Risotto Because I Love You LOAD226 As You Wish Day 5

I was today's featured designer.
Story Prompt: As You Wish. There are a lot of ways to express love. What is one way that you, or someone close to you shows their love? Technique Prompt: People wish upon a star, so use a star on your layout.
Journaling: Standing over a hot stove and endless stirring. Making risotto is about patience and perseverance but it’s so worth it! Risotto is something you make for people you love. Every time I make it, with every swoop of the spoon I whisper, “Risotto, because I love you!”

Layerworks 1557 from Katy Perteit Designs
Citrus Twist from Katy Perteit Designs
Alphabet Splendid Season by Ponytails at Sweet Shoppe Designs
Ex Libris Traci Reed at Sweet Shoppe Designs
Cooked from Katy Pereit Designs
MMullens wood grain paper from My Life In Print at The Daily Digi (retired)
Font: Rough Typewriter Regular
Font: Adobe Garamond Pro Regular

Chocolate & Orange LOAD226 As You Wish Day 1

Today's Prompts
"STORY PROMPT: When the author/screenwriter asked his daughter what the book should be about, one suggested a princess and the other suggested a bride, so the two ideas were combined for this epic tale of love and adventure. What are two things that you combine that may be an unusual pairing?"

"TECHNIQUE PROMPT: Use complementary colours on your layout, colours that are directly opposite on the colour wheel. (Blue and orange, or yellow and purple, or red and green.)"

Journaling: I love citrus and I love chocolate. ​W​hen the two are combined you have something really special.​ I ​l​ike my chocolate chip cookies​ with orange zest and walnuts.​ See’s Candies milk orange cream is a favorite. Lindt’s Orange Intense bar, Pepperidge Farm Orange Milano cookies. On Christmas morning there’s a Terry’s Chocolate Orange in every stocking.​ Chocolate Orange is a favorite flavor combination.

Products Used
GingerBread Ladies Monthly Mix: Lemonade & Laughter Ginger Scraps
Alphabet Candy Coated Christmas by Traci Reed Sweet Shoppe Designs (altered by me)
Additional Images Autumn Enchantment by Traci Reed Sweet Shoppe Designs
Additional Paper Summer Farmhouse by Simple Stories.
Orange Bird from Etsy Seller KenchikuMX Kimberly Theran

Additional Orange Images pngtree

Page Template Sequentials 1 to 4 Set 8 Page 4 (retired) by Cindy Schneider at Sweet Shoppe Designs

Font: Font: Bodoni 72 Smallcaps Book

Some of the Ways I Use the Color My Life App

I use a wonderful app called Color My Life to catalog and organize my craft supplies.

I love it and I talk about how much I love it a lot.
I often blog over on the Scrap Happy Blog and I have talked about how I use the Color My Life App in my creative process. These posts include info and links to where you can find the Color My Life App.

Click the Post Title to follow the link the blog post.

A Bit of Seasonal Wishful Thinking

Floating The Guadalupe

Making My Own Luck

Friendship is a Sheltering Tree

A List of Places to find Card and Scrapbook Challenges

Many places where I find challenges are in private groups where I can not Pin them to Pinterest. 
In the interest of being able to share them with you I have created this list which I intend to continue to add to. 

This post is an additional resource to go with my August Post on the Scrap Happy Blog 
Going Off Challenge Can Still Be Inspiring.

Stamp Nation - this is a membership site which welcomes stamping from all stamp companies which was founded and continues to be maintained by Catherine Pooler of Catherine Pooler Designs. They often run educational sets of classes for their members in addition to monthly & sometimes weekly challenges to inspire your creativity. For Info on joining stamp nation look here at the Catherine Pooler Shop under Subscriptions.

Gina K Designs Stamp TV & Friends Facebook Group
This group is limited to art using Gina K Designs products but Karen Hightower posts color challenges regularly which I have often used to create projects.

Gina K Designs Does a Monthly Mix Challenge on their blog

Pinkfresh Studio Monthly Challenge - Pinkfresh gives a prize each month for a card AND a scrapbook page. Even when the give-away is over, I have found their challenges a great place for inspiration. My own card this month for the Scrap Happy Blog was inspired by their April 2022 challenge.

Every Year Ellen Hutson runs a challenge called The Twelve Tags of Christmas
I have found inspiration and reproduced the techniques shown on several of the tags from past years.
Probably the best places to find this info are Ellen Hutson Blog, Ellen Hutson Instagram, and Ellen Hutson YouTube channel.

