Yakira Book – last page

Posted on March 15, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

I have to admit that the first month or so of raising Yakira was very difficult and I wondered if she would do better with another raiser. But she matured quickly and grew into such a wonderful dog. I’m glad I didn’t give up on her. She taught me patience which was well rewarded in the end. With her sweet nature and natural confidence Yakira will have a positive impact on many more lives as she guides Diane over the next several years.

We are proud of Yakira’s accomplishments and we are so glad that she has been apart of our lives. She has certainly lived up to her name because she is a precious girl.

One Week to RootsTech

Posted on March 14, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

In just one week I’ll be at RootTech! Each morning at 8:30 a.m. there is a General Session with keynote speakers. Some of them I’ve heard speak before but most of them it will be my first time. One thing I really like about RootsTech is the variety of presenters they offer. Here is who will be speaking at this year’s General Sessions:

Thursday Generl Session Sponsored by findmypast.com

Keynote Speakers:

Dennis Brimhall

Dennis C. Brimhall is currently the President and CEO of FamilySearch International. FamilySearch International is a worldwide organization helping individuals find, preserve, catalogue, and search genealogical information. FamilySearch International is sponsored by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He was formerly the President and Chief Executive Officer of University of Colorado Hospital.

Syd Lieberman

Syd is a nationally acclaimed storyteller, an author, and an award-winning teacher. Many of his best-loved stories deal with growing up in Chicago and raising a family in Evanston, Illinois. Also known for his original historical pieces, Syd has written stories for some of America’s leading institutions and agencies, including the Smithsonian; Historic Philadelphia, Inc.; NASA; and the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center.

D. Joshua Taylor

D. Joshua Taylor, MA, MLS is the Business Development Manager – North America for brightsolid online publishing, the creator of findmypast.com. A nationally known and recognized professional genealogist, lecturer, genealogical author, and researcher, Taylor is the current president of the Federation of Genealogical Societies (FGS) and the former Director of Education at the New England Historic Genealogical Society.

Friday General Session

Sponsored by Ancestry.com

Keynote Speakers

Jyl Pattee

Jyl Johnson Pattee is the founder of Mom It Forward Media, a digital agency and network of social media influencers. Currently, she sits on the Mom Advisory Council for ONE.org, is a Shot@Life Champion with the United Nations Foundation, was named one of Parent Magazine’s Top 10 Power Moms, and is on Babble’s list of Top Twitter Moms.

Tim Sullivan

Timothy Sullivan has served as the President and Chief Executive Officer and as a director of Ancestry.com, Inc. since September 2005. Prior to joining Ancestry.com, Mr. Sullivan was Chief Operating Officer and then President and CEO of Match.com. Mr. Sullivan holds an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and was a Morehead Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Saturday General Session

Sponsored by MyHeritage

Keynote Speakers

David Pogue

David Pogue is the weekly personal-technology columnist for The New York Times. He is also an Emmy Award-winning tech correspondent for CBS Sunday Morning and the current host of NOVA ScienceNow. Merging his musical background with his scientific knowledge, David Pogue delivers unique presentations that generally end with him sitting at a piano performing a couple of his famous tech-industry song parodies.

Gilad Japhet

Gilad Japhet is the Founder and CEO of MyHeritage. A rare mix of hardcore genealogist, hands-on technologist and visionary, Gilad is one of the most influential people today in the advancement of online genealogy. Gilad has grown MyHeritage into the world’s second largest genealogy company with 72 million registered users and 1.5 billion family tree profiles.

Yakira Book – Yummy

Posted on March 14, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

I think all labs love their food, but Yakira not only loves her food she loves her bowl too. After finishing her meal she would lick it clean to the last drop and then start scraping the bowl with her teeth. She put her top teeth on the upper edge of the bowl and open her mouth as wide as she could and scrap her teeth up the side of the bowl. It makes a sound surprisingly like fingernails on a chalk board.

