Kiki's Childhood Home Movies I Circa Late 1990 I Reading With Grandpa

Good morning my dears.

Introducing:

"Grandpa" William Harold Smith

b. August 4th, 1924 d. 1999

married on December 12th to

"Granny" Veronika Ortrud Heier

b. December 27th, 1938 d. December, 2010

[Heier family and Otto family genealogy]

In memory of my late Grandpa's 94th birthday month, here's one of my childhood home movies, circa late 1990. The video was filmed at our home in Germiston, South Africa shortly after the arrival of my baby sister, Gigi.

Kiki Nakita

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Our Childhood Snow Days and Snow At The Farm

Good morning my dears.

This week snow came to the Carolinas. So for a laugh (with us, not at us), I thought I'd show you some photos I found of our childhood snow days in the eighties and nineties.

-Cory- 

My hubby grew up in Wyoming and Nevada (near the Ruby Mountains) where they had months and months of snowy winters. He's the youngest brother, wearing red snow pants in these pictures. 

He was the cutest on skis.

-Kiki-

Whereas, I grew up in South Africa and didn't see snow for the first time until moving to England when I was around eight. I remember coming home from school, in my school uniform, putting on my wellies and helping my younger sister, Gigi, build a snowman. 

Fast forward two decades. 

-Us- 

On our snow day we drove to the farm to take a peek and we definitely got a lot more snow than last year. You have to take your picture without hesitation, because within a day or two its all melted away. 

This is what we call the side garden, over an acre of lawn surrounded by mature trees, which will eventually be our dogs; Sophie (9), Oscar (8), and Kelsie's (2.5) future playground. 

Our forest, which has acres and acres of uninterrupted forest views will be visible from all the windows from the back of the farmhouse, including the double-story great room. 

The farmhouse now has unpainted siding and twelve columns around the porch. We picked out a white color, ironically called snowbound. Which we can't wait to see painted. The shutters are Wedgewood blue, and the wooden door needs to be stained English Walnut - the same color as the door to my childhood home. 

Our current 1983 southern colonial home has a lot of similarities. It is in an established neighborhood with neighbors who have been here since the nineties. We're most likely renting it our when we move, so it won't be as hard to move away. 

Previous snow days:

2014

2016

2017

How's the weather in your neck of the woods?

Kiki Nakita

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Show and Share #390
Grace at Home #283

Organizing Memories

Can it really be February already? My goodness the days, weeks, months and years seem to go by faster and faster every year. That is why it is important to reflect, and preserve our past memories.

 

I've always taken photos, but they were in assorted albums on my computer, or tucked away in photo boxes at our parents' homes. Then about two years ago I decided to take on the project of collecting all the photos, spending weeks scanning them all onto an external hard drive.

 

The project turned into more than anticipated, as we started doing our family history research and collecting those memories and photos also. Which has left me with an enormous organization project.

 

The Ancestry Memories

 

We built our family tree on ancestry, with both of our sides, then printed a page for each generation for my binder. The binder is convenient for me to look up an ancestor quickly, and to make edits or notes. We have six of the trees done, and have six to go.

 

On ancestry, along with family pages I've found a lot of ancestor photos. I saved them all onto a  thumb drive into organized folders and printed them all out for my photo binder. I use the 12x12 project life binders as I like that you can re-arrange pages if you find more photos, also they hold a lot of photos.

 

Nana and Grandad's Wedding Day December 12th, 1954.

After printing the photos, I sort them into time categories for each ancestor, then place them into the inserts. I'm still a long way off labelling all of them, but hope to eventually.

 

The ancestor photos that are our favorites we frame around our home. We have a running list of all the different ancestors that have/haven't got a frame so it's balanced and we don't miss anybody out.

 

Since we have the tree, binder, and photos of memories we've been working on a website, where we can store our findings so they can help other cousins in their genealogy search.

 

The Childhood Memories

 

The photos of our childhood memories came from our parents. We scanned them all in, and like the ancestor binder, I've sorted them all into some semblance of a chronological order. They all need labeling also.

