Big Mess, Little To Show for It.

I dragged out stamps, inks, alphas, scraps, Cricut, patterned paper, embossing powders, cardstock and probably more stuff I can't remember to make one stinkin' Congrats card.

And that's not even the stuff spread out all over the dining room table. Did I finish the card? Ummmm. no. I got as far as paper piecing a cute owl and choosing paper. It's not going to be anything spectacular; so I'm not sure why I'm agonizing over it!

5/23/11 follow up

Here's the end product. I really don't care much for it, but it will have to do as it needs to get out. Some days I am just NOT inspired, ya know?



Flowers for Mom

I get love and cards and calls from my children; but Jack and I both miss our Moms and think about them, especially on Mother's Day. This year Jack decided he was going to buy flowers for his Mom; so this is what has been gracing our table since Mother's Day:

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I think it's a lovely idea; and I sure am enjoying Jennie Mae's flowers! I miss my own mother, who died before I turned 12; but I was fortunate to have a wonderful mother-in-law, who taught me a lot about being a mother-in-law myself. Happy Mother's Day to Jennie Mae and Mary Louise!

Muffin at 4 months

We call her Muffin just because we couldn't think of a better name. She probably ought to be Honey Nut Cheerio because she is honey-colored, she acts like a nut sometimes, and she loves Cheerios as a reward. We got so lucky with this rescue pup! She has slept through the night since Day 1, which is huge for us. She has had relatively few accidents in the house. Muffin doesn't bark much -- maybe at the neighborhood cat when it saunters across our lawn; and she doesn't jump on people. At 4 months, Muffin:

. has 2 speeds: fast forward and pause.
. spends a few moments of every day acting like Crazy Dog -- running back and forth through the house or the yard as fast as she can.
. loves people but is wary of other dogs.
. is smart. Understands "come", "sit", "stay" and "bring me the ball". Knows the difference between the ball and froggy, let's say.
. loves to chew on crushed ice and thinks it's a dandy reward.
. we can leave her in her crate for a couple hours and she's fine with it. We usually leave cartoons on for her.
. if we put New Age music on, she will fall asleep.

Just in the last few days she has begin to communicate with us by looks. When she wants to go out, she looks at the leash, then at us. When she wants to eat, she looks at the food bowl, then at us. I do believe she is training us.

We had some issues establishing who was alpha dog and who was not. I think we've mostly won. Most of the time she cracks me up just by being a puppy. Jack is totally in love with this little girl, and I'm a bit fond of her too!

"About Me" swap

Nine of my monthly crop friends and I are participating in an "About Me" swap. Each of us is making 10 copies of an 8"x8" page; and there are no other rules. I had fun making this page, using one of the head shots Jack took of me for my brief tenure on the CC Design Team before it closed. The butterfly theme suits me because I coordinate day trips with some of my scrapbooking friends; we call ourselves the Sisterhood of the Traveling Butterflies.

I realized when I was done that  I crammed a lot into one little LO: stamping, inking, dry embossing, heat embossing, punching, computer text on a tag, Cricut die cuts, even a jewel and ribbon. I was kind of pleased to find a use for some glassine envelopes left over from my stamp collecting days, and photo mats from some pearlized paper scraps a friend gave me.

I'm really excited to collect "About Me" pages from 9 of my friends. What a nice keepsake!

Indexing for FamilySearch.org

I've been indexing records for FamilySearch.org since last Fall, and I just passed the 10,000 names mark. It's easy and it's so addictive! As the records are indexed and checked, they are being made available to the public -- for free! I have gotten so much excellent genealogy information and assistance from Family Search and the LDS, that I'm happy to have a chance to contribute.

This is a well-planned effort. The indexer (that's me!) has a choice of many records to work with: census, draft registrations, birth and marriage records to name a few. If I spoke a foreign language, indexers are needed for many languages. Each record is sent out to two separate indexers. If there are any discrepancies between the two results, an arbitrator takes a look at the record and decides the final version.

I've done a lot of 1930's census records, which would have been Depression era and pre-Social Security. What I'm noticing is that families really stuck together. A household might include adult children, a widowed parent, or a couple's siblings. Many families had one or more lodgers, probably to help make ends meet.

If you've never looked for your ancestors, be sure to check out https://familysearch.org and plug in a name or two. You may be amazed at what comes up, and the information is growing by leaps and bounds as indexers do their thing. And if you want to see what indexing looks like, go to https://familysearch.org/volunteer/indexing and take the test drive.

Our New Little Girl!

This little girl has come to live with us.

She is a rescue dog who was fostered by a very nice family with a little girl who adored her, and we were afraid Mikela (the little girl) would be sad. However, their family fosters pets all the time and she told Jack it was fine, and that in fact they were waiting to pick up a new foster pet.  Our new baby is 11 weeks old and very well behaved, hasn't had an accident in the house (yet!), hasn't barked (yet!), whimpers a little when she thinks we've left her alone, seems to have become comfortable with us quickly, sleeps all night (yay!), plays hard and is willing to snuggle when she's finally tuckered out. It's hilarious to watch her puppy play -- shaking the bejeebers out of a stuffed toy, trying to worry the tag off her new bed, or trying to figure out how to get two balls in her mouth at the same time.

Jack's been looking at rescue dogs ever since we gave puppy #1 back to the breeder when she kept him up all night howling and crying; and he fell in love with this pup even though he was looking for an older dog. The foster Mom didn't know her history, or what breed mix she might be. She's tiny, only about 6-7 pounds and will probably get to be twice that size. We think she might be part spaniel; but her face is pointier and her head smaller compared to her body. Maybe the vet will have an idea, not that it matters. She needs a name. For now we think of her as Muffin. We need to pick something before she thinks her name is "No!". The kids are already asking us to bring her up with us next time we go to Atlanta -- maybe we will!

Coordinates Collections March Blog Hop

I was at a crop yesterday, and finished my Coordinates Collections Blog Hop project as well as some other challenges:

I think of myself as being 12; so it was fun to journal some of the things that delight me. The challenge itself was to stitch on a layout, and I wanted to try something a little different. I stamped flourishes on cardstock with watermark ink, then stitched with my sewing machine. In retrospect, it probably would have looked better if I had hand-stitched the shapes because it was hard to see what I was doing and the lines are a bit jerky. I finished a few spots with white pen.