I love junk, I love to look at junk!

I have been making a lot of photo collages and slide shows because I love to look at my junk! I can't decide what photo to use, so I use as many as possible. I repeat some of the photos now and then, I realize, but that is because they are my favorites, like a comfortable pair of jeans. I usually feel inspired to play with my digital photos after I have rifled through a dozen or so magazines.. I can't help but want to create something pretty to look at with my own images. It is dawning on me that I need more images to choose from now!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Sentimental Fool

It's summer, life is crazy as usual, but now with my gang in tow. Things have been turned upside down in our household since the last semester of school. Lauren, our teen found herself fighting a drug addiction and subsequently failing school. We had a rough start, but our family was fortunate because Lauren desired to go to drug treatment. She has had clean drug tests, met all the assignments and tasks that treatment and DCCCA have outlined for her. We stumble a lot, we have moments that feel like our family has come undone. But when we remember what we are supposed to be doing, loving each other, learning, talking, trying, accepting and being responsible - we seem to be able to pull ourselves out of the tailspin quickly. I have had the most unbelievable support system of family and friends. Wise women who have raised their children well and have gone through this before me, advising me, praying for me and loving me even when I don't feel very lovable. This album was created for a gift that I sent to my mother-in-law in Florida for her 70th birthday last month. I scanned it into my computer and used smilebox to make my own home-version I can visit when ever I want to. I thought it might be hard to make a happy album about my family when sometimes it doesn't seem very happy here, or the occupants of my home seem miserable. But it was easy. I still see the people I love, the people I want to help, to protect, to know, to grow with and share with. I still see my home as a loving place, a safe place, a place of love. I just see that it is also a place that shelters a teen and a tween and parents that need to be able to adapt to those needs. Perilous, yes, scary and sometimes very painful.. but so worthwhile when they smile. Thank you Lauren, for being who you are, every moment. Thank you Jim, for holding my hand, thank you Justin for being a brother, a son and a fine young man.

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

Pages of Happiness

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

Last Christmas, at Jackie Clark Designs, the girls (Jackie, Claudia and Beverly and I) exchanged gifts. I think we exchange gifts weekly, really - someone is always having a birthday, needs cheered along, has something they are tired of and want to pass along.. it's a share-fest the first twenty minutes we are together in the morning! Beverly and I love paper and scrapping and ephemera. She is the queen and I am her jester.. Beverly's collection is marvelous and I have rummaged through it drooling! Her gift to me for Christmas was delightful, there was a business card holder with the Eiffel Tower on it for my new Etsy shop business cards, a decorative box of matches in a lovely green and teal shade.. The match tips were even green! And this lovely notebook. I could hardly bring myself to write in it, it's just pretty. But I had started a memento box of cards and "bits n pieces" that reminded me of friends and I decided I would use the notebook as a place to write about the important people and events that make our lives so full and happy. It was fun to look around the house for things that I could collage the pages with. I added business cards, menus, letters, envelopes and magazine clippings.. just randomly and very relaxed. I wanted no pressure here. I have the notebook on my desk and when I get to feeling sorry for myself or need cheer.. I open my friend book and can hear their voices. I know what each of them would say about my "problem". I have such fun imaginary dialog with my notebook of friends. I'm sure they prefer I talk to the book than dial them up every time I hit a stumbling block in life!

Rain drops

This makes me want to be still and be quiet.

Happy, smiley people

This is hubby and me at my sister's birthday celebration a few weeks ago. We have been married 12 years in April this year (I'm celebrating even now). Jim NEVER smiles in photos, and one of us is usually the one holding the camera.. so this is rare.. a picture of us both and both of us smiling. I'm always tossing a dirty look to a child about to commit a crime against a sibling, or possibly a perfect stranger, laughing with my head thrown back and all you get are my nostrils in the photo, or I look like I've been on a three day bender, Jim just scowls this pouty little purse of his lips, "you know I hate to have my picture taken" and sighs deeply. So, I love this photo. It was taken by Lauren, my daughter. I'm a little shiny, but I do look happy, I guess I'll take it.

Make a postcard - it's easy!

There! I finally got it right. I hope you like the slide show. It was easier when I followed directions.

Make a postcard - it's easy!

Smilebox

What has surprised me most about blogging is this new dialog it opens up, the new places it takes my friendships, the people I connect with in unexpected ways. Sometimes it is a picture that unites us, sometimes a story, an idea, a club.. the Internet is is a different tool to different people. Everyone I talk to about blogging tells me about the blog they read, shows me a new site, a new feature, a new way to view, gather and interpret information. Today I received this email from Debbie, Dad's secretary I am always talking about. It contained a link to Smilebox (http://www.smilebox.com/), a digital scrapbook site. I had been thinking I would like to sit down and find good tools for photo collages, for slide shows and there in my email was the perfect tool. I dropped everything I was doing to explore it for an hour. I made a photo collage and a slide show.. having a bit of trouble with HTML, but that's just me.. the site was easy to use and very versatile. I might have gotten around to shopping for this site, but most likely would be still wishful thinking. But because I am making new friendships, exploring new territory, I am getting new information.. without much effort. Thank you for the new fun toy, Debbie, I can't wait to make more collages!

With love.

These precious buttons, in the most luscious shade of red, deep and rich, not orangy or washed out, no, THE only shade that they eye associates with love, with romance, with elegance and strength.. These precious buttons were strung on crafting wire, one at a time, lovingly selected, the wire twisted and waved like garland. They were made for me and given to me by Ms. Claudia, whom I think of as a living example of Hot Chocolate. Somewhere in the earliest memories of my childhood there came stories of Claudia, her wild humor, her commanding voice, her strong laugh, her wit, her adventures.. my mother and Claudia were hair stylists at the same salon. My mom worked part-time and would come home from work and tell my dad or a friend about her day.. always there was a Claudia fragment. I associated her name, her voice, her laugh, the sound of my mother's voice as she talked about Claudia was linked forever with fun, frivolity, bravery, strength and charm. I now work with Claudia some fifteen years later. When I was reunited with her and sat and caught up on gossip, it was like being a child again in some ways, but being treated as an adult. I was brought to a time when my mother was happy and young and busy and I was naive and carefree. She was human hot chocolate for my soul. I needed a Claudia back in my life. God works so mysteriously, in such small gentle ways. He worked some wonderful women into my life just in time to help me, to in many ways save me. I know these buttons are buttons. I know Claudia is human, that these women are friends, that divine intervention may be too deep.. but I know love when I see it.

If you're like me, you want to know who I'm talking about. Scoot over to Jackie Clark Designs at http://jackieclarkdesigns.blogspot.com/ and you'll find Claudia's smiling face in the post Nov. 30, '07. Beverly and I are there too! When I get to be a better blogger, that won't be so difficult, I'll know how to link you there!