I am 38 years old. I am blessed to share my life with a loving boyfrend who is an amazingly talented woodworker. We share our small-town Ohio home with four crazy dogs. Scrapbooking (and scrapbook shopping with my sister) take up most of my free time. My favorite thing to do is TRAVEL. I'm always up for an impromptu roadtrip, but I absolutely thrive on vacation planning . . . dreaming of places to go and things to do. I am novice at sewing, though I recently made five aprons in preparation for a cooking retreat I attended. I grew up with a mother and a grandmother who could make anything I dreamed up. Their creativity is one of my biggest inspirations in life.
After I turned 35, I realized that it was time to stop thinking "someday" and start making things happen. Now, I do more things just for the fun of it. My mother and I recently started taking tap dance and clogging lessons, and the occasional hula hoop class. You only live once and you can't say "I'm too old to do this" today because you're only going to be older tomorrow!
I have been scrapbooking since I was in high school (20 years ago). In the early 90's, there weren't a lot of scrapping options out there. My scrapbook pages have evolved greatly with the growth of the industry over the last twelve years or so. I am always interested in learning new techniques and I travel to scrapbook conventions whenever possible to see the latest products and learn the newest techniques.
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In this digital age, I take pictures of EVERYTHING. You can always delete them later, though I rarely do! I love sunsets, flowing water, fall leaves, etc., just like everyone else, but the majority of the pictures I take are either travel or my nieces and nephews, or a combination of both! I love the way a photo can "become" your memory of something. You remember the way you captured it in the picture. The picture evokes the sights or even smells or feelings of the time of the picture! Now that I make mosaics, I am a lot more aware of taking "big picture" pictures and close-up pictures.
I take 1,000's of pictures each year, but I am rarely ever IN any photographs. I joke that the scrapbooks I make are "Charlie Brown" scrapbooks because it appears as though the children go everywhere and do everything alone. Aduls in my albums are as blurry and non-existent as Charlie Brown's teacher!
What kind of camera do you use? If you can remember, tell us about your first experiences behind a camera.
I use a Sony Cybershot point-and-shoot, but it is my dream to buy (and learn to use) a Digital SLR camera.
When I was about three years old, my Uncle Rusty gave me a used camera that he had found in a car he was towing to the junkyard. I LOVED that little red camera. I took pictures of everything - cars, dogs, flowers . . . anything that stood still and lots of things that didn't. Those were the good old days of film and when we started getting my pictures developed, they were horrible. Lots of them had this awful red spot in the middle of them. But, it didn't matter to me. They were mine, they were my art! I still come across some of those pictures from time to time and I love seeing my old dog and the things that inspired me at such a young age.
Do you have a favorite Mosaic Moments™ Technique?
Framing!! I always want to take extra pictures to frame other pictures. I play around with printing the "framing" pictures as 8x10s vs. 4x6's, etc. I like using the matting technique to bring out the close-up details that might otherwise have been lost in "traditional" layouts.
Tell us about A place you visited that has changed you.
New Orleans - from my very first visit there, I knew that it was where my soul lives. It is so rich with sights, sounds and smells. It is such a unique place to visit. I love the history and all the different cajun and creole cultural influences. I feel like every time I turn a corner, I'm overwhelmed by some new (but oh so old) detail like the smell of beignets, the texture of all the wrought iron, the play of light and dark in the courtyards. Rich, rich, rich!
What is your guilty pleasure:
Infomercials! I VERY RARELY buy anything, but I love the way they can take a product that you have never heard of and in 30 minutes or less convince you that you have to have it!
Favorite quote or motto:
“We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.” - Chuck Palahniak
What one item do you ALWAYS have in your handbag/purse?
My Camera! Never leave home without it!
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