Thursday Thirteen 105: National Scrapbook Day

SCRAPBOOK FACTS1. National Scrapbooking Day was started in 1994 by the well-known album company Creative Memories, and is celebrated on the first Saturday of May. As that is this weekend, I thought I'd talk a bit about one of my (many) hobbies.2. Scrapbooking is a way of preserving personal and family history in the form of photographs, printed media, and memorabilia contained in decorated albums, or scrapbooks, along with detailed journaling of events.3. With the advent of affordable paper, early memory books became available to a wider number of people. As early as the 15th century, “commonplace books,” popular in England, were a way to compile a variety of memorabilia that included recipes, quotes, letters, poems and more. Each commonplace book was unique to its creator's particular interests.4. Friendship albums became popular in the 16th century. These albums were much like our modern yearbooks, where friends or patrons would enter their names, titles and short texts or illustrations at the request of the album's owner.4. According to the Craft & Hobby Association, close to 1/3 of all households in the United States include at least one scrapbooker; that makes scrapbooking a more popular hobby than golf (with ¼ of all households having at least one golfer).5. Queen Victoria and Thomas Jefferson each had scrapbooks.6. Printed scrapbook paper was produced in Holland and Germany as early as the 1700s.7. The first book of scrapbooking ideas called The Scrapbook was published in 1825.8. Scrapbooking first became popular after the book Manuscript Gleanings and Literary Scrap was published in 1826.9. In 1872 Mark Twain invented Mark Twain’s Adhesive Scrapbook and went on to generate sales which totaled $50,000.10. Modern scrapbooking became popular in 1980 when Marielen Christensen displayed 50 of her scrapbooks at the World Conference on records.11. The scrapbooking industry doubled in size between 2001 and 2004 to $2.5 billion with over 1,600 companies creating scrapbooking products by 2003. Creative Memories, a home-based retailer of scrapbooking supplies founded in 1987, saw $425 million in retail sales in 2004 (CM recently underwent chapter 11 but has, apparently and for the time being, emerged in tact). An infinite selection of products and layout ideas can now easily be found online.12. In addition to preserving memories, the scrapbooking is a popular social networking source. People gather to scrap together at local stores, conventions, retreats, cruises or each other’s homes for a “crop,” a reference to the cropping (trimming) of photographs. Stores across the country hold sales and crops throughout the day, some lasting the entire weekend.13. Scrapbooks come in all shapes and sizes, with the most popular sizes being 6x6 (mini albums), 8.5 x11, and 12x12. Basic supplies include an album, designer paper, a paper trimmer, mounting corners or archival safe (acid free) adhesive, and archival pens for journaling (again, acid free). As many companies offer an array of paper kits, little experience is required to create a lasting memory.50 ideas to get organizedhttp://www.scrapbookinghow.com/lib/tips/50-tips.htmI have done at least 20 books. A few pages of a book I did for a friend's daughter can be seen here.LINKS TO OTHER THURSDAY THIRTEENS:(Please leave your link if this is your first visit!)Ella Drake * Mel * RJ LeBeau * Adelle Laudan * Stephanie AdkinsJenna Bayley-Burke * Lanie Fuller * Inez Kelley * Lia MorganJanice Seagraves * Shelley Munro * Jamie Babette * Alice AudreyPaige Tyler * Jennifer McKenzie * Ms Menozzi * HarrietStoryteller * Janet * Daisy * Kate Willoughby * Elise Logan * Brenda ND The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others’ comments. It’s easy, and fun! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things.

The great English pursuit

Went for a quick drink after work last night to mark a birthday. It was in a place called Smithy's down an unpromising street near Kings Cross. Everybody's drink was served in a glass bearing the branding of the drink they ordered. Presumably the idea is to carry the messaging of advertising into the retail environment itself, the better to engender loyalty and to ensure that even the drunkest customer approaching the bar ten minutes before closing simply has to thrust the glass forward and say "more of *this*".I've just finished H.W. Brands' biography of Benjamin Franklin. Franklin spent his life commuting between the American colonies and England and never got over not just the amount the English drank but also the energetic, determined way they went about it. Brands quotes a contemporary account of an evening's entertainment in 18th century England."We continued," he says, " drinking like horses, as the vulgar phrase is, and singing till many of us were very drunk, and then we went to dancing and pulling of wigs, caps, and hats; and thus we continued in this frantic manner, behaving more like mad people than they that profess the name of Christians."I can't get the image of people "drinking like horses" out of my mind.

Apple Macbook Nano

Renewable energy: Greenstanding

Gordon Browns New Deal will do little to advance renewable energyONE of the most impressive monuments to Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal is the network of dams that stud the Tennessee River valley, built to provide work and to modernise a backward corner of America during the Great Depression. Seventy-five years later and on the other side of the Atlantic, work is once again growing scarce and an economy is in need of modernisation, this time to secure energy supplies and slash the release of planet-heating greenhouse gases. The British government has been playing up the parallels, with much ministerial talk of a Green New Deal. In March Gordon Brown promised the creation of a low-carbon economy for Britain that would provide jobs and clean up industry. Lord Mandelson, his business secretary, talked of a new industrial revolution and said that there was no high-carbon future.It is a seductive vision. If Keynesian stimulus is to be the order of the day, greenery seems a good sector in which to apply it. There are benefits besides decarbonisation. Much of the contribution would come from changing the way electricity is generated, and many of Britains old power plants need replacing anyway. A switch to renewable power would cut dependence on oil and natural gas as national production of both dwindles. Windy, storm-lashed Britain is a good place to harness the weather; boosters talk excitedly of a splurge on renewable electricity and the possibility of capturing the market for offshore wind turbines or wave-power machines, creating tens of thousands of jobs. On April 1st Statkraft, a state-owned Norwegian firm, said it was investing GBP500m ($715m) in a Scottish wind-farm project. ...