The Stamps of Life Fan Club Official Facebook group. This fan-run site has a monthly card sketch challenge. Submissions are limited to projects using The Stamps Of Life products but the sketches are general purpose.

Scrapbook And Cards Today Magazine Blog - often posts sketch challenges with prize give-aways.

The Counterfeit Kit Challenge is one that I have heard much about but have not done myself. The idea is that each month they choose a past subscription kit from a subscription service as their inspiration - then participants assemble a counterfeit of that kit from the items they already own and create projects with that kit. There is a design team which posts their own kits and projects to help give ideas of how to do it.

My Favorite Things regularly adds challenges to their blog 
Here are search results on their blog for challenge but be aware results don't seem to be in date order. 

Heffy Doodle does regular challenges on their Facebook Page Here is a link to a search of their page for Challenges  


Last updated August 27, 2022

The Lights of Sugarberry Cove by Heather Webber

The Lights of Sugarberry Cove by Heather Webber
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When Sadie Way's mother has a hart attack, she can no longer avoid returning to her hometown of Sugarberry Cove and the B&B where she grew up. This heartwarming book, set in a charming lakeside town, alternates between the perspectives of Sadie and her sister Leala Clare. Can these very different sisters heal their strained relationship? Maybe, with some help from the B&B's guests, and a little lake magic.

Many books these days fall flat with a poor ending. Heather Webber got this book just right, perfectly balanced. If you enjoy a cozy story set in a small town community, this book should be your next read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Forge Books with an Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for my review.

View all my reviews

Hardcover, 272 pages
Expected Publication, July 20, 2021

ISBN, 9781250774620

Special Delivery Bookmark

 I've been doing a lot of daily reading and for the first time in a long time I reading several books that aren't on Kindle. I needed some bookmarks so I decided to make one. 

Here's the first.

Slimline Love Framelit dies from Dare 2b Artzy
Special Delivery from Catherine Pooler January Club Sursee
Guava Cardstock The Stamps of Life
Colored with Catherine Pooler Inks and a Tombow Blender Pen

Refreshing The Year With New Colors ~link to the ScrapHappy Blog

 https://scraphappy.org/blog/2021/01/21/refreshing-with-new-colors/

New Mini Catalog and SALE-a-bration starts today! Stampin' Up!

Starting today January 5 2021 we have a brand new Stampin' Up! Mini Catalog and the Sale-a-bration promotion begins.

View Online January - June 2021 Mini Catalog HERE
January 5 - June 30 2021

View SALE-A-BRATION Brochure HERE
January 5 - February 28 2021

View 2020-2021 Anual Catalog HERE
June 3 2020 - May 3 2021

To shop with me

https://aprilswingler.stampinup.net/

Reindeer Flip-It Card

The Stamps of Life

Joyful Patterned Paper

Just Because Patterned Paper (Oct 2019 Kit Club Box) 

Reindeer2Stamp Stamps & Dies

Exclusive Flip-Its Card Circle

Eyelet Scallop Circles Die Set

Ribbon from Kit Club Box

Close To My Heart Cranberry Ink Pad & Cardstock

Art Glitter Glue

Stickers

Picket Fence Studios Holiday Hopper Sequin Mix

Dimensional Stickers The Paper Studio Hobby Lobby

Take Your Pick Tool Stampin Up

Folk Art Card

 

Card using Fun Card Fold Die and Rectangle Fancy Dies  from Dare 2b Artsy

Christmas Folks Stamp Set and Northern Winter Cover plate by Hero Arts

Minc Foiling toner sheets from Heidi Swap

Catherine Pooler Alpine Village and Tiny Wishes

The Stamps of Life Borders Dies

Stamparatus Stamping Platform from Stampin' Up!

Sponge Daubers

The house was paper pieced by stamping in two colors and cutting selected parts to glue together.

FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS was one long stamp. I broke it up to appear on 3 lines on different panels but using a Stamparatus stamp positioning platform. I positioned the stamp as needed on the card. Use the door of the platform to pick up the stamp then partially inked the stamp only the words I wanted to stamps with a sponge dauber I also wiped off excess ink with a paper towel before stamping.

