Scanners

We compared our two scanners before starting on my genealogy scanning photos project.

The portable Epson was the clear choice. Youngest plugged it into the house PC. It has been doing really well for me. It is able to “pull” a lot of the old images and save photos. 

Here is a good example. 

When I got done scanning some of my great grandmother’s photos, I spread them out on the floor and took a picture with my phone to show you. 

The photo in the left lower corner is my topic. See how it just looks like a muddy mess to the naked eye? 

The power of scanning - the print is almost gone, the scanned one (below) is much clearer. 

I think this photo is a good example because the photo is slightly blurry, there is very little contrast when looking at the original with the naked eye. The flowers and her dress all blend, the color is definitely fading, there is little definition. The scanner was able to pull a lot of the original photo. 

Cooking shows

 One of the winners from the original version of the Great British Baking Show, Nadiya, cohosted the first season of a cooking show on Netflix. 

Two teams of three family members each compete in pairs. Each team cooks three times, two in the studio and once in their home. 

The first season of this show ticked all the boxes for us. We got to see one British kitchen from each family (two per episode) and home cooking. We saw a lot of ethnic recipes. The various combinations of family members cooking together was fun.

We tried the second season and disliked it. They changed the hosts/judges/format. 

So we followed Nadiya over to her next projects/Netflix, we are in the midst of Time to Eat and enjoying it. 

A public service announcement about Polaroid photos

In short, Polaroid photos do not last. In the days before digital, they were “instant” in a very fun way. If you have polaroids you care about, get them scanned quickly.

This print is nearly gone. But I think you will be able to see what the scanner can still pull from my examples (below). 

This first one is the scanned version, the scanner was able to pull up some of the photo. Notice the chimney, trees in the background and details of the snow. They are somewhat visible in this scanned version. If you are trying to place it, this is a big snow on my grandparents’ farm probably in the very late 1960's or early 1970's. 

This second one is the scanned version, lightened.

This last version is what the photo actually looks like. This one was taken with my phone and is a more accurate view of what the photo looks like to the human eye. Notice the trees are not really visible. One has to squint to see the chimney. It looks like night or under deep water. 

A funny little drawer

 Before -

It was a little tricky to figure out how to organize this drawer, because it is very small, 12” x 13.5”.  It houses things I use every day, in a little chest next to my spot in the living room. 

I found a good option, I bought two identical 5 piece drawer organizers. 

I pulled the pieces I needed and the rest are going to Youngest’s new kitchen in (early!) May. 

The green basket by the backdoor

This green basket is actually part of a focused paper/files clean out. I am on the lookout around the whole house for extra papers. The plan is to have every household paper/file in our four file drawers. 

Here we go, a spot that was overflowing with papers and  just itching for a sorting - 

Yes, it is a wonder it was still hanging on the wall. 

Much nicer now. 

What stayed: my epipens, garage door opener for my dog neighbor’s house (incase her keypad fails), spring seeds, small amount of emergency cash, gift certificates. 

A couple extra garage door openers went in the hen basket in the credenza. I rehomed a couple things. I listed several things for sale. Things went in recycling and the garbage.   Only about six things moved to their proper files in the house drawer in the filing cabinet. Many things were shredded. 

The whole operation took about 20 minutes. This was done on a very quiet day and made my afternoon feel quite productive. 

PS - I have found a lot of gift cards and gift certificates as I have sorted. If they are somewhere I go regularly, I put them in my crossbody. If they are places the girls go, I give them to them. If they are “future” places, like the greenhouse where I will buy flowers next spring, I put them in this basket. Other future places were the car wash, the bird food store, and a nursery. 

Very useful drawer in the kitchen

Others might call it a junk drawer, but I do not think of it that way, at all. To me, it is an office supply drawer. 

It has occurred to me that all of these supplies are duplicated in the computer room. I could walk down the hall and get supplies from there. And if I was short on kitchen drawers, that is exactly what I would do. 

I suspect this drawer in the kitchen is the one we all use the most often. It is very handy. 

