My Weblog

Let there be light..........

Well, I finally gave in and turned the lights on here in the office. I ended up lighting 5 candles, and quite honestly they threw only enough light to keep me from stepping on a dog between here and the restroom. I decided that the Fun Fair up the street is now in full swing so it might be safe to turn a light on.

I now know why our forefathers went to bed at sundown. It's pretty useless to try to stay up with only candle light.

I am glad there weren't many trick or treaters. There's been enough barking, but less than in other years. Just getting to the door to open it is always an adventure with three barking, circling, "dancing" dogs between me and the door. Praise God for that Fun Fair so close by.

It's almost 8 o'clock. I was really hoping DD would bring the kids by but I doubt that is going to happen. It would take her 40 minutes or so to drive here and drive back and the kids should be in bed by 9. I used to be invited to her house to help out with costumes and such, but that hasn't happened in a couple of years. And, before that, she'd bring DGS by to show off his costume. I'm not sure how it happened that someone has concluded I wouldn't be interested these days, but apparently that's how it is.

I was able to sort through some more paper on the desk with the little bit of light from the candles and my monitor. However, at night, the lighting in here is not good and it's difficult to file anyway. It was impossible by candle light. I'm just happy to have made a little bit of progress.

Well, I'm off to see what else I can accomplish. G'night.

Let the barking begin.........

The sun has slipped behind the western mountains and shortly all the little ghosts and goblins and super heroes and pumpkins and fuzzy puppies will be trooping through the neighborhood. And the insanity in this house will begin as all 3 dogs begin barking each time they hear a single pair of feet walk on any street in the neighborhood. There aren't many times in my life that I wish for valium, but I kinda wish I had some tonight.........

We used to put a sign out to tell folks to go one block west to our church where we had donated candy. I didn't donate candy this year so I can't do that. I guess I will just sit here in the dark and do whatever I can manage in the dark, LOL. I wonder how well I can dust in the dark? Maybe I can get away with lighting a candle?????

By the way, speaking of candles, I don't know if I mentioned it here or not, but when I had my little $20 splurge at Michaels, I bought some pumpkin spice candles. They were on sale. I have burned one of them for at least several hours a day since then and I still have over half of it left. I think that's pretty good for the price I paid for them.

Well, the outside light is not on. I've closed the black out curtains in the dining room, but there is a window above that doesn't have curtains........ The doors to all the bedrooms and the hall bath are closed so it was safe to turn on the hall light. I would feel terrible if cute little kiddos rang my bell and I had nothing for them. So, it's best to stay in the dark for a while.......

It would be nice if DD would bring the grandkids by so Grandma could see them in their costumes but I don't think that will happen. Maybe I'll get some pictures. I'd love to see them.

Well, that's it for now. Later, maybe.

 

Little Minutes..........

I am still working on the concept of "little minutes". Essentially, as I understand the concept of "little minutes", it means you do not stand around and wait for something to happen. You use those "waiting" minutes to accomplish something.

One of my most exasperating times is when I'm "waiting" for stuff to upload to the store. I sit here til my butt hurts, waiting. It is a crazy maker.

I just had a flash of brilliance. It is unwise to start these uploads and walk away. Sure enough, while you're gone, the upload will finish and the site will dump you if you don't click the right button fast enough. (Sometimes it dumps you even if you click the right button the moment it becomes available.) So, wandering away, to clean the kitchen or make the bed is just a total no-no. When the site dumps you, you have to re-upload what you just spent a long time "waiting" to finish uploading. However, and here's the brilliant part, THIS ROOM ALWAYS NEEDS DUSTING! I can pretty much see my screen from anywhere in the room. And, I can dust and keep an eye on the upload simultaneously!!!!!!!!! How's that for a "discovery". Yes, I know, it most likely seems pretty elementary to you, but, believe me, it is rocket science to me!!!!!!!!

I removed two of my Halloween kits from the ACOT store a few weeks back. I revamped them, adding in new papers, new elements, etc. I put them in my other store. The other store has now closed. And, I want those two kits back at ACOT. While I uploaded the full kit, I dusted part of the credenza and the file cabinets, and the bookshelves above the file cabinets, the other credenza, and the window/window sill area. Wow! This was just dusting with the feather duster, but if I can keep up with that, the harder version, the wet rag version, is needed much less frequently. Now, I ask you, is this a major discovery or what????!!!!!!!!!

