Published!

Finally! I was asked, about 2 years ago, to collaborate--along with some really great card and scrapbook artists--on a book on Asian scrapbooking. The funny thing is that I wasn't really scrapbooking then (I hadn't heard of digital scrapping yet). But Kristy Harris, the owner of Far Flung Craft, was also wanting cards--and Asian cards, I can do! So I made a bunch of cards, and Kristy wrote her book, and it's finally in production! Powell's Books doesn't list it as available yet, but it does seem like it's finally becoming a reality. Whee! I can't wait to see it!



That calla lily card on the front is mine, similar to this one:

The Sea Is For Drowning

Jamesie, our darling gentle giant cat, has just been diagnosed with a horrible enlargement of the liver, and is very, very sick. And we are very fearful for how it may end. Coming so soon after Oso... it's rough. So I apologize for not keeping up with the blog for the last couple of days or so.



Credits: All Designer Digitals. Jessie Edwards and Katie Pertiet for the frames (Web Challenge 080308, and Posted Frames No. 2). Katie Pertiet for the shell brush, from her Beachy Clusters. Twill ribbon and ledger label from Katie Pertiet's Shell Collector No. 4. Anna Aspnes contributed a mask and paper for inside the frames from her Floral Art 2 masks, and from her Mama Page Set. Font: Undo 35. Journaling reads:

"the sea
is for days
when I have
not enough tears

for when I need

to drown in sorrow
to drown my sorrow

for when I crave
beauty

to crack open
the marrow of my soul"

Happy 4th, Y'all...

From our parade, today:



"La de da" is what you say when you want to imply that somebody is acting all fancy (and you're kinda making fun of them); "whoop de do" is a similarly gently sarcastic comment. =)

Invis ble To The Eye

Is it indicative of our increasingly electronic culture that no one commented on the missing i? I kinda was playing a joke in the layout, substituting the frame of the sliding door for the "i" in "invisible", and rearranging Andrea Victoria's quote to align "eye" right beneath.

There's more of a subtext, too, in that I was really depressed in that house, and in fact, during that first Christmas after Allen was born, suffering from heavy post-partum depression, which everybody had failed to diagnose yet. So my "I" was pretty much gone as well, even though what I journalled is true; and I truly did feel invisible, having been thrust from a highly professional teaching career into stay-at-home mother. It's amazing the difference in how people treat you when you're just a mom--despite the protestations that it's "quite a job."


(As usual, click on the photo to see a larger version and read credits)