Stampin' Up! 24 Hour Stamp sale is live now

 Stampin' Up! 24 Hour Stamp sale is live now here's a link to the specials on my demonstrator website  https://www.stampinup.com/categories/sales-specials/stamp-sale?demoid=2240789

Scrap Happy Creative Team - My first post is live

 My first post is live today over on the Scrap Happy Layout A Day blog. Hop on over and give it a look! 

https://scraphappy.org/im-fine-because-were-connected-keeping-positive-through-craft-and-community/

Here's a sneak peek of what I created. 

I'm Now A Hobbyist demonstrator with Stampin Up!

I'm giving it a try.  Here's the image for the July Paper Pumpkin (subscription project kit) for July.

Here is my consultant subscription link for Paper Pumpkin 

Here is my website for shopping https://aprilswingler.stampinup.net/

Wonderful Windmills Card

This card makes me happy. Incredibly happy. I have not sent it to anyone yet because I am not yet ready to part with it. It is still brightening MY every day sitting on top of my die-cutting cart.

Cutting dies used are Wonderful Windmills (exclusive class set of dies) from The Stamps of Life. Card base is Royal Stand Up Card by Stephanie Barnard for Sizzix. Grass from Mushrooms2Stamp Dies also from The Stamps of Life.
Patterned paper is from The Paper Studio at Hobby Lobby. Solid cardstock from Close To My Heart and The Stamps of Life.

Let me tell you about the glue that changed my life. I know I can't believe I typed that sentence but we




Let me tell you about the glue that changed my life. I know I can't believe I typed that sentence but I did and I'm not even going to backspace it away. So there's this glue. Art Glitter glue. It's liquid glue, it has this fine tip applicator that doesn't clog because it comes with a pin to go in it.  It dries fast. Like I use it to put together paper boxes and fiddly 3d items. But it also doesn't dry TOO fast. If I put something on crooked I have a moment or two to straighten it and fix it. Nothing pops off the card later when you use this glue. It's fabulous! It dries clear and unlike glossy accents, it comes off my fingers pretty easily. I've heard if this glue gets too cold it clumps and becomes useless so you don't want to order it during cold weather where it might freeze while shipping- so I'm told.  So this glue works so wonderfully it has replaced ALL my other adhesives, I just use this. A little goes a long way, it doesn't make my paper bubble. I have yet to find a downside to this glue.  My tape runners are not getting used any more. Art Glitter Glue (there's not glitter in it).

Card Making is Mermazingly Fun

Most of my creative energy for the past few months has gone into making cards. I guess I'm ready to start sharing again. I'm in LOVE with The Stamps of Life. Stephanie Barnard makes the most functional and versatile stamps and dies. They are by far my favorite at present. I'm in their Die Hard AND Card Kit subscription clubs and that makes me a GOLD member so I get a great discount. You can get more info on their website.

Heres a birthday card I made for my step-mother. On the front panel I used Little Coral Girl stamp set & coordinating dies from Picket Fence Studios. The patterned papers are from a Hobby Lobby aquatic themed paper pad.
I created this card at the cabin where I have more limited supplies so all coloring was done with Tim Holtz distress markers & inks with a water brush.


The Card body design dies are from The Stamps of Life Stephanie Barnard with Sizzix Card With Banners 3-D drop-in (and Birthday) and Lovely Sentiments (the card base). Happy is from The Stamps of Life Happy Sentiment Set.
The inside mermaids and sentiment are from Mama Elephant Mermaid Kisses.

Here's a video that shows how the card moves.

Catherine Pooler FB Live Just A Note Blending Brushes with Stencils and Masking

Catherine Pooler FB live from Dec 7 
Just A Note masking with a stencil and blending brushes.

https://www.facebook.com/catherinepooler/videos/596505964950814

https://shop.catherinepooler.com/collections/new/products/in-the-square-stencil

flight-of-the-dragonfly-stamp-set

Flight of The Dragonfly Dies

collections/just-a-note

A Week In My Instant Pot, Fuzzy-Brained Post Ruptured Brain Aneurysm Life. ~ Monday

***Update***
It was originally my intention to blog my week. I had taken notes for a few days to turn into posts, but then I got news of the death of a dear friend and I was not in a fit state of mind to blog******
******


In May 2016 I suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm, I survived and I'm alive which is its own special miracle. The way I see it, I'm living on bonus time and I intend to make the most of it!

