from facebook to joy

This post has been skirting the edges of my brain for a while now. I see something and am reminded that I am bugged. It is like negative energy that shocks my brain waves every once in a while and reminds me that I wanted to write about it. Then the next thing comes along and it gets pushed to the back burner. In the meantime, my positive outlook and energy has been whittled away by someone else's negativity. None of which needs to be in my world.  None of which is going to stay in my world.

There is this miraculous unfollow button on Facebook.

I pushed it several times last week on different pages.

It was that easy.

And my world is that much brighter without being assailed by someone's anger at their childhood. Another's anger at certain segments of society that seem to be directed at themselves. (After which I went on a rampage myself, but I'm sure I'm allowed one. It probably won't happen again.)

Seriously.

Get. Over. It.

And if you can't get over it under your own power, go get some help.

It has gotten quite nauseating. It's kind of like rubber necking on the freeway. That horrible car accident that has everyone slowing so they can see the horror? The negative posts do the same thing. I seriously wonder if the authors of them know that and are doing it intentionally. Like a very good advertising campaign.

The very bright side is that now I have to go look for you to find that negativity.
It won't flash in my face as I scroll through pieces of other people's joy.

There is much in this life to be joyful about.
It doesn't matter where we've been.
It doesn't matter what we've been through.
Really it doesn't.

If joy isn't attainable ... then work to find a way to make it so.
We sort of like it over here.
That joy thing.

school art projects

I'll get to the recording and keeping track of incisors, but it's dark outside.

Now isn't that the lamest of excuses.

It will be worth the wait. You won't believe what I saved!

Fast forward a blink or two to the saving of school projects.

These pages are all 8.5x11, so you can sort of imagine how small I cut some of these projects down to. If you've ever had a child in school, you also know that the size of a school project sometimes takes up the entire dining room table. Precious treasures. Beyond precious. Just a wee bit overwhelming when you multiply those things by 5 or 10.

Out came the camera ... projects that size just don't fit on my scanner bed. 

Projects were photographed and then printed on, what looks to be (I am getting forgetful!), photo paper. Some parts of the original projects were saved, such as the name Bock in the bright in bright primary colors.

The piece of art on the bottom right hand corner of this page just begs to be made into large wall art.

Huge wall art.

In hindsight, some of these stories could have taken up entire pages and would probably have been more easily read. But they are readable and if someday I need a magnifying glass or 250+ reading glasses, I'm sure the kids can fill my Christmas stocking with whatever I need.

Isn't she just the cutest ever?! Isn't it amazing that at 5 years old she wanted to be the woman she is today on her 21st birthday?

Happy Birthday Anna!

Imagine making a book out of these pages with a story to go along. Imagine making it for the child of the one who wrote the story.

And that, folks, is how I preserved the artwork of the young 'uns in this family. The kids still have envelopes of school work and artwork that I didn't toss. But these big pieces got squashed down to little ones ... and I seriously love them!

You're thinking, "that's a lot of work!" Yes, it is. So is feeding and doing dishes for a family. So is keeping up on their laundry. The homework. The school conferences. On and on. All of that is worth every moment of energy you expend. So was this.

I really am thankful that I saved pieces of their childhoods and thankful that the orange box folks are going to help me preserve it.

baby books and boxes

My oldest came to town ... rented a Penske truck ,,, packed in the belongings ... swept up his south and west coast warm weather loving bride ... and headed off to begin their lives in Williston, North Dakota. We miss them already.

Before they left, I realized that they might have a few square inches of room in their rig.

Being as I have things I'm holding on to that can now be passed on to these married children of mine,

I dug around in the garage, found what I was after, pulled up the floor (height of comfort in my advancing, incredibly inflexible life), turned on my computer and started scanning. And scanning. And scanning.

You may notice two books. Yes, there are two. The large one holds everything from the first photo taken in the hospital and hospital wrist bands to birthday cards, baptism cards, school projects and that kind of thing.

The second book held photos. Eight years ago, I sort of updated all these books. Sort of. Some pages are more done than others and I decided not to have any feelings of guilt that they weren't up to date. Life is kind of like that. In my heart, I think I did the best I could. There were times of life that were a bit more challenging than others. Periods of time where the collection of treasures and treasured moments were scant. But, they will be able to tell you when they lost teeth, when they walked etc. I hope that one kiddo doesn't feel like another got more. The method of recording events changed over time, as did the saving of them. I'll share how I remembered many of these things in the next post. Because trust me, I never managed to even complete one of those cute little baby book things you buy with good intentions.

