Skipping Stones

There is no doubt in my mind, memories are made stronger and more poignant via scrapping.  Reviewing pictures, cataloging and indexing pictures, archiving pictures, choosing pictures to use on scrapbook pages...all contribute to cementing the memories more firmly in the mind.

This week's Ann Lift was a very pretty page about skipping stones, des ricochets.  But it was two small pictures on a very white background.  I don't so this style, but I do French skipping stones!

The subject reminded me of our visit to the canal St Martin in northeastern Paris when I visited Ms AC there in March of 2009.  I so wanted to be able to stand out on the locks and skip stones for the camera, but it was not accessible.  But still I was able to get pictures of the canal and locks.

Painted Ladies

One last challenge for May, the copycat challenge. A lovely template with 3 little photos...I just don't do little photos, so I blew them up a bit, use a paper mask for more photos, and added another large photo in the background.

These are all pictures of a row of painted lady Victorians on Waller Street, the next block up from Haight, in San Francisco.   While the houses are beautiful, on a somewhat gray day they didn't look all that colorful in the photos, so I boosted the colors a bit with some color masks.

I love these houses, so beautiful, with so many gorgeous details.

 

Credits: Anna Aspnes ArtPlay Palettes Seafoam, Metro Graffiti and Photographie.

Venice Revisited

I read something, been a couple of months now, that really stuck with me.  I think it was a photographer, and I cannot remember the exact context, but the message was, if you don't print your photos, some day they may be lost.

This is quite an important message in this digital photography era, in which thousands of photos are taken each year, then, as technology changes, do we make sure we preserve these photos?  

I remember in the early days of digital, when you sent the film away for processing, the photos came back with a diskette.  Who has a diskette reader anymore??  Fortunately, these pictures are printed.

And so, I am trying to make a better effort toward printing my pictures, so as not to lose precious memories.

Thus I used a free Shutterfly book (thank you, Kelly!!) to print just some of the pictures from our trip to Venice in 2009.  Not too much fussy, not a digital scrapbook, just making sure the pictures are printed

Click here to view this photo book larger

Create your own personalized photo books at Shutterfly.com.

Week 20

In which Mother's Day was celebrated, flowers bloomed,

and silliness was exhibited by wabbits and sams.

Za

We know it as the go-to word in Words with Friends.  It is especially lucrative if you can play it simultaneously both horizontally and vertically, and if on a  triple letter, can be worth 62 points.

If you ever bothered to look it up in the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, you would see that the definition of "za" is "pizza".  Now, I didn't know that slang shortened and altered Americanisms were acceptable words, but hey, I don't make up the scrabble rules.

To be official, it is apparently also both the 11th and the 17th letters of the Arabic alphabet.

Most importantly, it is where I had the most delicious Mother's Day lunch pizza, at Za on Hyde Street, Russian Hill, with views of the cable car passing by periodically.

While still closed, there was a gate across the front with "ZA" painted on the grating.  Once open, the neon sign, and the smells of freshly-baked pizza, welcomed one inside the tiny little locally place with the friendliest pizza staff I have ever encountered.  Well, there was that nice Venetian boy who smilingly served up a slice of pizza from a window where it had to be about 1000 degrees inside on a hot Venetian night.

But I digress...

"Za" is the subject of my AnnaLift this week.

Credits: Anna Aspnes ArtPlay Palette Metro Graffiti, Original FotoBlendz No 5, frame from the Oscraps collab Tango, word art from Anna Aspnes Artsy Layered template No 42, Anna Aspnes Warm Glows No 1

Got Goats?

Why yes, we do.  450 of them, to be exact.  Yes, it is May and the first herd of goats have arrived to clear the Silver Creek hillsides!

Journaling: It’s May...the rainy season is over, the grasses and weeds stand tall and are rapidly browning, turning the hills the characteristic color of this the ‘Golden State’. This also means fire season, so to keep things safe...in come the goats! For the 3rd summer since we have been here in Silver Creek, May marks the arrival of the goats to munch on the hillsides, clear the grasses and weeds, and leave some fertilizer behind. I love watching the goats, each of them with their own ‘voice’, veritable eating machines. And I love that we use goats instead of noisy gas-powered mowers and blowers!

Circles & Splats & Bikes...Oh MY!

Pictures of bike riding in San Diego, with new kits from Jen Maddocks,Circle It 3 and 4, and Splatter Me Alpha.

It was really fun forming these circles into masks, frames and brushes.

AnnaLifting Mother's Day

Picture taken in front of Coit Tower on Mother's Day. 

 

Credits: Anna Aspnes ArtPlay Palettes: Girl Craze (background), Sophistica (behind photo), Crazy Life (heart), Everyday, Special One (alpha circles), Sweet Christmas (brad), Personalized Frames No 1 [ link ]