Rene Marker

I had something in my mind for R all along but when I went to take the photo yesterday, I realized it isn't actually an "R", it would have worked for "F" (aka Flutophone that I thought was a Recorder). So I took a photo of my 2nd choice for R. Then as I was sitting here on the computer later in the day, I happened to look up at the item on the wall above my monitors... I found my "R". Now to get a good photo of it. Will do that after vacation since R will post while I'm gone.

Q is for Quilt. These 2 quilts were made by my great grandmother before I was born. She passed away in 1953. I also have a photo of my bedroom when I was 4 and had bunk beds that have these quilts on the two bunks. When we moved to the new house and I got a double bed, the quilts were displayed on this quilt rack. They are still displayed in my living room.

There were a lot of motorcycles all throughout the Black Hills when we were there even though it wasn't time for the big rally in Sturgis. Susan sent me photos of the main street in Hill City during Sturgis weekend. The street is closed and nothing but motorcycles lining it!

We went through the Badlands on our way home. The day we went to Mount Rushmore, we also did the Wildlife Loop Road in Custer State Park. I did the Custer layouts yesterday. The burros were blocking traffic so a lot of cars were stopped. Our bus stopped and we could get off if we wanted. So I did and got photos of some of my fellow travelers feeding the burros. We did get to Crazy Horse as well. Haven't scrapped those photos yet. Susan wants me to come back and stay with her sometime and I plan on doing it. At Crazy Horse, after 4 p.m. you can pay for a tour to actually go up to the work area of it. She and her husband have done that and one of her last photos with him was taken there just 6 weeks before he passed away. She wants to take me to that and to Rushmore when they turn the lights on at dusk since we didn't see that. And, we'd like to head north into North Dakota and go into Montana and Wyoming so I can check those states off of my list. She is selling her home in Hill City and has bought a house in Rapid City so she doesn't have as much property to take care of. Her son also lives in Rapid City although her daughter lives in Nebraska where Susan and Jim lived before they retired to the Black Hills.

I've been working on layouts from my last 2 vacations. Cape Cod (visited October 2024) and I'm now working on South Dakota which was in June of this year. I hope to have it finished before I leave on the 22nd for my next trip. I noticed a template designer at Sweet Shoppe Designs (Cindy Schneider) who has a template series called "Double Fun Templates". They have been perfect for these vacations since I have enough photos for double pages. Another designer at Sweet Shoppe Designs (Kelly Bangs Creative) has a series of kits called "50 States", with a kit for each state. I have quite a few of them and have been using them for a lot of the layouts. I'm not going to share all of the layouts, but will share this layout. It is the left side of a double page layout about Mount Rushmore. I used Double Fun Template Set #38 and several 50 States kits: South Dakota, Colorado, North Dakota. Font is Problem Secretary. Candy is a high school classmate and was the group leader of our bus trip. Susan is a friend that I met on a cruise in 2010. It was a bunch of members of a scrapbooking message board that went and there were about 25 of us along with some spouses for a total of 40 to 45 people. Susan lives in the Black Hills of South Dakota. We were already planning to meet up for lunch the day my tour was in her town. We were at Rushmore 2 days before that and she surprised me (I had told her our itinerary). It was so good to see her. I've been worried about her since she lost her wonderful husband unexpectedly last November. We got to spend a couple hours together at Rushmore and again at lunch 2 days later.

Weather hasn't been too bad this summer. I missed the extreme heat wave the end of June since I was in South Dakota. We've had some hot days in the last week or so but it hasn't been too bad. Today cooled off some because of a storm that rolled through during the night. We were in a drought situation about a month ago but have had enough rain since to get out of that classification. I am in an area that does get tornadoes. I head to the basement where I have a corner I sit in. I've got a TV down there that I can watch the news stations (one station out of Dayton, Ohio is very good about weather in my county). If the power goes out, I have a battery operated lantern I keep in the basement so I can get up the stairs when the warning is over. I also have another one of the lanterns I keep on a shelf in the dining room in case the power goes out for other reasons. I have the weather app for the Dayton station on my tablet and it goes with me to the basement in case power and cable go out. Between April 1, 2023 and March 14, 2024, we had 3 tornado warnings in town. On April 1, 2023, a EF-1 tornado touched down on the east end of town. Lots of damage to a truck stop on I-75 and an RV resort as well as other nearby businesses. My former employer had minor building damage but a tomato greenhouse not far from it was flattened. All the damage was south of US 33 and east of I-75. Then on March 14, 2024 an EF-3 tornado touched down about 3.5 miles SE from where the previous tornado hit almost a year earlier. It hit a different RV resort which also has people that live there all year long. This tornado continued on into the county east of us and hit the Indian Lake area where there were 3 fatalities. Before these 2 tornadoes the last one near my town was in 2019. It went south of town where it is mostly farm land. A few farm houses had damage. Thankfully, none of these tornadoes had a loss of life although other tornadoes in other towns nearby have. This layout shows the path of the EF-1 tornado. The black push pin is my house. Had this tornado path been about a 1 mile or so north, it would have gone right through the middle of the town. As it was, it just caused building damage south of town and the damage to the area just east of I-75. The ER-3 tornado hit right about where the "171" is just east of the "75" indicator.

