Here’s the Valentine Cards my daughter has been working on this year and they are super easy to make.

Any round/tube candy can be used or if you don’t want to use candy (or if your school doesn’t allow it) you can use a decorated toilet paper roll.

Her original idea was to use lifesavers but I couldn’t find a big bag of them at any of the local stores (maybe I should have bought them at Halloween) so she decided to use Smarties instead.

All you need to do is cut out two hearts for each butterfly, tape them to the candy, and decorate with messages, stickers, glitter, etc … They don’t take much more time to make then putting together the store bought boxes of Valentine cards. And, because these are so most kids can make them on their own and might only need help cutting out the hearts.

Happy Upcoming Valentine’s Day!

photo credit: philliecasablanca

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

Simple Valentine Butterfly Craft for Kids with Smarties

Last November I asked if you backed up your important data. I was having trouble with Windows and did a clean reinstall – I didn’t have too much down time because I have a backup plan for my important files and it was basically a matter of copying them over.

I also backup my websites and client sites. As I was reviewing my client files, I discovered that not only is it important to back up files regularly but that I should also review the data and get rid of files that I no longer need.

If I did work from someone one time three years ago and have never heard from that person again, I think I’m safe to delete the files. I suppose it’s possible, but I’ve never been asked for three year old backup. ;-)

I also had monthly backups for regular clients going back years. I would say a year is probably plenty for backups.

I also have cover letters I wrote for job applications from 1998! I’m pretty sure I don’t need that anymore either ;-)

It’s odd that I’m a bit of packrat with my computer files because I’m not like that in real life. If I haven’t used something in a year, I figure I don’t need it and I give if it away.

Does anyone else remember having a hard drive with 1GB-3GB of space? I had to be more careful with files then because one of the first issues I would run into with my computer was running out of disk space. Now, with such huge hard drives it’s possible to store so much and not have to worry about the amount of space it’s taking.

I’ve decided, however, to review and remove old files on a yearly basis. It becomes unnecessary to hold on to so many files that are never going to be needed.

How about you? Do you weed out old files on your computer? Or do you ignore them the way that I was until recently?

photo credit: garryknight

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

Cleaning Up Old Backups (and other files)

I’m looking for your help.

I’m working on an article that will feature custom Facebook pages that are being used in creative or unique ways.

Please leave your links in the comments. If for any reason you don’t want to leave a link in the comments, you can send it to me via my contact form.

And, it is very possible that your link / Facebook page would be featured in a major publication (not that this site isn’t major but WAY bigger ;-)

Thanks in advance for your help!

photo credit: moonrat

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

Looking for Examples of Unique and Creative Custom Facebook Pages

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

Happy Holidays 2011

A couple of days ago I came across this article that had a number of family holiday photos that were awkward, strange and funny. (Please take a look at them and come back.)

I was talking to my friend, Manshu, about them and I said, “you know what, I think I have some somewhat similar photos – I’m going to search for them and post them if I locate them.

When I was a kid my grandmother used to make all of the female family members matching nightgowns and would make us put them on and pose for a photo. That was the one I was hoping to find but it must be in my Mother’s stuff, which is currently stored at my brother’s house.

But fear not, I did locate a couple of gems.

The Photos

1978 – This is me, my cousin and my brother dressed up like elves. I decided we would wear red and green, I made the hats, and it was our job to distribute gifts. I am the only one who looks happy. Where are my pants? And it’s a Polaroid – those must have been the height of technology around 1978.

1996 – Me, my Mom and my brother Dylan. You just gotta love my Vermont “Web” Site shirt, which must have been a gift, the Santa hat, and the Snowman sweater. My brother is allowed to slide because he was only 10 and Christmas is his birthday.

1979 – Me, my Mom, my Dad, and my brother John. This isn’t a Christmas photo but it was around Christmas because we went to visit relatives in Arizona that year and took a trip to Nogales, Mexico, which is a border town. Again, I’m the only one that looks happy. Maybe my Mom is jealous because everyone is wearing has a sombrero but her. But, maybe she didn’t want to mess up her Dorothy Hamill haircut. My daughter asked if it was a real donkey- unfortunately, it is.

It’s fun to laugh at the collection of awkward family photos that we find online but I’m pretty sure we all have something similar. Or maybe it was something about the 70′s and early 80′s ;-)

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

Slightly Awkward Family Photos

I ran out of time to finish the research for what I wanted to originally post for today. Even though I still wanted to post something today, last night I was being really indecisive. I kept asking my daughter questions like, “what should we have dinner?” and “what should I write for tomorrow’s post?”