 

Me aged 3, in 1989.

Secondly, about a year ago I wrote up a small 100 page book of all my childhood memories up until we met and got married. I may be an amateur, but I've been water coloring all the pages as I feel it personalizes my story more thoughtfully than a 300 page novel. To organize it I have a binder with sleeves to organize my pages as I go along. It's a work in progress, as it has lot's of post it notes with other stories, and memories I've remembered over time.

 

The Happy Ever After Memories

 

These are my most recent memories. I have an empty project life binder waiting for me! It may be some time before I get around to printing all our most recent pictures as the other two projects have taken over right now.



Our wedding day, July 31st 2013 in Port Charlotte, Florida.



I have all our photos on an external hard drive and conscientiously keep them organized as I go along; Each year I start a new folder on my desktop like "Family Photos From 2015" and then each month I make another folder on my desktop like "January 2015". Every time I upload my photos I put it into the monthly folder, then every month I drag it into the years folder and create a new one. I've done this for about three years, and it's such a timesaver. I'm also starting a new folder for each year called "Print" where I select favorite photos each month that I'd eventually like to print.

 

A favorite program for an amateur like me is Picasa. I use it to easily view my photos and videos, as well as make minor edits like straightening.

 

So that is how I'm currently organizing our memories. It is a work in progress and doesn't happen in one afternoon, but when we think all the extraordinary things we've learn't in the process from our ancestors, or childhoods... it connects us and helps us ruminate our life's purpose.

What ways do you organize your memories?

Linked up to: Coastal Charm #248 Share Your Cup #136 Imparting Grace #141

Carole Middleton

 
 

Carole Middleton was at Wimbledon today. Here are some photos of her attendance.

 

via

 

She is best known as the mother of Catherine, known as 'Kate' who is now the Duchess of Cambridge. Here are some of their old family photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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From her website Party Pieces:

 

Carole Middleton founded Party Pieces in 1987 after finding it difficult to source fun, simple party products for her children’s parties. Now more than 23 years on the company is still going from strength to strength.

1. What were you doing before Party Pieces?
I was lucky enough to be a full-time Mum

2. What inspired you to set up the company?
I came up with the idea for Party Pieces when I was looking for party paraphernalia for my own children’s parties. It was impossible to find anything easily in the shops and trying to find value for money party bag presents was a complete nightmare!

3. What makes Party Pieces unique?
We are the original UK mail order party company – starting from a shed in the back garden in 1987. We have come along way since then, but we are still very much a family business; I am still actively involved and love sourcing and developing new party products.

4. What are your signature/exclusive products?
Party boxes and the party food box trays have to be our signature products. Way back in 1990 we launched our first in-house designed boxes. They were such a hit with everyone that now we try and make sure we have party boxes to go with every party theme.

5. What was your best-selling theme 10 years ago and what is it now?
Pirates has always been a favourite party theme. I think it’s because it’s such a great theme if you have both boys and girls coming to your party. But over recent years the party tableware that is always popular is the licensed character… at the moment it’s Hello Kitty for the girls and Ben 10 for the boys!!

6. How has the credit crunch affected business?
Your child’s birthday is always a very special occasion so I think everyone tries to do something to celebrate the day even if money is tight. We’ve always believed that parties do not have to be lavish and expensive occasions and have always selected wonderful traditional and inexpensive games, tableware and activities. However, over the past year we’ve included some real value-for-money offers and cost savings to make partying on a budget even easier.

7. How many people do you employ?
Around 30 people.

8. Do you have any new, exciting projects in the pipeline?
Yes… We are very excited to launch the Party Times website! We really hope it will become the party bible for every busy Mum and Dad. We are also planning later this year to add the adult party and celebration category to the site.

9. What advice can you give someone setting up his or her own business?
Mmm… it’s great fun, but not for the faint-hearted. I still work through to the early hours to hit a deadline and never take our success for granted.

 

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