Your Family Preserves

I created a PRESERVE once, just after a family member's death for a couple of reasons. Not necessarily to REMEMBER or to the MEMORY of this person - after all, their life would be well remembered through those still living and from a pretty good collection of pictures and writings. But, more as a TRIBUTE to her earthly life, and as a TRIBUTE to her unexpected passing because for this particular person, much good came from her death, as did from her life. Is this possible?  Can any good come as a result of the death of a well beloved person? The simple truth is, YES. If those left behind are willing to allow the Lord to show them that good. For at the time of her death, there was an outpouring of Spirit that touched the hearts of all of those she knew and many more people whom she did not know. Mostly because of the way she conducted her life, and then because of the way her death was handled. She was killed. Words that describe the reaction to the events that took h...

Gosh, I wish I had an awesome picture regarding this posting! Who wants to sit and read a bunch of words without something to look at? I think I'll just stick on this unrelated picture... however, the more I think of it, the more that I think it really does have EVERYTHING to do with the subject...you'll see... YOUR PERSONAL-LIFE'S STORY... Most people I know have heard this term before.  But sometimes (as I did) we confuse it with another method of preserving one's life in written form...JOURNAL-ING. The more lessons I had about these subjects at church the more confused I became. Until one day, I finally made sense of it all and that is what this posting is about...the difference, and the "how to" (or at least MY "how to") about getting 'er done. Part of one's Personal History (Personal Preserve) is THE STORY OF THEIR LIFE - from beginning to the point you are at now and beyond. A Journal is a DAILY OR PERIODIC PRESERVE OF YOUR LI...

I have today a PRESERVE idea that I have used since the early days of my preserving. Once again, I received this idea from someone other than myself - thank you whoever you were. I pose this question to you - Where do you keep all the STUFF that is too important or sentimental to get rid of? The answer is a TREASURE BOX, of course. Now, you may say to me, "I already have a lot of this stuff in a box", or "A lot of it is too big to go in a box - What are YOU talking about?" I say to you, keep reading and you'll understand. (*note* When I say "box", I mean something waterproof - Rubbermaid-like) Step one - GATHER - go around your house, or into your boxes, closets, and drawers and gather together, all in one place all the items you've been saving from your childhood, from your parents and grandparents, etc. lives. All items that are too big to have fit into one of your history preserve books.  Items that have personal meaning and sentimentali...

I don't know about you, BUT, our kids, over the years have collected TONS of  T-shirts, programs, or playbills from sporting events, dance concerts, drama productions, youth conferences, marching band shows, jazz festivals, forensic competitions, rock concerts, etc. etc. that were eventually grown out of or just not worn anymore, or put in a history book/box at one point or other. But if you think about it, all of these material memorabilia items show a veritable history of your or your child's life through the years of activities that they've been involved in. If you haven't already thrown them out or given them away, you may want to consider PRESERVING them as follows: What we did was create a quilt using the T-shirts and other images put onto T-shirts - 1) Collect all memory laden T-shirts/clothing, performance programs etc. 2) Have all items/images not already on material (a T-shirt) taken to a printing shop to have printed onto the smallest  T-shirt that the...

Greetings - I have a preserve for you today, that my family has had more fun with probably than any other preserve in our lives. It all came about because of all the many pictures we'd taken of our children through their childhoods. There they sat, behind closed pages of a binder, looked at only now and then, pretty sad. There were so many favorite pictures in those binders, that it was a shame that we couldn't enjoy them more often....sooooo I decided to go through all the books, take out all the favorite pictures of each child through their growing up years and organize them into a collage and frame them. I dated the backs of each photo for the future return to where they belonged if I ever decided to update the preserve as time went on. I purchased mat board in a color that would go with our decor, and also ordered frames and plexi-glass from americanframe.com (the best & least expensive framing supply store I've come across).  I cut each whole sheet of mat boa...