I straighten this drawer pretty regularly. Here is how it looked just as I was getting started, this time - 

My motivation? The medicine bottles lined on the right side, the twisty ties and rubber bands cluttering the back, and the haphazard pens, pencils, markers. 

For weeks I kept thinking - why did I think those medicine bottles were a good idea? What on earth is in all of them? 

One day, waiting for the microwave, I thought, I am going to see exactly what is in all those medicine bottles. 

And to my surprise, they were all empty. And they were very green, ours are brown. I have no idea where they came from or how they ended up on the drawer. They are now in recycling.

I realized - I am not required to save every twisty tie. I use the twisty ties that come on things, but I do not actually reuse them on other things. I saved the very large ones and put them in the garage with zip ties. I pitched the small/obnoxious ones, quite happily. 

Between that drawer and a bag in the computer room, this is how many rubber bands I had in the house -

I saved one and ALL the rest went to my backdoor neighbor. I order asparagus every week which comes with two of the very good wide purple rubber bands, I will be restocked regularly.

I also cleaned out this many fat highlighters from this drawer and the computer room and they went up my backdoor neighbor also. I kept a small set of the skinny highlighters that are much easier to store. 

I kept three of the very good white erasers and sent my neighbor two, still in their wrappers -

I rearranged the drawer a little bit, and here is where we are today - 

Make no mistake, it will needed sorted again in about 6 mos. It is a magnet for weird things. 

A public service announcement about old yearbooks

I am pleased to share - my senior yearbook (1979) went to a county library. I used the post office’s book rate, shipping was very inexpensive. (My brother is now looking thru his things to see if he still has his yearbooks.)

This is not the library in my old high school town. It is actually the next town over, but in the same county. 

This library has a very large genealogy department including a huge collection of local high school yearbooks that they have scanned and put online. Their goal is to get one copy of every yearbook from all the high schools in their county. 

The 1931 yearbook, from my maternal grandfather, is posted on their site. 1931 was his sophomore year. His other three years worth of yearbooks are missing from the collection. He went to a high school two towns over from mine, but in the same county. 

In the process of looking at his one yearbook online, and (really) missing the other three of his years, it was clear the library needed more yearbooks to complete their collection. I found they had all their gap years posted on a “want list” by high school. And I realized all my own high school years (and my brother’s) were on that list. I called to verify and get the shipping address. 

The librarians were excited. I was bittersweet. I was so glad to have found a worthwhile home for my senior yearbook, but a little sad to only be shipping one book, not four.  

I thought I had yearbooks from all four of my high school years. And I thought I knew exactly where they were, in a box in the attic with my husband’s yearbooks. But mine from 9th thru 11th grade were not there, which is a mystery. 

In the process of hunting for my missing yearbooks, my mom realized she still had a variety of yearbooks from her second husband. Some high school, some college, some from when he was teaching, all of these were old. I donated them to the genealogy department my local library, they have a national collection of materials. They are very pleased to get them. 

Two medicine cabinets

I have discovered if things have a place, I am far less frustrated. If I find a stray pair of shoes, I take them out and put them on the garage shoe rack, with very little thought and no annoyance. This realization/coping mechanism has made a huge, positive difference in my life. 

I wipe the bathroom counter and sinks most mornings, just before I hop in the shower. There is always a little something on the counter on my husband’s side. I put it away, no problem, because it is usually just one little thing. 

If I went weeks without wiping the counter, lots of things would collect on his side and my side. So the wiping serves two purposes - decluttering and actual scrub/cleaning. 

Last month, cleaning out the computer room, I found about a half dozen containers of dental floss. I put it all in my husband’s medicine cabinet. But then in subsequent days, putting things from the counter to the cupboard, floss kept falling on my head.

I have learned, to truly organize a space, I must pull everything out and start fresh.

Note: in the above picture, I had already put all the floss in a long/skinny basket. There was a lot of floss. Those baskets work GREAT in medicine cabinets, I have one in mine too (below). All the moisturizer bottles in mine, tip out on my head easily. That basket works wonders at keeping them steady.  

