the last day of March...

Thank goodness this stormy month is over. We have had one snowstorm after another the whole month of March. I don't remember such a wintery March ever. Last night at 10:30, Mike and I stood looking out the window at the falling snow. "It looks just like Christmas Eve," I said. Only in December the snowstorm it was charming and Christmasy. Last night it was depressing. We're all tired of it. This morning as I opened the kitchen blinds here is the sight that greeted me. Sigh.

Wisdom for Women

I want to share this entry from Heidi Swapp's blog because it's thought provoking and filled with suggestions that we as women need to hear. I especially like the quote at the end about how we should treat ourselves: "She was kind, loving and patient...with herself."

Heidi is writing about being a mom: "My point in all of this…is that a happy woman is a better mother. A better wife. A better friend. And as a woman…the time and effort you invest in your own happiness - remembering to love yourself, and be careful with yourself - benefits all those around you. I am not always happy. I am critical and judgmental of myself. I have high expectations of myself, and don’t cut myself a lot of slack. I am my own worst enemy…I don’t dwell on my strengths, or focus on my accomplishments, but instead tend to beat myself up about where I fell short. You know that I love that ‘SHE’ book by Kobi Yamada… and I read it all the time because of the strength I find there, and the way it helps me imagine the kind of woman I am striving to become. Anyway, I picked it up again today when I was cleaning up around my studio, and the quote that stood out to me today was: “She was kind, loving and patient…with herself.” (In the book, the word “patient” is written larger than everything else) I share all this because I believe that we are much more similar than we are different. And just to remind myself, that happiness is powerful. Effective. Contagious. And it’s a choice."

This blog post is buried in her blog - Oct 2006. If you want to be entertained sometime visit Heidi's blog. She's a scrapbook product designer, teacher and blogger. Recently her family moved from Arizona to China for her husband's job.

March Beginner Basics

I made this scrapbook page because I loved the challenge Georgana put on her blog to find classic photos and scrapbook an album of them. Instead of going through old photos in my photo albums (it was just too overwhelming) I decided to go through all of the photos we have downloaded on the computer - yes there are thousands, but it was do-able. I looked for favorite 'classic' photos and saved them to a seperate folder. This photo of Becky is just cute. I used the layout for the "Beginner Basics" section of Georgana's blog - here is what I wrote:

Beginner Basics: If you’re a beginner, I think you’ll really like Georgana’s classic challenge. Scrapping can be overwhelming if you don’t have a focus – there’s so much to scrap. This challenge will help you focus on a small slice of life, with photos to define it. It won’t be hard to go through your photos and find the classics.

For my layout, I quickly went through a bunch of digital photo albums and found some extra-special pictures that brought back classic memories. It was an hour of smiling as I reviewed some of my favorite photos. Because I’m a ‘word person,’ I also thought of some of the classic quotes and sayings from my life. I decided to make my first classic layout about a quote that we had on the wall by our phone when our kids were teenagers. I put classic photos of my daughter Becky in the layout, because she grew up reading that quote every day…and it worked! The quote reads: “I am determined to be happy in whatever situation I may be – for I have learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends upon our dispositions and not our circumstances.” The picture shows the quote on the wall and a happy Becky.

Talking around the dinner table...

The after-dinner conversation is the best part of Sunday dinner for me. I don't really enjoy the food, and I unfortunately dislike the preparation of the dinner. But the few minutes when everyone is through eating and just sitting around the table talking--that's the best time. Yesterday we had a nice Easter dinner with my parents, brother and sister-in-law, and a bunch of cousins. Our conversation led us to talking about music and old-time ways to play it. My s-i-l Kimberly mentioned that they recently showed a 45 record to their kids. The kids had never seen one, let alone played one on a record player. We talked about 8-track tapes and cassettes. I mentioned that I'd noticed in the past two years I hadn't even purchased a CD--all we do at our house anymore is download music. Then we started talking about iTunes and mp3 players and on and on.
As I drove to work this morning I was thinking about our dinner talk and I started laughing out loud. No wonder my 78-year-old mom just kind of tuned it all out. She knew it was useless to try to "get it." Our conversation went something like this:
Doug: "We download music to Windows Media Player then to our MP3 players." Scott: "I can't believe how easy it is to just sync my iTouch--I can even download movies." Debbie: "Scott got me a Zune on Woot and I really like it. But what I like best is to log onto iTunes and drag and drop singles to my playlists.Then I burn CDs--like my "Energy Mix." Doug: "Oh, Debbie the mix-master."
Isn't it funny and fascinating how lingo creeps into our language without us even realizing it. I know for sure if it were a bunch of twenty-somethings sitting around talking there would be even more jargon...much that I probably wouldn't get.

the Mille Fleur bag

I was checking out my favorite websites for quilting and fabrics and had to stop by the Fig Tree Quilts site and blog. On Joanna Figueroa's blog dated March 11, she shows this Mille Fleur bag from Bari J Bags. It made my heart skip a beat. The fabrics are incredible. The price of $174 makes it 'window shopping only' but it's still fun to gaze at. Here it is...


Millie Fleur

My first blog post...

Well, here goes. I'm starting a blog. I've got to keep up with my kids - they all have blogs - it's the 'in' thing to do. It's a great way to keep a journal, to be in touch, and to archive important happenings in life. I'll also use it to keep track of stuff I find on the internet, like, for example, this great quote from Wayne Dyer, a favorite 'pop-psych' author:

"True nobility is not about being better than anyone else, it's about being better than you used to be."

So with that advice I'll get going...not trying to measure up to all the other outstanding blogs out there, but just feeling happy that I've started something I've been wanting to do.