Celebrating Nine Decades

Posted on March 13, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

90th birthday invitation for my mom

My family is preparing for my mom’s 90th birthday this month, so I thought I’d share the invitation I made for the event. It looks a little funny because I’ve blacked out some of the personal information. (Too bad we have to worry about those kinds of things.) I was really happy with how it came out and the format and concept could be easily adjusted for someone else so I thought I’d share it here. By choosing one photo from each decade of her life it gave a nice progression and made it so much easier to decide which pictures to include on her invitation.

Below are links to my Dropbox and two InDesign templates that you can edit for your personal use. (Please don’t use them for commercial projects without my written permission.) The first file is the invitation placed in the center of an 8.5 x 11 page with crop lines. By cutting along these lines and folding on the edge of the invitation it creates its own envelope for mailing. I printed them on a heavy weight brochure paper.

The second file is for stickers using the “Celebrating Nine Decades” logo. By printing this file on a sheet of sticker paper and cutting out the stickers, you then have an easy and elegant way to close up the envelope. After cutting out the stickers, I used a corner rounder on the corners. This was a nice finishing touch to the project.

90th Invite with Envelope

Nine Decades stickers

To download the InDesign Templates click on the link, then right click on the strange document that loads up and click “save page as”.

Yakira Book – Yucky

Posted on March 13, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

In the spring Yakira sniffed a petal from a blossom and it stuck to her nose. She knew it was there but couldn’t figure out how to get it off. I was working with Styrofoam for a project and it got all over her and Zodiac. They looked like reverse Dalmatians. At Halloween she was tolerant but unhappy about her Aunt Lisa trying costumes on her at PetCo.

Book of the Week – The Story of John Alexander Moncur

Posted on March 12, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

The Story of John Alexander Moncur by Joe Sisco | Make Your Own Book

I really like how Joe Sisco organized this book “The Story of John Alexander Moncur.” Each spread covers a ten-year span. This seems like a very doable way to cover someone’s life history. I also like how the bottom of the page shows significant events in the world each year. This is what Joe had to say about his book.

The idea for this endeavour evolved from the simple concept that people’s life story’s need to be told. Life by the Decades Incorporated allows people to create lasting memory books filled with photos, mementos, and many interesting facts about a life well-lived. With our help, you can share your story with your children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. All of your loved ones can share in the experience of a life of love, laughter, loss and a tapestry of memorable moments. Intended as a celebration of life, our memory books provide a chance to bring loved ones together through the process of gathering photos, sharing stories and recounting the great memories unique to your life.

While it looks like the business attempt did last, I’m going to file this idea away for future reference. It has lots of possibilities. He also did another book showing the life of a couple.

Life By the Decades Incorporated by Joe Sisco | Make Your Own Book

Yakira Book – Yoyo

Posted on March 12, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

One of Yakira’s most endearing traits is her wiggle. When she wags her tail her whole body gets into it. Every time Yakira meets someone she knows and loves she will wiggle from the tip of her nose all they way down to the tip of her tail. How can you not love a dog that show such joy at seeing you again. Yakira is just such a sweetie!

Yakira Book – Yowzer

Posted on March 11, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

Yakira was a super cute puppy and she grew in to a beautiful dog. She got lots and lots of comments everywhere she went.

She had evaluations by two different CFRs (community field representative) from GDB and both commented on her looks and took photos to send to the breeding department to watch for her to come in for breeder evaluation. One of them said “she is well put together.”

But a breeder for Guide Dogs for the Blind must have more than just good looks. Yakira’s EKG wasn’t quite perfect and so she wasn’t picked as a breeder after all. But she is still as beautiful as they come.

Mary Book Update

Posted on March 11, 2013 by tellingfamilytales

cover illustration by Kimberli Johnson

We are so close to being ready to print a proof copy of our Mary Taylor story book. In a perfect world we will be doing that the end of the week. Since the world isn’t usually perfect it might be a few days later than that. Kim got me two more illustrations done. The one above will do double duty as the cover and one of the middle illustration. On the cover I cropped the image in to show just Mary.

The illustration below will be the first one in the book and then we will crop it down as tight as we can for the last image in the book. I’ve got at least one more edit on the text to do. And if a friend who teaches writing classes has time there will be another one before the we print the proof. The plan is to present the proof copy to my mom on her 90th birthday at the end of the month. I know she is going to love it even if no one else does.