Organizing Family Photos aka Random Chaos

I have been procrastinating with this project for quite awhile.  When my Mum died almost six years ago she left me all the family photos.  We did pull them all out and went through them after her funeral.  There were lots of laughs, tears and shaking our heads at the completely random way they were "organized".

It just never felt right to take them out of their house while my Dad was still alive.  The weekends that I spent with him, I scanned a lot of them while we watched TV together - remember, I can't just watch TV.

Since then, I have found more photos squirreled away in different parts of the house.  My Mum could be very creative as to where she put things!

 Last week I went to my Dad's house and picked up all the photos.  A big thank you to my niece, who helped me find even more of them!

Since then, they have been sitting on my dining room table just staring at me.  Today I decided it was time to start tackling this project.  In the photo above you'll see the plaid carry on suitcase that my Mum repurposed for photo album storage.  You will also notice this very same suitcase in the photo propped up on the table.  This was taken at the airport when we left North Carolina to move to England.  That was 1971 and I was three years old.  I love that they kept this case and now I have it.

So many great photos to look through and organize.  I have so many favorites but it is lovely to see photos of my Mum and Dad with their grandchildren.  They truly loved being Oma and Opa.  I'll be sharing more photos as I get them organized.

Of course, I had to use this as a reason to buy some new photo organization boxes.  Thank you, Micheals for having a great sale.  I bought four of these organizers, hopefully that will be enough!

I'll leave you with these gems I found of my brother and I.  All his childhood portrait photos look like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.  No wonder my Nanny called "the golden child" 😀.  In my photo you can see how I've been a curly girl my whole life!

Toodles until next time...

Clearing Out Clothes and Crying in Costco

 My father passed away seven weeks ago.  That doesn't get any easier to say or type.  In some ways it is such a surreal feeling and hasn't really fully sunk in yet.  It comes in waves and the strangest things can trigger my emotions.  

In some ways I feel like the full effect of losing him hasn't really hit me because I've had to be in "business mode" since his death.  Even though we had all of his affairs in order, there are still so many details and paperwork that needs to be taken care of.  Thank goodness for email because its makes things a lot easier when you live out of state.

My heart really goes out to people who aren't prepared and/or equipped to handle all the details and mounds of paperwork that nobody really wants to have to deal with.  Also lets not even get into how difficult and challenging some banks (Truist) and hospitals (Novant) make it to get the tasks completed.

We are so blessed that we don't have to clear out or sell my father's house.  It will be staying in the family.  However, I felt that it was time and I was ready to go through his clothes.  I have a local church that has an I-Reach clothing and food pantry.  I donated some dresses/work clothes and they told me that they are always looking for more men's clothing.  I know it would make my Daddy happy to know that his clothes were going to people who could really use them.

I asked all my family members what items they would like to keep.  I put aside my Dad's favorite Clemson sweatshirt (he loved that sweatshirt like a middle school boy loves his favorite hoodie)  I was doing pretty well going through everything until I got to his slippers.  For some reason, it was so hard to put them in the trash bag.  I think they struck a chord because he was so picky about them and we went through so many until we found the kind that he liked the best.

While I was in town, I ran to Costco. While I was in there I realized that I needed to cancel Daddy's prescriptions at the pharmacy.  I kept on getting text reminders about needing to refill them.  I waited in line and the person who helped me recognized me from having picked up his meds.  That was when I felt my bottom lip start quivering.  I then explained that I needed to cancel all of his prescriptions and then proceeded to burst into tears!  Not exactly how I had planned for things to go but the guy helping me was so sweet and kind while I was blubbering and ugly crying.  

I was able to get myself together and finish my shopping.  Then I walked past the chocolate covered raisins and started to get misty eyed.  Time to wrap up the shopping trip and check out!

Toodles until next time...

Entering Into My Old Lady Crafting Era...

 

Well y'all, it's official - I have now entered my "Old Lady Crafting Era".  Last week I started my very first needlepoint project.  I know, I know, it's shocking and hard to believe that I have never done this craft before.

I have knitted (learned how to when I was nine years old in school), cross-stitched (started in high school when my Mum bought me some Christmas ornament kits from Piece Goods), and embroidered (completed my first project during the pandemic) to my hearts content, but needlepoint had never been on my to do list.

I will admit to being "TikTok influenced" into this purchase.  Calder Clark, a Charleston based wedding planner that I follow started showing all the projects that she has completed.  It got me interested so I started browsing for kits online.

WOW!  Needlepoint is NOT an inexpensive (cheap) hobby!  I started at Needlepoint.com which has a store in Charleston.  Let's say there was a little bit of sticker shock.  I mean, I quilt and can drop some money on fabric but these prices caught me off guard.  $70 for a single Christmas ornament.  I can see my Mum's face in my mind if I had bought that!!  I had a good giggle at the almost $200 pillow kit, yep, that's not in a "riff raff" budget!

When I looked at the store hours 10:00 - 4:00, it clicked in my head - old lady, boujee money hours!  Not bashing them, a lot of quilt stores have similar hours 😄.  So, off to Amazon I went!  I knew they would have something in my beginner budget range.  I'm saving the family trust fund money for more serious puchases.

They had quite a large selection of pillow kits and I had a hard time narrowing it down to one.  In the end I selected the lemon one - I really love the colors and the price.

Here's what it looks like in real life and how much I have completed so far.  This is my TV watching project.  I'm one of those people who just can't sit and watch TV - anyone who knows me will not be surprised by that observation.

I'll keep you updated on my progress.  As hot as the weather currently is, I'll have quite a bit of TV watching time.

Toodles until next time.