3/30/12 my week with Pinterest :)

Hello all,

how has your week been?  mine has been up and down with the job hunting and interviews and all.  Here are some of my wonderful Pinterest finds for this week…..

Zombie bedding – Really I love this!!  (click photo for original site)

kitty and tree tattoo – this is amazing (click photo for original site scroll about halfway down)

tree and bird tattoo – I would actually rock something like this (click on photo to go to original image)

a tub made out of stone --- I would love to just turn on some calm music, dim the lights and add bubbles and just relax for a couple of hours here (click image for original site it is about 2/3 down)

and finally, how amazing is this scrapbook???  I am going to try making something similar (click photo for original site)

and that is some of my week on Pinterest.  if you would like to follow my boards click here and if you need an invitation to Pinterest leave me a message and I will send you one.

until tomorrow,

peace and luv to all

laura

3/29/12 Digital Scrapbooking–inspiration

Hello all,

today’s page is for a sister/friend Corey in PA.  One of the boys from the local high school football team (which her son played on until he went to college) died in a car accident over the weekend so she emailed me some photos and info and asked me to come up with a couple pages for her and for her to share with any and all who want them.

here is the first page I did, it includes info from his obituary

I hope you like it as much as she did,

until tomorrow, peace and luv to all

laura

3/28/12 My week in review

Hello everyone, this is actually two weeks in review since I missed a week.  In the last two weeks we have had some crazy weather – seriously, rain, hail, snow, sun – all in one day.  We also had William’s birthday party.  He had so much fun playing with his cousins as well as opening his presents.  He loved blowing out the candle on his cake too since he has been practicing that.  He got an awesome dinosaur train (from the PBS show) that goes on a track and has Buddy, Tiny and the Elvis one who sings the Dinosaur Train song.  He LOVES it.  I am looking for a job again which is a full time job in and of itself.  But I am optimistic as always that I will have something sooner rather than later.  It is amazing how few clothes I actually have left to wear for interviews and work now that I have lost so much weight.  But that is ok, I will just take a portion from each paycheck and get one or two new items of work appropriate attire for the first couple months.  I have met with a couple of agencies so far and am applying to jobs that I feel I truly would be an asset to that are in the areas that I would like to be in. 

this last weekend was AMAZING saturday I had a girls day with my sister – we went to the roller derby then when it was over at about 10 we hit the theater for the last showing of the Hunger Games.  I loved the book and the movie was amazing too.  And as for the roller derby – I love it!!  once I am really settled in life I will chose a nearby team and start being a volunteer even if it is just for the merchandise table.  then sunday I went to the park with sammy and rich and william for family day.  it was fun to sit back and watch william play with his parents. 

I have an interview on tuesday evening for a position I would really like in bellevue.  I will try to keep you all posted on what happens with that.

anyway, since I am prepublishing now, I want to get this one going,

until tomorrow,

peace and luv to all

laura

3/27/12 Genealogy–My Heritage

I have been using MyHeritage.com for several years now and it is by far my favorite as far as the layout of the family trees, the reports you can run, and the ease with which you can use it.  I also love that most of it is accessible even if you just have the free account.  I also love that I can have one tree that is my downloaded gedcom from ancestry.com as well as one where I am entering everything by hand making sure I have correct documentation for my facts.  Since I have a very large extended family – steps and such – my favorite thing to play with is the all in one chart.  This makes your whole entire tree into one chart that can be printed out or saved as a pdf file.  I love the option of saving charts and reports in pdf format to share with others.  If you haven’t really checked out my heritage yet, I would recommend you at least give it a try.  you have nothing to lose since you can have a free account.

until tomorrow,

peace and luv

laura

3/26/12 Journaling Prompt of the Week

Hello all, this weeks prompt is going to tie in with my All the Fine Details blog which is doing a series of Bucket List prompts right now. 

so on that note, what would you have on your bucket list?

I am not going to really share my actual bucket list on here, but I will say it includes being completely self sufficient as well as a LOT of traveling.

I would love to see the whole US by RV.  I actually dream of this and have been planning it for a couple of years now.  some of the places I will see before I kick the bucket are Mt. Rushmore, the Grand Canyon, Sturgis during Bike Week, all over Kentucky where my family roots are for several generations, ride the train up and down the west coast.  I would love to just give so much up and just be a modern day Gypsy in the US. 

