Slightly Teary

I got slightly teary-eyed the other night at work. One of the regular customers that I know said hiyas to me when I came up to take over the register that he was at with his purchases. This particular customer is the owner of a local store that sometimes sponsors a Renaissance Fantasy Faire.

When he was done he went to walk away. He remembered something and came back asking me if I had a moment. The lady I was gonna take over the register from was still doing a transaction so I went to see what he wanted.

Sometimes his 7 year old son comes in with him. His son was quietly curious what was "wrong" with me... why I was a little different. I had no problem saying that it's a Birth Defect.. that I was born like this. I guess the subject prompted a discussion about "judging a book by it's cover" and people and their differences.

I remember he said something about his son realizing that having the kewl clothes and latest stuff doesn't make you a better person at school. It's how you act and treat other people.

He went on to tell me that he and his son thought I a good and sweet person that always seems to smile... well something like that as I can't remember all he said. He used a buncha kewl adjectives.

I am usually happy-go-lucky most of the time. It takes too much energy to be down and out. Besides being upbeat can be contagious to others. So here's to being sweet and smiling all over the place!!

:)

Smash Books

Okay so who has heard of Smashbooks??  I saw them in Walmart... They are kewl. It's basically a book of preprinted pages kind of like a scrapbook/journal style. You add pictures and write in it about whatever. They do come in different themes like wedding, nostagia, travel...  They sometimes have questions to answer. There are a lot of products to use from the company K & Company Smash*. They have decorative tapes, ribbons, markers, envelopes, stickers, and fun little embellishments to make it your own story.

I like what the company said in a video about the smashbook... "It's a catchall for the things that make you smile."  I just kinda make my own though... it's easy enough to do with a 3 ring binder and a buncha different scrapbooking papers. Add a buncha stickers and other stuff to make one kinda like it.

And I also came across the Photo Journaling craze. Where for a whole month you are given a topic per day. You use pictures and journaling to cover that topic...  I did a cross between a smashbook and Photo Journaling and Digi Scrapbooking to make a few pages... I thought they came out kewl but I couldn't keep up with doing one a day.. not with Working and sleeping.. LOL.

Here are the few I did...

Now I might not be able to keep up with 1 a day.. but I might be able to add 1 a week in addition to my other postings... I'm hoping to have things to post more than a few times a month.

Digi Scrapbooks

I love scrapbooks! I started a scrapbook from the first year I went to the North Carolina Renaissance Faire. It was quite an Experience but was fun. And I got to know alot of people.. the cast of volunteers who take time out of their busy schedules every year to put on these plays that last all day long. They entertain and teach some history.

My scrapbook for it was the cut and paste kind. I used stickers and lots of pictures and tried to capture most of the behind the scenes jokes that went on. Then when I started actually volunteering as one of the Street Actors (for the Fantasy group) I started getting people (from the cast) to sign near their pictures. Everyone kept saying how kewl the scrapbook was.. That they wished they had artsy talent or even the time to do one for themselves.

That got me to thinking... I've had some training with Graphic Design. And I my Stepfather had a program that did slideshows of pictures.. What if I turned each slide/picture into a scrapbook looking page. I kind of used my original scrapbook as a guide to get it started. I asked people if they could send me pictures they had from the years renaissance faire. I ended up with 100+ slides, each slide had up to 5 pictures on there. It really turned out good. I made copies on CDs for the volunteers. All they had to do was pop it in a computer and it would run the slideshow. The Director of the Renaissance Faire and The Historical Society ordered a slideshow cd for each member on the Board. That was kewl. I was working on a promotional CD for them to use to help get grants but I ended up moving and never got to finish it. I might be able to if I get a lil more info from them again.

I made like 3 different years worth of  scrapbook CDs. The last one was very hard for me cause it was after I had moved. I wasn't able to actually get to the faire. I had to rely on the others to tell me about little stories that went on and get me pictures. It was okay just not as personal as the first 2 were.

Here are a few examples:

This is just a few that I've done. Now I'm into scrapbooking digitally my life stuff... but that's another post!!!