Merry Christmas 2023

It’s that time of year when I usually get in the mood to design my Christmas cards and get them mailed out, followed by putting up the tree. But, everything is running late, mostly due to the intermittent trips in our class B motorhome totaling 6 weeks. I’m not complaining, having enjoyed our trip to Perry, Georgia for a large RV rally; a week in Greenville, Ohio for a smaller Rally in June; 2 weeks in July in South Bend, Indiana having our solar upgraded from 200 watts to 600 watts and upgrading our batteries to 600 Ah and camping in a parking lot; a couple more days in South Bend getting a soft start installed on the RV air conditioner; a few days in Michigan honoring the memory of our brother-in-law, Gary; and a week in Pigeon Forge with friends. 

The pictures aren’t in chronological order but are as pictured, Greenville, Ohio Rally in June; Pigeon Forge in October; Cadillac, Michigan in September; South Bend, Indiana in July; and Perry, Georgia in March.

We discovered that I can and will drive ten hours to get from point a to point b if necessary. I did it on Labor Day after tripping over the dog in the driveway while packing the van. It’s better now, but at the time, well it made it difficult to bend my right knee. 

Bernard broke his left big toe after missing the step in the RV, or at least injured it bad enough so that when he hit the end of the bed broke it. It was a long time healing, but he’s finally healed now. We discovered that we got really behind on leaves and other chores. Oh the joys of home ownership!

Sara participates in National Novel Writing Month in November and took some time off work and stayed at a state park cabin and met the goal of 50,000 words.

In 2022, Andrea got her bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies. This year she started her Masters coursework. She also adopted a new dog, two year old Honey, much to the chagrin of Sara’s three cats. Fortunately, Honey gets along with Andrea’s dog Raz and our dog, Champ. Our cat, Mouse, tolerates her to lick her face. Champ and Honey both love to play and chase each other.

That’s what is new in our house this year. We hope y’all have happy holidays!

Anne & Bernard

Copyright 2008-2023 ACK, for Generational

Merry Christmas 2022

Our annual Christmas card, composed using MyMemories Scrapbook Software.  

Copyright 2008-2022 ACK, for Generational

My Favorite Scrapbooking Software is on Sale!

In my email this morning was a notice from MyMemories, that version 9 of the software is on sale for $10. 

I use this software for calendars, virtual and print, making greeting cards and yes, doing scrapbook pages. 

Go here.

Copyright 2008-2022 ACK, for Generational

Happy Gotcha Day, Mouse!

On this day in 2012, we adopted Mouse the Cat. Actually, we had done the paperwork a couple days prior, but all animals are spayed or neutered in our county, before they go to their forever homes. 

Our daughter, Sara, is responsible for us adopting Mouse. This little kitten - actually about a year old - wandered into Sara's apartment very early one morning. Sara already owned two cats, and one of them really did not want another cat in the house. This poor cat was skin and bones when Sara found her and when we picked her up she was all of 5 pounds. She's more than doubled her weight in the past 10 years even though she can be a picky eater. 

As a feline, she exhibits normal feline behavior, such as climbing. She loves to climb furniture and people and Christmas trees. She can be entertained with a laser light, a teaser bird on a stick, or a door mounted teaser bird. The current one has only one feather left! One of her favorite toys, is a tennis ball. Yes, we bought the balls for Champ, but Mouse gets the most enjoyment out them by turning them into an orb of tennis ball fuzz!

Thus it was that we adopted this little stinker. She has really blossomed in the last 10 years, and is quite the cuddle bug. She can also be an escape artist. She is also fairly well traveled for a cat, having visited Georgia, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New York in our RV along with her "little" brother, Champ the dog!

Mouse at the animal shelter

Mouse's first day at her new home

2022 in her "condo"

Copyright 2008-2022 ACK, for Generational

May 2022 Calendar

I love My Memories Scrapbook program. I've been using it for years. I love how you can use your own photos for backgrounds.  This is my May 2022 Calendar.

I used a photo of our pool, a stock shape for the calendar background and then imported a paper, Beach Babes Summer Fun, the beach ball from the same group, the sun, beach chair and flip flops. 

This is my current desktop background. It makes me happy to turn on my MacBook and see my own creations!

Copyright 2008-2022 ACK, for Generational

What Are You Doing During Quarantine?

This quarantine has been hard. It's not like I don't have projects to work on, but a simple task almost brought me to my knees. Threading the needle on my sewing machine. I am sure it is because I wear readers and just can't get myself to that sweet spot where I can see the thread and the needle at the same time. It really reminded me why I quit sewing in the first place. Every so often, I would think of a sewing project and then think to myself, not on that sewing machine. Then I learned that new sewing machines have needle threaders on them.

Hubby and I had the conversation and he encouraged me to buy a new machine. I started looking, researching and then shopping. Do you know how hard it is to find a sewing machine during a pandemic when EVERYONE is sewing masks? I put two on my wish list at JoAnn.com and waited. Either one would be fine. One was a Singer and the other a Brother. I checked back every morning to see if I got an email about one of the machines on my wish list. Then I checked their website anyway. AHA! One of the machines, a Brother, was available, so I snapped it up. It has 150 stitches, which is 140 more than my last machine (incidentally the old one is 33 years old.)

