Feline Friday: Big Snow!

 We had a big snow last weekend...14 inches, to be exact! I got up in the middle of the night and found Tinsel looking out the window of my craft room, watching the snow pile up. She looked so sweet sitting there, and the snow was so beautiful!

Photo Sorting: Professional Pics

I'm back in the photo sorting mode! I've been tackling box after box, trying to make a dent in the mountains of photos I brought home from my parents' house. Progress is slow but somewhat steady!

My current project involves the box of my own professional photos which I gathered as I went through my parents' belongings. I separated the professional photos from the everyday snapshots with the intention of eventually making a portrait album for myself.

Bless my mom's heart. She was good at many things, but photo organization was not one of them! I have no baby book of my childhood. Well, there is a baby book, but everything is just sort of shoved into it in no particular order. My school photos aren't labeled or dated. This really makes me crazy! It made me crazy when I was a child, too. I attempted to organize our pictures every so often but didn't keep up with it. No time like the present, I guess! :)

My goal for this sorting session was just to put the photos into sleeves in date order so that I can eventually put them in an album.

I spread all of the pictures out from birth to college graduation so I could try to sort them out by age. It was harder than I anticipated since almost none of them were labeled. And Tinsel was no help whatsoever! :)

Mom must have had good intentions because she started filling out information in this little school book. But she only continued through second grade! The rest of it is completely blank!

Luckily I found many of my class photos, so I was able to use them to date the individual pictures. (I am in the lower left corner!)

By the end of one evening I had all of my professional pictures in sleeves in date order. Now it should be easy to add them to a scrapbook when the time comes. Whew! I feel much better now!

Childhood for Sale!

That's a dramatic blog post title, isn't it?

Well, that is kind of what I have been doing these days: Selling a few odds and ends from my childhood. After going through the experiences I've had in the past few years, I decided I'd much rather have control over what happens to my stuff than leave it for someone else to handle. So little by little, I'm getting rid of things.

It's not easy for me to do this. I definitely couldn't drop off my childhood belongings at Goodwill or a place like that, without knowing if they would go to a good home or end up in a dumpster. But selling my items makes me feel more comfortable -- not at all because of the money but simply because they're going to people who want them enough to buy them.

 Here are a few of the items I've sold so far. For people who grew up in the 1960's and 1970's, this may be a walk down memory lane!

This little group of mermaids sat on my dresser when I was a child. I always thought they were cute, but I'm glad they found a new home. I couldn't find a way to work them into my current decor! :)

I had totally forgotten about Heidi when I discovered her in a box of toys at my parents' house. I looked up photos of "Pocketbook Dolls" so I could identify all of her original components, then I dug around until I found her extra shoes and dress. Heidi will soon be off to a new home a few states east of here.

I sold these brand new Dawn Doll outfits and my Dawn Doll car. I'm not quite ready to let go of the dolls. Soon...soon...

 My Upsy Downsy set went to a new home a few weeks ago, and the new owner loves it. It makes me happy to see this quirky set go to a place where it will be enjoyed and appreciated!

This Liddle Kiddle Fireman and firetruck will be off to a new home next week. He's lost his shoes and time has turned him sort of green, but he's still pretty cute!

 I can't say that for this Shiba doll. Mercy. I had forgotten all about this doll, which I'm sure someone must have given me because of my red hair. I'm happy to report that she now has a new home where she can live out her life in the light of day rather than a dark basement. I just hope she finds some clothes in her new home out west!

 My Liddle Kiddles Violet Kologne Kiddle is settling in with someone who was thrilled to get her. I'm happy she will get the attention she deserves! I have fond memories of these dolls and can still remember the scent of their lavender hair.

My Liddle Kiddles ring, bracelet, and pin have all gone to new owners. It makes me feel good that they're no longer sitting neglected in a box but will be cherished by people who sought them out. (Sorry for the sideways picture!)

 

 

 

 I have not started selling my Barbie items because I'm still too emotionally attached to them, but I thought I could part with some of my Barbie-sized dishes. This Corning set sold right away...

 ...as did this Pyrex set. Their new owners were very excited, and I'm happy that they'll now be appreciated as part of a special collection.

Those are just a few of the items I've let go of so far. It feels good to have some control over this process and to know that, if I get hit by a donut truck, I won't burden someone else (namely my daughter!) with having to deal with all of my stuff. I just need to pick up the pace, because I have a very long way to go!

jp

Feline Friday: Sunny Spot Altercation!

This is a very typical interaction between Tinsel and Lily. Tinsel is in the crock pot box (don't ask) and Lily is hogging a very toasty sunny spot on the rug.

Tinsel decides enough is enough and tries to commandeer a little sun for herself. Seems reasonable enough, doesn't it?

Nope! Lily will have none of it! Git out of mi sunnie spott, Tinsul! Itz myne!!!