Since these layouts were for a magazine workshop, one thing you need to think about is if you were to ever print your pages whether in a book or single pages. If you move the title to cross over into the right side, you will have something cut off when you print. If in a book, it could be in the gutter of the book. For a single page, there is usually a little cut off on all edges. That is one reason why I keep everything that is important (titles, photos and journaling) at least 1/4 of an inch from the edge of the page. Flower elements or paper layers I don't worry too much about as they are not the focus of the pages. Your background paper also IMO was fine as first created. Each page is its own creation (IMO) and should be able to stand on its own. Again if you would print, the paper issue that you saw will not be noticed by others as much as you think it would. As for the journaling... IMO, the green box is too dark which is why the white doesn't look right to you. If it were me, I would have used the same color as the boxes on the right side with the dark text. Honestly, with my vision, the dark then white text is hard to read. When I make my pages I make sure they can be read since many pages I see in galleries have hard to read test. Your font is fine but some of the fonts people use for their journaling in a small size are very hard to read! Again, this is just what I would do for the pages but since it is yours, you need to do what you think is best.

That's why is I make a suggestion I always include something like "if I were me" when making that suggestion. I also make sure to say that it is just my opinion as well. Layouts are very personal and should reflect the maker's personality.

I hate to be a downer but when I first looked at this layout all I saw was the ribbon. In my opinion it is too large. If it were me, I would size it down (and the buttons that hold it) so that it is anchored on the text paper and you can see some of the paper in the cutout area of the ribbon. And, I would move it so that it is closer to the corner of the photo. I do agree the photo is wonderful but it was not the focus when I first looked at the layout.

I went to 3 retreats over 15 years ago in Ingersoll, Ontario. I took a different way each time. Sarnia one time, Detroit Ambassador Bridge another time and the tunnel at Detroit one time. It was nice to have a choice on which way to go. Even though Sarnia was farther north for us to go, it was the same amount of time because the traffic wasn't as heavy as it is in the Detroit area.

Yes, that is my bookmarked page. Notice that all of the forum names are bold and the bubble on the left is colored. That means that there are new posts in those forums. When there are no new posts, the titles are not bolded and the bubble is really faint. Also, notice that some of the sub-forum names that show are also bolded. They have new posts. in fact, you can just click on the sub-forum name that is bolded and go directly to the sub-forum. For instance, in the Diamond only forum, the sub-forum for Build-A-Kit (2025) has new posts but the other 2 Build-A-Kit sub-forums don't have new posts. When all posts in a forum are read, the bubbles are faint and the title is not bolded. Sometimes the bubble does not change and I know that I have read all the posts. If I double-click on the bubble, it changes to faint. The next time I enter the page I can tell if there are new posts easily. I never pay attention to the right column at all.

Yes, it is glass.

I don't have to go looking for stuff. The forums with new posts are indicated on the main forum page. To tell you the truth, there are only 3 to 4 main forums that regularly have new posts. Clicking on the forum title takes you to the forum and all threads (or sub-forums if applicable) with new posts are indicated. It doesn't take much time at all. I can actually read all the new posts in the forum in less than 10 minutes. Takes longer if I respond. My bookmark for this place is set for the main forum page.

P is for Piggy Bank. When I was little my mom's parents had a piggy bank for each grandchild on a chest in their back hallway. Each bank had a grandchild's name on it and they were lined up in order of age. Six banks in total. They would put change in them, each grandchild getting the same amount. When they got full, they would let us empty them. In order to get the coins out, we had to use a knife to guide the coins through the hole. They had to come out of the same hole they went in on the top of it. As kids we were excited about getting the money! After Grandma passed away in 1971, Grandpa gave the banks to the parents. It has been displayed on top of a bookcase in my living room for many years. It still has pennies in it that my grandparents put in for me all those years ago. My name tag they put on it is still there as well.

Not confusing to me at all. But then I always go to the main forum page that shows all the forums and what forums have new posts. Then I can choose whether to look at them or not. For instance, I never go into the Alphabet Game thread. If there are no other new posts in that forum, I mark the forum as read and move along to a thread that interests me.

