Author Talk - September CKC Challenge #2

This week's mini-challenge for the Counterfeit Kit is to find inspiration from a TV/book character.  If you're in a hurry, scroll to the end of this post for my actual project.  But if you have a couple of minutes for me to wander through the backstory, then read on!

My inspiration came not from a character but an author. Last month I had the chance to see and hear one of my favorites, Debbie Macomber.  As soon as I saw the challenge, I knew I needed to work on this topic.


Now, admitting this fact means you all now know my secret: I have a 60 year old woman trapped in my body.  At least that was the vast majority of the audience at her event. Crystal noted that they all had the same haircut, too, which apparently means I have a short haircut in my near future, too? I don't know.  All I know is that we were well below the age curve and above the hair length curve for the room.

If you haven't ever heard of Debbie, here is her website, where you can read about her books.  I don't know what you call that genre - ultra-light feel-good drama is what I call it in my head. I mean the following as a compliment to the writer and my fellow audience members: It's simple reading. And that's exactly what I want and need sometimes.  I chew through those books really quickly, and that's why I love them. I can get lost in those stories of small towns, charmed lives and interwoven personal stories, and I can do it within a few hours. I can't get enough of them!

I loved her Cedar Cove series, and I just read the first book of her new series, which is set in the same town.  She has had some books turned into Lifetime TV movies, and this year I learned that there will be a TV movie based on the Cedar Cove stories.  I'm hoping that opportunity turns into a series. It is supposed to star Andie MacDowell - who, speaking of characters, was a character in my favorite growing up movies, St. Elmo's Fire:

OK back on track.  So, Debbie came to Columbus, and her remarks were so funny! I had no idea what kind of talk she would give - I thought maybe some writing process, some knitting talk, maybe about the new movie or the new book.  I had no idea she would be so funny.  She wove together lots of stories about her life and experiences, and Crystal and I still talk about how much we laughed that evening.  She was inspirational and just really fun to listen to.  Last year I went with Crystal to meet her favorite author, Tess Gerritsen (she writes the books that spawned the Rizzoli and Isles TV show), so she came with me to see Debbie.  Around our house that's called "being a trooper," but I'm glad it ended up being a very nice weeknight date.

Starting the evening at Cap City Diner for dinner probably didn't hurt the mood, either.
Seriously, 3 layers of cake?! That's just crazy :).

I have mentioned that I started a project life-type album, haven't I?  I started in July, and I know I meant to post a lot more about it by now, but I've gotten off to a slow start.  I used lower case "p" and "l" on purpose; My project is the same idea as all the other Becky Higgins - inspired projects, except I'm not really using her materials, and I'm using a 6x8 album.  So I feel kind of funny calling it a Project Life album. 

Anyway, I don't have a lot of weeks ready to show (and honestly, some of them are pretty unremarkable and may never see the light of day here), but this challenge made me get busy and get the week that included Debbie Macomber completed.  So here it is, using a bit of my September kit:

Most of my photos at the event did not turn out - it was a dim auditorium, and neither my phone camera or regular camera came out with anything good.  So I turned to these pictures on the Thurber House Facebook page and used the photos they posted there.  Photo credit is given to Leslie Miller.

Page 3 of 4 for the week: I needed a folder to hold some papers for the week, so I printed this photo collage for the back of the folder. I wrote directly on the plastic with a Slick Writer pen. It doesn't look very clear in the picture, but it does look good in real life and is easy to read, even with the black photo border behind it. 

Page 4 of 4 for the week: I found a way to use some of my puffy stickers from my kit. A slick writer works for smudge-free writing on top of the sticker. 

I had more to say for this week that most weeks, so I used a little extra space for writing. 
Most weeks are a lot easier to fit within my little pages.



Page 1 of 4 for this week.  Did I mention I met Barack Obama?! And by "met" I mean "took his picture through a window upstairs while he shook hands with people downstairs." Very exciting, though - and I think that's the closest I've been to a President or presidential candidate.  I had to blow up the picture to be able to see him, so I had a lot of "junk space" on the photo. So I tried to fill it with the date stamps, some rubons, and other stamping mess.



Page 2 of 4: I got this photo of Barack Obama spelling O-H-I-O from one of the students involved.  It was so fun to see this picture tweeted by the White House and realize, "wait, I know those people!"  I love to see our students get those opportunities for memories.  This collage is inside the front of the plastic folder.

One final note about my project: I really don't want it to replace my 12x12 scrapping with these pages.  I can see how it might turn that direction, but I'm going to keep doing full pages for some of the day to day stuff of life. I always have. It's one of the reasons I chose the 6x8 size, so I don't get too comfortable with just doing these project pages.  I just want a little something extra to capture the few months before and after my 40th birthday. 

And finally, please add your own challenge submissions and other kit projects to the Counterfeit Kit linky page here.  I love seeing everyone's great work, and adding a link is the best way for all of us to find your pictures and posts.  So, link away!

***And thanks for making it through a looooong post this week!***