MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY AND JOYFUL NEW YEAR

Photoshop

I have been taking on line classes for the past several months learning how to
use Photoshop. Slowly I'm making progress, learning about the program and using the various tools it offers. The more I learn the more I find there still is to
learn. The layout above was a lesson from the latest class where we started with a blank page and followed the lesson plan & videos. The layout below came as a template and was much easier to create.

Home Again

I have been traveling almost continuously since May and have finally unpacked
my bags for awhile. Where have I been you may ask? In May we took a road
trip to Nashville and Memphis. June, July, August & Sept. was cottage season with a 10 day trip in July to LA. Oct we flew to Ft. Lauderdale for a few days
and then went on a 7 day cruise to the Eastern Caribbean. Nov. was another
trip to LA. Phew! I never though I would say this but I'm tired of traveling and would like to stay in one place for while. I miss my studio and have done
very little while away.

One thing that was portable my laptop and I continued to take Photoshop
classes throughout the summer. I've added some photos that are a result of
a class I took with Kim Klassen on textures. The photos were taken on



my last trip to LA. The beach is Zuma beach in Malibu. The photo of the musician was taken in Santa Monica. He was playing at a outdoor shopping mall.

I'll have more photo's to post over the next few blogs to share where I have been over the last few months.

Long Time

It's been a month since I last posted and I'm surprised how quickly the time has gone. I've been traveling again, a lovely visit to my friend Nola in LA. The weather was wonderful, I love the beaches and the mountains. I'm always surprised how many trees and bushes are in bloom when I visit. I am looking forward to my next visit.

Nola and I traveled to Long Beach for Quilt Market and Cloth Paper Scissor University. We had a terrific class with Judith Baker Montano in Landscapes and Seascapes. It has been many years since I last took a class with Judith and enjoyed it as much this time as I did in the past.

She is certainly an original, and very good teacher. If you ever get a chance to take a class with her jump at it. Quilt market was fun, lots of vendors and beautiful quilts to view.

I'll be spending the next several weeks at the cottage where we are going to be putting in a new kitchen. Hopefully it will go smoothly and only take a week as promised. I have a number of projects to work at while here and will be posting them as I finish.

Book Finished

I took a class several weeks ago with Donna
Downey a gifted teacher and artist at a local scrapbook shop. The class was only 3 hours, and we were only able to make a start on the book, getting the basic instructions .
The pages of the book are both paper and acrylic, painted and then embellished with panted cardboard flowers and leaves. Photos & brads were added, as well as stamped words. Having grandchildren certainly gives me a large choice of photos to chose from. Saying that my favorite page is the last one of me!

Wild Roses

We made a quick trip to the cottage recently and found wild roses in boom. Our cottage is about a two hour trip north of Toronto.The house is on a small island in the middle of the river. We keep a boat on the south shore to make the trip across.

When we arrived we found not only the wild roses in bloom but also the roses I planted in one of the garden beds.

Due to the warm May we also found the Lillie's in bloom and the Hosta's starting to grow ahead of their usual season .

As we walked up the stone steps to the cottage we could see a number of the other perennials blooming as well.

We had been visited by beavers this winter who took down a number of our trees. This oak is still standing, but I'm afraid not for very long. When it does come down I will have a problem, it is the tree my cloths line is attached to!

It was such a beautiful day it was hard to get back in the boat and head south to the city.

Classes & More Classes

I don't know where the time has gone since I last posted. Actually I do, I've been taking classes at local Stamp and Scrapbook shops. Two weeks ago I took two classes with Jenn Starr who drove up from New Jersey.

http://www.jenstarrdesigns.com/ at Bizzy B's Stamp and Scrap http://bizzyb.ca/. I orginally signed up for one class to make a Mini Book and then decided to take a second class the next day.

The mini book class was on Friday night and for 3 hours we painted, sprayed used masks and distress our pages. The second class was the next afternoon and we made 6 page layouts using stamps and inkpads to create each page. I have finished both classes and now need to add photo's. It was fun to take the classes especially that kits were provided and all we needed to bring was a paper trimmer and glue.

Last Friday night I took another class this time at Stamping Bella http://www.stampingbella.com/ with Donna Downey from North Carolina. In my next post I'll have some photo's to show and a discription of the class.

Nashville & Graceland

My stay in Memphis was overshadowed by my recovering from food poisoning from my last evening in Nashville. The hotel we stayed in, The Peabody was a luxury for us with a beautiful room. A welcome place to rest after my awful last night in Nashville. We arrived in time to see The Parade of the Ducks. What a hoot! The hotel makes quite a productions out of their entrances and departures, with a grand master dressed in a red coat and cane to give us the patter about the ducks. At precisely 5 pm on red carpet the 5 ducks leave the fountain and march to a waiting elevator to go to their rooms. What fun to watch.The next morning somewhat recovered we packed our bags, and drove to Graceland which is not very far outside of Memphis.

A shuttle bus takes you from the parking lot to the grounds and house. The house is not large, which was a surprise. The tour though is self guided with a audio cassette and takes about an hour. The house has been preserved just as it was when Elvis lived there. Photos were allowed, and we were able to tour the ground floor, basement rooms and some out buildings.

My favorite part of the tour was have a chance to view the costumes that Elvis wore through out his career.

One disappointment was that the audio tour only gave a very brief overview and I never gave a sense of who Elvis was beyond the performer.

This photo of Elvis's Aloha Jumpsuit which includes belt & cape that could be yours for $3400.00. There was no lack of Elvis memorabilia for sale at Graceland's shops.

After our tour finished we headed north and home. The first leg of the journey we crossed the Mississippi twice and drove through 4 states Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri and Kentucky where we stayed the night.

It's good to be back.

Music City - Nashville

I have some very mixed feelings about our visit to Nashville. The people that we met were warm, helpful and friendly. The city had some wonderful architecture and certainly wonderful

music. So what did I not like, it was not a city to stroll around, not many shops, or cafés. It seemed to empty out at night except for the tourist strip. Most of the nice shops, restaurants were in the suburbs in Malls.

Our hotel was the Union Station, a converted train station. The ceiling in the photo above was made out of stain glass and magnificent.

We also found the hotel staff to be terrific. And if you are ever in Nashville I would recommend staying there.

On our first day in the city we took a bus tour, stopping at the Parthenon. The Parthenon is a replica of the original in Athens and the statue of Athena is covered in gold! Quite a site!

I had to take a photo of the door into the Country Music Hall of Fame. I was surprise to see along with no smoking or loitering that you could not bring in your weapons !

A highlight of the stay in Nashville was a visit The Grand Ole Opry in Rymans Auditorium to see and hear a county music show. The show was delivered as a radio show along with commercials in between acts.

I spent part of another day touring The Andrew Jackson Center. Jackson was the seventh president of the United States and a controversial figure. A movie that was shown at the beginning of the tour gave a good overview of his life both the good and not so good.

The house and ground have been restore and are in excellent condition. I was impressed with the beautiful floating staircase going up to the second floor. We were given a audio guide for the grounds for self touring .

And a guided tour by volunteers inside of the house. The guides were in traditional dress of the time and were extremely knowledgeable The perennial garden was in bloom and just lovely with shaded walkways and bed with roses, peonies & iris all in bloom.

Below is a photo of where Jackson and his wife are buried in the garden . I thought it was interesting that on his gravestone it states that he was Grand Master of the Tennessee Masons before President of the United States.