Her answer for the dinner question was “anything”, which was more than unhelpful. She said I should write about her. I told her that I posted about her self-portrait recently and if I was going to write about her I needed something more specific. I then opened my eyes and took a really good look at her.

She was wearing a dress that my grandmother made for me when I was 8 or 9. My grandmother mostly made us pajamas and mittens but she did make me a couple of dresses. I remember going to the store with her and picking out the fabric I wanted and the pattern. I thought it was the greatest dress ever and even wore it to school. I think one of my class pictures was in this dress but I couldn’t locate the photo. It’s hard to for me to believe now that I wore it to school but if my daughter didn’t have a dress code, I bet she would wear it to school too.

Here’s a close up of the pattern on the fabric.

I’m glad that my Mom held on to it and that the dress is still around over 30 years after my grandmother made it. And my grandmother was one of my favorite people. I’m not so good at holding on to things / memories. I don’t like holding onto stuff that I don’t use so I might have gotten rid of it years ago.

I wonder if this dress will still be around if and when my daughter has a daughter.

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

A Homemade Dress That is Over 30 Years Old

My 9 year old is quite good at drawing. She already draws waaaayy better than I do – my skills and interests have always leaned toward the technical more than the artistic.

Right now she is torn between being a graphic novelist or in law enforcement when she grows up. She thinks being a crime scene investigator would be cool although I don’t think she realized how gruesome that could be. She has never seen CSI or any sort of crime scene programming so I’m not sure how she developed that interest. She loves Nancy Drew and mysteries so I would think she would prefer being a detective.

Anyway, if it were up to me, I would say be a graphic novelist – she could always write mysteries that include crime scenes ;-)

A couple of days ago she drew a self portrait. The eyes are the wrong color but otherwise, I think she did a great job.

Here’s the self portrait.

And here’s an actual photo of her.

I’m a little jealous of her drawing skills but I also like that the two of us are good at different things. We do, however, both love to read.

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

A Self Portrait by My 9 Year Old Daughter

Overall, I’m a happy person although I am easily annoyed by many things. I thought, since this is Thanksgiving, that it would be a good time to think about what I am grateful for – this doesn’t really change much from year to year and I don’t actually post this year to year – but it’s good to focus on the positive.

1. My daughter – My daughter is bright, cute, funny, and very loving. She is a great companion and also keeps me on my toes because she calls me out when I am being snarky, sarcastic, or cranky. She is also very gregarious, which amazes me, because I am so reserved.
2. Health – I am thankful that I am healthy and I know this can change at any time but for now I feel lucky. I had a bad tooth infection this year, which was very painful, and a few stomach problems (I have a weak stomach and I love spicy food ;-) but otherwise I haven’t even had a cold. My seasonal allergies didn’t even bother me much this year either.
3. That my daughter is healthy – My daughter is also super healthy. I like to say it’s because we are vegetarians and eat mostly healthy food but I don’t think that is the only reason. In the last 2 years she has only need to go to the doctor for her yearly exams! She hasn’t even had a cold recently either.
4. My brother John – I don’t have a lot of close family. My Dad lives in Texas and my other brother is so much younger than me that I don’t know him as well. I despised John when we were kids but now he is one of my favorite people. We have a lot in common and similar interests so it’s great spending time with him. My daughter and I can’t wait for him to come visit in December.
5. That my brother lives in rural Vermont – I live in West Philly and although I like living in an urban environment, it’s wonderful to have somewhere super quiet to go to get away from it all. It’s beautiful and I can’t even get good cell reception and reliable internet there. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older but the city is getting more and more on my nerves all the time and I have a long term plan of moving to Vermont permanently.
6. My business – I’ve been freelancing for 2.5 years now and I’m so grateful that I am able to support us this way. I’m able to spend more time with my daughter and go to most everything at her school. While I could always be doing better, we have everything we need and are really happy with this arrangement.
7. My ex – I’m not exactly grateful for my ex but am thankful that we have moved past our differences and get along fine most of the time. I know a big part of it is me choosing not to get too aggravated over things but still the relationship is so much better than it was a couple of years ago and I know my daughter is happy about that.
8. My cats – While they really annoy me a lot of the time they are funny, loving, and great bed warmers. If it were up to my daughter, we would probably have 20 of them but for now 2 is good.
9. You – I am thankful for the visitors who take the time to read the articles on this site. Sometimes it’s hard to keep up with everything and knowing you are out there helps me keep posting.
10. My clients – If it weren’t for you, I would be in a cubicle somewhere ranting about how stupid my manager is so thank you for your support that allows me to do what I love and earn money doing that.

