Scrap Your Day - April

scrap you day april mosaic, originally uploaded by jill radke.

So, yesterday I mentioned I was joining a project and would elaborate more on it. I’ve decided to “join” Shimelle’s Scrap Your Day. This project is a cool way to preserve a small part of your whole year in a manageable way. Every 25th of every month you are to document your day and put it together in a little scrapbook. I didn’t explain that very well did I? Well the full description would be easier to read on Shimelle’s website. I have not yet put together the book to scrap the photos, but just taking them is all I’m working on right now. I’ll blog it the day after, on the 26th to make sure to include all the photos, even the goodnight clock shot. On each of the photos on flickr, I’ve given a bit more of a description of what is going on.

Just enjoying having my dad here. And doing home improvement. Aahhh the smell of lumber.

A New Project

I've got a new project I'm working on/joining. I will elaborate on it more tomorrow. It's a crafty type of project too! I can't wait!

How Much Do You REALLY Have?

Having only been married for two years, we sure have accumulated the stuff. Especially with home-ownership. Having an empty room just looks... dumb. Take our living room for example. We only have one kitchen table. The dining room is currently housing the cat taking a nap in the sun. And a painting. And that's it. So, in response to the empty room situation, we purchased more stuff. (For the other bedrooms and living room, not the dining room.) In truth, we only live in half of our house. Without kids taking up space with all of their paraphernalia, we've got unused rooms. Which is a life lesson for us when purchasing a domicile. But nevertheless, we've got a lot of stuff. For just two people. And in this sense, it can be difficult to know if something is missing... or if it is missing to prove you had it in the first place.

Enter the home inventory. In response to our last encounter with movers and several things going missing, being unable to prove this has continually made me grit my teeth and roll my eyes at myself for not keeping better records of our earthly possessions. I am determined that this will not happen again. I originally assumed this would be an extremely daunting task, comprised of either a notebook or clipboard and a pen, slowly and surely, handwriting everything we owned. Unsure as to how to categorize these lists, other than by room, I wanted to see if anyone had created an Excel spreadsheet with different ways to sort and categorize their belongings. After a few Internet searches, I stumbled across a different method completely. The Insurance Information Institute has some wonderful software to download for free! This software is called Know Your Stuff and is a whole program that allows you to add photos of the exterior of your house, add and title your own rooms, and add items to each room. The individual item you add is titled however you want, there are categories you can assign it to, (ex. major appliance, linens, artwork, jewelry, etc.) the quantity, how much it would cost to replace, when and where you made the purchase, make, model, serial number and description boxes. The other cool thing about the item you're adding, is you can add a photo and a scanned receipt to the file. Then you can look at how much you really have in valuables, either by room or category. This is really a wonderful tool to have. While my original assumption of this task taking some time to accomplish is indeed correct, I have found a way to make it fun and easy. Plus now I'll know if we have enough insurance to cover everything we've got!

Happy Anniversary!

My parents have been married 31 years today.

Love you guys! Thanks for all you've taught me.

Photo courtesy of Stanford School of Medicine, Adult Cardiac Surgery Unit.

One Year Ago

One year ago today, our kitty got her first bath. Not really that exciting... but the pictures are somewhat amusing. I haven't scrapbooked in a couple weeks, so it was nice to spend some time playing.

The journaling reads: We've now learned the best way is to let her stand up. (not hold her above the water.)

and on the opposite page: Jasmine's 1st bath, shortly after coming home from Petsmart.

Materials: Paper- Doodlebug Designs; Letters - American Crafts Thickers and Ginger rub-ons; Journaling Spots - Heidi Swapp; Embellishments - Making Memories

Nanimals

By "Nanimals" I mean the fantastic TV series by BBC that has captured our evenings. I have to say, this DVD series is the best box set we've invested in. Ever. Followed in close second by Star Wars, the Original Trilogy, but that is a separate matter. Using Christmas gift certificates to Amazon, we purchased Planet Earth: The Complete Series (in wide screen, as always). We usually get about an hour and a half in the evenings when Pete comes home from work to have dinner, discuss the day and unwind from the perils of the work force. (Well, he does.) We've been watching an episode once or twice a week, and I for one, am simply amazed at the quality of filmography and at what they are filming in the first place. Some of this stuff is just breathtaking. And I mean that literally, there have been several gasps; breath-sucking-inwards-es, many wows and even more chuckles at the beauty and amazing behaviors of the creatures we share this planet with. You can't imagine the scope of some of these herds, flocks, and other groups until you've seen them filmed by these crews. Just fabulous. I highly recommend these DVDs to anyone who lives on Earth. We all affect each other and those who live here. Which would also include the Nanimals.

