to start thinking about Halloween decorations.

Reminisce

We can take the time to reflect on past Thanksgiving celebrations and getaways. With the extra time available, we can go through past October photos and videos to prepare a slideshow to enjoy. While going through the photos, be productive by deleting bad photos and duplicates. If you're using a photo program that allows it, add keywords or descriptions for future reference. We can also enjoy sharing the stories with our loved ones.

Music

A Thanksgiving playlist is something fun to do, whether they are songs that are about giving thanks or just songs that you're thankful for. Creating and listening to a playlist you love can add enjoyment to your weekend.

Movies/TV

Another entertainment idea is to watch movies or television episodes set around Thanksgiving. Here's a wikipedia page with a list of movies and another list of Thanksgiving-themed episodes from television shows. Choose your favourite and hopefully you can find the episode or movie on a streaming or TV service you have. 

Tourist in Your City

The extra time we'll have gives us a great opportunity to enjoy our city and parks. We can take in a sunrise or sunset, enjoy the fall colours or go for a hike. We can visit a tourist site that is open or visit a farm. Here's a list of farms in the Greater Toronto Area. Make sure to check to ensure it's open before driving out to one. We can get more ideas by googling Thanksgiving events in our area.

Fall Colours

The To Do Ontario website has a great fall colour report. Click here to go to their website and find out where and when to see the fall colours. The website also has great road trip and drive ideas.

This map shows the peak timing of colours. Click here to go to the website for updates and to use the interactive map for your area. If you're not in Ontario, hopefully you can find a similar website by googling "fall colour report" for your area.

Even if you're "not in the mood" and more like Meredith in Grey's Anatomy:

"Gratitude, appreciation, giving thanks - no matter what words you use, it all means the same thing. Happy. We're supposed to be happy, grateful for friends, family. Happy to just be alive. Whether we like it or not."  

"Maybe we're not supposed to be happy. Maybe gratitude has nothing to do with joy. Maybe being grateful is recognizing what you have for what it is. Admiring the struggle it takes simply to be human."

"Maybe we're thankful for the familiar things we know. And maybe we're thankful for the things we'll never know. At the end of the day, the fact that we have the courage to still be standing is reason enough to celebrate. "

(Grey's Anatomy Season 2; Episode 9 - Thanks for the Memories)

Perhaps in 2020, we can add a twist by also being thankful for what we don't have and can't do that we don't want.

Save Your Photos Month

Seeing September 1st as a type of "New Year", I was going through some notes I wrote last year. First to see how far I've come and second to review my goals and vision.

In my notes, I saw Phyllis Smith's name. While speaking with Brenda Jasmin who was teaching Positivi-Tea courses I was attending, she told me that her sister-in-law had a similar interest to mine. 

I googled her and the timing couldn't have been better. Her company is Memories In Focus and she posted two days ago:  "It's Save Your Photos Month!" Click the link to read her post.

Save Your Photos Month is a service offered by The Photo Managers. They offer free courses to help people preserve their photos, videos and documents. I have signed up for a few courses that interest me. If you're interested in seeing what is offered, click here to sign up.

Memories in Focus offer various services to organize and preserve photos. They are offering a free introduction to the Picture My Life Workshop on September 8th. It was originally scheduled for August 25th but lucky for me, it was pushed back. It seems like it was meant to be. Check out Memories in Focus' Facebook Page if you're interested.

As part of my September New Year, my plan was to elaborate in my last two posts:

Memories Bliss Point and They Are More Beautiful If There Are Few.

Although I can fairly easily find any photo that I want to find, my photo library is still quite overwhelming to look at. A few days ago, I was speaking with my husband about our photo collections and what would happen to them once we were gone. Past generations had a box of photos or an album to hand down to their children. Will our children bother looking on our computers for photos? What will they do when they have 100,000 photos to sift through?

My plan for September was to start a new collection of photos I didn't want lost amid the clutter. How perfect to now have more motivation by finding Memories in Focus and Save Your Photos Month for inspiration.

It's the Moments That Take Your Breath Away

A friend of mine asked me a great question a few months ago while we were talking about my Revive55 Project. Could we spend too much time preserving instead of enjoying?

I think the shell quote in my recent post sums it up perfectly for me. 

"One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. One can collect only a few, and they are more beautiful if they are few. " Anne Morrow Lindbergh

It's not every moment that matters...and as I write that, I am reminded of another quote that another friend has on display:

"Remember life is not the amount of breaths you take. It’s the moments that take your breath away." from the film Hitch starring Will Smith

Could we spend too much time preserving and documenting instead of enjoying new moments? I think that this is part of the Memories Bliss Point from my previous post. Do we enjoy preserving and documenting?  We re-experience those moments when we look at, preserve, tag, organize, or scrapbook our photos. In this way, we are still enjoying past memories in the present. We can even enjoy new moments by sharing and telling our stories with others.

