Taking Charge of Life

Monday, 4 February 2008

I don't remember when I actually created this blog, but I do know my intentions were to use it faithfully. But, life got in the way. First of all, my daughter and son-in-law were helping me remodel a 1920's craftsman style home that we mistakenly believed just needed minor cosmetic work. uh huh! That was a year ago!


I am finally in - as of Saturday - but now I am living with boxes, and trying to find things; trying to remember in which box they were packed! Yikes...it may take me another year to get everything put away! Probably longer than that to remember where I stowed them away.


My dog, Sky (half golden retriever and half collie), is having a harder time adjusting to the move than I. He had a bunny friend - yes, you read that correctly - a little wild brown bunny that used to sit at the gate of his dog run and they'd "talk" nose to nose. Strangest thing...He also misses my neighbor's granddaughter who has been his best bud since she was 18 months old. He'll be 13 this spring, so adjustments are a bit harder for the old boy. If the photo loaded correctly, you can see this handsome old man! I actually have a photo of his bunny friend, but I don't think it's still in file on my computer.

I retired from my position with a domestic violence crisis agency this fall and am now looking for work. I have only a few hours of classwork left to be a licensed mental health practitioner, but I need the $$ to complete the courses, so that means back to work for me!

My sanity throughout the remodel of the house has been digital scrapbook. I have looked back at old scrapbooks I created for my children when they were little, and digi certainly has that old paste-up method. About eight years ago, I figured out I could use my scanner to create digital pages, so I began putting photos, small mementos, family Bible pages, ticket stubs, etc., on the scanner in an arrangement that would allow me to create a complete page on the scanner. I suppose it was one method of hybrid scrapping. It worked really well and I was pleased with the end results. I created a page for my mother's section of the scrapbook by placing a photo of her at age 21 and the last good photo of her in opposite corners of the scanner, laid her darning egg, one of her thimbles, one of her small embroidery hoops, a crochet hook her father carved for her mother, an oval porcelain medallion she had hand-painted, one of her china painting brushes, and I covered this whole collection with a section of a quilt she had made for me. She designed the blocks when she was 21 years old, and embroidered all the blocks (flower baskets) between the time she was 21 and the year I was born (1943). When I scanned that collection, everything had natural drop shadows and a look of 3-dimensional art.

On the pages of that album created largely on my scanner, I used traditional scrapbook stickers, borders and elements to embelish.

It wasn't many years after that that I found digital scrapbook kits by "googling" scrapbook supplies. Wow! I was hooked!

This is a long introductory post, I know. So, I'll keep my future posts to a manageable length!

Later....sandi