Five Years

I have many funny little anniversaries of sorts that I remember. A major one for me is when I came home from my mission in Connecticut...five years ago today. How did that happen? Wasn't I just in CT? I have to admit, it's not a very happy milestone for me...how did that much time go by? It just serves as a big reminder that I am not very close to where I want to be in life and I feel like time is slipping away from me. I thought my future would be different than this when I came home. It's getting kind of embarrassing watching most people get hitched the instant they get home and I'm still single after five years. I know I'm not supposed to compare myself to others, but it's hard not to when kids you babysat are now getting married and having children!It drives me crazy that I don't have more control over things in my life- where I live, my health, etc.

I just want something to change (for the better)...is that too much to ask? Yeah, I moved, and yeah, I'm going to school...but now what? Life has gotten pretty stagnant. Sometimes I get really lonesome because I don't have friends here outside of ysa activities (which has gotten stagnant as well- everyone left!).

We still have boxes piled up from moving over a year ago (my family are packrats and I am a reformed one) and I try to deal with it by sorting stuff but there is only so much I can do when it's not my stuff. I would love for all our unnecessary stuff to be gone so we can have space to breathe and enjoy life! I want my craft area!

Sorry about all the whining, I just needed to vent. I'm trying to be a good girl and not explode.

SNOW!

I got to drive home in blizzards both Thursday and Friday coming home from school (not fun) and it kept snowing on Saturday...our snowplow didn't come until Saturday afternoon so we were snowed in! We easily got over two feet of snow in that time. Church was canceled, pretty quiet weekend. It was a lot of work clearing that much snow off of our cars and the front porch! The cats didn't like the snow very much!

Yes, I am in snow well over my knees. Some drifts were even deeper!

Jack Jeep was just funny looking!

When it calmed down outside, we posed for silly pictures:

Me with Hank- we're wearing matching coats ;)

Laura with Mariah, Lars and Hank

Mom, too

Posing behind the berm...silly us!

I just have to survive today at school and make it tomorrow and then I'm scott free for Thanksgiving break! Then I don't care if it snows!

Archival Preservation

Note from Liz: This is a subject that I find interesting, I'd love to study museum science! I gathered information on preserving items and thought I'd share. I'm pretty passionate about this subject and I hate to see people making mistakes that will cost them their heirlooms. I think this is an important topic- those who read this blog are generally young, if we learn now how to take care of things, we won't have to try to undo our mistakes later. Also one day you'll probably be inheriting some keepsakes, you should learn now how to take care of them.

My qualifications: My family has always had stuff in storage- some has fared well over the last twenty years and other stuff not so well. We discovered a lot of disintegrating items in the move. I know from experience what works and what doesn't. I have also read extensively on the subject. If there are any questions, let me know.

Above: My first grade class! I am in the top row on the right and I was stinkin' cute if I do say so myself! Sadly these photos are still trapped in an evil magnetic album from the '80s!

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Guide to Archival Preservation

What causes things to compost?

Answer: Heat, light and moisture!

Do you want your items to become compost? Then keep them away from the biggest offenders!

Heat speeds chemical reactions and causes decay more quickly. Light also does the same thing, especially sunlight or fluorescent light. Ultra-violet radiation from these types of light speeds chemical reactions. Humidity levels above 70% promote mold growth and rapid changes in humidity causes damage as things quickly expand and contract.

Do not store important items in an uninsulated attics or damp basements! They are either too hot or too moist for your items to properly store. If you must store things in your basement, control moisture (both on the ground and in the air) and store items at least one foot off the ground (you never know if your basement might flood!).

The rule of thumb is to store important items in an environment that you find comfortable: not too hot, cold or humid.

Other things to avoid:

• Acid: Acid eats away, discolors, and destroys items over time. It also turns things brittle. Acid will leach into surrounding non-acidic items and damage them as well. Look for photo albums, paper, adhesives, pens, containers and other products labeled "acid-free". If a product does not say "acid-free", do not assume it is just because it is made for photos.
  
