October was a busy month, filled with LOAD –  LayOutADay – 31 days of making a scrapbook page. The theme for this, the third and last LOAD of 2018: Broadway Shows. T’was a lot of fun and a great way to learn the history of many of Broadway’s great performances: My Fair Lady; Lion King; Hamilton, to name a few. We, of course were not obligated to follow the theme or use the prompts or even make a layout a day…but 97 of us did, tallying over 1200 layouts. I’ve enjoyed LOAD: the prompts awaken a memory and  get my creative juices flowing. Names are drawn throughout the session and prizes awarded – I won one from the May session. I’m not in it for the prizes – but because I like the stimulation and it’s a fun way to get my memories and stories written down!  And besides, I have a room full of memory-keeping supplies!

• This month’s Collect collage shows several of the layouts I made: 11 (my dad from his WWII army days); 14, 16, 19, 20, 21, 26 and 27 – which was the first I ever made, of Kayla, 14 years ago! It  has taken me nearly that long to finish it!
• Chris and Elias: 3, 29, 30 and 31 –  I especially like their pumpkin sleepers!
• The Sky and Nature: 1 – Sunrise; 10, 14, 21, and October’s Full harvest Moon, 26.
• 3 “selfies and a group photo of my nieces, little Chris, my sister at my niece’s – the girls’ mother – 50th Birthday dinner celebration. Unfortunately, the photo and the layout are dark – poor lighting in the restaurant. There is a fascinating story that goes with this photo/day that I’ll have to document and share. Later!
• 3 gatherings with this friends: 18 show’s our dessert at our bi-monthly “Recent Reads” and 12, one of the books I shared…my plan is to tell “more” in an individual post; suffice it to say I really enjoyed the book! 25 from my Thurs stitching group and 28: we celebrated my friend’s birthday at our monthly Sunday stitching gathering. Her mom made her this beautiful quilt, in her favorite color and Margaret’s admiring it!
• Each Journal Club session we have a spiritual guide – this session’s is the Raven and  photo 5 is that of a Raven; on the 6th, I attended the Metropolitan Opera’s performance of Aida…at my local movie theater for the Met Live in HD performance. Sunday was warmish so I spent a pleasant hour  at my neighborhood coffee shop o the Avenue -7. Photo 8 is of cheater fabric : the quilter adds the embellishments: stitched threads to the already painted background. The stitching for this quit was done on machine by one of my quilting group’s members.
• Norman was camera-shy…

When I  look over these monthly collages and recall the events and moments that accompany them, I am so grateful that I have this record of snippets of my life.

Cheers~