New posting - after "all these years"... Today it's all about preserving your son and/or sons' scouting history...OR your daughter's girl scouting history too. Now you may wonder if it is all that important - well, I guess it all depends on how far into scouting the little tyke(s) go.  Say they go far...all the way to the top (which isn't unusual in the LDS Church), you may want to consider preserving in some way, all those hours you...I mean he has put into the program...JK, after all, they are the ones who went on those winter, snow-cave-where-they-almost-froze-to-death campouts... I can only offer what I did with my three boy's scouting stuff, oh, and also my husband's stuff as well, since he was an Eagle Scout. You will notice that there are no Boy Scout shirts framed as I did the Cub Scout shirts. That is because those are still likely to be current and needed in the boy's adult lives as they have opportunity to volunteer and/or work in th...

Greetings - I missed you "all" - was on a short trip and then WORK got in the way a bit. But here I am again and have another fun and exciting posting to make. The collection I am talking about this time is - Your very own preserve.Just about you. I know you've got tons of family pictures and memorabilia to deal with, but have you ever thought about all of your own mementos? Now, if you're getting up there in years - like me, you may have ditched all that stuff already, however, you may have preserved it in one form or other prior to using the "new and improved" methods that are available now. OR, you may still have it in a drawer somewhere, sitting, waiting "its" turn for a cool preservation. Well, regardless of the case, I am listing below items that you may want to consider (if you haven't already) nabbing up and stashing into your own personal preserve. You may need to bug your parents or others for the missing information - but hopefu...

YOUR CREATIONS PRESERVE This history is one of my VERY FAVES! It is a preservation of everything you've ever made. WHAT DO YOU MEAN? You query... Do you craft, sew, sculpt, paint, draw, build, photograph, needlework,decorate... DO YOU CREATE in any way, shape of form? I'll bet you do! Have you ever thought of documenting the items that you've created by photographing them? Do you have something to show for all the time, effort and talent that you've put into all those projects...all those many gifts you've made and given away all these years? What you've created is in part a history of you.  You are in each one of those creations and taking a quick picture of each item you create (even photography) and preserving it in a collection (either physically, or digitally) is a REALLY IMPORTANT THING TO DO! Here are samples of things I've created that I've recorded by photo. Seriously, looking through this history brings back so many memories about t...

Whether you visit websites to download ready-made digital scrapbook pages to insert you pictures into, or just want to make your own physical book, it doesn't matter.  I, myself am still trying to digest all that is "out there" on the digital scrapbooking subject ...(most of the pages I've encountered seem quite "busy" and "congested" for me, however,  I'm sure there are some out there that are more subdued and classic...I'm interested to say the least.) HOWEVER - regardless of how you choose to preserve your pictures - today I offer ideas on TYPES of books that you might want create.  Theme books - if you will. Now, when I say "books" I'm speaking either physically or digitally - whatever you choose.  These ideas transcend method.  But some of my ideas mention physical materials that you can always find digitally as well, I'm sure. (If you're "into" digitally preserving, then I'm sure you already know ...

I've got to get beyond this physical book creation and on to ALL THE OTHER GOOD STUFF that you need to see. I am, however, methodical and must take one thing at a time from the top. To clarify - I don't promote making actual books vs. preserving all your history digitally, BUT having only one or the other isn't good either.  I make books for a couple reasons: 1) Hard copy (none of you have ever had problems with you computers?) Even though I transfer all my pictures to the computer, manipulate them until they're lovely, and then save them to an EXTERNAL hard drive to protect them from dumb things that happen to computers, & 2) I still have items OTHER THAN pictures, such as, programs, papers, certificates, awards, etc., etc. and need to "deal with" them as well as photos.  So, as you can imagine, over time, I have acquired many large 3-ring binders of history (space consuming) and am now in the process of scanning each page and saving each book with all ...

I've had a "wild hair" for quite a while to start a blog offering ideas on how to preserve and display your favorite memories using fun and easy methods and materials. To qualify myself, I have a lot of years experience preserving histories, memories, photos, art and needlework since the early 1980's. I am also an amateur photographer, just like everyone. I embarked on my hobby/life's work before the "scrap-booking" methods that have been adopted today (which require hours per page and time impossible to nab, resulting in many busy persons abandoning the notion of ever being able to organize their pictures, mementos, etc. because of the personal investment required) began.  I'm here to say that it's okay NOT TO buy into that mind-set/methodology.  Everyone can and should preserve theirs and their family's histories and memories - AND there are other ways to do that than what you may see others doing, showing, or telling you. Good grief - i...