So, I am still working on uploading the second kit. But, I've dealt with some paper on the desk that needed to be dealt with and dusted about as far as I can go without a bucket of hot water and a rag, if I want to keep going in order, around the room. And, yes, I do want to do that or I'll lose track of where I've been and where I'm going.........

By the time I got finished working on all the Halloween stuff for the Halloween grab bag yesterday, I had myself pretty geared up. I was pushing to finish and it seemed there was always one more preview to make. (Indeed there was--I found myself making another preview this morning, LOL.)

Once I thought I'd finished on the Halloween Grab Bag, I started working on Christmas Kit #2. And, that, I'm ashamed to say took over my life for the rest of the afternoon. Finally last evening I started working on the desk. I did a pretty good job of it, as far as I got. However, I will take another 3 or 4 sessions of a couple of hours each before I have the desk to which I aspire. I am truly looking forward to a clean desk. I really don't like dusting around things and it's not like I have a lot of choice in that right now.

I guess I'm going to have to make another collection call. Do you remember that I let two returns walk out of here without payment. Trusted clients of MANY years....... Then, I got an envie in the mail and I though I was paid. Instead when I opened it, I found only one check for the Mom's return. I called the daughter and told her I was still looking for payment for her return. To date, I've received nothing. I am sure this is not intentional, but..........

I have a lot of expenses to cover right now. I do need whatever money I can round up. I have to pay to re-up my preparer number with the IRS. Then I paid, last night, for a CPE course. The Lord really blessed me on that! I had shopped and shopped til I thought I had found the lowest price out there for an online course. There was NO WAY I wanted to pay for a live course--those were just as astronomically priced as I'd predicted they'd be. However, yesterday I found that the online course I'd thought was the cheapest was marked down!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Marked down by 75%. So that was paid for last night. Next comes the big bucks for software for 2012 returns..........

Honestly, the last thing I want to do, come this spring, is tax returns. However, I continue to ask the Lord to "bless the work of my hands" as promised in Deuteronomy 28, and I guess that means I have to work, LOL. In reality, I would SO prefer to make all the money I need from design, but I guess no matter how much I don't want to do tax anymore, I cannot walk away from the bit of income I still make from that. For all I know, that is the income stream the Lord intends to bless!

Well, I will have to use yesterday's to do list. I got some other things done, but they were not necessarily done in accordance with my plan. In any case, I think we should have some eye candy.......

This cute page was scrapped by Laura with Generations. This is Paisley who usually appears on a layout from Laura, particularly when there's a paisley paper in the kit, LOL. Paisley is a Golden Doodle. Translated, that means a combination of Poodle and Golden Retriever. I always love when the creative team is able to use photos that work with the theme of a kit. But the funny thing is that I love when they do something unexpected like this. And, it's a beautiful page to boot!

Here is another page by Laura, aka Art Teacher. I think she's done a beautiful page here, preserving this photo of her grandparents. I particularly like that she was able to use the postcard for her journaling. That cluster on the left of the photo is very nicely done. Beautiful work.

There's a freebie on the HotFlashDesigns Facebook page.......

You'll find it here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/HotFlashDesigns/117807308235442

and it looks like this:

This contains elements/papers to match 3 Halloween kits of mine, All Hallows Eve, Costume Parade, and Pooky Pooky Pooky. Costume Parade and Pooky were removed from the store and updated. I'm putting them back in the store today in case anyone wants coordinating papers and elements to go with the freebie.

I screwed up...........

I decided to work on cleaning this desk. It is some better. In the process, however, I ran across a flyer from an Italian restaurant and, sure enough, they had Eggplant Parmegian on their menu. I ordered. It is something I will never do again from this restaurant. If you read the VERY small print, you will find it says there is a $1.50 delivery charge. I was charged $2.50. Also in that very small print, they disclose that they charge an extra dollar for use of a credit or debit card. So, I am not happy with the very small print and I am not happy with being overcharged for delivery. I also think (though I am not sure) that the "surcharge" for using a credit card is a violation of a merchant's agreement with the credit card companies.

I got plenty of food. The problem is I can't eat it. The eggplant parmegian is greasy AND has way too much cheese. If you have a gall bladder, you're in danger of having a gall bladder attack from this stuff. They sent a container of mostaccioli. The pasta is way overcooked. You cannot eat it with a fork because it falls apart. I'm not a fan of their sauce, but I'm really disappointed with steamtable pasta.

What did they do right? Well the food was well packaged to stay warm. Good thing--I had to wait an hour for the food to arrive. Other than that, I'm not too sure they did anything else right. I managed to choke down about 1/4 of the eggplant. And after that, I ate a piece of garlic bread. There's a whole lot of food I don't like which needs to be consumed in the next few days. Yuck!