Happy Thanksgiving! (to all of you in the U.S.)

photo credit: nsalt

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

10 Things I Am Grateful For This Thanksgiving

I can not stress how important it is to make regular backups of the important data on your computer. I backup certain files almost daily and have been doing this for years. I was lucky in that I started this practice a couple of months before a hard drive completely died.

I didn’t have any hardware failures recently but was having software problems (Windows). Earlier this week I got fed up and decided to reinstall Windows and restore from a disk image. And I didn’t have to really worry too much because I knew my external drive had all of the data that I wanted to keep – actually it probably has more than I need and I should clean it up.

If I hadn’t had the backup or if the problem had become worse and I hadn’t been able to use my computer, this would have been a much more serious issue that took up a lot more than an evening to deal with. Although, I should admit that I have old computers and parts that I keep around for emergencies since my livelihood depends on a working computer. Still, I work best on my current desktop.

And I’m so happy that I did the reinstall – more computer is super fast again and it seems like it’s new.

Do you backup regularly? If not, you should. And, if you do, what do you use? I use an external hard drive and have a script that backups certain directories.

If you are feel like it, you can take the poll.

photo credit: 4nitsirk

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

Do You Backup the Important Data on Your Computer

While overall I am very happy with my life and the way it is structured, there are some things that I find very difficult about solo parenting.

My daughter does spend some time with her Dad but almost all of her care and most of the financial responsibility is mine.

Here is a list of the things I find most difficult doing on my own.

What’s Hard

1. When I Am Sick – While I feel terrible for my daughter when she is sick and I wish I could take the illness away from her and place it on myself, it is much harder when I am the one is sick. Just getting up to take her to school or pick her up can be a real trial. A couple of weeks ago I had a terrible stomach bug and I was stumbling around trying to get her where she needed to be. Of course, if I am really really super sick (like when I had a tooth infection) I ask her Dad for help or ask a neighbor to take her to school. But what’s difficult is no back-up – there isn’t a 2nd person around to arrange things so I can simply stay in bed and get better. Fortunately, I am fairly healthy and don’t get sick often. Although I do have a weak stomach, which is a problem because I love spicy food so much ;-)
2. Always being the bad guy – I am the one that deals with all discipline issues and the one that determines that buying school clothes is more important than buying toys. Dad gets to be the fun one who takes her to the toy store and doesn’t have to deal with the day to day behavior problems. Just this week we had an issue with my daughter flat out lying to me and me trying to figure out the best way to deal with it and an appropriate punishment. As far as I know, Dad isn’t dealing with any of these problems. My guess is that when my daughter gets older she will start telling me that she would rather be with Dad.
3. Paperwork, Schedules and Appointments – I’d say that most of us despise paperwork and children seem to increase it exponentially, especially once they start school with permission slips, health assessments, etc. While I am very organized, sometimes I get frustrated being the one to take care all of these details. I get even more annoyed when I make up a schedule, arrange things with her Dad, he agrees, and then he still asks me “what day is that?” “when am I picking her up?” like it is my responsibility to keep track of what he needs to do as well as what my daughter and I need to do. There are certain things that he does take care of, such as the dentist, but I still have to remind him to make appointments so frequently that I would just as soon take care of it myself.
4. Regular Meals – This one relates to parenting in general and is not specific to solo parenting. And, actually, it may relate to my own personal quirks. I lived alone for 16 years before getting married and having a daughter and as I was never super into food I got used to eating whenever I felt like it; breakfast at 2pm, dinner at 10pm, etc. While I enjoy cooking, I get frustrated having to provide meals at regular times. And my kid is a grazer – she is always hungry and wants to eat ALL the time. She says “I’m hungry” so often that we joke that we should have named her Hungry ;-)

As I look over the list I realize that my Mom was responsible for all of these things even though she wasn’t a single parent. Of course, when I was a kid Dads weren’t as involved as they are now. When I was a kid you never saw a Dad pushing a baby carriage and I don’t think my Dad ever went to a Parent Teacher Conference, arranged a birthday party, or any of those kinds of things.

And now that I review these things, nothing on it is so difficult except for being sick. I guess like any other grown-up I just don’t want to be responsible all of the time. ;-)

What do you find difficult about solo parenting or parenting in general?

Post from: (Anti) Social Development

4 Things I Find Difficult About Solo Parenting