Two Cents Worth…on my favorite subject.
Christmas is coming.
I know. It does every year.
Those over-organized individuals we all know and love are already thinking about it. And, I sometimes think of it in June or July and vow…again, I will not be a Christmas procrastinator… and get an “early” start.
Truthfully, how many of us ever really do?
I’m offering you a chance…one I hope to follow through on myself.
Now is the time to start some of those Christmas projects or maybe even the shopping. Your decision is what to start or where. Quilters, scrapbookers, the do-it-yourselfers of the world are on it…eagerly clipping, stitching, pasting or nailing something in place and ready to wrap by October? November? Wow, that is dedication…am I up to it? More importantly are you?
I’ve made a quilt…it just took about 10 years to finally wrap it up.
I tried traditional scrapbooks…with a promise to apply the finishing touches after it was presented as a gift. Guess what? Those finishing touches are still waiting…maybe this is my year. But it won’t be with scissors and glue or all those expensive buttons, bows, or sequins embellishments.
My computer and a large folder of digital photos will be my only tools. My “scrapbook” table is my computer screen and my keyboard serves my fingers.
Digital scrapbooking is here in many forms. Several photo sites offer ready-made templates to “plug” your pictures in. Still others offer infinite opportunities to start from scratch, using blank pages and digital embellishments. Try any photo site and you are likely to find an opportunity to create. Better yet tryout my site at Heritage Makers, the premier digital scrapbook site…yes, that is blatant advertising, but if I didn’t believe it was the best I wouldn’t be involved.
Simply put…you can publish a book…your book. Digital scrapbooks are available in paperback, hard cover and spiralbound versions. If you can use a computer, you can do this, too.
I‘ve “been there, done that” no reason you can’t, too!
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Capturing Your Stories
Oops...I thought there were updates here since the new year. Guess I've been writing them, and forgetting to post them. Time to get back on track and focused.
For eight years, I’ve been asking people to “write it down.”
That’s not a request to start a “to do” list. It’s the line I’ve used in the Hartland Historical Society’s quarterly newsletter for eight years hoping more people would realize the importance of writing down their memories.
Reading a newspaper, newsletter or magazine, whether daily, weekly or monthly, you are reading the stories of our lives: People doing good, and bad, in the world; interesting jobs, hobbies, habits or stories of overcoming adversity for an individual or a group or conducting business, publicly or privately.
Your daily reading is history or current events…and you probably hated those classes in school, unless you had some of the teachers I did.
News reporters are today’s historians. They record the day’s events so you are better informed about the world around you, and so years down the road you can go back to that report whether in a saved clipping, a scrapbook or in the newspaper archives, whether they are kept electronically or as hard copy. More and more it is electronically, digitally. Either way it’s preserved.
What reporters can’t do is tell the stories you know.
You may have lived through an historic moment, locally or nationally. Maybe you just remember simpler times, when your family grew all their own food, vegetables and meat; when you walked “miles” to school or worked on a farm or in a long-gone factory. If you are one of those people who readily say “today’s kids don’t know how lucky they are,” you may have some stories to tell.
As an avid “local historian,” I revel in the memories I’ve been permitted to share with my readers or simply with the person with the memory.
The fact that you are reading this column says you may be of a special generation…one that still reads.
We are constantly bombarded with an opinion younger generations are not interested in the printed word…but hard copy, newsprint, or digital, people will continue to read…how else will they learn about the world around them? And better still, how will they learn about the people who came before them?
Writing down your memories is your contribution to education, to history, and to improvement for future generations and appreciation for what earlier generations accomplished.
If you have “lived” a life time, you have seen the changes for the good that have happened around us, as well as some of the regrettable actions of local residents, governments or businesses. How will later generations know what they’ve missed…if you don’t “write it down”?
As a local historian and a writer, I would love to tell your stories or help you write them yourself.
I am Brenda Seekins, freelance writer, photographer and personal publishing consultant.
Share your thoughts and stories with me at brendaseekins@gmail.com or just support your local reporters and writers and call them.
For eight years, I’ve been asking people to “write it down.”
That’s not a request to start a “to do” list. It’s the line I’ve used in the Hartland Historical Society’s quarterly newsletter for eight years hoping more people would realize the importance of writing down their memories.
Reading a newspaper, newsletter or magazine, whether daily, weekly or monthly, you are reading the stories of our lives: People doing good, and bad, in the world; interesting jobs, hobbies, habits or stories of overcoming adversity for an individual or a group or conducting business, publicly or privately.
Your daily reading is history or current events…and you probably hated those classes in school, unless you had some of the teachers I did.
News reporters are today’s historians. They record the day’s events so you are better informed about the world around you, and so years down the road you can go back to that report whether in a saved clipping, a scrapbook or in the newspaper archives, whether they are kept electronically or as hard copy. More and more it is electronically, digitally. Either way it’s preserved.
What reporters can’t do is tell the stories you know.
You may have lived through an historic moment, locally or nationally. Maybe you just remember simpler times, when your family grew all their own food, vegetables and meat; when you walked “miles” to school or worked on a farm or in a long-gone factory. If you are one of those people who readily say “today’s kids don’t know how lucky they are,” you may have some stories to tell.
As an avid “local historian,” I revel in the memories I’ve been permitted to share with my readers or simply with the person with the memory.
The fact that you are reading this column says you may be of a special generation…one that still reads.
We are constantly bombarded with an opinion younger generations are not interested in the printed word…but hard copy, newsprint, or digital, people will continue to read…how else will they learn about the world around them? And better still, how will they learn about the people who came before them?
Writing down your memories is your contribution to education, to history, and to improvement for future generations and appreciation for what earlier generations accomplished.
If you have “lived” a life time, you have seen the changes for the good that have happened around us, as well as some of the regrettable actions of local residents, governments or businesses. How will later generations know what they’ve missed…if you don’t “write it down”?
As a local historian and a writer, I would love to tell your stories or help you write them yourself.
I am Brenda Seekins, freelance writer, photographer and personal publishing consultant.
Share your thoughts and stories with me at brendaseekins@gmail.com or just support your local reporters and writers and call them.
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