Purpose


A blog to share about Adrenal insufficiency, Addison's Disease, Aspergers Syndrome, Autism, Music, Inspiration, Scrapbooking and other elements viewed through the lens of my life. I'm hoping that others who are traveling this journey may find some commonality, and maybe some information and inspiration.

Monday, May 30, 2011

Remembering and honoring

My sentiments exactly|

Bits&Pieces: Remembering and honoring

I was going to write something today, but Cathy said just what I was thinking (other than the being in Minneapolis part)

In addition, Happy Birthday to my hubby. This is a birthday he doesn't really want to acknowledge. It's getting harder and harder for him to deny that he's a senior citizen now.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Crazy life

Life has been pretty crazy the last few weeks, and now I'm feeling ill, so I'll most likely not be posting much here on the blog unless I run across something that is inspires me that I really want to share. Not feeling too inspired right now, just tired!

Friday, May 13, 2011

Project Life News

I am very happy to see this:

Project Life News

I haven't done Project Life yet because I'm primarily digital, I'm doing lots of other projects, and I do a monthly summary using Cathy Zielske's The Monthly templates, which gets printed as a photobook at the end of the year. I'm very happy with doing all this digitally.

It did occur to me, though, that a Project Life kit would be a great way to keep track of ephemera - movie ticket stubs, recital programs, gas receipts, etc. It would only take a moment to stick these items into a pocket in the book, and maybe jot down a quick note. Photos not required, but could be added if I want to go to the trouble of printing them out.

So, yay! I'm glad to hear that there will be more Project Life stuff available later this year. I think it's a great idea breaking it into it's component parts so we can buy the bits we thing we'll really use.

Can't wait to see the new designs, too!

Monday, May 9, 2011

Musical Moments

I've got several music items today:

1. We had a lovely spring recital on Saturday. I am so very proud of every student. Especially those who played their very first recital, and more especially for one special boy who keeps trying to play and gets too scared - this time he did it! And played well, I might add. It's so good for the students to see that there's a bunch of children doing the same thing, and particularly to see that there are teens who have kept at it and play amazing things.

Hopefully one of the parents will send me photos - I didn't take a single picture.

2. Musicians Brains: read this article. Quite interesting. It explains why it's meditative for me to play Bach: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/05/110505083421.htm

3. Almost anything can be made more interesting. Check out this inventive use of a Lady Gaga theme. No appearances of Lady Gaga are involved:

http://www.chambermusiciantoday.com/blog/posts/Lady-Gagas-Bad-Romance-Written-as-a-3-Voice-Fugue/

I'm hoping one of my teens will be interested in learning this fugue, just for the fun of it.

Friday, May 6, 2011

Project Idea

My friend Trish came up with a fabulous idea tonight that is pulling things from Library of Memories, iScrap, Project Life, One Little Word, Photo Album Scrapbooking, and Cathy Zielske's The Monthly. These are all online classes we have taken from Big Picture Classes, with the exception of Project Life and The Monthly.

Here's the problem we are trying to solve. We have loads of photos (prints) from the past that are needing to be processed in our scrapbook system. We love Library of Memories, and the reality is that we are not likely to get this huge bulk of pictures into scrapbooks in the usual way. They are sitting in storage binders, ala Library of Memories, but there are stories that need to be told, and we want to get them into albums for everyone to enjoy.

So here is the plan:

Purchase divided page protectors that will fit into a D-ring album. The divided page protectors make it easy to slip in photos, journaling, and patterned papers to create interesting pages that cover a lot of family history. These albums can be organized by year or location (for those who frequently move), or any other way that fits your needs.

The plan is to pre-cut papers (shopping from our stashes) for journaling and added color, and pick embellishments on a color theme for each section of the album, and to assemble these into kits. By using a variety of sizes of page protectors, we will be able to accommodate any size photo we have.

Once the kit is together, the next step will be to grab the photos for that year, picking the most relevant and telling photos to summarize that time period. These will get slipped into the page protectors, along with any journaling that needs to go along with them. Embellishments and patterned papers can add interest and fill in any unused photo slots.

 As we go through the photos, many of them are likely to end up in category drawers to be combined with other personality photos at a later time. The goal of this project is to have a quickly assembled album that contains highlights of that particular year (or years). We want it to be pleasing to look at, tell the stories, and get done with reasonable speed.

This is our summer project, oh yes - along with taking plenty of online classes! What scarpping fools we are!

I hope to post a few photos here are we go along on this project, which won't really get underway for a few weeks at least.

And yes, Trish, I posted this so we can both remember what our grand plans are for this project!

Monday, May 2, 2011

Somber thoughts

‎"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that." --Martin Luther King, Jr

I am not standing in judgement of those who have been rejoicing in the streets over the death of Osama bin Laden. I am just not in the same place mentally. I do hope that the families of the victims of terrorism can find some relief and sense of justice in this. 

But everything about terrorism makes me very sad. Part of that sadness is how very, very twisted people can become - people like Hitler, like bin Laden, like Pol Pot and Stalin. It breaks my heart that humans can be so far off base about the heart of God. I am saddened that people can become so dangerous to their fellow human beings that they need to be eliminated. 

In all of this I am also very grateful for the brave service members who risk their own lives to protect ours. I only hope that this will somehow work out to mean that they can all come home sooner.