Journaling Jigglers

How did you get your name?  Are you named for someone in the family, friend, etc.  Do/did you have a nickname?

Describe a childhood birthday.  Do you have pictures?

If you could meet one person in the world, who would it be?  Why?

Yesterday, it was my pleasure to present a program on Preserving Our Family Stories in Venice, Florida.   As part of this presentation we discussed journals, and their uses in telling our personal stories, starting family conversations, and as triggers for successful interviews with our ancestors.  I have prepared a list of 50 such thought provoking prompts.  If you would like to download them, the link for JOURNALING JIGGLERS is HERE.   I hope they will help you get started telling YOUR story!

PS  Many thanks to those who were there and helped me!  I fell ill, and they jumped right in and took over.  Off to the doctor again tomorrow.

Happy creating to all!

Be Inspired #101 Nostalgia Week

Crafty Secrets has sent us some fun little vintage pieces, and this one is right on target for me this week, as I have a very challenging new cell phone, and I've had this very sentiment more than once!!

The Design Team over at Cuttlebug Challenge has created some darling pieces with their retro cards, and I hope you will have an enjoyable walk down Memory Lane with them, and take a few moments to create a project of your own for the challenge this week. There is a nice prize package from Crafty Secrets for the winner this week!

For my card, I've used vintage wallpaper patterned paper by Crafty Secrets, topped by mats by Marco paper, and the corner designs are dies by Cuttlebug Ornamentals. The old fashioned phones are cut from with my Cricut Heritage cartridge ~ perfect for this image :) and they are accented with a warm brown watercolor pencil. The flowers are my favorites, from Wild Orchids!

On a personal note, I am so grateful for the Lord's blessings for my family. My 10 year old granddaughter was actually hit by a speeding car that passed her stopped school bus today, and she is alright. The driver did not stop, and there is hope that the camera on the bus will have captured the info that the police need. He ran over her foot, but she is okay, and her two little brothers were just behind her. It was SO INCREDIBLY close...and my daughter watched it happen. We are so thankful that our daily prayers for protection are answered.

Keep crafting and keep praying ~

Heritage Article, Volume 3

This is the first Saturday of the month, and it is my privilege to write another article encouraging Heritage Scrapbooking over at Cuttlebug Challenge. This article is about how to interview your relatives, and gather information valuable and cherished family stories.


In preparing for this article, I have been enjoying a taped interview that I made with my Dad 8 years ago this week. It was Memorial Day of 2002, and I didn’t know that it would be our last. He passed away just 10 weeks later. I haven’t re-listened to it in all these years, and my first impression was how much he sounds like my brother. I’ve forgotten many of the stories he shared with me that day. How grateful I am that I have this tape!! (I wanted to play a little of it for you, but my computer skills haven’t extended to where I can figure out how to put a cassette tape onto the computer yet….if I get that far, I will share something in the future. ) We talked that day about his time in the Army, and how he drove his buddies back and forth from Ft. Lee to Union Station every weekend in his 1937 Chevy, so they could catch the trains north to see their families. They also bought booze, and brought it back to the base, amounts just under the legal limit, and made money selling it to the soldiers who hadn't gone out! He learned to fly while he was in the Army, and was very disappointed that there was a problem with his eyes, and he couldn't get the waiver that he needed to fly for Standard Oil to Saudi Arabia... so many great stories.

The most important point here ....DON’T DELAY ….ARRANGE IT TODAY!!

I hope you are working on your Family History, and preserving your precious memories for yourself and your ancestors. They are the treasures beyond measures.

Happy crafting ~

Heritage Album Article Vol. 2 published

Today isn't the first Sat. of May, but, due to being pre-empted by National Scrapbook Day, it is the day for Vol 2. of my Heritage Album Articles over at Cuttlebug Challenge. Today we talk about basic supplies, and how to preserve family Bible pages. I hope you will check it out.....
(Here are a couple of excerpts...)

In Volume 1 (here) we discussed the need to save the photos, documents and precious items that mean so much to us. Today we will start the process, look at choices in albums, etc., and look at some actual projects.

You may find that my approach will be a bit different than some others that you may have heard before, because they are concerned with "decorative" scrapping. My primary concern is helping you save the originals.