If we enjoy making photo albums, it's time well-spent, but if it's a chore, perhaps it's an activity not worth doing. There may be a better way for you to preserve your memories. We can create new memories by returning to places we've been or re-experiencing moments we have loved in the past.

My friend has a good point. If we spend too much time in the past, we miss present moments. We also don't plan future experiences that may be even better than past ones. 

It's a balancing act between the past, the present and the future. This is my take-away from my Revive55 Project. I don't want to spend all my time preserving all my memories. They are more precious if they are few. Recognizing our happiest past memories helps us to see the memories that we will enjoy in the future.

Chase your dreams when you will enjoy the moments worth capturing and preserving. 

They Are More Beautiful If They Are Few

In my last post, I wrote about collecting more and more photos and memories during the months leading to our eldest leaving home for university and during a trip to Quebec for his last March Break. 

Luckily, we managed to have another family trip that summer driving along Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. I tried to remember every detail of this "last" trip together. I collected rocks from every beach we went to. I took photos of the rocks and separated them so that I could remember wich ones were from where. 

The rocks remind me of a special time. One of my favourite photos is the photo I took of my husband taking a photo of our kids skipping rock. Of course, his photo is a better photograph, but I love the moment that I captured.

The rocks were a memento of our time on the beach but not every beach we stopped at was special on this day. The one that 'took our breath away' in relation to the rocks was Big Bay; "The Stone Skipping capital of Canada.

But like I would later read,

"One cannot collect all the beautiful shells on the beach. One can collect only a few, and they are more beautiful if they are few. " Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Or in my case that day, one cannot collect all the beautiful rocks on the beach.

I would also add that although a few are beautiful, the collection as a whole on the beach are most beautiful.

I still haven't done anything with my rock collection. They are in a beautiful box but not being enjoyed or remembered.

Before learning this recent lesson, I continued to collect more and more memories. I took lots of photos and collected more and more mementos.

Last year, I started the Revive55 Project with the goal of preserving all these moments I had been collecting. How could I better remember and enjoy all these memories? During my project though, I read this shell quote and took an uncluttering course which changed my opinion.

While writing about collecting shells in Gift From The Sea, Anne Morrow Lindberg reflects:

"I couldn't even walk head up looking out to sea, for fear of missing something precious at my feet. The collector walks with blinders on; he sees nothing but the prize."

"In fact, the acquisitive instinct is incompatible with true appreciation of beauty." 

"For it is only framed in space that beauty blooms."

I may not need a box full of rocks to remember this holiday, but one (or a few) special ones from this beach. 

Even our kids were looking at their feet and found precious rocks, like this heart-shaped one because they know I love hearts. This rock "framed in space" in my daughter's hands is the most special.

As beautiful as the lake or the sky is, I do have to admit that the rocks are the precious part of this beach.

Although I have read this idea of less is more in various places, and appreciate its message; I still struggle with getting rid of things. During my Revive55 Project, I did select the most precious from some of my possessions. I have gotten rid of some of the least special but there is still more decluttering and deleting to be done.

To help, I have accepted that I need an 'in-between' phase. I am putting more in storage to see what I miss and want to better appreciate and what I am ready to let go of, even if I still like them. That's the challenge with decluttering mementos. We kept them because they mattered but as the years and moments accumulate, our space isn't big enough to keep the growing collection. Perhaps as time passes, our memory of the item will diminish so it will be easier to let go.

As I see my precious keepsakes surrounded by space rather than cluttered with others, it gives me more motivation to continue to make more space.

Memories Bliss Point

When my eldest was in his last year of high school, it hit me. It was New Year's Eve and I looked at the New Year, not with my usual excitement and hope for the future but the beginning of the end.  This was the year when our family of 4 living together would end.

Was this our last New Year's Eve celebration together?

I wished I could stop time, but I couldn't, so I wiped away the tears and enjoyed what could have been our last New Year's celebration, but luckily there would be more.

With the end in sight, we went on a road trip to Quebec City, Mont Trembland and Montreal for the last March Break. I cherished this trip and wondered if it would be our last family trip. I continued collecting more and more mementos and taking more and more photos. Fast forward a few years and a few more "last" family trips and as the collection grew, it became more overwhelming to organize it all. 