'Rock Of Love

Show contestant Megan Hauserman says the host attacked her for insulting Ozzy.By Gil Kaufman Sharon Osbourne Photo: Paul Morigi/WireImage Los Angeles police are investigating an incident on the set of the reunion special of VH1's "Rock of Love: Charm School" on Saturday, in which host Sharon Osbourne reportedly got into a fight with contestant Megan Hauserman. According to TMZ, Hauserman said that Osbourne became angry during the taping of the special, allegedly running across the stage, grabbing the contestant by the hair and continuing to pull her hair and scratch at her until security separated them. Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson Kate Lopez confirmed that a battery incident was alleged to have occurred during a taping of a reality show hosted by Osbourne over the weekend. "We can't verify Osbourne's involvement," Lopez said on Monday morning (December 15). "An investigative report was taken ... and detectives will do interviews to determine if charges should be filed." Hauserman said she went to the hospital Sunday afternoon and filed a report with the LAPD later that day. TMZ has posted a video of her being interviewed by a police officer and leaving a hospital with her left arm in a sling. The former Playboy Cyber Girl reportedly told TMZ that the source of the fight was a comment she made about Osbourne's husband, Ozzy. Hauserman said she reacted to a slight from Sharon by saying that the show's host was only famous for managing a "brain-dead rock star." Osbourne, of course, is known for her scrappy sensibility  whether she is feuding with Iron Maiden, throwing down with a showbiz flack at a Japanese restaurant in West Hollywood or unceremoniously dumping the Smashing Pumpkins as a management client. But as the host of "Charm School," Osbourne is charged with taming 14 contestants from the two seasons of Bret Michaels' "Rock of Love," as the women attempt to learn etiquette for a chance to win $100,000. Hauserman, who began her reality-TV career winning the third season of the CW's "Beauty and the Geek" in 2007, went on to be a contestant on season two of "Rock of Love" and the VH1 show "I Love Money." She's slated to get her own VH1 spin-off called "Trophy Wife." A rep for Sharon Osbourne had not responded to MTV News' request for comment at press time.

Mini eye shape TV

Enjoy sunshine

Baby Names

You know? None of the eleventeenmillion blog posts I've written in my head in the last couple weeks involved any discussion of baby names whatsoever. But I'm tired and achy and just a little bit blown away by life at the moment. Because dude.I mean, Ish and I moved in together, into this apartment, last February 15. If all goes well, we'll be leaving it soon. And I tell you what. I knew when we moved in that I could not possibly foresee the circumstances under which we'd be moving out again. Would we be moving out together or separately? If separately, would our break-up have been amicable? Or would we be moving together to another apartment? A bigger one? A smaller one? A place we'd...own? Never did I think that just one tiny little year later I'd have left my job and that we'd be moving to a house, in Napa, and that we'd be married and I'd be pregnant.See? Dude.And yes, I am looking forward to it all, of course I am. But it is a lot to take in, and not just because I've come a long way from where I was a year ago. Let's be fair. It hasn't been that long since I was splayed on the bathroom floor in a big stupid house in Connecticut, sobbing hysterically to no one because my husband had left me and my mother was dying and I couldn't envision my future, or any future at all.Which is to say that all these life changes are great and huge and when I start to put them in context, they're even greater and huger and I'd love to have some time to just let it all sink in.Ha! Except!I can't very well just go flitting about, pondering and pontificating and tra-la-la-ing while things magically sort themselves out. (Although that would be cool. I picture myself skipping through a meadow with some ridiculous sun hat on, and when I return from my jaunt I discover that all our stuff got packed up and moved by elves! And there were no issues with the mortgage! And we're settled in our home and oh! The baby was born! Fiddle dee dee!)But right. No. And all this is a very roundabout way of saying that, while I'm busy trying to sort out all the emotional "whoa"ness going on, life isn't getting put on hold.Which brings me -- yay! -- to the point of this entry.The baby is still due in a few months and we haven't bought any baby anything yet. I haven't taken a single class, or read more than a few pages here and there in a couple books. I still mostly think this pregnancy is totally surreal, and I'm in some fairly considerable disbelief about it.Thus this baby most certainly does not have a name yet. So, ah, wanna help?Here's where we're coming from:We are trying to avoid names in the Top 100 most popular lists, and if possible, even names in the top 500. We like a lot of old-fashioned and traditional names, but surprisingly, many of those are on the current most popular lists. (Ex: Isabella)We do like untraditional and interesting names, too...from history, Hollywood, or literature especially. We're very open to last names as first names, and even to boy names.I do not, however, like made-up names. And if it's something you can imagine Britney liking, I will probably hate it. (Anything of the Brayden/Jayden variety is really just not my style.)We don't care if the name is hard to spell.I don't plan to change my last name, but the baby will have Ish's last name of Bartlett.We are primarily of British, Celtic and German descent.I also personally like French names, and I really like names with long and short A sounds.I don't really want to provide examples of specific names we're considering, because I'd prefer not to have them shot down (everyone does it, myself included). But just to give you a small taste, one of my most favoritest names is Ava -- and see? It has both the long and the short A sound. Unfortunately, it's the #1 name for 2008 and also Ish vetoed it. So oh, well.One of our actual still-on-the-list possibilities is the name Maeby. (Yep.)So...any thoughts? Suggestions?We'd love your help!