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.

My Recipe Book

I like to cook. I also like to eat...that goes without saying. When my gals come over for their once a month crop, I like to cook them breakfast...it's my way of saying, "Welcome! I am so happy to have you here." My favorite thing to do is a breakfast casserole. I have perused the web looking for good recipes and have done about 20-25 different ones. My ladies love them and they are easy to prepare, as most are made the day before and then put in the oven in the morning. When they arrive, the scent of breakfast cooking is in the air and we all get off to a really good start. Here is one of the casseroles that has really hit the mark many times. It is not done the night before, but the assembly is easy and takes no time at all. (I often substitute bacon for ham here.)

Following is one I made for the first time last crop, and it is more savory and "brunch" like. I thought it was to die for. Feel free to try these recipes yourself!  My gift.

I am so happy with these recipes that I made a 7 x 5 recipe book which I printed with Panstoria Print Shop.  I'm going to give these to some very special people for Christmas presents.

Book Signing

My nephew, Jason Tondro, is a brilliant scholar of medieval history and comics. He is a terrific young man, and I am so proud of him. Two Christmases ago, right after his first book was published, we held a “book signing” at our house. We set up a table, draped it and had him autograph our books. It was all in good fun, and a way to honor the new book.  For anyone interested in his blog, “Dr. Comics”, I am posting a link to it.  doctorcomics.blogspot.com  

 

 

 

Here we go.

I have wanted to do a blog for quite a while, but just never got around to it. As life comes around, certain incidents occur which cause us to "get it on", and now I am going to "get it on". I love to travel (and take photos), and I love to eat good food (and take photos), and I love my family (and taking photos). It is my plan, here, to chronicle my life in words and pictures.

The way I plan this diary, is to use a wonderful digital program that I learned while with Creative Memories, called StoryBook Creator. This program was created by Panstoria and, as events would have it, Panstoria has a program that is picking up where StoryBook is stopping, and that is Artisan. For all of us who have invested many dollars in artwork, this is great news and it will allow me to continue to share with you my life, in photos along with my own unique way of describing these events.

Just to give you a hint of what I plan, here is a look at Thanksgiving dinner, a couple of years ago.