Reviving Souvenirs

For my second Revive25 in 2025 mini-project, I revived a souvenir. I purchased a painting when we went to Australia in 2017. It was just the canvas and I wanted to put it on proper backing when I came home but never did.

I stored the canvas somewhere special in the last few years and couldn't remember where I put it. A few months ago, I found it and was surprised to be reminded that it was titled "two kanagaroos jumping at sunset". The funny thing is that I didn't see kangaroos at sunset in 2017. I saw them at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney and then my husband's cousin took us to see wild kangaroos at a golf course in Melbourne. They were hopping up and down the side of the fairways. I couldn't imagine golfing and walking by kangaroos. I was amazed! So although I saw kangaroos on that trip, it wasn't at sunset. 

Last fall we returned to Australia to visit another cousin who lives in Perth. Her property is surrounded by a tall fence to keep the kangaroos out because they are destructive when they come on the property. At sunset, we went to the edge of the property by the fence to see the kangaroos because that's when we can see them hopping. At the airport, I purchased a fridge magnet of kangaroos at sunset, not remembering the painting I bought in Sydney.

I love the connection from one trip to the other and the full circle story of the kangaroos at sunset. I'm happy to finally have the painting on display.

Revive25 in 2025 Mini Project #1 Keane Memories

For the first mini project of my Revive25 in 2025, I reflected on my 2024 memories and which moments were most special for me. One of my favourites was the synchronicity with our trip to Amsterdam. (click the link to read my blog post introducing my Revive25 in 2025 Project)

My husband had a business trip at the same time as our daughter was going to be in Amsterdam. I couldn't believe our luck. The timing wasn't ideal for me. I would only be able to stay for four nights and come back earlier than my husband would. I wondered whether it was worth making the trip. I researched what events were happening, what concerts and the tulip festival events. 

Imagine my surprise when I realized one of my favourite bands was playing the night we would arrive. While looking for the venue on a map I noticed the nearby “Olympic Arena”. I had forgotten that Amsterdam was an Olympic City. Another thing on my bucket list is to visit Olympic host cities, especially if they have venues or Olympic rings to see.

The concert was sold out. Every day I checked for peer to peer ticket sales but it seemed impossible to get a ticket this way. I looked at StubHub that I had never used before. I monitored ticket prices for a couple of weeks. The day before we were leaving, I bought two tickets that were lower priced than they had previously been. 

My favourite number is twenty. When we were in the limo on the way to the airport, I noticed the sign on the window saying our car number was 020, my favourite number. I looked at my husband and gave him a knowing smile. At the airport, I noticed our boarding time was 20:20. Our flight had a delay, but I relaxed. Everything's going to be okay.

When the tickets proved to be legitimate as we entered the venue, I had tears in my eyes. I hadn't wanted to get my hopes too high in case it didn't work out. I went straight to the merchandise counter and couldn't believe the t-shirt they had for this tour. They used the design from their first album that includes music instruments and microphones and rather than surrounding the name of the album like they originally did, they created a number 20 (for 20th anniversary of the album release). Perfect for me!

During my Revive55 Project in 2019, I started a concert album showcasing our concert tickets but then I got overwhelmed trying to include them all. What I realized was that they weren't all special. Some of the concerts, I barely remembered and weren't bands I loved. I organized the ticket stubs but also wanted to include my favourite photos, set lists and paper memorabilia for my favourite bands but never completed it. It's sad that we don't get ticket stubs anymore. I have probably lost some of my tickets with technology changes, but I took this opportunity to screen capture the tickets I had on my phone.

For this mini-project, I wanted to complete the Keane pages in my concert album and create highlight videos of my favourite captured moments from the concerts. These tasks ended up being a lot more involved than I anticipated but it was worth the effort. 

Some of my photos were in my photos app on my computer (synced to my phone) but older ones were on an older computer so I revived them by copying them to my photos app. Some of my photos were not digitized. They were cropped and taped in my photo albums. I revived them by taking the negatives to a photo lab where I received digital files and prints to include in the concert album. Doing this reminded me that I have many photos that I want to revive from my negatives before that technology is obsolete.

I love the chronology of my family photo albums, but combining my memories in my concert album from the eleven Keane concerts I have attended is extra special. I can relive those moments by looking in one place rather than 11 different albums.

