#minialbum | Fancy for Stampin'

Hello All!

I know, it has been five months since my last post. Time always seems to get away from me. I’ve been going non-stop since two weeks before the Christmas Holidays and it doesn’t seem like things are going to slow down at all! Here’s what has been going on.

Two weeks before Christmas I auditioned for a part in a local production on a whim. I saw the advertisement for the auditions, read the description of the character (old woman who might be losing her mind who has been married for over 40 years to the same man) and I thought…”Hey! That’s me!” It also said the play wouldn’t last more than 30 minutes and I further thought, “Piece of Cake.”

Although my husband and I have only been together for 22 years, had my children’s father and I stayed together, it would have been over 40 years. I thought even more…”I can do this!” So I got up early on the morning December 18 and went down to the theater and auditioned not thinking I would get the part. Well…by Monday I had the part.

The name of the play was Love Song by Robert R. Lehan. It truly was about an older couple in their 60’s or 70’s that couldn’t remember if they had been married to each other or not (a dark comedy). One of them was in an institution, but by the end we weren’t sure who it was. Jeanine spent the entire play trying to convince Sam they had been married for over 40 years.

Anyway, when I realized I had been cast in the play, I did a google search for a copy of the script since the director wasn’t going to send it out until after Christmas. I was only able to find the first three pages and I am sure glad I did! The entire first scene was just me (character Jeanine) reciting a six minute monologue trying to get Sam to remember her. That’s when I learned the only characters were Sam and Jeanine and we would be on stage the entire 30 minutes with no breaks to go backstage and take a quick glance at the script. I began to panic! I started memorizing immediately working on my part between six and eight hours a day. Lines needed to be learned by the end of January.

I didn’t clean, I barely cooked (I didn’t mind that)…just memorized. Rehearsals started the first week in January, two nights each week, and the show ran from February 7 through February 27 with sometimes four performances each week. It was WORK, WORK, WORK! I had forgotten how much. I used to do this kind of thing in high school and college over 100 years ago! There were times when I wondered what I had gotten myself into. But, once the lines were learned it was FUN, FUN, FUN! I would do it again in a hear beat. I’ve been keeping my eyes open for more show auditions, but most of the local theaters are getting ready to close their current season. There probably won’t be anything again until the fall. And, that is okay because summer is for vacations and we have a few planned

As soon as the show closed I went to my daughter’s place in Northern Colorado to visit her and my granddaughter. I hadn’t seen them since Christmas. I actually visited them twice for three days each time during the month of March.

In March I re-started my monthly card club, Cards & Coffee, and began working on the project I am sharing with you today. It took three tries before I got it just as I wanted and I do have a written tutorial with photos available for $15.00 If you are interested, just email me at the address listed in the top right of this page, and I will let you know how to get payment to me and I will email you a copy of the tutorial. I wish I could share it for free, but unfortunately it was so time consuming I can not.

If you are local, I will be doing a class featuring this album. The cost of the class will be $35.00 as the album requires 24 sheets of 12″ x 12″ Designer Series Paper and one package (24 sheets ) of 8-1/2″ x 11″ card stock to construct.

A couple items that are not listed below are not in the Stampin’ Up! catalog and they are:

ruler
pencil
12″ x 12″ piece of chip board.

I created a mini album because I am forever looking for a way to showcase photos of grandchildren without a lot of scrap-booking fuss. Also, we will be doing a river cruise this August and it is always nice to have a photo album in your hands when remembering the trip afterwards. This mini album holds 70—that’s right 70–4″ x 4″ photos. Here is a sneak peak of the front cover and inside.