Chronicles of Nani - Be An Ambassador

Chronicles of Nani - Be An Ambassador
(Equality has to work both ways)

First off I'll let everybody know the coffee talk is a fun bragging story. 

If you use an assistive device, from a cane to a power wheelchair, or if a chronic illness just makes you move slow, it's up to you to present the person you want others to treat you like. You and I, all of us, are responsible for the perception family, friends and total strangers have of us all.

Happy These and Thats

I need to write a nice blog post, really I do. I’ve actually written a few…papers, we’ll call them papers, they might end up being blog posts at a date in the not far future, but right now they are just papers. I’m dealing with some things right now. I’m not dipping back into depression, I keep a close eye on that, but I’m troubled by a few things and that shows up in my writing. I write to relieve stress until what's at the root of my problem comes out and it seems to have not come out yet, so when I "just write" it hasn't been as "up" as I usually am. I have to be really careful about my journaling for scrapbook pages too!

Today will be one of my snippets and potpourri posts. There have been good and bad things that have inspired a paragraph or a thought that’s worth sharing. Today I’m going to refrain from things that bug me. Let’s see what I have…


In the scrapbooking Nani-world, last night I finished the last folder in November of 2008 and all that’s left is the December folder. That will be my focus for next month because finishing that only folder left with complete 2008! My main area of concentration for the rest of this month will be in 2011, which also starts with November right now. It has only 4 folders, so I may start December with 2 years of the 6 I’m working on with just a few layouts to complete. I might actually be only working on layouts for 2015 by this time next year! David and I were talking about getting some proofreading time set up soon. The greatest challenge for me there is he has to do the proofreading on my computer because I have a ton of fonts he doesn’t have so he can’t open the files on his computer to make changes…and I know there will be corrections to make!


I read an article yesterday called When copy-and-paste ruled America at Smithsonian.com. It’s a 2-page article about the history of scrapbooking. Very cool read. It talks about how print media and the start of scrapbooking was a natural combination, how men and women scrapbooked and why. Mark Twain made the verb scrapbooking popular and marketed his self-adhesive scrapbooks. It was fascinating and it really does show that the very roots of scrapbooks were so much the Smash book idea of today and that digital scrapbooking in the digital age is as natural as those smash-style books were at the dawn of print media for the same reasons. It’s a fun read and it really makes my daily diary-scrapbooks pretty timeless too.

Speaking of those diary scrapbook pages, here is week 44:

I didn’t record the credits as I go on this one, but if there is a paper or element you see that you’d like to know more about, leave a comment or drop me an email and I’ll look it up! I have them all done through last week, week 45, but last week had some not-bloggy stuff.


I've discovered that I'm becoming enamored of the deco owls I've seen so much lately. An Instagram friend keeps showing dishes she's prepared with deco owl salt and pepper shakers in the photos. I've also found so many owl coffee mugs! It started as simple owls like that in scrapbook kits and it just grew on me LOL

I grumble about Christmas marketing completely overshadowing Thanksgiving, but I found this photo that I love!

It was called a vegan turkey when it was shared on Facebook, but if I was having a big enough party I’d definitely make this fruit tray regardless of the meat-eating status of my guests. It is, however, a great way to have the tradition of a Thanksgiving turkey for non-meat eating guests!


David found a bottle of Pumpkin Spice Coffeemate for me yesterday. I know, it’s late in the pumpkin spice season to be getting my first bottle, but every time I’ve been in the grocery store they’ve been out of it! I actually would’ve preferred the smaller bottle but all David saw was the bigger one. I don’t use it in coffee, I use it in oatmeal! That’s what breakfast was this morning. A quarter cup of flavored creamer is just rich enough and just sweet enough to make incredible oatmeal! It’s 8 weight watcher points for the whole bowl of oatmeal but matched with a single point powdered coffee creamer and a free fruit, it’s within my preferred 10 points for breakfast and on a day I awoke to a couple inches of snow outside it was WELL worth it!

I said I was going to try to be positive today so as far as the weather goes let me just say “Pumpkin Spice Oatmeal!!!!”

Goals and Projects For 2014

BRRR… I’m cold. It’s cold outside and we have a drafty door near where I’m sitting. But, I feel otherwise good and not at all sick. 2013 ends better than 2012 did and it promises a better January 1 for 2014!

As I say goodbye to 2013 it’s time to set up my goals and projects for 2014. Looking over 2013’s goals and projects I can say that I’m pleased with how well I did in some areas and I know I definitely disappointed myself in some. In some areas I nailed the “or something better.”

“We aim above the mark to hit the mark.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Clean and Organize Project:

Well, last year I dropped the White Tornado idea for 2013 and well, I must say we did a good job of not moving forward on that front. Looking forward now however, I’m less mobile and more clumsy and that makes everyday things more out of reach and clutter more dangerous. In the first couple months of 2014 I’ll be researching and asking questions. After suggestions from friends (hi Edna!) and other family members I’m going to look into avenues for daily living assistance for people with disabilities. I understand there are even people who will help with serious cleaning and organizing a more accessible house.

Like I said research first. I need to find out what assistance I can get, if I am an eligible candidate for disability assistance and how much it will cost/if I can afford it. I figure initially there will be a lot of work to get our house truly organized and safe, then maybe just someone who can help tidy up once a week or so. We’ll see; this is entirely new territory for me. I’ll talk to my doctor too to see if he has any suggestions.

One thing that I must get done is the door jamb on the entryway to the kitchen from the dining room has to come out. There is snuggly enough space to drive the power chair through but if the jamb is removed it will give an extra inch. In all the years David’s been here there’s never been a door there, so the door jamb won’t be missed. A mid-December call to 911 to come pick me up off the kitchen floor because my leg just quit while I was hobbling back from the bathroom made me decide that I had to be able to use the chair in the kitchen. I also want to see about a couple more grab bars in the hallway to the downstairs bathroom, where the chair doesn’t fit at all and I have to “walk.”


Blog Goals:

Blog more regularly?? I did the consolidation in the fall putting all my blogs on The Chronicles of Nani so I have plenty of material for a healthy blog, I just need to get my head in the right place. Counseling is helping; I’m getting g better. I also think that if I can get the help to get the house up to safer and more comfortable it will help too. I can’t let my mental health depend on that right now though since I don’t know for sure that I can get or afford that help! Still, I’ve set some 2014 goals with my counselor and I feel good about my prospects. I want it and I believe it will work, 75% of the battle.

So, with my head and heart in a better place, and getting better day by day, I should be able to commit myself to The Chronicles better. I want to blog a minimum of twice a week. I’m also going to post at least one Tweet a day.


Reading Goals:

This is one place I am very pleased with my numbers for 2013. My goal was to read 2 books a month with a short book review on The Chronicles of Nani. I read 27 books with reviews here in 2013! Waiting in doctors' offices gets a nod for help with that one, but so does reading before bed or an afternoon nap.

For 2014, I’m keeping that goal of 2 books a month with book reviews here.