Since it came I have tried the different stitches, tried making a hot pad (I'll do two layers of batting in the next one) and made adjustments to younger daughter's face mask. I bought a quilting book and downloaded a bunch of free e-Books from favequilts.com Then allergies set in and with it allergic migraines.  No sewing for me.

I discovered not only was there a run on sewing machines, but quilting supplies too. I'm talking rulers, squares (plastic) and fat squares. When we feel comfortable going away from home again, I'll try the quilt store in Crossville for fabric. I really miss Hancock Fabrics, which was a staple here for so long until they closed. We have Hobby Lobby, but their fabric selection is rather sparse. We were supposed to get a Michael's when the new shopping center opened up, but apparently that fell through. I mean, it would be so nice to have a craft store that was open on Sunday.

One of the things I really like about this machine is the ability to sew from almost any position. I have not yet used the foot pedal. It's still in the plastic it was packed in. And OMG, this machine weighs 10 lbs. The old one was 25 lbs. I can pick up the new one in one hand. The automatic needle threader is great, although I'm never sure I'm doing it right until I see that little loop of thread on the backside of the needle! I'm starting a project list and when the allergies ease I'll be found in my craft room!

Copyright 2008-2020 ACK, for Generational

Monthly Project In My Memories

At the end of every month, I redo my desktop wallpaper. Hopefully, it's loaded before the 1st of the month. This month, as always, it's a calendar. I do this in my MyMemories 9 program.

This month, I tried to find something spring like although it's starting to feel like summer! The cat is our Mouse, now almost 8-1/2 years old!

I don't like a cluttered desktop and one of the things I really like about my MacBook Pro and it's Mojave operating system (no, I haven't updated to Catalina yet) is the ability to group items. I have a folder for document files that I want handy, pictures, PDF and spreadsheets. And of course my folder with the calendars. I find this is a good way to keep manuals within easy retrieval!

Copyright 2008-2020 ACK, for Generational

Sometimes Things Don't Work Properly

I dragged out my sewing machine the other day. I've had this machine for well over 30 years, a Sonata made by Singer for sale at fabric stores. I bought mine at Joann's at least around 1987-88. Yeah. It still works fine from the last time I took it in for a cleaning and oiling which was a long time ago, too. But it's old and my eyes, which have been "improved" by lasik surgery in 2001, don't see the needle holes well any more. In fact, I had to thread the sewing machine needle and when I pulled up the lever to raise the sewing foot, the needle dropped down into the machine. I had to remove the bottom of the machine to retrieve it, put the bottom back on, re-insert the needle and struggle to thread the needle. It took me a few tries, but I did it. Now I remember why I don't use it much anymore. It really wasn't a bad machine for it's time, but I think it's time for a new one. 

One of the things I looked for were a variety of stitches - it does 10. The other thing was the free arm, mostly for doing sleeves and pant legs. 

Now machines are computerized, have automatic threaders (YES!) and speed control (other than using your foot.) That's the upside. The downside? Can't find a machine anywhere due to COVID-19! 

Copyright 2008-2020 ACK, for Generational

Happy Valentine's Day

Copyright 2008-2019 ACK, for Generational

Merry Christmas

MyMemories v 9.

Copyright 2008-2018 ACK, for Generational

It Was an Awesome Trip

In our 38+ years of marriage we have been to several places. One I recall when our kids were young was DisneyWorld. It was great. Younger daughter turned 6 the day after we got there!

Hubby and I just returned from our second trip to Florida, and our first one driving. We planned on attending one of the largest RV shows in Tampa. We bought a really expensive souvenir, a 2018 Roadtrek Zion Class B motorhome. Actually, it is on order and we are rather impatient to get the call to pick it up. We took 3 days to get to Florida, trying to follow the 330 rule. That is, travel no more than 330 miles or quit driving by 3:30 pm. We were close. We left Tennessee a couple of days after some nasty weather. Because there are huge sections through central Tennessee that have no cell service, we opted to add almost 80 miles by following I-40 east to Knoxville and I-75 south, instead of hopping on TN-111, which is not far from home.

Entering into Florida on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday holiday, the Welcome Center was closed except for restrooms. I couldn't resist the photo of the welcome sign.

The other photo was taken with a white Zion, not the exact model we bought, but the right color! On the left is Pastor Dave Bliss, who assisted us with our purchase.

Scrapbook page generated by MyMemories v 9

I can say for a certainty that on the trip home we did not follow the 330 rule. The first day we drove as far as Macon, Georgia so that we could get home on Sunday, when the weather would be clear instead of Monday, when rain was expected.

