Welcome to the Party................................

My Contribution
Journaling From The Heart

Hummie has hosted a Blog Party and I think it's a grand idea to get to meet new people, become inspired from their blogs and glean wisdom and tips from them. I thought this when she first sent it through one of my email groups, but then the next thought was what could I contribute? I haven't really gotten into designing, although I'm sure the itch is growing and it's only a matter of time before I begin to think I can do it too... lol. I don't have any freebies to offer.......... hmmm so what could I contribute that would have people want to come and then have them glad they did?

I decided the other day I think my contribution is Journaling... I find this such a therapeutic outlet and it just seems to grow more and more within me with each page I do. To me it’s so wonderful to get memories that have lived inside me out for others to share. If this is a stumbling block for you consider these ideas:

• As you journal on a page pretend you are talking to the person you think might be holding your page in their hands. Maybe it’s someone from the ‘now’ time, or maybe it’s someone generations from now that you will never know.
  

• Tell them from your heart what they are looking at, where the photo was taken, who these people are they are looking at, why you scrapped it. Mentally talk just as if they were sitting next to you and you were sharing one on one.
  

• If you have a specific memory from a time and place share it. I did this recently with a photo of my Grandpa and brother and myself. Sharing about a teddy bear that had been a part of my life for over 40 years before I decided it was ok to have him be a memory instead of a tangible item.
  

• Actually visualize talking to someone, that way what you write becomes so much more personable than just words on paper.
  

• Make connections so that people, places or things in your page become real to the person looking at it. Remember, this page was important enough for you to take the time to scrap so carry your feelings forward. What you wrtie may be the only way generations from now will be able to relate to the people you loved, places that made or heart stope or moments in time you just can't stop thinking about.
  

• If you’re unable to scrap all those hoards of old photos you just inherited or all those eons of kids photos that had been hiding in albums and boxes get them out and journal about them. (Perhaps number them and correspond the number to a journal book and keep the photos and journal together). If you never get around to scrapping them, someday someone will pick up what you started and thank you over and over again. It’s how I feel when I turn a photo over and someone has written the who’s and why’s on the back. It’s a treasure that I can pass forward, you do the same… journal journal journal.
  

• And lastly talk to those around you before you’re like me and ‘wishing’ you had. So many have passed on and with them wonderful memories that could be shared are lost forever. I am constantly on the phone with my Mom asking her to explain this photo or that place. (Mom will soon be 96 and still has a stunning memory so don’t discount the older generation, they will love you for caring enough to ask and you will be sooooo glad you did!) I Ask Mom to just talk and share as I write things down. So many memories, so many wonderful times in her life and my Dad’s I can now pass forward to my great great grandchildren. They won’t know her in real time, but they will feel her presence in the words that I journal on the pages I make. And hopefully, if I do my job right, they will love her and feel as if they knew her! In that way that stranger who they are looking at will once again become real.

There's one last comment I'd like to make, it's a trap I've seen myself fall into many times. I get so caught up in our wonderful digital communities, doing challenges, scraplifting another’s creation, working on CT teams that I think we sometimes loose focus of why we are doing what we are doing. We are preserving memories, places; people etc for the next generation and all those that follow. Scrap for those people and times and not for the moment.

I hope I’ve given you food for thought. I thank you for stopping by and I’d love any comments you’d care to leave. Don’t forget if you haven't signed up for the Blog party go back up to the top of this post to the party invitation to hop back over to Hummie’s to sign up, or if you'd like to visit others on the Party train they're listed just above this post!

Happy Scrapping… NW Lady

I love these pictures of my sister and brothers. I was so glad I went hunting for another photo to round out the page and discovered the one that had Carol in it I'm sure taken at the same time. As I wrote in my journaling, I remember building snow forts and having snow ball fights. But the thing that sticks in my mind the most are the icicles that hung from the porch roof down. They were sometimes so huge at the tops and then hung all the way to the top of the steps, many of them. You don't see cold days like that anymore, or very rarely.

Here are four pages I created using Mary Ridgeways wonderful kit: Under The Sea
I've just started on Mary's Creative Team. She sells at Deco-Pages so be sure to check her kits out they are absolutely huge so you get more than your money's worth.

These pictures are all of Six Flags/Marineworld at Vallejio California. We went on a Company
Day and thoroughly enjoyed our time there.


Shouka the Whale:
Paul’s work had a family day at Six Flags/Marineworld. We went just for something to do and because we’d never been there and ended up having a really fun day! We discovered that if we timed it just right we could get to see a lot of the free shows being offered, including this one of Shouka the Whale.. I was so excited when I got home and realized how great the pictures turned out!


Dolphin High Jinx!
I loved the Dolphins they are so marvelous. They put on such an act for everyone. I loved the way they had painted the backdrop to look like the ocean. It was soooo hot this day that we were both glad that we were under cover to enjoy the show!


Seal Cove
These guys are my all time favorite. I can remember when I was ten being at Pacific Ocean Park
and feeding the seals forever. With their dreamy big brown eyes who couldn’t love them? These put on quite a show for us even stopping for a little suntan on the rocks so I could snap just the right pose!


Marineland
The ladder sign on the left was outside the baby hospital for the animals. I am so glad I snapped it because it was perfect for my page. The little guys by it were behind the glass trying to get well. The giraffes were a total shock, we were just walking around and POW here they were, so tall and beautiful, I could have stayed watching them forever.