I hope you are all having a wonderful week,

peace and luv

laura

3/25/12 My Heritage, My maternal Grandfather

Hello all, today I will be writing about my maternal grandfather David Claiborne Whitehouse.  David was born in Louisville, Jefferson County, Kentucky on 11 Feb 1914.  He died in San Jose, California on 27 Dec 1975. 

Facts I know about my grandfather:

1. at age 6 his family was living in Denver Colorado and his father was working for the railroad the 1920 Census lists Edward Whitehouse’s occupation as car repair, steam railroad
2. photo of the 1920 census page from Ancestry.com
3. I know my grandfather was an alcoholic and for that reason he moved from Kentucky to California somewhere around the time my mother was born in 1946.  He and my grandmother never actually got divorced and after my mom was grown my grandmother moved and lived with my grandfather in California.
4. It was fun for me when we lived with my grandparents in California to share a birthday with my Pop-Pop.  I really looked up to him not only because of his height, but because he encouraged me to just be me – complete tomboy that I was.  Which was nice since I had a mom and gramma who wanted me to be a girly girl.
5. I know my grandfather had emphysema and it was complications of that that killed him in the end.

There is really a lot I don’t know about him yet, but I will keep digging and find more I am sure.

until tomorrow

peace and luv to all

laura

3/24/12 Dungeness Cemetery, Sequim, WA

Hello all, today I am talking about the Dungeness Cemetery in Sequim, WA.  I actually discovered this cemetery when leaving the Olympic Game Farm with the nephews.  When Jaymee and I went back later in the summer to explore it, it was pretty dried out (yes, believe it or not western Washington does get dried out in the summer) but I think that added to the beauty of the old stones in it.  The funny stories that stick in my mind are, first, there was one stone that had one corner in the back coming out of the ground so I kept avoiding it saying that the zombies might come out at any moment from there.  I think that is hilarious, Jaymee, no so much, but that is ok she still loves me and still takes me to cemeteries.   There was also an area with like a whole bunch of angels and statues, all we can figure is they moved them when they mowed and just didn’t have them back yet.  I decided this was the cemetery figurine cemetery.  Here is a photo:

See what I mean?  It is just such a random thing to see.  and then my favorite was this stone with a cherub on it laying on its tummy with a bare hiney!  I love this one so much!!

It just really says peaceful thoughts to me. 

well I hope you have enjoyed my little short stories about Dungeness Cemetery.

until tomorrow,

peace and luv to all

laura

3/23/12 Pinterest highlights

Hello everyone, sorry for my unintended week off.  I am looking for a job again and it really has to take priority over writing on my blogs and playing on the internet and all.  But I am here now and going to be preposting several days at a time now so that I can keep up.

this first pin is a great summer idea for the kiddos – a water balloon piñata.  I mean does it get much better than that for a hot summer day?? (click on photo to go to original source)

This next pin is actually a lampshade for sale on Etsy (click on photo to go to original source) but since I know I have a box in storage with tons of early 70’s alaska slides my mind is thinking I can try to recreate this in some form.

Rocks and owls – two of my favorite things right now.  I will be trying to make rock owls at some point!! (click on photo to go to original source)

I am absolutely in love with these cups (click on photo to go to original source) I would totally buy a whole dish set of these and decorate my dining room around them.

and one of the dolls I would love to own.  (click on photo to go to original source)  I love BJD’s but they are just really out of my price range for now.  These are a someday kinda thing for me.

I hope you all enjoyed our little trip through my pinterest mind for this week,

peace and luv to all,

laura

3/15/2012 Digital Scrapbooking–Inspiration

scrap a page and talk about it

there is just something amazing about watching a child eat cake.  it is a whole body experience.  the way they look at it, and feel it and taste it.  and of course wear it!!  this was william’s third birthday and his piece of cake – he will have more cake next weekend at his birthday party and I will of course take more photos. 

until tomorrow,

peace and luv

laura

3/14/2012 My life–week in review

Wednesday – worked on getting all the prompts worked out for my journals

Thursday – played outside with william since it was an amazing sunny day – went on a little nature walk, he gathered 2 pinecones, 1 fircone, one branch from a blue spruce and a stem of lily of the valley flowers

Friday – put the finishing touches on the journals I have available, watched william while sammy went shopping

