Marhaven Musings

2010-03-28T10:52:00.015-05:00

Clay Aiken, Raleigh PBS Taping Concert &

Finding a Retirement Home - March 2010

With the possibility of the family moving out of Wisconsin, I recently took the opportunity to visit the Coast of North Carolina with the thought of relocating to the area. I am retired, after all and should be somewhere warm. Right? The kids will be going to New Jersey, which 1) prices me out of the picture and 2) been there, done that.

First, the Concert

Since I was headed to Raleigh, NC to see Clay Aiken's concert that was being recorded for a PBS special it seemed an opportune time to make this journey. The concert was just indescribable, we are his fans and know he has a beautiful voice, but several weeks later what we heard that night in Raleigh is still being discussed and marvelled over. As a large and diverse group there is usually a negative Nelly or two that can find a hair out of place or a flat note, but I have seen none of that, everyone was quite blown away. The excitement in the room was palpable, Clay was more "on" than we have ever seen him. There was a note in Unchained Melody that, in my opinion, may have shattered the sound barrier. Crying, originally by Roy Orbison, was done as a duet with Linda Eder and it was simply glorious. Bring me up Buttercup (my favorite from AI) was so energetic he was out of breath when it was over and I don't think I've ever seen him quite that exuberant. LOL. All the songs were perfect and I can't wait to hear them again......and again. Anyway, watch for the concert during pledge week on PBS in June. The album, Tried and True, will also be out in June.

Some pic's from the night. The lighting was exceptional, he looked great and I think the concert will be a winner and the first of many more for PBS.

Now for the Retirement Location Hunt

So, with the wonderful concert experience behind me I headed west to New Bern, NC. Ahead of time I had mapped out houses in the area I was interested in so I would have some points of reference for prices and neighborhoods. Downtown New Bern and the views from the bridges were wonderful -

They had painted bears all over town.

This one is the pier at the campground where I stayed.

While the look of the town suited me, touring the neighborhoods and seeing the houses I had picked out did not cause me to once pull out my camera and take a picture. I didn't realize that until later when all of a sudden my camera was permanently hung around my neck. Now, I may have missed something stellar, perhaps I was still in the Aiken fog, but I don't think so. Nice, pretty town, but I'm not "feeling it".

I also drove up to Washington, NC - a little seaport town that I can only describe as shabby chic. The place to live here would be in one of the wonderful old Victorians in the downtown area. It really didn't matter if the paint was peeling a little, they were colorful and had much personality and verve. I didn't take many pictures here, either, although I was rather taken with the little place....kind of like I'd happened on Brigadoon one foggy March morning.

Back to New Bern to look at more neighborhoods. The only one that might have potential was a ways from town and was gated, so I couldn't get in.

Crossing the first two towns off my list I headed East to the Coast to Morehead City and Beaufort. I had been told I would probably love Beaufort. I came into Morehead City and Uh Oh....it was a weekday in March and the traffic was pretty bad. Can't imagine what it will be like on a weekend in the summer. Now, I'm liking what I'm seeing, however Morehead City is a long stretch of a town with one main road and Beaufort is only reached by going all the way through Morehead City. The beach access to Oak Island is about halfway through town and again, a potential traffic jam. I did love Beaufort and found I could find housing within 5 minutes of town and there was a nice grocery close by.....but the Walmart and other shopping is clear on the OTHER side of Morehead City. Just not feeling the summer traffic here and I'm beginning to worry.

Two things I'm finding unusual - 1) There doesn't seem to be zoning in some areas. You will see a very nice stick built house, then a 1970's single wide mobile, then a 2000 modular and then something else that may be well kept, or not, and then back to a rusting trailer. Now, my price point is the nice (but inexpensive) stick house or perhaps the 2000 modular on a nice piece of land....but I'm not really excited about being sandwiched between, or having to drive through, an encampment of the rusty single wides to reach my home. So, a lot of the houses I've driven past do not necessarily have neighborhoods consistent with the one house I have plucked off realtor.com. I'm not surprised, you can photograph a house to look a lot nicer than it really is. 2) Secondly, and this is a silly, small issue, you can apparently park facing either direction on side streets. The first couple of times I made a right turn and saw a car parked facing me on the right hand side I freaked I was going down a one way street the wrong way.

After two days in the area I scratched off Morehead City, but left Beaufort as a possibility to be considered if nothing better shows up......next blog, I head South.

2009-02-21T09:24:00.007-06:00

Clay Aiken - Free at Last

From a People Magazine Exclusive:

Clay Aiken Leaves Record Label

By David Caplan

The rumors started when his likeness was removed from his record's Web site and now Clay Aiken is setting the record straight: the former American Idol has parted ways with RCA Records, Aiken's rep has confirmed exclusively to PEOPLE.

"We were unable to come to terms in a recent contract negotiation, and decided that it was best to move on," the rep, Cindi Berger, said Friday.

Although the gossip community is trying to spin this as "RCA dumps Clay Aiken", I think it is just another step in a master plan that Clay put in place quite some time back. I think he has been working towards this goal for some time.

Think back to before "A Thousand Different Ways" came out. Clay and his Executive Producer (and future mother of his son Parker) had put together an album of originals. Just what would be expected in his case. But, no, RCA turned down the album and told him to do a cover album of love songs. Since he was under contract what else could he do? Then, at the AI5 finale, he pulls a switcheroo on AI and we have the watercooler moment - here's the video:

This was shock and awe at it's best - but did RCA capitalize on it? Did they release a single right then and there and promote the heck out of it? Nope, they let it all die on the vine, released the wrong single, one that the original version was still playing ad nauseum on AC stations, and then sent him out on interviews designed to discuss his sexuality and not the album.

I think Clay decided at that point to get on with his life.....on his terms.

Thus we got Spamalot. Spam, Lovely Spam.

What a surprise. Broadway embraced him. Broadway supported him. Broadway PROMOTED him. Who Knew?

Then we learn Clay and his Executive Producer, Jaymes Foster are having a child. We learn it the bad way, the wrong way, from TMZ and the fandom spent some time wondering and worrying about that situation. This was a little blip in Clay's master plan, I am sure. I hates TMZ. AHA, in a People Magazine exclusive, Clay comes out as a Gay man. Some of us were not so surprised, some were totally blindsided and have since embraced who Clay is - oh, and a few have fallen away because they couldn't deal with the gay. Their loss.

In the midst of all this, "On My Way Here" is released. Surprise, no wonderful press releases from RCA, no single released ahead of the album, no video. Nothing. I think Team Clay was not terribly surprised, I think they knew it was the last album with RCA, but it's a terrible shame that wonderful album did not get heard. Thank you, Clay, for dedicating it to the fans.

Now, finally, he is free. All over the Clay Nation fans are rejoicing. The song of the day seems to be "Fantasy".

As you glide in your stride
With the wind as you fly away
Give a smile from your lips and say
Are you free yes I'm free
And I'm on my way

Here's a video of his performance of this song on the AI stage.

I am excitedly anticipating the opening of the next door in Clay's career. I think he has walked through fire and come out the other side, his own man. Although the music business and the nasty gossipy blogger types have treated him shabbily, he has earned the respect of many important and powerful people in the entertainment business and I think he will have the last laugh.

Clay's Fan Club
Clay Aiken News Network - A great new fan site - Don't miss it!!

Technorati tags:
Clay Aiken
Clay Aiken News Network
CANN

On My Way Here

2009-01-13T13:43:00.006-06:00

New Clay Aiken Blog

A wonderful new Blog has been started and I wanted to put it up here with links. You don't want to miss it! Lots of pictures and articles from a group of enthusiastic Clay fans.

Clay Aiken News Network

Technorati tags:
Clay Aiken
Clay Aiken News Network
CANN

2009-01-09T16:47:00.003-06:00

Clay Aiken and Spamalot

Who knew, at the beginning of 2008 that I would make three trips to NYC in the coming year, a place I hated visiting when I worked in NJ and had to go into the city on business. I mean, "who knew". ™ King Arthur.

So, in April....off I go on the first trip. Part of the fun of Spamalot is getting the peasant seat. Not to spoil it, but it's the place to be. They rotate between seats A101, B101, C101 and D101. We didn't know the significance of this at first and sure enough I'm off to NY with an A101 and a B101 ticket in my pocket. Alas, I was not to be the peasant, but they're darn good seats.

I also had a seat in the first row of the mezzanine and I would have to say, that's the best place to see the show and see all the action.

One wonders, I suppose, why a person would see the same show multiple times, but Spamalot is a show that seems to always have something new, be it the Knights of Ni coming up with a new and unrepeatable name - or Rick Holmes with his outrageous French accent coming up with a new taunt - "I throw my shoes at you".

Oh, and then there's that Clay Aiken guy playing brave Sir Robin who sings and dances and soils his pants regularly, thereby negating the "brave" part of the description of his role. Clay did a wonderful job and was accepted on Broadway without all the crap he seems to find in the music business. I think he'll be back someday in a meatier role, hopefully with more real singing. But, Spamalot was funny, engaging, and a great first start. I came to love several of the other actors, namely David Hibbard who plays Patsy, King Arthur's sidekick; Rick Holmes who plays a myriad of roles, including Sir Lancelot, the French Taunter and Tim the Enchanter; Tom Deckman who is hysterical as "Not Dead Fred", Prince Herbert, the Historian and the minstrel who torments Sir Robin in the "Brave Sir Robin" number.

The trip in May was to see what we thought was the last show Clay would be in. Hundreds of Clay Aiken fans filled the theatre, along with Python fans and others. The place rocked, it was clear the cast loved Clay and, well, love was everywhere that night. There were so many people at the stage door Clay came out on the roof to wave goodbye to us all.

Then, all heck broke loose.....the album, "On My Way Here" dropped, Parker was born, Clay decided to tell the public he was gay and all of a sudden he was back in Spamalot in September, his run to continue until January 4th. So, another "finale" to attend, LOL. One's head spins considering all that Clay has had on his plate this year. But, boy, all the stage door pictures and video show a man who is happy, who is glowing and I think is back on track carrer wise as well as in his personal life. There are even rumors he has a very attractive, talented guy in his life and I hope it is true. No more "A Lover all Alone".

It was funny coming back to the show with a new King, Michael Siberry and a new Lady of the Lake, Merle Dandridge.

I think if I could see only one more show I would prefer to see Jonathan Hadary and Hannah Waddingham - maybe just because I saw them first and the roles "fixed" that way in my mind, but at any rate the new players did a good job. Michael played the role in a more comic manner, whereas Jonathan did it kind of dead pan with other players bouncing off him. Hannah, on the other hand, was just much better in the role. I missed her.

Sardi's, the famous Broadway restaurant acknowledged Clay's debut on Broadway by adding his caricature to their walls. As the newest portrait, it hangs on the wall just as you enter the restaurant, but will be rotated, as all the pictures are.

Now, this is a poster!!!!! If every floor on that building is 10 ft, it boggles the mind the length of this one !!!!!

Alas, all good things come to an end. Clay's last night was January 4th. The cast played a lot of jokes on Clay and/or the audience and it was side splitting funny - much funnier to those of us who had been often enough to know where the little extra's were thrown in. For example, when Clay does the yodel, Lance and Galahad usually pull him back in line....this time they left him out there and he had to move back by himself. Or, in the Killer rabbit scene when the knight is be-headed by the bunny...this time he gets up, headless, and takes a bow. Funny stuff.

The show closes January 11th, although the touring company will continue. Richard Chamberlain will join the cast in the King Arthur part and Merle Dandridge will continue as the Lady of the Lake.

Technorati tags:
Clay Aiken
Spamalot
Hannah Waddingham
Jonathan Hadary
David Hibbard
Tom Deckman
Rick Holmes
Michael Siberry

2008-12-06T11:44:00.004-06:00

Deierling Family Update

Although I've spent considerable time compiling information on the Missouri and Wisconsin Deierling families, I still don't have a concrete piece of evidence (other than instinctual) that these two pockets of Deierlings are connected to my great-grandfather, Gottleib Deierling (Darling).

A couple of interesting tidbits about the Wisconsin family, however.

1. Phillip Deierling's first wife was Barbara Langenbacher. They had two known children, Charles & Heline, born in New Orleans in the 1850's. I found a christening record for a Barbara Langenbacher -

25 May 1823 Evangelisch, Neustadt Haardt, Pfalz, Bayern

2. Barbara and her son, Charles, presumedly die sometime between his birth in 1857 and 1860, where the census records show Phillip with a new wife, Charlotte in Milwaukee, Wi. With them is Helena, his daughter with Barbara Langenbacher and an unknown child by the name of Elizabeth, who is 11 and also born in Bavaria. She is likely another daughter of Phillip and Barbara who was born before they emigrated to the USA. This puts their immigration date somewhere between 1849-1855 (the year Helena was born in New Orleans).

3. Charlotte, Phillip's second wife is much younger than he is. I discover her maiden name was Koehler (Kohler) and that she was also from Bavaria. Upon checking the same database where I found Barbara Lagenbacher, I discovered the following christening record for Charlotte Kohler.

01 May 1842 Evangelisch, Neustadt Haardt, Pfalz, Bayern

OK, and the best thing about that record? Her parents were Karl Kohler & Maria Langenbacher. My gut feeling here is that Phillip's second wife may well have been his first wife's niece.

4. Finally, I found a Karl & Maria Kohler living in Manitowac, Wi in 1880, both aged 70 - which fits. Manitowac is basicly in the same area Phillip and Charlotte lived.

Phillip and Charlotte had 11 children, only two of which married and had children of their own. If my theory pans out, I will do more research.

5. Gottlieb Direling's naturalization papers have been located and are on their way to me. I am not raising my hopes too high, but I'm hoping to find the city he came from. Neustadt Haardt is sounding good to me.

A link to my previous post re: Darling (Deierling) family history

Technorati tags:
Gottleib Darling
Genealogy
Deierling
Phillip Deierling

Direling

2008-11-01T10:24:00.017-05:00

Annual Digital
Scrapbooking Day

Who knew there was an annual digital scrapbooking day. Best part - lots of freebies all around today. In celebration, I thought I'd post a few scrapbooking pages I've done recently using some of the wonderful freebies available. I even bought some kits the past few weeks just because some of the freebies led me into web stores where I just couldn't resist the goodies. This is addicting, ya'll.

Here's the link for the Digital Scrapbook Day main blog.

First one of Clay - always a lot of pictures on the Clay Aiken boards to play with. This picture is from his recent attendance at the Friars Club Roast of Matt Lauer. Understand it was a pretty raunchy event, as usual. Clay was sitting on the dais and took some of the roasting heat himself.

Note: Clicking on the pictures will render them HUGE.

Credit for the paper and hearts goes to ArtTheraphy.

____________________

My grandmother is the subject of this page. She is the only grandparent I can recall, as she lived with us a short time before she died at age 88. The Allen's were long lived individuals, as you will see from the following page which shows Nell's father, John D. Allen.

Credit for the beautiful kit goes to Joni Grey. She has some wonderful free kits.

____________________

I made the frame on this one. Got the instructions on Photoshop Elements Techniques, a website for Photoshop Elements users. There's a lot of good stuff there. The paper and elements were from a kit called Vintage Dolls, which I purchased from the Digital Arts Cafe - They have some beautiful stuff, the designer for this is Rachael Hudnall. Uh Oh, I just noticed when I went over to get the link. They're having a SALE!!!

____________________

Before Halloween we went to a Pumpkin Farm here in Wisconsin and had a great time. Here are a couple of pages from that day.

I actually made the template myself on this one, including the sun. The paper came from a freebie from the Fall Splendor blog train group. I can't find the exact one right now. There were SO many. Thanks to the designers.

____________________

My son and two grandkids searching for treasure in the gold mining sluice. The paper was from a blog collaboration called Sisterly Love and the designer was Crystal at digiscrapalicious.

____________________

Used some of the same kit in this one of my grandaughter.

____________________

Enough, already.....I need to go and get on the downloading bandwagon.

Again, here is the link for the Digital Scrapbook Day main blog. From here you can find all the sales and events going on today and probably all weekend.

As usual, digifree and ikeagoddess are great places to find the freebies.

Digital Scrapbooking
digifree
Digital Arts Cafe
Scrapbooking Freebies

2008-10-04T10:56:00.005-05:00

Clay Aiken

Blogged !!!!

October 3, 2008

Last night, on his official Fan Club, Clay blogged regarding the recent announcement that he is gay. I thought it was an amazing blog and since he said it could "travel", I am posting it here in it's entirety. (That way I can find it easier, later, LOL)

Killing the elephants in the room.

10/03/08

What a week or so this has been. In fact, it's just been
two weeks since I started back to the Spam. Jerome and I were just talking the other day, though, about how the past two weeks have felt like a month. So much routine to get back into and yet so much routine and consistency to break. No doubt, many of you have been going through quite a bit over the past week or so yourselves. What a bunch of headline news we have had in the past 10 days! Wall Street falling to it's knees. Congress propping it back up. Two debates. Hijackers in Somalia. New leaders in South Africa and Japan. You'd think with all of the important events going on in the world, there would be plenty to fill
up the pages of America's newspapers, websites and blogs without the need for information on the private lives of the country's singers and entertainers. But, alas, thats never the case. In fact for the last five years, I've found what seems to have been an inordinate amount of interest (not from the public, but from the media) in my own personal life. The questions never seemed to stop. Oh sure, they die down for a period, but they resurface. The wind blows another
direction, and I do yet another interview worried that my personal life will become a topic of discussion. No doubt the birth of Parker would bring the same scrutiny, just heightened. It's an interesting time we live in. Gone are the days when entertainers could go about their lives without the invasion of privacy that we now see everyday in the form of paparazzi and internet tabloid bloggers. So, in the hopes of being able to sing and act (and dance poorly) and do what I love to do for a living while raising my son in a hopefully more private and accepting environment, I chose to go ahead and confront things head on. Yes, I would have preferred to separate my personal life from my professional life. I would have been just as happy to go on without discussing my orientation. But, it seems like that was not an option. Make no mistake, its not because I am ashamed. No, not for a minute. I haven't always been as comfortable as I am now, but I am without a doubt, proud of who I am and make no apologies for it. Instead, I would have been happy to have kept my personal life private for that very reason. Because it's personal life and I have always considered myself a private person. But, living as myself without discussing my sexuality publicly would have been as impossible. One chance to expose the truth
would have been a payday for any greedy opportunist.

I went to American Idol, much like many of us did "back in the day". Naive. Unlike the contestants who join up today, we had no idea of the power and pull of Idol when we signed on. (I'm sure many of us season two folks like to think we are the reason the show got so big!!! ;-) ) There I was two months off of the biggest show in the country, sitting at a table with a reporter from Rolling Stone who was asking me every single question I would never think of. Twenty-four years old in the rest
of America is a LOT younger and more naive than twenty four years old in the media business. So when this guy started asking me about things that I didn't really know how to answer for myself... things that I was not yet ready to admit to folks like my mother and my family.... things that I found intimidating and invasive, I responded in what I assumed was a benign way at the time. I attempted to "out spin" a professional. I wasn't as good as I thought I was. But, I have no regrets. The truth is, I don't apologize for the responses I gave to that reporter or any reporter over the past five years. I did make every attempt I could after that one interview to never say "I am not gay" or "I am straight". And I never said either. (some interpreted my vague answers to mean that... but I never said either) Some will say thats misleading. In truth, it might be defined that way. But, a better definition and a more accurate way to describe it for me, is a redirection and an attempt to change the topic to something that matters more. For some of you it won't be enough, but I can't
apologize for keeping my personal business to myself. If someone feels that they were mislead, I can totally understand that viewpoint and apologize for that feeling, but I can't apologize for how I handled questions that affected me and my right to privacy.

In my opinion, sexual orientation is ALWAYS a private thing. I think the OVERWHELMING majority of people agree with that. Why in the world
should someone's sexual orientation be a news item? Why should anyone care? Yet, for all we espouse as a society about tolerance and open mindedness we forget to allow folks the opportunity to be who they are without judgement. Making a decision to come out to family is a difficult and heavy decision. But, for every young man or woman who is struggling with it, it should be a decision that is made on his or her own schedule ONLY. It's never acceptable for anyone to make such a decision for anyone else nor to coerce someone to take such a significant step before they are ready. Not a friend, not a stranger, not the media. So, I waited until the time was right for me. For that I can't apologize either.

