I used to have cookie cutters that belonged to my Grandmother. I remember a gingerbread man. It was aluminum, a dull silver colour. The shape was filled in, not like the modern ones that are open on top. The old gingerbread man was wearing a pointy hat. That's about all I can really, clearly remember about him any more.

It's been a long time since I've seen that cookie cutter. Too much moving, too many boxes lost or damaged. Lost due to things like the water heater bursting and flooding the basement. Mice nibbling at boxes which were then thrown out as useless. Or, boxes just being forgotten in some corner of one basement or another. It's sad to lose things that way. It bothers me more than any other way of losing things. As if the things lost that way were never important enough to remember.

But, I have the hope that my lost things will be found someday and become someone's great find, treasured all over again, though they won't know the history. They won't know that cookie cutter once belonged to my Grandmother. They won't know my Grandmother, my Mother, my brother and sisters and I made gingerbread people many times with that old cookie cutter in the kitchen of the house I remember best from my growing up days. I wish I could tell whoever finds that cookie cutter the history behind it. Tell them about how my Grandmother was once nicknamed Pepper and how she liked to plant potatoes in the garden to aggravate my Grandfather. I'd like to tell them about how she fought breast cancer for years until she had to show/ teach us all how to die quietly, with pride and courage. I miss her. I really wish we had that cookie cutter still. There is some hope it will turn up in a box not opened during years of moving from place to place. More likely it is gone, to be found by someone who will wonder about that cookie cutter and other things that may be in the box they find in some corner of the basement of the house they move into.

It would be nice to tell them about that cookie cutter. To let them know it's not just another old cookie cutter. But, it doesn't work that way with lost treasures. The story becomes a secret known only to those who lost it. Those who find it can only wonder or imagine what the history behind it might be. Maybe, when they imagine the story they will get some of it right. That would be nice.

I have other new cookie cutters. A small collection of them. This Christmas I tried making gingerbread men again. I made the batter from a recipe online. But, when I tried to cut out the cookies the batter was too runny and sticky. It could not hold the shape. So no gingerbread men again this year. I will find a better recipe next year. Ideally, I'd like to get matching cookie cutters for gingerbread men and women and another for a gingerbread house cookie shape. Those would be the pinnacle of my collection.

Note: The aluminum gingerbread man in this article, looks like my Grandmother's old one. It might be the very same kind that she had. Also, we had a Christmas tree and that bunny from this collection too. Ours was badly dented in the middle though.

Resources:

The Cookie Cutter Collector's Club -- Based in the US. The 2010 convention will be in California, in June.

Cookie Cutter Search -- From the Cookie Cutter Collector's Club.

There are cookie cutter collectors displaying their cookie cutters in photos on Flickr: Cookie Cutters.

After you look at that group, see how the cookies were decorated on Flickr: Cookie Cutter Cookies.

Brand Name Cooking -- Has posted a good article about collecting cookie cutters.

Today (November 27th) would be my Dad's birthday. I think he would be 77 years old. He isn't here any more however. He died several years ago. We never got along well, he was not my best supporter in life or anything else. His theme in life seemed to be "Don't bother" and those were, in fact, his last words in this life.

There are not a lot of second chances in life. In his case, there are none at all. I don't know if he ever regretted how things were/ are in the family with him. I wonder sometimes if people do see how their families live on after they have died. I think of him watching the fallout from his actions in life. I like to think of someone telling him that he could have been a better Father, a better person. (Not that he was awful or that I blame him for everything I'm not happy about myself and my life, that would be silly). But, I do like to think that he would have some regrets. I won't ever know of course. Or, not while I'm still alive anyway, after that... maybe I will see him again when we are both deceased. That isn't something I can predict.

Write about meeting someone who disappointed or hurt you after you are both deceased. How does the meeting go, how does it start? When it is all over do you feel better or worse?

I've had LiveJournal for a long time. I was happy to install a new plugin (I've become a plugin window shopper) today. Live Press says I can choose to publish any of my WordPress posts to LiveJournal at the same time. That is a good thing. I am always having trouble trying to post at LiveJournal. Yesterday it would not even let me type in the screen for adding a new entry. It was pretty odd. I'm hoping this will work around that and give me the chance to keep my LiveJournal account from getting too stale. I won't be using it as a receptacle for everything I post here. Far from it! But it can have enough to look less ignored.