Each child also has a box. There were many years when the box was allowed to come out on their birthday and they could rifle through it. Each box holds an outfit and the hat they came home from the hospital in. Beyond that, they hold different things. This one for instance holds a beautiful caste of Blayde's hand. I should have noted what year it was done before I gave it back, but it is still the same hand today. If you lined up 5 of these, I'd pick his out in a heartbeat. Some boxes have envelopes of school work. In the streamlining process 8 years ago, I came up with a plan for saving the large treasured school work. The ones you can't get rid of because they are priceless, but at the same time I wasn't hauling a monstrous tote to Alaska filled with kindergarten art projects! I'll share that later this as well. It might save you a few feet of space depending on your family size.

This is the stack that I sent to Williston in the Penske truck. And saved on my computer, and external hard drive (one can never be too safe!), are the treasured pages that I intend to turn into a Shutterfly book. It will take less than an inch of space on my shelf and when I'm older and grayer and don't have energy to get up at 5:30 in the morning to race my sewing machine through totes of cloth, I can imagine that I will thoroughly enjoy paging through the memories with my cup of coffee.

This past week, while I have been quite absent on blogger, I have been very present at home. I've been on vacation all week and there have been days when I didn't leave the house. Blissful days like that. One of those days I spent a good six hours perched in front of that scanner/computer and worked my way down memory lane. Alyx and Anna both have their boxes and books returned to them. Brock's is done and sitting in a much downsized tote in the garage waiting to be delivered to him. Tia's isn't done yet. In all honesty, that one I am going back to work on before I scan. She was about 10 years old when I last put things together for her books. I need to do a few more years before I can call that one good.

Somewhere in the moving (and the storage of the kids' treasured favorite stuffed animal saga), three of the furry critters have disappeared. Brock and Anna still had theirs. I don't remember what happened to this nose. Maybe the kids do.

As my children now have growing families of their own, it is especially fun to share these with them. Does my baby look like I did? Did he cut teeth the same time as I did? Did we wave good bye at the same time? All those fun things that they can ask me, but I will never remember.

My brain is overfilled with so many delightful things that the memory bank can't quite pull out the small details that they may want to know. Perhaps they'll find the details ... somewhere in those nearly 300 pages I've scanned and saved so far!

purging? not.



I did such a great job purging things the month of September.

October has seen me haul in much more than I ever tossed out the month before.

I'm thinking it needs a diagnosis.

 

Part of September's purging was getting rid of stuff from our 50th birthdays.

They are gone.

I'm serious.

 

I have quite a few freebie books through Shutterfly that I need to get printed.

I'm thinking they may expire by the end of the year.

To collect the memories, including treasured memories of our kids and other family members,

I had scanned them all to my computer.

I can honestly say that the book on Shutterfly just needs 3 scenery photos (I need to figure out how to get them off Google Drive) and it will be set to print.

I do love those orange boxes in the mail.

 

For the cover of my book, I chose our baby photos.

Aren't we just cute?

 

 

I'm thinking that this photo has never been out of the frame it lives in. I'm quite confident that the same frame was on the wall when I was growing up. Therefore, I was surprised to see the back of the photo when I took it out to scan it.

 

 

Obviously long before Adobe or Picasa were around!

 

And just look at this charmer!

I'm not sure what age he was when this was taken, but am assuming it was around a year old.

If so, this photo was taken on the other side of the great big pond.

A whopping 4,212 miles from where I was as a baby.

 



 

Who would have ever dreamed?

Wait until you see my next Shutterfly book in progress.
I figured out what to do with the kids' baby books!
And this one definitely enables me to do a bit more purging.

baby bibs via pinterest

There was a baby shower for a set of twin boys several weeks ago that I wasn't able to attend.
My parents arrived in town for a week that evening!!

I've been eyeing a bib on Pinterest for quite a while now, wanting to really get one in the mail as a baby gift and not managing it. It is so disastrously late it is rather appalling!

It has sort of been one of these kind of things: I know I have some lightweight denim somewhere ... did I use it for making a rug to get rid of it ... I don't think I would have done that ....
These conversations with myself can go on for months.
Obviously.

So back to the baby shower. I hopped on Pinterest to take a peek and found some of the cutest bibs ever! And if you combine some of those cute ideas into one ... I had most of the stuff I needed.

And shucks, but if they didn't turn out cute!

If I had used lightweight denim, I would have finished the edges. This way they will fray over time with washes and get even more ragged looking as well as soft and cushy.