Health and Wellness:

Of course the January Detox starts January 2, or whichever day I can get out of the house after the snow to stock up on some better groceries. With decreased mobility and depression came some bad eating habits and less movement! I don’t try to lose in December; I just try to not gain any weight or at least very little. This November and December was a fail! An emotional eater in distress, I gained enough to feel uncomfortable emotionally and physically. I do start January with a bunch of containers of my own homemade vegetable soup in the freezer, a very recent Lean Cuisine sale where David stocked me up and a week’s worth of Greek yogurt in the fridge. I need to get out to the produce market.

I want to lose at least 20 pounds by June.

In physical health and wellness goals, I will have my first round of epidural steroids for my lower back next week. I’m not going to hide that I’m as nervous as can be. I remember the worst part of spinal taps I got when I was 18 was feeling those needles when I couldn’t see what was going on. Numb or not it was agonizing. For this procedure I can’t take the bus because I can’t go home alone, David has to be there because I get IV funny juice. Continued pain is the only prospect I like less! Hopefully the injections will help me get up from a sitting position better and give me a little light exercise ability.


Scrapbooking:

The idea of scrapping the current month instead of trying to catchup a year at a time went brilliantly! Every folder for January and February was completed during these months in 2013! Now those are the months I take fewer pictures, but I’ll be catching up some of the December and November during those months this year while I’m keeping 2014 up to date.

I did keep a tally of the pages I completed each month with my goal of averaging a layout a day. In 2013 I finished 484 scrapbook pages with my record month being July (When the ramp was still new for discovering all the places I could go and it was hot anyway) I did 66 layouts in July!

In this too my goal shall remain the same; average a page a day with a tally kept.


Project 365:

Now here was a fail this year. I figured out that where I completed 2012 but fell behind and dropped 2013 was in the randomness. 2012 was just a line or two written about the day and a layout with those thoughts each week. 2013 was a structured “writing assignment” that had to be written and scrapped every week with pre-assigned topics for each week. I like a challenge, but hobbies are supposed to be fun and as challenging as I want them to be on any day. This year my Project 52 will be “2014: That’s So Random!” I’m going to do a page a week. It might be a journaling page, or a quote every day, a picture a day, a mix of ideas each day or just a layout of a highlight event for the week. I won’t know until the week is under way what it’ll be.

We’ll see how that works!


Employment Goal:

Part of working toward working for me in 2013 was volunteering. Volunteering means networking and earning some current references who have worked with me in a professional setting. As the year was winding down I had some wonderful ego-building surprises as a result of volunteer work that have pushed me into leadership and more detailed work. That means that I not only feel like I have a lot to offer even with wheels, but I’m perceived as having a lot to offer by other professionals. I can’t even express how good that feels and how much it does for my confidence!

So my goals for employment this year are to keep doing what I’ve been doing, shoring up my resume presentation and add at least a few professional items to my wardrobe. Ideally it would be great to land something part time and either have that go full time or move on to a full time placement from there. I know it’d be best to build my stamina rather than jump into 40+ hours a week right off the bat. I want, no need, to feel I’m making a valuable contribution at work and to the home income too.

And there is my plan for 2014. 

 Of course, this or something better!

Dark Pondering

The bombs at The Boston Marathon, poison laced letters sent to lawmakers, guns in an elementary school or a maniac in Kevlar at a movie theater, just a few examples in recent headlines of the sickness in our world. I was thinking about this a lot yesterday, As I’ve said before and I will never change my thoughts; I don’t understand how people like this think and I never want to understand it.

So much violence and senseless killing. If the world they live in is that awful suicide is a better answer than killing anyone else. The violence is your problem and yours alone of you have those ideas in your mind. I’m usually the first to say that suicide is not the answer, that those feeling that hopeless need help and support, but if the only alternative they’ll consider is mass murder, by all means, have at it on yourself. Just be kind enough to the people you leave behind to let them know you were probably going to kill innocent people had it not been yourself. Really, it does make it okay.

And “Not guilty by reason of insanity?” Meh, of course your insane! If you kill people you don’t even know, if children are in your line of fire and it’s oaky by you, insanity goes without saying. But is that a reason to consider you “not guilty?” In a premeditated attack you never once thought maybe you were nuts? It never occurred to you that at the very least, what you were planning was considered immoral or at least deviant behavior? At any point in planning you could have sought help instead of following through. If you kept your plan a secret, you knew it was wrong. Why did you CHOOSE not to get help? No, it’s GUILTY by reason of insanity. The insanity plea is no reason to let someone off with being tried for a lesser crime than mass murder when mass murder is what they are guilty of. The defense team of the Aurora movie theater shooter, who will not receive the publicity and humanity of a name here, had considered entering a “not guilty by reason of insanity” plea. None of his victims get to enter a “not dead by reason of movie” reversal. If the crime is punishable by death, it’s punishable by death. If the crime warrants life in prison, it warrants life in prison. Every person who has committed the same crime is unquestionably insane but that is not an excuse not to receive the punishment for the crime committed.

Oh, and terrorism? Aside from the fact that religion really has nothing to do with it; it’s power drunk “religious” “leaders” using a religion they don’t believe in to control weak believers with lies about their religion and other religions to cause the violence that gets their rocks off and makes them feel powerful. They do it because they have nothing else in their being that they consider worth anything. And don’t get me wrong here; this includes the likes of Al Qaeda and every “Christian” “leader” who has inspired their followers to bomb an abortion clinic or picket a funeral. It’s all terrorism and about as far from any kind of religious belief as you can get.

If you truly believe your religion wants that much hate and violence from you, you need to look for a new religion because the one you have is making you pretty miserable. I’m not familiar with any religion that encourages you to honor God, by whatever name the creator has in that religion, by being miserable in the life you were given, If you truly believe God wants you to be so hateful and violent, well, you portray God as quite a jerk. I find that kind of offensive, personally. I haven’t come across any holy book that doesn’t say you shouldn’t kill, so if you are killing in the name of your religion, boy are you screwed up.

Today an entire major city is shut down and we don’t even know the root of the hate yet. The 8th Ammendement includes prohibiting the use of cruel and unusual punishment, including torture. Considering that this Amendment was ratified at a time when slavery was still legal in this country, what exactly is “cruel and unusual?” Do we as a society get a pass when the crime is cruel and unusual? Should we? With the exception of slavery, the crimes today are way bigger than they were at that time.

Just sayin’.

I hope I didn’t offend anyone too much. I’ve said before that some of my crime and punishment ideas have made very right, staunch Republicans say “Well, I wouldn’t go that far.” I’ve also said that I write to get things of my chest and poison out of my brain. I feel a little better now.

Wednesday Hodge Podge

1. I included this quote (attributed to William H. Danforth) in my blog post yesterday... "The best cure for a sluggish mind is to disturb it's routine." When was the last time you 'disturbed your routine' and how'd you do it?

Well, I guess I disturbed my mind’s routine when I started taking college classes again. The goal was to earn a certificate in some area or another of computers. Now as I’m not in a financial place to afford tuition right now, I want to get the tools I need to get back to work and possibly back to school soon after. My mind is in a constant state of disruption, so it doesn’t get sluggish until bedtime, :)


2. What's your favorite fried food indulgence?

Fried Sweet Potatoes! They are my fried weakness!

I occasionally get a small order of fries (or a half of a small with a Happy Meal) at McDonald’s and I like the chicken bites, but as a rule I really don’t like much fried food – frying adds fat and destroys the flavor of most things.