Post rupture, my brain isn't what it used to be. I'm still smart, I'm still me... but I spend a lot of time spinning my wheels trying to remember what I'm doing, feeling confused and finding my place again. Things take me longer and I can't multi-task the way I used to.  I care for my adult autistic son who is in constant need of attention, so whatever I'm doing, I'm also answering his queries and comments. So that's already two tabs open in my brain at any given time - one tab more than I can really handle.

I thought I'd try to share a week in my kitchen life. Share the adaptations I've found for getting food on the table in my house.

Instant Pot - I'm not going to teach you to use an Instant Pot or which one to buy. There are tons of resources out there. I will share some of my favorites with you and I'll link recipes when possible. I have always liked to cook and I like to understand WHY things work and HOW they work. I've heard from a lot of people who used to hate to cook that the Instant Pot has changed their life.  It's changed mine too. I always liked to cook and now it's even easier.

Some resources

• https://thisoldgal.com recipes and how to's for Instant Pot and Air Fryer - she also has a facebook community
• https://www.hippressurecooking.com Laura Pazzaglia is a Pressure Cooking Expert. She has been an advisor and consultant to several Pressure cooking companies and has even helped develop some of the recipe books that come with them. Her website is a TROVE of pressure cooking info with tables for cook times, news about what's new in pressure cooking, recipes, and don't miss her YouTube series Pressure Cooking School.
• https://www.facebook.com/groups/InstantPotCommunity/ Instant Pot (brand) Facebook Community - be sure to read the participation rules and search the group to see if your question has already been answered (it probably has been discussed in detail and if you you'll have an instant answer). Here's how to search a Facebook group. See that magnifying glass icon at the top of the image with the F to the left of it. You search there to search ALL of Facebook to find groups or people.
  Once you belong to a Facebook Group (it only seems to work for groups) If you look down the left hand column you'll see the magnifying icon again and it says "search this group" that is where you can do a search to look for specific information within the group. This is the way it looks on a computer, if you are using a mobile device it will look different, but once you know to look for it, you can find the search in group field.

Monday

Sunday night I got home from a 2 week trip out-of-state. On Monday I needed to get the dishwasher emptied (load of dishes I ran before I left) and the sink of rinsed dirty silverware & dishes my husband used while I was gone into the dishwasher and running.  I had done a quick market run Sunday night and replenished a few staple perishables.  While I cleaned the kitchen I got a batch of hard-boiled eggs going for my son to eat as snacks during the week.

Hard Boiled Eggs in the Instant Pot
I began with this old gal's recipe for instant pot hard boiled eggs and I have adapted it a bit. You will see all kinds of directions for how to do this. I think it must have to do with your specific machine (electric pressure cooker) and the size of eggs you use.

I'll link to This Old Gal's recipe https://thisoldgal.com/pressure-cooker-easy-hard-boiled-eggs/ and tell you how I do it. But I don't have the brain capacity to trouble shoot a bunch of what if and how to questions. There are bloggers and Facebook groups that are much better equipped than I, to cover that. 

Pressure-cooked eggs peel so easily the day you cook them. When I hard boil eggs in my Instant Pot I place the trivet that came with the pot in the bottom. I fill the pot with 1.5 cups of water (the minimum amount my pot is supposed to need to come up to pressure according to the instructions that came with my pot). I have a steamer basket that came with a stove-top pressure cooker years ago and I place my eggs in that steamer basket and set it on the trivet (Amazon is full of options for steamer baskets and egg racks and This Old Gal even has links to ones that she particularly likes).  I place 10 large eggs in the basket. Seal the lid and close the steam valve. I set my pot for manual setting - I verify that it is set to High Pressure and set the time to 3 minutes (that's how long the eggs will cook once the pot comes to pressure and the pressure indicator pops up. When the cook time is complete the pot will beep and turn itself off. I a set a timer for an additional 7 minutes to allow the eggs to continue cooking as the pot cools down. After 7 minutes I release the pressure. I remove the eggs from the pot with tongs rap them each once on the counter to break the shell and plunge them into a bath of ice and water to stop the cooking.  There they sit until they are cool enough to peel usually 30 minutes or more. If I notice all the ice has melted, I add more ice.

When the eggs or cool, or I get to the stage of cleaning my kitchen where I have freshly scrubbed my sink, I peel the eggs under running water. I store the peeled eggs in a mason jar with water to cover the eggs in my refrigerator.  The sulphur from the eggs will continue to leach into the water, you can change to fresh water after a day or two if you like.