There are plenty of you who have anticipated this blog in hopes that I would "set the record straight" or "admit to lying for five years and apologize for it". For that small group of people, I am afraid I will have to disappoint you. My decisions over the past five years have been made with lots of deliberation and at times even heartache. Always with concern for folks who might feel mislead. Don't doubt that. But they have also been made as an attempt, not to hide my true self, but instead to allow myself the same liberties and rights that every single gay man and woman in the world should have... the right to determine for myself when I was ready to discuss my personal life. In as much as that, at
times, was interpreted as misrepresentation, I feel badly. But I reserved that right for myself and I can't say I regret it.

I have endeavored over the past several days to allow folks to vent and express themselves as freely as possible without restriction on these message boards. There is no way to change a person's mind when you tell them they are wrong. We all, when backed into a corner, have a human instinct to swing. Having different feelings and opinions and viewpoints are only natural. The only way to deal with that is to accept everyone's right to disagree, and allow them to discuss their feelings. I always have, and I always will. That said, it hasn't been, nor do I imagine it will be, my intent to make the message boards or the OFC a clearinghouse or discussion zone for sexuality or such topics. I hope we can always continue to discuss the same things we have always found important. The need for inclusion for children with disabilities. The desire to make sure every child in the world has access to their basic needs for survival. And any other topics that will make our neighborhoods, our regions, our country and our world a better more acceptable place (where that relates to issues involving sexuality, I hope we are able to advocate, at those times for the acceptance of others)... and I hope we will all still use the message boards for the lively discussion of the need for better entertainment and music in the world!!!! ;-) That said, as of this posting, I have asked the moderators to archive the thread regarding the People magazine article and close it from discussion. For those of you who are still struggling, I encourage you to continue to talk to your friends and neighbors and fellow OFC members in the thread devoted to such support. It is not going to be as easy as accepting something over night, but I believe that we are on the right track. The moderators will resume their regular duties of moderating the boards in the fashion that they did prior to last week, and I (and hopefully all of us) will resume our routines in the same fashion as well. Talking about music, talking about potential tours and other performances and appearances, talking about me forgetting my lines of tripping on stage in Spamalot, and discussing with our friends how many times we have seen the show and will see it! (And... looking forward to the announcement of out Playbill contest winner!!!)

Finally, I will say that, also representative of most every other gay man and woman in the world, that I am not defined by my sexuality. No more so than each of you are defined by your sexual orientation. No more than a man or woman is defined by race or ethnicity. It is, simply, a small facet of the same person I have always been. Most of you realize that nothing has changed. I hope to continue being able to entertain you in the same way I have for the past five years. And I hope you will allow me to continue to inform you of the causes that I find important and entertain you with the music and performances I love. For I love and cherish you all. Yesterday, now and forever.

c

Be sure to go see Clay in Spamalot in NYC if you get the chance. It's a great show.

Clay Aiken
Spamalot

2008-10-01T17:04:00.009-05:00

Clay Aiken

New Dad

This last year has been an eventful one for Clay. Starting with Spamalot on Broadway in January, a new album - "On My Way Here" in May, becoming a father in August, announcing he is a gay man in September AND returning to Spamalot as well for the balance of the year. WOW.

I would suspect the baby, created with love via IVF with his friend and record producer, Jaymes Foster, is the icing on the cake for Clay - and Jaymes, too. With my ever bulging collection of freebie digital scrapbooking pieces I put together a scrapbook page. The baby's name is Parker Foster Aiken and will be raised by both Clay and Jaymes in their homes in Raleigh and Los Angeles. Parker and Jaymes will be joining Clay in NY for the Spam run as well.

The gay part - or as I often referred to it in my mind "the elephant in the room" came as no surprise to me although I had decided some time back that since he was self identifying as straight, who was I to question it. It's kind of rude, actually to question a person in that manner. Not that the media minded being invasive. A quote I saw somewhere -

Privacy and security are those things you give up when you show the world what makes you extraordinary. by Margaret Cho

Certainly he gave up both when American Idol was over and he embarked on his career. Jerome, his body guard, was there from day one as were the gay rumors. Here are some clips of the interview he did with Diane Sawyer on GMA.

September 25, 2008 Clay Aiken: I'm a Gay Dad

September 26, 2008 Clay Aiken on Fatherhood

The fans are dealing with it fairly well. Most, like me, kind of had a moment of shock when they first saw the People Magazine cover, thought for a moment and then went "Oh, of course he is, that explains it all. When is the next tour?" There are those that have left the fandom. The fundamentalist Christian segment - you know, those that believe being gay is a "choice" (yeah, sure) and a sin and and totally unforgivable, constitute the bulk of those departees.

Some fans are all hung up in the idea that he has been lying to us - his not telling the world years ago was not lying, nor am I particularly blaming him for saying he was not gay the few times he actually answered the innappropriate question with a "no" in the beginning. How can you be lying when you are protecting your family and trying to come to grips with a reality that is contrary to the way you were raised and your family and friends believe. OK, maybe he did, technically, lie. So what. So would I under the same circumstances. It took him awhile - he said Kim Locke, who he met during American Idol, was the first person he told. Coming off Idol with microphones stuck in his face what the heck was he supposed to do? It was all still a new concept for him and he hadn't told his family. What should he have done? Wave at the camera and say "Hi mom, by the way, I'm gay". Duh. I admire him for putting his family first.

I do have empathy for those who, in the end, cannot deal with either the fact that Clay Aiken is gay or the fact that he wasn't ready to tell us and told some self protective fibs. But. I have to admit I don't understand the more extreme reactions.

At any rate, I'm certainly OK with it (as are most of the fans on the boards I frequent) and am looking forward to my visit to NYC in January to see Spamalot again. It's a goofy, funny show and Clay fits in wonderfully well with the seasoned Broadway cast. I will miss Jonathan Hadary as the King and Hannah Waddingham as the Lady of the Lake. They were supurb!!!

I've been downloading freebies all day. There is a blog train starting today with the theme of Fall. All the designers used the same color pallet and there are about 50 participants in the train. Check out digifree and ikeagoddess for links to ALL the freebies. I had to stop downloading all of them and just focus on what I MIGHT use in the future. Overwhelming, LOL.

Technorati tags:
Clay Aiken
Spamalot

2008-09-18T09:54:00.008-05:00

Clay Aiken

Back to Spamalot

WOW, it's almost time for the orchestra to tune up, the audience to settle in, and the curtain to go up!! Clay's BACK. Ad from the NY Paper:

I think they missed him. I think the revenues went down after he left, I think the crowd at the stage door diminished to a few stragglers. The stage door crowds were huge. I was there in April and again in May and every performance I attended the crowd surged into the alley to wait for Clay to make a brief appearance. Some of my favorite stage door pictures:

Check out the crowd in the one above and the one below. HUGE.

And, who can forget closing night, when Clay came out on the roof to wave goodbye. Little did we know the goodbye was an "until I see you again" goodbye. Little did we know at that time how spectacular his album. "On My Way Here" was going to be and that little Parker would be joining the family.

I loved my two trips to NY to see Spamalot. Although I'd been to NYC on business in the past, I didn't like going ther. But, on vacation - visiting the theatre district, seeing Times Square, getting run over by crowds of people all talking on cell phones - well, that was a great adventure and I'll be back for this run. May even spend New Years eve in Times Square....now there's an idea. (tm The Lady of the Lake)

Clay, Break a leg!!!

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Clay Aiken
Spamalot

2008-09-15T09:27:00.007-05:00

Digital Scrapbooking
Some Heritage Designs
Using Freebies

I've been having a ball chasing after digital scrapbooking freebies this last week. The weather was abysmal, so I didn't mind sitting at my computer playing with what I found.

The first one used a wonderful freebie template I found at Tracy's Scraps
What I love about templates is that you can add papers, embellishments and fonts from other kits you might already have, which is what I did in this case. The picture is a scan I made of my great grandparents silhouettes they had made back in 1885.

This one is a little different - it's a "Quick-Page" (some people call them Ploppers) and it's all done except for plopping a picture behind the frame and adding journaling and any extra embellishments you want. This freebie came from Au ScraPatou - a site that's all in French, so it was a little challenging to find the download button. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page click where it says Telecharger and you're good to go. The complete kit is beautiful and I might buy it for more Heritage pages. (They entice you in with the freebies, LOL) The younger gal in this page is my mom and the other her older sister Margaret. There were 12 "Darling" children in all.

This is not a freebie exactly, DigitalArts-Cafe is having a Birthday Blowout and one of the designer's (Rachael) put up three of her kits on sale for $1.50 each(reg $4.99) and if you uploaded a layout made from the kit she will give you two more of her kits - your choice, free. I looked at her stuff and quickly downloaded the Rue Beinville Page Kit because I loved this beautiful background paper. I didn't add too much because I thought the paper was wonderful by itself. Again this is my mother in the mid 1930's, either before or right after she married my father. She handcolored the black and white photograph. If you go to the Digitalarts-Cafe, you may have to register, but they give you a goodie for doing so. I think the Birthday sale goes through 9/23/08. Click on Rachael's name above to go to the page where she makes the offer. Click on the page to make it larger and check out the wonderful texture of the paper.

Enjoy - go and find some freebies. Be sure to thank the donors and if you love their work, buy a kit from them.

Digital Scrapbooking
digifree
Digital Arts Cafe
Scrapbooking Freebies

2008-09-14T14:02:00.010-05:00

Whooping Crane
2008 Migration to Florida
Journey South Update

The Whooping Cranes at the Necedah Wildlife Refuge that are being trained to fly south following an ultralight aircraft are getting closer to take off. Unfortunately, one of the birds (#810) got a little hostile and one other chick was killed and two were injured. One of the injured birds was sent back to Maryland as it has super genes and they want to preserve it for breeding. The other one is OK, but the attack messed up it's feather development and it was having trouble flying. It will be sent to a Zoo, where lots of people will be able to see this amazing bird.

My little gal, yes I have "adopted" #824. She jumped out at me from the page of 15 birds and when I saw her number was my birthday I decided she was the one for me. I just read that in her group (there are three age groups or cohorts) she was the first to "fledge" AND she did it on my birthday 8/24!! She's apparently a good flyer, however she's also a little aggressive - from her writeup:

Cohort 3 (the youngest birds) has a few meanies — and #824 is one of them. However, these youngest meanies have been associating with other chicks with a little less hatred than the bullies in Cohort 1. She is a good follower but makes a beeline to peck at any other chicks that she sees.

"Chick #824 is one of the only two girls in the last group probably tries the hardest to be the most dominant bird. She will stand up so tall when #829 is near and give him the stink eye. He really doesn't want to fight, but she provokes him. She normally ends up turning and walking away."

Well, you go girl. Wonder if she thinks #829 is cute?

Some pictures of #824.

Pictures are from the Whooping Crane Journey North/South website.
Field Notes on the progress of the training can be found at the Operation Migration website.

Next weekend there is a Whooping Crane Festival near the wildlife refuge where these birds are being trained and we are camping near by and attending the festival. Should be a fun weekend and although I'm sure we won't get to see the flock, there are tours through the refuge and perhaps we will see some of the adults who are also about ready to take off on their own migration south. They have made the trip before and know the way.

I found some interesting video's on YouTube that I thought I would share for anyone interested in this fascinating process. The first is of them leaving Necedah and the second of a flock arriving in Florida.

Technorati tags:
Whooping Crane
International Crane Foundation
Operation Migration
Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership
Journey South

2008-09-08T12:54:00.008-05:00

Clay Aiken
Digital Scrapbooking

Clay Aiken Website

Several days ago I added a new link in my favorite blogs/websites list - it's a blog called digifree. Since then I have been having a ball downloading some of the wonderful wealth of freebie digital scrapbooking kits, elements, papers, etc that are available. Lots of wonderful artists are sharing some of their work for free while selling kits through websites and/or their own blogs. It's been a fun adventure, now I have to get creative to figure out how to apply all these goodies.

One website I landed on gave out a beautiful free kit called "No Milk or Sugar" just for registering on the forum in their site. Needless to say, after poking around I found something else I just had to purchase - the freebies serve a purpose!!!

Here is a picture of what is in the kit.

I only used a few of the items to make this scrapbooking page this morning.

Click for the digifree blog.

Each day the owner of this site runs a search for blogs that have freebies, today there were 190. Needless to say I won't make it to all of them, but there are lots I want to check out.

Click for the digitalarts-cafe website. Go to the forum to see how to download the freebie.

Off to see what I can do with some of my new treasures.

Technorati tags:

Clay Aiken
Digital Scrapbooking
digifree
Digital Arts Cafe
Scrapbooking Freebies

2008-09-06T10:40:00.005-05:00

Clay Aiken

and Friendship

I don't usually do two Clay blogs in a row but I have been doing some digital scrapbooking the last few days and found a scrapbook page I did awhile back in a competition.

We were to create a page using the phrase "Real Friends Don't Care if you are a Little Different"

Clay came to mind at the time because, if I have come to understand anything about Clay Aiken, it's that he holds his friends close to his heart and he practices what he "preaches" as regards inclusion.

It's not everyday you let your friends duct tape you to the wall, LOL.

For some reason, I suspect Clay is going to be every bit as great a father as he is a friend.

I'm looking forward to Spamalot again......as well as whatever else Clay finds behind the next door he opens.

Oh, is you're a digital scrapbooker - check out the new freebie link I added to my Other Interesting Website list. I found some great stuff in there the other day.

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Clay Aiken
Digital Scrapbooking

2008-08-26T07:45:00.013-05:00

Christmas in August
Clay Aiken
Minneapolis Orchestra

I meant to do this last month - you know, Christmas in JULY? But, the summer is slipping away, camping trips, gardening....all the things that fill my days. I had forgotten I had these videos from the 2007 Clay Aiken Christmas Concert in Minneapolis.

Although it's not far to Minneapolis from where I live, it was my first Christmas in snow country and I was a little afraid to drive so I flew!! I was meeting up with a friend and we connected at the airport and made our way to the hotel which was only a block from an entrance to the skyway. Downtown Minneapolis has a skyway linking all the big buildings so one can move around without having to go outside. Very cool - or warm, in this case. There are 8 miles of these glass "tunnels" connecting buildings. Minneapolis has the largest skyway system in the world, linking nearly 80 blocks of downtown attractions, businesses and hotels.

This concert was a twofer, December 19th and 20th at the Minneapolis Orchestra Hall.

Here's Don't Save it all for Christmas Day from the first night. Sorry, I missed a bar or two at the beginning, LOL.

I had wonderful seats, second row right in the middle and he looked and sounded marvelous.

And this one is obviously from Jingle Bells, LOL.

A silhouette during one of the story readings.

And for those that appreciate the hands on the microphone.

These last two videos are of medleys from the second concert. Again, I missed a little here and there and they aren't the best, but there are some wonderful moments that I think you will appreciate. It's glasses Clay - complete with the twinkle in his eye. Enjoy.

Remember, above, that I mentioned I was nervous about driving in the winter? Well, after two wonderful concerts and beautiful Christmas lights and atmosphere in downtown Minneapolis I arrived at the airport and discovered my flight was cancelled and since it was Christmas time - yeah, you guessed it - no flights available. I'll have to give them credit, though. They had a whole fleet of buses outside and they loaded us in and DROVE us back to Madison, Wisconsin. So, I ended up "driving" anyway!! And, I was only 6 hours late getting in. It was a scary ride, but I had my trusty ZEN to listen to and when I got to Madison at 2:00AM, my son picked me up and we slid into his driveway just as the roads turned to ice and the torrential downpour turned white. All in all and exciting adventure. And we had a white Christmas.

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Christmas Concert
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DSIAFCD

2008-08-18T16:40:00.014-05:00

Whooping Crane

International Crane Foundation

Baraboo, Wi

This last weekend we went camping at Devil's Lake State Park, located a little south of Baraboo, Wi. As I got there first and had a morning before the rest of the family joined me I took the opportunity to visit the International Crane Foundation facility. As a birder, I wanted to add the bird to my life list. Chances were slim I would see this endangered species in the wild, so I was excited about my visit.

Frankly, knowing they were almost extinct at one point was about all I knew about whooping cranes, but I came away from my visit a member of the foundation and I am looking forward this fall to watching a group of captive bred chicks follow an ultralight airplane from Wisconsin to Florida on their first migration. Who knew?

At one point during the 1940's there were less than 20 known whooping cranes left in the wild. Their migratory path originated in Wood Buffalo National Park in the Northwest Territories of Canada, where they nested and raised their young. In the fall they flew south 2500 miles to Aransas National Wildlife Refuge in Texas where they spend the winter and early spring. In 1993 a second flock of Whooping Cranes was reintroduced in central Florida. An average of 20 chicks, hatched and reared in captivity, have been released at the Florida site each year in an effort to establish a new flock of non-migratory Whoopers. The third flock, however, is being trained to migrate. The birds spend spring and summer at Necedah National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin and migrate to Chassahowitzka National Wildlife Refuge in west Florida for winter.

Today, the total population of the three flocks has increased to over 500.

Birds like geese and cranes who migrate during the day have no inbred sense of where to go - the chicks learn the path by flying south with their parents and the next trip they are on their own and remember the way home. Obviously, with captive bred chicks (or orphans) that first trip is not going to happen naturally. So, man has come up with a clever way to lead young cranes on their first migration - the ultralight airplane. They call them trikes - and that's what they look like. Here's a picture I borrowed from one of the sites linked in this blog.

In Necedah (say Nuh SEE duh) National Wildlife Refuge in Central Wisconsin 16 chicks hatched in captivity in 2008 are being readied for their first flight to Florida. Here is the website to track their progress - Whooping Crane Journey South. This is a great site for children to participate and comes with downloadable booklets, etc. aimed at the younger crowd.

I don't pretend to know much about this yet, but since I am so close to the ICF and the Necedah National Wildlife Refuge I plan on learning more. I also plan to watch thse little guys head south starting in October. You can see their pictures on the link above.

A website with tons of information, additional links, pictures, etc - Operation Migration. This is the 8th year of this program, in which pilots wear crane costumes to teach the young birds to bond with and follow the pilot.

The facility I visited - International Crane Foundation says -

The International Crane Foundation (ICF) works worldwide to conserve cranes and the wetland and grassland ecosystems on which they depend. ICF is dedicated to providing experience, knowledge, and inspiration to involve people in resolving threats to these ecosystems

In addition to conservation methods, the foundation is also a founding member of the Whooping Cranes Eastern Partnership, which is a group of non-profit organizations dedicated to bringing a migratory flock of whooping cranes back to the eastern USA.

At the ICF there is a natural wetlands habitat for the whooping cranes and they house many other international cranes in enclosures. They are presently under construction for a new natural habitat which will be home for some of those cranes.

International Crane Foundation (ICF) page on the Whooping Crane - ICF - Whooping Crane

There are many nature walks at the facility, lots and lots of wildflowers - I am told it is spectacular in May but the best thing of all were the whooping cranes.

Here are a couple of my pictures.

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Whooping Crane
International Crane Foundation
Operation Migration
Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership
Journey South

2008-08-02T12:32:00.007-05:00

As Long As We're Here
Katee & Joshua

Last month I posted links to some videos using Clay Aiken songs.....I wanted to add this very awesome video of Katee and Joshua from "So You Think you can Dance". They are now in the final four and I have my fingers crossed for them in the finals.

Click off the Jukebox before you play the video.

And, of course, totally adore Clay's song!!!

ETA - Here's another one for SYTYCD - with Twitch and Katee.

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As Long As We're Here
Clay Aiken
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Katee
On My Way Here
Everything I Don't Need
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So You Think you Can Dance
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2008-07-26T11:50:00.016-05:00

Kohler-Andrae State Park
Sheboygan, Wisconsin
July 2008

Guess I have the camping bug back again!! With gas prices I don't feel like wandering too far from home so when I found this campground less than 2 hours from home I was off for a couple of nights under the stars.

This place was wonderful!! Not as "rugged" feeling as Peninsula State Park, in fact the lady across from me lives in Sheboygan and ran home every morning to shower and put on her makeup. Then she came back to camp and sat in her chair and read, or rode her bike or walked her very adorable King Charles Spaniel. Now that is a dog I would love to have.

Anyway, the camp is right on Lake Michigan with tons of lake front beaches and sand dunes to visit and wander. At the back of the campground is the Black River and Marsh area. There is a 1/4 mile boardwalk loop out over the marsh which I walked several times to watch for birds and other critters.

Black River Marsh Boardwalk

Lots of red winged blackbirds and sparrows, but the prize was getting a picture of a Marsh Wren as they are supposedly very shy. The one I saw, although a ways out in the Marsh hung there on the pussy willow and sang his little heart out.

Marsh Wren
Not only was there a boardwalk over the marsh, there are several cordwalk's out over the sand dunes along the beach. I walked one of them twice and the second one only went halfway and came back as it wasn't a loop. A cordwalk is a series of boards strung together with rope/cable and laid on the sand. They are pretty cool. Here is a picture of a section in the sand dunes. That is Common Yarrow along the path.