Weekend Creative

Beginning in 2008, Ali Edwards began a new installment on her blog called Weekend Creative.

These are her words describing the project:

"Here's the plan: Each Friday I will post a new prompt/thought/project to think about/do/add to you list for the weekend. Sometimes they will be really simple and other times a bit more involved. Sometimes you won't have to do anything other than consider a concept and other times"..."there will be the potential for you to add a little project to plans you may already have in place. Some will be scrapbook-related and others will focus on different areas of crafts, photography, and creativity.

Ready?"

I'm ready! It took a bit of hemming and hawing and being under the impression I had a lot going on, that I wouldn't be able to add one more thing to the schedule. Finally, I thought to myself, enough. Enough already. Excuses are not your friend.

So, this weekend's prompt is to Begin Writing Your Own Story. This is such a great place to start participating, because essentially, a blog is a means of telling your story. And hey! I just did that! Start a blog I mean. I think I'll make a small notebook just for this project.

*edited*

So I couldn't put off making the little notebook for very long! It's about 5"x7" in size. (I haven't decided if I want to add hands to the clock face.)

Materials: KI Memories - Pop Culture, American Crafts - Thickers, Heidi Swapp - Clock & Tag, Zig Writer

All Wrapped Up

On my way out to water the flowers and plants this afternoon, I found this scene. I've got a pile of clothing waiting to be donated near the door, hoping it will get carried out the next time we leave (no such luck yet). The cat pulled one sweater off the pile and somehow wrapped herself in it. Or tunneled within it. I don't know. I found it amusing. She does the strangest stuff sometimes.

Wonky Sleep

I don't know how many people work the night shift. Quite a bit I would imagine. I'm not talking about the late evening shift - you know, until 11pm. I mean, from evening through the middle of the night until the next morning type of shift where you have to sleep while it's light out. There are just some jobs that require 24 hour attention. Anyways, Pete just started working nights again. Poor guy had to stay up for 24 hours to be sleepy during the daytime. I don't think people understand how un-fun this is until you have to do it yourselves. Props to the 3rd shift-ers. You have my gratitude.

A Quote

Came across this quote today:

Love is not blind - it is seeing and still loving.

We're Keeping the Teeth

We just got back from the vet. Our 1.5 year old kitty, Jasmine has been having some teeth and ear issues. Perhaps we should have seen an ENT Vet? Do they make those? Probably not. Her ears are all clean and clear now, but the mouth is still having problems. She's allergic to bacteria. In her mouth. Kind of crazy. There was a point that if she didn't respond to the steroid injections or antibiotic drops, she'd have to have all teeth pulled to stop the bacteria. But, thankfully, that isn't the case anymore. We're keeping the teeth.

Blog Trial Number 5

Well hello to the wide world of anonymous people!

This will now be my fifth attempt at starting and continuing with a blog. The first time was in college, and I found out I cannot say whatever I want when you are associated with an institution like the government. Lesson learned. Trial number two was a card-only type blog, and when I began to grow away from that medium of creativity, I also grew away from the blog. "Third time's the charm" did not really hold true for me in this instance, as the third installment ended abruptly as I grew weary of the host site itself. Switching over to a new hosting site who was also free (blog number four) fell victim to my waning attention span. And thus, here I am at blog number five. I'm hoping that by using a paid for site, it will inspire me to keep up with posts. I also have been trying to keep a journal since the beginning of the year, as encouraged by Ali Edwards, one of my idols. The other thing that was very attractive about typepad was the freedom you have to change the look, customize and all the other cool stuff to play around with (like spell check!). By having this opportunity to switch it up, I'm hoping I won't get bored.

I also need to keep a blog going because our families are so far away. I know the phone is right there and email is even more right there. But this is yet another form of connection and relationship that we can all have and share.