Child(ren's) Bedroom(s)

Many Ideas

There is nothing more satisfying then when a parent goes into a child’s bedroom and can see the floor. Trying to keep their room orderly is a monumental task. Trying to instill the merit of a neat room is just as difficult. There really is not a sure way to get them to do either. But one thing you can get kids to do is to show off their hobbies, collections and interests. A great way to do this is by having them create Their Own Museum. If closet space is not an option, here are several creative ways. First, ask your child how he or she envisions their museum. Get them involved and the whole family will have fun.
 

Factory-made mullion glass-fronted wall cabinets with solid or glass shelves (seen in photo) – such as those found in a kitchen – is an option to consider when planning built-in display & storage for the child’s room or any room in your home. Ceiling height determines how high to place the cabinets, but do not put it up to the ceiling. Make sure the lighting in the cabinets are ventilated. If you cannot do the job yourself, where you purchase the cabinets, they can recommend a carpenter. By having the museum in this fashion, bedroom furniture can be pushed up against the wall making floor space available. Sold through cabinet dealers and home-improvement centers, manufactured cabinets come in many styles. There are three configurations: base, wall, and specialty cabinets. You can place them side-by-side and stack them to create all sizes of family museums. Space allotment will dictate how many cabinets you can use and whether you can place them on the floor or need to hang them on the wall.

    

Another area to display large objects, like model boats that can take up a lot of space, is by putting them on the top of a window valance. Not only does this put them in a regal realm, it keeps them out of harms way. The valance also is great at concealing the top of draperies, curtains, and window shades. By constructing a wooden valance (a trim carpenter can scallop the edge for a more decorative look) with a solid top, is a perfect place for displays. For example, my son has a collection of large ship models, even a three-foot long Titanic. There is also The Queen Mary I & II, and aircraft carrier USS Independence.

Dormer windows are under-estimated. Though it usually is a place for a window seat, this is really a great place to showcase a particular item or items, and the space below can be used for storage. If the dormer space is large and accommodates more than one window, the space can be separated in sections, devoting, say a collection of dolls & furniture, dollhouses, large toys like rocking horses, baby dolls with their prams, etc., into their own display. This area can also be enhanced with low-watt lighting. If you install glass doors, remember ventilation.  

Once your child/children organize their keepsakes, they will have a great time displaying & showing their collections to friends and family. Their Own Museum identifies them, their accomplishments, instills pride and contributes to the goal of building a future viable resume.

 

Next Post: Closets & Shelving

Collectibles

 What we collect reflects our personalities. 

As we go about amassing our collections, we study, view, review and handle them. Some collections even continue to have a life. Such as wearing the art deco jewelry and vintage clothing, using grandmother’s china, engaging old tools, reading first editions, or playing with our childhood toys and games.  (I personally enjoy playing the original Monopoly & Clue Games. Their boards and tokens are far more pleasurable to touch and there is something to be said about the scent that is emitted from their boxes. It’s like breathing in the scent of an old book. Takes you back to simpler time.) Most of all, collectors are emotionally involved with them. And that, more than anything, characterizes the true collector.

As I mentioned in Monday’s post, “The hunt is on,” you scan your local newspaper for a listing of garage and yard sales. You have your list of must haves for your collection. You map out the best route to get to as many as you can, and off you go. The anticipation and optimism of the hunt can be exhilarating. It’s all about the joy of possession. Then, if and when you decide to have your ‘find’ appraised, you may experience triumph or disappointment. But no matter the value, it is now yours to do with as you please, and that’s the beauty of ownership.

While you go about happily finding things that were part of your past that may have gone astray, you are actually building a museum about your personal life. There is something very satisfying about a personal, individual museum. Your collecting also offers generational bonding. The things you have saved, cherished and preserved, will be passed onto the next generation, who will in turn, keep your history alive, adding more dimension to the family’s heritage as time goes on.

Our family museum is an eclectic array of collections from the different stages of our lives. Because of what was able to be saved over the years and why,  resulted in putting together small tableau's of our life. It is simply amazing that as I was creating these displays, the museum almost reads like a mini autobiography. Here are a couple of pictures and the stories that go with them.

Keith's interest in the Untied States Space Program has been with him since he could remember. He saved only two of the many rocket models he had when a child, and when we moved to Florida, he was thrilled to have a license plate with a picture of the space shuttle blasting off. 
I was crazy about shoes. When I could, I bought designer shoes by Charles Jourdan and Maude Frizon, now both vintage shoes. I guess because of their superior construction, they have lasted many decades. How unfortunate for me that I can no longer wear them, but I certainly can look at them and recall my more fashionable days.

