Ca-rot Top

I've been wanting to scrap this page for a long time now.  The only problem is the quality of the picture.  The back lighting from the bathroom window probably caused the extreme shading of the photo.  This is really disappointing, but was done before I began working on my photography "skills."  Don't think the same mistake would be made today, or at least would hope not.

The page is about a silly idea we came up with after cutting the top of a carrot that had greenery left in place.  The thought was that if we planted it, we would have a nice carrot at then end.  It got really bushy and healthy looking for about 2 months, but suddenly wilted.  The time was right for my helper to harvest.  After a hefty tug, all that came up was a green bunch of wilted leaves.  No carrot.  No roots.  The whole episode turned into a very fun memory... hence the desire to document the event despite the lousy photo.

Entering contests on CSI.com's site has opened me up to using colours in a way I might not have thought before.  I still lack real courage, but this is a learning process! 

About six months ago I stumbled upon an adorable pet-themed paper pack on sale.  The pages were absolutely adorable, but until this project I had no clue where to use the paper.  Now unleashed, there's many, many projects that come to mind using this paper.  This is how it goes with most all the paper pads bought along the way. As a side note... although the camera doesn't capture it, the rabbit is actually flocked.

I created the flower and carrot sign for embellishments.  The banner in the top right and the title located at the top left are commercial products.  The carrots are the crowning achievement on this page.  I used the Cricut to cut the shape, but the paper I wanted to use wasn't large enough to accommodate the full shape I had to start with, so in the end had to trace and manually cut the actual cutout onto paper originally planned for use; all done with very satisfactory results.  I then generously inked the carrots and leaves, and if I don't say so myself, did an excellent job on shading.

My Carrot Job

The most demanding aspect in presenting scrapped pages into digital images is capturing the true colours.  For that, I'm still experimenting with lighting techniques.  Too much light and the photo turns out washed; too little and all is dimmed (as in this case).  I believe setting up a shoot in diffused sunlight works best.  I may have found the solution for taking perfectly square photos for cropping.  There is an adapter to the tripod that extends an arm that in turn holds the camera directly over the center of the subject.  The centering is most critical for cropping; any deviation in angle distorts captured lines.  These devices run anywhere between $35-60, but Martin thinks he can build one for under $10.  The question at that point is when he'll have time to get to do it.  I'll give him two months after the promise, but if there are no results, it's off to the store for the extension bar.

Dean's Gift

My great-aunt, Dean, left to my care all the genealogical data she'd complied upon her death.  It may be that she saw my interest in the subject, or, being childless, left it to the one relative she knew loved her unconditionally.

Her nephews confiscated all the considered collection upon her death.  Rumour had it Dean had information linking the family directly to the Cherokee or Choctaw tribes; and not one of them were going to trust anyone else to register one without registering all.  Years later, after all the materials were scoured over, the inheritance began filtering to its intended repository.  Apparently, no treasure was ever gleaned from the scrutiny of very selfish men.

Dean was a prolific writer, if nothing else.  It's still possible that one small informational tidbit might be buried within the boxes of materials; however, everyone missed the greatest treasure of all!  Dean faithfully wrote down all the stories passed on to her from her mother, who had been passed down stories of her mother and grandmother.  That's five generations of history!!  The largest (and I suspect most examined) journal contains over 900 pages of handwritten text.  She also wrote another six or seven journals, which only containing about 100 pages each.  Only!

I've had all the material now for well over 15 years now.  At one point I had transcribed almost 200 pages of the handwritten text, and... well, a computer crashed.  I was able to salvage everything but the first 90 pages.  That incident tampered the energy invested in the project to that date.  I've since gone back and re-typed the first 30 pages; but darn it, there's only so many hours to each day.

I turned 50 the other day.  As much as the 45th birthday bothered me, this one was infinitely worse.  (At this point, I don't suspect any others will be of much concern.  Old is old.)  The beginning of a new decade on this earth has caused me to sit down and re-evaluate the directions of the remaining time allotted.  It's worth the effort to finish this project and somehow manage to publish the finished work.  I'm not wanting to publish for fame or fortune, but for certain prosperity.  If not I, then who?  Schools are no longer teaching cursive writing, and full generations - if ever again - will be unable to decipher the texts without specialized training.  I have at least one hour each day to devote to this project... if I'm very careful.

My maternal grandparents are part of the full telling, but their role ends early into their adulthood.  The smaller journals tells a story of her life.  That leaves most of my grandparent's stories untold, and nothing includes my mother's generation..  

I'm a little ambitious.  What if...?  I tell my life story and include it as part of the generational saga. This would become a story recording over 150 years of family history.  There would be a 1.5 generational gap, but this certainly doesn't mean it can't or shouldn't be done, to be appreciated by some distant descendant of mine.  How incredible if the generation after me (be they sons or nephew or niece) added their story, and so on.

Before my mother died, I begged her for her life's history.  In an effort of compromise, I told her I'd be willing to accept a sanitized version; all to no avail.  It's here that I have to stop and wonder whether I would be able to do the same thing asked of my mother.  There are many regrets and aspects of my life, that in retrospect, would not be so family friendly; especially the teen and early adult years.  Could I offer an accurate glimpse of this life while leaving most of the stories to the reader's ability to read between the lines?  Or could I simply hold back this portion of the story, to be released upon my death?  I've heard dead people don't embarrass so easily!  :)  And thinking along these lines, perhaps this is the same reason Dean guarded her stories until after death!

I'm mulling these ideas currently.  I've never lived an extraordinary life, nothing tangible changed by my existence on the world (except a few lives perhaps?)  Yet, the historian urges began early in life and through one means or the other, I've documented much of the happenings while here.  It wouldn't be a mean fete to pull it all together in the time remaining.  I'll decide at the end of the week whether to tackle the project.

In the meantime, I'll re-start transcription efforts beginning Monday morning.  The most consuming question here is how - HOW, I ASK! - to format the history to a scrapbook format.