I have been researching memories and nostalgia, to better understand why we remember some things and not others. I began the Revive55 Project in order to preserve my memories and hopefully remember more but are more memories better? Is there a bliss point when it comes to memories? What is the perfect balance of enough memories so that they are optimally enjoyed but not too many so that they are lost in the clutter?

Each one of us has our own bliss point. For some of us, experiencing the moment is our bliss point; for others taking photos and enjoying them is what we love. While others want to document the stories by writing or recording them.

In my last post "Time is the Most Unforgiving of Fires"  I wrote: 

We remember our memories better when we relive them. 

We can remember them in our mind, look at our photos and/or read the stories we have written. We can prevent our memories from fading with time by reliving them.

Time is the Most Unforgiving of Fires

I wrote a blog post in 2008 after reading A Thousand Splendid Suns. You can read that original post by clicking here.

It was inspired by a quote in the book:

(to give some perspective, the passage describes how Laila feels after her first love Tarik tells her that he and his family are moving away)

"In the coming days and weeks, Laila would scramble frantically to commit it all to memory, what happened next. Like an art lover running out of a burning museum, she would grab whatever she could—a look, a whisper, a moan—to salvage from perishing, to preserve. But time is the most unforgiving of fires, and she couldn’t, in the end, save it all. "

I think that the author really describes it perfectly: "like an art lover running out of a burning museum"; "time is the most unforgiving of fires".

It's interesting to reflect on how I felt over a decade ago:

"Memories: something very close to my heart. I have realized that so many of my memories are forgotten. Perhaps that is why I take so many photos, to help me remember. I sometimes think that I’m too busy taking photos rather than really experiencing the moments so I have tried to curtail my photo-taking."

Interestingly, a month after that post, we bought a Digital SLR and our photo-taking increased exponentially. A couple of years later, I would get my first iPhone and then I had a camera with me wherever I went.

In one way, I love that so much of my life was documented with photographs, but like I would reflect then I didn't keep up with the journaling in photo albums.

"I am often told that I have such a good memory about my kids... but I kept a great journal during those times (and journaled in my photo albums). When I look through my photo albums from my childhood and university years (when I didn’t [journal]), I’m amazed how much I forgot."

With the increase in digital photos, I stopped printing photos and putting them in albums for many years. The great thing though is that although I may have been in the minority who was journaling in albums 10-20 years ago, most of us have been "journaling" in the last decade by posting on social media.

We have preserved many memories on Facebook so why not enjoy them? As the quote says, "time is the most unforgiving of fires". I sometimes see old posts and think "I had forgotten that!" By seeing the post, we are reminded of these moments that were important enough to share at the time.

Sometimes you will receive notifications from Facebook of memories from this day, but you can see them yourself every day by going to Facebook.com/memories when you are signed in to your account.

TimeHop is an app that you can connect to Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to see your posts from on this day. You can also link your photos so every day you can go to this app to see your memories from "on this day".

If you want to see memories from a day other than today, you can quickly go to a specific month and year on Facebook. When you're on your profile page, go to your activity log. Click on filter to choose your posts (rather than all activity) then choose the year and date.

While making my photobooks, I take screen captures of my posts or copy/paste the words to add journaling to my pages. You can also make photobooks on your phone from Facebook posts if you prefer to look through your memories in a book.

We remember our memories better when we relive them. 

A photo is not always worth a thousand words. We can ensure our memories don't fade by adding journaling to our photos to remind us of details that aren't obvious from the photo.

One last point, do you have your photos ready to be rescued in case of disaster whether that is a burning house, flood or technical crash of your computer or phone? As great as it is to have memories saved on Facebook, understand that the quality of the photos is diminished and you don't know how long that website will exist.

Write To Taste Life Twice

On August 6th, I received an email from the Team of the Day One app with the following quote that really resonated with me and my Revive55 Project:

"We write to taste life twice, 

in the moment and in retrospect."

Anaïs Nin

I loved the quote and copied it for this blog post. The post was going to be about writing our stories but a few days later, I picked up a book writeen with daily entries that I hadn't opened in a while - Simple Abundance by Sarah Ban Breathnach. I often find that I read something in it that is perfect for when I read it and I hoped that this trend would continue. 

I started by re-reading the entry I had read the last time I opened it:

"A wise woman once advised me not to be a 'would-be-if-I-could-be or a could-be-if-I-would be. 

Just be.' And while I have learned that dreams need doing as much as they need being,

 I have learned that the being always comes first."

This reminded me of what one of my friends said during our weekly progress meeting two days earlier:

"It's not a to do life, it's a to be life."

I stopped re-reading the post at that quote - being amazed at the coincidence and had to write an email update to our group. 

