zoomin’ along …

Over the next few days, much of my awake time is committed to Zoom: confabs with friends who are spread out around the US, CA and the world. I know shareholders – and I’m not one – are delighted with the technology’s performance over this past year, 365+ days and counting . Since 31 January 2020…. I’ve connected with family and friends, made new friends, traveled to areas of the world I’d never get to under any other circumstances, attended conferences, celebrated weddings, birthdays, participated in graduation events, several scheduled just this past week … The list goes on.

In April, 2020, I discovered and joined a weekly, M-F, 12 N to 12:45 pm, give or take a few minutes, scrapbooking in a 3 x5 and/or 4 x 6 small stitched journal…sometimes I went small and sometimes I also ventured big – e.g., 7×9. The session, brought to us by rukristin, owner and founder of The Awesome Ladies Project, is very informal and friendly. We talk, exchange ideas and information, solve the world’s problems, have fun and engage with our own individual creativity. Yes, we learn that indeed we are creative! Today, I stopped to take inventory of my year’s worth of Daily Pages and I was impressed. NOT every book or page I began was completed – and that’s OK. I continue to experiment, play, learn and enjoy this break in the day and the camaraderie among us.

If you are a scrapbooker, you are probably quite familiar with Shimelle. She offers a variety of interesting techniques for capturing memories into scrapbook pages, stories. Her current offering, “Half and Half,” provides ideas and techniques for using 2 pieces of card stock to tell one story. I scrapbooked the story of my nephew’s changing voice during puberty. Loved the story. Love the scrapbooked rendition.

Finally, I am learning and practicing a new quilting technique – foundation paper piecing – with several friends – one is local and the other, lives in Washington state. Thanks to Zoom, we can both show and tell! A preview coming soon…

Cheers~

sometimes …

  IMG_1078      monday morphs into tuesday… I had the best intentions, plans and ideas yesterday to post … and somehow for some reason, some way, the day got away from me … as it did over the weekend. Perhaps because I was on Zoom, more than off, it seems – I hasten to add, not a complaint, just a fact. I am grateful for Zoom and other similar technologies; not only are we  able to keep in touch with family,  we’re also enabled to:
  1. connect with friends , including those who perhaps we’ve only met online via our blogs and other social media;
  2. learn new techniques in areas of our own personal interests, etc.
IMG_1064      saturday -the 15th- afternoon, I went to Barnes & Noble and managed to spend more than enough on books to keep me company for a bit…more on them tomorrow.  t’ws my first visit to a bookstore since February! I also stopped at a local office supply  – filled with back to school supplies. In normal times, the inventory would be pretty much decimated. I bought the little guys each their own composition notebook, designed specifically for their ages: 6 and 2 3/4. I know that through the balance of 2020, Chris (6 years) will be doing first grade virtually and Elias, of course, will want to do everything his big bro’ (idol) does. I felt a tinge of sadness as I looked at all the school supplies – memories of back-to-school from my childhood, my nieces, flooded over and floored me as the reality of these times stopped me cold. [deep sigh].   IMG_1088      yesterday it rained off -n-on and then of course stormed – just as Norman was putting the trash out for tuesday’s collection. why not? fortunately, tv reception wasn’t affected so we were able to watch the Democratic National Convention.   IMG_1113      today was nearly perfect – low 80s ! Unheard of in the middle of August in these parts. I do not complain!  Cheers~     PS. A reminder: next Tuesday, August 25 is the monthly one little word linkup on this blog!  

unraveled wed | 5.13.20…

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Yesterday, Tues, was Recent Reads and since we are homebound, we met via Zoom – which enabled our friend Adele (in Ohio) to join us. The photo is the second half of a two page spread on yesterday’s meet-up; slipped in the book pocket is a screen-shot photo of our Zoom session – the only person you can see is me. And yes, that is the Golden Gate Bridge -one of Zoom’s virtual backgrounds. When I stand up and move away from the camera, I actually look like I’m walking across the bridge. Fun … the book I’m reading is Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate. It’s quite a page turner. I haven’t had a chance today to resume but I intend to do so in a few short hours.

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Later, I took a walk; these are flowers at my niece Kayla’s elementary school – two blocks from my house. When she attended, the rose bushes weren’t planted. Pretty, yes K?!

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This is my second medium-sized Log Cabin 9 Patch block.  Thanks to #the100dayproject, I’m making good progress; 63 days ’til the project ends. Hmm, I may come pretty close to finishing  this project … We’ll see.

Time to have dinner and then log onto Zoom for a scrapbooking crop to work on today’s LOAD520 challenge. Joining Katand friends for another unraveled wednesday.

Cheers~