Julie’s Blog

Independence Day!

Someone asked me (on air no less) if we had July 4th in England.  Well of course we do!  We just don’t celebrate……. duh    I love odd comments like that - kinda like the one on the bottle of Ambien (a sleeping pill I took during chemo);  “Caution - may cause drowiness“  Well I flippin’ well hope so!  That’s why I was taking the darn things!  I certainly didn’t stay awake wondering if they would work or not.  Finding humour in everyday life is such fun and laughing is a wonderful and healthy excercise, as well as a great stress reliever.  I remember the first time I came to the US.  We were driving along the freeway outside Dallas and I was captivated by the huge billboards along the side of the road. Every few miles or so, there was one for Stuckey’s, apparently a place to fill up with gas and get something to eat.  The last billboard cracked me up though. It said:  EAT WITH US AND GET GAS.  Over the years I’ve definitely become known for my puns (and oddball wit) both at home, when I teach classes and even on air.  The kids have been telling me to write them down for ages, but I forget most of them as soon as they’re spoken.  It goes without saying I guess, that I love British humour; mostly a play on words and innuendos - clever stuff.

The roofers are coming tomorrow to put a new roof over our heads.  My hi-speed internet (and I use the term loosely) may be interrupted for a while since I have to connect via satellite and the dish is on the roof.  Just the thought of being without an internet connection makes me wonder what we ever did without it.  We’ve certainly come a long way from the days of the Pony Express and wandering minstrels.  Makes me wonder what the world will be like when my grandchildren are my age!

Happy Fourth of July every buddy!  Be careful when you’re setting off fireworks and please don’t point them in our direction - we have a new roof……………

Yours truly, Julie

Friday the 13th!!!

What a beautiful day it was! This was the day we said hello to our granddaughter! She is adorable - like we expected anything less, just not quite so soon. She was born three and a half weeks earlier than expected and will have to stay in NICU for a few more days, but mommy and baby are both doing great. As you can imagine, I’ll have my hands full for a couple of weeks, but I did promise to let you know about the Arlington scrapbook show, so here’s just a few highlights,

It’s always been a great show with a wide variety of vendors, great workshops and crops. People have been coming to this show from all over Texas and neighboring states for years, but with the price of gas on the rise, I don’t think there were quite as many people there this year. I may be wrong though, since I was there on Thursday which has always been the slowest day. There were a few scrapbook stores who had booths there and I was really glad to see that - so many stores have closed in this area I wasn’t sure which ones were still left. I know I can buy anything online these days, but I’m one who likes to see things up close and personal. I may be exaggerating, but it seemed as if 50% of the vendors were selling acrylic albums and word albums, other than that there wasn’t anything new that really jumped out. There were more vendors offering online services to professionally print albums for us and a couple of vendors offering to put slides and old reel to reel film on CD or DVD. I have lots of old film, so I’ll probably give them a try, but I’m not sure about slides. Our projector still works and we have literally thousands of slides (my film of choice in the 60’s & 70’s and I had a half frame camera). I think we’d have to take out a 2nd mortgage to get those on an electronic file that may be obsolete 5-10 years from now. Technology is moving so quickly, I still like my 35mm negs! I know they’ll still be around. Hybrid was THE buzzword at the big trade show in January, but I didn’t really see it being promoted at the consumer show. Digital Scrapbook Memories had a busy booth - I really love their CD’s - lots and lots of great images to use for all kinds of paper crafting. One booth had a great selection of 12″ x 12″ lace paper from Ki Memories and there was lots of felt from Queen & Co. Spellbinders was busy, busy, busy. If you aren’t familiar with the company, they have a die cutting machine (the Wizard) and the most remarkable dies. They look like brass stencils, but they both cut and emboss and the designs are great. Best of all, their dies can be used in other die cutting machines.

Well, that’s it for now, have a great day everybuddy and happy craftin’………….

Yours truly, Julie

Midsummer’s Day!

Gee whiz it’s June already and we all know what that means, right?  School is out for the summer and it’s time for summer camp - if you’re lucky.  We didn’t have summer camps when I was growing up in England, but we didn’t have 3 month long summer vacations either.  Six weeks was all we got!  I feel very deprived…..

June 21st is the longest day of the year, after that the nights will get shorter and shorter and shorter and before you know it, it’ll be Christmas!  Take heed, plan ahead and all that jazz.  Better shop now while we can still afford to put gas in the car!  Gas is $8 per gallon in England BTW. It’s always been high, but the cars also get about 50 mpg so it kinda equals out.