While his cabinet was empty, I scrubbed it and actually reduced the number of shelves. I had done the same thing in mine previously. Less shelves made for better storage in both cabinets. 

I was going to have my husband go thru his medicine cabinet  pile on the counter, but decided to look at expiration dates and pitch the old stuff first. Much of it dated back to 2014-16, by the time I pulled the expired stuff, the rest was very simple, and I reorganized it in his cabinet. 

What is very interesting about this process, was the week before we started on on the computer room, my husband had me add dental floss to the grocery order.  

Once it was all together in one spot, so much dental floss. I have found this with many other areas of the house, like rubber bands. Once they have ONE designated spot, it is startling how much there is. 

A public service announcement about standard size envelopes

First, let me announce, I am now up to 28 photo packages mailed. Each one is very exciting.

I have been using the kiosk at the post office, after hours, for almost all my mailing needs for the last couple years. I have mailed a lot of things since March 2020.  

Several Saturdays ago, I had two packages to mail that needed checked out by a clerk. I had a box going to Sweden which required a customs form. I had a box going book rate to a library (yearbook donation post coming soon). I could not do either of those at the kiosk. 

That day, I had three envelopes going also. These 3 were envelopes I normally would do at the kiosk, but since I was going IN anyway, I took them all to the counter. One was half size manilla filled with photos, one was a greeting card size full of photos, and one was an empty square notecard in a square envelope. 

I put a stamp on the square one, at home, because it was not heavy. 

When I got to the counter at the post office I commented one already had the postage and the rest needed weighed/calculated. 

The post office clerk said the square one needed more postage because it was square. Evidently, square, regardless of the size, must be hand sorted, they get caught/destroyed in the machine/reader/sorter.

So I paid for 30 cents more postage on the square one. He processed the rest of my things. 

I went home and collected all my square envelopes and gave them to a friend who uses them for scrapbooking. 

Very interestingly, later that same day I was at a bookstore, having them buy back old computer games, and I browsed in the close-out notecard section while I waited. A shocking number of the close out notecards were undersized and/or square. (I found cute notecards, 3.5”x5”, and got them for youngest with my store credit. I try to use store credit immediately.)

I am sure I have used square envelopes in the past, with no extra postage, and now I wonder if they ever made it to their destinations. 

The mystery 8th grade class photo from 1933.

The first story was the 152 mystery photos from my great grandma’s album that went to the library. The second story was Delbert. This class picture is (I think) my last mystery photo/the third story. It is so nice when things work out in threes. 

Unfortunately, the photo was clearly cut to fit some crazy shaped frame long ago. Many of the names are no longer readable on the back. I can sort of make out the ones on the front enough to be fairly certain no relatives are listed. I also do not recognize faces. Did you notice “8th grade” and “1933” handwritten on the bottom?

First, I sent this electronic image to the genealogy department in my birth town library. The lady there can work magic. I heard back pretty quickly that she had traced several of the names to Dolton, Illinois. They suggested I write to the genealogy society there, I did. 

Part of that makes sense. My maternal grandmother lived in Dolton as a child. 1933 is about right for her to be in 8th grade. Two problems: she does not appear to be in this picture. I think she only completed the 6th grade. 

I heard back from Dolton genealogy society. This is what they said -

“This school still exists. It is in the elementary school district where I attended as a child. The school is located at 14151 Lincoln Avenue, Dolton, IL. It is in District #148 which covers parts of Riverdale and Dolton. The district office is located at 114 W. 144th Street, Riverdale, IL 60827. phone 708-841-2290. I looked for some of the names that were listed on the photo. Most of these students were born in 1920 in Dolton. I tried to locate a graduation list on Newspapers.com but could not find one. The Pointer was the local newspaper in Riverdale and Dolton at that time. I know that the Dolton Public Library has microfilm of the Pointer newspaper. I would check with them to see if they can locate a graduation list. Please send a donation to our Society for the time spent researching this question.”

I first mailed them a check for $5. I rarely have to pay, on this project I ended up paying twice. 