Meanwhile I started to unpack, saved a baby bird from my puppy out in the yard. Locked the dog inside so the baby bird could recover, tried to build a ladder out of chicken wire so the baby bird could return to the tree. Filled my son's pill container with his vitamins and medications for the week. I Continued to take the dog out on a leash all day so she wouldn't eat the baby bird. I also unboxed a printer that I ordered for my craft room back in February (I had been waiting until after the new window installation to set it up). I got the printer onto the cart, installed all the ink and began the initial set-up while dinner cooked.  I'm sure there were other things, but that's what I remember.

Here is what I made for dinner.
I cooked a pot of basmati rice on the stovetop (I probably could have done it in my instant pot while the chicken cooked, but I forgot). I made Butter Chicken out of a cookbook. I used chicken thighs and I ended up blending it in my blender because I have the 8 quart instant pot and the sauce wasn't deep enough in the pot so my stick blender was splattering everywhere. I used butter and whipping cream because I had purchased them to use in the recipe but next time I will try using the suggested alternatives of coconut oil and canned coconut milk as these are both things I have in my pantry.
https://twosleevers.com/instant-pot-butter-chicken/
Dinner took much longer to make because I had to search my whole spice cupboard for all the spices. When I got ready to cook, I realized that I had been looking at the wrong recipe. My ingredient list was much shorter, but somehow this detour took me about 45 minutes because my brain was in a  confused state. As a result it was quarter to 8 when we sat down to eat dinner, but everyone agreed this recipe is a keeper.

The recipe is in this cookbook, which I accidentally bought for Kindle (usually I buy physical copies of cookbooks) but when I realized my error I decided to try it on Kindle (and my Ipad) and see how I like it.

https://smile.amazon.com/Indian-Instant-Pot-Cookbook-Traditional/dp/1939754542/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1533650952&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=indian+instant+pot+cookbook+by+urvashi+pitre&psc=1

Crock Pot Steak Tips and Mushrooms

My crockpot got broken and I was without one for about a year, during that time I got out of the habit of using it. Now that I am recovering from brain surgery and have limited energy I am even more motivated to find crockpot recipes I love. I began with this recipe that I found on Pinterest http://www.couponingtodisney.com/kristins-kitchen-beef-tips-and-rice/  I first made it at the cabin where I have a limited pantry and I was surprised how good it was with so few ingredients.
I've now tweaked it to my own liking and this is my definitive version.  I like to use 2 lbs of steak tips because I want leftovers. I serve it over rice because it reminds me of my mother's stroganoff and we ate that with rice. It would also be good with egg noodles, mashed potatoes or maybe orzo.  I did try it with powdered french onion soup mix, I think it came out better with the canned version, there is a caramelized onion flavor the powdered mix does not achieve, but if it saves you a trip to the store you could use it.

Crock Pot Steak Tips and Mushrooms

cook 7-8 hours on Low

or 4 hours on high

1 can french onion soup

1 can Cream of Mushroom (original not reduced fat)

1 can golden mushroom soup

1 jar sliced mushrooms

3 cloves minced garlic

1-2 lb steak tips

(optional extended version)
grapeseed oil
carton of sliced mushrooms
3 whole garlic cloves
1 cup hearty burgundy

Place steak tips in the bottom of the crock. Place garlic on top of steak tips. Mix together all the soups and mushrooms and pour over the top of the steak tips.

Optional Extended Version (worth it)

This step can be done at the beginning or later & added to the crock at any point in the cooking. If for example you need to get to an appointment first in the morning but will have time later in the day.

grapeseed oil

1 carton sliced mushrooms

1 cup hearty burgundy

3 whole garlic cloves

Heat oil in a large deep skillet

Dump in the mushrooms and spread out into a single layer. Let them brown on one side for 5 to 8 minutes then jumble them about and let the second side do the same.  When they are brown and have begun to shrink add 1 cup of hearty burgundy and 3 whole garlic cloves to the pan. Let simmer for 10 minutes, this simmer reduces the wine and cooks off some of the alcohol if you added un-reduced alcohol to the crock it will not cook off and will not give you that lovely long simmered flavor you get from cooking with wine.  Add all to the steak tips in the crock and continue cooking.

Note: I am now making this dish in my Instant Pot.  When I get that recipe typed up I will link it here.

Keeping Christmas Well

And then having consumed their Christmas eve dinners the menfolk laughed and followed the example set by Davy Crockett when he famously proclaimed,

Well not quite, but that is nearly what he said.

