A Trip to Paris

Today, I am feeling a bit melancholy as my grand-daughter, Micayla, and her parents prepare for a trip to Paris. When Micayla started high school, I told her that if she studied French, when she graduated, I would take her to Paris for two weeks. It was a present that I began anticipating with great joy. Halfway through her high school “term”, I fell and broke both my legs (that is another whole story), and I recovered and moved on. One of the after effects, however, is that I cannot walk long distances any more, and I have a lot of trouble coming down stairs. I thought this would get better, and I delayed her gift by one year so I could be sure I was fully recovered. As it happens, I still cannot walk very far, and as a consequence, I had to pass on this gift to her parents, and they are taking her on her vacation. I have two wonderful grandkids, and I adore each of them, differently, and for me, going away, with just the kids, is really a special time. They are leaving on Saturday, and I miss them already, and yearn to be with them.

This is a small collage of photos that I took when I last went to France in 2009. It is a project that was part of the old Creative Memories digital program. I have workshops in digital scrapping. (If you are interested in any of the programs, artwork, or training related to this creative way of expressing yourself, click on any of the banners to the side and you will be connected to either Panstoria or Pixels 2 Pages. I know this is a blatant advertisement, and I do get a small commission for each purchase).

Oregon Beach Retreat

I haven’t posted on the blog for a while and a lot of things have happened since my last post. My most recent trip was to the Oregon Coast, Lincoln City to be specific. I went on a retreat with some of my Facebook friends over a long weekend last month. We stayed in a nice condo on Bella Beach and did some scrapbooking and some resting. I took this photo the first night we were there, and it is one of my favorites…all going to show that you never can tell when you will get the “perfect” photo. This was taken out the window of a restaurant there.

I would like to tell you about some other things that are happening here. Off to the side, you will see some banners. These are for Panstoria software, artwork and printing, for which I am an affiliate.  All of my digital pages on this blog are created with Panstoria Artisan software.  I find it very user friendly and easier to use than some of the others and definitely less expensive. Historian software is a photo managing and editing software that is also very easy to use and is an excellent program. You will also see a banner for Pixels2Pages, which is a site established by former Creative Memories consultants to help train and show techniques in the old StoryBook Creator and Memory Manager software that was provided by Creative Memories. Since that is no longer available, Panstoria, the original developers of the software, have come out with their own…the aforementioned Artisan and Historian. The techniques and training provided by Pixels2Pages transfers, and is applicable to, these new programs. I am also an affiliate for their services. The digital page here is from a Start 2 Finish workshop that was recently on their website, for members only. This video takes you from the beginning, with the choice of your photo, to the finished product, teaching how to create a beautiful page with an antique feel. I totally recommend participating in their training, as I have been a member since their beginning and know that membership is a very good value and worth every penny.

I loved creating this digital page, loved the memories it brought back of the wonderful time spent with my friends, and love sharing it with you.