She did not state the name of the school, I looked it up from the address. It is Lincoln Elementary. The “Lincoln” becomes ironic later in the story. 

Then I called the Dolton library and the reference librarian told me their microfilm machine broke and they pitched all their microfilm. (I wrote back to the Dolton genealogy society and told them this shocking news). 

Then I called the School District office and was told by the assistant that their records do not go back that far. I left a message for one of the head people, just incase. 

Then stumped, I called my genealogy department at my local library. He gave me the number for the Illinois State library. I did not know there were state libraries. The Illinois State library could not help me, but gave me the number for the Abe Lincoln Presidential Library. 

And the reference librarian at the presidential library confirmed they have newspaper archives from the Pointer newspaper in Dolton/Riverdale from 1933.

I had to register (online) with the Abe Lincoln library. There is a $5 fee for each article, and they are sent by email as a PDF. 

I sent the reference librarian (doing the actual search) a copy of the front and bank of the photo as well as the information from my birth town library and the genealogy society in Dolton. 

I heard this past week that she had success. I mailed my $5 check, online payment is usually not available for these searches. So I should be getting my PDF, maybe this coming week. 

I have a plan. If the list confirms no one in my family is in this photo, I will do two things. I will first see if my local library genealogy department wants to scan/post the photo and class list. And then I will see if the Abe Lincoln Presidental library wants the actual photo. 

Delbert

I do not pitch things lightly. And that definitely includes photos. 

As I have shipped and shipped, 23 packages, the piles have definitely dwindled. I am left with my direct line/keeper people which now feels very manageable.

But I was also left with mystery/unknown photos. I have been working on those, steadily. 

Dropping off 152 unknowns at the library definitely helped reduce my mystery pile. That left just a few. 

It is just crazy what I have found in the unknown photo stash. Here is a good example -

(There were more photos). 

I have absolutely no idea how we have these pictures. The city and the face and the name mean nothing to me, my mother, my mother’s sister, my mother’s sister-in-law and brother. 

I am pretty sure I found the right guy and posted them on Find a Grave, so they are saved. 

The Genealogy Dept in my birth town, who knows my extended family, could not place him (as related to my family) either. But they found his grandson’s mailing address for me. 

I sent the package of photos with this note - 

January 25, 2022

A couple years ago, my mom and I started sorting extended family photos including those of my grandparents and great grandparents. (My mom just turned 81, and lives a couple blocks from me. I am turning 61 in March.) The photo clean out has been a very worthwhile project, and much easier to do while my mom is still alive/well/able to help identify/sort. 

We ran across the enclosed packet of photos. We suspect they were in with my great grandmother’s things. Her name was ________________ and she lived at Koontz Lake in Walkerton, Indiana. We are only guessing this because Pierceton and Koontz Lake are sort of near to each other. Otherwise, it is an utter mystery to us, how these photos ended up at my house. 

The genealogy department at the _______ County library was able to trace Delbert and if they are correct, you are his grandson. If this is not correct, please contact me. If it is correct – surprise, here are photos of your grandfather from long ago. 

Either way, my mother and I are very curious to hear from you. Maybe you have an older relative that might shed some light on these mystery photos.

The unknown photos from my great grandmother’s album

As I mentioned, after I shipped hundreds of photos, I was able to focus on what I had left. Besides my direct line keepers, I had a lot of unknowns. I do not pitch photos easily, but I also have a use it or lose it philosophy, finding a solution for a pile of unidentifiable photos required thought. 

Last month, with much relief, I dropped a large envelope with 152 photos off at the local genealogy department. Yes, that picture (below) is 152 photos, doesn’t look like that much, does it? 

In Indiana, many county libraries have very good (staffed) genealogy departments. I use several of them regularly. The one in my town happens to be one of the best in the country.  

I had called earlier and explained that I had unlabeled photos from my great grandmother’s album that were approximately WWI era. They discussed it within the department and then called to say that yes, they wanted them, if I was willing to write an accompanying piece about my great grandmother. 

