Q & A: Scrapbooking, Steak, and everything in Between

Happy Sunday, friends! I hope this past week was a productive and happy one for you. I had several doors open this past week, which I can't wait to tell you about.

In the meantime, I have some Q & A for ya today!


Question : How did you get started scrapbooking?
It's actually a fun story! My dad is a business consultant, and he consulted for a scrapbooking company back in the day. The company gave my dad a bag of product, which he put in the basement. I was hunting around for a photo album in the basement when I came across the bag of scrappy stuff. It included everything you need to get started--paper, cardstock, stickers, trimmer, adhesive, scissors, etc. I was immediately hooked, and the rest is history!

Question: How/why/when did you get started with design teams?
Well, I actually have a little surprise up my sleeve related to that:) But the short answer is that since I found scrapbooking on my own, I never had friends who shared my hobby. So once I discovered the online scrapping community, I was thrilled and wanted to get involved. I wanted to be on design teams partly to get some validation for my work (if I'm being totally honest!), but also to make connections with other scrappers. It took me about 6 months to get published, and around 1 year to start getting on teams.

Question: Do any of your friends scrapbook?

I have some "real life" friends who dabble in scrapbooking, but they aren't at all involved in the industry side of things. And thanks to design teams, blogging, and message boards, I now have a whole group of scrappy buddies!

Question: Is there a short explanation for the no dairy-meat mixing?

Short? Not so much. But I'll do the best I can! The origin of the prohibition comes from several verses in the Torah that say you can't "cook a kid in its mother's milk." (if you're in the looking-things-up mood, the verses are in Exodus 23:19, Exodus 34:26, Deuteronomy 14:21).

Now here's the tricky part: Orthodox Judaism believes that there are two parts to the Torah--the written Torah (aka 5 books of Moses), and the oral Torah (the Mishna and Talmud). Certain things that are mentioned in the written Torah are explained in the oral Torah. For example, the written Torah says "remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy," but how exactly do you do that? Sing a song? Do hula hoops? Have a scrapbook party every Saturday? (that, actually, might work for me:)) The oral Torah explains the "how." Orthodox Jews believe that the oral Torah was also given to Moses at Mount Sinai, to explain how to live the precepts in the Torah.

Now that you've heard my long background, the quick answer is that the "kid in its mother's milk" part is in the written Torah, and the rest of the milk and meat in general being separated comes from the oral Torah.

Now did that work, are you just more confused?

Question: What makes kosher salt kosher?

Another aspect of keeping kosher is that we can't eat blood. Since kosher salt is coarse, it tends to draw the blood out of the meat more effectively (or so S is saying while we're getting read to leave the house). Really any salt is kosher, but that's why kosher salt is called what it is!

Question: Where did you get the dresser you use for paper?

It's actually a TV cabinet from Ikea! I added 3 extra shelves and legs to make it look more "furniture-y," and there you are. I had been looking for something like this for a long time, and even called a scraproom furniture company who quoted me $900 for it (!!), so I was very pleased to find this option:)

And now a question for YOU--what's the question you get asked most frequently?

Hope all have a happy healthy Sunday!

[Image sources: http://scrapbooking.cc/, http://www.sweet-meats.com/, http://www.etsy.com/listing/71512637/pinch-of-salt]