• Lignin: Lignin is a substance that gives plants and trees their strength and rigidity. When trees are broken down to make paper, the lignin becomes unstable. Paper that has high amounts of lignin, such as newsprint, is very acidic and yellows very easily. Look for products labeled "lignin-free".


• Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC): This unstable plastic emits corrosive and acidic gas, which is harmful to photos and other items. PVC generally has a very plastic-y odor.


• Polyvinyl Acetate (PVA): This is an acidic plastic that causes photos and documents to deteriorate and fade.


• Dust: It appears soft, but is actually abrasive. Remove dust regularly and keep items as clean as possible. Dry dusting is recommended over sprays and chemicals.


• Hands: The oils and salts in your hands are very damaging to items. It is helpful to wear white cotton gloves when handling paper, photographs or textiles. Metal objects are also vulnerable to damage from your hands. Handle your items carefully, do not overhandle.

Good things to store your items in:

• Mylar, Polyester, Polyethylene, Polypropylene: These are inert plastics that are safe for photographs and documents. They do not release harmful gases.

How to care for:

Paper:

• Remove post-it notes, paperclips, rubber bands, brads and staples before storing important documents. Those items will either break down and stain (rubber bands), leave acid or adhesive (post-it notes), or rust (staples, brads and paperclips).
• Do not place newspaper clippings, photos and letters in the same storage pocket- separate them out.
  
• Archival Mist can be sprayed on newspaper clippings, ticket stubs, etc to neutralize acid.


• Store important letters, documents, etc, flat when possible. Uncurling tightly curled papers leads to fiber breakdown. Store folded papers (like letters) unfolded and avoid unfolding and refolding as that breaks down the fibers and makes ripping more likely.


• To store an acidic document, place it between two sheets of quality paper- the acid will leach into the quality paper instead of surrounding documents.

Photos:

• Color prints, negatives and slides are more delicate and prone to chemical breakdown than traditional black and white.


• Handle negatives and prints by the edges.


• Never write on the front or back of a photo- Ink can bleed through over time and pens can dent photos as well. If you must write on your photo, use acid-free, fadeproof, waterproof inks. Sharpies are not archival!


• Keep negatives separated in plastic sleeves. Do not store negatives touching one another. Negatives from before the 1950's are prone to sticking together and the chemical process used then was prone to combustion!


• Keep photos and negatives in appropriate acid free sleeves, albums, boxes and containers. The envelopes that photos come in from the developer are not acid-free! Old magnetic albums are BAD for your photos!
• Don't cut Polaroid photos- they release harmful chemicals.
• Display copies of photos, keep originals safe from sun damage.

CDs and DVDs:

• Once thought to last forever, new studies have shown that it is unknown how long cds last. The best guess is 10-15 years.
• Use high quality, archival discs (like Archival Gold) to store important photos and files. They claim to last several hundred years.
• Avoid flexing discs, as this creates tiny cracks that can let in moisture and lead to the breakdown of your disc.
• use an archival pen when labeling discs, as inferior ink can leach into your disc over time and lead to its breakdown.
• Keep discs away from moisture, especially the kind you burn (I lost my Napoleon Dynamite cd this way!)

Videocassettes and Audio tapes:

• Store tapes upright (like books), not flat. Storing them flat could lead to distortions.
• High temperatures can damage tapes.
• Each use causes wear on the tape, eventually leading to a breakdown of the material. Try to get important recordings transferred to a cd or dvd.

Textiles:

• Make sure things are truly clean before you store them.
• Do not store items in a cedar chest- they do not protect items and can actually damage them with fumes and oils.
• Avoid storing items in plastic- this traps in moisture. You want items to be able to "breathe".
• Store heirloom items in acid-free boxes. Use acid-free tissue inside garments to limit creasing. On a regular basis, refold item in a different way to avoid permanent creasing.
• Avoid harsh detergents, use a gentle detergent made for heirloom items (there's many quilt detergents on the market). Vacuuming is often effective.