While working on the pages, I printed blog posts I wrote about my trip to England to see them in concert in 2018 and more details about the Amsterdam concert. 

I created two highlight videos. For one of them, I combined videos of my favourite songs over the years. I often recorded the same songs, so having them back to back from various years was interesting. The second highlight videos were of special moments I captured, whether they were favourite songs I only witnessed once or when they had changed lyrics. For example, when they performed Fly To Me in 2007, instead of singing "When I'm far away from the places we've grown" I captured him singing "When I'm far away from Lake Ontariiiio". I love when bands refer to the places where they're performing.

I understand why I procrastinated from completing the album, realizing how much time and effort it took to complete for just one artist. I read a quote while I was working on it that one reason we procrastinate is we anticipate the hassle. We think about everything we need to do to complete a task and get discouraged from starting. This was the most involved artist so the others won't be as challenging. I am happy that this mini project motivated me to complete these pages. Loving the completed pages will motivate me to continue to complete more pages.

Revive25 to Thrive in 2025

I love this time of year when we are looking forward to chasing new dreams and also when we reflect back at the past year. I love making New Year's resolutions or choosing my word for the year. This year, I am creating a new project called Revive25 in 2025 which is an extension of my Revive55 Project I did a few years ago where I preserved my memories for 55 weeks.

This time I want to focus on the memories that matter the most to me. I will revive my memories with 25 mini projects throughout the year. I'll share ideas to inspire you (and me) to spend time with our memories. We remember what we think about so by looking at and reliving our memories, we will remember them better. We also attract what we think about and what is in our subconscious so by spending time with the memories we love the most, we can attract similar moments or feelings in the future.

By reviving our memories, we connect them to our dreams in order to create moments and experiences we'll love in the present.  We look back at what we loved most and plan to create more of what we'll love in the future. We revive what adds value to our lives in the present. What can we revive that will inspire us to thrive in 2025 and beyond?

The first mini project is to review 2024 with a lens of looking for what we want to experience more of in 2025 and beyond. What did we love in 2024? What moments of awe did we experience? What moments took our breath away? Brought happy tears to our eyes? Swelled our hearts?

For my mini project, I will start by looking at my photos. What made me grab my phone or my camera to capture in 2024? 

Looking back, we also want to revive activities we love. Did we play pickleball last year and really want to play more in 2025? Did we attend a concert or sporting event? Did we celebrate special occasions? Did we learn anything we want to incorporate into our lives? Do we notice things missing that we love? Perhaps we didn't make time to do things we love in 2024 and we want to make time in 2025.

Revive what we love.

Revive what moves us.

Revive what will help us to thrive in 2025.

Friday the 13th Memories

Today is Friday the 13th, and although I'm not superstitious about Friday the 13th anymore, there was a time when I was a little bit superstitious. I was reminded of that this morning when December 13th many years ago fell on a Friday and I was expecting my first child. Depending on which method you believe, my due date was either December 9th or December 12th. Although 12/12 would have been a date that I would have loved as a birthday for my son, it came and it went. I really did not want to give birth on Friday the 13th. Today that would have been pretty cool with Taylor Swift, Dick Van Dyke and one of my great friends celebrating their birthdays on December 13th. I found out about Dick Van Dyke's birthday when Coldplay released a new video on his 99th birthday filmed with him at his home.

That Friday the 13th, perhaps imagining that we may not have that many date nights left in the near future, my husband and I went to see The English Patient in the theater. We sat in the back row in case we had to make a hasty exit, but luckily I got to see the end of the movie and enjoy our last weekend before kids.

Another little connection which is kind of funny is that last night, I was telling my husband about the video I posted yesterday about 12/12/24 where I was talking about my mastermind group and how my takeaway this past year was to better accept periods of contraction along with periods of expansion or flow. He asked me if I think of going into labour when we talk about periods of contraction. It had never occurred to me so now I can't get that out of my head.

So now, it's kind of funny that today's date is reminding me of going into labour many years ago so that was a funny coincidence or a nudge of a few different things to inspired me to record the video and write this blog.