As I said, this campground has everything; a playground, a laundry, a shelter for storms - Sheboygan had an awful storm a couple of weeks ago including a tornado, so I'm sure the shelters were used that day, a nature center, lots of hiking trails - I didn't get to all of them, several beach areas, including the North Beach area which allows dogs - even has a drinking fountain with a doggie level bowl and free plastic bags to carry away any doggie deposits, firewood, ice.....and, it's two miles south of Sheboygan and a few minutes away from a gas station, Piggly Wiggly and a shopping center with Target and Home Depot. Not exactly the wilderness, but very pretty.

I found lots and lots of wildflowers again and here are a few of them.

Common Milkweed

Starting in August the Monarch Butterflies head south, Kohler-Andrae is one of their layovers because of the abundance of Milkweed in the area. Another reason to go back, butterfly pictures. I believe this is a Monarch caterpillar on this milkweed picture.

Bittersweet Nightshade

Harebell
AKA Bluebell
I guess I don't want to forget about the critters. Yes, the raccoons got a loaf of bread, sigh....here's a couple of other critters I saw.

A couple of links if you are interested - Kohler-Andrae State Park

Wikipedia Monarch Butterfly Page
All pictures by marhaven.

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Camping
Kohler-Andrae State Park
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Harebell
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Black River Marsh

2008-07-13T12:35:00.005-05:00

Door County, Wi
Peninsula State Park
Camping Trip
July, 2008

Door County has always been on my list of places to visit. Last week the kids decided to go camping at Peninsula State Park and I went along for a couple of nights. My short visit certainly whetted my appetite - I will be returning soon for a longer stay. Peninsula State Park is huge - here is a link for their website: Peninsula State Park

The campsites here are wooded and shady, the bathrooms have flush toilets and free showers with hot water, there is a beach, lots of waterfront to fish from and lots, lots more. We went during the week and had no trouble getting a site, but if you want to go on a weekend plan ahead. Way ahead.

Some scenes from the beach:

Everyone enjoyed the beach and joined in the fun:

Click to make Larger

In addition to the usual birds -

Mallard

Ring-Billed Gull
Click to make Larger

I discovered lots of wildflowers. Here are a few. All are clickable.

Oxeye Daisy

Spotted Knapweed

St John's Wort

Wood Anemone
Click to make Larger

Door County is a magical place I plan to visit again. Barely scratched the surface this first trip. The antique stores as you enter Egg Harbor are calling me back. I stopped at a market store and sampled cherry strudel, cherry salsa and chunky cherry jam. Yummy stuff.

Here is a link to the main Door County website where you can check it all out.

Door County

See you there!!

Technorati tags:
Peninsula State Park
Door County
Wild Flowers

2008-06-28T08:45:00.015-05:00

On My Way Here

Clay Aiken's newest album is spectacular. I have listened to it many times since it was released in May. Following a link to Youtube this morning I realized I had accumulated a variety of videos people have created using songs from On My Way Here. All kinds of montages, all kinds of very diverse subjects. This album clearly connects with many demographics.

Note - some users are having problems viewing these videos in Firefox 3.0

So let's see - there are those that bring two of my fandoms crashing together - for example, to the song Something About Us -

Who can forget the Apolo & Julianne season of "Dancing with the Stars"?

One of my favorite shows this last year which appears to be in danger of not being renewed. Moonlight. Mick and Beth definitely have chemistry. Unlike Jericho (RIP) where fans donated tons of peanuts in a rally to save the show, Moonlight fans are donating blood. No kidding.

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Another Dancing With the Stars Video.

Set to Sacrificial Love

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One of my all time favorite movies, Gone With the Wind has even had the Clay Aiken treatment.

Set, of course, to Sacrificial Love.

ETA - the following great video is also set to Gone With the Wind.

And, what better song to use - Everything I Don't Need.

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A couple of shows/movies I haven't watched - but worthy videos, none the less.

The Gilmore Girls - using Lover All Alone.

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Grey's Anatomy lovers will adore this video set to Lover All Alone.

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The movie Ironman - using Weight of the World. I want to see this movie when it comes out on DVD.

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And, The Notebook - again Lover All Alone has been used. Another movie to add to my Netflix queue.

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Last night I watched "Singing in the Rain". I sure had a huge crush on Gene Kelly when I was young - the following video is for all of us who love "the legends". Fred & Ginger. Judy. Sigh.

There certainly was Something About Us.

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And for those who play video games we have:

Final Fantasy to the beautiful song, Ashes. I have no idea what this about, but the video is verra verra cool.

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On the political front we have a couple of great videos featuring Barack Obama. So far, I have not seen any for the opposition. Get busy, montagers.

Grace of God. This video is very powerful. The montage maker did a great job matching the pictures/video with the words of the song.

After watching this touching video, I get all smooshy. There is, indeed, Something About Us in the Obama family.

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Last one for today - a haunting video about homeless children set to Lover All Alone.

Well now, that's the show for today. Hope you enjoy all these beautiful & well made videos.

Technorati tags:
Clay Aiken
On My Way Here
Apolo Ono
Julianne Hough
Dancing With the Stars
Gone With the Wind

Moonlight
The Gibson Girls
Grey's Anatomy
Ironman
The Notebook
Final Fantasy
Barack Obama
Homeless Children
Homelessness

2008-06-24T10:10:00.014-05:00

Genealogy Blog
Lucien Brockunier Martin
The Fostoria Glass Years

The other day I received an E-Mail from Ancestry.com regarding a new feature they had, and in checking it out I ended up thinking about my great-grandfather, Lucien Brockunier Martin. Lucien was born in 1853 and was the 19th child of Ebenezer Martin of Martins Ferry, Ohio. How Lucien came by his middle name will always intrigue me and will never, I am sure, be discovered. There is no family connection that I can determine between the Martin's and the Brockunier family. Lucien did work for the Hobbs, Brockunier Glass Company of Wheeling, WV and, along with William S. Brady and others, moved to Fostoria, Ohio to start up the Fostoria Glass Company in 1887.

Old postcard with a picture of the factory.

At a meeting February 1, 1888 in Fostoria, Ohio, the following were elected as directors of the new Fostoria Glass Company. W.S. Brady, Otto Jeager, L.B. Martin, Charles Foster and Charles E. Beam. Lucien B. Martin was elected president of the firm. The largest holder of stock was Sarah Zane (Hildreth) Brady (Mrs. W.S.) whose brother, B.M. Hildreth, was the Sales Manager.

Interesting genealogical note - Sarah Zane (Hildreth) Brady was Lucien's second cousin.

When the glass supply diminished in Fostoria, the company closed its doors (December 31, 1891) and moved to Moundsville, WV. They, of course, retained the name "Fostoria" and most of the workers moved with the company.Unfortunately, I only have Lucien's wife - Mary Emma (Lewis) Martin's diaries from 1900. It would have been interesting to read more about their years in Fostoria and Moundsville.

A Young Mary Emma (Lewis) Martin

Lucien B. Martin, his wife Mary & Phil Martin
at Home in Glendale, West Virginia

William Brady resigned from the Fostoria in 1900 but retained a financial interest. Lucien followed in 1901.

Mary's diary entry on March 1, 1901 -

Lucien home from Pittsburgh, he came early in the afternoon and went to factory. He says "I've gone & done it & if not for best you and Phil are to blame for it & if good follows, I did it!"

The Martin's, including their son Phil are off to Pittsburgh, Pa. The subject of the next blog being the National Glass years.

To read Mary's diary from 1901:
1901

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Fostoria Glass
Lucien B Martin

2007-10-08T19:09:00.000-05:00
Goodbye Arizona....Hello Wisconsin

From -

To -

Have been thinking about all of the places I have lived and I counted up 29 of them. Of course, when I was in college and right after and lived in apartments I moved around a lot, but I lived in 5 houses in 3 states when I still lived at home. I've added 4 states to that - so we have Ohio, Texas, California, Illinois, New Jersey, Arizona now off to Wisconsin. Arizona and Wisconsin are the only two states I have actually opted to live in as all the others were family or work related.

What a contrast this is going to be. Hot to cold.....and doing it just as winter starts. Brrrrr. Boy, I have really hated the heat here in Arizona and while it is true you do get kind of used to it after awhile it's just not fun to play outside - plus you just can't garden. So, I'm psyched.

Two more days and off I go.

Nice thing is........I will be located more centrally and be able to drive to Clay concerts. Watch. He will decide he's neglecting the Southwest and the West and I'll have to go back to flying. Nah.

I haven't finished the summer concert blogs and hope to get to them soon. Or not
Technorati tags:
Clay Aiken
Arizona

2007-07-15T15:09:00.001-05:00

Clay Aiken - Summer Tour 2007

Last week I hopped a plane to Houston & Tulsa to see Clay's new tour. Coming from dry Arizona at 110 degrees to humid Houston was a shock! I forgot what humidity is all about - lived in Chicago for 5 years, but you do forget. It poured rain and was overcast the whole time I was there, but downtown Houston is very attractive and of course I WAS there for the concert.

The pre-party was at an Italian Restaurant and was well attended. Won several pins I did not have in the raffle, which was nice. One was a new Clay in Texas pin, one the Clack Gatherers and the third was the Clay Nation Hurricane Relief pin. I have quite a collection of these pins.

After the party we strolled down the block to find this:

Nice start to a wonderful evening. My seat, although to the side was excellent and I had a great view of the stage. Clay started off with "Here You Come Again", strolling onto the stage singing, followed by "Everything I Have" and then a duet with Quiana that was even better than the Suzie McNeil duet on the album.

A couple more songs from the album and a medley of TV theme songs completed the first half. Quiana did a very nice version of "When the Lights Go Down".

Second half started off with an excellent "Without You", which I almost missed as I decided to visit the ladies room and got into a conversation with a couple of young ladies who were there more because of the symphony than Clay, but who were having a wonderful time and were full of all kinds of questions about Clay....which I was more than happy to answer. Always fun to run into new fans.

Some Pictures:

The highlight of the second half of the concert is a toss up between the hilarious "classics" medley and the poignant and bittersweet "Lover All Alone". Check out these two segments - via You Tube. Go to the Clay Jukebox in the right hand frame and click on the square to turn of the jukebox before you click on the You Tube links.

Classic's Medley

Lover All Alone

Next blog....a little about Tulsa.

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Clay Aiken
Houston Concert
Summer Concert

2007-05-19T15:52:00.000-05:00

More Ancestor Sightings.....

I spent some time recently starting a little story about one of my collateral ancestors who had always interested me. Then, while googling, I discovered someone else had already put a story together and had done it so much better than I could ever do.

In a nutshell:

Two of my 4th great grandfathers were brothers, Jonathan and Ebenezer Zane. Yes, this makes me my own 6th cousin. There was another brother by the name of Isaac. When Isaac was 9 and Jonathan a couple of years older they were captured by an Indian raiding party and ended up in the Wyandotte camp of Tarhe. Tarhe adopted Isaac and Jonathan was returned to his family. Tarhe had married a French girl reputed to be of the Durant line. Their daughter Myeerah was a childhood friend of Isaac and when Isaac came of age the two were married. He was 18 and when their first child was born Myeerah was 14. Isaac returned many times to his birth family, but always came back to his beautiful Indian bride.

I won't get into it all here, as it has already been done for me - Click here and follow along with the story of Myeerah and Isaac.

Myeerah

There are a lot of interesting links. Enjoy.

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Isaac Zane
Wyandotte
Jonathan Zane
Ebenezer Zane
Tarhe

2007-05-13T13:55:00.000-05:00

Genealogy Update

Darling
Deierling
Direling
Drierling

As this is Mother's Day and I have been working on my mom's genealogy I thought I'd post some notes I have made regarding her grandfather's family. I wish she was alive so I could share this information with her.

I have been spending the last few days chasing after a possible relative (if I am correct he would be a great-uncle) through the archives of the Federal Census. The last time I worked heavily on my family history I had to go to the LDS Library in Oakland and load up a roll of microfilm on a viewer and crank and crank and crank. Nowadays you just log in to ancestry.com ($$$) and put info in a search engine and voila! - up pops your information, along with a (usually) very readable copy of the original document. Nice!!

This latest endeavor started with my thinking about my mom's grandfather, Gottleib Darling. I had done a little research on him many years ago, but became discouraged, especially as mom promised me I would find nothing, that they had known little about him prior to his life in Lancaster, Ohio. Years ago, in a 1912 book "History of Fairfield County Representative Citizens" I found an article on Gottleib's son Jacob (a son by his first wife) which included the following sentence.
Gottleib Darling was born in Bavaria, Germany, a son of Philip Darling, who came to the United States and died of yellow fever at New Orleans, in 1848.

So, we thought we had at least one more name beyond Gottleib....but, maybe not. First, that sentence is ambiguous. I am not sure it means Phillip came to America in 1848 or he died of yellow fever in 1848. Secondly, there were other relationship errors in the article and I have always taken it with a grain of salt. In addition, there is the matter of how the name was spelled. "Darling" is how it evolved in America, but what was the correct German spelling? Darling, Direling, Deierling, Dearling, Dueuerling all all variations I have seen.

So, with the new internet technology available, I went looking for Phillip. I used the Deierling spelling for a couple of reasons:

In Elmwood Cemetery, Section C, Row 36 there are three graves for babies who had a short life -

Deierling, Clara, d. Apr 20, 1862, aged 9M12D
Deierling, Mary Alice, d. Sept 1863, aged 8 yrs
Deierling, Charles L., son of G & M.A., d. Aug 9, 1864, aged 4M1D

So sad, all the little children who died so young in those days. My aunt and I visited Elmwood Cemetery many years ago and she had not been aware of these youngsters. Elmwood is very old - here is an interesting website regarding the place -
Elmwood Cemetery

Also, I have Gottleib's signature and there are enough letters before the 'ling to sink a ship. One of them is an i.

First of all, I found what might be Gottlieb's immigration record. Name is close, Gottleib Deuerling. This Gottleib arrived in New York on Aug 15,1853 at age 25 (check). Port of Departure was Le Havre, France, Place of Origin was Bavaria (check) and the ship's name was "Tempest". I also found his name in the Index to Naturalizations of Fairfield County, Ohio. Naturalization 1860 and the name is spelled Gotleib Direling. This, I am sure is my Gottleib. I am currently attempting to find out where to obtain copies of his naturalization papers as they will surely answer the question as to whether I am correct on the immigration of Gottleib Deurling being my guy.

So, on to Phillip for awhile. One of the great features of ancestry.com is that they have census records for 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880 and 1900 through 1930. In the 1870 and 1880's I found something interesting. There seemed to be three "groupings" of Deierlings that interested me. Mine in Lancaster, Ohio, a Phillip Deirling in (of all places since I am moving to Wisconsin soon) Watertown, Wisconsin and a Jacob Philip Deierling who was in Schuyler County, Missouri. To be sure, there are also some Deierlings in Washington state and scattered about, but they didn't seem to fit in with the three larger pockets.

Jacob Phillip was born in 1816 in Bavaria.
Phillip was born in 1822 in Bavaria.
Gottleib was born in 1828 in Bavaria.

I have information on Gottleib and his family, of course. Jacob was a farmer and he had at least 7 children who married and also had very large families. There are still Deierling's in Schuyler County, Missouri today.

Now, Phillip has become my passion. Why? Because I can connect this Wisconsin Phillip to Phillip Deirling in New Orleans. New Orleans birth records Index shows two children born to Philipp Deierling and Barbara Langenbacher. Heline on 8/21/1855 and Charles Moritz William Deierling on 8/8/1857. Next, I found Phillip in Watertown, Wi in the 1870 & 1880 census but with a different wife and new children...but Heline is still there..right age and she couldn't be a daughter of the new wife, Charlotta because Charlotta is much younger than Phillip. Still not proof because all the children are listed as born in Wisconsin. Spend considerable time trying to find 1860 but finally was successful - the name was spelled Dearling.

There is little Heline (Helena) age 5 and this time she was born in Lousiana. HooRay!! But, to throw another interesting tidbit into the puzzle, there is another young girl by the name of Elizabeth who is 11 year old. Who the heck is this? Would have made her born in 1849 and it states she was born in Bavaria.

More later........

Technorati tags:
Gottleib Darling
Genealogy
Deierling
Direling

2007-02-11T16:38:00.000-06:00

Just a couple thoughts rattling around my head this lazy Sunday.

As we watch the media swarm all over Anna Nicole Smith I found a statement that hit home with me -

The media frenzy drives ratings and ratings drive profits. Truth is too often too boring.....Lin Wood

Link to article by Attorney Lin Wood on the subject of "media frenzies". Very interesting read.

freespeech

It is all about the money in the end. It doesn't matter whose lives we destroy as long as the ratings soar and the corporation coffers overflow.

There was a Yahoo! Answers question recently where someone asked who watched Fox and who watched CNN. It was interesting to see how both sides were adamant the other side had an agenda. And, of course they do. It is extremely hard to find places to find unbiased, accurate, un-spun news anymore. I answered the question that one had to watch both, evaluate the spin and do further research before making a decision.

Speaking of Yahoo Answers, Clay Aiken has a Question as Ambassador of Unicef -
What can we do to get more Americans committed to supporting programs that help children?

Take a look, there are lots of interesting responses and a few days left to post your own answer.
Yahoo! Answers

Don't forget to catch Clay on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Valentine's Day, February 14th.

Technorati tags:
Clay Aiken
Yahoo! Answers
freespeech
Journalism

2007-01-28T15:49:00.000-06:00

The Clay Aiken smear process continues. Sigh. Frankly, I am tired of the whole thing as it is so patently absurd. Perez Hilton and other gay gossip mongers really do not display qualities I would deem appropriate for a gay role model. At least, I hope not!

It is frightening, however, how this smear campaign parallels what is going on around us all the time. When we hear something on Fox news, or anywhere else for that matter, do we take the time to research their sources? Do we even notice if they have even quoted any sources? And, if the piece of news seems cockeyed to us, how many times does it have to be picked up by other media, friends and associates, etc. before we come to believe it is true?

I want to cite a debunked news story from the past couple of weeks that is politically based. It has to do with Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton.

From Obama's website -
In the past week, many of you have read a now thoroughly-debunked story by Insight Magazine, owned by the Washington Times, which cites unnamed sources close to a political campaign that claim Senator Obama was enrolled for “at least four years” in an Indonesian “Madrassa”. The article says the “sources” believe the Madrassa was “espousing Wahhabism,” a form of radical Islam.

Insight Magazine published these allegations without a single named source, and without doing any independent reporting to confirm or deny the allegations. Fox News quickly parroted the charges, and Fox and Friends host Steve Doocy went so far as to ask, “Why didn’t anybody ever mention that that man right there was raised — spent the first decade of his life, raised by his Muslim father — as a Muslim and was educated in a Madrassa?”

Link - Barack Obama

Further information on the debunking of this lie can be found at an interesting site I found.

Link - Snopes.com

Wait, it gets better. Enter the conservative talk show hosts who then proceeded to report that the Obama story was leaked by Hilary Clinton!!

Summary: Melanie Morgan, Lee Rodgers, Rush Limbaugh, and John Gibson all forwarded the accusation made by a website controlled by Rev. Sun Myung Moon that Sen. Hillary Clinton was responsible for spreading information linking Sen. Barack Obama to a madrassa, or Muslim school. None of the four cited any evidence, other than the article, that Clinton was responsible for promoting the madrassa story, and the article cited no one by name.

Link - Medidamatters.com

Well now, the debunking of this story has actually been highly reported on. CNN, I am sure, delighted in breaking their expose as it shows their competitor, Fox, in the poorest of light for perpetuating a story without checking sources. But, how many people now have a half buried thought that there could be something valid about the story even though it was proven inaccurate. After all, where there is smoke, there is fire. Right?

This kind of thing has been going on forever, of course, what is an election without smear campaigns? How does this relate to Clay Aiken? Well, it is basically the same thing, make something up that is calculated to destroy his fans belief in him . Rally together some team members (haters) (talk show hosts) and get the word out over the internet. The gossip mags and media will pick it up and pretty soon the main stream press is reporting it as news. And, no one along the line has done any checking of sources.

I have decided to rely on my own instincts as regards Clay Aiken. I watched him on AI, I have been to many concerts, I have read his book "Learning to Sing", I have listened to many interviews and watched him on countless tv talk shows and I have met him briefly in a Meet & Greet. This isn't "knowing" him, obviously, but my instinct tells me he is who he says he is and that's good enough for me. Always has been.

