Who are the people in your neighborhood...
Ya gotta love Mr. Rogers.... I only hope the next generation "gets him" and doesn't write it off as some crazy thing we used to watch.... remember the pretzel factory.... loved that... well I love soft pretzels so I'm sure that had something to do with it. Anyway....

I sent out my inaugural post to a few people and thought I'd give some shout outs (he he I know what your thinking "jeez she's only posted once and she's got shout outs" bear with me maybe it'll make some sense to you

When I first thought about "reinstating my blog" I thought... well the people who will likely enjoy my blog the most are:

• my friends.... like many people my age I have friends from high school, college, my post-graduate work, different jobs I've had and because each of these different stages occured in different States (NY, NJ, CT, VA) I've got friends all over who I frankly don't see a lot
• My family... well this is where the first generation born thing comes in b/c my family is across the globe... which gets into the cultural aspects of blogging... well not cultural aspects of blogging as much as the cultural differences which are reflected in the actual blogging.... because it allows you to know a person in a different more in depth way than most of the traditional ways of interacting with family overseas (visits every few years, letters, email)... and the true cultural differences become more apparent. (Which can be good or bad)
• scrapbookers with particular emphasis on childless scrappers or true "life artists".. I like to hear different peoples takes on scrapbooking and how they incorporate it into their life so in giving back to those who have given to me (knowingly or unknowingly)

So onto my shout outs....

First and foremost... Raj.... my brother, he's really got a talent for digital editing and layouts he's done some absoultely amazing stuff... I'm talking about video, photos, etc. And he's really had no formal training (I tell everyone I showed him how to do html stuff which is true but he's taken it to a different level). IMO he's a great example of how people can be an artist without having any drawing or painiting skils. Anyway... perhaps if I say his name often enough he'll post something he's done recently... Raj Raj Raj Raj Raj Raj Raj.. since apparently I'm not allowed to post more than once every 5-6 months. Raj Raj Raj Raj Raj(can you tell that I'm a annoying Sister).

RB... not sure if she realizes it but I've been following her blog for years now. And I can now officially blame her for putting this awful picture in my head... which has this odd tendancy to pop in my head from time to time... THANKS BEC.... NOT!!! I've know her since middle school and she's a true artist... I love to check out her art blog... (you will notice that I am not an artist in the traditional definition... I did take a drawing class and I wasn't bad.. but wasn't good... it was more effort than enjoyment so now I just envy other artist)

Deb... also another friend I've known since middle school and a freelance writer... now I must say that that there are very few friends of mine who have seen my scrapbooking (I think at my age I mostly go out with my friends they don't come as often to my house where my scrapbooks are)... well Deb is one of the few people who've seen my scrapbooks and she is one of the few who "got it" right away. (For most its takes them a while to "understand" it). The funny part is that she's on the other side of the country now and I rarely see her.

Ok so thats it for now... thats not everyone but it'd take forever if I do.

Daily inspiration : Ali's Minibook... why you ask???? B/c i just got a few of these MME transperancy frames she uses in the second minibook, from a closing out sale at a local scrapbook store (he he he he... I know you were waiting for some earth shatteringly creative reason.... NOPE... )... hmmm maybe this will be my Valentines Day project... we'll see.

So now to leave you with my paper trail..... which was inspired by my shout out to RB. I love looking at art, visiting art museums etc.. but I really have no great drawing or painting skills. So this will be the first (and likely last time) I share something I drew or painted.

The 2 that I have chosen are 2 that are the remotely any good. The first is supposed to be a porceline mardigras mask I got in New Orleans a long time ago and the second one is supposed to be a stuffed teddy bear that I got from Harrods in London a few years back.