But as I continued reading the entry in the book to quote in the email, it said:

"Today is a day for being. Be with those you love, be kind to yourself. 

Be quiet and call forth the dream you buried long ago. 

The ember is still glowing in your soul. 

See it in your mind, hold it tenderly in your heart. 

"The dream was always running ahead of one," 

Anaïs Nin confessed. 

"To catch up, to live for a moment in union with it, 

that was the miracle."

Another coincidence I told them in the email, reminding them of the quote from the Day One email I had told them during our group call.

I had never "noticed"Anaïs Nai before although I had obviously read this passage before and now I was noticing her twice in one week.

I ended the email saying that I always look at these coincidences as me being on the right track encouraging me to keep going.

Fast forward to today (a week and a half later). To help in writing this post, I searched through my email for the message I sent to my group by searching for "Anaïs". Along with the email I was looking for (and the Day One email), I found one that my sister sent to a group in 2010 to let us know that she had arrived in Paris. A friend of hers replied and this was one of the two signature quotes at the bottom of her email:

"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud 

was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." -Anais Nin

This quote was so perfect for today. 

Writing about these small coincidences (and bigger moments) allows me to "taste life twice" and to connect the dots to see how one moment flows into another. 

The first quote is perfect for the Day One App. I love the app to capture memories in words, photos and other media. It's a great app to relive memories and "taste life twice".

Undocumented Stories

I wrote a blog post on my personal blog My Life Is Like A Song about Black Lives Matter where I share what has resonated with me on the topic. You can read my full blog post by clicking here.

I shared an article that I saw on the CBC website about the University of Western Ontario professor Philippe Rushton that reminded me of my university days.

"Rushton was a psychology professor [whose] work was widely criticized as racist as he attempted to draw conclusions between race and intelligence, fuelling beliefs that white people were genetically superior to Black people."  Click here to read the full article.

Our student newspaper at the University of Waterloo asked a question every week and printed the answers they received. I remembered being asked about Rushton's research and searched online to find this newspaper clipping.

Here's my (zoomed in) response:

Do you have memories with no documentation? 

During my Revive55 Project, I went through my memory boxes. I found a different "Campus Question" newspaper clipping that I was in and remembered this one as well, but I didn't have a clipping for this one. Reflecting back, what are the chances that I was featured in two "Campus Questions"? Hanging out at the Campus Centre where the newspaper office was probably helped.

This controversy with the university professor's research may be especially memorable to me because I was doing research in the Chemical Engineering Department so I was very interested in the methodology that this professor was presenting for his findings. When the reporter asked me if I wanted to share my thoughts on it, I wasn't shy to share my opinion.

Which brings me back to the idea of our memories. I was telling my daughter my memory of the campus question but did wonder, 'am I remembering this right?' 'am I embellishing it?'

When we don't have documentation for moments in our lives, we have a few options.

In this case, I was lucky to find the newspaper clipping online. Our university newspapers have been scanned. Last year, I went through many of them, trying to find this clipping.  Although I didn't find it at the time, I found other meaningful moments from concerts or other events that I was happy to be reminded of.

Telling stories helps us remember. I have often told the story of the days when I started dating my husband so we remember some of the details, but we don't have photos or specific mementos. We luckily have a photo of us from around that time period - we think before we were actually dating. But without cell phones, many of these earlier moments are not photographed.

I am taking a course called Tiny Story Society. This month's challenge was to photograph a story that isn't documented. We were asked to first document the story from memory to tell or write the story the way we remember it.

This week I was driving my daughter to Waterloo where I met my husband, so I took the time to go on campus and photograph the place where we watched a movie the night before our first official date. COVID-19 days made for an unusual photo with an empty hall that would normally be full of students lounging in chairs, walking or standing around.

I also went to the bar where I first saw him and we went for our first date.

Memories of lining up on this ramp, and watching people leave are so memorable.

Although this venue is no longer a bar, it was the venue for the open house our daughter attended while trying to decide on her university choice. My husband took a photo that day as we remembered the stage I was sitting on when I first saw him; the DJ booth where we'd make song requests and the dance floor where we spent hours enjoying our favourite songs.

Sometimes, actually going to the place isn't possible but there are other ways to bring those memories back to life.

What story do you want to capture?

Scanning Photos and Negatives

Do you have negatives or photos that you say you will have reprinted or scanned "some day"? I have for over 25 years.

When I picked up my Honeymoon photos, I wanted to keep them in order so I wrote a number on the back of them. This was before I knew to use a photo safe pencil/pen. As I stacked them, the ink from the pen made a mark on the next photo.