Blogging with discipline doesn't mean you have to blog every day or that you can't ever take a break. It means blogging regularly--whatever that means for you. It means sitting down and trying to develop a blog post idea instead of waiting until a perfectly-written post is already floating around in your brain.

Blogging with discipline isn't the only "right" way to blog. Some bloggers find that a less-structured schedule works well for them. But if the concept appeals to you, I invite you to join me. Blog with discipline...and be available for the inspiration, when it comes.

This is me! I like the structure of writing regular posts. I find daily and even weekly posts are better than trying to post once in awhile or a few times a week or anything else that leaves wiggle room. I am not the most organized and disciplined person. I'm easily distracted and get sidetracked all too quickly.

Although I use scheduled posts I still know I have to keep enough content going to make that schedule. One thing I like about writing for a blog/ site network is being accountable to stick to a schedule for posts too. You know you have readers expecting your content but the best situation is a writing network where the writers have a real community and THEY know your posting schedule too.

There are always going to be times when you have nothing to say. You're just dry.

• Quotations are good. You can find a quote that makes you laugh, makes you think or just amazes you. If you can find anything to add of your own, do so!. Although I have done so, it is not good to just post a quote and leave it there without any commentary from yourself.
• Take a break from it. Come back when your mind isn't pressured to write something. Go browsing online at other sites in your niche. See what topics others have been writing about. Anything you may have missed? Anything you can add your own slant, experience or information to?
• Read other media, like the newspaper. Don't get so caught up in your small corner of the world that you forget there is a lot out there, not all of it is online. Not all of it is even about blogging! Shocking, eh?
• Brainstorm a list of topics you could write about. Don't hold back. Write down stuff that seems stupid and offbeat even. Give yourself at least one minute to warm up. Once you start ideas tend to flow.
• Best of all, keep an idea folder, stuff it full of things you want to write about, tidbits of ideas you get when you are doing something else, and stuff that has inspired you. Don't rule out a topic just because your niche doesn't directly relate to it. Think of a way that it does. Some really interesting posts have been created when someone combined unusual topics, giving new perspective to their topic.

Go forth and write. Let me know if you find blogging with discipline works for you too. (It work won't for everyone).

What are reasons to keep an archive on your blog? We have categories and tags. An archive may seem a bit prehistoric or overkill, especially when they aren't search able and just sit there all static and growing old. Tony Briley started this discussion on the CMF Ads forum.

Reasons for keeping an archive on your blog:

• Web directories tend to list established blogs only, those which are at least six months old. An archive is where they look to find the age of your blog.
• Knowing the age of your blog establishes your credentials, your experience, especially if you are posting about web publishing related topics like SEO, blogging and making money online.
• Some readers prefer to read a blog which has some staying power, has passed the test of time and kept going.
• If people want to flip to a certain date in your blog they need an archive. For instance, to see what you were posting about a year ago, or what you posted on a holiday, or some other eventful day.
• An archive shows all the posts from the month on one page. You can do the same with categories but, not by date.
• Your readers can go back to see how you started. What your thoughts and plans and goals were right from the beginning of your blog project. Who was commenting then? How has your writing style, your way of expressing yourself changed? Also, have you changed the focus of your blog and the topics you cover?
• You may have undertaken a special project which readers would like to track back and go through the journey day by day, as it happened (through the archives). This is not just something for personal bloggers. If you post a series of posts on a topic they can also be read as an ongoing journey.
• I also keep an archive for myself. I like to skim back and see where I was, what ideas I had in the past. I don't look by topic (category or tags) cause that isn't as random as looking into your past by time machine alone. Often something I posted a couple of years ago inspires me for an update on the same topic or a completely new angle on what I was thinking then.

Reasons to get rid of the archive on your blog:

• Your blog is very new and you don't want to broadcast that.
• You want to cut down on clutter in every way you can and the archive just seems to take up more space than it is worth.

What's your opinion? Archive or not?