The Road Less Traveled

Looking for a Woman Who Emailed Me

I am looking for a woman who emailed me about her daughters first year birthday album. This woman asked me to make a card or something using my product and a photo to include in her book. I was very touched a honored that I was asked to do this. I looked at the email at work and thought I saved it until I got home. When I got home, the email was gone. It must have gotten deleted by accident. Please email me again so I can get back to you--I hope you read my blog.

Allison

More On New Orleans

I have been working on a slide show (power point) of my photos with touching music and all...but, I have not been able to upload it to my blog. So, I will share a few more pictures. I also want to thank Creative Imaginations for helping me to go on this trip. CI and one of it's owners (Jack Behlmer), donated money to help fund my trip. Other fees were raised through a fund raiser at my church and by making & selling a ton of custom ordered invitations.

The photos below are mostly from the 9th lower ward--a pretty devastated area. Not many people have come back here yet, and many of these homes are not cleaned up yet--2 1/2 years later. Can you imagine?

Well, that is it for today...I will post more photos another day. I am so blessed with what I have...may I never take it for granted.

Peace,

Allison

New Orleans--2 1/2 Years Later

My son and I just returned from New Orleans after spending 6 days with our church group helping with the restoration efforts. My first reaction to the devastating areas surrounding the city, is that it is just heart breaking! So many homes destroyed, so many lives uprooted, so many families displaced. Driving around the neighborhoods...they are ghost towns. Maybe 3-4 houses on each block are inhabited again...or at least trying to. Some neighborhoods have no one at all. This disaster hit low income families as well as the middle class. FEMA's money was mismanaged and some families got very little. Insurance companies did not pay much if any at all to others. The news media does not depict the horrible circumstances that still remain after two and one half years later. Maybe there has been a lot of clean up, but the rebuilding is slow and much of the population has not returned either. They are seriously hurting. I took nearly 400 photos of my time there. I will try to share as many as I can in these next few days/weeks. I hope that my writings and photos will help you to understand how much more help the people of New Orleans need!

Many of the homes have been deserted. Lots of people still have their mortgages to pay with no home to live in. Most of the houses are gutted like this one here. The beams need to be bleached to rid of any lingering mold, nails need to be pulled before insulation and sheet rock can be placed again. All new appliances are needed for these homes too.

 

This was a shed we cleaned out for a lady. The water was up to the ceiling. Everything was ruined--heavy duty machinery, a horse's saddle, fishing gear, collectibles and so much more. It was difficult to throw things away, knowing that it was someone's life you were just tossing into the dumpster.

This was the truck we filled with all of the debris from the shed. It took us all day to clean this shed out. It was dusty, very dirty and smelled foul.

This is the shed all cleaned out.

This is the group who did the job this day. There were 13 of us in all. We traveled with 37 people in our group--everyone had different jobs to do each day.

I will share more photos and stories on my blog as soon as I am able to post again.

I count my blessings everyday--and pray for more help for the people of New Orleans. I only wish I could have done more during my visit.

Happy Birthday Sweet Sixteen!

My son turned 16 years old this past Monday (2/11). It is hard to believe that my baby is that old already--I just don't know where the time has gone. Anyway, here is a picture taken with my new 50mm lens which I got for Christmas. I am trying to take photos manually instead of automatic. So...Happy Birthday Tommy!

More CHA Sneak Preview

Here is my second release for CHAW. It is a new take on the Large Flower Brads. I absolutely LOVE the Large Flower Brads, both printed and solid colors--I use them in many of my projects! Lift the petals to give them more of a 3-D look, attach transparencies, fabric, paper, chip board, felt and just about anything! The colors match many paper lines from Creative Imaginations. I hope you will enjoy these as much as I do!

=) Allison

CHA Winter Preview

Just wanting to share a preview of my new release for CHA Winter. Below is my Beach Days line with Creative Imaginations--I am already dreaming of the warmer days of summer. Unfortunately, I won't be at the winter show--I will miss being there and catching up with old friends. Thankfully, I will be able to go to CHA Summer in Chicago. I hope you enjoy my new line--I think it will be shipping in May. Stay tuned tomorrow for another post with my other release.
Ta-ta for now,
Allison

He Didn't Look Back

A few years ago I made this layout of my son as he left for school on the first day of fifth grade. I titled it--You Didn't Look Back--the journaling reads...It was the first day of fifth grade. You wanted to walk to school with your friends. You didn't need me to walk with you or drive you to school. So, I took pictures, gave you a hug and told you to have a great day. You brushed a kiss on my cheek and said "goodbye Mom" in a hurry giving a little wave over your shoulder as you walked away. You didn't look back. You seemed so independent and sure of yourself as you quickly hiked off to school. I watched you from behind and I couldn't help but get tears in my eyes. For it was at that moment I realized you were growing up. Each step you took as you walked away was one more step towards becoming a young man and one less step from being a little child. Well, I had another one of those moments this Saturday when my son left to go to Maine with his girlfriend and her mom. My son is now 15...almost 16, and my heart wrenched again as I realized he was growing up some more. Here this young man was leaving his mom and family to venture out into the bigger world and I was no longer the most important woman in his life. He walked out the door to enjoy his time with Kaitlyn and he didn't look back--I guess this is how it should be, but my heart aches a bit just the same.