I wrote, youngest helped me edit. I included information about my great grandma’s parents and grandparents and two husband’s. I talked about the restaurant that her mother and step-father ran in the early 1900’s near the railroad station, where they worked and met many people. I talked about who might be in the photos, mentioning family lines and WWI soldiers. 

The library is going to scan the photos and include my piece when they post the collection online. I am not sure if it will be edited or included as I wrote it. 

The relief, to have something meaningful to do with those photos, was huge. I estimate that most were taken before 1922. So yes, 100 year old photos. 

I could not bring myself to pitch them. But I had to think very hard what to do with them. 

I shipped hundreds and hundreds of photos to extended family

Added later - very important to put all the photos in zip lock plastic bags. My niece’s box was delivered to a door they never use. It got wet, photos in their bag were fine.

These (below) were the bigger packages, I used flat rate boxes from the post office. It was $16 for the larger boxes in this picture and  $10 for the small. The larger envelopes were all under $5, and many were $2. 

It was about $90 postage for this first pile which included many hundreds of photos from my house and my mother’s house. I shipped mostly to my first cousins, my brother, my niece and nephew. They received pictures of themselves, with their siblings, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. 

Yes, there were a lot over overlapping lines. I used my best judgement. 

And the most important part? I went thru everything, before I shipped the first box. The metal cabinet upstairs that I thought only housed photos from my husband’s family, had lots of other friends/family photos. 

I was very, very happy with this project. I have saved my kids a lot of grief. Cleaning out our house at some future date, this would have been impossible for them. My mom (81) sorted hers. I sorted mine. I combined, resorted and shipped. 

More info is here -

https://baby-steps-v.blogspot.com/2022/01/the-extended-family-photo-project.html?m=1

The following week, I shipped several more half size mantilla envelopes, not in the picture. Then more envelopes went, one or two at a time. These went to college friends, my mom’s first cousin, former neighbors, some of my husband’s cousins. I shipped an envelope of slides to my aunt and uncle. We included a note with every package. 

We are hearing back from people as the (23) packages arrive. Some are excited, some are joyfully tearful. People are getting together to go thru their boxes. 

And yes, as soon as we ship, even though we went thru things carefully, we find a few straggler photos. I have a system in place for that now. 

I put three odd red envelopes in the cubby with my holiday card supplies. When we find a random photo now, it goes in the red envelopes and then will be distributed in my holiday cards next year. 

I saved the “direct line” photos of myself with my parents, grandparents, great grandparents, aunts and uncles. Getting rid of the hundreds of extras, allows me to really focus on the photos I saved. I am now working on several projects. 

Slides - a public service announcement

I am sorting family photos. We have very few slides. 

This is a public service announcement, because we did not know, the slides were in boxes. 

That is my mom in the white coat, who is now 81, so these slides are about 65 years old.

We looked it up, this happens to slides with age. They do not last. 

If your family has slides, get the important ones printed. 

We have very few that we care about. My husband is taking the keepers to the downtown library. They have a scanner that we can use for free to scan slides to digital. Have to take your own memory stick.

Also photo places will convert/print them. 

We do not have a lot. The ones on the light box are from my mom’s family. There are only a couple keepers. The ones in the bin are from my husband’s side. We do not know how many keepers, we suspect just a few. 

The elephant key project

We have had this elephant for over 20 years. It is a landmark in our house. I originally bought it at Hobby Lobby. It was intended to be a plant holder. It is very heavy and sits on the credenza by the backdoor. 

The daily keys people use go in the elephant. Some are on lanyards, some on rings, they stay near the top. 

Also in the depths of the elephant are the extra keys to all four of our cars, extra keys to our house, keys to our safe deposit box, plus a big collection of extra keys for my mother (including *multiple door keys, car key and safe deposit box key). Our Hondas came with three keys, two regular and one valet. So we are talking a lot of keys. 

*A note on multiple door keys - locks can be rekeyed. When we bought our front security door, we had those two locks rekeyed to match the rest of the doors in our house.  So one key unlocks every door, knob locks and dead bolts, at our house. This makes life a lot simpler. 

