Musings and Movies and So Forth/Fourth

Part of the fun of having this blog is changing up the look of it every once in a while, so here's a new one for you. When Blogspot added new design options so that I can change the colors of the templates and fonts that opened up a whole new world of possibilities. I can choose themes from The Cutest Blog on the Block, which offers them for free, then I can match the colors. Before I could only choose from a few of the CBB themes that looked good with the template colors I was stuck with. It's kind of fun to play around with it; it feels all crafty and stuff, like when I used to scrapbook.

Scrapbooking; sigh. That brings back memories. I used to spend HOURS working on my scrapbooks. I don't make the time for it anymore; it's too overwhelming! Now that we have digital cameras and the bazillion pictures we take with them, I don't even know where I'd start. Plus I have too many hard copies of pictures as it is, something else that's overwhelming. I love my pictures but the sheer volume makes it impossible to look through them all. I have a bunch of albums and a ton of acid free photo boxes full of pictures, plus all the framed pictures around the house. I have so many pictures in frames I can't display them all, despite having photo murals on two walls in my house, so a bunch of them are stacked up in my closet. The Youngest, aka The Wild Child, got shortchanged since he's the only child without a completed baby book. I worked on it and have a little bit done, but it's far from finished.

I stopped when we moved into this house, even though I have a desk and work area all set up. I don't know why I stopped; just moving doesn't seem like it should put a damper on things. Other interests, I suppose. Probably just unpacking and setting up a new house at first, then The Middle Child's Girl Scout troop, chauffeuring The Eldest around, more time spent on the computer.... or maybe a combination of things. I'll probably start scrapbooking again at some point in the future since it's something I've always loved. Even when I was a teen I arranged my pictures artfully in photo albums, so it's been a life long interest. I wouldn't say that what I did as a teen came close to scrapbooking the way I did it when I was really into it, but it was a precursor for sure.

I have a huge project I can start with when I get back into it. My grandmother died two years ago and I have piles and piles of her pictures. She gave me a lot of them before she died, then there were a bunch afterward that came to me as well. I sat with her and went through them once and got them in a rough chronological order. It was easier to do than I thought it would be; I was able to do a lot of it by myself going on the clues in the pictures themselves. (Ages of the kids, style of clothing, and so forth.) My favorites are the ones from her young adulthood during the 1940s, when my mom and aunts were young. My grandmother was so lovely and elegant; she was smiling in so many of the pictures like she was having the greatest time.

I guess that's where my love of old movies comes from. I love the movies from the 1930s and 1940s, especially the romantic comedies and musicals. I watched Meet Me in St. Louis this weekend, with Judy Garland. Well, part of it, anyway. I didn't catch the beginning, and as much as I was enjoying it I zonked out for part of the middle. (I didn't delete it so I'm planning to go back and re-watch the part I missed later.) I also watched a movie from 1965 about the 1930s, Inside Daisy Clover. That was bizarre. They didn't have a good grasp of how to do a proper period piece in the 1960s, I guess. The clothes and hairstyles were all wrong; it was very distracting. But back to Judy Garland. If I were an actress nominated for a big award, I would wear an exact copy of that red dress she wore to the Christmas ball. (Well, except for not being able to wear red since I have rosacea and wearing red makes me look even redder than I am already.... but we're dreaming here, OK?) I think that is the most exquisite dress ever made; sigh.

Well, since I'm jumping around from topic to topic, I'll end up with the 4th of July. How was your holiday? We stayed home and didn't do much. I spent most of the day in my PJs puttering around the house. I re-organized my food pantry and cleaned out the refrigerator, both necessary and vitally important activities if I am ever going to put any food away again in the future. (Both areas were a complete jumble.) The little ones were fascinated by the refrigerator clean out. They both got underfoot and decided to "help", so I managed to put them to good use. The Middle Child is excellent at checking expiration dates (she has better eyeballs than I do) and The Youngest, aka The Wild Child, wiped down the bottom part of the refrigerator. We had fun, too; it wasn't all housework. I took a walk with DH then a bike ride with the little ones. (The Eldest also went for a ride but left us in the dust; DH jogged along with us for a while.) DH and the little ones shot off the fireworks I purchased at the grocery store. We were able to see fireworks going off everywhere from our backyard; they went on forever this year. I thought that was really odd since so many communities have canceled displays due to budget concerns. A lot of our neighbors had fireworks too and I know some of them had to be the illegal kind since they were spectacular! We live on a lake so we had front row seats to a lot of private displays.

No company this holiday. I invite my dad up sometimes, and we invite our housekeeper sometimes, but I wasn't up to having anyone over yesterday. I've been too tired out with the fibromyalgia and our crazy schedule. It was a good thing we didn't have anyone over, what with the staying in my jammies most of the day thing. Plus we ate late, even for us; any guests would have starved to death! (Next holiday, Dad- promise! Or maybe one day on a weekend; we don't have to wait for a holiday.) Anyway, it was a good day, and DH gets a paid holiday today so it's a three day weekend for us, always a good thing.