June 24th is Midsummer’s Day, however in the ancient calendar it was celebrated on the 4th of July!  How’s about that for a strange coincidence.  Midusummer used to be a time for festivals and all kinds of celebrations with lots of magical, mystical customs associated with them. Other than that, June is a very unassuming month.

For all you scrapbookers out there, the Gt. American Scrapbook Convention is in Arlington this coming weekend, so I’ll be heading over there for a day, or maybe two.  I’ll let you know how it was later.

Cheers, Julie

May Already?!!

I can’t believe it’s almost the end of May!  Time flies when you’re having fun, but the past 6 weeks have been pretty unremarkable, apart from a quick trip to England, which was so short I can hardly believe I was there.  I have proof though; 5 extra pounds from Fish’n Chips and the best Indian food ever!  There was also an unbelievable hail storm after I got back and 5″ of rain in one evening - today it’s 99 degrees!   Hmmm…….  The hail storm demolished our roof, shredded window screens and where I once had beautiful rose trees, bare sticks now sprout from the ground    The magnolia trees have no leaves and leaves were stripped from most of the other trees around the yard.  Mother Nature is an amazing woman, but I wonder why she left the weeds unharmed.

England was brilliant.  There’s always something special about going back to the place you remember as a child.  It’s like putting on an old pair of comfy slippers.  I ate Fish’n Chips and bought sweets (that’s Brit speak for candy).  Not very remarkable I’m sure, except for the fact that I don’t eat candy except when I go home. Rowntrees Fruit Pastilles and Fruit Gums are my favourites, along with food like crumpets, malt bread, battenburg cake and custard.  Spring is definitely the most beautiful time of year to visit.  Daffodils are everywhere, growing like wild flowers along the roadsides and covering the roundabouts with a blanket of yellow.   Even Wordsworth spoke about “a host of golden daffodils” in one of his poems.  The weather was typically English - we landed out of blue skies and sunshine and the next flight was delayed due to thunderstorms and torrential rain.  We Brits do love the rain though - it makes the grass grow, so the cows can eat the grass and provide us with excellent beef, so we can stand up to all that “bloody” rain…….

I started a new page for the blog (if I did it right that is).  Look for FAQ.  I get lots of questions about scrapbooking and crafts and thought it might be helpful to put some answers here.  I don’t have any content there yet, but check back in a few days.  You can always send me questions via “comments”.  I may not know the answer to everything, but I’ll try to find out if I can.

Have a great holiday weekend!

Yours truly, Julie

“Hoppy Easter”

First of all let me thank everyone who sent wonderful comments about cancer. They say that “timing is everything” - little did I know that March was Colon Cancer awareness month, a fact I didn’t realize until I was watching a morning news program last Friday. One of the comments I received put it in a nutshell. We should treat our bodies in the same manner as we treat the cars we depend on so much. Regular maintenance checks are a must, and we need to investigate any and all unusual noises, etc.

We taped a new series of Scrapbook Memories last week and had wonderful guests to work with, so I hope everyone will tune in when the series starts to air at the end of July. There were more digital projects this time and I even did a project on glass etching! I show how easy it is to create a custom stencil with a digital shape cutter, then use the stencil to etch glass/mirror. The etching product I use is great! It produces a REAL etch, but it’s very friendly. It doesn’t smell, doesn’t eat my fingers and, best of all - it’s reusable. Look for a demo soon on U-Tube!

Getting home from the studio this time, however, was an experience! My “Good Friday” morning flight was cancelled, then the early Saturday morning flight that I was re-booked on, was also cancelled and I was re-booked again for early Sunday. Luckily I received the notification about the Saturday flight in time to cancel my 4:30 am wake-up call! As I sat in my hotel room Saturday morning, watching the news about the 8″ of snow that had fallen during the night and other flight cancellations, I felt compelled to call the airlines again. The lady answered on the first ring and after a few words we discovered we were from the same area in England! As we chatted a seat opened up on a direct flight that afternoon…… yeh! God is so good. All the family got together Easter Sunday at our house, so it was good to be home in time to prepare the family dinner and hide Easter Eggs. Hope you all had a fun day too!

Yours truly, Julie

Cancer

I called a friend the other day. She had just returned home from a funeral and shared that it was for a young man who had died of Colon Cancer. He was my son’s age.

On November 8th, 1999 my husband took me to the ER. I was admitted to the hospital and 2 days later had surgery. I had colon cancer. The day after Christmas was the first day of 6 months of not so nice chemotherapy. I went for my last chemo treatment on July 3rd, the day before Independence Day appropriately enough and my husband gave me a trophy; it said simply Cancer 0 - Angels 1. Yes, they won the battle for me.