The extra keys were all on assorted weird rings. We have one Toyota and three Hondas. My mother has a Honda. So most of the extra car keys look identical. 

I bought personalized key rings, ordered on sale, from Etsy. 

I got the color that was on sale. And I had each stamped (subtly) with our first name. I bought four of these, one for each of us, to organize the extra car keys. 

I happened to have a similar leather key ring, which I am using for my mother. That original leather key ring is what prompted this whole little project. 

From top to bottom -

Keys my husband uses on lanyard 

Extra keys for Accord my husband drives to office (when he goes) (was originally oldest’s first/only car, they only took one vehicle with them).

Extra keys for middle’s civic (I am further dividing her keys, note at bottom) 

Extra key for Youngest’s civic (when she is home, her regular keys on a lanyard, go in the elephant. Her valet key stays at college as her service/back up key.)

Extra key for my Toyota.

Safe deposit box keys 

Extra keys for my mom’s house, car, safe deposit box 

And off to the right at the bottom, all the extra house keys I found in a zip lock bag the chicken basket in this undertaking. 

The keys middle uses daily are in her work bag. One key fob for the Toyota is deep in the phone case I wear around my neck/a tiny cross body, with my credit cards/ID, my car is keyless.

I dumped the whole elephant for this project. And yes, there were an assortment of weird keys at the bottom, but not many. And there was no extra accumulation of coins and buttons and paper clips, I had cleaned it out fairly recently. 

I also found the hen basket we used at the old house, with odds and ends of very old keys and junk in it, in the bottom of the credenza. 

So, all together, these (below) were the weird keys, I had no idea what they were. Top of picture is the shocking amount from the hen basket (plus a bag of house keys not in the picture) and bottom of picture shows the ones dumped from the elephant -

I did find important keys. I found the second/extra lock box key in the pile from the chicken basket. I put it on the ring with the one I use. Also in the chicken basket, I found a zip lock bag from the hardware store with “new” extra house keys for this house. 

I usually cannot bring myself to pitch keys. But I identified four keys that were clearly cars from long ago and pitched them -

I was left with two categories of weird keys

 - luggage/small locks (on ring, top of photo below) 

 - unidentified (on ring, middle of photo below) 

and a lot of sturdy key rings (on carabiner, bottom of photo below)

Yes, it is unlikely anyone will ever need any of those keys, but you never know. And the sturdy rings may come in handy. All three of those rings are now all in the hen basket, back in the bottom of the credenza. 

The day I wrote this post, I did two extra things - 

I ordered a key ring for middle with the puppies picture on it. I am going to leave her valet key on the leather ring with her name on it in the elephant, for emergencies and service. I am going to put her extra key and a house key on the new puppy ring for her to take to the gym. I will add a picture when it arrives. 

And I sent a couple of these pictures to Youngest’s and middle so they knew what I had done, what was in the elephant, and what was in the hen basket. 

The extended family photo project

My mother sorted/divided/distributed photos from her second husband’s side of the family a couple years ago. So all those family photos are now in the hands of his children and grandchildren. It was a huge relief to her, and to me, very smart/proactive, and as a 2nd wife, a kind thing to do. 

Then, my mom sorted out the rest of her photos and brought the lot, from our side of the family, over to my house. Hundreds and hundreds of photos. 

I absolutely wanted the photos and it was very good to do this while she was still alive. Before she gave them to me, she wrote on the back of almost all of them. And she sorted as best she could, but they were still a bit of a jumble, many envelopes, folders, boxes. 

I totally changed my mind on what to do with these photos.

My intention, at the time she gave me the piles, was to put all those extended family photos in my red genealogy binders. Thankfully I started on a few stacks, but never really got to it. 

Recently, I rethought the whole concept.  

I realized none of my kids will want any of these extended family photos. And they do not know most of these people by sight, they would not be able to sort these photos. And it would be a terrible dilemma for them. When a house gets cleaned out, probably it all just gets pitched or stored in boxes forever. (Probably they will not want my red genealogy binders either.)