So, I have whittled down one small pile of paper on the desk. There is still much to go, but at least it was the pile with the current bills. All but one of those is paid. Everything else in that pile has pretty much been paid, filed, trashed, etc. There are a couple of pieces that require more action--a letter to be written or something of that sort.

I spent hours this morning on the freebie grab bag I'm giving away tomorrow. Phew! That was time consuming. I don't think I'll do that again for a while, LOL.

Then I went back to work on Christmas kit #2. I'm about 3/4 through the papers on that.

Well, I'm not going to be awake much longer. I'm tired. I haven't done a lot that's physical but I'm fried from design and desk cleaning. Tomorrow..........

 

I know some pretty intelligent people,

and I have to say I am amazed at their political naivete. I'm calling it naivete because that's a polite word. For anyone who is not independently wealthy, every month we have to budget or control our spending. It is a very unhappy event when we run out of money. For a while, we can use credit to cover shortages, but eventually, we've borrowed so much that no one wants to lend to us any longer. Or, we find we cannot make the required payments on our debts.

How is a country any different from your household or mine? I just can't get the logic. We have borrowed and borrowed as a nation and we are deeply in debt. Yet, our government continues to spend like drunken sailors.

And seeing all this, there are many who would vote to continue all this spending. There is no logic in that. There is long term tragedy. If my understanding is correct, my 3 year old DGD owes $147,500. That is her share of our nation's debt. My 5-year old grandson also owes $147,500. So does my 13 year old grandson. WHAT will their world be like? I fear it will be a most unhappy place.

It really doesn't matter how deserving some folks are. When there is no money to help them, there is no money to help them. You can try taking money from the wealthy. When we hear how much money some people have, the numbers boggle our minds. Yet, if you rounded up all the wealthy and took their wealth, turning them into average Joes, how long would the money last. And here is where the problem lies: our conception of those numbers with lots of zeroes is not solidly based in fact. We don't have that many zeroes on our bank balance, so, surely if we take away their extra zeroes, we can balance the budget. The simple fact is, if you can add and subtract, NO, WE CAN'T. No matter how many millions we are able to take from the rich man, it will not a) balance the budget, or b) kill off the massive amount of debt. There are just not that many millions available.

During the Great Depression of 1929 and thereafter, there were few social programs. Many of the programs FDR tried to institute were either ruled unconstitutional or failed. How did folks survive? They got whatever kind of work they could find. People with only a little more than those who were destitute, hired them to dig their garden plot or wash their windows, or help out building something on the farm. They were paid in a place to sleep, food, and maybe a little bit of money. And they were thankful. They weren't looking to get rich in a bad economy; they weren't looking for someone to "adopt" them and feed them and clothe them and house them. They were looking to get by.

I can remember that when a Canadian "dollar" was only worth about .70 or .75 US cents. Now, with our astronomical debt, it takes about $1.25 US dollars to purchase $1 Canadian dollar. That is a horrendous turn around.

Now, the Fed has announced it will print more dollars. What that will do is dilute the value of every dollar any of us can earn or any of us has saved. Where it once cost $200 for a part to fix our Japanese car, it will soon cost $300. (Those aren't exact numbers on the conversion rate; they are given for illustration purposes only.)

Small business people are being run out of business by this economy. Let's look, for example, at an over-the-road trucker. The price of fuel for his truck has more than doubled. And, of course, he has to pay for insurance, tires, repairs. Change your frame of reference: a set of tires for a tractor trailer is going to run a good $3000 or more. That trucker has to eat something while he is on the road and, if he doesn't have a sleeper tractor, he has to rent some sort of room to sleep in. On the road, it costs him money to get a shower, even if he DOES have a sleeper. The problem, however, is that business that hire the trucker to transport goods are going under, are late in paying, are unwilling or unable to pay enough more to the trucker to offset the increase in his cost. Eventually he sells his truck just to get out from under his astronomical debt load and he is out of business.

Or, let's take your doctor as an example. He/she is in debt up to the eyeballs for student loans to help pay for college and medical school. He bills the insurance company SO MUCH for the few minutes he spends with you, but the doc is lucky to receive 40-45% of what is billed. So, no matter how much you think he earns, think again.........

How is it relatively intelligent people cannot add and subtract and reason? I don't get it.

 

Step Lively!

