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My long awaited book, Ethnic Scrapbooking arrived on Tuesday. The volume of books is about the size of our Volvo...here's my attempt at drawing.
You can purchase the book, by clicking the Idea Book link in the right sidebar. On Saturday I'll be signing books at Simpson-Hamline Church (women's retreat) on 16th Street, NW in Washington, DC from 9 am - 1 pm, if you'd like to save on shipping.
Just back from spending 4 whole days in Manhattan without the kids. I had a whole list of items to do, places to see, but I only managed to cross off a few of them. Biggest thrill was to actual visit relatives in their homes...homes that they have lived in for up to 30 years and this was my first visit. The most surprising thing that happened was that my two relatives pulled out their scrapbooks, to be honest that was the furthest thing from my mind...I was more interested in their stories about how they got to New York from rural Pennsylvania.
This is my favorite photo that I saw of my uncle...he said this was in his apartment when he first moved to New York in the 1940's. I love it because it's so "everyday"...not a posed shot, not a special occasion, just him on his couch reading. I really had fun with my uncle who drove me all through Brooklyn and took me out to eat in Queens where I got some fabulous food from the islands.
It's gloomy in Washington, DC today and I must have typed the date 9/11/07 two dozen times today, which leads me to my thoughts of where I was six years ago. I was telecommuting at home when I heard Diane Sawyer's voice go from morning perky to sad very quickly which made me jump up and look at the television, just in time to see the 2nd airplane hit the WTC. I freaked, I called the office first, which knew nothing so I was holding the phone to the television so they could hear the news, they immedaitely got to a television in a conference room and quickly evacuated since our office is just blocks from the White House, then I frantically called my husband, my Dad to see where is sister was that worked at State Dept., My uncle in Brooklyn to see where my relatives were, then my daughter's school called to come and pick her up, then the elementary school called with the same thing and there I was stuck at home with no car (it was in the shop)...I ran barefoot with the little ones in tow to a neighbor's house to have her drive me to the schools. I retrieved 4 of my five kids and huddled with them all day as we waited for the rest of the family to fight the traffic jams for over four hours to get home...just thinking about all of that makes me stressed.
In the midst of all those memories today, I got an e-mail from Roots Scrapbooking about a challenge posted from the guest designer, Tina Cockburn, one of my favorite photographers because of the fabulous photos of her adopted brown-skinned children. Anyway, I needed that mental break and seeing her photos really brightened my day.
Her challenge to the forum was to post a scraplifed page...here's mine and a SNEAK PEEK from my book (which is really printing this time (click the new idea book link in the side bar).
I scraplifted this page straight from a DIY Scrapbooking episode where Shelli Gardner, founder of Stampin Up demonstrated this design and I had all of the products she used.
Here are a few shots from our weekend jaunt to my hometown in P.A. this past weekend. We went to our third family reunion of the summer, house hunting with my newly retired Aunt, checked out some mountain bikes for Jonathan, played with my new laptop, stopped at a flea market, found great scrapbooking dollar buys at Target, had a less than perfect meal at Ruby Tuesday's, saw my hometown in a new light behind the camera, attended a family-friendly retirement party and reconnected with old friends from HIGH school...most of all reconnected with a few things that just make me happy.
this generic brand soda just cracks me up...Mountain Drops instead of Mountain Dew!
...the love and pride of a grandma...plus it's a scrapbook page on a shirt...happiness
Here's Uncle Ken...everytime I see him I am reminded that God always has a plan for your life...he suffered a traumatic brain condition that led to brain damage while on a trip with the church near Richmond, VA...and had to be life flighted to a top notch medical hospital where it was a month of torture...we is steadily healing and progressing...it was good to hear him call my name and remember who I was. Uncle Ken is a walking reminder of so many GREAT things God has done in our lives...I really have a blessed family.
My Dad doing his thing...explaining the lineage in someone else's family scrapbook (I'll share more about this album on another post...you know I took photos of every page).
