My ScrapMoir Article

My story, "My Mother's Upstairs One-Egg Cake," just appeared yesterday on Women's Memoirs in their ScrapMoir section. http://www.tinyurl.com/ndxu7e

Additionally, I'll be a permanent guest blogger twice a month, teaching how to use scrapbooking and memoir to tell our precious stories, including current stories of your children and grandchildren who are still young and you are seeing and hearing the stories now! Don't worry if you think your handwriting is awful. I have solutions. If you think you're not creative, that's even better. If you have pictures, this is for you. If you have stories without pictures, it's for you too. No one is excluded.

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Here's a good story for my scrapbook and my Simply Special website-- http://www.simplyspecial.homestead.com/

Jeff's graduation from high school.

If you figure in that Jeff started early intervention at Vanderbilt's Susan Gray School when he was five weeks old, we think he has earned at least a doctorate in "A Life in School."

What a kid.

He may be attending Tennessee Vocational School, which is a residential program, or he may work with his Dad. He liked the school when we toured it recently, but he sure loves working with Dad too, and he's certainly learning day-by-day. He can now screw in switchplates to walls and hammer better than he did.

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I'm adding more people to my newsletter and am currently working on the next installment, which will focus on writing family stories for scrapbooks and journals. Be sure to click on the box here on this site to be added to the list. You'll also be notified of current news goings-on in the industry as well as updates on my book. When it's finished, my email list will receive a discount plus other freebies.

Oooh, I Think This Is My Favorite Scrapbook Site

I cannot believe I found Sistine Chapel paper! When I scrap my photos of the St George, the huge Catholic church I attended growing up, I can use this paper because this is what was on those immense ceilings. Too cool.






And I can use this diecut for the train trip Gary and I want on before we were married, for my "About Us" album.

And is this not beautiful paper four our trip to the beach?




I need help, because I want to get everything on this site. It's www.scrapyourtrip.com, but it's way more than travel. There are weddings and romance, school, every known sport, and, get this, war... like map paper from the Iraqui war and vellum soldier's prayer. Stuff from the Gulf war, Vietnam, WWII.

I've never see such a huge assortment of supplies on one site. Plus if you sign up as an email friend, they'll send you a 20% off coupon. Orders over $59 ship free. I have no association with this site, except I signed up for the 20%. I just had to share this. They also are on Facebook, and you can be a fan.

Coincidentally, I got a Google allert this morning that they are merging with Whichbox.com. I cheked this out. It's quite interesting. A new concept that combines photos online with Utube, blogs, recipes, and the like, into one creative place. There is a childrens box for parents to write and share tips. Of course, there's a craft diva box, which is what I'm interested in. I'm looking it over and studying all the things it does. So stay tuned.

Last Weekend's Retreat

Getting the hang of Stacy Julian's Big Picture Scrapbooking.

Here is my last layout before I closed up shop.

Photos of Jeff and Gary in the Gulf at Anna Maria Island. Not the greatest photo of my page, but I am getting better at this.

I only wanted these two pictures on the page and tried to stay away from too much clutter.

And I so have to get the date stamp off my photos. I keep setting my camera and it keeps putting it back on.

This one of Jeff horseback riding has light bouncing off of it, but you can see the layout. This one I waned as many pictures as I could get on one page. I had a stack to choose from, but I followed the Big Picture Scrapbooking rule of storing the rest of the pictures in a photo box behind the label "Jeff's Activities" or in cold storage, meaning I wouldn't be scrapping these.

Even if I ended up using some of the rest of these photos some time down the line I can still find them in my cold storage box, for which I'm using my big Power Sort from CM.

I'm using, for right now, the Mini Power Sorts for the boxes labeled All About Us, Places We Go, People We Love, and Thins We Do

I actually came home from the retreat and organized my scrap area, and I can't believe what a difference it makes, with my new goals in mind. If you have not read Stacy's books, she's got a whole different perspective on scrapbooking. Of course, she's all into telling the stories, and that's what I like about her the most.


To the right is Cyndi, our fearless retreat sister, holding up the little pink sweater with the diva penguin on the front which I knitted for the baby shower. Yes, I knit too. And write. Oh, and read several books a week. And that's it. I hardly have time for anything else.

Our other preggo ss sister is Marcy, and I knitted her a blue (for boy) blanket, which she is not holding up.

News ~~

September 10th, I will be on the Women's Memoirs site http://womensmemoirs.com/ with a story about My Mother's One-Egg Cake. Then I will be a guest blogger twice a month on the site, writing about using scrapbooking and writing to create memories and stories like Kitchen Scraps.

I've made several cookbooks using the techniques, and these are wonderful gifts for loved ones, especially our children and grandchildren. So keep check on the site to find out more.

Be sure to look in this Thursday, the 10th, to read an interesting story about my famiy in the 1940s.

Cottage Tales Festival

Please join me in this festival of Cottage Tales books, written by award winning author, Susan Wittig Albert. Susan also writes the China Bayles mysteries, the latest being Wormwood, number 17 in the series.

You can go to Susan's site, About Thyme to learn more and read about herbs and recipes.

Follow the link below to see all of the Cottage Tales books. This is a real treat.

http://www.cottagetales.com/festival/

Food to Remember

Do you have memories of food growing up? I have so many. May be that we loved to eat, but we also had family celebrations that always involved delicious food. We were Catholic, so we had the Baptisms, First Communions, Confirmations, and graduations and so on. The marriages, and the funerals.

