Dear descendant, I can explain...

Have you ever read or heard about the story of one of your ancestor and wonder why he/she made a certain decision?
Why did great grandpa Bob leave his wife and his 7 children? Why did your 3rd great grandma give up one of her children? Why...? Was great grand aunt Betsy really crazy?
Well, one day you are going to be an ancestor too, and unless you take the time now to "explain" you will have a bunch of descendants that will be pretty confused about that one event in your life that is not exactly "normal".
You can write as little or as much as you want, what really matters is that your descendants will know that you thought of them, and tried to help them understand.
You can write it in a secret diary, you can make a book about the story of your life, or just particular events, whatever you choose, just try to put yourself in your grandchildren, great grandchildren' shoes and tell them as much as it is comfortable for you, but at the same time is reassuring for them.
Also, you might be surprised to know that not all of your descendants might believe in what you believe. Wouldn't you like for them to know more about your faith?
There are stories that I hear from my family about things my grandma might have done, and my great grandma also, and I keep wondering if they are true, and if so, why?
Unless I find a secret diary somewhere, I think I will never know the answer in this life.
I don't want my descendants to feel the same way I feel regarding the stories of my ancestors, and this is one of the reasons why I try to write down thoughts and feelings, and when time allows it, put together stories of part of my life, like I did with the book on how I met my husband, and the one regarding my testimony.

If you haven't started yet, I encourage you to start writing your stories, label your pictures, even better connect the story to the pictures as soon as you can.
You are really the only one who can "explain"

Christmas memories at hand

Ok, I know I am a little late for this, but I have been sick the whole holidays, so I am behind for a lot of things, but I thought this could be giving inspiration to some of you out there...
I put together a swatchbook with pictures of our Christmas, from the year we met, to this last Christmas.

The idea is to have it at hand next Christmas as a nice reminder of how we spent our past Christmas, and also how our family has changed.

Each page has a main picture in the front with the year it was taken, and the back has a few more pictures with a little comment about that Christmas.

I had fun going through those pictures and remembering each Christmas, and I am happy that next year I will just have to pick up this swatchbook and I will be able to remember each of our Christmases and I am sure it will be fun for our children to see how they have changed through the years!
You can see a preview of the whole project here.
You can do something like this remembering Easter through the years, or Valentines, or birthdays...
Wouldn't this be such a cute and thoughtful gift for your spouse on your 10 yrs wedding anniversary? It could be your anniversaries through the years!
I have so many ideas of memories that can be brought to life through a swatchbook, just stay tuned, and I will post them as I go!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You can get a free Publishing account by signing up at http://www.preservemyheritage.com and start creating unlimited projects at once!
Love my Creative Genealogy templates and ideas? 

My HM club members can have their favorite template transferred to their account for personal use, or  can have it completely personalized by me for them  for a reasonable fee.

Want more for less? Check out our incredible host rewards and My Club HM!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

9/11/2001

Where were you that day?
9/11/ signed the life not just of the people that were directly impacted by the loss of their dear ones or were were simply "bothered" by some flight delay, it touched each and everyone of us.
I was still living in Italy that year, but I was shocked at the news even because a long lost cousin that I had finally found after long research, was living in New York, and I feared that he might have been at the Twin Towers that day.
Thankfully he and his family members were all safe, but I was still heartbroken at the thought of all those people that died and all the ones that were left to mourn their loss.I found the preview of this Storybook about 9/11 created with HM and I thought I would share. It is a beautiful way to help us remember. Click on the image above if you desire to read it.

Life is full of many unforgettable events, either good of bad, it is important that they are remembered, not just by us, but by those who will come after us. 9/11 is not the only event that has signed our life, each of them teaches us something, and it is our duty to pass onto our children the lessons that we learn.

I encourage you to take the time today to write even a few lines to share your thoughts with your loved ones, to send a card to a distant relative, to make that call to that friend of yours that moved long time ago.

If you don't do it already, start journaling, write about your feelings, your ideas, your thoughts, the events that have changed you, the lessons you have learned, every possible counsel you would like your family, your children, your friends to have.

Life is indeed short, and we don't know when our time on earth will come to an end. Most of the times, there is no evident warning.

Remember, and be remembered.

Back to school!

My first born started kindergarten yesterday, and he loved it!
I took tons of pictures and I chose the ones I like best to start his kindergarten yearbook!
It is going to be a year long project, but I am patting my self on the back for being on top of my game so that the book will be ready in no time when the schoolyear will end.
Creating a project like this for your own child is easy and mess free!
You don't need to cut anything, spread anything on a table, and even better, you don't need to put anything back when you are done with a page!
Everything is online.
You just upload your pictures, choose a template if you don't want to start from scratch, start your project, drag and drop your pictures, move things around if you like, and it really takes a few minutes! You can just take a couple minutes at a time after each event like field trips, picture day, parties, scan a few of your child's favorite drawings and project and it will feell like this school book is almost magically appearing in front of your eyes!^_^
You can sit on your recliner while watching TV while your children sleep, or while they are at school.