So, with my husband helping me, we went through our own photo albums, my mother’s stacks (which included photos from my grandmother and great grandmother), and the red genealogy binders.  We started dividing photos, very very aggressively. Our plan - to distribute extended family photos to the extended family. 

Which extended family?

I have five maternal first cousins, all their parents/my aunts and uncles are still alive and now in their mid to late 70’s. I am not sending pictures to the older folks, who hopefully have started cleaning out their own houses. Instead I am sending directly to their kids, my first cousins. And I am sending to my niece and nephew, my brother’s children, and my brother. 

I knew I had all current addresses, from my last two years of Christmas card mailings. I am not asking anyone in advance if they wanted photos. I am not asking anyone any questions (except my mother). And I think this is key. If they want to pitch, rehome, redivide, whatever, that is on them. But those stacks of photos are all going to be out of my house and are already gone from my mother’s house.

How did we start sorting?

If you are wondering about the practicalities, we cleaned off the kitchen table, made signs to identify the piles and just dug in to the sorting on a recent Saturday.

We started with our house set of photo albums. My husband put them on the kitchen table and we went thru every picture pulling ones of just the extended family. If we were also in the pictures, sometimes we saved them, often they went in the piles.

Then we went thru my mom’s piles. This was the hard part, there were a lot. I had to do the very old ones, my husband was able to focus on my brother/niece/nephew who he could easily recognize.  

We pulled for my cousins, brother, niece, nephew. 

We saved photos of me, my mother, my grandparents, my great grandparents and great-great grandparents. I saved some of the pictures of us with other family members, I shared others. My mother thought she had destroyed all her first wedding pictures. She had not, I found an envelope full and was glad to see them. Many of the pictures I kept came from my mother’s, grandmother’s and great grandmother’s photo albums which we had disassembled several years ago. The albums were not photo safe and were crumbling. My mother wrote on the back of all the ones we pulled from albums.

Then we went thru the red genealogy binders and pulled the pertinent pictures I had already filed. 

By the end of that Saturday, we were sorted and the photos were safe in plastic bags. And we figured out and assembled boxes for shipping. 

That was a 8+ hour project, but it was easier to do the sorting all in one go. 

This photo (below) amuses me because it looks so simple. There are hundreds of photos in those bags. But, the bags all look so small in this picture. There were too many photos to use padded envelopes. We needed boxes, which I had. 

It was important to pause, a long pause in fact, I am still paused.

And then I purposely paused. The kitchen table stayed exactly like the above photo. The boxes are all addressed with the bags of photos in them,  but the boxes are not yet sealed.

By myself, taking my time, I am going back thru each plastic bag, carefully, to see if we made any mistakes or if I changed my mind about any photos. I am taking photos with my phone of a few pictures.

I called my mom and she looked thru her house several more times to be sure she had gotten everything. 

I am still looking carefully at my house to be sure we got everything. I have a large metal cabinet upstairs, which I think is full of pictures from my husband’s side, but we are going thru it now. 

And I am writing notes to include with each box, when they are eventually shipped. 

What were all these pictures? 

My cousins, niece/nephew, brother will all receive pictures of themselves solo, or with/of their family (parents, siblings, aunts/uncles, grandparents). 

Many of these pictures had come at holidays over the decades, photo Christmas cards, professional individual or family portraits, candids, baby pictures and school photos for example. There were also a lot of photos I had taken, candids from family gatherings, decades ago. I am almost 61. I often had a camera in hand as a child/teenager/young adult. And there were photos from my mom’s very old albums, my mom is 81.

A huge advantage, in dividing for my niece and nephew, was that because I had my mom’s stash and my stash, there were a lot of duplicates, so my niece and nephew each got important/identical photos in their piles. 

The rest of the sibling sets to my cousins, I just divided as evenly as I could. There are a lot of very old pictures of their parents/my aunt and uncle, in those sets that I am sure my cousins have never seen. 

Hopefully these boxes will be happily received. 

We are shipping hundreds of photos to people who, hopefully, will be very surprised and happy to receive them. Most importantly - hundreds of photos are headed out of my house and my kids will not have to deal with them. 