Love them!

 

My plan was to just have a red tie against the denim, but I also have creative daughters. The youngest one said, "why don't you .....?"

So we added a denim tie to the red printed side as well for totally reversible bibs.



 

Then I enlisted the next crafty daughters aid.
She is a pacifier clip maker and isn't the result just adorable?!

Just in time for fall hayrides, apple cider and the pumpkin patch.

 

Bibs might just be my new thing for a few minutes.
Linen bibs. Denim bibs. Antique stitching bibs.
Bibs. Bibs. Bibs.

Bullet

She is still here.

She's been threatened with a new home, but she's learning.

Her nose? Yup. She's been digging in something this morning.

She's always finding something interesting.

She is E.N.E.R.G.Y.

Throw my shoulder out tossing balls kind of energy.

 

She loves up the little boys.

Licks them like they're the newest Baskin Robbins flavor of the month,

but she doesn't jump on them.

Me? Yes, she tries.

Sometimes she's good and sometimes she is in serious need of attention

and is determined to let you know.

 



Almost two months ago, she was a real naughty girl and nearly had to find herself a new home.

But she and Jari came to "an understanding" and things have been better.

Yes, she's still a puppy.

It'll take a while and a lot of work,

but she's a serious keeper.

 

Since scheduling this post ....

Uh. Oh. She was seriously naughty again.

I'm afraid she is going to be looking for a new home.

 

In the next few days she is going to be looking for a friendly place to live.

Altho' I could live with her antics,

I'm not sure I can live with a husband who can't live with her antics.

This is a serious case of picking battles.

And I don't battle.

 

She is a doll with kids.

Loves to chew, and regardless of how many bones she is given still occasionally chooses something highly inappropriate to sink her teething mouth into. Like the seat on Jari's beloved ATV.
Not. A. Good. Choice.

And .... while I unscheduled the post and edited ...
puppy loves found a new home.
My parents were here for a week. Super fun for all of us.
We did a lot of running and all of it without this little charmer.
She wasn't really fond of that.

Anyway, I found a home for her.
A home that is filled with children who can match the energy of this one.
We came to a level of understanding in this house.
And I came to a level of acceptance.
We sort of need a dog that is elderly. A dog that is lazy. A dog that doesn't require
a lot of attention. We are some busy folks around here and I really don't want to be
tied down ... yet.
So, we're opting to go pet free for a while.
(We even passed up a bird at a yard sale this weekend. That serious it is around here.)

She was a super good girl on the way up to a bit of a cooler climate.
Even got herself a tasty slurp of a frosty from Wendy's.

Have fun Bullet!



camper ... again

We found another camper to redo. It is becoming a hobby of ours. We hunt for a deal on a cabover camper and then redo it. Use it a few times and off it goes to the next owner.

Hit replay and do it again.

 

This latest one didn't need a lot done to it. Nothing like the first where we had a serious learning curve. Didn't need nearly as much money poured into it either, but at the same time is a bit simpler than the last. No bathroom/shower in this one. Just a space for a port-a-john to take up residence. Still ... new lights, floors, storage compartment, carpets, memory foam mattress, wiring messes .... all those hubby department types of things.

 

I so want to do a camper with these colors. Really. I. Do. 

I'm just too cheap to pay full boat price for anything so I get what I can at SAS Fabrics and make it work. 

Labor Day weekend I put the covers of the cushions together. Took off the old, made patterns of the new and recovered the cushions. It is getting quicker with every one I do! Purples with tans this time around! No wavy feeling like you're on a European ship line this time around! I'm guessing that this camper, sans toilet, will probably be more of a hunting type of rig. Would work perfect for me for camping, but you never know.

My camera gathers dust lately. Seriously. I dusted it off and went outdoors for a minute ....

Cabinets and wall covering were left original. No need to replace any of that stuff even if it dates the camper in a great big way.

A whole lot of wood feeling going on in here.

Rather than hanging blinds this time around, I bought a bunch of muslin and made some simple curtains. Jari hung some curtain rods and the windows were covered simply.

I really wanted to add some purple highlights to the curtains. Dingle berries .. ric rac ... painted flowers on fabric. But, after looking at them, I like the simplicity of just sunlight.

The purple isn't overwhelming purple. Just hints that blend in well with everything else.
I like it.

The month of October in our world is booked solid.
Maybe if there is a moment in November, and it hasn't left our side yard, we might have a minute to go lake camping!
If not ... there's always the next one!

Perhaps with some hints of greens?