If the ink marks are in the sky, they can be cropped out, but if they're in a main part of the photo like in the wave below or in someone's face, it's more of a problem.

Since then, I have wanted to get reprints of the photos and make a honeymoon photo album but I never did. As I have quoted before, "something that can be done at any time is often done at no time".

For years, I had "lost" the negatives. I couldn't find them in the box of negatives I had at my house. When we were visiting my in-laws, I recognized a box in the closet and remembered that I had stored my first box of negatives there.

It's a tip I had heard, to keep your photos and negatives in a separate place. It's equivalent to the reason we back up our photos today. Ideally, your back-up drive should be in another location or on the cloud. If anything happens to the originals in your home, you always have your back-ups.

When I started my Revive55 Project last summer, reprinting these photos and making a photo album was one of the things I wanted to get accomplished. Our anniversary is this month, and this was my plan but with non-essential businesses closed, I can't take in my negatives to be reprinted.

That's not a big problem because I also wanted to digitize the photos. I wasn't sure whether I would get the photo lab to digitize them or if I would do it myself. Years ago, we bought a scanner - maybe it was purchased at the same time as the Elgato Video Capture we bought for our 20th anniversary. Click here to read my post about digitizing home videos.

I have used the scanner to preserve photos and negatives in the past but never got to my honeymoon negatives.

I got the scanner out this week and was disheartened to see that it was no longer compatible with the updated OS on my Mac. Our older iMac was updated as well. I started searching for a new scanner. I consoled myself with the thought that maybe a new one will be more efficient and better quality.

This is what my scanner looks like. The first photo shows the negative film holder installed in the lid of the scanner. The lid closes and the negative gets scanned. The second photo shows the white cover that is used to cover the black holder when you want to scan photos or documents.

The third photo shows the other side of the negative film holder where you load the negative as can be seen in the fourth photo. You lift the top that holds the negative down when closed.

                          

It's not the simplest process which is why I thought that over the years, something better would be on the market.

The reviews did not reassure me. I found the negative holder awkward on my scanner but the new ones were labelled as flimsy. The better quality scanners were over $1200. I was almost convinced to purchase a medium priced one for $275 that I had read and heard was a great scanner since starting my Revive55 Project. I felt though, that it was wasted money because I didn't think it would be any better than the one I already had. Bummer.

I then found online software that we could buy that would make it work again. It was a cheaper solution but was it a trustworthy solution?

When I was quarantined in April, I had tried to use my old MacBook (circa 2008) but couldn't get it to work. I used a refurbished Linus laptop instead. My scanner wasn't compatible with the laptop so I got the MacBook out again and got it to work.

I downloaded the scanner software, and it WORKED!!! I was SO happy and relieved. I'm so happy that we still had it. We hadn't used the MacBook in years and when it was in the process of crashing, I managed to export the valuable photos, music and documents from it before it completely crashed and we needed to wipe it.

I was happy to scan the negatives. Some of the printed photos are markedly improved just by scanning the negative. Going back to that first photo I showed with the ink marks:

Original photo printed (1990's)

Scanned from negative film (2020)

Scanned from negative film (2020)
edited to straighten the horizon line, correct yellowish tinge
and lighten shadows possibly due to age of negative

By scanning the negative, the sun is visible and there are parts of the photo that was cropped on the initial photo. In this case, seeing the extra chair doesn't add value but sometimes a critical part is missing. The negative is not 4x6 so when a photo is printed, it cuts off part of the photo. If you have printed photos online, you will see this when you choose whether you want to crop a little on either side or more on one side.

As technology changes, I am being reminded that we should preserve things while we still can. I had old negatives from a disc camera that became obsolete. I'm not sure if I kept them or not, but I googled and learned that I may be able to scan them with my scanner.

I will now scan as many negatives and photos as I can before technology changes again and I'll have to spend more or lose my memories preserved in these images.

Reviving Home Video (and Audio)

For our 20th wedding anniversary, almost a decade ago, I wanted to preserve our memories so rather than regular gifts or a trip to celebrate, we purchased an iMac to optimize our photo editing and organization with Photoshop and purchased Elgato Video Capture to transfer our home videos.

This post is about Video Capture. We purchased the Elgato one, but there are other brands available that do the same thing. Video Capture allows you to connect a camcorder, VCR, DVD player or other analog video or audio sources to your computer.

You can preserve your home videos by connecting your camcorder to your computer. You press play on the camcorder and capture the video on your computer. With the video digitized, you can also edit it to save the best parts in a shorter highlights video.