Some other interesting blogs I can recommend:

A heartfelt essay on Clay's journey from AI2 until today, the 4th Anniversary of Clay's AI audition.
TheConCLAYve

And, the 911 blog has a new entry that is thought provoking.
Claymate 911

Technorati tags:
Clay Aiken
Tabloid
American Idol
Fox News
Smear Campaign

2007-01-19T12:05:00.001-06:00

AI6 - Is it my imagination or are the judges even meaner and the contestants even wackier than last year? Or, is it like childbirth, and we somehow forget the pain by the time we get to the finale?

I watched the last two nights, and on some level I am ashamed of myself. Did I cringe, you bet!! And I read a magazine and turned my attention away from the screen as soon as I determined it was another bad singer. Why do I even have it turned on? Well, I honestly don't know. Maybe hoping to see a first glimpse of the next winner. I can tell you I enjoy it much more when we get past the abusive period.

Perhaps next week I will TIVO it and fast forward past the nastiness.

Now, I realize the auditions are not real. I know those bad auditions are staged. AI wouldn't take individuals who are horrible singers and/or have non-conventional looks and/or possible mental and psychological issues and string them along and put them on TV to be humiliated by the nation. Would they?

Tis perplexing. I also don't understand those that come back year after year to be humiliated. Well, those people obviously LIKE to be humiliated, and those that know they are put through as a joke, those who agree to be a laughingstock for a few minutes, I have no problem with them trying for a few moments of "fame". They signed up for it and get what they are looking for. Don't they?

What I really worry about are those that appear to be a little unhinged; I hope AI, in their eagerness for ratings & revenue, isn't causing actual pain above and beyond what is necessary to kindly inform those individuals they aren't right for the show. They wouldn't, would they?

Each year since the first I watched, AI2, has become more manipulative and contrived. I wonder if AI hasn't finally jumped the shark. It was lots more fun watching this cute singer guy evolve than anything I've seen since.

Clay knocking them dead at the finale of AI5

The claymate911 blog has been updated. Check it out. claymate911

Technorati tags:
Clay Aiken
American Idol
AI6

2007-01-13T15:50:00.000-06:00
I am a fan of Clay Aiken. As a fan I follow his career. I go to concerts, I watch him on TV and I read about him in the media.

As a fan, these are the things I am supposed to do. And, it is enjoyable for me - it is a hobby to add to my many others.

Unfortunately, this hobby has given me a sad lesson in learning the truth about today's press and the media. Because of my "Google alerts" and the fact everything Clay does seems to be "in the news" I have discovered that I no longer believe what I read or see in the news.

I watch Clay Aiken on TV or in an interview and then I read what is written about what I have just seen and find it's spun into something completely different. And the nastiness? Unbelievable. I have been wanting to blog about this, but haven't been able to put the words together. In the last couple of days two blogs have been posted that I would like to share. This first one was posted on Clay's Official Fan Club Blog and is reposted here with the permission of the very talented author. Thanks for writing it and thanks for letting me share it on my blog.
01/13/07 : Public Relations or Media Integrity Issue?

“We are in the process of creating what deserves to be called the idiot culture. Not an idiot sub-culture, which every society has bubbling beneath the surface and which can provide harmless fun; but the culture itself. For the first time, the weird and the stupid and the coarse are becoming our cultural norm, even our cultural ideal.” ~ Carl Bernstein

Chuck Taylor of Billboard magazine recently wrote a review of Clay Aiken’s latest single A Thousand Days in which he barely spoke about the song itself, the music, or the artistry but stated, “Aiken's challenge at this point is more a public relations issue. As press reports continue to spread repeated tales of his lack of humility and haughty, diva-like disposition, how much longer before fans retreat and any semblance of radio support fades like a Christmas wreath?”

Press? I contend that Clay Aiken doesn’t have a public relations issue as much as our society has a journalistic integrity issue. When did rumor mongering become tantamount with journalism? Why is credence given to faceless blogs and gossipers? The internet, while a powerful resource is also like the Wild, Wild West of old where there are no rules and anything goes. Where faceless people hide and are spreading malicious rumors as fact and where publications that once researched before reporting, such as Newsweek, are now using the plethora of gossip sites and blogs as legitimate news sources.

“The media tends to report rumors, speculations, and projections as facts... How does the media do this? By quoting some "expert"... you can always find some expert who will say something hopelessly hopeless about anything.” ~ Peter McWilliams

I recently watched the debut of a new show starring Courtney Cox-Arquette on the Fx channel called, DIRT and it scared the hell out me. The show depicts the goings on at a tabloid called DIRT and “shows” all the machinations of how they get their stories. I found it to be very realistic and saw that IF you are a celebrity and someone has it in for you, they will stop at nothing to trash you, right or wrong.

I wrote about this subject in my blog almost a year ago and it is sad that in this time, not only has the issue not gotten better it has gotten worse. When the likes of Perez Hilton and TMZ.com have become more mainstream and are made credible by being given a forum on radio and TV, we have a problem.

“Never make negative comments or spread rumors about anyone. It depreciates their reputation and yours.” ~ Brian Koslow

If Clay Aiken has a public relations issue it is ONLY because sensationalism sells and ALL the good, legitimate stories of his compassion, his philanthropic works and the stories of how he has changed lives for the better are deemed not newsworthy.

I am sorry, but would a “diva” perform a concert while suffering from vertigo so badly they need help to just stay upright? Would a “diva” visit elementary school children and reward them for writing a book about one of their classmates who lives life with a disability and the lessons they learns from her? Would a “diva” take the time to film a public service announcement for a local children’s choir who shared the stage with the orchestra with which he was performing? Do “divas” worry about making a difference in the world? Do “divas” graciously spotlight and encourage those with whom they share a stage? In my experience the answer to all of these questions is no.

It is a shame when society and the media have made it so easy for people who have experienced disappointment, based on their own contrived expectations, are allowed to publicly berate and trash another person solely based on twisted opinion of facts. Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?

“Man is a being with free will; therefore, each man is potentially good or evil, and it's up to him and only him (through his reasoning mind) to decide which he wants to be.” ~ Ayn Rand

It appears to me that many have decided to be evil.

The second blog that I recommend can be found here : claymate911

Technorati tags:
Clay Aiken
Journalism
Tabloids
Internet
Chuck Taylor
Perez Hilton
Jeff Varner
Scandal
Diva

2006-11-21T18:00:00.000-06:00

Sorry, haven't blogged in awhile....but couldn't resist this.

'nuff said, don't ya think?

Some other recommended blogs:

Something that Really Happened

Conclayve

Technorati tags:
Clay Aiken
Kelly Ripa

2006-09-21T13:36:00.000-05:00
So You Think You Can Dance? - Gosh, It's been so long since I've blogged so have to catch up on some things I've been doing. When tickets for SYTYCD became available I was able to snare one pit ticket and one in row 6. To get two together would have put us way back in the theatre. So, my daughter in law and I didn't sit together and we exchanged seats at intermission so we both could have the treat of the pit ticket - but we had a great time and the show was great.

I got a lot of pictures....don't know what was wrong with me, I do know how to take pictures, but I was so entranced by the dancing I just couldn't distance myself enough to set the camera for sports mode so I just took pictures in still mode. LOL.

Ivan was one of my favorites during the show. I love his personality!!!

Travis and Heidi.

Benji and Donyelle

Benji and Travis made a great team and did their dance from the show!!

Ivan again!!! He was very entertaining !!!

Not terribly sharp, but I kind of like it !!

Benji was great as an announcer and, of course, as a dancer. Such a goofus sometimes, ya gotta love him.

I like this one of Travis.

It was a very energetic and fun show. The crowd had a good time and it was over much too quickly.

A little slide show of all my pictures.

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Technorati tags:
Clay Aiken
So You Think You Can Dance

2006-09-05T12:49:00.000-05:00
New Clay Pictures !!!!!

Well, of course I couldn't help it. With these beauties in hand I decided to do a 100% picture scrapbook page. Wish I had the high res pictures, but these will do.

Don't forget to check out Clay's new single, Without You.

Clay's My Space

or, some prefer Fanscape as the audio is even better -

Fanscape

Technorati tags:
Clay Aiken
ATDW
Digital Scrapbooking

2006-09-02T14:24:00.000-05:00
My first Northern Cardinal pictures
I was raised in California where Cardinals do NOT visit and so, when I moved to Arizona, I was excited to discover Cardinals frequent the SE part of the state. Now, I'm kind of in the central part of the state, but I had my fingers crossed.

I saw my first one in a restaurant where they had a bunch of bird feeders outside the window. Then, one day a few months ago I heard a different bird call and went to investigate what it was. I'm not good at identifying which bird call is which, but I knew this was not one of my usual woodpeckers, cactus wrens, etc.

There was a cardinal sitting on my hanging bird feeder. I almost tripped over myself getting the camera and catching a couple of so-so pictures. I only saw him twice and he was gone.

One of the pic's is kind of nice after I PS'd it a little.

Today's scrapbooking challenge was colors again. This is the color pallet.

Hmm. Wanted to do something with a bird pic today but these colors didn't seem to go so I used the blur feature in PS filters to get a random blurred background and went from there. Not sure if it really works, but I kind of like the effect. And, I used all the colors from the challenge. They're there. Honest.

Technorati tags:
Clay Aiken
Photoshop Elements
Digital Scrapbooking
Birding
Cardinal

2006-08-28T17:57:00.000-05:00
My first from scratch scrapbook project. Awhile back I enrolled in "Photoshop Elements Techniques". It's a website that has lots of information, tutorials, downloads, etc. for Photoshop Elements. The scrapbooking pages I have done so far are from kits and/or some creativity on my part. After doing a couple of tutorials on this new site, I have come to realize the power behind Photoshop products. I don't know how deep I will get into it as I am basically not artistic, but I have committed myself to wading through all the tutorials, etc. and hopefully some of will stick.

The tutorial I did today was to create a cutout, basically for a picture frame. Frankly, the instructions were not good, either in the tutorial or in the instructions for using Photoshop Elements located within the product. Point in fact, the tutorial called for using a shape for the cutout. Now, I knew what a shape was, there is a pull down where you can pick generic shapes to use as a cutout or frame or whatnot. But, I needed to go get a shape from an Adobe site. The instructions said to download it and install it by going to Edit, Preset Manager and loading it in through there. There WAS no shapes in the pulldown - brushes, patterns, etc. but no shapes. I clicked here and I clicked there to no avail. So I went into the forum and sent a note. Good thing I mentioned I was a blond, because when I got back to my project low and behold the new shapes were there in the pulldown. But they went away when I went back to my default shapes. What had I done to get them there in the first place? After some experimentation, this time I paid attention, it seems you click on the shape file and it temporarily puts the shapes in your pulldown. Now, this makes complete sense as there are probably lots of shapes I might want to download and use, but they would clog up my pulldown menu and probably affect computer performance if they stayed permanently. (Sort of like having 10 gazillion fonts installed - who?? me??) But, boy....you'd think they'd tell a person this. Once I had this licked I was back to the project and the next wall I ran into was a problem in the tutorial....the author was assuming I knew things I do not and that I would know I had to create a new layer for my "shape". LOL. It took me hours to complete the following, which I don't even care for particularly, but I did it ALL from scratch, including the pattern on the background. What you see here is what some digital scrapbooking sites call a Plopper - all you need to do is insert a picture between the parchment layer and the background and add some journalling and/or embellishment.

Oh, the shape, of course, is the peacock. Yah know, I don't even think I have a picture that goes with the frame. ROTFL....
Technorati tags:
Clay Aiken
Photoshop Elements
Digital Scrapbooking

2006-08-26T19:02:00.000-05:00
Jasmine, my adopted Siamese cat is a pretty good subject for photographing. She seems to like to pose. So, I was playing around today and made this page for her. Blue is definately her color.

Jazzy has all the typical Siamese characteristics....loves to talk. She never lowers herself to play with Baby Kitty's toys, but if you are careful she doesn't see you, you might catch her swat carelessly at a catnip toy...her head held high. Some more pictures in a little slide show.

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Technorati tags:
Clay Aiken
Cats
Digital Scrapbooking

2006-08-24T12:57:00.000-05:00
Clay comments on a scrapbooking site - I often post about the digital scrapbooking challenges I participate in and my last one I uploaded was Clay (as are most of them). When you upload the scrapbooking pages they are then available for view by other members and they often comment. The last one drew 7 comments, 5 of which went like this:

Nicely done. While not a huge fan of his (I'm more into country music), he is such a cutie, and the pics you've chosen to showcase are adorable!

I have heard of him but thats it , he is a cutie i will say that and great LO.

Great LO. While I've not heard any music from him in awhile, I still like him (and still think he should have won!).

This is a great layout ... could be a great promo for him! (Maybe you need to send him a copy!)

Great job with Clay's photos! I TOTALLY agree! He SHOULD have won but in the end he is the winner....he;s doing better...lol...

So, heck.....todays challenge was a simple layout with a main pic, three small ones, some journaling....so I uploaded this:

Well, I figure....if only one of them decides to go out and buy it I've done my part!!!

Technorati tags:
Clay Aiken
ATDW
Digital Scrapbooking
ATDW

A Thousand Different Ways

2006-08-22T16:47:00.000-05:00
We have snippets!!!! My jukebox is now updated with snippets of all 14 songs on A Thousand Different Ways which will be for sale on Sept 19, 2006. In addition, the album cover has been confirmed and although I posted it in my previous blog, it's so gorgeous I just have to post it again.

Enjoy the snippets. I cannot pick a favorite at this point and desperately want to hear the complete versions!!! Broken Wings and Lonely No More are especially screaming at me...

Technorati tags:
Clay Aiken
ATDW
A Thousand Different Ways

2006-08-19T13:54:00.000-05:00
Gah. Last week we thought we had the album cover picture.

Love the picture, Love the bold typeface...... I am getting very excited about this album, I think it will surprise some people, fascinate some people, and entertain us all enormously. And, I certainly hope the "actual" album cover is even more striking than this one....cuz I like this one very much....

Although I have added a link to Clay's myspace account to the sidebar on the right, I want to put the link here Clay Aiken MySpace and I recommend going to listen to what is reported to be his first single off the new album. Notice I didn't say it IS the single off his next album as we haven't heard it from either he or RCA. I wasn't too sure about "covers" because of the negative value placed on the WORD covers. I have purchased cover albums and have always enjoyed hearing a favorite artist singing songs I have loved in the past. After hearing this song I can't wait to hear the rest of the songs, because "Without You" is stunning.

Hopefully, this album will be embraced by the fans as well as the general public. I think it will, the heavy promotion at Walmart in their SoundCheck series should be huge in first week sales. A few television promo's and appearances and we should be good to go. I get to see him in Hollywood at the Jimmy Kimmel show on 9/26!!!!

Check out my new counter for days, hours and minutes until the release of the new album.

Technorati tags:
Clay Aiken
ATDW
A Thousand Different Ways

2006-08-13T14:05:00.000-05:00
Baby Kitty & the Lizard. The other day my (formerly) sweet and innocent kitten brought me a present, which she dropped right at my bare feet while I was sitting at my desk. The present immediately started to scurry around and I launched myself onto the top of my desk, getting those bare feet out of the way. As my camera was on the desk, I got a few pictures before I felt it was time to intercede and rescue the critter. Baby had to be locked in the laundry room as she was beside herself with the joy of the hunt and I was able to sweep the lizard back out onto the patio. I loathe the things, mostly because they can move so fast. Anyway, here is a little slide show of Baby Kitty's day.

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Clay Aiken
Cats

2006-08-07T15:15:00.000-05:00

Clay's New Album. Finally, last week we got a press release and a song list for the new album, "A Thousand Differant Ways". And, then we got some pictures and a promo on ET with some more stellar pictures and images. Wow. Still, we haven't heard him speak. There are those who are wondering when the new hair will speak. Hah, maybe it won't. A sorta 2006 sexy male version of the Greta Garbo " I vant to be alone" personna. Nah, just joking, but there is a sort of mystery forming around Clay that is enticing and romantic.

Naturally, I had to do a scrapbook page......

As one DJ has been reported to have said, Hubba Hubba

Technorati tags:
Clay Aiken
Digital Scrapbooking

2006-07-31T13:03:00.000-05:00
Yesterday I tackled cleaning out a closet that had my camera equipment. I never throw anything out if I can help it, but in anticipation of an upcoming move.....no, not to Charleston as previously stated - but that's another blog, I have been doing some discarding. My original "serious" camera was a Minolta Rangefinder that I dropped in the surf in Hawaii and ruined. I did keep it for many years, thinking I would cough up the money to have it fixed, but I finally (cries) discarded it. Now, I see I have my second camera, an Olympus OM1 that took all the great pictures of my son growing up and my Canon Rebel EOS, which I truly loved, my original digital camera, an Olympus was stolen and I replaced it with a Sony, which was ok...and, of course today I have the Canon Powershot. I guess that's not a lot of camera for a lifetime, and I did have the instamatics and the polaroid, but I haven't bothered keeping any of those, just the ones that mean something to me. I would love to have the new Canon Rebel Digital, but the price is prohibitive at this point and I would not be able to take it into a concert...so, I'll stick with what I currently have for the time being.

At any rate, and the point of all this, while going through the various camera bags and organizing everything, I found several Sony memory sticks I had put away when I got the new Canon....and surprise, found some pictures I had taken on a vacation to Southern Arizona about 5 years ago. Not very many but I had obviously forgotten about these as most of the pictures I took on that trip were with the Canon EOS.

Since I was thrilled with putting the Concord Hall pictures in a video format I tried it again. This time I used Roxio instead of Photoshop Elements Organizer. With Roxio I don't see a way to add captions to the pictures, which I might want to do with bird pics. I also found Roxio a little more unwieldy for getting the pics into the project and organizing them. It's a tossup.

These pics aren't great, but there are a couple of sunsets on here that I remember well. it was like the mountains were on fire. Most of the bird pics were taken near Tucson, but the sunsets were from a B&B I stayed at in Hereford, Az (not far from Bisbee). Great birding area. If I can find some of the SLR pics perhaps I will blog on the B&B and trip - it was a lot of fun.

So, here is the video, if interested. It's short, and again the music is by William Joseph. Go to the sidebar on the right and turn Clay off by hitting the two bars.

Just trying to distract myself while we are awaiting a PR for Clay's new "Highly Anticipated" album.

Technorati tags:
Clay Aiken
Arizona
Birding Ohio

2006-07-29T19:29:00.000-05:00
I've mentioned before that I'm trying to digitalize my family pictures and documents for posterity. Yesterday I completed scanning of one small photo album (of many). I was glad to get the pictures scanned but then I thought about putting them into a slide show and sure enough Photoshop Elements 4 Organizer does just that and allows you to make a video of the whole thing. So, I did it and uploaded it into Youtube and feel very proud of myself. I see all the wonderful montages everyone does with Clay pictures and this is not anywhere as nice as those, but it's my first attempt. I will work on it a little more and maybe make DVD's for my siblings for Christmas.

I call this particular album Concord Hall because most of the pictures were taken there. Concord Hall is a house in Lancaster, Ohio and is now on the Heritage Tour in the area. My great grandmother bought the house in 1903 and my father sold it in 1949 (for a pittance, almost exactly what Mary paid for it) when we moved to California. I visited the house in the 1970's and have some pictures I took at that time and it looks just the same, except some of the big elm trees have come down over the years in storms.

Anyway, here is the video if you are interested in genealogy or history you might enjoy some of these pictures. The clothes were beautiful...the young boy in the pictures is my father and man, he had some wild outfits. Before you play the video, go to the jukebox on the side bar to the right and turn Clay off by clicking the two little bars ". Thanks.

The house was built in 1831 and on it's 150th anniversary, the following story was published.

Happy 150th Birthday

Concord Hall

It was in the summer of 1831 that Augustus Witte moved his family from the log cabin, which had been their temporary home, into their newly built fine brick home three miles west of the village of Lancaster. If the walls of this venerable home could talk, it could tell a story something like the following:

"Yes, it has been 150 years that I have provided homes for several families, and in the course of those years I've experienced many joys and sorrows, many fond hopes and dashed expectations but I've always been loved and most people think I'm more beautiful than ever, which of course comes from sturdy and well planned construction and tender loving care over the years and I've had three different names. But let me start at the beginning.