Once a year, we went with the church and the whole neighborhood to Coney Island, and every family packed a huge picnic lunch. My mother always brought cold fried chicken, which I can still taste to this day and cannot replicate. Her potato salad caused fights between me and my sisters.

My dad also cooked. He made huge pots of chili which was so hot, my mother made him cook two pots, one for everyone else and one for him.

We were poor, so we didn't eat too many fancy meals, mostly stews, soups, and one-pot creations. I still make cabbage and German sausage, string beans and potatoes, navy bean soup, my dad's vegetable soup, and my favorite beef stew.

Dad loved ice cream, and he made sundaes for us and banana splits. Mom didn't like to bake much, but she made the best one-egg cake with caramel icing I ever tasted.

My maternal grandfather lived on a farm, and in the summer we'd pick wild blackberries, and my step-grandmother made the best blackberry pie. She also wrung the heads off chickens and cleaned them and fried them up for dinner, but we won't go there.

My Favorite Beef Stew

1 pound of stew beef, or leftover potroast cut in chunks
4 good sized potatoes, cut in eighths
4 carrots, sliced
2 stalks of celery, sliced
1 can of peas
2 tablespoons of flour, divided
1 to 2 tablespoons of oil
salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons catsup

Coat stew beef with flour mixed with salt and pepper and saute in oil in a Dutch oven or heavy pot. When slightly browned, add potatoes, carrots, and celery plus enough water to cover. Bring to boil and then turn stove to simmer and cook until vegetables are tender. If water cooks down, add a little more. When done, take about a fourth cup of water out of the pot and mix with the other tablespoon of flour to make a paste and then pour back into the stew. Add catsup and peas and salt and pepper to taste.

I usually make this in my crock pot which doesn't require much water. I usually serve with homemade bread or rolls. I also add a little wine occasionally and a few more seasonings to my liking.

Notebook Journals

Above, the "concertina" journal I created last year. Ignore the 2004 date. My camera reset and I just haven't cropped these photos for some reason. Busy maybe? This journal was the most complicated because it's stitched using an awl and fiber with a BIG needle. It has pockets which are handy, and I glued a calendar to the front. Then I used some of scrapbook "stash" to doll it up.

In Memories in Order, I talk about using a notebook or journal to keep up with what you will be learning as well as to capture those thoughts, ideas, and memories that just flash into your brain and just as quickly disappear.

I carry a small notebook in my bag when I'm out and about. It's a "Moleskine," sold usually at stationery and book stores. Mine's black and has a black ribbon bookmark and an elastic holder to keep it closed.

I also have a decorated journal I keep on my bedside table, similar to the Moleskine, but red bookcloth, and larger, 5 x 7 inches. I used my scrapbooking products to express myself in making the red cover beautiful and creative.

Before that, I had one of those composition books you can buy when school sales are going on, like right now, sometimes for as low as 10 cents a piece. I also decorated the cover of that one too.

One of my scrapbook "sisters" gave me this comp book, and I used some of the other embellishments to decorate it. Even made a pocket for my scissors. You can see the little "B" charm hanging from the scissors. No more wondering whose they are now.

I've heard a few people say they have a hard time writing in a beautiful journal because they don't want to ruin it, or they think it calls for beautiful writing. Maybe if I paid an exhorbitant amount for the book, it would stifle my creativity, but none of mine are expensive, so I get more creativity and inspiration for my writing by looking at their beauty. On the cover of my current red journal I have a transparent stick-on, "Live, Laugh, Love," so at the close of the day, when I pick it up, that's what I see, and it inspires me.

Two of my customers a few years ago made scrapbooks from such journals with unlined pages, where they adhered photos, decorative paper and other embellishments, and their own handwriting. They had even adhered some 3-D items like silk flowers, momentos, "chunky" scrapbooks known in the industry. Oh, the covers didn't lie flat. They were prettty chunky. But they were inspirational.

That inspired me, and I began putting some things like pictures from magazines on my pages and stickers from my collection, maybe a photo or two if I didn't need it for my family scrapbook. It's quite fun. You can draw or sketch in these too if you have unlined pages. I saw a Moleskine last summer that a man had created while he toured Rome. He must have been an artist becauss his pen and ink drawings were beautiful. I can't draw, but I can kind of sketch.

At any rate, I call these "Notebook Journals," because they're double-duty. You can just journal about your day, take notes, especially when you're out shopping. You can make a grocery list or menu on the go, or if you're caught waiting somewhere. When I'm browsing bookstores, which is where you'll find me if there's one close to me, I'll write down titles I want and then see if the library has them before I buy.

Since I don't like to carry a big planner anymore, I've glued a small calendar to the inside cover of some of my Notebook Journals. Now I keep my datebook on my cell phone, but it's still nice to see it on paper while you're using your Notebook Journal.

For a while I had a 5 x 7 inch, 3-ring binder which held my whole life behind dividers: Menus, to-do lists, goals, book list, monthly and weekly calendars, address book, client list, notes. It was too much. But I still keep it on my desk and now have a section for websites with logins and passwords. There's just no need to carry it around, but I do take it if I'm traveling.

I also like to make travel journals. To the left is one I created using a comp book. Inside I have pockets I made from cardstock for maps, tickets, receipts, etc. I wrote directions for places we wanted to visit and journaled along the way. A good keepsake.

My "button" journal.

On the right is the "star" album I created totally from scrapbook paper and ribbon.




Please check back for more creative ways to hold your memories, and if you sign up for my newsletter here, you'll receive a special on Memories in Order when it's finished that will only go to those on the newsletter.