Paintings:

• Do not store valued works of art over a frequently used fireplace.
• Avoid direct sunlight, use indirect lighting. Do not use spotlights on your artwork.
• Avoid halogen light- it emits high levels of ultraviolet light which is damaging to light-sensitive items.

Printing:

• When printing documents, laser ink printing is more archival than printing from ink-jet printers. Printing from an ink-jet fades rapidly and will run if you get it wet.
• Some ink-jet manufacturers (Epson, HP) now have archival printing. You must use their recommended paper and ink to achieve these results.
• Sprays are available to spray on printed photos to reduce fading. Older home-printed photos are highly susceptible to fading.

Organization:

• Do for your descendants what you wish your ancestors had done for you...do you wish they had been organized? Labeled photos? Kept a journal? Then do it for the next generation!
• Don't do what can't be undone! Do not crop, laminate or otherwise alter original documents and pictures. Make Photoshop corrections on a copy, not the original file.
• Make several copies of important documents and files onto discs,websites, or external hardrives...do not store everything solely on your computer or you will be in trouble when it crashes!
• Make prints of important files and photos, these could wind up being your only copies if your other options fail.
• It doesn't matter how much money you've sunk into something if it is going to ruin your items. My mom has a hard time wanting to take photos out of magnetic albums because she "spent so much money on them".
• Develop a system of organization for photos, documents and computer files.
• Play the "what if?" game to cover your bases (example: What if I store all my documents on my computer and it crashes? What if I store this in the basement?)
• Upgrade items to the next technology while it is still relatively easy to do so. Technology moves faster and faster and we have to act fast before our items are lost forever. My mom has things stored on floppy discs from the 80's, I can pretty much guarantee that that info will never see the light of day again. I need to move my digital art projects from zip disks onto cds before it is too late. Small diskettes have pretty much become obsolete, move that info while you can!

I hope that this information helps you preserve your items. I know it sounds like a lot, but a little prevention goes a long way. Think about things before you do them. I'm not perfect at this, but I try. One of these days I'll get my childhood photos out of those magnetic albums!

Color

I recently finished reading the book "Color: A Natural History of the Palette" by Victoria Finlay. It was a good read, she goes one by one about all the colors and talks about what people used for colors and dyes before synthetics and how history was made (wars fought, trade routes established, etc) because of color. She visited many different places around the world in her search of the origin of color. I found it to be very interesting. We take a lot of color for granted because we have synthetic dyes and it's very easy to have what we want.

For instance, did you know why Robin Hood wears green? At the time, there was no true green dye- you first dyed something in yellow and then in blue. Since you were using two dyes, your clothing was twice as expensive plus it was hard to get consistent colors, making it more valuable. So green was for the rich. Robin Hood's wearing green was another way of thumbing his nose at the rich.

Neat, huh?

Yo-Yo

I see a lot of yo-yo quilts and projects in my books and magazines, and for awhile now I wondered just how do you make a yo-yo? They always talk about them and just assume you know how to make one. I feel kinda silly cause they are really simple! Well, the internet is my friend and here is a nifty little tutorial on how to make them. You learn something new everyday and I just learned this!

Books

You gotta love book sales...every now and then our little library does a sale of donated books, and without trying I wound up there at the start of dollar bag day! Got some good stuff:

Gotta love old art books...the information pretty much stays the same over time! This one has a lot of good color images that I don't have in other books- some old art books are black and white... what's the point?

It's falling apart, but there's a lot of good info about how to make all kinds of paper flowers!

This Simplicity booklet is from 1940 and in good condition. My grandmother modeled for late 1940's Butterick and McCalls pattern catalogs when she was young, I'd love to find one of those!

I picked up this little book simply because the fabric cover is so cute- it'd be cute to prop up in a sewing room! The info inside is good too- it's a little encyclopedia of every type of fabric there is.