When I set up my paypal, I set up a bank account at a local bank that was not the bank with my main account. I kept less than $300 in that account. That way if it got hacked, I wouldn't lose much. That account pays my cell phone bill and is my fun money for digital stuff (like scrapping kits and ebooks). I did finally put my credit card account in paypal so if a transaction is more than what is in the account, I can use the credit card.

Dad's significant other had her bank account compromised in pretty much the same way. A few small amounts were withdrawn every couple of days then they started getting larger. This was in 2003 and she hadn't started online banking yet. As soon as she got her statement, she went to the bank. It was a big old mess getting it all straightened out since she had to have that account closed and open a new one. And, she had direct deposit of her retirement checks and the clearing of checks she had written. Turned out the FBI got involved because when the investigation found that the transactions were coming from another state. Not sure what ever happened but apparently, someone in the cable company she had were taking bank account information off of checks received for payment and there might have been a network of people doing it which is how other states got involved. My cousin's husband worked in banking and before we knew that info he thought it could have just been hackers using bots trying random numbers. When one worked, they tried it a few more times to make sure it was good before going for the big bucks. He said that was happening as well. I had a debit card compromised once. I had used it for an online purchase and a few days later, $20 was taken out of my account (which wasn't the amount of the purchase). I called the banker and she closed the debit card and put in for a stop payment/refund of the money. I've never used a debit card online since. I keep one credit card to use online and when I'm on vacation.

Timeline: 1998 to 2003 Age: 43 - 48 I went to NYC for a weekend to attend a benefit for St. Jude's Children's Hospital that was chaired by a star of my favorite soap opera (Martha Byrne of As The World Turns). A lot of soap stars from all the soaps based in New York City attended and mingled with the attendees. They were very happy to have photos taken with anyone who asked. There was also entertainment by them throughout the night. A friend went with me and we met up with some of my online friends that I met because of all of us loving ATWT. I did this layout in 2011 using a kit called Great Escape by WM2. Not sure if the kit is still available. I used a no longer available template freebie by Scrapping With Liz.

These were layouts I did in the Affinity Workshop in January 2025. Kit is "Check In" by Meagan's Creations available at Sweet Shoppe Designs. No template was used. This is the basket building built in 1997 in Newark, Ohio. It was the headquarters for the Longaberger Company. Their main product was hand woven baskets. This building is the shape of the market basket, one of the biggest selling baskets they had over the life of the company.

I've seen those totes before. My previous employer had a post office box so someone would have to go pick up the mail every day. 24 years ago they still mailed out paper statements to our customers the beginning of the month with a due date for the money to come in. We had hundreds of customers and it was actually a 2 day process to get them all ready to go. The office manager would go to the post office and ask for several totes (probably like the LetterFlattainer). They would put all the statements in them after running them thru the postage meter machine then take them back to the post office to do their thing. And, there were times when the office manager would go to pick up the mail and would walk in with the bigger tote because we had received so much mail that day that it couldn't fit into the post office box. Usually there were small packages or catalogs that took up space and it happened quite often on the due date of the statements... everyone waited until the last minute to mail their checks. Once electronic payments got more normalized, the amount of actual mail was cut down. I have heard that since I left in 2017, they receive quite a few payments electronically as well as make payments electronically. I was the accounts payable clerk and I still had to print checks every week until the day I retired. Electronic payments had been talked about but nothing done about it (except direct deposit of paychecks). I also heard that they can send statements out electronically as well so I wouldn't be surprised that they don't see those totes much anymore.

Timeline: 1992 to 1997 Age: 37 - 42 My parents started going to Florida after Thanksgiving but only if I would fly down for Christmas. Thankfully, I had a boss that understood me needing time off at Christmas every year and had no problem with it. He knew come January 1, I'd be working long hours until April 30! I worked in a CPA firm and I did payroll taxes in January for clients then also worked on tax returns from the beginning of February to April. Payroll taxes had to be done in April as well No one in the office was allowed vacation from January 1 to April 30. My parents rented a trailer in a park in Fort Myers. They had a little clubhouse to hold events in. In 1993, the hospitality committee had Santa and Mrs. Claus come for a party a few days before Christmas. We went and had a good time. Mom and I got our pictures taken on Santa's lap. Dad sat on Mrs. Claus lap and gave her a kiss for his picture. I had scrapped this photos over 20 years ago using my paper supplies, so this is actually a new layout. Template by Scrapping With Liz (retired) and the kit is Retro Christmas by Meagan's Creations available at Sweet Shoppe Designs.

I still have the layouts. They've been printed and I have the jpg's as well. Just lost the pspimage files.