3. Did you have an allowance as a kid? What did you do with it? Do you give your own kids an allowance?

I had an allowance in the summer, when we were out doing things without Mom there. As I recall maybe it was $10 a week. That was a lot when I was a kid! I spent it on arts and crafts, baseball cards and candy and an occasional Chocolate Honey Dipped donut at Dunkin Donuts.

We don’t give our kids an allowance, we just buy them everything they want. We’re obedient cat-parents.


4. What's something you wish you knew more about?

Pop culture; I wish I just magically knew more about the TV programs and movies everyone references without having to watch them.


5. Is there anything you feel too old to do anymore? If so, what?

Drink to any excess. I’m too old to party irresponsibly like I did in my early 20s. We did always have a designated driver when I went out to clubs with friends, but the “need” for alcohol to socialize is something I’m glad to have outgrown.


6. What's a song you think has a great first line?

First one that comes to mind is “Hold On” by Kansas; “Look in the mirror and tell me, what do you see?”


7. Who are you writing to/for when you create a blog post? In other words...as you write, who is the audience in your head?

You! I’m always writing to anyone reading, be it someone I do or don’t know. I occasionally I will mention a friend or fellow blogger in a post and address them, but I write to everyone reading my blog.

When I write in my personal journal I write to the journal itself, but occasionally recognize that one day Tori or Rina will be able to read it* and address them, but usually the private journal is treated as the journal itself is my personal and most intimate, non-judgmental friend.

** Tori and Rina will inherit the right to read my most personal thoughts. They can decide then if there would be any value in selling them.


8. Insert your own random thought here.

This was my snack after baseball and Degrassi last night:

peach butter and sugar cookies

I started the peach butter in my crockpot Monday night, drained excess liquid yesterday afternoon, milled it in the blender and put it back in the crock post to finish cooking yesterday afternoon. I made a quick batch of simple sugar cookies to put the peach butter on. Mmmm-M! I haven’t figured out if there are enough peaches left to do a peach crisp or if I’ll just eat the rest of them.

A Freebie and 5-Minute Friday

I’ve been juggling the last chapters for school and the outline and research for my final paper with cooking, cleaning, holiday preparation and trying to keep my current scrapbooks within 6 months of up-to-date. Oh yeah, I also have a project that I‘ve been working on for the last four years that I’ll be wrapping up soon. It keeps me out of trouble.

I’ve decided that I’ll be taking next semester off school and I’m going to slowly but surely get the house up to workable accessibility. I’m thinking that I can get everything but the stairs walker and reach friendly. If I can manage that on our 1950’s house, creating some simple tools to help, there may be a consulting future. Hmmm… Well, at the very least a few contracts? I’ll DO the job first. Advertise later if it works!


We have great ADA guidelines for people with disabilities to enjoy productive lives in the comfort of their “normal” wherever we go. Unfortunately the ADA guidelines are a good start but that half sentence is documented with a period. There is a lot open to interpretation. Businesses often do the bare minimum to be legal and don't bother with keeping those standards current

For Instance:


That ledge is on the wheelchair ramp at our local Tim Horton's. The smaller front wheels of most wheelchairs might be destroyed hitting that ledge, or it could just stop the chair short and throw the person sitting in the chair to the ground. Neither result is acceptable! Not to mention the dropped ramp there is a lawsuit begging to happen. When Rina and I went into the shop when these photos were taken, she backed me up over the side of the ramp, which was actually a lower lip than the top.

I’m sending an email with the photos to Tim Horton’s corporate office. I’m not looking for anything but to have it fixed. I like Tim Horton’s, but I can’t go to the store closest to me on my own because it just wouldn’t be safe. That ledge is obvious enough that an able-bodied 17-year-old saw it immediately. It's not an easily missed little thing.


Back to keeping the scrapbook caught up, I did this page this week:

Credits: Siren by Viva Artistry, Panel Template by Digitalegacies Designs

I did this page, as I often do, by creating the layout and adding the pictures and papers later. That means I have a digital template to share!

Download link in five minutes! (At the end of the post)



Five Minute Friday

5 Minute Friday was fun last week and since I was up earkly today, I definitely have some time to devote 5 minutes.

Today’ word is unexpected.


GO

The best things are the unexpected things. Flowers on Valentine’s Day are wonderful, but flowers for no reason at all are even better.

When I try something new and expect there to be a learning curve and I do well, that’s an unexpected ego boost. When things DON”T go as planned, that’s an unexpected opportunity to learn. Okay, Nani looks at the lemonade stand when she has lemons is NOT unexpected, but what fun would life be without SOME stability? As much fun as it would be with no surprises. The unexpected is what keeps life exciting.

I always say I don’t like people to just drop by to visit. Truth is, I always enjoy it more than I feel inconvenienced when someone doesn’t call first.

STOP


Definitely click that icon and check out Lisa-Jo’s blog. Lots of interesting and fun stuff there!

Download the Digitalegacies Designs Panel Template

I Remember…

Oh the blog world is so much fun! Last Thursday I joined Vintage Thingie Thursday at Suzanne’s blog, Coloradolady, for the first time. I’d been wanting to do that. I love antiques and heirlooms and well, I have quite a few of them as now I am the family matriarch. Grandma was an only child, so was Mom. That pretty much leaves me as the oldest on Mom's side of the family. The next statement will send chills down David’s spine. I’m planning on hanging around a good while and I’m keeping the stuff!

Truth be told, I was very self- restrained in selecting the treasures I kept from Grandma’s place when we cleaned it up, but I still brought home a few, several few, boxes of things. Since things didn’t quite go as planned this year, I’m going to make next year the reclaiming our living space year. We’ll see how things are going once I start my MS meds and physical therapy. I’m seriously thinking of taking the next semester off so I can really put some time in on the millennium cleaning project. Then do an on-campus summer class and really work on practical use of the wheelchair, or walker if things really go well. Not setting a goal there until I am doing it with my therapist! Then I want to get on the job seeking again.

Well, it’s Friday night and David is at a train slide gathering with a few friends. I wanted to get my school work for the week done today because we’re all converging in Toledo tomorrow to take my Dad out for his birthday! We were in Michigan last year and we’ll go to Indianapolis next year, but this year I get to show off for Pop. If you followed the link to La Scola from last night’s blog, is your mouth just watering from the photos? They open at four in the afternoon and you could be on a full stomach from a late lunch when you drive by and the smell will make you want to stop!

So, school stuff done, I did a little reading, and a little writing. I read Suzanne’s post for Five Minute Friday and went back to the source of the prompt, The Gypsy Mama, and read hers. It’s a cool concept. You get a prompt and you just write for 5 minutes, then stop. For me that’s, then stop and fix all the typos, but when I only get 5 minutes, I’m not careful about typing accuracy! But this week the prompt is “Remember.” I do timed exercises like that and I’m always amazed where it takes me when I “just write.” This was no exception. I had a thought in mind that went completely a different direction when I set fingers to keyboard.