Saturday – edited my listings on Etsy, watched rich and his dad clean the tree debris from the yard and put up williams new play yard from his gramma

Sunday – had to cancel williams birthday party due to him not feeling well but richs mom and stepdad and nieces came over and spent most of the day playing with william

Monday – nancy came and took william for a day of movies and shopping – sammy and I had a girls afternoon watching home improvement tv and then since rich had to work at night we watched breaking dawn pt 1 after william went to bed.  also my air mattress broke during the night so sammy got me a new one

Tuesday – william finger painted – he made flowers, a big whale, and several other things – it looks like a big brown blob to us adults but to him it is a masterpiece and therefore it is beautiful.  also we woke up to a dusting of snow with flurries all morning.

3/13/2012 Genealogy–FamilySearch.org

Family Search is a wonderful tool to use in your genealogy research.  It is free and being hosted by the Mormon Church it is very extensive.  I highly recommend FamilySearch as a starting point and have actually found many leads that have panned out in my family tree.  I have found that it is best to use all kinds of sites and resources for your research.  Just because you don’t find what you are looking for in one spot does not mean it is not in another place.  This year one of my goals is to actually go to one of the family history centers and do some real digging with help from people who do this day in and day out.  I will definitely save a post for when that happens so I can tell you all how it goes.  today I am going to be using familysearch.org to work on my mother’s family tree.  there is still so much I would like to find proof of but today I am looking for news articles about my grandmother in the 1940’s – she was supposed to have gone to jail for a while after my mom was born so after 1946 for embezelment from the company she was working for.  now this is something I would love to know more about.

Anyway, I am off to research land for today,

until tomorrow, peace and luv to all

laura

3/12/2012 Journaling Prompt of the Week

This weeks journaling prompt is – Tell about a birthday you remember vividly.

This is a fun memory for me because I turned into princess laura the drama queen on my birthdays.  My 5th birthday I threw a fit and locked myself into the bathroom because my mom was going to cut my cake and serve it.  now you have to understand, this was not some sheet cake but a 3D panda bear cake.  My Auntie Carylee had made it and instead of it being a black and white panda it was blue and white and I fell in love with it.  so when it was announced that it was going to be cut up and served, well I cried, I begged, I pleaded all to no avail.  My mom cut the cake and started plating it.  So I screamed “you ruined my whole life” and ran up to the bathroom and locked myself in.  My Auntie Carylee finally talked me out of the bathroom – I am pretty sure she promised me another cake or something equally ridicules – but I still refused to eat the cake.

Yes I have more stories that all end with me locking myself in the bathroom after announcing that my life had been ruined, but I will save those for later posts

Happy Monday to all,

peace and luv

laura

3/11/2012 My Heritage–My Maternal Grandmother

Jessie Jane (Burns) Whitehouse 1912-1982

My gramma was born the youngest of three children in 1912 in Illinois.  She lived in the Decatur area with her brother and sister, mom and dad on a farm.  When her mother died in 1923 she and her sister Fern (who was wheelchair bound) got sent to live at the Girl’s Welfare Home as her father did not think he was capable of raising two girls with no wife.  I know she lived there past when Fern passed away in 1925 of septicemia.  I know she was on the census as living there at 18.  At some point she married my grandfather and they lived in Louisville, KY.  They had 4 girls who all unfortunately spent time living away from home as well.  It seems to me that this was how things were dealt with in my family.  If you cannot handle it, just ship it off.  I don’t hold any fault on any of my relatives as I was not the one in the specific situations making these heartbreaking decisions.  My gramma and pop-pop split up when my mother was born in 1946.   Pop-pop moved out to California.  They never divorced and after my mother turned 18 my gramma moved to California and lived with my pop-pop until the day he died in 1975 of complications of emphysema I believe.  My mom, brother and I were living with them at that point, and we stayed in California for another year before all moving up to the Seattle area.  My mom, brother and I settled in Renton and my gramma went to live with my auntie Nano in Mukletio where they resided until my Auntie Nano sold her property and passed away in 1978.  Gramma then got an apartment around the corner from us in Renton.  it was amazing having her there all the time.  I can remember summers spent with her feeding the birds on the balcony, but chasing off the crows and pidgeons because she was only feeding the little chickadees.  my best friend and her family lived next door to gramma so she also spent a lot of time there.  we had tea parties where we were expected to actually use proper ettiquette while “dining”.  My gramma was a huge part of my world and when she died in 1982 it was the start of my mental downfall.  she died of complications of kidney failure.  I miss her to this day.  But I know she is in Heaven waiting for me and watching over me.  and now she is probably taking time to really tell my mom and dad everything she never told them while she was alive – this thought makes me smile.