We share many things around here but when it comes to sunny spots, I guess it is every kitty for herself!

Photo Sorting Continues...

I vowed this weekend to plow through more boxes of Grandma's photos -- this time the very old ones. I'm happy to say I made a bit of progress on this front!

I started with piles of photos like this. I placed the curled photos under stacks of heavy books in an effort to flatten them out. I'm sure an archivist would not approve, but I definitely can't work with curled photos! I'll take a peek in a few days and see how well the flattening process worked!

For lack of any better starting point, I decided to sort the remaining photos by size, like I did last week with the color photos. When I lined them up by size, I could more easily identify photos taken at the same time. Who knew there were so many sizes of black and white photos? Sheesh!

A few photos have notes written on the back. I used the photos with dates and names as "anchors" or references to help me identify some of the others, at least by decade. I used a magnifying glass to see details and a photo-safe marking pen to write dates and names on the backs of photos I could identify.

I uploaded group photos to a family Facebook page I set up awhile back. This is much easier than e-mailing or snail-mailing copies!

I made temporary divider cards with decades and events, then filed the pictures as I figured them out. I still have stacks and stacks of images I haven't identified -- and may never. But at least I have a framework to keep going! 

 Of course, the best part about this process is discovering photos I've never seen before, like this one taken with my cousins (I'm at the left)...

 

 ...and this one decorating cookies in my grandma's basement, one of my favorite memories.

There's this picture of my grandpa which I absolutely love. It was taken at his workplace before he retired.

 And there's this photo of Grandma at her retirement, receiving a gift from her boss. When I was cleaning out her house, I found a scrapbook that Grandma's co-workers gave her when she retired. It is filled with memorabilia from her job, funny stories, and other treasures. In digging through the boxes of photos, I actually found pictures of her receiving the scrapbook. How neat is that? I feel a little bit like a detective, putting pieces of a puzzle together.

Spouse commented that he would not have the patience to sort through boxes of very old photos. I'll admit it is a bit tedious. But I told him that I'm in a different place these days, without my parents or my grandparents to fill in the details of our lives. I'm determined not to lose the pieces of my story, no matter how scattered and disjointed they may be right now. I really do believe that one day, I'll be able to pull all the pieces of this puzzle together.

jp

Feline Friday: Where's Lily Now?

You never know where you'll find Lily! This week I caught her yet again in the dryer, a very naughty and dangerous place for kitties! You'd think after getting trapped in the dryer years ago (it wasn't running but the door was closed) she'd avoid it, but I guess the warmth is just too appealing. Now I watch her carefully in the laundry room and was right there to see her fascination with the dryer. I let her stay in there long enough for a picture!

The other odd place she's been lately is the carrier! I took Tinsel to the vet last week for her check-up and as soon as I got home, Lily climbed in the carrier. She's been napping in there ever since, so I haven't even put it away. You'd think the carrier would have a negative association for her since we only use it when going to the vet, but I guess it also appeals as a warm and cozy napping place!

Here's to warm and cozy places to nap, wherever you find them! :)

A Place for Everything?

Sometimes I think I am the world's messiest crafter. Each time I start a project, I vow to pick up as I go along. I do pretty well at the beginning of the project but by the end, I've pulled out every item I own without putting a single thing away! And trust me...it's not just this table. The entire room (including the floor) becomes a danger zone when I am working on a project. This is definitely an area for improvement in the new year. 

Tinsel agrees! There's barely any space for her to sit!

The worst part about being a messy crafter is losing stuff. As I worked on this particular project (a set of 12 cards), I misplaced everything, including the cards themselves. I'm sure I lost a lot of time looking for things!

I will say, however, that my craft space is organized and there really is a place for everything! And because of that, it's actually pretty speedy to clean up after a project. I have a little process that makes things go smoothly and prevents little problems like accidentally throwing away a die or part of a project, which I have done before! :)

First, I put away all of my tools. Scissors, rulers, and a few other often-used tools go in my tool caddy. (The green Lazy Susan came out of my dad's garage where it was covered with grease and held some jars of bolts. Prior to that, it was in my grandma's kitchen.) It's very convenient to have the tools on a spinning surface.

 

 Next, I put away my dies and embossing folders. My thin dies go on magnetic sheets. I have one binder for shapes and a second one for nesting dies. I set up the binder system a few years ago and still love it. If an organization system is still working after a few years -- and can grow or change as needed -- then it's a very good thing.

The binders sit nicely in one of my cubes. (As a side note, the CD cases are filled with acrylic stamps, an example of a system that is only marginally working for me. The cases contain stamps I don't use, partly because the racks are cumbersome. In addition, they can't hold my larger stamp sets and, to make matters worse, I only have two racks and I can't get any more that match them. So I'm not sure if I'll keep this system long-term. I'm thinking about making the switch to stamp sleeves which sit in a basket.)