So as you go about collecting, displaying and preserving your past and present possessions, remember to record all the information about the item. Take pictures and write your memoires. It's fun, engaging, and historical. 

In Monday's post, I presented a listed of collections and tomorrow I will write about two of them. 

Next Post: Americana & Art

 

Thanks for the Memories - Baby Books

Keith's Baby Book

Lizzie's Baby Book

The humble Baby Book has become a passing fashion. Sometimes fancy bound volumes, some inexpensive, others cheap, baby books went mass market in America beginning in the 1910s and only became more popular  over the succeeding decades. But in todays fast pace world, there is a new trapping of parenthood – the baby blog. This new form of the baby book where mothers, and they are almost always mothers, record random thoughts about their babies, from the mundane, to significant moments, to the wondrous details of infancy. Be it book or blog, they contain useful information, keep track of things like height, weight, language, illnesses and immunizations. However, once the baby had grown into a healthy child, the book and/or blog isn't needed.

Keith's Statistic's
 



Lizzie's Feet



Why did baby books appear around the turn of the 20^th century? Well, partly because parents could finally count on their babies surviving. Sanitation improved, medicine got better, and infant mortality rates dipped sharply. As parents kept all this information on their children, it help show how families thought about the health of their children; which measurements were thought to be important, which diseases were concerns, and how these things changed over time. But as much as the books were about medicine, they were also about culture, especially when they included photographs revealing aspects of home life, such as baby clothes, furniture and activities. 

How do we know these  things     a century later? From historians who gathered, saved, and researched the history of babies in modern America. In time, few were intended to be keepsakes passed on to generations. "Most persons regret that the little items of babyhood, so interesting to the parents at least, pass into oblivion," reads the introduction to 1889's "Baby's Record: a Twofold Gift for Mothers and Children." Many baby books were only partially completed and sadly, few have been saved.

"The book is not intended to be a family record, but an individual one, which will form a part of the outfit of each newcomer in the household, and which can afterward to given to the child, to be preserved as a source of interest and entertainment for himself and his own children in after years."

Both my husband and I have been fortunate to still have our baby books. And because we were both born in 1950, the books are quite similar. Keith's was better attended to than mine, but both are preserving our babyhoods. Do you still have your baby book?  

Excerpts from, "The Hidden History of Baby Books," by Carolyn Kellogg of the Los Angeles Times; Nicholas Day, author of, "Baby Meets World," and Janet Golden, historian at Rutgers-Camden.  

 

Next Post:  References FYI

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Thanks for the Memories - Scrapbooks

Lizzie's Modeling Book

Scrapbooking is a method for preserving personal and 
family history in the form of a scrapbook. Photograph, 
autograph, stamp, sticker, wedding, baby and more
are subjects for scrapbooks. Do you have one or
several? And where are they now? There are many in
our family museum, but sadly not on display because 
of their sizes. 





                                             

Tiffeni's Betsey McCall Scrapbook

History of Scrapbooking 
                                                                        From Wikipedia

  In the 15th century, commonplace
  books popular in England, emerged
  as a way to compile information that 
  included recipes, quotations, letters,
  poems and more. Each commonplace
  book was unique to its creator's
  particular interests.

  Additionally, friendship albums and school
  yearbooks afforded girls in the 18th and 19th
  centuries an outlet through which to share
  their literary skills and allowed girls an
  opportunity to document their own
  personalized historical record previously
  not readily available to them.




Pictures for Modeling Composite

The advent of modern photography began with the first permanent photograph created by Joseph Niepce in 1826. This allowed the average person to begin to incorporate photographs into their scrapbooks. They also often included bits of memorabilia like newspaper clippings, letters, etc.

Modern scrapbooking in the United States

Marielen Christensen of Elk Ridge, Utah, is often credited with turning scrapbooking from what was once just the age-old scrapbook hobby into the actual industry containing businesses devoted specifically to the sale and manufacturing of scrapbooking supplies. She began designing creative pages for her family's photo memories, inserting the completed pages into sheet protetors collected in 3-ring binders. By 1980, she had assembled over fifty volumes and was invited to display them at the World Conference on Records in Salt Lake City. Marielen and her husband A.J. authored and published a how-to book, Keeping Memories Alive, and opened a scrapbook store in Spanish Fork in 1981 that remains open today.