I went to many concerts when I lived in Toledo and I was in my 20's. Acts like Rick Springfield, the Beach Boys (with an opening act of John Cougar), Boston, The Lettermen to name a few. As a child my parents and I would go to the Ohio State Fair for a weekend and catch some entertainment there as well. A few I remember were James Brown, Herman's Hermits and the King Cousins. As a college student some friends and I would go to the state fair. We saw Mac Davis and heard Helen Reddy from outside the grandstand. Then in 1989 thru 1991 I again went to the state fair just to see the Oak Ridge Boys. Went by myself the first 2 years and my parents went with me the last time. When I was in high school, the Lettermen came to a small town close by so saw them there as well. Our seats were very close to the small stage and they came out into the audience. In 1995 a small town nearby had Marty Stuart. He was one of my faves so a friend and I went to see him. Got up close there as well! The last 2 concerts I went to were in 2018. I saw Home Free and the Oak Ridge Boys I can no longer tolerate live music of any kind. Most have the instruments so loud that I cannot hear the actual singing. The only reason I could tolerate the Oak Ridge Boys was because I knew all the words to their songs! Home Free is a ccapella so no instruments drowning out the actual singing. I've done layouts for the photos of concerts I do have but unfortunately, no photos from those in the 60's and most in the 70's. Film was expensive and lighting wasn't always great for picture taking. All that to say that a highlight for me was in 2000. A mall in Lima had a yearly event called Family Fun Fair. They would bring in entertainment that performed where the big fountain was in the middle of the mall (fountain was off and a stage in its place). They had Peter Noone aka Herman of Herman's Hermits that year. I went and sang along with every single song he sang. He also signed autographs and took photos with people so I stood in line for that. I had no paper with me but did have a Longaberger sales flyer and my camera. I had him sign the flyer and got a photo with him.

Yeah, OneDrive is a pain in the you know what! When I got a new laptop, I was trying to use my Dropbox account to send something to my cousin. The dropbox it had me using had none of my files or folders. Turns out it had created a whole new Dropbox for me. I couldn't even log in to my years old account! Then I realized that OneDrive was turned on. Like you Sue, I did some research and figured out how to turn it off. Amazingly, I could then log into my old dropbox account. The other thing I don't do is have my computers sync through my MS account. I have different backgrounds on my 2 computers and if you do the sync, it will put the same background on both computers as well as any files in any of the folders set up by MS (documents, photos, videos, etc) will be copied to the other computer. I keep very little on my laptop and mainly use external hard drives with it with the data. Then I just plug it in the desktop to copy any changed files to it. My laptop is mainly for genealogy work these days. Years ago, I would use it for scrapping when I went to retreats. Digital kits and photos took up too much disk space so again I used external hard drives. I have multiple external hard drives with backups of my data and stuff I don't need that often. But once I got the faster fiber internet, I did sign up for an online backup (iDrive, not an Apple product). External hard drives and thumb drives can fail. About 4 or 5 years ago I was cleaning out a closet in my office and ran across an old external hard drive. I think it was one that I used to save older digital kits and some of my earliest pspimage layouts. When I hooked it up and plugged it in (so old it had its own power cord), it did nothing. Computer couldn't read it and the lights on it wouldn't come on. It was dead. So I lost that stuff. So far that is the only external hard drive that has failed me.

Pepper would always follow me to the basement. Back in those days, it was partitioned off into various areas. I would be going down to do laundry so only in that area that was to the right of the steps. There was a big family room about 15 feet away from the steps to the left. You couldn't see in that room from the laundry area. Quite often I would go back upstairs and close the door in the kitchen and go do other things. The dogs were old enough that they didn't follow me everywhere in the house. Eventually I would notice that Paige was around but not Pepper. I would be checking the bedrooms where doors would have been opened and closed and still no Pepper. Finally I would think to open the door to the basement. There would be Pepper just lying on the top step waiting for me to open the door. There were also times he would follow me in to the bedroom when I was putting away the laundry and I wouldn't know it. When I finished and left the room, I would shut the door. Again, it would take me awhile before I realized he was no where to be found. Then I'd open the bedroom door and he'd be sleeping on the bed... he slept there at night so he was just taking advantage of the quiet time with no Paige around! I no longer have the separate rooms in the basement so when Peyton follows me down, if she doesn't run up the steps ahead of me, I look around to make sure she isn't still down there. I didn't have those rooms eliminated until I had her for over a year and she did get stuck down there at least one time. And, like Pepper, she will follow me to the bedroom and has gotten left in there as well. She is more vocal than Pepper and will let me know if I leave her behind though! And, in the almost 14 years I had Paige, she never got left behind in a room or the basement. But then she didn't follow me everywhere either. She'd lay on the couch in the office and just watch me come and go!