I think of that with reviving our memories when we are reminded of something or we get a nudge, to tell the story or revive buried memories. I had a nudge like that last week when I saw my son's birthday coming up in the calendar. I recorded another video I haven't posted yet about using the birthday nudge to work on his childhood album that I hadn't completed yet. In the video, that I'll complete and post now, I talked about how to plan an album like that because it's really difficult in the moment to decide what to include because in the moment, everything seems important. In a way, procrastinating on making this type of album is helpful, because in hindsight we get better perspective and it becomes easier to choose what is most meaningful.

I like to use these nudges to spend time with my memories and to revive things that matter. It's not necessarily about having a project or making photo albums. It can also be about telling the stories, looking at other memories like a pregnancy journal or time capsule to be reminded of other moments. Spending time with our memories when we're given reminders helps us to remember them better.

12-12-2024: I Love Numbers

When I wrote the date at the start of a call on December 12th, I realized it was 12-12-24. When I notice numbers or patterns; whether it's my favourite number, 20, or times on the clock like 11:11, 2:22 or 4:44; it makes me pause and gives me hope that whatever I'm working on, I'm going in the right direction. This reminds me that I noticed 10:10 this morning and 11:11 so I thought I'd record a video (and write a blog post) to remind me that I noticed 12-12-24 at the start of our last Mastermind session. I also woke up at 5:55 and took a screenshot when I noticed the time.

I've been a part of a mastermind for three years with yearly programs. Today was our last session for this year's Mastermind group so I'm kind of sad that it's over but grateful that it happened if we think of that famous quote: 

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened"

Dr. Seuss

Part of our meeting today was looking back at our takeaways from the year and for me, what I shared about one of my takeaways was about accepting that along with periods of expansion, there are periods of contraction. I have these amazing moments or ideas and then it seems like there's a period where nothing seems to be flowing. I saw this with relation to memories as well, that we have extraordinary days or moments and they're special because they don't happen all the time. If every day was extraordinary, they would become ordinary.

I've taken a lot of notes over the years of what I've been working on and I notice that there's some periods where it's like an idea flows into another flows into another. I had some blog posts where they just flow into another, then there ccan be months where nothing new is coming up.

I still get discouraged sometimes but I think that's what I've been working on to continue to try to accept that I can't be creative every day or coming up with an idea, composing a melody, writing a blog post or recording a vlog. But when I'm inspired, I want to act. 

Today's date reminds me of February 22, 2022 (22-2-22) when I composed a melody that was in a beat of two. Noticing that number gave me a nudge or an idea to create something fun and it added a little whimsy in my day. 

So today, I just wanted to capture that moment, create a video and share.

As I was editing the video, I wanted to find a world clock with the date and noticed it was 4:44pm. Love it.

Protect Your Memories from Technology Failure

Why am I so passionate about memories? I want to be in control of my memories and not lose them as technology changes, as devices break or get lost or even natural disasters. I want to help people ensure their memories are protected.

The first thing we need to do to preserve our memories is to understand the technology and where our photos are. We need to ensure that our phones, our computers and SD cards are backed up and how that works. I will cover this in more detail in a later post.

My husband and I have had multiple drives fail and it's scary. The first time, our MacBook was getting the blue screen of death. It would work for 10-15 minutes at a time but then would shut down. During the times when it worked, I was frantically copying files and photos to an external hard drive in order to preserve them. I managed to save most of the files that were meaningful, but lost a few. It hurts and is frustrating to lose files.

We then started to do time machine backups on our computers. When our iMac drive failed, we managed to preserve almost everything by recovering files from the Time Machine backup. A computer failing is like a fire destroying photo albums. I wrote in my last post that since I was a child, I knew that if I had time, in case of fire, I would grab the photo albums. It was a fear I often thought about.

It's been a learning process over the years, as one machine breaks, of learning how it worked and staying up to date with technology. A lot of times I didn't understand and when it failed, that's when I learned what I didn't understand.

Last year, I was preparing a presentation for a moms group about preserving memories and I wasn't sure whether I wanted to talk about technology. Everyone doesn't have the same technology and I'm not a technology expert. I have lost memories when technology failed me and I didn't fully understand how it worked. That's how I learned, but I didn't want to learn everyone's technology so I didn't want to bring it up. 