I was conceived in Hanover, Germany, shortly following Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. Young Captain Augustus Witte, who had distinguished himself with gallant conduct during that battle had received a medal from the government for his service, and had married the niece of his commanding officer, General Bliicher. She died quite young and a little later he married Agatha Von Roden. Having heard much of the wonders of the new world, they must have decided to build a new life for themselves, there, and so on May 15, 1829 he embarked from Bremen and six weeks later he landed in Baltimore, Md. He came directly to Ohio and to Lancaster, where there was already a sizeable German settlement. He brought with him plans for a fine house, drawn by his brother who was an architect for the royal family of Hanover.

He soon located a suitable tract of land just west of Lancaster on Zane's Trace. This land had a very fine spring of water, and a former owner had established a small tread mill for grinding grain and a small distillery. That fall (1829) Witte returned to Germany leaving his friend Charles Schur who along with a few other craftsmen had accompanied him from Hanover, to superintend the construction of the house, barn, steam flour mill and distillery. Bricks for the house were made in the brick yard across Boving Road (then Zane's Trace).

In the spring of 1830 Witte returned from Germany bringing his wife and family consisting of 5 year old Cecilia and four younger sons, furniture for the new home, a trunk full of silver, and 4 millers, 2 distillers, 1 carpenter, 2 farm hands, 1 cooper, 1 boy, 4 maids and 1 housekeeper. Since the new house was not ready for occupancy the family moved into the log cabin; the others had to live in the barn. Unfortunately in November of that year the log cabin and most of its contents were destroyed by fire. A lovely little painting on copper of Agatha Von Roden and her daughter Cecilia, which had been painted in Germany, survived this catastrophe. Soon after this, Agatha died. She was never to live in this house for which she had planned, for it was not until the following summer (1831) that the family could move in. The steam mill and distillery were in full operation, so they named me "The Steam Mill Farm."

Captain Witte soon organized the German Guards, a very fine military company - the first such company here to have good uniforms and drill in a precise military fashion for Captain Witte was a German gentleman of fine manners and martial bearing, who had greatly disliked the "rag-tag cornstalk" militia which he at first encountered here. The German Guards, who often drilled on my grounds, were well uniformed, had a band for music, and a cannon, and were invited to participate in the laying of the cornerstone of the new State Capitol building in Columbus where they made a fine display.

In 1838 Capt. Witte married Miss Anna Schloman and to this union were born five children. Capt. Witte had also brought with him from Germany a habit of hospitality which he dispensed with a lavish hand. Having built a ballroom on the second floor of his home, there v.,Pre many fine occasions when his house was full of guests. But, like many liberal men, he was imposed upon. Then he had another disastrous loss, for two canal boat loads of whiskey which he had sold were confiscated by a dishonest boat captain and sold in Detroit. So, in 1845, with many debts and not enough money, Witte was forced to sell the property to his friend John Gromme. For thirteen years Gromme tried to develop a dairy farm, but since he was primarily in the tanning business, in 1858 he sold the farm to John T. Brasee, a prominent lawyer and State Senator at the time. He became very intersted in farming. He had a family of eight children, who undoubtedly enjoyed riding over the hills and through the woods where Johnny Appleseed once planted apple trees along Zane's Trace (A gnarled survivor may still be seen).

Their nearby neighbors and friends, the Darius Tallmadge family were given, for the sum of one dollar, all the water they could use from the marvelous spring on this property and the right to lay wooden pipes to conduct water from said spring through Brasee's farm to the lands of Tallmadge adjacent to the east.

All of his eight children were talented and lively. His eldest daughter Ellen married Darius Tailmadge's son, Theodore, who became a well known attorney in Washington, D.C. His son John became a prominent member of the Lancaster bar, but the most colorful story is told of his youngest daughter Alice who had a romance with the son of my builder Augustus Witte. Young George Witte, who had gone to the Mexican War and afterwards settled in New Orleans, came to Lancaster to visit his oldest sister Cecilia Witte Mithoff (Augustus Mithoff in the meantime had purchased the neighboring Darius Tallmadge place) and met the beautiful and spirited Alice Brasee. They fell in love and he promised to come back and claim her for his bride. With the ring he gave her, she etched her name and the date - on the window of the widow's walk (where it can still be seen). When the day came for him to arrive by train for the wedding, young Alice went up to the widow's walk again and waved a large Confederate flag as the train passed nearby. Since this was just prior to the Civil War, this incident caused much consternation in the countryside. However, the wedding went on and soon the young couple departed for New Orleans to make their home. Unhappily, cluring the War, young Alice became ill and died. After the war, a trunk full of her beautiful clothes and mementos was sent back to her family.

During the Brasee's ownership of this house my name was changed to Concordia, the name of a Roman goddess denoting harmony.

In 1903 the property was sold to Mrs. Lucien B. Martin, whose grandson and heir is the great, great, great, grandson of Ebenezer Zane. Mrs. Martin had a portrait of Zane which hung in the parlor of the house as long as the Martins lived there. The Martins had come to Lancaster from their home in Martins Ferry to found a glass factory (later merged with Anchor Hocking). Before coming to Lancaster, Mr. Martin had been president of Fostoria Glass Company. The Martins were well educated, well traveled and affluent citizens. It has been alleged that a friend, who was a southern architect, had suggested to them that in the South such a fine residence was usually called a hall, and so they decided to change my name from Concordia to Concord Hall, and as such it has remained.

In some of her travels Mrs. Martin had been so fascinated with the Swiss custom of attaching bells to the collars of their cows, and the musical tinkling the various sized bells made as the dairy herds were grazing or coming down from the mountains, that she purchased a group of Swiss bells - one for each cow in their herd near Lancaster. For many years they were heard on my grounds, evoking pleasant memories and more practically, making it easier for the herdsman to round up the cows.

Mrs. Martin also was a great gardener. There was a rose garden bordered by huge snowball bushes which extended on both sides of a wide walk-way from the house back to a garden pergola at the edge of the woods. Many a festive dinner party was served at tables along this beautiful pathway.

But Philip Martin's sudden and tragic death changed all that. In 1948 Jack Martin, who had inherited Concord Hall from his grandmother decided to give up farming and move to California, so he sold it to Henry Peters, who two years later sold to Dr. and Mrs. Andrew Jamison. The Jamisons restored the house and lived there until 1954, when they sold it to the present owners, Dr. Robert and Dorothy Fox. Dr. Jamison was a native of South Carolina, and once again the house had some Confederate overtones, as Dr. Jamison hung a large portrait of General Robert E. Lee in the entrance hall.

While I have had kindly treatment from all of my owners, none have lavished more tender, loving care than the present ones. They have preserved all my historic features, repaired my fascinating barn (where many a square dance has been held) developed fine gardens, built riding trails around the acreage and through the woods. Oh, yes, I almost forgot to tell you that they also discovered a tunnel leading from the cellar of the house to a spot near the barn where it is presumed that prior to the Civil War run-away slaves were assisted in their way along the Underground Railroad. But best of all is the way the present owners share the beauty of their home with their many friends, associates, and organizations. Twice I have been on the Fairfield Heritage Pilgrimages. The first time, in 1965, young ladies in beautiful appropriate riding costumes rode side saddle around the grounds; and in 1975, the Rocky Fork Hunt Club staged a very exciting fox hunt. All seemed right at home.

I had one big fright when the Rt. 33 Bypass was first scheduled to go exactly in front of me which would have meant my demise, but thanks to being on the National Register of Historic Places, that tragedy was averted. Now I look forward to my next 150 years, for I am now as sound and certainly more beautiful than I've ever been!"

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Clay Aiken
Genealogy
Lancaster Ohio

2006-07-28T13:23:00.000-05:00
Clay Aiken and some more scrapbooking...... I wandered around some scrapbooking sites this morning and found some beautiful kits to download and downloaded one called "The Impossible Dream". The kit made me think of Clay and what has happened to him the past three years and what the future holds in store. It is "An Impossible Dream" and I am so happy to be along on the adventure with him. Here is a link to this great scrapbooking website:

Scrapbook Elements

Yesterday, Clay blogged about the tragedy of the displaced children of Lebanon affected by the current conflict. As an Ambassador for Unicef, Clay requested his fans consider donating to Unicef for the needs of these children. Check it out here.

Unicef Front Page with News of the Plight of Lebanonese Children

If, after consideration, you wish to contribute, here is a link to do so:

Donate to Unicef Specifically for Lebanon Children

As of this morning, Clay fans alone have contributed over $47,000 to this charity. This is a stupendous accomplishment in less than 24 hours and I am proud of everyone for stepping up to the plate. WTG, Claymates.

OK, enough of that....here are the two pages I did this morning.

The pictures were from a Joyful Noise 2005 concert I attended in Columbia, South Carolina last Christmas. The Christmas tours and Christmas music seem to bring a special joy to Clay's life, so I used them in the scrapbook pages.

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Clay Aiken
UNICEF
Digital Scrapbooking

2006-07-26T18:44:00.000-05:00
Clay Photoshoots. Someone on my board posted some pic's from a photoshoot that I have always liked so I decided to used them in a scrapbooking challenge that utilized a quickframe. It's unbelievably easy to do these as you get a template and just add your pictures and embellishments. The gal setting up the challenge gives you a little kit that has the pieces and you can arrange them to suit yourself, changing colors and adding bits and pieces if you want. Here's what the pieces looked like before I got "creative". (delusional)
I then made the ribbon and the embellishment blue like Clay's shirt and borrowed a little piece of net from a beach scrapbooking kit. The color on the font was also borrowed from his shirt and curved a little to blend with the curve of the picture frame. So here is the final page.

I can't wait to see the new pictures from the photoshoot for the new album.....we should have the new "Hair".....hee.

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Clay Aiken
Digital Scrapbook

2006-07-20T17:56:00.000-05:00
Just wanted to add a new song to the jukebox. Don't know where it came from or how it got out on the internet. But it is. So, enjoy!!!!! Oh, and a picture to enjoy while you listen:

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Clay Aiken

2006-07-18T15:35:00.000-05:00
Musing on Craft Projects - Someone on the message board I belong to made a joke about "going back to her knitting". It made me grin because the last couple of days I have been working on reducing my personal property for this move coming up and as I used to knit, her comment reminded me of my ordeal. I used to knit, but as of yesterday all I have left is an enormous collection of knitting needles and crochet hooks, etc. All of the misc. yarn was thrown out, except for one ball for the kitten who is in heaven.
My button making stuff went into a box, I might make more Clay buttons someday, my stamps I have been collecting because someday I want to learn how to use them in scrapbooking went into a box. (Psst....let's not forget I just discovered digital scrapbooking) 22 bottles of acrylic paint I bought at Michaels on sale cuz I liked the colors and they still are, after all, never opened...went into a box. Glue gun, jar of buttons, etc. all went in a box. This is all important stuff.

Then I pull out the boxes labeled "counted cross stitch". My sister was the cross stitcher in the family, she could produce fully completed works of art, framed and ready to hang on the wall in a weeks time. I guess it was a competition, or something, because I kept buying kits and "trying" to get something finished. I have never hung a piece of work on the wall, nor completed anything useful other than a couple of bookmarks. I have every color of thread imaginable, all sorted and saved in little plastic baggies on a ring. So, I decide to go through all the bags of stuff. See, my MO was to buy a kit or pattern & yarn and keep the project in the original bag from the store. I have bags that are crumbling from age. There are several bags from a wonderful little cross stitching store I found in NJ when I lived there. Bags and bags of unfinished potential "art"....and I mean REALLY unfinished, like I did 25 cross stitches and put it back in the "bag".

What to do with all this?? Why do I keep it? I can't throw it out, I just can't. So, I grab one clean box and start to go through the various layers. Hmmm, my grandson's first bedroom decoration was Winnie the Pooh and I actually did one whole corner of this one. He's now six and into Dinosaurs and skateboards. Out with Winnie. Kept all the needles, hoops (yes, a lot of the bags had a hoop, when I was done I kept 10 different sizes and shapes of hoops and one set of stretcher bars) unopened cross stitch material, pattern books. And, I think about 15 unfinished kits and/or projects ended up in my clean, fresh, box. There were several (very small) finished "works of art" which also ended up in the keeper box.

I came upon my mom's counted cross stitch materials. Why this debris ended up in my car instead of the garage sale is a complete mystery to me. Kept the great magnifying glass, tossed all the old yarns, etc. The only project I kept was this enormous bell pull she had completed but never hung on the bars. I never will finish it either, it is olive and gold...and yes, it was probably stitched in the 70's!! But she worked at it for a long, long, long time. She hardly ever finished any of her cross stitching projects, either. It's a good thing I have a son, I would hate for this neurosis to affect a third generation.

All done, marked the box "Counted Cross Stitch" and put it back in the closet. Hey, I went from three boxes to one. It's progress....of a sort.

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Clay Aiken
Digital Scrapbook
Counted Cross Stitch

2006-07-17T15:30:00.000-05:00
I've been kind of taking a break from the message boards and blogging the last couple of weeks. In addition, my internet has been up and down for a week and I just know I will lose something once I get started. Plus, I don't have much to say, which is unusual for me. I can usually be counted on to have an opinion on just about anything.

Did do a couple of scrapbooking challenges. The first one was to do one about a nature subject so I put together this one about the Black Chinned Hummingbirds that frequent my feeders.

I learned a new technique the other day that I incorporated in the hummer picture. A site called Photoshopelementsuser.com has some tutorials that are useful. In fact, although it is kind of pricy at $49 a year, I think I might join for the premium version as they have a scrapbooking section. Anyway, I had a picture of my DIL and GD. One had a purple dress and the other a turquoise blouse. I looked for a paper that worked with the clothing and couldn't come up with anything I liked. So I tried to change the colors of the clothes to match a paper and that worked for the blouse, but the dress was a mess. Then I wandered into the aforementioned site and discovered how to motion blur and radial blur a picture so that you got an abstract "paper" that you could use as a background. It worked great.

That is what I did on the hummer picture, as well. The background is just the big picture of the hummer blurred. Kinda cool, Huh?

2006-07-06T12:35:00.000-05:00
Since Clay and Ruben attended Kelly's concert in Raleigh the other night, I thought I would do my monthly color challenge to commemorate the event. I love that Clay, Kelly and Ruben have remained friends - I suspect having AI as their common bond will keep them friends.....they alone understand what the experience and aftermath have been like. It is a shame their fan bases can't just give up the battle....it certainly has not affected Clay, Kelly and Ruben's friendship so just give it up already. OK, rant over.

The colors we were to use:

I managed to get all the colors in my layout, but disregarded the pinkish one. The picture of Kelly and Clay in my scrapbook page was taken at Sea World and the one of Clay and Ruben was an AP picture. The large picture of Clay was taken by FanofAiken who was in attendance at the concert. Clay and Ruben are usually referred to as the Cluben by fans on message boards and those of us who like the idea of Clay and Kelly as a couple often refer to them as the Clelly.

Click twice to make scrapbook page larger

Edited to Add:
Here is a link to a great video of Clay and Ruben from the AI2 concert.

And this clip is Clay and Kelly on ET just before the Independent Tour started up. Very funny video.

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Clay Aiken
Ruben Studdard
Kelly Clarkson
Digital Scrapbooking

2006-07-03T11:37:00.000-05:00
My scrapbooking challenge for the day was to create a top ten list with one picture and a list, so here's what I came up with:

Click to enlarge picture.
I always do the challenges without looking at what other people post....then I go and look at the others and slap myself silly wondering "Why I didn't think of doing that". I'm really NOT creative at all. But, it's fun to play around and I am wondering what all the scrapbookers are thinking of my Clay Aiken scrapbook pages. I HAVE gotten the most comments on the Clay pages, now that I think about it. Positive comments about Clay. It's not just us, LOL.

Most of the digital scrapbooking sites have these little challenges, but I have been spending the most time at Gotta Pixel See the link in my sidebar for access to a bunch of sites you can visit. Look for the "freebies", it's a good way to get started

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Clay Aiken
Digital Scrapbook

2006-07-02T15:55:00.000-05:00

My Clay offering for the day is another album page for my scrapbook. This one was made with a template kit I downloaded. For the life of me, I could not make templates work the way they did the last time I tried this....but I finally figured it out by doing something completely different. The striped paper is called "dad's old shirt", that sure fits, I think dad DID have one like that. The picture in the center is by one very talented "Permaswooned". Thanks!!!

So I made my prediction of news this week by a hair...Friday afternoon, I was sweating it. It's a contest, to guess the acronym for the album title for Clay's new album and if you read between the lines.....it seems we'll have some news in the next couple of weeks. It should go fast now....as the song says -

Could it be? Yes, it could.
Something's coming, something good,
If I can wait!
Something's coming, I don't know what it is,
But it is
Gonna be great!

I'm sure I've said it before, but I'll chance repeating myself - Clay Aiken is a consumate risk taker...whatever is coming our way is indeed going to be "different" and as such, very Clay. So far every thing he has done has been part of the evolution of Clay Aiken. Which is the theme of the scrapbook page, I suppose....perhaps I should put the word "Evolution" on the page. What do you think?

Off to do some more scrapbooking. I'm in the mood today and I have another set of templates to try out.

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Clay Aiken
Digital Scrapbook

2006-06-28T12:55:00.000-05:00

How about a Clay project while we wait? Come on in, kids - it's Arts and Crafts time. As background, I used to have a space in an antique mall - just 8X14, it was a hobby store, I never made any money but it allowed me to go to garage sales and purchase items without guilt....cuz they were for the "store". LOL. I picked up some vintage sheet music from time to time and using old frames I found, framed the sheet music AND actually sold them! I did quite of few of these with old frames I had picked up.

A year or so ago I discovered there was such a thing as sheet music for Clay's music....with great pictures, so I bought a couple and framed them in a more contemporary fashion - it's easy to do and not expensive.

First of all, get your sheet music online. You may find it locally in a music store, as well. If you google sheet music Clay Aiken you will get a lot of hits. I have used - www.sheetmusicplus.com with good results, but there are lots of others out there. The music will cost $3-$6 based on where you get it.

Now, to frame it yourself, you can just plop it into a ready made 9X12 frame...if you can find one. This is the hard part. When I was doing the vintage ones, my frames were all different sizes and the sheet music is usually 9X12, so I mounted the music on top of various mats I then cut to fit the frame. I discovered Michael's has a pre-cut mat to go over the music(only in black)that has an opening of 9X12 which fits a frame 12X16 - again, a frame size hard to find...but Michaels has one that works well. It's black metal with clips to hold the picture in. The great thing about Michael's is that if you wait.....it will eventually be on sale for 50% off. I bought a couple of extras for when the next album comes out I am sure there will be sheet music for the songs. And my frames will match.

Here's a couple of (bad) pics of the two I currently have hanging. The pic's are bad because the room is dark and I had to use flash. LOL. Anyway, should give you an idea. Each of these, with the frames and mat being on sale and including the sheet music cost about $15.00 to put together. Of course, you can always clip the Michael's coupon for 50% off framing and have them do it for you, with unique matting and frames, but it will cost a whole lot more. And, this is arts and crafts 101, LOL.

Michael's, for those of you who don't have one is an arts and crafts store that has lots and lots of frames for DIY as well as professional framing available.

Enjoy.

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Clay Aiken
Vintage Sheet Music
Sheet Music

2006-06-27T11:19:00.000-05:00
Some Clay memories and other musings.....I've taken a few days away from posting on the boards and doing blogs but today I am feeling an anticipation that news will finally be forthcoming. I think this is the week we will hear something about the new album and possibly some appearance dates or tour information. I can't wait to see this guy on my TV again....

and in concert, where he absolutely glows.

Perhaps after the news hits I can go back to my home board where some members, with no new hairdos to discuss, have been picking on other musical artists. Oh, they couch the rhetoric in line with the rules of the board, ie, "It is my opinion that Taylor Hicks is full of himself." Well, he may very well be, but I found him entertaining on the show and he did win, so I cut him a lot of slack. The proof will be in the pudding...err, the sales. You know, it's fine not to like other artists, but I'm confused why it seems to be so common to repeat over and over how irratated other artists make you feel - as in, "OMG, I just saw that Taylor Hicks Ford commercial for the third time tonight". Then 10 minutes later, "OMG, I just saw that Taylor Hicks Ford commercial for the fourth time tonight, when will this ever end????"

LOL, good for Taylor. By the time I saw the commercial I was predisposed to dislike it intensely, but I thought it was cute and found my self totally baffled by the dislike. Well, whatever. Taylor will be successful, or not...it depends on how hard he works, how much his fans and record label support him and in the end it has nothing to do with Clay's career, so I'm not bothering to angst over every little Taylor appearance.

Sure, we are all fans of Clay Aiken, but I think we are allowed to like other musical artists. And, I would prefer to talk about those I like, not those I don't particularly care for. For example, I'm a huge Keith Urban fan - didn't he look yummy at his wedding?

