summer sundays ab page

for this altered book project, the topic was "dining rituals" and i was totally stumped on this one. my family had dining rituals, but i didn't really feel they were special enough or decorative enough to put in the book. then i remember eating in the car at 1106 and that inspired this page.

i used red and white plaid scrapbook paper for the background because i thought that was most like a picnic blanket/tablecloth. i found a picture of the type of car we had at that time and then made a special trip to 1106 to take pictures of the building. obviously it hasn't changed any in the last 30+ years!

the picture of the building, the signs, the menu, and the logo were all special parts of this business. under the flap on the lower left of the page, i wrote about my experiences at the 1106 and the family memories that places brings up.

since nothing needed sealed, i just used mod podge for the paper gluing and it works wonderfully. the tag is attached to the page w/ mod podge on the back flap. the string tie on the tag is just for show and does not tie the tag to the page.

3rd place in photography

one of my resolutions this year was to enter "something" into a contest each month. well, i haven't kept up to that resolution, but i have entered about 1/2 of the time. i'll have to work double-time this summer on creating and submitting things to get caught up on that goal! i don't think buying lottery tickets counts!

i had my colored pencil piece accepted into the orchids and hydrangeas show at powell gardens, curated by cynthia padilla -- and that was a first! before that experience, though, i had submitted 4 photographs to the crowder college quill contest for the arts & literary magazine that the college puts out, mostly in full color -- it's a beautiful collection of art, photography, and literature.

i submitted my pieces and then waited anxiously to hear who the winners were and when the ceremony would be. i was honestly just pretty sure i had submitted a winner, but i wasn't sure which one of the pictures it would be . . . . so i waited very impatiently for the news. the pictures were mailed in by february 1, but i didn't receive news of winning until about april 15-ish. at that point, i only knew i had a winner, but i didn't know what i had won or which picture(s) had won . . . . so i just had to wait until the ceremony on may 6 for that news.

well, may 6 finally arrived and we went to the ceremony at 3 p.m. to pick up our entries and find out the results. i had won 3rd place for this pictures, called "jerry's bins at sunrise".

last school year, jerry and i rode to work a couple mornings a week. it meant we both had to leave a little earlier than normal, but we had 45 minutes together in the morning and evening that we didn't normally have.

one of the things we most enjoyed was watching for beautiful sunrises and great scenery places. this place happened to be jerry's favorite place to see the sunrise on our trip to work. one day when i was driving on my own, i just pulled over and snapped some pictures there when i saw an awesome sunrise -- just so he would always have that view that he loved.

that picture has been his screensaver ever since, so i know that he likes it. since this is the first photography contest i've ever entered, i was thrilled to have a winner! of course, i was hoping for "gold" and the "center spread" -- but there's always next year! i'll be looking and working for that winning piece all year!