I Remember

GO

I remember so many things. One of the gifts I’m most grateful for is my long memory. I remember sights, the lights on the juke box and the look up at the counter. That memory, those pictures in my mind are of the bar my paternal grandfather took me to, to show off his grandbaby to his friends. Mom told him not to take me to the bar, but Nono didn’t listen. He wasn’t doing any harm. Mom said she could always easily tell he’d taken me because I had a handful of chocolate covered quarters, gifts from Nono’s friends.

In this day and age a man could never walk into the corner bar with a child under two, but although they're just little snippets of video in my mind, and stories I was told later, I treasure those moments that have always been with me. I only had 6 years with Nono when cancer took him away from all of us, from me. But I’ll always remember the cherished feeling of being his first grandchild.

STOP

Donnez-moi plus de cafe!

Cup art from the kit Couleur Cafe by Katussia

Ne dis jamais “ça suffit de café!”

Happy Sunday, everybody!

Isn't the cup cute? It's from a freebie kit, Couleur de Cafe by Katussia just-a-dream here on blogspot. I love coffee kits and I scrap about coffee every now and then for spacer pages between my 2-page layouts in my scrapbooks .

Yes, I blew it on the last day of the week! No post on Friday means I did NOT post every day of the week and here it is the last day of the weekend. It’s Interleague Play. I hate Interleague Play and it just messes with my whole day when it starts. The Cubs pretending to be an American League team in Boston was on the TV because David hates Interleague Play slightly less than me and he still watches. I saw enough to know I couldn’t even pretend it was the World Series because, come on, the way the Cubs are playing defense in the National League, there’s just no real way that could happen this year!

I will probably at least have the Reds game on today. The Reds and Indians is a viable pretend World Series this year and the Reds have lost the first two games. Shame on the Reds for requiring the fans to watch Interleague trash to get a win! I wish it as the Reds home series. I like National League ball better. I’ve said it many times, the designated hitter position is just a way that millionaires can still make those millions a few more years when they don’t have what it takes to play the whole game. It’s more overrated than the closer position. Hey there are, or are supposed to be, 30 professional closers and Mariano Rivera and 4 different other guys every year who can actually do the job. Closers get paid more than the other relief pitchers and the designated hitters get paid like any other player when they do half the work. Wouldn’t it be grand if we all got paid that way? But we, the baseball fans of us anyway, pay those overinflated among the overpaid salaries every time the prices at the ballpark go up. By the time you figure parking, tickets, concessions, it’s easily over $100 to take a family or even a date to a Major League Baseball game. Interleague Play may bring in the casual fan who has money, but to get real baseball fans in the park cut the crap and bring down the prices! Make it affordable by getting back to the roots of the game. The players can still have their money, but ask them to kindly perform for it. I say get rid of the designated hitter and bring us dollar hot dogs and $3 beer!

Whew! I sometimes don’t know where my blog will go when I sit down in front of the keyboard. I write to keep myself at peace and centered, so if something needs to get off my chest, my hands will take it out on the keyboard!

So, it’s Sunday, second cup of coffee day! Ne dis jamais “ça suffit de café!” is Never say “that’s enough coffee!” That’s my Sunday battle cry. Et maintenant, j’ai besoin de plus de café. (Now I need more coffee) And I put the game on and Joey Votto hit a deep home run in the first inning. With that kind of apology, I really can’t turn my back on my team during the “let’s pretend it’s October” play date with the Indians.

If I close the shades on the windows, crank up the air conditioner and put something stronger in the coffee, it might even feel like October!

2010 Is In The Books

Last page of 2010

Multilingual word art by Jenn Lindsey

Okay, 2010 is actually ready for proofreading. I proofread 2007 on my own and David’s hair stood on end with a cardinal sin typo on New Year’s Day! Big Boy Restaurant, where we had Brunch, is NOT Big Boy’s, never has been, never will be and boy I’m glad we were already married when he read that! There is a lot of stress being married to a professional writer!

The truth is I cringed when I read it after the book came in and realized I missed that one. So from now on, David gets to proofread BEFORE I send the books to Inkubook. He does that so much better than I do. It’s part of his job, along withdrawing details out of people, and an area where I scored quite poorly when I tested for proofreading for a placement agency. I accept that I am a put together the big picture and make sure the details get done person, but not a go over things with a fine tooth comb after they’re done person. It takes people like me AND people like David as well as people like many others to make a project happen, whether it’s in the business or personal world. I make the scrapbooks look really good, David adds that element that makes them great! That’s not me selling myself short, I could have easily said I make them great, he makes them even greater, but I’m not in the need of ego affirmation this morning.

Now, the goal was to have 2010 done by the end of January. Remember, “this or something better.” The something better was all of my class work caught up AND the 2010 pages done. It took 20 days to do that. So that last page is a pretty cool page for a quiet night at home, huh? The champagne glasses and new year circle are from an elements pack I picked up as a freebie, but it had no TOU and no designer name on the preview. The glasses are kinda sorta similar to the ones we drank our Asti from, so they really did fit with the evening.

So, I was a bit of a scrapping fool yesterday, finishing up 2010 and finishing the Progressive Scrap at the studio.

Credits: Thinking of You collab by the Studio Designers,

word art by Digitalegacies Designs

That is not quite the same layout I did for the progressive. I moved a few things, deleted some. I am learning how to cluster and getting better, but still in the progressive scraps I end up with an element or two that doesn’t quite fit the photos or that I just really don’t care for. I’ll hardly ever use a button in a page that will make it to the printing stage. I just don’t care for buttons. I also put away and go back to progressive layouts to see if they look less cluttered to me. If it’s too cluttery, I start taking things out. You can see the actual progressive version of this layout here.

In celebration of starting the 2011 scrapping with that layout, I want to share the word art! Yes, you recognize the line I loved so much from the Hallmark commercials. Of course, that’s why I can’t sell the word art, but I want to give it away anyway.

I will, for the use of that line, remind everyone that the perfect card can say everything you can’t grab the words to write or even say. I have a huge box of greeting cards. I save them. Funny, that when we cleaned out my Great-Grandmother’s house, she had a box of cards she saved and she had her mother’s cards too. Grandma came into keeping those two boxes and a box of her own! I went through those cards, looking at the way the fronts had changed and also the way the messages changed a little, but the meaning was still the same, “you mean something special to me.” I didn’t keep all the cards from Grandma’s, but I did keep a few of the very old ones to scan and a few special ones I did keep, like Papa’s first anniversary card to Grandma after he got home from the war and a sweetly mushy Mother’s Day card with “Janet” written in print that said my Mom was about six or seven. Yeah, that’s another sappy Hallmark commercial, isn’t it? That one choked me up too. That was because I saw some old cards my Dad kept that I gave him too!

So, here’s the free word art:

Click on preview to go to download
Password is Hallmark

This will be my last day for super-scrapping for a while. I needed a couple days away from XML before I dig in to studying for our first test, due turned in by next Sunday. I did a little better than I expected on that chapter I got the extension for and a few encouraging notes from my instructor too. I’m SO not the “tough love” type, but encourage me and I’ll work extra hard not to let either one of us down.