But as I was writing my presentation on my MacBook where all my photos were stored, my MacBook broke, two weeks before my presentation. So I thought, the universe wants me to talk about technology. I can't resist bringing it up. I asked the moms, if your computer failed or you lost your phone, would you be okay? Would your memories be preserved? Many moms' eyes opened wide with fear. I may not be able to teach someone how to preserve or recover their memories, but I hope to inspire them to learn or hire someone to help them.

When it happened to me that time, I was bummed to spend a lot of money on a new computer and because I was in a rush for the replacement, I didn't get the ideal computer for me, I bought something in stock. It was a calm process because this time, I also had a cloud backup. I recently realized that perhaps I didn't save everything once again, because again, I didn't fully understand how icloud worked. But that's a conversation for another day.

The first thing is understanding the technology we're using with our computers, phones and cameras and that is also for our old video cameras and cassettes we used to use and quality settings when we're digitizing. I'll be covering more of these topics in future posts.  The first step is understanding where our memories are so we can preserve our collection as a whole.

Preserving Memories in a Digital World

[Note: I'm transcribing the videos from my YouTube Channel and back dating them to when I posted the videos for those who prefer reading. If you prefer watching, visit my YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/@suzannesewell]

I launched my YouTube channel in order to inspire people to preserve their memories and revive their most meaningful ones. The reason I want to do that is because I want to preserve my memories and revive the most meaningful ones myself. By inspiring others, by sharing ideas, I can also be preserving my memories and reviving what matters the most to me.

This has been something that has been close to my heart my whole life. Since I can remember, I have always known that if there was a fire in our house and everyone was safe, I knew where the photo albums were and I would try to grab them if there was time.

I'm not sure where this started. I don't know if there was a firefighter that came to our school and asked what we would grab in a fire, but it's something I always knew. No matter where I lived even after I moved away from home, I would know where my albums were so I could grab them in case of fire, or in case of evacuation. That was really important to me.

When we started a family, I started scrapbooking and my album collection really started to grow. I ended up with dozens of photo albums, especially after I was also teaching classes and hosting workshops where we would work on our albums together. As my collection grew, I realized that my escape plan didn't really work anymore. I couldn't grab all those albums in case of a fire. If I was given 24 hours to evacuate, perhaps, but in a spur of a moment, those albums would not be saved.

As a backup I used to keep negatives somewhere else, so if something happened to the albums, at least we had negatives to reprint the photos. This all changed when digital photography emerged.

I stopped scrapbooking around 2008 because I became overhwlemed. We had a digital camera for 3 years and as time passed, I felt even more overwhelmed and kept procrastinating. It got worse when we got cellular phones carrying a camera with us all the time. The number of photos we take now in one year is approximately what we used to take in 10 years. Globally we take 1.4 trillion photos every year. This is equivalent to100-200 photos a year on average per person in 2000; and 1200-1500 per year per person in 2020. (My average is much higher, how about you?)

What do we do with them all? Ten years after I stopped scrapbooking, I really felt the weight of the clutter on my shoulders, especially because it was so meaningful to me to keep my memories alive. In 2019, I started a big catch-up project called Revive55 Project, spending 55 weeks, ending on my birthday to get all my memories back in order. I wanted to stop feeling overwhelmed and scared that I would lose my memories. Of course, I had the memories in my head, but photos and memorabilia help us to remember. When we see a photo, we often say "oh right, I remember that". You may have felt that when you saw a Facebook memory pop up on your feed that you had forgotten about.

So much was happening with our kids in their teen years, and without scrapbooking, I felt like I would forget all the moments. Scrapbooking helps us to remember because we are going through and reliving those moments as we scrapbook. 

Some of the things I worked on that year, I realized weren't really time well spent; and other times, I wondered how we could do it more efficiently, and revive our memories in a way that it doesn't take so long. Because really, we don't want to be stuck in the past reliving our old memories. We want to relive them but not all the time. We want to also chase dreams, look to the future as we are living in the moment. We want to capture new memories, not just preserve our old ones. That's where Present Harmony comes in that we look back with gratitude of our memories we loved and we look forward with hope of capturing new memories and all of that happens in the present.

In the present, we're looking back. In the present, we're looking forward. Our future will become our present. That's why I wanted to find a better and more efficient way of preserving our memories so it's not as overwhelming a process as it could be if we tried to continue to preserve our memories in the digital world like we did in the film world. That old way didn't work for me anymore, so I wanted to explore new ways of preserving our memories.