I discovered Keith because of Clay, I've written about this before. I was doing Rate the Music and they sent me a special poll on this guy I had never heard of. I listened to "You'll Think of Me", googled Keith Urban and that was that. I've been to a couple of Keith's concerts here in Phoenix, one in Indianapolis last summer in conjunction with The Jukebox Tour and then I saw him in Boise and Missoula, Mt last fall. Here is a picture I took in Boise.

Keith's concerts are extremely energetic, not country at all, in my opinion. Keith is now working on his next album.....well, I expect to hear some great love songs, don't ya think???

Another one of my favorite artists for years and years is Harry Connick, Jr.

Gee, that hairdo looks familiar, doesn't it??

I have quite a few of his albums and need to go pick up his latest, which is a double album including the cast album for The Pajama Game, which is Harry's first broadway musical role and a second disc with songs from Thou Shalt Not - Harry's first attempt at writing for the stage. Since I am a fan of both Harry and Broadway musicals, I'm sure I will enjoy the album.

Nor do I want to leave out someone I found on Promosquad, again...all the fault of one Mr. Aiken. Jared Lee has no album out to date, but I think his music is wonderful, he is wonderful on the eyes and I think and hope we will hear this young man someday soon. Check him out here:

Jared also has a my space account where you can hear several of his songs:
http://www.myspace.com/jaredlee

So, those are my thoughts today as I, along with thousands of other Clay fans, await news.

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Clay Aiken
Keith Urban
Harry Connick, Jr.
Taylor Hicks
Jared Lee

2006-06-20T19:28:00.000-05:00
I'm my own sixth cousin. Yes, it's true. I have to come clean and admit it. And, I guess while I am fessing up......the ancestors who caused this relationship ..... me to myself, that is.......came from West Virginia. As today is West Virginia Day, I thought I would share my WV roots.

Now, most of us know that cousins are children of siblings. Second cousins would then be the offspring of the 1st set of cousins. And third cousins the offspring of second cousins, etc. So, in order to be my OWN cousin, somewhere up the line cousins (of some degree) would have had to have gotten married.

Yes, my great great grandfather, Ebenezer Martin married his second cousin. Now, it was a long time ago and there weren't too many people in West Virginia and Ohio in 1832 when they were married....well, heck, Minerva Zane was actually Ebenezer's 2nd wife....he married his 1st wife in 1811 and she was his 1st cousin (and Minerva's aunt), once removed....a sorta cousin and a half, LOL. I know, I know, the removed muddies the water a bit, what the heck is removed. The "removed" just means how many generations removed from the cousinship. So, if Joe and Pete are second cousins, Joe's children are second cousins once removed to Pete. Got it?

Come to think of it, Ebenezer Martin's mother was a Zane....oh, grief...I think I am my own grandpa, or something.

It was a long time ago and hopefully the gene pool has been diluted by Ebenezer's children marrying people from Wales and England and Germany....I think I'm ok, really. Honestly, I am.

I have been collecting family history information for years and the Zane/Martin connection is the most interesting as it is part of the history of West Virginia and Ohio. To keep all my information for posterity I have started a website and while it is under construction and I don't want to share it all yet, I can offer up a link to my page on the family of Zanes where two of the brothers (Ebenezer & Jonathan)were my direct ancestors. I am proud to be descended from these West Virginian's as well as old Ebenezer Martin across the river in Martins Ferry Ohio, whose mother was Ebenezer Zane's eldest daughter. I'm sure you have it all straight now. Good.

There are lots of internet links in the web page to take you to source documents and/or articles if you are so inclined.
Martin Family History - the Zanes

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Genealogy
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Zane Family

2006-06-18T09:03:00.000-05:00
Happy Father's Day!!! My dad passed away in 1983 and I miss him very much. He was a quiet man and all my brothers seem to have acquired that trait, as well as some of the grandsons. We women are all chatterboxes. Dad was an only child (of an only child) and as a result, probably spoiled a little, well probably a lot! He had a great childhood, went to Culver Military Academy as a teenager and was headed off to Annapolis (I still have his appointment letter) when his grandfather died, his father died and then his grandmother. One after another. Annapolis never happened and dad became a "gentleman" farmer. The house I was born in, in Lancaster, Ohio actually had a name - "Concord Hall". My great-grandparents purchased the house in 1903 and my folks sold it for a pittance in 1949 as they had decided to relocate to California. One day I will blog about the house as it has an interesting history.

Once we finally settled in Crescent City, California (See an earlier blog about my parents first trip before I was born) my dad bought the Western Auto Store and while my elder three siblings were raised to dress for dinner and speak when spoken to, my life was a lot easier. Dad had been married to what my mom called a "society girl" before he married my mom. However, mom was one of 12 farm kids born in a real working farm. Living at Concord Hall with my grandmother, who had some rigid "rules" on behavior must have been difficult for her.

My folks bought a nice house on 20 acres in the country and when not running the store dad could be found riding his John Deere tractor around, cutting grass, plowing, etc. Still, and always, the gentleman farmer.

I've been scanning old pictures for posterity and added a couple of scrapbooking pages to my collection. In Dad's memory:

Click (twice) to increase to full size

I'll be doing more pages as I go along with the scanning and improve my scrapbooking and photoshop skills.

Hope everyone has a nice Fathers Day.

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Clay Aiken
Genealogy
Fathers Day
Digital Scrapbooking

2006-06-15T11:17:00.000-05:00

Quiana Parler met Clay Aiken while they were auditioning for American Idol. If you rewatch AI2 video you will see Quiana several times on the tapes, unfortunately she did not make the cut but ended up becoming one of Clay's backup singers on his tours.

Yesterday Quiana gave birth to a baby boy, named him Chamberlain Malik Moore. A very LARGE name for such a tiny tyke, but he will grow into it. Clay blogged the news on his official fan board. See link in the sidebar to visit the fan board.
From what I understand Quiana will be on the next tour, probably starting in the fall....the question is, will she be able to leave that precious new baby with it's grandma while she goes off to tour (as she has said she will)? OR, will the tour bus now have a nursery? New babies do sleep better while driving. How many of us have actually taken a colicky baby out in the car for a ride....raises hand.

I hope Quiana continues to work with Clay on many future tours. She is a special person.

Found a video of Quiana singing "Proud Mary". Thanks to shineinnc for this video which was taken when she and cotton went to see Quiana's That 70's Soul Show. It's a very pregnant Quiana belting out and dancing away....Chamberlain has had a very musical start in life. I also am including "Chain of Fools" from the Charlotte NAT.

Click here for video: Marhaven Videos

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Clay Aiken
Quiana Parler

2006-06-12T14:11:00.000-05:00
Clay Aiken worked at the YMCA before he started college in Charlotte. My scrapbook challenge for the day was to take a quote "Real Friends Don't Care if you are a Little Different" and make a layout. For some reason, the picture of Clay allowing the kids to duct tape him to the wall at the YMCA came to mind....let's face it, it takes a real friend and someone a little different (thank goodness) to allow a bunch of kids to do this. What a hoot.

Click (twice) to increase size of picture

From Clay's book "Learning to Sing" about his YMCA days.

"The other counselors nicknamed me Gonzo because I was weird and I just did my thing. I wasn't afraid to make a fool out of myself. I might dress up as a gorilla - anything in order to do my job well."

"I didn't mind if the other teenagers who worked for me occasionally laughed at me. I believed that if the other counselors thought temselves too cool to play the game or be ridiculous in the skit, then they were missing out. Kids don't need lessons in cool. They need to have fun."

Kids know the "real deal" when they see it.

You can check out Clay's NY Times bestselling book at Amazon.com - Learning to Sing

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Clay Aiken
Learning to Sing
Digital Scrapbooking

2006-06-11T19:35:00.000-05:00
Pic's can be Clicked (twice) to make larger

Today's scrapbooking challenge was to do a double page travel layout. A double page layout is two pages that blend and are meant to be displayed as, for example, page2 and 3 in a book. While I have tons of travel pics of my own, I had just scanned a bunch of old pictures and I decided to do a heritage page.

My dad's grandfather died in 1923 and his father in 1925. In 1925 or early 1926 my Dad, who would have been 21, took his grandmother and mother on a Mediterranean vacation. My great grandmother was devastated at the loss of her husband and son so close together. I have her diaries and on the day her son died she wrote her last entry saying "My life is over, my beloved Philip is gone". She followed them in death late in 1926, leaving my father & his mother without three of the most important people in their lives.

My dad talked a little bit about this trip, the highlight seemed to be attempting to swim in the Dead Sea....it is so salty you bob around like a cork, can't sink if you wanted to. While it was obviously perfectly safe to go to the Dead Sea in the 20's I'm not so sure I would want to go today.

With father's day coming up in a week I may do a couple more pages about my dad.....heaven knows I have cartons of pictures to do it with.

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Clay Aiken
Digital Scrapbooking
Photography
Genealogy

2006-06-10T12:09:00.000-05:00
Clay Aiken's Jukebox Tour was the subject in my scrapbook project this morning. I wanted to learn more about shape templates and how to use them. My first search was to find more templates to use, but I came up pretty empty handed. I then went to Digital Scrapbook Place and found a kit to download that had a couple of templates and instructions. The instructions were a little different than I had the other day, but I think I finally understand the concept. You have a template, which is a shape painted black. Open that as a new document, duplicate the layer and delete the first layer. Open the paper you want for the cutout and here is the trick, hold down the shift key and drag your paper (the one in the large screen) onto your template and drop it. You should get a new layer. At this point, hit Ctrl G and the paper will be cut to match the template underneath. It's magic. And, what I discovered was that templates are merely shapes, there is nothing difficult about making them. I could, for example, open a new transparent document, draw a circle, color it black, save it and I have a template. Or, let's try this -
This was the silhouette I made of Clay awhile back. It was black. So I used it as the background, put some paper on top, hit Ctrl G and bing. Woo Hoo.

So, this morning's exercise was to use a curvy template from the little kit I downloaded. I deceided to try to use a picture as my "paper". Thanks to clack gatherers and photographers Karen Eh and Tasapio for these pictures.

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Clay Aiken
Digital Scrapbooking
Photography

2006-06-09T13:33:00.000-05:00

In 1943 "Lassie Come Home" debuted starring Elizabeth Taylor and a love affair with collies and the "Lassie Come Home" story was launched. The TV series, began in 1954, continued through 1964 and included several Timmy's and descendents of the original Lassie. The original Lassie's real name was "Pal" and descendents of Pal appeared in all shows/movies/etc. since the original "Lassie Come Home"

That is, until now. In 2005 a remake of "Lassie Come Home" was filmed on the Isle of Mann in the UK. And, guess what, they couldn't get clearance to fly the appropriate Lassie to England. - From the Lassie.net website:

"Ireland, the U.K. and most of Europe have very restrictive animal/pet import laws – that were strengthened further after 9/11 and outbreaks of mad cow disease in recent years. Any animal or pet is subject to a rigorous testing, mandatory quarantine and an extensive paperwork process before they can obtain the proper permission for entry into the country. This can take more than six months. The brief pre-production schedule of this film did not allow sufficient time to obtain pet passports for "Lassie" bloodline dogs. Despite appeals to the U.K. and Irish regulatory authorities, the producers were unable to obtain an expedited quarantine."

Just to keep a little authenticity in the movie, a couple of scenes were shot in the US with a direct descendant of Pal. But there was a huge uproar from the "Lassie" purists over not using a "real" Lassie dog for the movie. It was the tradition. The current "Lassie" descendant is 9th generation and is being bred to insure there will continue to be direct bloodline dogs for movies and/or TV.

My mom, in 1964, bought her first collie. She needed a name to register the new dog and came up with using the first three letters of our last name and added haven ("A place of refuge or rest; a sanctuary") and so, Marhaven Kennels got it's start. It was strictly a small endeavor, there was never more than a couple litters of puppies running around, but she kept it up for about 12-15 years.....at which time she built tanks in the basement and started raising tropical fish.....but that is another blog.

That first puppy was Marhaven Miss Polly (above). She is a tri-color collie. Interesting sidebar - In the original "Lassie Come Home" book, Lassie was a tri-color collie, not the sable and white color we have come to associate with the Lassie character. Here is the scoop why Lassie will always be sable.

"No, the collies will be the same as the Lassie trademark, sable and white, full white collar, four white feet and a white blaze going up the nose. When Eric Knight wrote the original story he did not copyright/trademark the character of "Lassie". When he sold the rights to MGM for the first movie, they cast the dog as a sable and white collie. Later, when Rudd purchased the rights after Lassie had a long line of successful movies as a sable collie, the trademark of "Lassie" was established to always be the sable and white collie"

Mom had some sables, too.

I had left home in 1962 for college and didn't see much of the kennel action, but I do remember one particular dog. His name was Czar and he had a fantastic lineage, was show quality, etc etc....mom actually paid $600 for this dog in the mid 1960's. If you knew mom you would understand the humor of what I am about to tell you about Czar, because my mom never spent a penny on anything she didn't have to.

Czar ended up being the house dog. So much for breeding.....apparently he was somehow related to the same bloodline that Miss Polly was and they made puppies with "bent tails" - which means the last bone in the puppies tail was askew and the tail had a little zag....now, she used Czar with another female with no problem but she felt like she was perpetuating a breeding problem and she stopped using him for stud. All his puppies were sold as pets, unregistered. Czar's second problem was.....she couldn't keep him in the kennel. Our house was under a jet stream and everytime one would fly over Czar would fly over the kennel fence, she was so afraid he'd get hurt she finally gave up and the $600 dog became a pet.

I believe these pretty puppies were Czar and Miss Polly's. Mom actually took the first litter to the vet and had their tails fixed. LOL.

Well, so that's my little tale about how the name Marhaven came about. When I joined my first Clay Aiken fan board I needed a name and it didn't occur to me to be Aiken'sBacon or something cutsie (thank goodness), I remembered my Mom and the Marhaven Kennels and deceided to use that name. I even answer to marhaven now.

If you are interested in collies and/or Lassie I highly recommend the Lassie.net site - You can find it here. Lassie.net

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Clay Aiken
Collies
Lassie Come Home

2006-06-08T10:13:00.000-05:00

I used some Clay AI5 screen caps in todays scrapbooking exercise. I have a challenge to do, but while I was browsing the digital website I found some tutorials, including one on shape templates. Well, as I haven't played too much with cutting out shapes I decided I needed to learn out how to do this. First instruction said to open a shape template. Well, these guys who write this stuff must think I have a brain. Maybe because I haven't had enough tea this morning I had a bit of a struggle figuring out what that meant....so I googled and discovered they are just as described - a shape template. LOL! The key was, I didn't have any and once I downloaded some samples I was off and running....some merging and linking and I had the shape in the center of the page cut out of one pattern ready to plop down on my background. Woo Hoo. I am not overly excited about the page design, but I'm happy with my new tool. Oh, and actually I do have some little shape templates in Photoshop Elements - the musical notes are made with a cookie cutter tool.

Hope you like the new song I loaded in today.

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American Idol

2006-06-06T20:07:00.000-05:00

The scrapbooking challenge for the Day was to do a page about yourself. Most of us do tend to create scrapbooks of our kids and/or events around us. I dislike pictures of myself, so I have always been the one with the camera in hand. But, the theme of this challenge was "Back in the Days". Hee. Ok, I can deal with pictures of me when I was six years old.

Back in the Days, when I was in first grade it was safe to walk around our small town and it was ok to have Roy Rogers six shooters around your waist and play cowboys and Indians. Back in the Days, during the mid-fifties we used to go to the movies on a Saturday afternoon for a quarter and ten cents for the popcorn. And we walked to the movies by ourselves....no one drove us.

The cowboy movies were my favorites. I never warmed up to the Lone Ranger and some of the others, but Roy Rogers was pretty darn impressive. And cute. And he could sing, too. And, let's not forget Trigger. Oh, I had all the gear....the guns and the bandana and the hat. I think someone got me a Gene Autry sweatshirt, but oh well, I wore that, too. I had the lunchpail and thermos - went to find a picture and this one just sold for $750
Gotta love e-bay. Roy Rogers memorabilia brings in big bucks these days. I found a 4 ft high plastic store display that sold at auction for $9900.

Back in the Days, I should have left everything in its box and stored it for my college education!!

Anyway, back to my scrapbook challenge....the website provided a little kit with some papers (backgrounds) and hearts and misc stuff I didn't use. The barbed wire I found when I was looking for a picture of a western belt and gave up on finding one that wasn't coiled ... I like the barbed wire better anyway. Here is the result of my afternoon playtime.

Click on Scrapbook Page to View Larger Size

A couple of years ago the kids gave me a Roy Roger's birthday. I got this:

and a book and a pinball game and DVD's, etc. It was a blast. By the way, that ceramic piece shown above is increasing in value....heee!!!

Oh, and I added a new Clay song from one of his demo's. I always call it "Saddle up your Horses" but I believe the correct title is "The Great Adventure". At any rate, it is the closest song I could find for our cowboy theme today. Enjoy.

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Digital Scrapbooking
Scrapbooking
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Roy Rogers

2006-06-05T16:48:00.000-05:00

Clay Scrapbook Page. I have been visiting a digital scrapbook site that does monthly challenges. This months color challenge was for these colors and, as they kind of reminded me of 70's colors, the Jukebox Tour came to mind so I decided to go with that theme.

One of the things I learned in Photoshop Elements 4 that really makes me excited is the ability to use an eyedropper to click on something to grab the exact color. So, if I want to use a certain color for text, for example, I can click on one of the colors in the above pallet and instantly I'm color coordinated. Woo Hoo.

Here is my final effort on this challenge.

You can find the digital website at

Gotta Pixel

A visit to the Gallery section of the site will give you an idea as to what you can accomplish with digital scrapbooking. There are some beautiful examples and you will see clearly that I am just a beginner. A rank amateur. LOL, unfortunately I was not blessed with an artistic bone in my body, but I try and that's all any of us can do, I guess.

There is another link in the sidebar at the right for a group of links to various digital scrapbooking sites. Look for "freebies" to get started. Have fun.

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Jukebox Tour

2006-06-03T11:39:00.000-05:00
Blog - Strange word. The dictionary says:

Main Entry: blog
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: an online diary; a personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page; also called Weblog, Web log
Example: Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author.
Etymology: shortened form of Weblog
Usage: blog, blogged, blogging v, blogger n

So, a blog is just a diary. I've tried to keep diaries over the years. It usually stops about January 15th of each year, along with any New Years Resolutions I might have made. Interesting that "diaries" are back in fashion.

The Diary of Samuel Pepys (1660-69)is one of the most well known. And, of course, there is the Diary of Anne Frank. Oscar Wilde said: "I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train." I think my favorite quote about diaries comes from Tallulah Bankhead who said "It's the good girls who keep diaries; the bad girls never have the time"

To read more great quotes from diaries, try this Link.
Diary Quotes

My great grandmother, Mary was a diarist extraordinaire. I have her diaries dating from 1900 through 1926. She wrote every day. Every single day. I can tell you the temperature every day for 26 years. Not kidding. Mary was not one to bare her soul, however, the diaries are about events, not feelings. When Mary's son, my grandfather, was about to marry a woman 9 years older than he, Mary only worried about Miss Allen's health. Well, Miss Allen's health was fine - she outlived them all, living to a nice 88 years of age.

My mom and dad used to read the diaries in bed at night but I have to admit to only reading the first 9 years so far. I have transcribed several of them but the fountain pen ink is fading rapidly so I finally decided to start scanning them. That way I can "photoshop" them for posterity and if I never get them all transcribed, at least they won't be lost They are hard to read.
This particular entry is from 1919. It says:
_______________
The 1st day of January
Temp 54 degrees above am - Wednesday
Cloudy this New Year's morning & raining at intervals. Council decided at meeting last night to continue "Central time" - too bad! As we are entitled to "Eastern time". Lucien to office as usual on New Year's morning - will come home to Lunch. Nellie & Jack came out 11 a.m., soon after Phil called up having just ret'd from Pitts. Jack took their car down for Philip passing his grand-father on Pike (coming home to lunch & to spend remainder of day) Lucien has bad head-ache & at night developed into sick headache. So nice to have the children with us this New Year's day. Letter from Rebecca. Children went home before dark as the roads are bad. Log-fire all day in Library. Retired early but not to sleep on a/c of poor Lucien's sick head-ache. Getting colder this evening.
_______________

Mary died in 1927, I wonder what she would make of a page of her diary being included on a blog on the internet for all the world to read. Just a random page, to be sure not the most interesting page....one observation on this entry - The Jack who drove the car into town to get his father Philip was my father and on January 1, 1919 he was a few months into his 14th year. Guess kids didn't have to wait until their 16th birthdays to drive in 1919. Busted, dad!!!