well, happy Sunday to all,

peace and luv,

laura

3/10/2012 Cemeteries–Quilcene Cemtery

Hello all and welcome to Saturday.  I love the Quilcene Cemetery just for it’s small town charm.  Also, several members of my family are buried there.  I love that buried there are some of the first settlers in Washington state.  Here are a few of my favorite photos from there several years ago:

This was just temporary and has since been replaced with a stone that I need to get a photo of still.  I love how personal the hat and boots are and I am sure they are now in a very special place with this person’s family.

Grandma Bubbles……. How can you not love this one??????

I love the simplicity of this pine bough cross.

Two wooden crosses.  I believe these have also been replaced with stones now, but cannot honestly remember.  I need to check that the next time I am out that way.

and this just makes me laugh, it is the fake flower grave  

hope everyone is having a great weekend,

peace and luv to all

laura

3/9/2012 Highlights from Pinterest for the week

Hello all and welcome to an amazing Friday.  Today’s pins are from my places I would love to go see board.  Some of these are lifelong dreams and some just look amazing and since Pinterest to me is all about dreaming big I add them too. 

Berry Head, Avalon Peninsula -Newfoundland, Canada here is what I found about this place “Berry Head Arch is located along the East Coast Trail to the south of St. John's.  To get to the arch, find the East Coast Trail trailhead at Port Kirwan.  From here, it is about a 4.75-mile one way hike to the arch.”  This looks like an amazing place and I would love to be able to do the almost 5 mile hike each way.  This goes on my someday when I have new knees list.

Galapagos Islands – I have always wanted to visit the Galapagos Islands.  When I was little I called them the Apolopogas Islands.  Just the thought that they are still so untouched by man and the idea that for even a few hours I could be part of it all is amazing to me.

Normandy Beach France – Just for the historical value it would be amazing to go here.

Tunnel of wisteria at Kawachi Fuji garden in Japan - I honestly never saw a need to go to Japan until I found these photos.  I must see this in person someday!!

Tuscany Italy – again someplace I have wanted to go all my life.  Italy calls to me in my sleep.  When “Under the Tuscan Sun” came out my mom swore it was about me.  I would totally go to Italy to get over a relationship and find a worn down house and buy it and stay forever. 

Well I hope you all enjoyed our little trip around the world,

peace and luv to all

laura

3/8/2012 Digital Scrapbooking–Inspiration

Hello all hope your Thursday is wonderful.  Here we are getting the house ready for the whole family to come over on sunday for William’s third birthday.  I have not really had any time for digital scrapbooking this week as I have been recovering from 3 days of roller derby watching.  I really don’t know how the girls who skate do it.  but I am gonna share a few photos from the Wild West Showdown that I know I am going to be scrapbooking.

my goal for myself this year is to get healthy enough to skate again.  I used to skate all the time as a teenager and somewhere along the way I lost all that.  I want to skate again – I know that with my arthritis all over I cannot do derby, but I can skate at the roller rink and have a blast doing so!!  So as part of my journey to me, keep watching for me skating again eventually.