This week will be studying for that test and getting on the next chapter in imaging. I also have to call the neurosurgeon’s office to get an update on progress with the insurance on my next MRI and David and I are going to tour a…..”extended stay physical therapy recovery center.” It’s a nursing home. If I have back surgery, I’ll be discharged from the hospital and go to a nursing home for convalescence before I go home. Tori didn’t like me saying I was going to be in a nursing home. Not sure if that’s because her experience with a nursing home is with her great grandmother and Grandma was having memory issues. Grandma also passed away in a nursing home and she was in the average age in her hall at 84. Tori refuses to see “her Nana” that way. We were on speaker phone and my brother broke in with the explanation, so I wonder if it was Tori or Dave that had the problem with the wording. Hmmm…

Anyway, suffice to say it’s a busy week coming up. Then it’s Spring Break at school which will give me a chance to get ahead in my class work. For today, I have a few more pages I want to work on. But for now, my second cup of Sunday coffee is done and it’s time to clothe my lazy butt!

Finding Coffee Money

I know, I know, sponsors, ads, commercials, blah! But in a tough economy there are a few truisms.

Business cuts advertising first when they need to tighten the corporate belt. Not a great idea because when times are tough, competition is tougher. You NEED advertising. It’s still the first place they cut!

But, we all have things we’ve had to cut back on or out. For me, it’s my cappuccinos! At three bucks a pop, those are rare treats now where they used to be the beverage stop of choice before work when I was in Michigan in better times. I know fellow designers who have been selling scrapbook kits longer than me have noted cuts there too. We might even be looking at a ticket OR a hot-dog at the ballpark this year!

An awesome band aid that might get us all through these times with a little less stress, at least on occasion, is to check out the opportunities online. I looked at a Freelance Job Board where they match businesses getting what they need for a little less with people looking to earn a little more. You all know I do sponsored posts. Those sponsors haven’t afforded my daily cappuccino again, but I can treat myself weekly and I love not having to ask David for little things at the gas station when we’re railfanning!

If you’re feeling a pinch, it might be worth a click to check it out and see if any of the opportunities match what you enjoy doing. Some things pay more, some less, but this post alone will buy a cup of Speedway coffee, soft pretzel at a Mud Hens game or a set of Digitalegacies Designs Project 365 templates. What could you get for just a little bit of your spare time?

Nani, Nani, Nani

My new electric best bud!

I actually was going to do one of my potpourri entries yesterday with a few briefs, but the first one ended up so long! I’m just very pleased with the progress of Wife 1500 so far. If it’s working for me, you might find a kernel or two that works for you too. Yes, a pun with the kernel comment there. hehe


Now to finish what I started yesterday!

First off It’s another Crazy Thursday at Scrap Bird! This week you can pick up my Project 365 template sets for half off. That’s only a buck! Four templates in each set, that’s 2 months of Project 365 layouts with your choice of paper and elements but done the easy way! Just place the paper above the layer, create a clipping mask and you’re good to go! You can see many samples of those layouts by clicking “365” for the posts with that label.

365

One Step At A Time Layout


I got the first layout with One Step at a Time from my CT! This one was done by Jana, one step at a time is baby’s first steps! I kind thought in the back of my mind that this kit would be good for this kind of layout and Jana definitely proved that thought right! She did just a great job!



Sweet Thanks

I got this very nice thank you from Linda, Tirza’s Treasures!

It’s presented as a sincere thank you for awards and nice comments. It doesn’t have to be passed on today or ever, but it can be. Very cool sentiment!

I get many awards for which I am so grateful. I do, sometimes a little while after receiving it and sometimes right after, acknowledge all of them, but I don’t always pass them on. It’s not that I want to spoil the fun, but I sometimes just don’t have the necessary time to do it. But I do appreciate them all just the same.

Now, I’d like to pass the sincere thank you to everyone who reads this. Thank you for taking a few moments from your day to stop in at my cyber-coffee shop and read a little! Thank you for thinking of The Chronicles of Nani!



FINALLY!

More mundane but, to me, exciting news! In the wake of the feel-good donation to Locks of Love, and finally moving my hair care to Ohio with the rest of me, I’m going to savor the fruits of wedded bliss! I’m getting my teeth cleaned! That’s not nearly as corny as it sounds. My teeth badly need cleaning. I’ve been near-broke and uninsured for a few years! With “I do” comes “add my wife to the policy!”

I am almost militant about brushing and I am what my old oral hygienist thought to be rare, I floss every day! I’ve been told my smile is one of my better physical traits and right now my teeth could really stand a face lift! So next week will be my first visit to my Toledo dentist. They’ll do X-rays and the initial consultation to decide what the cleaning and caring plan of action will be to get me back to smiling confident that my smile is my best best-feature it can be!

A week later will be sorta bittersweet. I’ve had the same optometrist since eight grade. It was reading glasses then, but he is also the one who recognized my dyslexia and helped me with eye exercises to overcome it and make reading easier for me. He taught me how to put contacts in. He gave me an explanation that a young me could comprehend about exactly what astigmatism is. (He used the baseball-football analogy)

But Dr. Levin is in Northville, 70 miles away now. If I need a new prescription, that’s a long way to drive with unreliable vision! So, in two weeks will be my first visit to an optometrist who isn't Dr. Levin or one of his partners. I think this is even scarier than a new person cutting my hair!



Opposing Views and Paid Posts

I wanted to mention this just to let you know what I do behind the scenes! Anyone who has ever left a comment here knows that I only publish approved comments. This does a few things. The number one thing it does is gets rid of any need to enter a confusing set of letters before the comment posts. When I read it, I’ll figure out if you were a real person or a machine. I’m an accomplished hunt and peck typist. That means I’m pretty quick and even accurate if I put my mind to it, as long as what I’m typing are words as I know them. When I have to type in those security combinations, I usually have to do them 2 or 3 times. A machine would probably do a better job of faking being a human than me! I understand how it works as a security measure, but since I read them all before they appear, I don’t care if I’m deleting gibberish from a bot. I don't like the security codes and I don't think I need to put anyone else through it here.

The other more important thing comment approval does, is it let’s control-freak me have...control - over the content of my blog. This is important because I don’t allow comments that hurt or slander me, my readers or my sponsors. Yes, I’m protecting the generous sponsors who support my caffeine habit by letting me do a little promotion for them through compensated posts. As I say in my disclaimer on the bulletin board, I choose opportunities to promote products and services that I think are a good idea or in the case where I’ve used it , a good product. A good clue is that if there is a link in the text for a non-scrapbook post, it’s a compensated post. When I am recommending a product or service on my own without compensation, the links will here on out be after the post. For the most part they usually have been anyway, but I'm going to do it that way from now on so you know if it's a sponsored post or my personal testimonial. I'll never say I've tried a product unless I have, sponsored or not. If you disagree with a product that is a sponsor, please feel free to leave a comment, even leave an email address and we can trade emails about anything you think would be a better product. I do read every comment and I always check out links you share. However, if the comment is on a compensated post and especially if it recommends a competitor, I won’t publish it. That’s contrary to the contractual agreement with my sponsor and my own personal business ethics. But if you want to chat about it “off-blog” leave me contact info and we can chat over the coffee I can afford after doing the post!

Well, there are my little bits and bits for this week. Exciting weekend scheduled!!

Happy Friday!