I went for my annual scan yesterday and still have check ups every 3-6 months, but I am an 8 year survivor and appreciate that each new day is a gift. My heart breaks however for those who, for some reason, didn’t win the battle. As women we know to be pro-active against breast cancer, and men are aware of the risks of prostate cancer. But when it comes to warnings about colon cancer, I have seen very little except for the year when Katie Couric’s husband died. For me it definitely came out of the blue. I don’t smoke, I have a relatively healthy lifestyle and my diet isn’t too bad, though I must admit that I enjoy a good meal of fish’n chips whenever I can. And, to top it all, there is no history of cancer in my family. To say that the diagnosis came as a shock, is an understatement to say the least.

Colon cancer occurs in men and women of all ages. It is one of the nastier ones, to put it mildly, but when caught in the early stages, it is very curable. Looking back, I definitely had signs that something wasn’t quite right for 3-4 months previously, but the symptons were easily brushed aside. Everyone has stomach cramps right……

You may wonder why I’m writing about this. In fact I’m wondering myself, since very few people outside my family and close friends were aware of what was going on in my life during that year, the year 2000. Hey what a way to start the new millenium!! I continued to host “More than Memories” (as it was known back then) and viewers wondered why I went from long hair to very short hair, which was a wig I wore for the show. That was actually the fun part - I never had a bad hair day!

So, why talk about it now?
Because a young man who was the same age as my son had colon cancer and died.
Because there are symptons that are too often ignored because no body wants to talk about “things like that”.
Because it grows very quickly.
Because when caught in the early stages it is one of the most curable of cancers.
Because if I share my story, maybe someone will think twice about avoiding a check up.

I was lucky. You, or someone you know and love, might not be. Please take care of yourselves.

Yours truly, Julie

2008 CHA (Craft & Hobby Association) Trade Show

I’ve just returned from my annual pilgrimage to CHA which was held in Anaheim, CA, 10-13 February. It’s a HUGE show and it literally took me all of the three and a half days to walk up and down the aisles to check out the new product and I still didn’t see everything. This is the show of shows for anyone who owns a scrapbook, rubber stamp, or any kind of store where craft supplies are sold. I’ve attended this show each year since 1991 and I love to see the creativity that unfolds. The amount of new product being developed each year is overwhelming, but always inspiring.

HYBRID is the buzz word for this year. These are digital scrapbook pages with “real” embellishments. Epson had an impressive display of digitally produced pages, i.e. pages created on the computer, printed out then embellished with “real stuff” from a number of different manufacturers. Digital scrapbooking continues to gain in popularity and foolproof, easy to use software programs are everywhere. Shutterfly is now partnered with Creating Keepsakes Media and you’ll just need to check out their website to see what’s available and how this can help your digital scrapbooking. You should also be on the lookout for a new magazine, Scrapbook Dimensions. It’s all about hybrid and more!

Acrylic albums, which made their first appearance last year, were seen in a number of booths. There were lots of basic shapes, but I also found a couple of booths devoted entirely to shaped albums. Shape albums is a trend I saw in England a couple of years ago. They are fun to work with and make great gifts.

For those of you who heard of the “Slice“, which debuted last year, it is now being sold by Making Memories and should be available in stores May or June. The Slice is a small, digital shape cutting machine about 5″ x 7″ and you’d use it for cutting small shapes up to about 4″. There’s lots more information about this particular product, so I highly recommend you “Google” it and check it out.

Spellbinders has introduced a new and improved universal die cutting machine. With the introduction of the “Excalibur” you no longer have to turn or push a handle to produce a cut and/or embossed shape. With the touch of a button your paper and die is fed thru the machine automatically. A Spellbinders’ die will both cut and emboss shapes and, because this is a universal machine, it can also be used with other brands of thin dies.

I’m sure I didn’t see everything. As I go thru my notes I’ll find more things to tell you about, so be sure to check back later for more info.

Yours truly, Julie

BTW: Hope you had a wonderful Valentine’s Day. Ours was extra special - we found out we’re having a granddaughter!!!!!

Happy New Year!

Twelfth Night - January 6th is the 12th night after Christmas; the night we take down and pack away all our Christmas decorations. (Nothing to do with Shakespeare.) It’s also known as Epiphany in the church calendar and the Day of the 3 Kings, since this was the time the 3 Kings arrived in Bethlehem bearing gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. This is why the children in Mexico receive their presents on January 6th, “el día de Reyes”, the day of the Kings, or Wise Men Day. The children place their shoes by the window, so the Magi can place presents in the shoe. If a present is bigger than the shoe, it will be placed next to it. In Scandanavian and some other European countries children also place their shoes by the door or window in the hopes that Saint Nicholas will fill them with goodies, but this happens on December 6th. This tradition dates back to the time when shoes were left outside and Saint Nicholas walked the village streets placing food in the shoes of needy families.