And the woman reflected that while they reveled at the game, she would indeed spend the balance of her evening in cooking hell.

She put on her rooster festooned apron and rolled up her sleeves and set to work.   Now it so happens that the favorite holiday preparation of this particular woman was the making of fresh cranberry sauce. So she thought it a good place to begin.

She boiled water, sugar, orange juice, and added the cranberries, those edible rubies of the holiday table.  And as they bubbled and transformed, the kitchen filled with scent and the woman began to perform kitchen alchemy as her mother and grandmother had done before her and generations of women before them.  And she found in her heart that it was after all an enviable thing to be able to do.



That was not to say she would not welcome dishwashers upon the morrow.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays dear ones. God bless us, every one!

Not every selfie is about ego, sometimes they're about something else entirely

Before I talk about this page, I need to bring you up to speed.

I had a brain aneurysm rupture on May 17, 2016 (4 months ago).
I had 3 brain surgeries, I was in the hospital ICU for 2 weeks. Even once I came home it's been a long recovery, a road that I am still traveling. I am only beginning to feel like things are getting close to normal. My doctor told me it will probably take a year for me to get back to where I was, before.

My head was shaved for the surgeries. As my hair began to grow back I was faced with a new challenge, what would my look be? Even if I grow my hair back out, it will take probably a year to get it long like it was before. I have always found that I don't "feel like me" if I trim my hair even an inch or two shorter than a certain length. I knew I couldn't spend a year not feeling like me, so it was time to re-define who I am. I decided to take control of the situation, and to make it fun.  It's been exciting. I've moved my boundaries, I'm re-writing myself.  The reason I share this here, is that I look very different now than I did in the photos on this page. I anticipate that someday soon I will be making another page with the selfies I've been taking of how I look now in my recovery. I am so glad I came to peace with self-photos years ago, I think it has made it much easier to accept and even celebrate how I look, now.

The photos are from 9 days after the aneurysm, 10th day after aneurysm which was also the day after the final surgery, and 4 months after the aneurysm.


This is another of my favorite pages, it's about one of my soapbox subjects... mothers who don't appear in any of their family photos. This is a page from last year's October Layout A Day we had a pirate theme.  The prompt was to make a page about something that you do that others think is annoying and explain why it's not. I thought to myself "Well I'll never do THAT one."  And then IMMEDIATELY I thought "Here is my chance to talk about Selfies!" I find that LOAD is like that. Sometimes the prompts that you don't like at first, end up making the best pages!


Pirate LOAD 2015
Day 13 Parrot - Tell us something that you think others find annoying about you and why they are wrong.

I adapted the journaling on this page from a Facebook post I had written on May 31, 2015 in response to an article which denounced the selfie as everything that is wrong with the world. I often turn social media posts or blog posts into journaling for scrapbook pages. I struggle with writer's block when I sit down to write for a scrapbook page, I have less difficulty writing for other forums so I pull from those.

Not Narcissistic
Not every selfie is about ego.
Sometimes they're about something else entirely.

Although I am a scrapbooker I was absent from the family albums I created. As the family photographer I spent most of my time behind the camera instead of in front of it. When I did end up in a photo, I often felt so bad about how I looked that I deleted it.

I began taking selfies as a conscious effort to leave images of me behind for my child to cherish and remember me by, the way I cherish photos of my mother. In the beginning it was a HUGE struggle not to delete them all. It was an exercise in self acceptance. I was teaching MYSELF to love things about how I look. It was not easy.

It took about 2 years of taking selfies for my family to to get in the picture with me. We live across the country from our families of origin, for all three of us to be in a photo together required a tripod or a benevolent stranger. Now not only do I have images of myself to include when I tell my family’s stories, I have pictures of the 3 of us together, laughing, being silly, living our lives.

No, I don’t always look the way I do on Instagram and we have plenty of moments I wouldn’t share on Facebook. But the photos I share are moments I want celebrate. What I post isn't about who wants to see it. It’s the record I’m keeping of my life, memories I want to hold on to.

Digital elements are from Limitless by Amber Shaw for Sweet Shoppe Designs part of The Digi Files from The Daily Digi (Oct 2014?)
PSD template Everyday Template 1 by Cindy Schneider for Sweet Shoppe Designs part of The Daily Digi Everyday Life Collection which is a membership bonus kit.
Page created in Photoshop Elements 12