until tomorrow,

peace and luv to all

laura

My week in review–week ending 3/6/12

Hello all, I hope you are having as great a week as I am.  Here is the review of my week – I watched William wednesday – friday of last week – we worked on the color yellow and the letter A – we also had a lot of water play time as he is really loving that on these days where we just cannot really go outside and play yet.  Friday Jaymee also came over and hung out with me until Sammy got home from work and off we went for our weekend of women’s flat track roller derby.  This year there were teams from Washington, Oregon, California, Colorado, Nevada, British Columbia Canada, and Hawaii.  it was amazing as usual.  I took almost 1200 photos with my camera and I don’t know how many with Jaymee’s camera when my batteries died on saturday evening.  highlights for me were meeting people that until now I only knew on facebook, the skating hula by the Paradise Roller Girls, the touching story about the girl who is here in Seattle at Children’s Hospital fighting bone cancer.  Her name is Roarin Lauren, and she is one of the junior derby girls from Hawaii.  It was great to see all the derby people going out of their way to make sure she had the best possible experience at Wild West Showdown.  I know I got a few candid photos of her with a couple of the Paradise Roller Girls after their last bout was finished.   When I am through processing all my photos I will be posting some here I am sure.  I got home around 10:30 Sunday night and honestly spent most of Monday recovering from my fun weekend.  Yesterday I spent getting my Etsy shop set up to sell my journals with prompts, making sure all my journaling stuff is categorized correctly and ready to go for sales, catching up on my blogs and such.  I also found out yesterday when everyone was up (meaning me) that Sammy is looking for a new job, so I have some kinda down time to get all my store stuff done and get all organized.

I hope everyone had a great week as well,

peace and luv to all

laura

Genealogy Tuesday–Cyndi’s List

Hello all, I hope your week is going well.  today I want to let everyone know about one of the best sites around for genealogy research – Cyndi’s List.  From the home page of Cyndi’s List: Cyndi's List has been a trusted genealogy research site for more than 15 years.Cyndi's List is free for everyone to use and it is meant to be your starting point when researching online.

I have used Cyndi’s list for probably 10 or more years now and still refer to it when researching.  It is just so full of great information.  Not only places to look, but how to look, how to record your findings, just about anything you can think of.  I have found her sites to check for the state of Kentucky to be very helpful since my family has been in Kentucky since I believe the late 1700’s until now.  I also like to check it about once a month just to see what all is new out there.  you never know where you will get that AHA moment of “Yes, that is exactly where I need to look for …..”. 

I highly recommend Cyndi’s List if you are researching your family tree.

I hope everyone is having a great week,

peace and luv to all

laura

Journaling Prompt of the Week

Hello all, sorry this post was delayed.  I really needed to recover from my weekend at Wild West Derby.  I honestly don’t know how the skaters and officials and volunteers do it – I was a spectator taking photos and talking to people and meeting Derby girls and I was exhausted!  I cannot imagine having to really think or work it all too.  Anyway, this was Monday's journaling prompt of the week.

What is one thing in life – outside of your family and home – that gives you pleasure just knowing it exists?

For me this is actually a hard one since it asks for only one thing and I can think of so many.  I think for today I will go with birds.  I love bird watching and learning about the birds I photograph.  Here in western Washington I have the extreme pleasure of being able to photograph everything from little chickadees to bald eagles.  I love herons – they just have a special place in my heart.  I can honestly sit by a lake, pond or any body of water and watch birds for hours.  this morning there was a robin in the yard so I started teaching William how to be very quiet and just watch – he really enjoyed watching the robin find and eat worms.  Then he got to see how a loud noise in the house scared the robin and it flew away.  someday he will be my best bird watching partner I am sure!

anyway, still have a lot of catching up to do today,

peace and luv to all

laura

My Heritage–My Dad

So, writing a heritage thing on my dad is so different from writing one for my mom.  I lived with my mom in Seattle my whole life while my dad went back to Baltimore when they split up when I was two and my brother was just born.  We got an occasional phone call or card from him but he was not really part of our lives.  We went to visit my paternal grandfather when I was 10 and my dad, his wife and stepson came for a few days.  that really felt like the first time I met him.  and his wife made it clear that she didn’t want to be there so it was not the best situation.  my brother got sent to live with our dad when he was 13ish and he lived out there for a couple years.  I went and spent the summer when I was 16.  it seemed like the better of two bad choices I had in my life at that point. either way I was living with a step parent who resented my existence.  when my dad finally left wife number 2 for wife number 3 I gave him another chance – I took my then 2 year old son cross country and got to know my dad and new step mom to be for three months.  it game me a lot more insight into who my father was and why in some cases.  my dad tried to live out here in the Seattle area for a while after wife number 3 passed away, but he was looking for my mother and I to step in and basically take care of him and well it just was not gonna happen.  so he went back to Maryland and married wife number 4 which only lasted 6 months before he split up with her and moved to Louisville where he had grown up.  also his whole family still lived in the area.  I know he was happy there, because we talked at least once a week.  he was in no rush to marry again which I totally agreed with.  he was going to church.  he had a scooter that he rode all over and loved that freedom.  that scooter – OI!!  my father was legally blind but with his glasses he saw well enough in the state of Kentucky to ride that God forsaken scooter.  When I found out he died in a traffic accident I was sure it was because of that scooter.  imagine my surprise when it turned out he was a pedestrian who got hit by a car.  either way, it was a shock to my system and I went to Kentucky and finally met his whole side of the family – I fell in love with Kentucky and my family and cannot wait until I can go back.  I sometimes wish I would have taken the time and gotten out there for my dad to see me fall in love with it all, but I know that when I went it fulfilled his final wishes. 