The house usually looks extremely bare after being stripped of its holiday finery, but this year it remains full of color and life only an “almost 2 year old” can bring to it. My daughter, son-in-law and grandson have been staying with us since before Thanksgiving while they look for a new home and it has been exciting to say the least. (Now you know why there’s been a large gap between blog entries.) It’s an odd feeling being a grandmother, I feel I ought feel old! My own grandmother, was the epitome of what one believes a grandmother to be. She was small and round with gray hair and very snuggly looking. I, on the other hand, have found that being a grandmother means sitting in the bathroom with a large stuffed horse across my knees and a “Thomas the Tank Engine” sticker on the end of my nose. I get to play in an inflatable house filled with large colored balls and am delighted to find I no longer feel guilty for not using the teadmill, after all, who needs a treadmill when there’s a toddler to chase you……..

2008 is already a week old, but I still would like to take this belated opportunity to wish everyone a very happy, healthy, blessed and prosperous New Year. May 2008 be everything you hope and dream it will be.

Time is On Our Side - NOT!

There is nothing really significant about November 13th other than the fact that Christmas Day falls exactly 6 weeks after.  I came to this realization when my daughter was 6 weeks old on Christmas Day. So her birthday is my signal to start thinking about writing cards, buying gifts, making lists and checking them twice. Please note I use the word “thinking”. Hey, don’t we always say “it’s the thought that counts”!

I LOVE, LOVE LOVE the holiday season. The music, the decorations, the food and the memories.  Christmas memories are definitely firmly embedded in my mind from way back when, and yes, I do mean “way back”.  One of my favorite memories is from the mid 80’s.  I worked as a Kindergarten Aide for a couple of years at the elementary school my children attended.  We held the annual Christmas party for teachers at our home and I remember overhearing my 7 year old son tell his teacher: “This is our special family tree. It’s our tradition to make different ornaments to put on it every year.”  And we did; I had just never thought of it as a tradition, but it definitely was.  It still stands in our family room each Christmas decorated with the hodge podge of ornaments we’ve made and collected over the years.  There are shower curtain rings wrapped with ribbon, adorned with roses and a tiny bear; wax ornaments made from leftover candles; hand painted glass balls; toy soldiers and reindeer made from clothes pins and sand dollars dipped in clear glitter just to name a few.  We usually decorate our home Thanksgiving weekend, so I’ll be sure to post one or two photos after we put the tree up.

Next week is Thanksgiving.  It’s not a holiday we celebrate in England, but it has become a favorite. I love any reason for us to get together as a family to give thanks for each other and for the many blessings in our lives.  Happy Thanksgiving everybody!    May you always have bread for the table, a twinkle in your eye and a heart full of love.

Please to Remember the Fifth of November…….

It’s Veterans’ Day today, commonly known as Remembrance Day and “Poppy Day” in England. The armistice was signed in a poppy field in Flanders so the poppy has become the commemorative symbol for the veterans of both the Great War and WW II. Poppy wreaths are laid on the memorials in local parks and for the equivalent of about a dollar, you can buy a poppy lapel pin. All proceeds go to charity.

November is really quite an interesting month. It starts with All Saints Day on November 1st then the next big day (in England) is Guy Fawkes day, November 5th.

Guido (Guy) Fawkes is infamous for trying to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605. Fortunately the plot was foiled and Guy was literally caught with his hands in the gunpowder barrel. His cohorts however escaped to their hideout in the country. The weather was typically British and they rode through pouring rain. The gunpowder they were still carrying got very wet so they put it near the fire to dry…… needless to say the resulting explosion gave them away and they were all caught red handed and probably very red faced. Guy Fawkes night, or “Plot Night” is celebrated with local bonfires and fireworks displays. We eat “plot toffee”, parkin pigs, meat pies, mushy peas, and potatoes roasted in the fire. In the North of England especially the night before is known as Mischief Night and I think it best not to elaborate on that.

In Germany Fasching (carnival) officially starts at exactly 11 minutes past 11 o’clock on the 11th day of the 11th month. Committees are formed and plans set in motion. November 11th is also Martinmas which used to be one of the major feast days, since this was the time of year when many people received payments for work accomplished and they could afford to celebrate with friends and family and generally make merry.

Thanksgiving is the major celebration this month, but, like the day itself, I’ll get to that a little later.