It’s been an interesting week this week. I’ll be starting next week with a big call list for Monday to follow up a bunch of unsolicited resumes I sent out this week, including a follow-up on that interview. Truth is, I hate those calls. Well, I hate looking for work. After all this time of searching, I just want someone to see my resume and say “I can’t believe she’s still available! When can she start?” Yeah, I know, me and thousands of others who’ve been pounding the pavement for over a year.

That’s the part that gets me - over a year. Earning a degree was supposed to keep this from happening. But I read Q&A boards at job sites that at least give my misery company. There are many, way too many, degreed professionals in the same boat, especially in this area. We are that middle that got sliced out of the corporations across the country. Not experienced enough to move up and “overqualified” to move down, it’s relocate, retail or recareer. Well, for me, I kiboshed the relocate last December. I really don’t want to live in a different part of the country than my husband. Heck, I didn’t even want to move too far away from my boyfriend before we got married! My knee won’t let me do retail, or I’d already be there. So now, I’m looking to recareer.

I’ve been giving some serious thought to going back to school for maybe an IT certificate, with the hope that I can get an entry level techie job and finish a bachelor in the evenings. I’ve also given thought to a marketing degree, I’m really not so many classes shy of that since I had an undeclared business minor with my first degree, but there are so many jobs that call themselves marketing jobs out there right now that are just scams, making it really difficult to tell if that’s a promising field or not anymore. So, I’m really leaning towards learning a little more about networks and Windows and moving in that direction. The reeducation is still in the exploratory stage, but boy, even if it’s just a class a semester, “in School” looks better on a resume than “looking for work” with no new references!


That was a “live-on-screen journal” entry. Suitable for the blog because it’s not too personal, named no names, not too negative and doesn’t have any of that blowing off steam language that occasionally surfaces when no one else is around. That’s some of what was lost in the file corruption of the 2008 Chronicles of Nani compilation. To be true, it hadn’t occurred to me that just one class at a time was a good idea when I was trying to crunch the tuition numbers for the degree programs. I could get some techie classes at the junior college for much less to start. I just need to be able to do the tasks and talk the talk as I make the transition into a new field. I’m feeling better all ready!

Sometimes to see all the trees, you need to really analyze the forest!


Now I feel good enough to stand up at the podium and accept some awards!

Edna has got to be one of my biggest angels in cyberspace! She is awarded for her creativity, upbeat view of things, effort and in general fostering good will on her blog and it’s all so well earned! But she also never hesitates to name me as one of her favorites too! That always makes me feel so good and in a personal world that is often met with frustration during the job-search hours, it’s a huge pick-me-up that just makes all the difference in maintaining my optimism!

I have three new awards courtesy of Edna:


This absolutely sweet friends award.


And this, the Nagrada award.


And finally, The Blogger Oscar...Which means I have been recognized as an entertaining drama queen! YAY! LOL

Seriously, Being recognized as creative, entertaining and a general good friend is a great honor. I love the awards for my little coffee shop here in Cyberspace!

I’m going to get on to deciding to whom these will get passed in a couple days, but I wanted to recognize that Edna had bestowed the honor on me!



Saturday Scrapiday!

Tomorrow I’ll get some scrapping time! David has, what I call an adult play-date. He’s meeting a bunch of guys in the Motherland at Chuck’s house. He’s the owner of a very cool model railroad. They do operating sessions, where everyone is assigned different roles, dispatcher, engineer, etc, and run the railroad for a couple hours.

I was there the first time he went. Chuck’s railroad is awesome! It’s definitely not a kids’ railroad at all. He had a very sophisticated signal system, sound effects, a track layout that’s modeled after a real 80’s system and schedules and procedures mimicking the real deal. It’s heaven for everyone who ever did or wanted to work for the railroad or even still does. This is the type of layout David wants to eventually build a house over. Yeah, I can see me someday baking cookies for a house full of model railroad fans and sitting in myself!

Right now, it’s too much stress on my knee, but yesterday, I did the groceries with a lot less pain afterwards than usual. Maybe it really is starting to repair from the exercises I’ve been doing! That would be nice! But for right now, I’ll be having a scrapbook holiday while he’s out. When it’s your husband’s play-date, you don’t even have to pickup of drop off!


Boy Was I Ever Tagged!

Livia tagged me and tagged me good! Oh, this is really a fun one!

The potential to embarrass oneself is definitely there, but I generally do things to me that would be embarrassing and just laugh at myself, so here I go!

The rules:

•Go to your photo folder in your computer
•Go to the 6th folder of photos
•Go to the sixth picture
•Put the picture on your blog and a description of it
•Invite six friends to join the challenge
•Link them in your blog.

Now, I don’t have a photo folder on my hard drive. There is a pictures file, but it just has code information for iPhoto, not actual pictures. Now there are TWO main folders of pictures as well as several smaller folders on my extended HD, so I chose to use the file of unscrapped and saved project pictures. That one has many subfolders!

So, the sixth folder is “Nani 40 DVD” The photos and tiles I used when I did my DVD for my 40th birthday party, and number 6 is this:


That’s the composite of my high school senior picture and the proof that Mom kept on her dresser mirror because she loved my pouty-face. That was actually a little tame for my 80’s hair, but I wore it a lot bigger after I got out of high school.


And now I tag, because I just have to pass this one on...
Edna, Beth, Linda, Veelana, Rhonda and Darlene


So a bit of the “grrr” job world, a bit of feel good, a bit of happy alone-time to look forward to and a bit of plain fun. It’s been a good blog!

Nani Tries Something New

I’m writing while taking a break. I wonder if Donna Reed ever had to any serious sink plunging?

I have a homeopathic drain declogger setting in the bathroom sink. It’s a strange drain that gets build up trouble often. This drain-cure is NOT the something new the post title is talking about. Actually, this is an old idea. Dad heard about it on a Mr-fix-it type radio show a few years ago and it worked wonders on my slow shower drain!

We’d tried Draino and Liquid Plumr and various commercial solutions. You spend $6-10 on a bottle that does one declogging and it doesn’t work well. Well, Mrs-fix-it to the rescue! The solution is pretty simple. Spend roughly three dollars on a large box of baking soda and a gallon of white vinegar. When the two are combined, they make a mild acid. Just pour a healthy amount of baking soda in the drain. Then pour in a cup or so of vinegar. Watch it bubble! (Hint, young kids LOVE to watch, older kids love to do it!)

If it’s a mild clog, it will eat away at it pretty quick. For more stubborn or sludgy clogs, it may take a little plunging or just leaving it in the drain until it finished eating away at it. If you need to, apply it a second time to finish the job. It clears the clog, is safe on your pipes, a mild enough acid that it won’t burn your hands and that $3-4 investment will last for about six clogs, three if they are really bad ones!

Now the “NEW”



I’ve tried some new things lately. I signed up for Facebook. I had no idea what Facebook was, but I got an invitation, from Darlene actually, and joined. It’s pretty neat. I think half the people I’ve ever worked with, a fair chunk of the digital scrapbooking world, most of Mensa and all of my relatives that are under 50 are on it! I joined yesterday afternoon and as of lunchtime, I have almost 50 friends.

