I had big plans this week to document my five years with Simple in a photo-album scrapbook and share it with you today. But I couldn't quite bring myself to get started on the project. Instead, I spent the week browsing through photos, reminiscing, making lists, and writing looooooong blot posts. All of this, if you think about it, is a vital part of the scrapbooking process too. When I've collected my thoughts enough to make the album, I'll make the album. In the meantime, it feels great to let go of the pressure to meet an arbitrary deadline (today) and submit to the natural flow of the creative process. So, to close out a fun and eventful week, I'll share a few more things that occured to me over the last few days as I thought and pondered and planned. (Scroll down for contest!)
Important Lessons I Learned About Myself
1. I can manage people, but I'd rather chew off my own arm. Managing is hard work.
2. I overanalyze everything, which makes me good at my job but annoying as hell at other times.
3. I enjoy the rush of stepping outside of my comfort zone, but only after the fact.
4. My personality type is ENFJ, so I prefer big-picture thinking first and details second. (But not everyone is like this, and that's okay!)
5. My gift lies in substantive editing rather than copy editing. I've learned that it's
good and right to rely on other team members for things they're
naturally better at.
New Things I Tried Because of Simple
1. Blogging.
2. Being interviewed on a radio show.
3. Demonstrating projects on camera.
4. Non-chronological scrapbooking.
5. Dansko shoes
True Confessions
1. Once and only once, Wendy and I jointly
created a layout and published it under a pseudonym, Andrea "Andie" Ludley. (A
rough mix of our two names.) I could tell you why, but I'd have to kill you.
2. Every year, we brainstormed crazy ways to mess with you guys in an April Fools' issue, but we never followed through on any of them.
3.
When playing with glitter at a tradeshow make-and-take, demonstrated by
an ever-so-slightly effeminate man, I said the following: "Look at all
this glitter! Gosh, I sure don't want to walk around looking like a
fairy all day!" Awkward silence. Another connotation dawned on me, so
I stammered, "Oh! I mean an actual fairy, you know, like with wings? Like Tinker Bell?... Gotta go!" Should have just let it go, man.
4. Once, while representing Simple at a crop, I said to a woman of indeterminate age, "Wow, look at those great heritage photos!" Her response, "Those are my grade school pictures." Oops.
5.
All of our professional photographs have been lightly edited to remove
pimples, wrinkles, dark circles, and unsightly alien parasites. Thanks
Conrad the Photoshop Guy!
Memorable Layouts We Chose Not to Publish
1. Toddler sitting on toilet.
2. Before and after plastic surgery layouts.
3. Naked man riding bicycle.
4. Nursing mother about to feed baby, with one breast fully exposed.
5. Couple French-kissing (tongues visible).
You know, do whatever you want in your own albums, but there are some things we just can't publish. We even met a scrapbooker-for-hire in Hollywood who claims she's scrapbooked boudoir photos for an unnamed celebrity.
Favorite Tradeshow Memories
1. The time we won an Oscar, just before nearly being rounded up on a very suspicious-looking bus while trying to get to the Pantages Theater to see Wicked in Hollywood.
2. The crowning of the Funnest Scrapbooker Ever (for 2007), the lovely miss Tamara Morrison, in a hotel room in Anaheim. Befitting the event, it was a series of hilarious events, from a misspelled cake to a botched "surprise" announcement.
3. The fun of being followed around by Cameraman Eric while Lain and I made fools of ourselves in booth after booth for the short-lived Clique TV! Actually, we did pretty well; the resulting videos were not at all painful to watch, which was a huge surprise.
4. Seeing Cirque du Soleil "Love" while in Las Vegas for one of at least a dozen tradeshows that we attended in sin city. The show was utterly fantastic, yet one of us still managed to fall asleep. Can you guess who?
5. Dinner at Marie Callendar's in Anaheim to celebrate the magazine's fifth anniversary. It wasn't the food that was memorable but the fact that we had all of these Simple personalities in one place at one time. Unprecedented. If we could have harnessed the energy in the room, we could power Anaheim for a month! I even dropped into the splits at one point just to impress everyone.
Lucky Winners!
How would you like to be one of five blog readers who will either win an Epson Artisan 700 Photo All-in-One Printer 
Here's what you do. Leave a comment on this blog, Cathy Zielske's blog, and Wendy Smedley's blog today. Comments will close at 10 p.m. MST on Saturday, May 1, at which time I'll pool all the comments from all three blogs and pick the five winners. Remember, you increase your chances of winning by commenting once on each blog. Let's hear it!
p.s. Don't forget to visit Stacy Julian's blog today for more fun memories and, quite possibly, another cool giveaway.)
p.s.s. Yesterday's random winner for a copy of Scrapbook Play with Photos was none other than commenter #69, Jackie, who wrote about the triplets named Olive, Kelly, and Forest Greene. Click the Email Me link beneath my picture to send me your address!
