That's wonderful. How are you going to distribute the stuff once you get there, and where is "there", since New Orleans is inaccessible? You might want to coordinate with the Salvation Army or Red Cross to get the things there and get them to the needy. I sure wouldn't drive into that area with a truckload of anything right now and try to manage the mayhem that would ensue. Even God can't protect you from that kind of desperation. I was in SC after Hugo, working with relief agencies. Desperate people will hurt you. They don't mean to, it's not intentional, but they will surge forward in an attempt to get whatever you're offering, and someone invariably gets hurt. They will push, shove, and trample anyone in their way. Manners and common courtesy are forgotten when you haven't had food or water for a few days. I applaud your intentions, but you are talking about poor black people who have been largely forgotten and mistreated for centuries. They were desperate long before this hurricane hit, and now with the government taking so long to respond to their needs, they are furious, and understandably so. May God and all his angels go with you. You'll need them.

Oh- I forgot- I don't want to spend 40 or 50 dollars on a bottle of archival mist, either. I want to be as cost effective as possible. Thanks again! -Sarah

I started back in 97 when my dd was born- today she turns 9! I did her baby book and it was ok. Then I discovered Creative Memories and all the stuff out there. I redid her pages- thanks to double prints- and it is much nicer. I used to use a 3-ring binder and page protectors from office supply store. I used solid paper as my page. I used some stickers and a little journalling. I have since taken all those pages and put them into CM albums. Now I use the regular white pages and use the colored paper for frames or accent strips. To organize and make things go faster I use an easy method. I have a binder with sleeves in it. When I develop film I separate in dated or event order. Then I divide by what pics would fit on a page. I drop those pics into sleeves. Then I take paper that matches the pics and drop it in the sleeve. I may put some stickers in there too. Then when I go to scrap, I just grab a sleeve and work that page. I have already picked out the stuff for the page, just need to assemble. Unfortunatly, I have a digital camera now. It was so easy to develop film and then sort out the pics. Now I have to download onto a CD, take to a place or use an online service. I have not done this yet, which explains why I have over 600 pics to print, and at least half I need doubles of- one for my dd and one for my ds albums. One nice thing about digital is that I can print only what I need, so I may print all my dd birthday pics for her album, but only print a few for my son to have in his. Hey soggy6- aren't you the one with the pool that had plaster then switched to ptec after a crack or something? Are you going to, or do you know about, the event at Newburg Hall down by Sac State on 4/29? My CM gal and her friends are having an all-day event. After spending last year doing the build, it will be nice to spend a day scrapping. I am taking all our vacation pics- the ones before we had kids- and getting them all into albums. Won't be super fancy like my kids books. The goal is to have them in an album instead of not.

Funny thing about paintings.... especially family paintings. There are people who will go to great lengths to keep them in a family and pass them down through the generations. My great uncle was an artist who painted in oils in the late 1800's . He used to be a barber and had them all throughout his barbershop back in the day. He started selling some of them in Chicago to a department store. He used the money to help supplement his income. My grandmother wanted one particular painting of his that was in his home and when he died he left it to her. She also had a few smaller ones that she gave to my mom who eventually passed down to us kids. The large painting my grandma had was recently passed down from my uncle (who had no kids of his own) to my sister. She spent a fortune getting the painting back in shape by a curator. The curator commented that the frame itself was very valuable but not the painting. In spite of that we all have memories of that picture hanging in my grandma's living room. In the meantime, I found several of his paintings for sale on Ebay after deciding to look for them. Apparently they have been coming up from other estate sales. Since we all recognized his signature on the paintings we knew they were his. Since I am one of six sibs we have had to decide who is going to buy each one. Since I found his paintings online, I have been letting my sibs buy them. I havent found one that I really liked yet. And so far the ones that they bought fit their individual homes. Still waiting for one I like!