Life Changes

I have been very negligent about maintaining this blog…for that, I apologize. I fear that I have so few followers that it really doesn’t matter, however, my links to the products that I represent are all there. It is a bit shameful, that when I refer people to my blog, that my last post was in June of 2017! My life has changed considerably in the last couple of months. My dear hubs of 52 years passed away on August 31. There are good things and bad things in my day now…I don’t have to watch the 1000^th repeat of NCIS, and at the same time, there is no one to tell me how pretty I am or how good I look, when I look like I just was rescued from a tornado! I don’t have to get up at 4:00 AM to take him to dialysis, and yet there is no one to kiss me goodnight and tell me how much I am loved. I am really a pretty tough old broad, but I must admit, I miss the little niceties that go along with being married to my good OG (Old Guy, the name he liked me to call him). As time passes, the hole in my heart will settle in and become a part of everyday life. Now it is a little raw.

May, 2017

May is always a busy month for us. We have 4 birthdays in the first 2 weeks, Mother’s Day, a wedding anniversary, and this year, a graduation…my grandson, Kevin, graduated this year from Buena Park High School. Like all grandparents, it seems like just yesterday when he was a youngster. It is really eye-opening to me that the older I get, the faster time flies. I do have a theory on that…that when we were young, we didn’t have so many life experiences, so we looked forward to each new experience with such expectation that the time seemed to pass so slowly. As we age, we have more and more life experiences, so the expectations are less and the time seems to pass more rapidly. At this rate, in the next couple of years, Christmas will come the day after Valentine’s Day!

Here’s a photo of my special young man. I do insist on a last day of school photo by the school “sign”. (That’s what we photographers do to our kids, isn’t it!) I have slightly altered the photo using Artisan 5, removing the date the sign was placed with the date of Kevin’s graduation.

Family Happenings

I just noticed how long it has been since I have made a blog post. So much has happened in this time:  our family has a new addition; the hubs has had some serious medical issues; our grandson has rebuilt a car and gotten his permit. I have let everything slide, and now I really need to catch up. 

Let’s talk about the new baby this time. She was born on December 6, 2015, and just finished her fourth month. I have been trying to document each month, and am currently through her third. In addition to doing digital documentation, traditional scrapping is on the horizon as Creative Memories has 2 brand new baby collections, one for boys, and one for girls. They are precious and worthy of any mother’s, grandmother’s, and/or great grandmother’s attention for documenting. To see this collection, which can be purchased as a bundle or separately, just click on the CM Independent Advisor button on this page and under “Shop”, go to “Collections”, then “Hello, Baby”. You will be pleasantly surprised! 

Digitally, the new Artisan 5 is proving to be easy to utilize (I always worry about upgrades), and I made the digital pages for our new one in it. The good thing about this upgrade is that it is a separate program from Artisan 4 and both will be supported. I actually have books running in both programs and that does make it convenient. I am starting new work in A5 and a couple of continuing books are staying in A4. There are different computer requirements for each program, so be sure to check that out. I am going to post here, some pages taken from the book I am doing for our new Delilah. 

Remember, if you every have any questions or want to know more, just contact me and we can get together!

 

 

Digi Scrapping Summer

Welcome to my blog! You have, hopefully, arrived here after visiting Linda Norman's blog. Look around and enjoy!

Summer in southern California is beach time. Even those of us who do not live near the beach like to go down and enjoy the sun, the fresh air, and various beach activities. My daughter, Heather, participated in the Beach Babe Classic, a chance to ride her bike at the beach and to get out in the fresh air and raise money for a good cause. I have been able to fit 18 photos in this project and it is a good start on her memory book of the new “out of the box” challenges that she has set for herself.  It is going to be a fun year of new experiences.

I am what they call a “tradigi scrapper”. That means that I do both traditional and digital scrapbooking. To me, there is nothing like holding a photo in my hands and remembering the time, the place, and what was going on when that photo was taken…it is a very personal experience. The advantages to digital scrapping are many:  I can work on my lap without spreading out all over the dining room table; I can put more photos on a page, without cropping, and still able to maintain a high resolution photograph; I can print the full page to fit whatever coverset I am using, and preserve my memory; and there is so much digital artwork available, that once purchased, can be used over and over.

The layout I have here was created in Panstoria’s Artisan software. It is an excellent software developed by the same people who developed Creative Memory’s StoryBook Creator program. It is very user friendly and preferred by many digi scrappers. It is very reasonably priced, compared to other software. To find out more about it, CLICK HERE. Digital artwork is also available for Artisan and I used software purchased from the Panstoria store on this project. The papers are from “To the Beach” digital kit by Creative Memories; the filmstrip is from “Grunge Graduation” digital kit by Creative Memories; the bike came from an internet search; and the rest of the embellishments came from the website for the California Girl Series. If you are interested in purchasing digital content CLICK HERE.

Thank you for visiting my blog. The next step for you is to visit Diana Brinsley and her blog!

Here is a complete lineup in case you get lost along the way:
Becki Adams:  Becki Adams Designs
Debbie Hodge:  Get It Scrapped
Sarah Fitzgerald:  Click Write Share
Linda Norman:  Scrappy Therapy
Lynn Bisset:  Photo Tripping With Mama Lynn  You are Here!
Diana Brinsley:  D. Brinsley's Memory Keeping Blog

Oregon Journey

I recently went to a retreat on the Oregon coast. It is an annual gathering of friends that met on Facebook. We have since become close and look forward to this retreat every spring. This year, I chose to drive myself instead of flying. I allowed a little over three days (which should have been four), and drove up the Pacific Coast Highway. For those of you who are not familiar with this, it is a beautiful, scenic highway that runs along the coastline of California. It continues into Oregon and Washington as U.S. Highway 101.


This was the first long trip that I have ever taken by myself, and it was a personal journey as well as a means to an end. I discovered the silence of my own thoughts, that eating a meal by oneself was not a scary thing, and that ending a trip by meeting good friends is pure joy.


Sharing with you a 2 page spread from the book I did to chronicle my journey.

Pixels2Pages "Celebration" blueprint; digital artwork by Jumpstart Designs "Beautiful Spirits Emerge" (available from the Panstoria store, see link on this page).

Favorite Photo?

Do you have a favorite photo, the one that you remember when talking to friends about the pictures in your scrapbooks, or on your phone? I have taken a lot of photos in my long life, yet there are less than ten that come to my mind as fabulous and spectacular. As you know, I am an affiliate for Panstoria and the Panstoria Print Shop, and through these companies, there is the ability to take a photo that is special and make it into something that is truly dramatic. One of my favorite photos is the one here. It was taken around 5:00 in the morning as we were waiting for the ferry to take us from Port Angeles, Washington, to Victoria, BC. It was just dawn and we were waiting in line to board when I wandered around and peeked through the chain link fence and saw this scene. I never expected to see something this picturesque on the dock of a ferry boat. To make it extra special, I put it into the Artisan software and edited it based on some instructions from Pixels 2 Pages, then had it printed on canvas through the Panstoria Print Shop. I now have it in my living room where I can see it every day.

Try doing something special with one of your favorite photos…you won’t be sorry!

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).