I haven’t run into anyne who’s sent a shocked “you’re married??” message yet, so that means we’ve done a decnet job of telling the masses. Facebook is pretty cool. It’s like a personal and private message board/chat thing. You stop in and read at your leisure, like a message board, but things get updated in real time while you’re signed on, like a chat. Very cool.

I got an invitation to check out my cousin’s son’s motorbike racing pictures. I need to power up the translator. While he sends me messages in English, his son’s pictures are all captioned in Italian! But, hey, that’s more practice on my reading in Italian too, right? I’m looking forward to cyber-reuniting with more family and friends. I’m also going to be careful to turn it OFF on a regular basis. I can see that it could become addictive! LOL

There’s something else new on the married front. By request of family members, David and I did an after-the-fact bridal registry. I participated, but sorta under protest. I didn’t think you gave gifts for an elopement. Grandma told me some time ago that in gift-giving etiquette for weddings, you should give at least as much as would cover the cost of your dinner at the reception. Well, no reception, so in like and kind for a wedding announcement in the mail, a card, no? When we were talking about doing a wedding, I didn’t want to register either. I just feel weird about it.

But, David explained it to me as something you do for other people. It gives them a way to choose something they know you can use and it makes them feel good to give. Well, that hit home with me. I appreciate the “need” to give in times of celebration. I’m not good at controlling myself because it feels so good to do it. So, why would I make it more difficult for someone else?

So we registered a few things we keep saying we need, but don’t buy. The notable exception being the fancy-pants one cup coffee maker, which David encouraged me to say yes to putting it on the list. I think he liked the idea of limiting the cup size because he perceives that I drink too much coffee. I like the flavor variety packs that you can get for the single cup brewers. Besides, I can always brew a second cup! I was bummed, however, when I verified that our list was online. The Mike and Ikes are not available online! Everything else is, but someone ordering and having sent from online, can’t give Mike and Ikes. I wonder if Pilot gift wraps and delivers? Do they have a gift registry? Next time I stop there, I’ll have to inquire! ;)

We have to re-register for the Mike and Ikes!

I was going to take a paid post opportunity to write about a chat community for married people. I thought that might be a nice lunch idea, stop in chat about, oh, what to make for dinner, ideas on places to go things to try as a couple, you know, married stuff. I checked out the site/chat room. The “married chat had 2 people in it and no one was talking. The “naughty chat” had people in it but I was the only married one when I got there! Yeesh! I said I was writing a review of the site and asked if I could interview someone. I did talk to one guy who told me he came into that room from a completely different site. It seems this company has many portals, but the same chat rooms. I was supposed to write a review with a positive tone. I just couldn’t do that, so for 6 hours, I can’t sign up for any new opportunities wile that one runs it’s time limit course. Most of the sites you can check out before accepting the opportunity. I guess I’ve learned my lesson. If you can’t check out the site BEFORE accepting the opportunity, I probably don’t want to write about it!

So anyway, there’s the new stuff! I’m on Facebook, I need to register at Pilot if I want Mike and Ikes, don’t look for me at Married Chat. You can find me at Scrap Bird (shameless plug) Remember to PM me for your free alpha if you join and be sure to check out the challenges! I have more “Because of You” add-on kits to give away!

And now, I need to see if my drain is ready to be called unclogged!

Notes From The Weekend

Puffenberger??

I have a few things I’d like to talk about as I greet the new week this morning. I’ll get the Mug Shot done at lunch, so if you’re a Monday Mug Shot fan, be sure to come back for that!

First off, catching up since I haven’t blogged in a few days, David and I did finally get to celebrate our wedding a month later! We went to Mancy's on Friday, 8 PM reservation and went to a locally renown steak restaurant and both has fish! David had the swordfish steak, a common favorite of mine too, but I wanted to try something different! I had Shrimp Alexander. OH MY, what a treat! Trying something new was a very good idea! We shared a split of Sauvignon Blanc with our fish dinners. David is very well adjusted to “Nani doesn’t do Chardonnay,” and picks excellent white wines from the rest of the wine list. I’m really waiting for a new fad white wine. Most of the white wines in restaurants are Chardonnay. The od fads don’t go away. Through the Merlot fad I could still get a good glass of Cabernet! I would love to see Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Gris (not Grigio, but Gris) become popular. For dessert, we shared a turtle pie. Mmmm....

Saturday was sunnier than expected. David went out looking for trains, but I stayed home. It’s not that I’m just a wicked coward when it comes to the cold. I did some scrapbooking and other winding up the end of 2008 stuff on the computer. I still have to finish bundling the full Chronicles of Nani. I had to recopy all of the web stuff and retype the written stuff. My file for the year corrupted while saving, of course, and it killed the whole year! I need to get into the practice of copying the full files or putting them on disk or something. I have the full year, that I add to as I go on my extended hard drive, but I only had the one, even if I had copied it over, if I had been copying a corrupted file, it really wouldn’t have helped. So, now I think I need to back it up on disk once a month to make sure I don’t lose data. I do some of my personal entries right on the computer. Those ones from 2008 are lost. That makes me a little sad. I write in my private journals to work our problems. If something is bugging me, I might type ten pages, then the answer to my problem hits me like a V-8 moment! Losing those entries doesn’t unsolve my problems, but it’ a nice affirmation to read them later and if someday my nieces, or great nieces inherit my books, they might gain some insight from my woes and solutions too. But, if I find I’m really bugged about losing the 2008 entries, I’ll write about them in 2009!


What’s In A Name?

With marriage, my name changed. Of course, it didn't have to, that was a choice, a choice that made two important men to me very happy. I took David’s last name, but kept my Dad’s last name as my new middle name. With that change, I now use my middle initial on my accounts and in my signature. When I order things, I put my first name and middle initial in the first name section of forms.

I use PayPal more to get money than spend it. All of my internet income get to my bank through PayPal, so of course, I needed to change my name at PayPal so it matched my bank! The procedure for doing that seems easy enough. I need to email, fax or mail a copy or scan of my new ID and my marriage certificate. So, I scanned those things and sent them through PayPal’s system for name changing. Now, when I got my ID done, they had to do a second one because the first one had my old middle initial on it. Understandable mistake, since they had the old ID right in front of them when they did it. Fortunately in Ohio, driver licenses are done while you wait, so it was only about ten more minutes to fix it and have me out the door. Since the PayPal system didn’t even ask what my new name was, they were just going from the new ID, I wanted to make sure that they included the middle initial since I didn't use my middle initial before. I sent an email that was replied to by an automated computer problem solver with a reply that had nothing to do with my question. I figured I should find a customer service phone number so I could talk to a person!

Imagine my surprise when I logged into my PayPal account and was greeted with “Welcome (Mrs.) Puffenberger!”

I just stared, wide-eyed and laughing. They got the first name right, but the last name is no where near correct! It took me a moment to figure out where in the heck they got the last name. Puffenberger is the last name of the probate judge, not even the judge who married us, but his name is on the certificate. Now I’m wondering if a computer doesn’t scan and pick out names for name changes too! No offense to the judge, but perhaps I would have considered keeping my maiden name if David’s last name was Puffenberger. In fact, David said he might have considered taking my name!

