A successful class...

Last night was the last session of my scrapbooking class...it went so quickly and it's a little bitter-sweet. The ladies in the class were wonderful and helping them all explore their creative side was SO much fun.

Last Tuesday we discussed the color, the creative process, the various scrapbooking styles as well as ideas for titles and journaling.

Last night the full focus was on photography...something now very near and dear to my heart! I had a lot of fun sharing with them some of my favorite tips in composition and lighting and they seemed really engaged in the presentation as well.

Of course, lots of time for scrapping, too! It was really exciting for me to see them getting excited about certain concepts of design and other items that just 'clicked' with them and turn around and use those concepts in their creations.

They all gave me some very positive feedback on the class and were wondering when I was going to teach another class. Hmmm...I'll have to put my thinking cap on.

Teaching a class of this type was definitely a new experience for me...one that I really enjoyed!

Scrapbooking challenge over at WeScrap

Today was my day to post an April Challenge over at WeScrap:

Did you know that today is Great Poetry Reading Day? To commemorate the day, I challenge you to create a layout commemorating your favorite poem or to use a poem as the journaling for a layout.

Post them to the “Challenge Contest – April” gallery and title your project like this: “Your title – Jillmarie’s Poetry Challenge”. Be sure to link your creations here also so that we can admire them and I can be sure you receive appropriate points. Good luck and have FUN!!

Due: May 2nd at 11:59 pm EST.

Remember, you always get 2 scrap points for uploading to the gallery, here's your chance to earn a few extra!!

Extra Scrap Points:
1 point for completing the challenge, uploading and linking by due date
2 points if you use create a visual triangle on your layout
3 points if you compose your own original poem for use on your layout

You can check it out here.

Here is my example layout:

I wrote the poem included on this layout after a piano performance I attended at the college where I work:

simply something like magic…

there was simply something like magic
about the sound that came
with the sway of his body
as he sat that brought a shiver to mine

there was simply something like magic
about the bounce of the light
off the backs of his hands
that brought tears to my eyes

there was simply something like magic
about the movement of his fingers
that made every hope and
dream I ever had well up inside my chest

there was simply something like magic
about the brush of every ivory key -
no matter gentle or full of force -
that had the power to move my heart

there is simply something like magic
about this man, his piano and passionate notes

A little about my Grandmother...Part 2

After Emil and I Were Married:

- We only had about 5 or 6 horses because we had a tractor to help with a lot of the work.

- Sometimes, when I had to go out and do chores, I would have to leave the little ones in the house. I couldn’t leave them on the floor or they would get into something, so I would put them in the crib by the front window. Usually they were fine, but if they would look outside and see me working they would always start to cry. It was hard to get any chores done with so many little ones.

- Saturday was always baking day. I would either make bread or kolaches. Sometimes on these days Emil would say, “Let’s go to town (Yankton), “ and we would pack up some egg salad sandwiches and go. When I was little 5 cents was a lot of money when you went to town. Everyone was always in a hurry to get the work done on those days so that we could go to town. Emil liked to go to the movies and I would take the children to visit my mother and father (John T. and Anna) or do some grocery shopping.

- We always went to Tabor for church on Sundays.

- Everything was made at home. We did a lot of canning: fruits, meats, etc. We ate a lot of eggs and fresh vegetables from the garden in the summertime.

- My sister, Pauline, was always amazed at how the chickens would follow the girls up to the granary after they got home from school in the afternoons. Those chickens knew it was the girls’ job to get them fed!

- I remember one time when one of the children wanted a pumpkin pie, so Emil locked the cow up in the barn away from her calf so that we could get some milk for a pie. The cow got into a barrel of feed, overate and died. Boy, that was one expensive pie that never happened!

- We heated the kitchen with a cook stove that was fed with corn cobs. The upstairs where everyone slept was never heated, so everyone would stay in the warm kitchen as long as possible in the evenings and listen to the radio. WNAX came on the air in 1928 – nine years before we married – and that was what we always listened to. In the winter, even the water in the stove reservoir was frozen in the
morning.

- Our daughter, Donna (the oldest), didn’t even know how to speak English when she began school. She learned quickly though and the other children picked up a lot from her. This was about the time that we started to speak English at home. We thought it would be more appropriate since that was what the children had to know for school.

- We got real electricity after our son Joe was born in 1949. Before that we had a wind charger that ran a light in the kitchen by batteries, but that was it. One of the first things we got when we got electricity was a television. I remember having friends over in the evenings to play cards and the children would all be gathered around the TV.

