I made my egg mold, or I guess I should call it a form, with aluminum foil. I crumpled up a sheet of it tightly into an ovoid(? egg) shape, then covered it with scrap clay, and baked it. When I made my first egg box, I covered the mold with thin sheets of clay, cutting darts to fit, and smoothing. When I had it covered, I wrapped a cord around it, pressing very lightly to make a neat pattern to follow, then cut along that line with my tissue blade. I baked that, then while it was still hot from the oven I ran my Xacto knife along the line I cut before baking it, and gently wiggled the two halves apart. The first one worked great! I lined the halves with gold pearl, made a lip to hold the lid in place, made then attached the legs, and baked it again. After the second baking, I added another thin layer of my original pearl to the outside, not only to make a smooth seam between the gold rim, but also to strengthen the join between the bottom of the egg and the legs. I baked it again. Finally, I added the ribbon, leaves, rosebud and rose, and baked it one last time. I was a little worried that I might be baking it too much, too many times, BUT because I used a white background on my egg, I didn't want to chance 'staining it' in the process of adding the decorations. I've taken more pictures (which aren't too bad, IMHO, compared to my earlier ones LOL) and will post them ion the gallery. I have some close ups, open eggs, and closed eggs, so you'll have an idea of what I'm talking about. Oh yes, the little books that are in the first photo's? I have more of those, too, and you can find them in the Paper Arts gallery. I'm addicted to them, I tell ya'!

I think the best idea for backing up would be via 3 different schemes. one would be the firesafe in the home, with all the important info, pictures scanned to cd, etc. Freezer with pics. For the ultra paranoid, one can bury the said freezer and safe. Second would be the local bank, with everything that was in the safe. The ultra paranoid could make this bank in a different city, state, or country. Third would be the internet. There are many websites that offer strictly backup services, though I wouldn't trust them too much. I currently have yahoo and 2 gigs of space. With proper scanning of deeds, wills, itemised lists and whatever else (could probably fit low resolution pictures) which are then compressed into parts, encrypted, and renamed to something of less value, would be the best way to back up. Arbitrarily named files would make 'hackers' ignore them, encryption makes it so that only you can get to them, and web hosting services usually provide backups adding more to the redundancy. The ultra paranoid could locate this storage on the other side of the globe, or in space :D

I've painted those and mens shoe boxes and when wet they tend to seem warped,however when they dry they've been fine. You can also cover them with strips of masking tape,then go over it with liquid shoe polish. Of course there's also decoupage,contact paper,wall paper etc. Kathi

Elmer I need to apologize for laughing at your comment. You seem to relate what knowledge and what people do to what their job/s were. Which is true for many men. Women are not restricted to what they know and do, except in certain instances, to any job that they have ever had. Men should not be but for some they are. Most learn all throughout their lives. Much of what we women learn is not learned for any job unless you consider living as a job. Women's knowledge is also not restricted to classes although I because I enjoy learning about many things used to take one or two classes college and other types each year after I graduated. My classes as they are for many women were for my enjoyment and to gain information on a wide variety of subjects. Want to know how some cultures make their own ink? Last night I was reading about your beloved living trusts and most of the sites confirmed what I have been stating. There are things like bank accounts, pensions, and while most only mentioned IRAs or plans with a designated joint owner or beneficiary that all of the articles suggested that without a strong reason like a minor or disabled child or a person whose spouse or significate other would take the assets they should not be placed into a living trust. Anyone wanting to read about the do's and don'ts of living trusts can simply do a search using "Living Trusts" then if they want additional information they can contact an attorney or any other person that does financial planning. I suggest reading several sites as each one can present the information differently.