Coming Full Circle
The Testiment To Blogging

I wrote the 5 reasons that I blog meme recently.
I have received alot of nice comments and emails from it.

This little note is not about it especially, but about the effect of blogging.
I think that most of the bloggers I network with share similar benefits from blogging.
Number one would be the fact that we get to share information.
Information that interests us, and we think that others would benefit from as well.

Today a really neat thing happened.
I received an email from Australia.
A fellow scrapbooker was hoping I may be able to give her some advice about some specific shopping here in my home town area!

Her Husband is here in my area visiting his parents who are from a town close by, and she wanted to be able to guide her hubby to a place to shop to purchase a specific scrapbooking accessory.

I know what the accessory is and I was really excited to be able to tell her where her husband could make his purchase, right here in my home town!

From Australia to Newmarket, Ontario, Canada......necessary information is shared, and a husband can bring his wife back a really awesome prezzie that she really really wants!

This is blogging come full circle for sure!

Well.....speaking of scrapbooking. I have kept quite mum about my scrapbooking adventures. Actually after the wedding book I made for Mom and Dad at Christmas, I have not done much in the way of scrapbooking.

I have been doing alot of organizing for the scrapbooking though. Believe me, there is more organizing and tidying that goes on in scrapbooking than there is scrapbooking being done. Today I got a great clear stamping kit, and a really cool wire work kit. These pretty much round out my supplies.

http://motivated-motion.blogspot.com/2007/02/coming-full-circle-testiment-to.html

June, Was The Last Time I Showed My Work Area

My work area is in our family room.
I drift around my family room about every 10 minutes
trying to walk off the pain in my head and neck,
or trying to prevent pain.

Since June I have expanded my work area.
It is no longer just the computer and scrapbooking cubby hole.
Now it is that, plus the knitter's paradise.

My chair is the green one.
Most days I have something
on that little wooden table in front of my chair.
Today it has a yarn ball winder.

My drawers there started three drawers high.
As I expanded the area that I tidied and organized,
my drawer height increased!

Lots and Lots of Yarn!
It is all wound and in catagories.
Some is set aside for specific patterns.
Some is for creating dolls and animals.

I added another table to my work area.
Besides my computer table I also have the knitting table.
You can see there are two more drawer sets.
I would only buy one drawer set at a time.
The rule has been that I don't purchase another
until I am ready to fill it with stuff from downstairs.
Now all the craft stuff that was hap-hazardly stored
throughout the basement, is contained and organized.
No junk!
All the junk is gone!

So here is the knitting table with the
manual chunky knitting machine.
Manual is best if you are creative.
I can use as many colours as I desire.
Automatic machines are usually
limited to two colours.

The view below is from my position
sitting at the knitting machine
looking to my right.

Right in front of me is the fireplace.
It is a bit warm in the house today, so I didn't make a fire

To my left is my computer area, and my storage area.
I have the stereo there too.
I like to listen to classical music
or books on tape when I am working in this room.

http://motivated-motion.blogspot.com/2006/11/june-was-last-time-i-showed-my-work.html

Scrapbooking and Tears


Am I old or am I fresh.....?
I turn the pages of my memories and see all I have done and all I have left behind
No regrets......but wishes that my mind was sharper, and the true images swam within it

You are gone and some are lost
My friends from the good old days

I see you there in the photographs
So fair and fresh, so lucid and happy

Some are gone forever and some will never recover

Each scrapbook I create will be homage to you
Inside my heart you are still perfect

I love you and miss you

For those who can look with me
Upon those tender pages
Join me and remember

And if I leave you
I promise my life is engaged here
I have frozen these memories in time




Last night I began a gruelling task.
I pulled out every photo album. I looked through every picture. Yours, mine and ours.
I have never cried so much in my life.

This cry was not one of giant wailing tears.
It was the kind that drips over and over again releasing a wish with every drop.

My task was to create a photo time-line of my life.
I started at high school and ended with now.
I wanted significant friends within my photo line, and I wanted to create visuals of things I had done or experienced that I have been able to capture in picture.
I wanted to capture the people whom I consider true friends.
People whom at some point in my life helped me on my voyage to become the woman I am today.

Of course this seems like a real fancy trip down memory lane.
There were lots of great times captured over the years. That is for sure...
But sad memories are in there too.
Great times captured in that moment of glee, yet not dwelled upon since the death of a friend.
I saw pictures of "Annie Fanny" when we tore up the town in our day.
Then at that moment I wished she was still with us, and up to her old tricks.
Loss
A sense of loss it is.
A desire to have those old times almost forgotton.
Not wishing any suffering, but a selfish desire to have it all back.....even just for one moment.

Years go by as I browse the books picture by picture.
Beautiful families that helped me grow.
My friends, my acquaintances, my life.
The old neighbourhood and all of the Mom's and Dad's we kids shared and used to our hearts content.

Jimmy. Not my dad, but my best friend's dad.
Not gone, but lost. Lost inside a dream.
How can I pay him honest tribute?
I can only say it one way. Helen and Jimmy taught me how to hug.
And in turn I taught my Mom and Dad how to hug. Cuz kids teach parents everything.
So when they became Grandparents and I became a Mom, we taught my children how to hug.
And my children hug everyone!
And everyone thinks my Boys are the best things in the world!

See how it all works?
The best we can hope for in life is that we Effect people.
And if we can Effect Change it is the most awesome legacy we could ever hope for!

So it is with great pride and loving memories I create each scrapbook page and build an archive of our history. Yours, mine, and ours, from then till now.
Turn the page. Touch it. Feel the texture of the decoration. Weep if you will.
Smile if you must. Laugh if you dare.

I remember you.

CLICK ON THE SITE BELOW AND SEE MY TIMELINE SLIDESHOW


http://www.flickr.com/photos/19221745@N00/sets/72057594117756252/show/

http://motivated-motion.blogspot.com/2006/04/scrapbooking-and-tears-am-i-old-or-am.html