Great to be back...

Some many blessings I have and gratitude to three amazing women.  Jenn introduced me to Courtney through her blog.  And then Courtney introduced me to Jeanne through her blog and a giveaway to Jeanne's class, Creatively Made.  I owe these women so much!

Jeanne Oliver is such a beautiful, spiritual woman and I have loved every minute of her videos.  She has dedicated four weeks to focusing on how we are each creatively made and that we should be using our gifts. Her instruction has guided me back on the path to use my gifts.

It's been awhile since I've done anything except make a mess in the Korner.  But it's all cleaned up now and I've finished three pieces in the last two weeks!  I put together a beautiful little vintage journal...

Altered the front of another journal...

And created a portrait of Ashleigh...

Thank you, Jenn for the gift of Courtney. She has such a tenacious heart and I love hearing about her life through her wonderful family photos and storytelling. I am anxious to get a copy of her new book!

Thank you, Courtney for the gift of Jeanne. Her gentle prodding has been delicious.

Thank you, Jeanne for all of your gifts. Your class has been inspiring and uplifting.

I am so blessed.

Finale to Fantastic Alaska

It was the trip of a lifetime. I'm glad you are enjoying the photos. I still haven't journalled on the pages and don't know if I'll ever get to that. Some of the pages need a bit more embellishment.  Words may be just the thing. Someday.

I will tell you that bear is real. And he was real close. Our guide actually took the safety off of his bear spray - something he has never done before.  The bear was as curious about us as we were him. Eventually he got bored, turned and walked way.  No drama.  Plenty of thrill.

The zip line - exhilarating! What.A.High.  (Pun intended.)

Yep, definitely the trip of a lifetime. I'd love to do it all again, though I doubt it could be duplicated.  Here's the end of our awesome vacation.

More of Amazing Alaska

Alaska is so beautiful. The few days we spent there were much too short. Perhaps one day we will return.

Our whale watching trip was awesome.  We saw two pods of humpback whales bubble feeding.  Our naturalist had just told a little girl it was rare to see this and then, not five minutes later we witnessed this spectacular event.  Hard to capture on film without fancy equipment; however we did get a few shots.

On the same excursion we saw dolphins swimming beside our vessel, sea lions playing King of the Hill on a bouy and an eagle stalking & diving for its dinner.  Can't ask for much more than that!  Here are more pages that celebrate this terrific frontier.

Stay tuned for additional pages that will post later...

Amazing Alaska Cruise

We celebrated our 20th anniversary with a totally awesome trip to Alaska.  It was the perfect trip, with gorgeous weather.  Our excursions could have been filmed for the travel channel.  Here are just a few of the pages that represent just a small portion of the trip.  I'll post more soon.

She's Done with High School...

...and it's so classicly bittersweet.  We are very proud of her successes and the honors she received.

I created her HS scrapbook in digi format, was able to keep up and it's also done.  So happy that I did that!  She was surprised at her celebration lunch, right after the ceremony, to be handed her memories.  Here are the pages for her last few traditional events.

Now, if I could only find the energy to finish up the early years...

Gay Paris! (You gotta say with a french accent)

Okay, the Paris pages are complete.  Paris was so fun and the people were uber friendly.  This trip reminded me of my first trip to Paris when I was in Jr. High.  I'm so glad that Ashleigh saw what I remembered. Subsequent trips as an adult had been disappointing. This one was awesome!

Some these LOs were created as two-pagers and others as single pages in response to MM challenges.  Even if they don't look cohesive, I think I like them and I'm resisting the urge to edit!  I've also created the opening page and a few random others that will fill in to make the book flow the way it should.  I'll share those in another post.  For now, enjoy a virtual tour of this beautiful city...

Umbria and Florence

My, oh my, I so want to return to Italy.  It is one of the most beautiful and vibrant places I've ever visited.  The Italy pages are now complete and next I'll tackle Paris.

As I uploaded these pages, I just realized that I have the date wrong for Assissi. These are the only pages that I actually dated.  So, I'm happy that these are digital pages and I can easily correct the error.  It also means that I'll have to put the pages in a different chronological order.  Hurray for digi and the electronic eraser!