Charlie's Scrapbook

Charlie's Homeschool Projects

These days, scrapbooking can be done in so many ways. You can use beautiful colored paper, stickers, drawings, photos, and so many other supplies. Scrapbooking is like a visual diary, capturing all your creativity, thoughts feelings, and memories in a book.


Next Post: Baby Books








 

Thanks for the Memeories - Greeting Cards

Greeting Cards for Mom/Daughter/Sister/Wife/Friend . . .

How many days and reasons are there to give that special (see above) person
a greeting card?

Let us count them according to that great little Hallmark Cards Datebook:
for January through December Birthdays; for Valentine’s Day; for Easter;
Mother’s Day; and all other holidays you celebrate.
 

 Birthday Card & Letter from
 my sweet Mother-in-Law

1970 Birthday Card
from a Friend

For the hundreds of cards I have received over the past sixty decades, most likely hundreds of those cards have gone by the wayside. I can’t remember exactly when I started to save cards; perhaps it was after I got married and became a mom. All of a sudden (not literally) those cards seemed important to me. Here are a few that I want to share with you.   




1999 Birthday card from
my adorable son Charlie 

    What cards have you 
    saved over the years?
    And why have you
    kept them?    

    Probably for the same reason
    I have; they make me smile.
   
   Remember the good times.


2003 Birthday card from my
lovely daughter Tiffeni

   Cherish the memories.


                                         
      There are many creative ideas as to what to do with
        greeting cards. By simply surfing the web, the
      information there can be overwhelming.

     To make your research a little bit easier, I recommend 
       visiting these two websites:               
       www.wikihow.com
      “Putting old greeting cards to use”
      www.google.com 
     “What to do with old greeting cards.”

Also, check out Google Images to see a plethora of ideas on what to do with old greeting cards. It's amazing!


Next Post:  Scrapbooks






 

                                                                       

 

 

 

Thanks for the Memories . . .

Hello again. I have been on a brief hiatus due to the fact that I had to get a new computer.
Having said this, on with the show. And thanks for being patient. I appreciate it.

                                                                   Thinking of You

Oh, the memories! With each and every card I opened, a flood of recollections hit me like a 'ton of bricks.' Some of those bricks were still whole, others sadly reduced to chucks, and others into dust. Most of them brought a smile to my face, others made me laugh, but for those whose once truthful words of congratulations, support, and love that had turned to sand, I shook my head in despair. Then I asked my self, do I hold onto these cards and letters that make me sad or shred and trash them? At the time I wrote this I had no answer. So I put the cards away and thought about what to do later. Later came and here is what I did.

I organized them.

First I separated the cards by subject matter. Then by person to whom the card went to. Then once again into groups; birthday wishes, holidays, etc. Then by chronological order. Time consuming - you bet. Sometimes I did this sorting at the same time watching TV, which made the task less daunting. After that, I went back through the cards and kept some and discarded others. At times my heartstrings played a melancholy tune, but most of the time I enjoyed reading the cards again.

 

Why, you may ask, should you do all this work? Because it gives you the opportunity to revisit that moment in time and surprisingly enough, will make you smile, even giggle a bit. But for those negative memories I mentioned above, do not hesitate to throw away those cards. There is no conceivable reason why you should have to grin and bear something sad that happened a time ago. It’s over, move on. At first it was hard for me to do, but as I felt my heart get lighter I knew I was doing something good for me, and eventually the family. So will you.
 

Next, I found a pretty box, sometime more then one per person; husband/dad, wife/mom, children, son/daughter, sibling(s)-brother/sister, and other family (parents/grandparents/relatives) and friends. Then I put a bow around each box and gave each family member their “Card Box” as a Christmas gift. You can’t imagine the surprised look on their faces when they opened the box and found their old greeting cards, along with other memento, for example, photos, drawings and other keepsakes.
 

As they opened their boxes, I heard, “What’s this? Cards from Papa?” “You mean you saved them?” “Oh my goodness! I remember this card.” “Gee, thanks Sis for thinking about me.” “Honey, I love you more today than yesterday, and I believe you still do,” said my husband has his eyes glistened with happy tears.

Get the picture!

So with this introduction, I will share with you some of my stories and images of the cards I saved. Then perhaps they will inspire you to do the same.

Next Post: This post is an introduction to this weeks posts on Greeting Cards.
                  As you know there are many categories of cards, and I will focus
                  on them, sharing with you thoughts, ideas and pictures.