Next, I put away all of my consumable supplies. It's always good when I get to this part of the process because you can start to see the top of the tables and floor! Adhesive that I use most often goes in a galvanized tin tub.

Stickles and Liquid Pearls go in a box which stacks nicely in one of my canvas bins.

Finally, I pick up all of the leftover paper and cardstock. Anything related to a class project goes back into that bag so I'll have it when I'm ready to make kits for the class. Everything else goes into the trash or recycle bin.

Look! A table! (For the longest time, I have been planning to get a piece of glass for the top of this table. Adhesive is a real pain to remove from a painted surface! This year, I am going to get that done.)

Here's the set of cards I was working on when I took these pictures. I counted them to be sure I didn't throw any away! :)

For the next project, I'm going to promise myself to pick up as I go along. We'll see how that goes! :)
jp 

Photo Organization: Still Sorting!

Last year I started sorting all of the pictures I brought home from my parents' house. While still in the middle of all of that, I found myself adding even more boxes to the mix, this time from my grandma's house. Suddenly I had an entirely different mass of family photos to integrate into my already overwhelmed -- and not yet organized -- system. At that time, all could do was label Grandma's plastic tubs and boxes and set them aside until life settled down enough to deal with them.

 

Family history is very important to me, so it is hugely distressing to me to have boxes and boxes of jumbled photos in no semblance of order! It makes me feel very out of control, and it feels almost disrespectful to the lives and memories represented in those photos.

So now that the new year is upon us and I am feeling like my life may be leveling out, I am back in the sorting mode! I know that many people face similar boxes of completely unorganized photos, so I thought I would share a couple of quick tips for getting started.

I grabbed one of Grandma's tubs of photos and jumped in. This tub contained everything from vintage photos to obituaries to photos taken in the last five years. This is a good activity to do while halfway watching a movie or basketball game!


I began by making some temporary dividers for a photo box:
* Memorabilia
* Portrait type photos
* Black and white photos -- 2 categories: Known and unknown people
* Color photos -- 2 categories: Known and unknown people

I sorted all the photos and papers into those categories and put them into a box. Already I felt much better! Then I started working on each of the categories in more detail.

 Why create separate categories for color and black and white photos? It is the first step in figuring out when the photos were taken. Obviously, the color photos are newer and date from the early 1960's when color photography first became available. The black and white pictures are all older than that -- that's as close as I can come to dating them right now! :)

Next I separated the color photos by size/type. This sounds a little goofy but it was actually very helpful. In the 1970's, many photos were developed with rounded corners. Putting all of the rounded corner photos in one pile helped me at least get them in the correct decade. At the same time, I grouped together photos which were obviously taken at one event. As I worked, I tossed duplicates and poor quality pictures. I also tossed all the snapshots that friends had sent to Grandma, unless they were of family or otherwise significant.

Photos from the 1960's were printed with white borders and many include the date that they were developed (super helpful!). I didn't realize until I started looking through the box that there were several different sizes, so I also sorted them by size and event.

After a couple of hours of not-too-painful work, I had finished my first "rough sort" step of the color photos in this box -- just one box of many. They are not yet in chronological order, nor are the people in the photos identified, but they are ready for that step to be done. Next I will do the same with the black and white photos, but that will be a much more time-consuming process. It may require binge-watching something on Netflix!

As I worked through the color photos, I was excited to find several I'd never seen before, including some of me with my cousins decorating Christmas cookies at Grandma's house. Finding those photos confirms that it is absolutely worth the time spent on this process!

I have a few plans for these photos: 

• Scan and upload the most significant family photos to share with my cousins
• Date/identify key photos
• Integrate the photos into my own chronological photo filing system
• Incorporate special photos into my scrapbooks

Here's to FINALLY making big progress on this project in the new year! That would make me very happy!
jp

Feline Friday: Tinsel Time

I know I've posted about this before, but it is so adorable I can't resist bringing it up again! Each morning when I'm in the bathroom putting on make-up and drying my hair, Tinsel comes to visit. This is truly the only time when she's social, and it baffles me as to why her friendly time is limited to the bathroom! She rolls around on the floor in an adorable sort of way, making sweet little mewing sounds!

She even lets me see her belleh (SEE being the operative word here! Don't touch it, Mom!) and give her scritches on the head and back. There is something about the bathroom that transforms her into a different cat! Although I can't figure it out, I'm happy that we've shared a lot of quality hours during our bathroom time! :)

Lately, though, someone else wants to get in on that quality time! You can see Lily pouting: What about me, Mom? Don't I get any attention?

No, Lily...you get PLENTY of attention during the remaining 23 hours of the day. Go busy yourself with something else. It's Tinsel Time! :)