So after 10 minutes of speaking into the phone and hitting buttons while an automated computer system tried to figure out where to send my call, I finally spoke to a person! It took about another ten minutes of explaining what my name actually is, but the woman with whom I was speaking finally got it figured out and changed it while I was on the phone to the correct, matching my bank account, name. Whew! When I mentioned that I wondered if it was an automated computer or if it was outsourced to India and the person processing my paperwork didn’t speak English, there was silence. (Now I think I recognized that tinge of an accent she spoke with!) “Global” or not, PayPal is based in California and the people pushing their papers should be able to read something as simple as a marriage certificate in the company’s home language. Yeesh!

This is becoming a long morning coffee, so I’ll finish it up with a promise that the mug shot is coming and there are a few more neat things this week!

Friday By Request

There were no new requests this week, but there was an extra request from last week, so that now becomes this week’s Friday By Request. Remember, I’ll do any request that I can do in a blog. Come on, challenge me to a photo challenge, scrapbook layout, fiction or real life story, editorial, mini research project or bad poetry. Even if you think it’s a silly idea...I thrive on silly! :)

This week’s Friday blog was a request from SRC. SRC is a big time flatterer. This was the lead and request: “I was trying to think of something interesting for FBR for you to write about, but all I could think of was how I enjoy your blogs and wish I could write something interesting. So here is my challenge, tell all of us uninteresting writers how to do a read-worthy blog.”

Thank you so much for the compliment! Remember, I share a home with a professional writer. Some of the quirks that make my blogs mine drive him nuts! I don’t think there really are any “uninteresting” blogs, but I will gladly give a few pointers that make blogging easier for me.



Blog Workshop


LESSON 1 -

First, I want to address the notion of an uninteresting blog or an uninteresting writer. No such thing. You may read a blog that isn’t your style or not in tune with what interests you but that doesn't make it a bad blog or a bad writer. If you are reading your own work and are telling yourself that, STOP IT! As with any project, the first thing you need to do is believe in your own ability!

So there’s lesson one. You are an interesting person with interesting things to write. Now I put the pom-pons down and get to the real tips!


LESSON 2 -

I’m going to give tips for writing a casual, friendly blog. That’s what The Chronicles of Nani is. I write a “coffee shop on the Information Superhighway” type of blog. I like to envision my blog as being somewhere with cyber sofas and chairs where guests get a big cup of cappuccino and a muffin and kick back for a few minutes of conversation. I have regulars in my cyber coffee shop and passers by that might come back some day if they enjoyed their stay. With that vision in mind, I begin to write.

Whether I’m writing a blog about what happened today, reminiscing about something that happened in the past, bragging about my nieces, showing off cute pictures of my cats or letting off a little steam, I’m having a talk. I write just as I casually speak. When I go back and proofread what I’ve written, if I think it sounds too stuffy for the way I talk, I change it to be more casual.

So, lesson 2 is “Write the same way you talk!”


LESSON 3 -

Writing the same way you talk will not only make you a better writer, it will make you a better speaker too! When you reread your own work and start to feel like you need to spruce it up, you’ll spruce up your speech at the same time. We have this wonderful tool for writing really colorful and compelling blogs. We have language.

Take a look at some blog entries you’ve dne in the past. Are there words you use often? A lot? Too much??? Well, I’m going to share my best fiend in the blogging world. This magical link has helped me though uncertainty and mediocrity! http://dictionary.reference.com/

I’m not going school teacher on you all, honest! But, the dictionary.com site is bookmarked and often used on my computer! Not only can the thesaurus give you 477 other ways to say “good,” but it also makes you look like a better speller than the programmer who created spell check! The general tip for style is that unless you are repeating the word for emphasis, don’t use the same descriptive word twice in one sentence or in two consecutive sentences.

Example -

“We ate at a really good restaurant last night. The chicken was good, my husband’s steak was good and the desserts were really good!”

It’s not a bad couple of sentences. You get the idea that the writer and her husband enjoyed their dinner out. If someone told you that verbally you’d think they had a nice meal.

But how about this -

“We went out and spoiled ourselves for dinner last night. My chicken dish was really tasty and Jim just smiled with a moan of approval when he tasted his steak. The dessert was as good as it looked, even after we’d had our meal!”

Hmm... That meal just got better!

I’m not saying you want to write everything all frilly and gushy, but mix it up a little. Lesson 3 would be “Don’t ever be afraid to try new words!”


LESSON 4 -

When you’re choosing what to write in your blog, let it be personal! Talk about the things that mean something to you, your life, your family, your passions. Generally, if they truly interest you, there will be others that find it just as interesting. The hardest blogs to read are ones that are written by an author who either doesn't know or doesn’t care about the subject. Don’t try to write about something you think someone else would be interested in. It’s your blog, write it to share what make you happy or what bugs you.

You’ll notice you really don’t see any serious poetry here, just my funny bad poetry. I’m not a huge fan of poetry and I know any attempt I made at writing a serious poem would likely be an insult to fans of real poetry, so I stick to funny verse. That I can do pretty well.

If you are writing about an idea or project to expand your interests, let the reader know that it’s something new for you. This goes back to the conversation idea. Ask readers to share their experiences or thoughts. That adds to what you get out of writing too. But also remember, if you are expanding your own interests and experiences, you’re still writing about a subject you know well - you!

I will add one security tip. In addition to the basic common sense rules of Internet privacy, as a rule, you’ll never see the names of any kids under 13 on the Chronicles of Nani, I use initials only. If you see a child's picture with a name attached to it, rest assured it’s an old picture and the child is over 13. I even did second layouts for scrapbook pages before the 94s were all 13 to make sure I didn’t have faces and names together on scrapbook layouts that I posted.

I use 13 as a cut off because most internet sites do and because by 13 years old, most kids are establishing themselves online in honestly, less safe places than an adult’s blog! For the kids in my world, I won’t use their names when they are younger, hoping that it sets a good example of being cautious and safe on line when they get older. So far, with all of the 94s being teenagers now, it’s worked pretty well.

Lesson four then, is twofold. Stick with what you know, but protect what you love!


LESSON 5 -

Don’t be afraid to be inspired! Read other blogs, when you find one entertaining, stop a minute and ask yourself why you like it! Is it the topics in the blog, do you like how serious, funny or friendly the tone of the blog is, do you enjoy pictures or jokes in the blog? Don’t be afraid to borrow some ideas from their blogs. I can tell you that Photoblog Wednesday was started by a friend on Yahoo 360, not me. I joined in because I thought it was a neat feature. I’m still doing Photoblog Wednesday today. Mug Shot Monday is my idea. I have over 150 coffee mugs from all over in my travels. They have fun stories. maybe you have a collection of other things from events in your world or places you’ve been. That could be a regular feature. Maybe you have a favorite blog that does a news round up and editorial, maybe you enjoy a poetry blog. Do you have a favorite magazine or TV show that will give you some good ideas? Hey, you might even have some ideas from things the kids in your family can’t get enough of. Don’t be afraid to get ideas from other blogs and make them in your own style!

Lesson five - Don’t be afraid to get inspired!!


So there’s our mini workshop. I hope I’ve provided a tip or two to, if nothing else, helped you feel better about your own blogging. Take the ideas that seem the most comfortable to you and get out there in cyberspace and blog on!

So now the search for next Friday’s subject is on! Any requests?