Tip: If your camcorder or analog video source has an S video output, it will give better quality result than the yellow video output. The red and white outputs are for audio.

I would advise to still keep the original cassettes (and cameras) in case technology changes and improves in the next decade(s). Perhaps in the future, there will be technology to improve the quality of old film. Looking back, our home videos were first transferred to videocassettes that were of okay quality. To get better quality, we then transferred them to DVD. We can now transfer them digitally. How long will we have DVD players for? Who knows what future technology will be available?

We used to save VCR cassettes of shows we recorded or VHS movies we purchased. We can't imagine watching those anymore. Many of those films or television shows can be streamed or purchased at higher quality now. We're happy we can digitize from our original camera cassettes and not the VCR tapes or DVDs we made that may be lower quality than the originals.

In some cases, lower quality is better than nothing so there are times that I digitized a VHS tape or DVD with Video Capture. Before donating your VCR or allowing it to break, it's a good idea to transfer them if you want to do it yourself.

There are companies who provide this service if you don't want to take the time to do it yourself.

Although my home videos were digitized years ago, I recently took my Video Capture out to record songs I wrote. 

My digital piano has audio outputs so I connected it with Video Capture to my computer. It's a bit of a cheat because there's no video output. The file I get is a greyed out video with the piano audio. I edited the file in iMovie to remove the video and only keep the audio. I can then upload the audio MP3 to my music collection to listen to them.

Celebrating Cinco de Mayo

May 5th is Cinco de Mayo in Mexico. My parents spend their winters in a small town on the west coast of Mexico. The first time I visited, I ordered a shrimp cocktail from the menu and was surprised when it came in a cold tomato based broth. It was delicious. Every time I go back, I order it and it's just as good as the first time.

It's the perfect dish for me to make when I want to reminisce about my time in Mexico.

 

My breakfast on Cinco de Mayo is a tribute to two coffee shops I like in the small town.

I would have a caramel latte at the shop we went to the most. At the other, I had fresh honey with toasted homemade bread that was amazing! I didn't think I liked honey until that day. to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, I made a caramel latte using Nespresso's Mexico coffee served with toasted fresh bread and honey.

For afternoon snack, I was reminded of our time at Mexico City airport where we would have a layover. On our way there, we saw people carrying boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. We walked all over the airport trying to find the shop but couldn't find it. We didn't have that much time so I promised my daughter that we would find it on our way home when our layover was a little longer.

That day, we asked at the information desk and we were told that we had to go out of the security area for the shop. I wasn't going to let that stop me, so I went out to find it. I thought that I spoke enough Spanish to order a dozen regular doughnuts but the worker could not understand what I wanted. It was a reminder that I should really improve my Spanish in the future.

 

Going back through security with only my purse and doughnuts, I wondered if this was a regular sight for the security agents. My daughter was thrilled. We enjoyed a couple and had some interesting looks and comments when we boarded the plane with the box in the bag. 

We didn't know it at the time, but it turns out that there are still a few Krispy Kreme doughnut shops left in Toronto. I thought they had all closed.

Every once in a while we get doughnuts (or my daughter receives some as a gift). I was happy that we had some in the freezer to enjoy and reminisce about that day in Mexico.

We enjoyed looking at our photos and videos from our trips to Mexico.

Like I wrote in my last blog post when I celebrated Lei Day, if you haven't curated photos or videos from past trips, this is a great way to use a deadline to get them done. You can use a national holiday date, use the date when you went or even better, choose now to get started.

Celebrating Lei Day

Following up on my previous post about celebrating trip memories, Wearing my Hawaiian dress, I made Hawaiian themed foods to celebrate Lei Day.

I was ordering groceries every two weeks at that time so without early planning, the celebration would have to be done with foods I already had in our house.

We started the day like we did at the resort with fresh berries and watermelon.

I also ordered Hawaiian pizza a few days before (not thinking about Lei Day) and froze leftovers so although it's not a Hawaiian dish, I enjoyed it for lunch.

    

Without ingredients to make a mai tai, I made a fruit punch like I had from a food truck in Hanalei.

While in Hawaii, we had a lot of fish and seafood. In the freezer, I had lobster meat and shrimp so I made a lobster cheese dip for an appetizer and lobster & shrimp on baguette for dinner.

                        

                     

My husband and I used this deadline to curate the photos and videos from our trip. My husband made a highlight video using Final Cut Pro and we enjoyed reminiscing while watching it.

If you haven't curated photos or videos from past trips, this is a great way to use a deadline to get them done. You can use a national holiday date or use the date when you went or even better, choose now to get started.