again, this is being preposted because I am spending a weekend watching roller derby

hope everyone is having a great weekend,

peace and luv to all

laura

Cemeteries–Why I didn’t put my parents into one

So, as much as I love cemeteries and wondering in them I chose not to put either of my parents into one.  I made this decision for my mother as we had talked about her end of life wishes a lot as she was suffering from kidney failure.  She wanted cremation and she wanted a memorial service – so she was cremated and we had a memorial service – I planned the whole thing and I have to say it was wonderful.  I have a wonderful pastor at my church who really just let me take the lead on it all.  after that it took me almost 3 years to decide exactly when and where we were setting my mom free.  she loved the ocean as well as the mountains.  her dream vacation was to take a cruise from seattle to alaska and see all the whales so I decided that she needed to go into the water.  in my mind she is hanging out with the whales and traveling all over the world.  now my father, we didn’t really talk too much about it.  I had a totally different relationship with him from what I had with my mother.  but when he passed away in an accident last year my brother and uncle made the decision with my blessing to have him cremated.  there was a memorial of sorts with the whole family but nothing like what I did with my mother.  his ashes are “living” with my brother for now until I decide where we are putting him into the water so that he too can travel the world with the whales.  I need to get them some sort of memorial so that future generations will be able to find their information, but honestly they are both freer now than they have ever been in their lives. 

Anyway, I am preposting this so hopefully it works – I am at roller derby having fun

peace and luv to all,

laura

Pinterest Pins of the Week–week ending 3/1/12

Hi all, sorry this is going to be short and sweet today, I have a lot to do to be ready to go this afternoon for the weekend of roller derby – so excited!!!!! 

Faux Capiz Shell Chandelier – click photo to be taken to site with instructions – I have loved capiz shell chandeliers since I was little and my mom made one that was 6 feet long – I so have to try this!!

Letter and Color Matching with plastic Easter eggs – click photo to be taken to the site with instructions – this will go so well with our color and letter practice that we do on a daily basis with mr William

Dishes I Desperately Want – click photo to be taken directly to them at Target.com – ok so I don’t need dishes at this point since I live in with Sammy, Rich and William but I am so in love with them I might just get them anyway, they can sit in storage with all my other stuff

I am so in love with this melted crayon art – click photo to be taken to it on Etsy.com – if I had the money right now this would be on its way to me to hang in my room

I love this dining set – click photo to be taken to it on sticks.com – we have a store here called Fireworks that sometimes has sets like this and I always go in and dream shop in there

well that is a selection of my pins for this week,

I hope everyone has as great a weekend as I plan on having,

peace and luv to all

laura

Photo of the day project for March

So I was cruzing around on Pinterest the other day and saw this list of daily photos to take in March(it originated here) and decided I would try to add that to my list of things I am doing.  I mean come on, it is one photo a day and I have been known to take 300 in a day.  so that being said, and this being March 1st the photo today should be “up”.  Here is my photo of the day for March 1 – UP

 

this is the dining room light.  not only is it pretty but Sammy got it at a garage sale for like 15 dollars.  william and I spend a lot of time at the dining room table doing crafts and such during the day and for the most part it is just another light fixture that is taken for granted.  but I like it a lot so it gets to be my photo of the day today

the rest of the week will be filled with:

fruit, your neighborhood, bedside, a smile, 5 pm and something you wore.  all this and going to roller derby for the weekend yay I am so pumped!!  I am looking forward to taking my photo each day and seeing how I decide to use them as part of my journaling.  I am sure I will be talking about my photos of the days on my thursdays when I talk about digital scrapbooking.  I will also be trying to remember to post them here daily.  but I think we all know how flighty I can get about my good intentions lol

until tomorrow,

peace and luv to all

laura