Sharon's Blog

Baby Wall Art

sharon — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:01:34 +0000

Baby Wall Art

I got the idea for this from Pinterest. Now that I’ve finally completed my own layout in InDesign, I’m passing this on to anyone else interested.

Here’s how I went about setting this up for my daughter’s room:

First, I had to decide on what colors to use. She has bedding from KidsLine, and I was able to find some decent photos online. I was able to use those as a basis for my color scheme.
I then uploaded the photos to colr.org and had it pull out colors from the images. I wrote down the HEX colors it gave me and then translated them to RGB colors for use in InDesign (you can do this either by using the popup window at colr.org or you can go to here, which I found to be quicker).
Once you’ve got all that sorted, the next bit is to adjust the text to fit the areas it’s given. This is a little tricky, but basically I mostly adjusted just the font size.
One additional adjustment I did was to give her birth month line a little extra left-padding; otherwise, the tail end of the “J” swooped out into the margin.
After you’ve got your page the way you want it, export it to a high-quality PDF
How you print it is up to you. I’m going to try printing this at home first. However, there are plenty of good online choices for ordering prints of self-made artwork.

Here is the InDesign template and the font I used. Feel free to take both.

Name	Size	Hits
Name	Size	Hits
Baby Wall Art	582.6 KiB	0
Gill Sans MT	43.5 KiB	0

Christmas 2011

sharon — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 14:47:29 +0000

Thanksgiving at the Herrings

sharon — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 20:29:08 +0000

Thanksgiving at the Herrings

Growling

sharon — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 00:50:12 +0000

Job Search

sharon — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 12:09:00 +0000

For anyone who is still looking for a job, I want to remind you to leave no stone unturned. The job I finally got came from the last place I thought it would: a social media site.

When our daughter finally came along, I resigned from my secretary position to focus on her. Being unemployed as hard at first, but eventually I found an unbelievable amount of joy watching my daughter grow up. When we discovered we were finally moving back to the states, I began my job search again.

My first stop was some online services, namely Monster and Career Builder. While these helped in getting my information organized, it didn

Finding Daycare

sharon — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 17:47:00 +0000

This has become all too frustrating. Why is it that I suddenly have to choose between “cheap” and “good” when it comes to finding a location to take Clair during the day?

I’ve visited three different locations in Louisville, and so far they all seem… eh, they’re decent I guess. None of them have the nicest looking facilities, but they keep their rooms clean, there’s plenty of toys and caring teachers, and for the most part the atmosphere seems nice. They’ve all been more expensive than what we have now, but this isn’t surprising.

Location #1 – this one had a dirty facade but looked ok on the inside. When I arrived — at lunch — the children were all napping in their respective rooms, so I didn’t get to see in-action what kinds of activities were offered. The lady I spoke with however was fine with cloth diapers, and she said regardless of allergies they were flexible on meals and would be willing to follow whatever wishes we had as long as they were within reason. The price was $175 per week.

Location #2 – this one looked a little run-down but someone had obviously put effort into painting it to be more kid-friendly. I arrived after work, so I mostly saw after-school kids. They were sitting in a room, around a table, most of them doing nothing when the lady who was giving me the tour said this was the “homework” room for after-school kids. The infant room had only one baby in it, and she was old enough to walk around. We walked through the kitchen and I saw that someone was preparing ice cream as a snack. The toddler room had about 10 kids, all huddled around a television watching a movie in the dark. This one, the lady guessed (since her boss was not in), was $123 per week.

I did some reading, and I’ve found that I should be working on a wish list describing what I’d like Clair to get out of daycare. Here’s a short list:

healthy snacks (that don’t revolve around syrup-covered fruit, cookies and pasta every other meal)
someone who is comfortable with cloth diapers (and knows how to dispose of them properly; the current daycare still hasn’t figured this out)
activities that challenge her
fun time with toys and other kids (that don’t involve plopping a kid down in front of a television)

I realize I’m being pretty harsh in reference to location #2, and I’ll admit that this could be just what they did today and not what they do every day. The only way I’ll know is if I visit again.

More locations are on my list to check out, however none of them are as close to my work, nor are they as cheap. Louisvillians, Moms, all you parents out there — what are your suggestions?

…surely there’s some daycare here that matches my wish list without absolutely breaking my bank account…

Debt Collectors, or The Greatest Scam Ever

sharon — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 17:39:00 +0000

I received an automated phone call today. The caller asked me to press one to verify that my name was “xxx” or press 2 if that was not my name. I was also given a number to call. I did nothing, just sat and listened and then wrote down the number (which is 877-251-3771). When the message was over, I did a simple reverse phone lookup on the number. It seems that this number belongs to an agency called “Source Collection Agency”. I also found posts where other users had received calls from this same number. There was no information on the number, but the ads up and down the sides of the result page were related to debt collections.

I called this number, and as soon as the call was picked up, someone asked if this was “xxx”. I said it used to be, and they began telling me that I owed on a utility bill from a previous address. I had not lived at that address for 6 years, but apparently that was information she already knew. When I asked for a specific date on the bill, she said she had none. I asked to speak with someone who had more information, she said there was no one else. So, I asked her to give me as much detail as she could about the utility. I said thank-you, and she hung up.

I’ve not ever had anything like this happen to me, and it bodes well that I proceeded with caution. I’m posting this, because I want you to be able to be cautious as well. Here’s what the FDCPA (Fair Debt Collection Practices Act) says are violations to collecting a debt:

Fail to send a written debt validation notice – Within five days of the collector’s initial communication, it must send you a notice include the amount of the debt, name of the creditor, and notice of your right to dispute the debt within 30 days. [15 USC 1692g]

Clair’s First Birthday

sharon — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 03:59:57 +0000

Trampoline!

sharon — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 14:41:00 +0000

I think we

Night 2 – Complete

sharon — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 07:01:00 +0000

So, night #2 is complete. Clair seems to be adjusting somewhat well, though I can’t be sure yet.

It breaks my heart to hear her crying. Every time she makes any noises, I want to get up and go check on her, hold her, cuddle her, even if it’s just a little whine. I will say that last night was much better than the first night. She cried for a much shorter period of time, and it wasn’t nearly as intense. Hopefully my sanity will last through this adjustment period.