These are my early 1800's family Bible pages. Many families recorded vital records in these Bibles, and they were considered "official" records. They were handed down from generation to generation, and kept up as births, marriages and deaths occurred.

Of course, the ideal is to keep the books in good condition and enjoy them in their beauty and grandeur, however, in my case, the books were not well preserved, and were falling apart. It was critical that I preserved these pages, and the vital information that they hold. It is quite thrilling to see and touch the handwriting of my ancestors, especially as I learn their stories.

This was one of the saddest experiences....my daughter and I were in an antique shop in Colorado, and there were these two beautiful Bibles on the floor..... when we opened them, the Hunter family was there, lost and alone. We just felt that someone is looking for this information, and doesn't know where to find it....and it's here, lying on the floor of an old antique shop....so sad. Don't let your precious documents, memories, and information slip away. Don't waste another minute ~ become your family's historian today.

I do hope you are participating in preserving your family history memories. If you have any questions, comments, or ideas...please leave comments here or at Cuttlebug Challenge. I will be happy to answer, or do what I can to help. Thanks!!!

Happy crafting ~

New Heritage Article on Cuttlebug Blog

It has been my dream for a long time to share a lifelong passion of family history, preserving family photos, telling the most wonderful stories on earth – those of the family, and keeping priceless memorabilia and documents safe and accessible in albums. And now, thanks to my wonderful association with Cuttlebug Challenge, I get that opportunity! Starting today, I began a monthly article entitled:

Preserve and Protect Your Precious and Priceless Treasures in Heritage Albums

This series will be presented the first Saturday of each month, and will be covering such things as:

Becoming the Family Historian

Dealing with Family Documents…and getting them into albums

Family Bibles

Birth Certificates

Marriage Licenses

School Documents

Church Certificates

Work Papers

Military Documents

Newspaper Articles

Letters

Momentoes

Obituaries

Remembering Your Ancestor

How To Interview Grandpa and Uncle Joe

Tips and Tricks to Create Great Pages with Tough Photos

Journaling Today for Tomorrow

Help! My Family Tree is Nothing But Roots!

And of course, there will be much more along the way. My main goal is to help get photographs and memorabilia out of boxes, drawers, cedar chests, attics, basements, and most important of all, Grandma’s memory, and get them safely and forever placed where they will tell their stories.

Last night, as I was writing the article, I realized that I alone am the link to the generations that went before me, and those that follow. If I want my children and grandchildren to know my parents and grandparents, only I can build that wonderful bridge that will provide a way for them to cross. The work of gathering, protecting, and recording my family’s precious and priceless treasures is mine. I will embrace and share it.

This is my husband in 1936 …. These are my grandchildren today.

Isn't there a wonderful family resemblance?

John Steinbeck says “How will your children know who they are, if they don’t know where they come from?”

Please come along on this journey with me! We have exciting places to go….I have original Civil War poetry to preserve, and my family lands go back to Lord Fairfax in Northern Virginia. I recently visited some of the original homes that were built in the 1700 and 1800’s. One bride was carried over the threshold, and had the door sealed until she was carried out at the time of her death. It was resealed, and remains sealed to this day. The current owners asked me about the door, and when they learned the story of why it was sealed, and its romantic story, decided to leave it sealed! We’ll be preserving this story together.

Before next month, look around your home, and that of your family, and find those precious and priceless treasures that need to be preserved for your family. Gather them together in a safe place and we will get started. Look in old family bibles...are there treasures hidden in the pages there? Check in the file cabinets, dresser drawers, jewelry boxes....you know all of those forgotten hiding places that we stash things to deal with later.... Later is Saturday, May 1st! The address is CuttlebugChallenge.blogspot.com

You are invited to write to me and ask questions and I will do my best to find the answers for all of us. Please leave comments and suggestions, also. Let’s save a lot of memories together.

This is so exciting to me....genealogy is the number TWO use of the internet...(and none of us would use it for it's number one use ...check Law & Order:SVU) I am really looking forward to the doors this will open. I hope you will check out the other photos I posted over on Cuttlebug today!

Leaving you love and

Happy crafting ~