Yes, indeed, it is another chilly morning in Nevada. When I got up it was 56 degrees outside. We've made it up to 67 now. So, I'm wearing a lightweight sweater and long pants. I can't find half of my sweat pants so I'm just wearing a pair of knit pants. We're supposed to see 82 today, in which case, I don't think I'll have any alternative to changing into something not quite so warm. 82 is extremely comfortable here, because of the low humidity. So, even though it means double the laundry, I'm still looking forward to it.

I've been doing some design work. I promised a freebie Halloween grab bag tomorrow, and I have to make sure everything is ready for that. I somehow must have over estimated how much stuff I had to give away. Or, maybe, once I pulled it all into one place, it looked chintzy. Anyway, I'm working on several paper packs to tuck in there to make it more worthwhile. As a "customer" I am, for want of a better word, disgusted by minuscule freebies. So, since I don't like receiving them, I don't want to be guilty of giving them.

Once the grab bag is ready, I need to do the alpha previews for Christmas kit #1. I got everything done for the Thanksgiving kit and I sent it off for wrappers. Then, once I do the alpha preview for Christmas kit #1, I can go back to working on Christmas kit #2.

So, I think I need a whole new to do list. A list to get me back on track and to pick up the pieces of projects started but not finished. Here goes:

1) Vacuuming must be done. We're working our way back to the front of the house, vacuuming the hallway first.

2) I have to get some dusting done. It's getting out of hand again........

3) I need to screw up my courage and push that reset button on the garbage disposal. If I'm gonna need to buy a new disposal, I guess I need to face that now. Anyway, I'm hoping the reset button will work and the sink will once again drain properly.

4) I started packing up summer clothes for storage. I need to do some more of that.

5) I had picked out the least expensive CPE package to order but the e-mail with the link was accidentally deleted. Now I know why. I just got an e-mail advertising a 15 hour CPE package for a very reasonable price, much less than the one I'd marked before I WILL get that ordered today!

6) I started cleaning the windows in the french doors out here and had to break that off when my back went temporarily kerflooey. I will try to finish that today.

7) I need to do Bible Study/School today.

8) 1/2 each--unzip and organize downloads and delete e-mail. I am not even going to tell you how many e-mails are stacked up in my inbox. Downloaded files are now well under 600.

9) 1 hour of advertising!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

10) 5 minutes on the patio.

11) 5 minutes in the garden.

I'm sure there are bazillion jobs I could list here, but I won't get more than what I've listed done, so why bother. Tomorrow, as Scarlett O'Hara said, IS another day.

One of the things I was going to do Sunday was go somewhere and buy milk. I didn't do it. Yesterday when I started to make my morning frap, I ran out of milk. Well, there just happened to be some dry milk left, so I mixed that up and added it to the milk I had. That worked out fine. However, this morning all that was left was the dry milk. Even with 5 tablespoons of Nesquik and 1 tablespoon of coffee in there, nothing, it seems, can disguise the taste of reconstituted dry milk. I can't honestly tell you I am enjoying my morning frap today........

I am way past time to post this. Let's do eye candy and move on!

This page was created by Sarah Whithers, aka Jen. She decided to scrap a photo of her grandparents with this kit. Once again she has done that thing she does where she miniaturizes the elements. I always love the look of that. Great layout, Jen.

Laurie created this page using Generations. Just recently, her father passed away. She chose to scrap a photo from his childhood. She comments in her journaling that he always had a birthday party and invited the whole family--the last birthday,in December, there were 100 guests. I really like how she used the aged shutters on either side of her photo. It REALLY adds oomph to the photo. Beautiful page.

Now I'm off to win one for the gipper or something like that!

 

I went, I saw, it conquered.......

Well, we finally got to the Punkin Patch. I ended up leaving a few minutes early and just sitting in my car. The combination of the hay and dust was too much for me. I snuffled and snuffled and my eyes watered and finally, out of desperation, I went to the car. There, after riflng through all the cubby holes, I found a Starbucks napkin and was able to blow my nose and wipe my eyes. Next year, I want to remember to take the Benedryl BEFORE I go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DGS1 didn't want to go, but DGS2 and DGD were READY! DGS2 has always been a "know no fear" kinda little guy, but DGD was right on his heels when we would allow it. In some cases, the people at the Punkin Patch said she was too small. I did see DGS2 helping her once as she was climbing up to slide down one of those inflatable slides. But, generally, she just trooped after him. That is one determined little girl! But, by the time it was almost closing time, she was getting a bit cranky and tired. She didn't whine or cry or anything, but her little legs were tired and she wanted to be carried. And, nothing we suggested seemed to appeal to her. But, I think they had fun and that was what was important.