Cherry pit trifold bag instructions

I buy my cherry pits from The Cherry Pit Store in Michigan. They are shipped to me. 

http://cherrypitstore.com/

I buy 40 lb bags, which are very heavy and awkward to carry. (If you live on a 6th floor walk up, you will want to buy a smaller size or find a strong friend to help.)

A 40 lbs bag of cherry pits yields approximately 18 of my regular cherry pit microwave bags (instructions in previous post) with about 8 cups of pits per bag. 

Today, I am noting the sewing directions for making a longer, trifold version of a cherry pit bag. 

Youngest’s trifold (below) is yellow with stars. She had to bring it home so we could weigh and measure it. I have made four of those, but never wrote down the instructions because I thought each was the last. 

I made two more last month, as Christmas gifts, this time I documented carefully, so I can make these without Youngest helping. 

We determined 25” x 9.5” was the right size. 

One trifold cherry pit bag requires two pieces of 100% thick cotton flannel and two pieces of 100% cotton each cut at 25” x 9.5”. 

Note - this is a basic sewing instruction, I include it for beginners. All stitching lines have to be locked so they do not pull apart/unravel. For straight stitching, back stitch at the beginning and end of each seam. When zigzagging, straight stitch and back stitch to lock, then zigzag over it. Cannot back stitch on a serger, so fold the serger thread tails under/down and straight stitch over them on the regular machine. 

Note - In these instructions, the blue fish fabric is 100% cotton flannel (right side). The bird fabric is regular 100% cotton I had on hand, will be lining on the inside, will not show. (I used up all my muslin on cherry pit bags a few weeks ago. A sewing friend suggested I use up print cotton rather than buying muslin. I made several aprons from the bird print, still have a lot left. Also fabric store curbside order for muslin came back as out of stock. . .)

The first thing I did was pair each piece of flannel with a piece of cotton, wrong sides together, and press. The reason I did wrong sides together was to reduce the chance of the bird print showing through the flannel. 

Using a very long basting stitch, I sewed the two pieces of fabric together, 1/8” from the edge.

Then I sewed two pairs together, on three sides, using a 2/8”  seam allowance, with the right sides of the flannel against each other, and the cotton on the outside. I left one long edge open. I back stitched at the edges and the corners to reinforce them. 

I ran all three sides through the serger. I did not turn the corners, I ran each side one at a time. I carefully folded the thread tails in, so the serger did not cut them. Then I restitched all three sides on the regular machine, sewing down the serger thread tails as I went. 

Next, I turned the open edge under, toward the cotton/inside, and zigzagged it. I find it helpful to use the width of the zigzag foot as my guide when turning things under like this. I just turn as I go. I do not pin or press. 

Then I flipped the whole thing right side out and measured the finished length. I divided that number by 3 and drew my lines with a pencil. 

I stitched on the lines and on each side of the lines. 

Then youngest weighed the star one, and did math. Each section gets 462g. Using the tar function to subtract the weight of the metal bowl, we used the bowl to hold the cherry pits while weighing, and then poured them directly in each section. (We did not use the plate, it just happens to be in this picture.)

This is the only time I use pins when sewing cherry pits. I use the pins to hold the cherry pits back, so I can sew the opening closed.  I am careful to count how many pins I use and very careful to be sure I remove all of them. (A pin left in a cherry pit bag bill cause it to catch fire in the microwave.)

I stitched twice across the long open edge, back stitching frequently for added strength. You can also see my original zigzag line from when I turned the raw edge under. 

 

I make at least two cherry pit bags at a time, so I can chain stitch from one to the other on the sewing machine as I go. Since they are identical fabric, I used both when documenting my steps (above). If I forgot to take a picture, I had a back up ready/available. 

Bonus, I can make two in nearly the same time it takes to make one. Double bonus, I used up fabric I already had. 

I only give one of these trifold bags as a gift. The two above were gifted to two different people. This is the note (below) I enclose with one of these trifold bags. I use this note because everyone I give the trifold bag to already has two of my regular (square) cherry pit bags.