- Our son, Joey (my dad), was a good boy. I remember Sylvester Pechan, the city cop in Tabor, told me that he would stop at Binder’s Pool Hall for an ice cream or candy bar and always come straight home for chores. All the kids were really good about helping out at home. Joey always helped Emil and the girls helped me in the house. I never asked Joey to do any housework, but I remember one time at Christmas I said that there would be no presents until the dishes were done and he ran for a dish-cloth!

A little about my Grandmother...

It's been a very busy past couple of days. Last night and today, we celebrated my grandmother's life.

It was the first time in a very LONG time that all of her grandchildren were gathered in one place - 20 in all plus 1 in spirit. I was very nice to see all my cousins again. Since we're all so spread out, we don't get together as much as one would like. Between the 20 of us, we can account for 11 states.

Several years ago, I completed a family history project for a college class. I visited with Grandma about her life again last year. I thought I'd share some of what she shared with me in her honor.

My Story in My Words
by Marcella (Vitek) Pechous

When I was a child:

- I went to country school until I was in the third grade and then I went to the Catholic school in Tabor. In the mornings, my mother would get up, start the stove, and wake the children. Then she would go out to feed the horses, milk the cow and hitch up the mule. We rode to school in a covered, wooden buggy pulled by our mule, Fritz. He was so lazy and we were often late to school because he would not move. I remember trying to chase him with a stick, but it usually didn’t do much good. We would park the buggy at Robert Cacek’s house and tie up the mule in the barn while we were in school and hitch him back up and go home after school.

- We would take a gallon of milk to school to pay for our tuition. We got 50 cents for each gallon and the milk was used for the children who boarded in the school. Our milk cows were very important to the livelihood of our family.

- Catechism was taught in Czech and our other school classes were taught in English.

- Peanut butter and jelly, chicken salad and sometimes luncheon meat were common sandwiches to be found in our school lunches. One of my favorite things was homemade bread.

- At school, the children often played a game called pum-pum-ala-way, which is a lot like tag. The boys played ball and the ball ended up in Mr. Kokes’ hay field many times. Mr. Kokes often got very angry when the boys would go in there to retrieve the ball.

- At home, my brothers, sisters and I played card games like pinochle and solitaire.

- In the summer, it was my job to herd the cows into the ditches so that they could get enough to eat and give more milk. The summers were often very dry and there was a shortage of grass in the pastures. This was my job until I was out of high school. I also did a lot of horseback riding. My family had about 15-20 work horses.

- Since I was the youngest daughter, I wasn’t needed as much at home, so I got to finish high school. I was the only child in my family to do so. I graduated in 1934.

- After high school, I herded cattle because I could make more money doing this than by babysitting which is what a lot of the other girls did. The money really helped the family and I loved horses.

- I met Emil when I was about in 5th grade at a dance. I was friends with his sister, Violet, and once I dance with Emil and asked Violet, “Who was that boy I just danced with?” She said, “Why, that’s my brother!” We didn’t start dating until after I was out of high school. Emil didn’t go to high school. We would go to dances a lot and sometimes to the movies. Girls didn’t have to pay to get into the dance. The boys did though and later, they did start charging the girls also. We didn’t really have a specific curfew, but we were always home before twelve. Emil and I dated for about three years before we were married. I was just about twenty-two then.

I have more from after she and my Grandpa married, but will save that for another post.

I have already uploaded all of the pictures that I took last night and today to Shutterfly. For family that is interested, please just drop me an email and I can send you the link so that you can view and/or order prints if you wish.

A sad day...

My grandmother passed away today...this is a picture of her and my grandpa on their wedding day over 70 years ago. I love this picture of them together.

My New "Hit Repeat" Song: Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis

I realized that it's been a long time since a shared a favorite song. Here's one that I heard on the radio recently and LOVE!!

Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis:



Evidently Leona's been big in Europe for a couple years now (she's British), but is just now hitting the US by storm. Her bebut album, Spirit, was released in North America in April 2008 and debuted at number one in the US Billboard 200 chart. She is the first British artist to reach the top of the chart with a debut album.

Enjoy!

Quotes to ponder...

Mary Anne Radmacher, author:

“Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh. Choose with no regret. Appreciate your friends. Continue to learn. Do what you love. Live as if this is all there is.”

Langston Hughes:

"Hold fast to dreams for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly."

Ella Jane Fitzgerald (1917-1996), jazz vocalist:

“Just don't give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there's love and inspiration, I don't think you can go wrong.”