When DGS1 was younger. the first place he wanted to go was the trampoline/bungie jump thing. And he would do it repeatedly. I thought DGS2 would be interested in that too, but, for some reason, that was the one thing he didn't seem to care a fig about.

We used to have a tradition of getting some hot pumpkin spice coffee from the closest Starbucks. Apparently I was the only one thinking about that tonight. I originally was going to get it as a treat for me, but found myself hacking and coughing and decided it would be medicinal whether it was a treat or not. When I start having trouble with my asthma, and I don't have big trouble, just little trouble, I frequently will reach for some coffee. It helps.There have been many trips to the Punkin Patch where the hot coffee seemed necessary just to defrost us but the temperature was pretty mild tonight and there was no wind so it was pretty comfortable. No defrosting called for!

DD made stuffed peppers for dinner. Cooking in this family has gotten to be very complicated. Her ex is a vegetarian. She and DGS2 worry about gluten because of Celiacs. DGS2 also seems to be lactose intolerant. And then there's me and I do my best to avoid soy because it conflicts with my thyroid meds; of course, soy is a major source of protein for vegetarians.......... It's a bit like trying to cook 5 meals at once......one without animal products, 2 without gluten, one without dairy, one without soy, and just whatever for DGD and DGS1. Confusing.......

Well, I guess I will try to get some alpha previews made so I can send them off for wrappers tomorrow. I have to tell you, I don't feel much like doing it tonight........

Bumping along.........

I am setting no land speed records for accomplishments today. Darn! I have cleaned up the kitchen and that's about all I've done in the house, except pick up the nasties that were on the floor. Carpet cleaning to commence sometime after I eat. If I do it on an empty stomach, I may not be able to eat, LOL. As to design, I started that second Christmas kit. Just couldn't resist playing even a little bit with the new color scheme. I think it's going to be a great kit. I love the colors. I also did 3 more alphas for the first Christmas kit, so the design part of that kit is finished.

I am going to have to stick my head down under the sink and hit the reset button on the garbage disposal. Prayers going up that it works. The sink on that side has been VERY slow moving for a while and the garbage disposal makes noise, but more like a motor running than the movement of the blades. I do hope I am not looking at buying a new one. Joe installed this one and we had to have a plumber friend come over and uninstall it and reinstall it because Joe didn't read the directions (typical man). There was a piece that had to be knocked out that he didn't bother to knock out. I installed the one before but I had DD to help. The problem is that it has to be lifted in place and held there while screwing it in. I am not strong enough to hold those things in place one handed..... My ex-sister-in-law used to have some trick with a broomstick, but that scares me...... Maybe I can find something about the broomstick trick somewhere on the 'net which will reassure me......

Alright, I haven't had breakfast and I haven't had lunch. It must be time to forage for food. Later, maybe. I just got invited to go to the Punkin Patch with my grandkids so this evening will be shot. I am also detailed to pick up some number of them from daycare/school.

I went "shopping" on the internet for a pet door. It looks like it is going to cost almost $100 to buy it and then on top of that, I'll have to pay to have it installed. In the garage, somewhere, is a saw that could be used to cut the hole bigger, but that "somewhere" is the important word in this sentence. Where it might be by now is a total mystery. I know where it used to be but that was when I was in charge of the garage........ Even if I could find the saw, I think I'd be unlikely to tackle this job. I don't mind a home improvement project here and there, but I'm pretty sure I remember that there is electrical wiring in that wall. I don't want to mess with the possibility of sawing into that.

What I really hate about enlarging the pet door is that the darn flaps die after only a few years. That is especially likely to happen with three large dogs running in and out all day. Then you have to fork out the $$$ for refills on the flaps. This prospect does not amuse me either. My homemade pet door has flaps made from a tractor-trailer sized mud flap. Refills cost about $7. That fits my current budget much better.

Greetings and salutations.........

Well, as it turned out, yesterday was a pretty good day. I finished that Christmas kit. I even did one alpha. I will undoubtedly make a couple more alphas today. Then, I need to do alphas for the Thanksgiving kit and I can move on to Christmas kit #2. I also finally got all the CT uploads done late last night. I've been having some sort of "technical error" message at YouSendIt. I was supposed to get in touch with Customer Support, but they were closed. So, I did an e-mail. I got one form letter back, saying they would contact me and finally last night (after the uploads finally worked) I got a personal contact. Here I thought someone checked out my account and fixed it and Customer Service was still dinking around with finding out what was wrong!