My Photo Album Collection

Counting down to the end of My Revive55 Project is helping me accomplish more. I think the following quote by Gretchen Rubin is very relevant to memory projects: "something that can be done at any time is often done at no time".

Do you think that you'll organize your photos some day? That you'll document your stories? That you'll organize or declutter your mementos? I wanted to stop procrastinating which is why I started my Revive55 Project. By having a deadline and sharing my progress, I am accomplishing a lot but I still don't think I can do everything I wanted to do without spending every waking moment on the project. 

I think that is also a very valid point to recognize. I will not do everything I wanted to do.

In recognizing that, I have to prioritize. What adds the most value? What do I love the most? What shortcuts can be taken? How will I do this in the future so that I don't fall behind again?

These are some of the questions I am hoping to answer before my project ends.

How will I preserve and enjoy my photos in the future? Here's what my collection looks like at the moment and how I got to this point.

This isn't all my albums. I actually have three of each colour on the bottom shelf completed. The bottom shelf are my Creative Memories albums and average 30 pages per album. The Blurb photobooks are on the right side of the top shelf with the year on the spine. Each of those books average 220 pages. One of my concerns that prompted me to start photobooks was the amount of space the albums would require with the increase amount of digital photos. One photo book is equivalent in shelf space to 6-7 Creative Memories albums.

When I started to scrapbook with Creative Memories, my first child was 10 months old. Starting my albums at his birth was a great starting point. Scrapbooking was my hobby and I made time for it. During the time of film photography, we didn't have as many photos to put in albums. It wasn't too difficult to keep up if it was something that we enjoyed.

Before starting to scrapbook, most of my photos were already in regular photo albums. Learning that those albums were damaging my photos, I started to transfer them to photo-safe Creative Memories albums.

I stopped scrapbooking my chronological family albums in 2008 when my passion and hobby became blogging. I didn't actually mean to stop, I just kept procrastinating and saying I'd catch up some day. As the days passed, the task became more and more overwhelming so I procrastinated more.

When I started my Revive55 Project last year, I had photos in albums from my birth to before my wedding. Because I wanted to make "special" albums for my wedding, showers and honeymoon, I procrastinated doing them. I purchased the albums and they've been sitting there empty.

I wanted them to be perfect and I suffered from perfection paralysis. I skipped those and had my photos from after the honeymoon in albums up to a few years before we had our first child. I never completely got caught up to my son's birth.

When I started to focus on my photos again a couple of years ago, I completed four photobooks for the years 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2014.

So my gaps were for a few weeks around my wedding and honeymoon, 3 years before my son's birth, part of 2008, 2009, 2013 and 2015 to present. I also have to admit that I have a few gaps in my completed albums as well, like my sister's wedding that I had perfection paralysis and was overwhelmed with the number of photos. It wasn't my wedding, but I had enough photos to fill an album. How many pages do I allocate to her wedding? Which photos do I omit?

I also have extra photos over the years that I would love to add. In my first scrapbook, I included two pages for our trip to England. Two pages!! How does a trip only have two pages? The previous two pages were a business reward trip to St. Thomas. The cost of the album was limiting what I put in that first album. 

I can't add pages to that album without it affecting all the albums that come afterwards. If I add pages, I have to remove the last ones and add those to the next album and it creates a cycle of adding and removing.

What I hope to do with the extra photos is to include them in an England album of trips over the years. I could also do a Caribbean album of our various tropical holidays. Those are someday projects. 

I am currently focusing on closing the gaps in the chronological albums.  I'm very happy to have completed 2008 in my photo albums this week.  I also recently finished my 2013 photobook.

When I was making photobooks for my siblings when they turned a special age, they shared their childhood photos with me. Many of them I didn't have because our Mom would share the photos between us and not have four copies printed. Since starting my Revive55 Project,  I added the new-found photos to my childhood album and in so doing, expanded from one album to three. I also added mementos like report cards, ribbons, certificates and newspaper clippings. My first album is from birth until Grade 8 and my second is my high school years. The third is my university days. I am so happy that I managed to get that done during my Revive55 project.

My next focus is to print my 2009 photos and put them in Creative Memories albums. With my anniversary in May, I will focus on my wedding and honeymoon photos during that month. I will then continue chronologically to finish our photos before we had children.

Once this is done, I will consider my photos preserved from my birth until 2014. Creative Memories albums from my birth to 2009 and Blurb photo books from 2010 to 2014.

I then need to decide what to do from 2015 to 2019. Is it realistic to get caught up with those before the end of the project?