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Clay Aiken
Photoshop Elements
Blogging
Diaries

2006-06-02T08:30:00.000-05:00

Charleston, SC. WOW. Never in a million years did I consider I might be moving - not only to the South, but to the BEACH !!!! Born in the midwest, raised in Northern California, college in San Francisco then off to Chicago for five winters, back to San Francisco, transferred to New Jersey, transferred to Los Angeles and then, back to San Francisco (full circle) where I snapped up an early retirement package and moved to Arizona where my son had just gotten transferred. I hope no English teacher reads that last sentence!! Whew. I have never lived in the south. Oh, I vacationed in Florida once, but last years drive from Little Rock to Greenville was my first real exposure to the Southern lifestyle.

My first reaction to something new is to google. So, yesterday I got busy. Of first concern is How Hot Is It Going to BE?? (Remember, I'm coming from Arizona). First site I found says:

"Weathermen find it boring. The rest of us find it delightful.

The Charleston area has a semi-tropical climate with typically mild winters and warm summers."

I think Charleston just passed the weather test. I like to garden (one of the reasons I need to get the heck out of Arizona) and there is no doubt I can get back to growing veggies and roses in a semi-tropical climate. Woo Hoo.

Next test is overall ambiance....is the place attractive. From the map above, I would suspect the answer is yes. Note all the water. No matter where I choose to live, it looks like some water recreational area is nearby. In addition to gardening, I also am a birdwatcher.

I did some research on birds in South Carolina and I found this site with a lot of beautiful bird pictures.

Birds of South Carolina

Now, as so much of the area is beach, swamp, marsh, rivers, one has to learn to be on the lookout for these guys -

Could be hazardous to your health if you are walking around in the wetlands looking for a rare bird and run into an alligator. I did learn, via google, that there have been no alligator deaths in South Carolina recently, although they had a nasty critter down in Florida that did a couple of people in.

Link to a website discussing alligators in SC and Georgia.

Alligators of South Carolina and Georgia

To get back to the overall ambiance, Charleston is certainly a historic city. A colony arrived even before St. Augustine (credited as oldest city in America) but it failed and the next attempt came a year or so after St. Augustine. Here is a great site to read up on Charleston history.

Charleston Community History

I am looking forward to seeing Charleston, walking the cobblestone streets, visiting the gardens and historical houses. Here are a few pictures I found.

I think it is going to be just fine.

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Clay Aiken
Charleston

2006-06-01T11:41:00.000-05:00

Clay's new look is still the talk of the town. Some like it some don't. It doesn't really matter....what is important is....the buzz and the mystery surrounding Clay Aiken continues.

I did a little scrapbook page with the pics I did yesterday. Clay is timeless, don't ya think? The wrapping will change, but there is something exceptional about this man and he will be around for a very long time. I think the show has only just begun.

Click to enlarge a little. Enjoy.
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Photoshop Elements
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Scrapbooking

2006-05-30T11:33:00.000-05:00

Pictures from the AI5 Finale were all very purple or orangey, so I couldn't help myself, I had to play with a few. This first one is a screen capture just as the camera changed from looking out into the audience to a close up of Clay. Then, I adjusted the color. The next three were run through an add on filter I have for Photoshop Elements 4 called "Virtual Photographer".

It's amazing how many of these screen captures are showing up on all the boards, I hope we get more actual photographs this week when the entertainment magazines come out. Last Wednesday's AI5 finale received a tremendous boost by Clay's appearance. The buzz buzz buzz is encouraging for the reception of Clay's sophmore album. I think it will be a smash hit, it is so patently obvious the world is just tapping their feet.....waiting.

This last picture is just put through a Photoshop Elements filter called "dry brush", I kind of like the effect.

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Photoshop Elements
Amrican Idol
AI5

2006-05-29T11:45:00.000-05:00
All this talk about Clay's hair has me thinking about some of the various versions. I don't believe I have ever posted in a "like or dislike" the hair conversation because I really don't care, but I guess I do have favorites. Right now it's tossup between the new Claydo and the Jukebox Tour hair. So, I thought I would revisit one of my Jukebox tour concerts and add some of the video I took. Hmmm, probably the most memorable was Columbus, where I not only enjoyed the concert immensely and was in my home state for the first time in years but I won a Meet and Greet. The video can be seen in Marhaven's Favorite Videos - See the link on the sidebar to the right.

Here is my meet and greet blog. All my concert blogs are posted below, I brought them all over from a different site, so they are at the bottom of May.

Marhaven's Meet & Greet in Columbus...All Pictures are Clickable

8/9/05 - This is the day of the "longest drive". I have to make it from Vienna, Va to Columbus, Ohio in time for my meet and greet. My concert companion has decided to keep her car as she will be going on to Musikfest after Columbus, while I will go down to Lancaster, Ohio for a couple of days. She will now join me in Columbus in a couple of days and go on to Michigan and Indiana with me from there. So, I'm on my own for the long trip and it starts out rainy....a long day, I navigated heavy fog on a mountain top, lots and lots of trucks....was in Va, Del, Pa, WV and Ohio before I arrived at the fairgrounds.

Meet and Greet - OK, now first I have to say that I am one that has stated she didn't care if she got a M&G at all, and to some extent I still do think they are an artificial way to meet someone....but it does give you an opportunity to stand right next to the guy, make direct eye contact, get a little body contact (hand shake, hug), exchange a couple of words, have your picture taken with him and get something autographed. Although I got the standing next to and the eye contact in Greenville, I wasn't about to pass this up!!!

They lined us up outside in the heat and humidity (so we would smell fragrant for Clay would be my guess) and when it was time they brought us through the venue and lined us up outside again at the back. The buses were there. Mary was wandering around talking on a phone, lots of security guys. There was a podium along side of a chain link fence and they lined us up in front of that, it was very organized. Mary stood beside the podium and Nick alongside. You handed your camera to Nick who would take the picture and your object to be signed to Mary.

Here is Clay walking across to the M&G area - nice of him to "dress up" for us. He looks very cute, huh?

I took a few pictures as we got closer to the podium......here is one. I love how casual and relaxed he looked.

Now, they do run you through as quickly as possible. I handed Mary my Clay calendar and had to explain I didn't want him to sign the picture, but on the white, calendar, part. We got that straight, I handed Nick the camera (neglecting to adjust the zoom, which is why you will see Clay and I up close and personal...in a sec. Nick takes one picture, that's it, if you don't like it, too bad. Clay asked my name and I mumbled something....I think it was the right name, it appears correctly on the calendar, although he did ask how to spell it and we discussed why someone would spell Cindy Cyndi....LOL. Then, when he was deciding where to sign I said well, you can sign on the 24th as that is my birthday and so he did, but I wish I hadn't done that, I hadn't meant to, it just slipped out....cuz then I got a couple Happy Birthday's before we were done!! Marhaven hates having birthdays. And, he signed it Happy Birthday, Cindy....So, then, I move over for the picture, he puts his arm around me and Nick shoots the pic. A security guard then becomes your companion and you are ushered back into the venue.

My overall impression of non-concert Clay was of a very sweet, kind and gentle man. Someone we would hand our daughters over to in a heartbeat.....and those that are young enough, someone to hope to find for ourselves someday. It was a great experience.

So, that was my meet and greet....short, but very sweet!!! And, here is our picture.

The concert....oh, yeah....we were here for a concert!!! Well, it was wonderful. I am puzzled at times how he just seems to get better...it is clear Ohio loves Clay - the noise was overwhelming at times. And, as usual, he reacts to the enthusiasm and really gets into it. I truly fell in love with A Thousand Days in this concert. He put everything he had into it and it was obvious he loves the song and now I do too.. Just a spectacular concert.

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Clay Aiken
Jukebox Tour
Video

2006-05-27T10:30:00.000-05:00

"I have no idea why my new owner sits and stares at this screen all day"
Thought I'd take a break from watching a certain video over and over. I've been taking pictures of my cats - boy do I love digital cameras, you just click away - no film to develop and waste. Woo Hoo. Not that my pictures are any better, just that I have a lot more, LOL.

Having gone without a cat for a couple of years it is fun to have a couple in the house again. These two cats, one adult and one little 4 week old orphan look a lot alike, they both have blue eyes. The adult is surely a full blooded seal point Siamese and has all the typical Siamese characteristics, brilliant blue eyes, thin lanky body and a "monkey" tail that seems to have a mind of it's own. "Baby" seems to have some ragdoll in her and at this point, about 7 or 8 weeks old I think she is going to retain the blue eyes. Yeah!!

Jasmine is very regal. Well, she's a diva, actually. It isn't hard to get a picture of her looking great because she poses all the time. But, she's also a scamp and gets into her share of trouble. Adding the tiny kitten to the household at first just did not work. There was 2 or 3 days of hissing and flicking of that Siamese tail. After all, she has just found her new home...what was this insult??

What has been so amusing is that "Baby", from day one....all of 4 weeks old has NEVER backed down. She hunches up her back, flicks her tail and launches herself at Jazzy, who at first just stalked off in horror. Things have calmed down a bit and now we often see this.

I do feel like Baby has put some Jazz back in Jazzy. They have marathon playing sessions, taking turns chasing each other full speed through the house. I had forgotten what fun a kitten can be.

"This spinning thing is making me dizzy"

"Bring it on, Big Guy, I can take ya"

"Whoops, How did I end up on my Nose?"

"I can do Pushups too"

"Wasn't me that pulled the tablecloth off the table..."

Hope you enjoyed my kitties.

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Clay Aiken
Cats

2006-05-26T12:15:00.000-05:00

Sometimes Words Are Just Not Necessary.....

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Clay Aiken
American Idol

2006-05-25T13:29:00.000-05:00

I’m speechless. One of the facets of Clay Aiken that I admire is that there ARE so many facets. Every time you turn around, a different look appears - the look might be in his attitude, his sense of humor or in his hairstyle of the moment. No two pictures are ever the same, he is a photographer’s dream come true. Check out the pictures of Ryan Seacrest, for example, they all look the same - he is one dimensional. Not so with Clay.

Last night Clay stole the show from Kat and Taylor. Not completely, it was their night, but his small segment was without a doubt, one of the funniest skits ever done on AI and will be repeated over and over. The absolute water cooler moment. It was brilliant.

The way Clay treated that young man with such dignity turned what could have been an embarassing moment into a very tender and memorable one. Michael, is obviously a huge fan and to get to meet his idol and sing with him on stage for a few seconds was priceless. Ryan was going to pull him to the side immediately when Clay came out, but I was glad to see Clay stop Ryan and let Michael continue. And, I was equally as glad to see Ryan finally come and get Michael and put him on the stool so we could better concentrate on the new look and the wonderful voice!!!!

Wow, the talk buzzing, buzzing, buzzing about the “new look”. What is it about Clay’s hair that gets people in such a tizzy. It’s just hair. His new hair style makes him look like John Lennon, some say.....but I saw a little Harry Connick, Jr. In there. Reminds me of this album cover, a little....what do you think??

Did I say yet that I thought it was brilliant. Oh yes, I did and it certainly bears repeating. I think this was a gutsy, risky move, a thumbing your nose at the gnats move, a snarky and wonderful skit that has undoubtedly won Mr. Aiken a few new fans. I can’t wait for the album, I hope the rumor (and I feel it is a big rumor) that it might be here by mid July is true. This appearance just has to be followed up on promptly.

Hopefully, those fans who were concerned the album, because it will contain some re-makes of 70's and 80's songs, will now relax. I refuse to use the word “covers”, I hate that word as it seems to infer kaoroke versions of old, frumpy songs. Michael Bolton, no offense to his fans, just produced an album of Frank Sinatra songs. Feel free to call that album a cover album....I will just whip out my old Sinatra LP’s if I feel the need to hear “My Funny Valentine”. No, Clay is going to find some gems that will be adapted to suit his marvelous voice and he WILL knock our socks off. He always has, since the first time we saw the little nerd stand in front of Simon Cowell and announce that he was the next American Idol.

He certainly is.

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Clay Aiken
American Idol

2006-05-24T18:28:00.000-05:00
Just a quick, drive by post. An update to the jukebox to celebrate Clay's last performance on American Idol. We understand there will be another appearance tonight and I have a feeling this is going to be something special. Very Special.

More tomorrow.
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Clay Aiken
American Idol

2006-05-21T12:32:00.000-05:00
Christmas in May. Well, why not. It is a beautiful day here in Arizona although it is starting to peak over 100 degrees and it's almost time to get outta Dodge.

Thought I'd share a couple of pictures and a video from the Joyful Noise Tour. Because I was house hunting, I took the opportunity to visit Raleigh, Charlotte in NC and Columbia in SC during December of 2005. My son is being transferred, probably at this point to Charlotte, and I wanted to take a look at the areas so I could have a better idea where I might want to move to be close enough to be able to see the family frequently.

I arrived in Raleigh, spent a couple of days looking at neighborhoods and then drove down to Charlotte and did the same thing there. Well, low and behold, it's December and there are three Joyful Noise Tour concerts - Columbia, Charlotte and then Raleigh. So I drove down to Columbia for the first concert. Funny how there happened to be concerts that fit into my travel schedule. Not.

It was cold. Checked into the Marriott, I hadn't signed up for any preparties so this was one of the first times I really felt like I was "on my own". The Marriott provided transportation to the concert, which was only a few blocks away. I could have walked, but did I say, it was cold.

Arriving at the concert I found myself sitting next to someone I knew from a Clay Aiken message board, on the other side was a very nice young lady who says she met me in Greenville the year before. Two seats ahead of us were the two gals who were doing a cell cert. A cell cert is when you share a concert via your cell phone with many other people, or just one. The quality is usually pretty poor, but it's great fun!! A gal in front of me swore she had met somewhere before....so much for being alone. The concert was beautiful, as usual.
This is one of the concerts where the young man playing the role of Tommy was ill and we had a stand-in, who did an excellent job with very little time to prepare.

I loved this venue, it reminded me of the millions of old auditoriums we have all been in - at school, church, small community theatre. The floors squeeked, the chairs rattled but the music was, as usual, supurb. Everyone in my section had a marvelous time, it was sublime. In fact, I was on such a high, I forgot it was cold and walked back to the hotel.

Here is video from the Columbia concert for your entertainment- turn off the jukebox in the sidebar on the right before you play the video.

One final endorsement before we move on to Charlotte - the Marriott has the most comfortable beds and linen I have ever run into in a hotel. And, I've been in quite a few, I travelled a lot for the company I worked for and stayed in lots of hotels of the Mariott class....this one was the best!!!

Next morning I had to crawl out of that magnificant bed and head up to Charlotte where I did have plans to meet up with some internet friends. I stayed at the Holiday Inn and, at the counter checking in, ran into a gal I had definately met at the Greenville concert the year before and five of us ended up looking for a place to eat. We wandered by this soul food place and ended up deciding to give it a try. We were in the South, after all. I was a little disappointed in my collard greens, they were a little bitter. Years ago I had a friend, who now that I think of it, was born in NC somewhere, who used to make collard greens and they were never bitter. The place was Merts, Heart and Soul and is a well know soul food restaurant. There were Clay fans all around us, including some of the people from the night before in Columbia.

The Charlotte Bobcat Arena had just been completed in October and was behind our hotel - right in downtown Charlotte. Downtown Charlotte has changed dramatically since I was last here right after Andrew came lashing through. If I was still working I think it would be a great downtown to work in, lots of restaurants, shops, just a lot of ambiance.

After our soul food experience we walked over to the arena and got settled in our seats for another wonderful concert. I had locals all around me this time and it is always fun to watch the faces and see the reactions of Clay's more casual fans. Everyone seemed to be having a great time.

A Couple of Pictures from the Charlotte Concert.

Next morning I headed up to Raleigh, where there was a huge preparty planned. I got there just in time. The ONLY person I knew this time was my seat mate from Columbia. I was supposed to meet up with someone at the preparty who had a front row ticket for sale, but we never connected although it seems people knew we were looking for each other, LOL. Clay's mom, Faye Parker was at the preparty and there was some entertainment and an excellent luncheon.

Pictures are Clickable

After the preparty I hightailed it over to the motel, which was right across the street from the venue. Now, I hadn't hooked up with my gal with the ticket, so I thought I was going to have to use my original ticket, which was fine, first row of the risers - but they changed the configuration after I purchased the ticket so I was further back in the arena then I had originally thought. I figured, if I could get on the floor, I could find her....of course security said no, but whoops - sorry, gotta keep your eye on a Clay fan with hopes of a better seat. LOL. Long story short, I did find her, she is an amazingly nice person and was afraid I wouldn't like the seat because it was all the way to the right. Duh, in the first row!! I did have some restricted view of the cookie making scene as far as Beverly and Tommy, but I could see Clay ok.

What an amazing concert. If you scroll down to earlier blogs, you will find a video of "Star of Bethlehem" and more about the concert.

Here is a video I took of Don't Save it all for Christmas Day. My angle was bad, but most of it is pretty good, except for the few seconds when the girl beside me stood in front of me for a second. I love when he pulls "Beverly" over at the end and sings the last few notes to her.

Turn off the jukebox in the sidebar on the right before you play the video.

Hope you enjoyed the Christmas concert in May.

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Clay Aiken
Joyful Noise Tour
Christmas

2006-05-20T12:16:00.000-05:00
Digital Scrapbooking Tips

Yesterday I went over some of the why's of moving from conventional scrapbooking to digital scrapbooking. Today I thought I'd ramble on about what makes up a digital scrapbook page.

Papers - In conventional scrapbooking we go to Michael's or a scrapbook store and plunk down 59cents for a colorful piece of 12 X 12 paper which becomes the base of our scrapbook page. With digital scrapbooking you have many more options. You can download papers that other scrapbookers have designed, or you can download ANYTHING that appeals to you (as long as it can be sized to a 12 X 12 format. I recommend always using the 12 X 12 because if you want to resize your pages you can easily resize to 6 X 6 or 8 X 8 to fit into an album or picture frame.
The paper for this simple Clay page was actually downloaded from a graphics design place I found. It's really fabric. I couldn't find the site again if my life depended on it, but if you search around you can find lots of ideas for paper. Search on graphics and textile. This is what the base of the Clay page looked liked before I added anything.
Be on the lookout for patterns that appeal to you. Most images on the internet can be downloaded. Or, you can photograph tree trunks and the stucco on a building to use as backgrounds, load them into your graphics program, resize them, play with color, etc. and when you are happy with results, save your new background paper. You can scan all kinds of things, look for texture by crumpling tissue papers - I haven't tried it yet, but place a tee shirt with a logo you like on the scanner and see what develops. Use your imagination (I usually fall way short on the imagination and creative design parts).

To make a heritage page for my mother I scanned an old Harpers magazine I had saved as it was from the month of her birth, May 1914. No, I didn't buy it new. It wasn't 12 X 12, so I resized it so the height was 12 inches. This left a gap on the left which I filled in by cropping a sliver of the right edge of the scanned magazine. Now, of course, that didn't fill the gap, so I just stretched it out to fit and I thought it was a nice texture and contrast to the magazine itself. I have another magazine from my dad's birth month and I can't wait to do that one.

Experiment with the background papers, it's a lot of fun and the possibilities are endless. Yesterday there was an ad on my e-mail page for Dover Publications inviting me to join to get free designs - I checked it out and this is one of the freebies - I will probably lighten it up a little, but I thought it was pretty. Love the colors.

Pictures - This one is self explanatory. I will say, viewing the internet sites and magazines I have purchased the trend seems to pick one picture and create the page with that picture as a focal point. I tend to overload the page with pictures, a holdover, I guess from physical scrapbooking. Visually, the one picture page is probably more effective but I have SO many pictures, lol. In the end, the choice is yours - it is your scrapbook!!

Embellishments - What scrapbookers call embellishments translates to clipart when you cross to the digital side. Maybe the "clipart" has been embellished a little, but it is just a picture, in the end. It can be something as simple as a staple, a brad or a piece of ribbon. In the case of the Clay page above, the raffia and buttons are the embellishments. You can create tags - such as this one or just something simple like this - These last two I printed on cardstock and used in my conventional scrapbook.
These are examples embellishments/clipart that can be used on your pages.

On the sidebar to the right I posted a link to the top 50 scrapbooking sites. You will find lots of useful information, freebies to download, galleries of completed pages to give you inspiration and lots of nice kits to download at reasonable prices. Look for the freebies to get started, tho!! Have fun.