I did all 5 of the "projects" yesterday.

I unloaded a box of books into the bookshelves.

I put away the contents of that one box I'd unpacked from the dining room. (These boxes are all in the guest room and til I get them dealt with, the guest room is totally trashed and non functional). I have pretty much filled a box with summer tee shirts. I think I can squeeze a few more in there. That can then move to storage and I can begin searching for boxes with winter clothes.

I got this fan over my desk cleaned.

I got the filter changed out in the HVAC system and did some cleaning of the vent cover.

So, today, I think I'd better get back on track.

1) The last area I vacuumed was the hall and, theoretically, I should move on to the living room today. I may decide to go back over the hall in that I probably spread around a lot of dust and crud while trying to clean that intake duct.

2) I have laundry to fold and laundry to dry.

3) There isn't much to worry about dusting in the hall, but there's plenty to dust out here so I guess I'll try to get a start on that.

4) I need to "declutter" e-mail for half an hour and "declutter" download files for half an hour.

5) I need to do advertising-related tasks for an hour.

6) There's the patio.......5 minutes out there.

7) And, high on the list, priority-wise, is Bible Study/School.

I have more boxes of tee shirts to pack and more boxes of dining room stuff to unpack. I can certainly fill in any free time with that. OR, I could grab a step stool and go after the top part of the frame on the front door. One thing for sure, I'll never run out of jobs to be done, LOL!

To add to my joy, one of the dogs was sick last night. There is poop starting in the dining room and then little drops of diarrhea all the way to the front door. I guess I will be doing the "cleaning the carpet one squarefoot at a time" thing today............

I have decided I am going to have to buy and have installed a bigger pet door. I have been watching Max and he is having a hard time navigating the one I have now. I don't really want a bigger pet door and I've had dogs larger than Max who navigated it just fine, but........ he is having trouble and it may be contributing to what I have been interpreting as territorial stuff. I will be shopping on-line for that this week....... If it helps the territorial thing, it will be worth it. I will save so much time NOT cleaning the carpet, LOL.

I am going to have a hard time with cleaning up the mess. I have a really strong gag reflex. All I can think of at the moment is that I may make the mess even bigger by losing it while I'm trying to clean. This clean-up thing has not always been my job. Joe did it when he was around. And, before that, DD did it. Joe didn't like it, but he could do it without getting sick. DD never seemed to mind. So, pray for me as I try to do this.......................

Well on that cheery note (LOL), I vote for eye candy!

Since this is MY blog, I get to show you mine first!

This photo was recently sent to me by a cousin. I promise you, the photo did not look like this when I got it. It had been badly treated over the years and had many surface scratches. In fact the entire surface was a web of scratches. It took some time but I got it pretty well restored. I didn't torture myself over getting into itty bitty spots, and I used a really light hand on the clean up where it was on faces and hair. And, to tell you the truth, there are a couple of holes and tears hidden under that frame. I could have tried to fix those, but, somehow, that just seemed "dishonest". I'm not sure why it wasn't dishonest to fix the rest, but that seemed okay. Perhaps because I left the holes and tears to last and it looked like a different photo by then. Fixing the holes and tears would have been over the top.

Anyway, the little boy in the photo is my paternal grandfather. I am estimating he is about two years old in the photo, dating the photo at around 1900. The lady is Ida, his mother, and the little girl is Clara, his sister. I remember hearing about "Aunt Clara" but I don't ever remember meeting her. I always knew Pappy had a mother, but I never heard much about her and I don't think I ever met her.

I look in the mirror these days, and I see much of my maternal grandmother. But, now that I have this photo, I can see a bit of Ida as well. And I have always believed my father resembled my grandmother's side of the family. However, I have a photo of my father at about the same age and he is the spittin' image of his dad.

I like using a layout like this when I am doing heritage pages. With the print paper combined with a stripe like this, it reminds me of wallpaper above and below wainscoting (the ribbon & lace in this page). I really like this kit. So many designers use grayed down colors when designing a heritage kit. Well, first of all, I'm not a fan of grayed down colors. But, most likely, if the colors were fading in our ancestors' homes, they painted or put up new wallpaper that WASN'T faded. So, why scrap our precious heritage photos with old looking-stuff that would not have been appropriate at the time the photos were taken? This kit has a really nice tonal color scheme and some of the papers are quite bright and beautiful as you'll see when I post more layouts throughout the week. And, although many of us scrapped vintage photos, I have several layouts from the CT that are much more current. The kit worked well for both.