I don't want to keep falling behind and with the number of photos I'm adding to my collection, I need to find a new way of preserving and enjoying my photos. 

At the moment, I am thinking of continuing to make chronological photobooks but also having specialty albums (scrapbooks) or photobooks for trips and special themes. My husband has begun to make videos that include video clips, photos and journaling. He also makes digital albums that we watch on our TV either my mirroring our computer screen or through Apple TV.

I just wanted to write an update now as I am getting closer to closing the gaps in my photo projects. By reviewing and writing updates, I sometimes get aha moments when I get new ideas so hopefully something will click to help with my photo collection.

Capture Memories with Homework for Life

Everyday, we are creating special memories; even during this pandemic.

Matthew Dicks has had an unbelievable life. Crazy things have happened to him, so much so that his friends encouraged him to go on stage to compete in a storytelling contest. He has since won the Moth StorySLAM competition 45 times and is 6-time GrandSLAM champion.

What he found was that those crazy stories weren't his best stories. The stories that people love to hear are the little stories of everyday life. They are the stories that people can relate to. When he realized this, he wanted to find more small stories that exist in his life to remember and share.

He created "Homework for Life". He writes a sentence or two every day of something story-like that happened. He found that his project turned into magic as his "storytelling lens" sharpened and got refined.

He says that by taking 5 minutes at the end of your day to capture it,  Homework for Life helps you notice that your days aren't always the same and meaningless.

He found that life slowed down and time doesn't fly for him anymore.

Here is the Ted Talk where he presented Homework for Life. I highly encourage you to watch it. I have watched it multiple times since I first found it. I purposely omitted great parts of the video in my blog post.



I was trying to remember where I learned of Matthew Dicks. I thought it was from Marie Masse but couldn't remember exactly from what. I get lots of inspiration from Marie by email, from a course I'm taking with her and her podcast.

I started a Homework for Life spreadsheet at the beginning of January. I haven't gotten into the habit of reflecting at the end of the day but I have written down stories for most days by looking at my calendar and photos as reminders. I'm just looking back at my list now and because I have been writing down memories, I see that I first watched the video on January 9th after learning about Matthew Dicks from Marie's 71st episode of her podcast: Intentional Documentary. She has taken a break from her podcast this year, but I highly recommend listening to her podcast from the start if you're interested in photography and storytelling.

Just looking back at my spreadsheet, I can see stories that I'm happy I captured because I had already forgotten some of them.

Celebrating Trip Memories

Yesterday was St. George's Day, England's National Day. My husband is English so we sometimes do something special to recognize it.

I planned to make fish and chips, but then upon request changed it to jacket potatoes as the English call it (baked potatoes). I was happy that my daughter was home because she thought of making scones with cream and jam to serve with tea in the afternoon. How perfect.

I love that she's wearing a sweatshirt she bought on our last trip to England. We also used our England cups and sugar bowl I bought at Harrods in London. The sugar bowl and cup and saucer were purchased in 2018 while I bought the "Harrods Knightsbridge" cup on my first trip to England in 1992.

My daughter thought to post the event on social media, even if I didn't.

I was reminded of St. George's Day yesterday morning when I checked my TimeHop app and saw my Facebook post from 10 years ago.

This made me think of other national days I could celebrate to be reminded of travel memories. I could use the National Day or the date I travelled to prepare a special meal or go to a restaurant/pub that serves food from that place.

Here are some example that I could choose from:

• Australia Day - January 26
• St. Patrick's Day - Ireland - March 17
• St. George's Day - England - April 23
• Cinco de Mayo (Mexico) - May 5 or Grito de Dolores - Sept. 16
• Saint-Jean-Baptiste - Quebec - June 24 
• Canada Day - July 1
• United States Independence Day - July 4
• Bastille Day - France - July 14
• Switzerland National Day - August 1
• Barbados Independence Day - November 30

Here's a list of national days by country if you like the idea and want to celebrate your past trips or even dream of places you want to visit in the future:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_day

An easy way to remember the travel dates is to look in our passports. Click here to read my blog post about the passport journal I created. I added the holiday dates and travel dates to my calendar with a reminder a week before to plan the celebration if I want.

I made a small 7x7 photo book with photos from my phone of our last trip to England.

It only took a couple of hours. I chose 80 photos (maximum for the company I was ordering from). It's one photo per page and we can add a line of text per page.

I didn't think to look at it yesterday, but I did this morning.  These types of travel books or digital books could be added to the festivities by reminiscing and rembering the stories of our trips.

Having a date to celebrate, can also give a deadline to complete a photobook or digital album of our best trip photos that are lost in the clutter of our digital files.