This is one of the advantages of digital!
Check the template gallery for the various school templates available, and let me know which one you like!

You can get a free Storybooking account today at www.preservemyheritage.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Want more? Host your own workshop to get in this month's fabulous host rewards! And don't forget to check out how you can get a FREE family fold credit this month!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Are you going to be remembered when this chapter of your existence comes to an end?

Many of us would like to think that we will be remembered long after we are gone.

We spend our life trying to build some kind of wealth, we collect objects that are dear to our heart, maybe some particular jewelery item that we would love to pass to our children, take pictures, record home videos, possibly leave a testament thinking that takes care of everything...

The truth is that fortunes are spent, properties are sold, jewelery can't be possibly divided among all of our descendants, records and stories are lost and memories fade.
Still, we want someone to know we existed. We want someone to know we made a difference. And that existence and difference has value. Unfortunately we often don't know what that value or worth is.

Perhaps this value is best understood to those who will follow us - our children, our grandchildren, or even strangers - those who will remember and learn about our lives of trials, of dreams, of hopes, of success and failures and can gain or learn from it.

The present is fleeting and soon to be… the past.

And although we may have thousands of photos and maybe hours of home movies the reality is that we've probably never recorded the obvious for posterity... what it is that we experienced, what we learned, why we did what we did, what we thought was important, and what words of wisdom and faith we wanted to pass on.

Taking the time to write your story and make sure that is is preserved, that the pictures you leave aren't just images from the past, but are connected to the experience and feelings you had when it was taken, will ensure that you leave a Legacy for your family and friends to appreciate and learn from for generations to come.

Your life is important and thanks to Storybooking, you can make sure that it is not forgotten.

A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!!!

This is what I exclaimed this morning when I went to look at the new Studio 3.0 version of our editing software!!!
I love how easy and fast it is now to go through all the digital art collections, and how fast it is to upload pictures and work at my projects!

I can also easily move pictures from an album to the other, not to mention that there are now 40000+ wonderful digital art items available with premier!!!

I can't wait to connect to the free class there is going to be on Thursday 25th, just in case I missed something. I want to know everything about the features and capabilities of Studio 3.0.
You can register here if you like to know more about the exciting upgrades and enhancements Heritage Makers has ready for us!

The best gift

What is the best gift you could give?
When I was younger I thought the more expensive a gift, the better.
In the beginning I loved dolls and cars; growing up it was the time of clothes and jewelry...
Then I grew up a little more, and realized that all those things weren't really important. What was starting to really be important, was time.
Time spent with my family, my friends.
Time I wish I could enjoy again talking with my dad, whom I lost when I was 13...
Time traveling and making new discoveries.
Time making memories.
Time preserving those memories.

My husband wanted to get me a diamond ring for our engagement. You might think I am weird, but my answer was:" And what would I do with it? Wouldn't a simple much less expensive ring still be a good memento of the day you asked me to marry you?
How about we save that money for future travels? For family needs?"
It took him a lot to understand that I really didn't desire a diamond ring, but then he appreciated the fact that we went 5 different places for our honey moon: Florida, Utah, Italy, Switzerland and England and that now we have a book preserving those memories.A diamond ring could only be passed on to one of our children. I can make copies of the book I made, and all my children will be able to enjoy it and share it with their children.
If they desire, the will be able to make more copies for each of their children so they will know their grandparents' love story.
I get my children's toys at garage sales. They will get broken anyway. The real gifts from me to them are the books I make about them, the playing cards with their pictures, the family folds, the genealogy posters I created.
While right now toys might be their first desire since they are so little, I know that when they will be grown up, they will really treasure these books and other projects I have taken the time to create for them.
I do have a couple dolls, and some jewelry pieces from my mom and my grandma and I do treasure them, but they tell me very little about the persons that gave them to me.
The Storybooks I create for my children and for all my other family members and friends, tell them that they are special to me, that they mean a lot, that they are worth the time I took to make something for them, to preserve a special memory.
These projects will remind them of me, of who I am when I am too old or I am not here anymore.
One of the last books I created was my son's VPK book. It has pictures of him, his friends, his teachers, and a collection of many of his favorite things.
I have no memory of my pre-k years(we call it asilo in Italy) except for a couple of flash backs that I can't tell if they are a dream of the reality. I don't remember any of the friends I had or what I liked to do there. My son will be able to look at the book and know that his memories are not dreams and remember all of his friends and favorite things.
How much I wish my parents could have done something like this for me, but there was nothing like Heritage Makers 30 years ago!

So, don't waste your time looking for expensive gifts that could end up in a future garage sale or that just aren't able to really say a lot about you.
Take time to tell the stories in your home.
Take time to help your child understand his/her self worth, to improve his/her self esteem, make a book about him or her , about his/her family history.
Take time to read these books with your children at night time or any other time during the day.
Time is the best gift you can give, and you will see that as time goes by, all the other material things lose importance and value while time with the memories related to it becomes the most precious thing of all!