Playing with My New Photo Lens and Photoshop

First, let me say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year--once again I have been behind in my postings.

For Christmas I got a new lens for my Rebel XTi Digital Camera--a Cannon 50 mm f 1/8 lens. As soon as I opened it, I started taking all kinds of Christmas photos. Here is a photo of my son playing his guitar that he received on Christmas morning (my guess his favorite gift).

Now, here is the photo after playing with it in Photoshop. I was trying to learn how to use actions...but wound up using a purchased frame by Rhonna Ferra and some effects that came with the Photoshop program. I am just too tired to try and figure things out now with the actions.

Remembering Dan Fogelberg

Yesterday as I was leaving my house, I turned on the radio. On the station the introduction of Same Auld Lang Syne was playing and the announcer said "this is in memory of Dan Fogelberg who passed away yesterday".

"What!?" I said

I was shocked and saddened! I have been a fan of Dan Fogelberg since my teenage days! Back in 2004, my husband was going to take me to another one of his concerts for my birthday--Dan had gotten the news of his illness and canceled the tour. I knew that he had cancer, but I thought he kicked it. I have been melancholy since hearing this unfortunate news. I am so sorry for his wife, his family and his fans.

I got to thinking today of how I discovered his music...it was when I was in the 11th grade. I was taking a Creative Writing English class and the assignment was to bring in a song with the lyrics written out for the entire class (we had to bring the record in to listen to as well). While I brought in a song by Bread, one of my classmates brought in Dan Fogelberg--his Nether Lands album. I was hooked from that moment! Something about this entertainer spoke to me. He sang to my soul, and touched me with his words. I went out that day after school and bought that same album. I would play it front side and back, over and over until I knew every word of every song. The title track Nether Lands became my mantra--just as the Robert Frost poem The Road Less Traveled did. The orchestral music lifted me up and made me feel alive! I remember riding my bike from the Fire Island Lighthouse (where I lived at the time) to the boardwalk at Robert Moses Field 5. In my mind...as I breathed in the salt air and listened to the sound of the roaring ocean crashing in my ears...I could hear this song playing, and feel the freedom it gave me to live.

Nether Lands

High on this mountain
The clouds down below
I'm feeling so strong and alive
From this rocky perch
I'll continue to search
For the wind and the snow and the sky
Oh I want a lover and I want some friends
And I want to live in the sun
And I want to do all the things that I never have done
Sunny bright mornings and pale moonlit nights
Keep me from feeling alone
Now I'm learning to fly and this freedom is like
Nothing that I've ever known
Oh I've seen the bottom and I've been on top
But mostly I've lived in between
And where do you go when you get to the end of your dream
Off in the Nether Lands I heard the sound
Like the beating of heavenly wings
And deep in my brain I can hear a refrain
Of my soul as she rises and sings
Anthems to glory and anthems to love
And hymns filled with earthly delight
Like the songs that the darkness composes to worship the light
Once in a vision I came on some woods
And stood at a fork in the road
My choices were clear yet I froze with the fear
Of not knowing which way to go
Oh, one road was simple acceptance of life
The other road offered sweet peace
When I made my decision
My vision became my release

Today and everyday--I will remember the joy, the peace, the freedom, the happiness, the sadness and the life Dan Fogelberg's music has brought to me. I am sorry for the loss of him, as I feel I have also lost a piece of my childhood. But, thankfully I have his voice and his words recorded to take in whenever I want. I am sure he is in God's Kingdom singing in the heavenly choir of angels.

Rest in Peace Dan.

How Do You Get a Teenage Boy to Cooperate?

When my son was younger, he was a "ham" and let me take his picture all the time. Now, as a teenager...I find I have to negotiate with him. So, tonight he brings me his "Irish" Santa hat for a little mending. I told him I would stitch it if he let me take his picture in it. I mentioned that I needed a photo to make Christmas Stamps. Reluctantly (and only because he really wanted the hat to take on his Boy Scout Christmas camping trip tonight)...he said...okay. I was able to get four takes of him, trying to get him to cooperate and smile. Here are the photos I wound up with. I think my favorite--ironically--is when he covered his face...as that is the only "real" smile he conjured up. I guess there is still a little "ham" left in him.