Old quilt books sometimes have good stuff, too.

Gotta love old 1980's craft magazines...sometimes there is good ideas and patterns that just need some streamlining and modernizing!


All for a dollar! Gotta love small towns.

Thanks

Thanks to everyone who responded to the Etsy post, I really feel encouraged by everyone's support. I think my main shop will be named Elizabeth Erin, and I plan on selling stuff I've already made as well as some new stuff I haven't made yet. I think eventually I would want to branch out and have a separate shop for nativity items and another for my craft supplies. I'm busy trying to create a "look" for my shop. I haven't signed up yet, I need to gather/make my products, which probably won't happen til Christmas break or the beginning of next year. I have a lot of things floating around in my head. I am really excited about all of this. It's a good use of all of my backgrounds- business school, photography (photographing the items), and crafting.

This week JoAnn's has Simplicity patterns on sale... 5 for $5 (limit 10) this week- I've been waiting and plan to stock up! Woo hoo!

In the near future I plan on blogging about 1) archival preservation and 2) craft supply storage...stay tuned!

In other news, it has turned cold again and we got more snow and it's been snowing all day! I feel the need for some attractive but functional snow boots- all I have are galoshes! I really wanted to stay home and eat soup on the couch (or sew- snowy days are good for sewing!) but I was a good girl and went to school. Do I get a gold star?

Etsy

So, finally following Marleen's advice, I looked into having my own Etsy shop. It looks like fun. I haven't signed up yet- I want to think of the right name first. There's some other considerations:

• What to sell?
• I'd want to open up a new banking account solely for Etsy so that that record is kept separately

If I name it after me, Elizabeth Erin, then it can just be what I make, whatever it may be. I don't just make one type of item, I make lots of different things. I can have a cool logo of mirror image E's. It's reasonably easy to spell. And the double E's make it more memorable- it worked for lots of famous people (Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo, etc).

I considered naming it Ladybuglizzy but then people might think I only sold ladybug things and might be confused.

I want to get my stuff out there and that's kind of hard in rural PA. Not to mention it would be nice to have some scratch and there are little employment options around here. Since on Etsy you are allowed to sell 1)handmade items 2)supplies to make craft items and 3)vintage items, this would also be a good way to get rid of craft items I regret buying or don't need anymore and then I could use that $ to buy what I want!

I think it's really neat that someone thought this up and that it works pretty well. It's nice for crafty/artistic people to now have this option. I have things that I wanted to sell to the general public (my paper doll nativity set for starters) and just didn't know how to. Some people can support themselves solely on Etsy sales, though I don't expect to. I'll post more about this when I get set up.

Golden Rule

So I was a little taken aback when I got this recent ad from JoAnn's and looked at the cover:

You see, the woman pictured is the Heidi Grace of Heidi Grace Designs, a scrapbooking/fabric company. And many moons ago when I was working at Craft Outlet, I met her in person. Several times. And she wasn't very nice. She was upset with us because the store didn't carry her scrapbooking products (which are a lot better now than they were then) and later when Craft Outlet closed forever, she purchased a lot of our fixtures and shelving and was really annoying haggling about prices. They were pretty low as it was but that wasn't good enough for her. I remember ringing her up and not liking being around her- she's very demanding.

If memory serves me correctly, she offered me a job, but I didn't look into it- I didn't want to be around her personality! I have bought a couple of things from her line before but I actually try not to because she was rude! I'm pretty silly to hold a grudge, but I think this shows that if you represent something, you have to be especially careful how you present yourself! People are definitely influenced by how you treat them. You gotta use honey, not vinegar!

Damage

Here's some pics of the damage down in last Wednesday's storm- the wet, heavy snow was too much for a lot of trees and there are branches down everywhere. Between this storm and the one in September, this is not a good winter for trees!

We were shocked to see the damage at church, thank goodness the building is ok:

These trees will require some surgery!