Brides on a budget

I wish I had known about Storybooking when I was getting married, 6 years ago...
We did everything on a budget, I really didn't care about anything but marrying the Love of my life and having lots of pictures to testify of the most important day of our life...
We didn't even have a professional photographer, just friends and family taking pictures with their camera. We ended up with more than 800 pictures, and many of them turned out really cute!
I didn't know anything about scrapbooking, I tried to make a wedding album with some pages embellished, but that was all.
4 years later I discovered Heritage Makers and was finally able to create a book with our love story, foldouts with pictures of our wedding and our honeymoon, and then a simple wedding album(which you can see going all the way down on this page).

Had I known Heritage Makers then, I could have created our invitations using the greeting cards, saving the dates and table place cards using the playing card format, a signature book, thank you cards... Everything would have just been unforgettable not only for me and my husband but also for all our family and friends, and what would have been even better, it would have still been on a budget.

We are living during troubled times, but people still get married, they are just getting smarter on how and where they are spending their money.

Since having a great professional photographer is the desire for most brides, you can still save money by choosing a photographer that will give you a CD with all the pictures and the copyright, allowing you to create your own wedding album, small books with engagement picture as center pieces at each table, signature book, invitations, canvases, posters, thank you card and any gift for your parents and the whole party.
Right now there is a package that is just perfect for professional looking bridal albums and keepsakes for you, your family and friends!
This is what it contains:
12x12 Wedding album
(2) 8x8 Wedding album(great for wedding story and parent book)
8x8 wedding Scrapbook
(2) Change of address playing cards
18x24 Wedding poster
(2) Matching Souvenir Family Folds
2 months Premiere membership
only $299.95 save $124.95!!!

Creating your own wedding albums, posters and any other product is so easy that you will have so much fun and will be so amazed when they will be shipped to you!
You can start by signing up for a FREE basic account here and then write me to let me know that you would like the wedding package or even to ask for any other package or deal with any other product(you can create a canvas for just $100, but could be much less if bought with at least a $200 package!). I want to save you as much money as possible and see you smile because not only you marry the love of your life, but you will be able to preserve every bit of that day saving tons of money!

So, brides, you can be on a budget and still have the wedding stationery and albums of your dream!

Life happens

Yesterday I was in a car accident.
It was pouring down rain and I was being much more cautious than usual, but this person didn't see me while I was going from a parking lot to another and hit my car.
My car is now totaled, but I know Somebody was watching over me. I got bruises from the seat belt and my right arm got kind of burned from the airbag explosion, and am now wearing a splint for my broken wrist.
I am so glad my children weren't with me in the car.
For a millisecond I thought my time had come.
Was I prepared? My children are all under 5 years old. Would they remember who their mom was and how much I love them? Would they have memories of the things we did together, of what were my dreams for them?

Now more than ever I am so glad that I discovered Heritage Makers and have been Storybooking since then...
My children have books about them that will always remind them how special they are and how much they are loved. They will know their parent's love Story which will make them feel even more special.
They will know our family Story through the yearbooks I have been creating, and they will know their family heritage through the genealogy posters, folds and books I have published.

I had many of my books with me in the car and when I saw the smoke coming from the air bags I feared that the car was going to take fire and I would have not only lost the car, but my precious books. Then I realized that my projects were preserved in my online account, and I could have printed as many copies as I wanted at any time, so my memories and my work weren't lost.

Don't wait for tomorrow to be the Heritage Maker in your home.
Life happens.
I know it now more than ever.

Time Traveling

Who wouldn't like to go back in time?
So many movies have been filmed about this topic, but do you believe you can travel time?
I do.
I just did it.
I went through old pictures, very old ones, pictures of my children great grandparents, their parents and even their great grandparents...
I looked at their face, their clothes, trying to imagine what they were thinking, and what their life was like 100+ years ago. I need to go talk with my husband's grandma, and ask her about her family, their jobs, what they were like when they were together, and then put a book together so that my kids will be able to travel time again and again even when we won't be around anymore.
Some of them had a few words in the back, and that really made them more precious.
In the meanwhile, I scanned all those pictures, I cannot stand the idea that if something happened to them, there would be no more time travel for my kids, my grand kids, my future generations...
I made various copies to make sure that should something happen to my computer, or my laptop, or my external hard drive, the pictures will still be on another device to make more copies again. This is also going to be my Christmas gift for all the other members of the family (inexpensive but at the same time priceless!), which at the same time will raise the chances to preserve these pictures forever and for many more families to travel time through the pictures of their ancestors.

I love time travel!

I travel time when I put together my storybooks, when I create a family tree poster, when I look at my children's pictures, or my childhood pictures, when I ask questions about my dad, my grandparents to any other family members...
When I write the story behind a picture I am allowing my family and friends to travel time with me at a superior level, because they don't need to guess what that picture was about, when it was taken, what I was thinking: they will know.

Time travel: this is one other reason why I am the Heritage Maker in my home.

Are you traveling time too?