Technorati tags:
Clay Aiken
Digital Scrapbooking
Scrapbooking
Photography

2006-05-19T09:05:00.000-05:00
Digital Scrapbooking. My DIL scrapbooks. She had a Creative Memories Party a couple of years ago and I went and bought some supplies thinking I would start a Family Heritage album....and I did start, but stalled because 1) I wasn't happy with the results (as it turns out, it was the Creative Memories method I didn't like) and 2) I didn't like "pasting" original old family pictures in the album.

I could have done one of the grandkids, but DIL had that one sewn up, and very nicely. So, when I realized I had a lot of momentos stored up from Clay concerts, I started a scrapbook with that theme. Did one for 2004 and one for 2005. I like them, they are great reminders of wonderful trips and people I met.

I had already been creating some of my "embellishments" on the computer, but one day I picked up a magazine on digital scrapbooking and I don't think I'll be going back to the conventional, physical way. Here's why:

1) Your pictures and/or pages are truly "archival". If you store them on the internet, or archive them on CD's or DVD's, they will last forever. I don't care how "archival" scrapbook paper is supposed to be, the books are much more vulnerable than digital scrapbooks.

2) With digital scrapbooks, they can be shared with all family members - and golly, even complete strangers who drop in to my blog or website. If you do a physical scrapbook, you only have one...and it likely will get shabby with repeated viewings.

3) Digital scrapbooking for my Family Heritage allows me to scan an old photo and put the originals away for safekeeping. I highly recommend, even if you aren't going to scrapbook your old pictures, that you scan them and store them on disk. Mine date back to tintypes and they are fading. I can see a huge difference over the past 25 years. Another thing I highly recommend is to write in pencil on the back of the picture who is in the picture. Your kids aren't going to remember.

So, with all that to ponder over, I did a page this morning using a picture I liked of my grandaughter spitting. Basically, what you need to do is pick a paper - like this one -

then you add your picture

(clickable)

and some more embellishments

and this is the result.

(click on picture)

Next post I will add some links for internet sites that will help you get started. These sites have freebies to download, kits you can purchase, help pages, message boards, and galleries of scrapbooking pages MUCH better than mine to use for ideas. I recommend Photoshop Elements, Digital Image Suite or Paint Shop Pro software. There are programs dedicated to scrapbooking, I am not too familiar with any of them, but my gut feeling is they don't allow you to be as creative - in otherwords, they offer you templates and you plop your pictures in.

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Clay Aiken
Digital Scrapbooking
Scrapbooking
Photography

2006-05-18T10:36:00.000-05:00

We all remember Season 2 of American Idol....how we felt Clay was robbed. I think it is about to happen again. AI is a Reality Show, not a singing competition. Do I think the votes count? Sure, it gives AI an idea how America feels, but when it comes right down to it AI chooses the winner.

Grassy knoll, anyone? Yeah, I guess so. But what was with the three contestents being dead even last night? I don't buy it, just don't..Taylor has (supposedly) been far ahead of everyone every week and all of a sudden it's equal? Of course, all my information comes off the internet and we know how valid that can be. Or, it could be phone line overload again - yes, that is probably it. (Insert slapping oneself on the head emoticon here).

I think Taylor has been the most consistent of the two and deserves to win, but last night I was watching his face when Ryan showed the numbers and I think he suspects what's going to happen. I hope I am wrong!! I wish they would just let the votes fall where they may (after opening up enough phone lines so everyone can get through) then do their very best to help both Taylor and Kat put out an album that suits their voice and style. Guess I'm dreaming, huh.

One more week to go. Then, Survivor is over, AI is over, The Amazing Race is over. What are we going to do with ourselves. Oh, that's right - Last Comic Standing and another Rock Star coming up for the summer. Lots of fun.

Signing off for now. Again, I hope I am entirely wrong and Taylor wins!!

Technorati tags:
Clay Aiken
Taylor Hicks
American Idol
Katherine McPhee

2006-05-17T09:03:00.000-05:00
Taylor Hicks is no Clay Aiken, but he is entertaining and I have enjoyed watching him this season. I laughed so hard last night when he left Paula twirling on the catwalk. Taylor seems so comfortable and confident on stage that I have never "worried" about him like I've done with other contestants I've liked. This is probably because of opening the show up to older contestants and perhaps, although absolutely no fault of Taylor's, unfair to the younger performers. AI should make up their mind if this is a talent show to find new, young, untried talent - or just a reality show.

I haven't found any video for last night, but here is Taylor doing "Something". Please turn Clay's song off in the Jukebox in the sidebar to the right before you click on the video.

Kat is a beautiful young lady with a gorgeous voice and what appears to be stage fright. She just loses it sometimes. Whole pieces of songs get lost or misplaced. I thought her "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" last night was spectacular. Someone asked me if I liked it better than Kim Locke's version and I can't answer that question. Kim's version was Kim's and last night Kat did it her way. Just beautiful. She seems to sing better sitting on the floor, what's up with that?

The judges song choices were right on, as much as I hate to admit it....and "Hello", was Simon kind of.....well, nice last night? Nah!

I suspect that whether Taylor wins or comes in second, it doesn't matter if they allow him to do the kind of album that suits his sound - as they did with Carrie. I hope they do, it is a sin what they did to poor Bo. Kat is the one they will probably push into the mainstream. Shouldn't have any trouble getting a beautiful song out of her in the studio and who knows, maybe the tour this summer will put her more at ease. Or, maybe TPTB have had an epiphany and realize you can't put the proverbial square peg in a round hole. In other words, let the kids make the kind of album that suits them. Pfft on the popstar thing.

Sorry, Elliott is forgettable. Seems like a nice guy, but I predict he will go home tonight. Simon gave him the kiss of death last night.

The song that comes up first in the Jukebox today is A Thousand Days. I ripped the audio from a video I took at Clay's Jukebox Tour concert in Merrilleville, Indiana last summer. Here is a yousendit if you would like to download it.

ATD - Merrillville
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Clay Aiken
Taylor Hicks
American Idol
Katherine McPhee

2006-05-16T09:02:00.000-05:00

Beanie Babies and Clay Aiken. Two of my more "enthusiastic" interests over the past few years. By enthusiastic I mean, while I am an avid reader and have always read and always will read, I don't spend time on the internet tracking "stuff" down, nor have I ever stood in long lines for a new book. I've done both of those, and more, for Beanie's and Clay Aiken. The beanie baby craze started on the internet. The supply was far below the demand in the beginning and people started searching for the little critters on ebay and on-line specialty stores. It became known there was a scarcity, the furor rose and the craze evolved. It was like the stock market. People actually thought they would get rich. Buy up all these beanbags, put them in the attic, and someday they would be worth a fortune. Ty Warner is the only one who became rich. I didn't get in on the beginning, my dtr-in-law brought me a little red lobster they had gotten with a McDonald's happy meal, I said, "What is this", googled and spent the next couple of years tracking down the next little cat or bear. That is "Frigid" the Penguin above. And, that is Clay Aiken in a penguin suit, below.

During a business meeting I once went to, a friend and I went shopping and found a couple of Beanie treasures. She wasn't as avid as I, said she was buying them for a niece (sure) and when we got out to the car and I offered her a couple of tag protectors (heaven forbid the tags would get a wrinkle or the clack should skip, if you know what I mean). She had a laughing fit and said I was the only person she had ever known who carried tag protectors when she travelled. What? You say, what is a tag protector? Read up on the importance of tags here.

About Beanies - Tags

During the most intense stage of the craze, Princess Diana died and Ty issued "Princess" a purple bear honoring Diana. All proceeds from the sale of the beanie would go to Diana's personal charity. We used to go to Beanie Baby shows and I personally stood right next to a man who admitted to having paid $400 for Princess and was lamenting they were going for only $50.00 at the show.

I got my first Princess Beanie Baby at the Hallmark store located right under my dentist's office. A cap on one of my front teeth had come off and I was on my way over for repair. Passing by the Hallmark I saw the mass of people and, knowing what was up, ran inside to get in line to secure the coveted $400 beanie. For $6.95, yet. Running upstairs, late to my appointment, I flashed a toothless grin at the receptionist and said "Look what I got downstairs", the hygeniest wandered by and was interested in my news, the doctor's wife came to get me to take me into a room and got a wicked gleam in her eye when I said "Princess" "Downstairs", the prep gal got the news while she was getting me (quickly) ready for the dentist. I sat there for awhile thinking it was awfully quiet...all of a sudden I opened my eyes and there stood my nice dentist - "Are you the one who emptied out my office?" as he brandished the drill in my face - well, I made that last part up, but for a moment my life passed before my eyes. LOL.

Some similarities between Beanie Babies and Clay Aiken, based solely on my own experience and/or "enthusiasm".

...Beanie popularity started on the internet, Clay had a huge internet fan base almost immediately.

...People stood in long lines and made friends in front of the Hallmark stores. They slept on the street for days when it was known a new shipment was due at a particular store. It was usually the same people, so you got to know them. People stood in long lines for Clay tickets and books and heaven only knows my DIL and I not only slept on the street at Hollywood and Highland to see Clay on Ryan on Air, but we drove down from San Francisco to do it!

... People drove long distances when they heard of the elusive "Seaweed" or "Peace" in another town. You don't want to know how many miles I have driven or miles I have flown to see Clay perform.

...Websites sprung up all over the place for beanie collectors. I am willing to bet Clay websites and blogs exceed the total number of all other AI contestants many, many times over.

...E-Bay was a beanie baby magnet. Buying and selling of beanie babies was huge. Try putting a Clay Aiken item on e-bay and watch the bids come in!!

...Beanies are a "real" toy. By that I mean that they weren't created with the mighty dollar in mind. They weren't born out of a movie or a tv show, they were just cute stuffed toys a child could love and collect. They aren't advertised on TV. Clay Aiken is also the real deal. Someone who just wants to sing and entertain and work with his charities. There is no artifice about him, he is who he seems to be. Comfortable in his own skin and unpretentious. And, sometimes I think he's full of beans!

Because of being on the Clay boards, I gave away the first batch of "extra" beanies to a childrens hospital in California. A member of the board was doing some charity work for the hospital and I asked her via PM if they would be interested in beanies, she checked and they would. So I met her at the preparty for the show and we loaded beanie babies into her trunk. I had no idea who she really was, LOL. We have since attended many concerts around the country together.

Now, some might saw "enthusiasm" is not the right word...that perhaps it should be "obsession", but I don't really think so. I'm glad I got over the beanie baby craze, one can only house so many of the darn things. However, - my traveling to see Clay in concert included many side trips to see historical sights, visits to all kinds of places I might never have seen. I drove through the Smokies and Appalachia last summer. I drove through Wheeling, West Virginia and Martins Ferry, Ohio which were founded by ancestors. I visited my father's grave in Lancaster, Ohio and visited the Zane Grey Museum in Zanesville. I was at Clio and Kettering and others. The fair in Indianapolis gave me both Clay and Keith Urban - there was a campground right on the fairgrounds and I spent an extra day just visiting the fair. God, I really want an Alpaca, LOL. To cap it all off, I drove home to Arizona on the famous Route 66. Now, how can that be anything but good?

A Link to the official Beanie Baby website - a nice safe place for your children to be on-line. Beanie Babies

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Clay Aiken
Beanie Babies

2006-05-15T10:11:00.000-05:00
I took a stab at farming once....sorta. Several years ago I bought a mini-farm. It was an old mobile home (circa 1972) but situated on 3 beautiful acres. This was what I thought I always wanted, elbow room (tm Daniel Boone)....or did I?

As I am currently selling my house in Arizona and anticipating moving to North or South Carolina (depending on where my son's final job offer lands us). I browse Realtor.com looking for my next home. The kids have to live near his work and good schools, but I can get a little further from town. I don't want to move again after this, I have moved so many times in my life.

So, what do I want? Let's go back to the mini-farm, which should have been ideal...

Pro's - Elbow room, chickens, goats, wonderful fenced garden area, riding my mower around looking cool, koi pond, roses, lots of grassy areas, birds up the wazoo.

Cons - Maintenance on old house, having to spray 90 fruit and nut trees (I didn't do it), having to maintain the koi pond, the roaming dogs that came to eat my chickens. Man, I hated those dogs with a passion.

Now, evaluating this data, I think what I am looking for is:

A newer house on one acre, with zoning that will allow for a couple of chickens should I have the urge again. I really enjoyed wandering out and collecting my morning egg. And that fertilizer is great for the garden. Fencing to keep out stray dogs. A few fruit trees, two apple, an apricot or peach and definately a lemon tree. Dwarf size, so I can spray without calling in professionals. Low maintenance will be the major issue. Because I have to do it!! That is the main lesson I learned on my mini-farm....while there will be help on occasion, be prepared to do it all yourself most of the time.

Here are a couple of digital scrapbooking pages that show my favorite parts of my short time mini-farm.

Click on pictures to see full size

Judging from what I am seeing on Realtor.com I stand a chance of finding the perfect place.

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Clay Aiken
Farm
Gardening
Digital Scrapbooking

2006-05-14T10:15:00.000-05:00

Florence Rosella Darling
1914-1994

My mom was a farmer's daughter. She was the 11th of 12 children born in a beautiful old farmhouse in Lancaster, Ohio. Her father's family came to the US around 1850 from Baveria, Germany. Their name was originally something like Direling or Drierling but was Americanized to Darling. In school mom was always called "Darling Rosie". I only have one reference to the original emigrant, Phillip Darling who "came to New Orleans in 1850 and died of yellow fever". There was a yellow fever epidemic in New Orleans and it is probably impossible, at this time, to find record of him. His son, Gottleib drove stage coach for awhile and finally settled into farming in Lancaster, Ohio. In fact, the original Darling farm in Lancaster was a stage coach stop and there are huge kegs and whatnot in the basement walls. Gottleib's son, Edward married Anna Josephine Netuschill, whose parents emigrated from Austria to escape religious persecution. And Anna and Edward were my Mom's parents.

You know how your parents always say things like "I walked three miles to school when I was a child" - usually in response to your asking to be driven two blocks to school??? Some years ago, my mom, my sister and I went back to Lancaster for a family reunion. We were at the farm and then went for a drive. In a little bit mom said - "Oh, that's my grade school". My sister and I looked at each other. "Mom, you walked all the way from the farm to this school". Sometimes your parents aren't exagerating.

Mom and my Dad were....well, I would have to say...an odd couple. She, the farm girl with siblings to spare, and my Dad, a spoiled only child of a spoiled only child.....well, he wasn't full of himself or anything, just raised in an entirely different environment. The marriage lasted over 50 years and there are 6 of us kids. Unfortunately, they also smoked together for 50 years and it did both of them in, Dad in 1983 and Mom in 1994.

The picture of Mom above was taken when she was about 17 or 18. It is a black and white photo but hand colored by Mom herself. I have several that she did and they are quite beautiful. Here is another one, actually my favorite picture of my Mom and Dad. He was a pretty handsome, dude, don't you think? LOL

There is a lot more to the story, of course....but I just wanted to post a little about my Mom since this is Mother's Day and I miss her.

Technorati tags:
Clay Aiken
Genealogy
Mothers Day

2006-05-13T11:31:00.000-05:00
This blogging stuff is lots of fun and it has kept me occupied the last several days moving my older blogs over here and adding a couple of new ones. The way this site works you have a template where all the sections are pre-programmed. For the most part you are good to go with that, but I get restless and want to make it "my own" - which doesn't necessarily mean it is better!! Unfortunately, to make changes you have to delve into the "code". I only have a little database programming in my background, but it seemed pretty straight forward, so I deceided to try.

So, we have a new banner and some music. The music was the hardest, it took me all afternoon yesterday to get it anywhere near what I wanted. The programming wasn't hard, it was finding a place to put the music.

The next thing I wanted to try was to upload my own video into YouTube and put it in a blog. So, I decided on Oh, Beautiful Star of Bethlehem. Clay only sang this song at the Raleigh JNT and it was dedicated to his grandfather. I was very fortunate to get a last minute ticket in the first row - now, it was all the way to the side, on the right facing the stage, so my view was obscured a little during the cookie scene. The rest of it was great. It was a cool seat for other reasons, people came and went through the curtains right in front of me to go backstage. When Clay's grandfather left (presumably to go to the men's room) they walked right in front of me. I knew who it was and looked up at Clay and took the picture that is at the bottom of my last blog. Clay had a worried look on his face that I didn't quite capture in the picture and I found out what he was worried about in a few minutes when he sang the bluegrass Christmas song to his "papa". Luckily, papa got back in time. LOL. It isn't the best video, because of the angle and the microphones in the way, others sitting more in the center took much better video, but this is my personal experience and I'm happy with it.

Be sure to turn the music off in the Jukebox before you start the video.

Now, I really have to get some "real life" stuff done.

Technorati tags:
Clay Aiken
Bluegrass

2006-05-12T09:35:00.000-05:00
Whew, I figured out how to change the banner yesterday. So, as a consequence, don't have a blog thought out.

So I thought I'd share a picture with you. My kids gave me Photoshop Elements for Christmas and I have had fun playing with my pictures and creating digital scrapbook pages. I had lots of pictures of the Sacramento and Glendale, Az Independent Tours - but they were my first attempt at concert pictures and they were taken with a camera that just didn't do the job. So, I found myself playing with the filters in Photoshop and I kind of like the results on this picture I took of Clay via the Jumbotron.

I do love fedora Clay.

Technorati tags:
Clay Aiken

2006-05-11T09:30:00.000-05:00
One of the side benefits of finding Clay is finding other artists to enjoy. This has happened to me via sites like Rate the Music and Promosquad. I got hooked on these sites because of Clay and have had to sit through a lot of nasty stuff in Promosquad. RTM is not so bad as you can choose the kind of music you like. Promosquad now asks you to provide a radio station you like and play available music that is in the same genre as that station. When they have presented all that to you.....then comes the rap.

One day I got a notice from RTM that a survey was available for one song. I clicked on it, had never heard of the artist. Listened. Hmmm. don't know what that was about, but it was nice. Get into Google. Nah, couldn't be a country music artist. Well, yes it could.

And the rest is history. I have only been to a few Keith Urban concerts, compared to how many of Clay's I have attended. He doesn't wear a hat and he doesn't wear boots. But his concerts are energetic and lots of fun. Definately country rock. Don't ask how many Clay concerts I have attended. I won't tell you. It's embarassing.

A video I thought Clay Fans might appreciate. Think "The Way".....and skateboards. Turn Clay off in the Jukebox in the sidebar to the right before you start the video.

A couple of pictures I took at a concert. The flying hair one cracks me up. Clickable.

So, that's my little story about how I found Keith. Now, the other day, while I was doing Promosquad I heard another song that caught my attention and I went googling again. This guy really is a little....well, obscure. He has no album out yet, but appears to be working on one, in fact when I inquired on his message board if anyone knew when the album was coming out, he responded personally and said "quite soon". Or something close to that. LOL. No, it's not Clay, but a young man by the name of Jared Lee. He's cute and bright and his voice is appealing to me. Click on the little icon below to hear a song called "Why do I have to Choose". It has become an earworm for me, I can't get it out of my head. I really think he has possibilities.

(Hee, I have to go back over to his site to get the link, guess I'll listen once more)

Links for Promosquad and Rate the Music in case you want to check them out. In Promosquad there are three main areas of interst, the Jukebox, Polls and Fame Gauge. Clay doesn't have any songs in the jukebox right now, but his name does come up in the Fame Gauge and you can rate him there.

Promosquad

Rate the Music

Technorati tags:
Keith Urban
Jared Lee

2006-05-10T10:33:00.000-05:00

Well, we are down to the final four and last night we got ......ELVIS NIGHT.....
I was pleasantly surprised and thought Taylor and Elliott did an admirable job. I had been dreading hearing Chris sing "Suspicious Minds" as that song kind of became a Clay Aiken song during the Jukebox Tour last Summer. Chris did ok, but I thought both of his songs were boring and just lacked any spark whatsoever. And, poor Katherine, who I have been rooting for was just "OFF"

For your listening enjoyment, here is Clay singing "Suspicious Minds" at the GMA Summer Concert last summer. Enjoy!!! Turn Clay off in the Jukebox in the sidebar to the right before you start the video.

While I think it would be a fantastic upset and an interesting finale, I don't think they will let Taylor and Elliott be in the finals. At this point, in my opinion, they should be. American Idol would have absolutely no idea what to do with either one of them. Chris and Katherine would be easier to market. So, at this point I think it will be Chris and Taylor with Chris winning and Taylor coming in second. Hey, second didn't hurt someone else we know. LOL.

A little eye candy to close my post.

Click to View Full Size
Taken in Raleigh, NC at the JNT05
(I admit to adding a little "stained glass" to the window)