Copyright 2008-2018 ACK, for Generational

My Memories Version 9

To tell the truth, I haven't really seen much difference in how Version 9 of My Memories Scrapbook software works differently from version 8. What I do know, is the transformation from version 8 to 9 was seamless. Since I made the move from a Windows platform computer to a Mac, most of the work I did this year was installing all my kits on the Mac. There were hundreds of them. It was a little bit more work to get them on the Mac, since I had to authorize each and every one of them. But it was definitely worth the work.

I downloaded and installed version 9 over the Thanksgiving weekend. My first project was of course, our Christmas card. This year, we introduced a new family, member, Champ. He has been a lively addition to our family. I simply designed the card using My Memories version 9 and exported it to CVS for printing on 4x6 photo paper. Easy Peasy. And that is how it has been using version 9 of My Memories. For a listing of what is new in My Memories go here. If you are interested in purchasing My Memories, use my Code STMMMS18876 for a $10 discount!

Copyright 2008-2018 ACK, for Generational

My Memories Version 8

Right around Thanksgiving, My Memories came out with version 8 of their wonderful scrapbook software. I was so busy trying to keep up with everything else around here that one of their terrific enhancements got by me. A while back, the designers of MM gave us the ability to blur the edges of a photo. This year, we can now blur the edges of embellishments and imprints. Awesome.

You can also choose your color scheme for your program background. I prefer to work with a light background, but you can choose a dark or medium background.

One that I haven't tried is adding a PDF file as an image to an album. Another improvement is the ability to convert text to a shape. I haven't figured that one out yet.

Here is the link to what is new and improved in My Memories Suite v 8.

 The photo attempts to illustrate the blurred or faded edges of the embellishments, namely the branches and the star border.

Copyright 2008-2017 ACK, for Generational

My Memories Scrapbook Software - Version 7

What can I say, I love this software! Every year brings some new trick or challenge. This year's version 7, is loaded with goodies.

My favorite? Being able to blur the edges of a photo. The picture of my DH and our cat, Mouse, has been placed on a couple of mats. The top mat had its opacity changed a bit, and the edges of the photo have been blurred.


Now on the left side of the screen, under the gallery, there is a button for working with layers. It makes it so much easier to edit something on the bottom.

For more information go here.

You can even try it out for free.



Copyright 2008-2014, ACK, for Generational

Happy Valentine's Day!

 I took the time to craft a card for my wonderful DH for Valentine's day. I used My Memories Scrapbooking software and a hodge podge of kits. Then I printed it up on a 4 x 6 photo paper. I love how I could recolor some of the items (the hearts and the sentiment at the top.)

Copyright 2008-2015, ACK, for Generational

Busy Year and Latest Project

If had a lot of plans for 2014. One quickly became evident when our older daughter bought a house -- three blocks from us!  Then in February, I fell and suffered an avulsion fracture of my right ankle. Least comfortable fracture, even though the break wasn't that bad, but tell that to all my injured soft tissues.

I am just starting to feel comfortable crafting again, and today I designed a case for my Galaxy SIII phone using my My Memories software and a special code. This is what the back of my phone will look like! I had to leave enough space at the top for the camera and flash and what not. I can't wait for it to come!

Copyright 2008-2014, ACK, for Generational

Happy Thanksgiving - I am Thankful

I am thankful for many things this Thanksgiving, but most of all family!

Copyright 2008-2013, ACK, for Generational

Evolution of My Craft Room

My craft room started its life as a storeroom. Hubs and I bought 3 shelving units and stored all our stuff there - photos, craft stuff, tools, paint and everything that otherwise didn't have a "home."

Then it became a craft/storeroom. Now it is more craft room, but still part storeroom.

 This picture shows its incarnation as lots of storage and part craft room.

 Being used as a craft room, but no real organization.

 Packed up and awaiting transformation.

 Floor to ceiling pantry and open shelves. Slowly being filled up.

 Oh, yes, a minifridge. The "craft" side of the room has 42 inch cabinets.

 Looks better!

 This is my set up for my eclips. Unfortunately, the video card on the laptop died. The computer is almost 6 years old, not sure its worth fixing.

 You can see that I am getting it unpacked and set up.








I'm sad the old Dell laptop is not working. Not sure what I'm going to do, but too busy to go looking at anything. I think I'll finish setting it up first. Everything to the right of the laptop has been put away, hung, or organized. Just a few finishing touches. You can see the Martha Stewart Wall system. I added to that today and will take more pictures when I've neatened up a bit.

It was a long time coming, but worth the wait.

What We Did Today!

This is what we did today .. we cleaned everything out of our "storeroom." It hasn't been this empty since we moved in June 13, 2008. The filet crochet hanging I made for our bathroom, but I like it in this room.

Why is the room cleaned out? On Monday, it will be transformed into my long-awaited craft room! Really, I have been without a craft room for a couple of months, because we packed things up before we went on vacation in September. I will be glad to get back to crafting.

Copyright 2008-2013, ACK, for Generational

Happy Anniversary, Honey!

I can't believe it's been 34 years!

Copyright 2008-2013, ACK, for Generational