Single steps ...

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

~ Lao-Tzu (Chinese philosopher 604 BC - 531 BC)

Twelve and a half years ago I took a single step which saw me plummet into the depths of psychiatric despair.  I am forever grateful for that single step.  It led me to occupational therapy.  Occupational therapy led me, in the first instance, to making cards with stencils and a paint stippling technique.  From there I went on to a very basic form of card making with mixed media and textiles.  Further down the track I started making cards with rubber stamps, embossing and colouring.  Mixed media, although not textiles, continued to appear on my cards.

After six or so years I really just became bored with the limited patterned papers and embellishments on the market for card makers.  At that time I took another single step ... inside a local scrapbooking store.  OMG!  Were these women nuts?  What was with all these pages on the walls?  What was with the idea of an album with pages side by side which had nothing to do with, or match, each other?  I was soooooooooo not going to take up scrapbooking ... ever!  My adamant declaration was received with tremendous relief (as you could imagine) by my wonderful husband 'GB'.  So I merrily started travelling Victoria far and wide visiting local scrapbooking stores everywhere in search of new and exiting products to use with my card making.  At that time I was known as "AlzCardz".

Then personal tragedy struck.  In September 2004 our beloved, 13 year old dog Hayley passed away.  Before we tried to have a family, Hayley was 'our baby'.  When we were unable to have children and fertility treatments failed, Hayley became 'our family', along with Max (another border collie cross who at almost 17 is still with us today) and Zippo, the neighbours' cat whom adopted us after they moved away.  He simply point blank refused to make the move with them.  Secretly we think he couldn't bear to be separated from Hayley as they grew up together, and despite being natural enemies, were constant companions.

From the time we noticed Hayley wasn't well to the day she was euthanased at home, ten short days had passed.  As it turned out, Hayley had an inoperable tumour in her brain stem.  Although Max's warm, furry presence was of great comfort, we were inconsolable.  Suddenly all those 'nutty women' made perfect sense.  I decided I needed to make a scrapbooking album of our memories of Hayley.  Something tangible we could pick up and sit down with a cuppa to 'spend time' with Hayley.

Hayley's album was only ever intended as a one off but ... well you know how these stories go.  Six and a half years later Hayley's album is still a work in progress and I am a fully certifiable scrapbooking addict.  For a long time I wouldn't consider making a card with a 40 foot barge poll LOL!  Except for when I 'had' too.  After so many years of card making, hand made cards from me had become 'the norm' and were expected.  Big sigh.

Now, although scrapbooking remains my primary passion, I have re-discovered my passion for card making and I have taken more single steps into the areas of mixed media and textiles art.  Starting this blog to enable me to reach out to others with my passion for creativity and occupational therapy as a means of creative self-expression is the latest in my single steps.

I hope you enjoy what I hope will be many and varied 'happenings' on my blog.  A lot of sharing of my work and creative ideas.  A lot of rambling about anything and everything.  Occasionally my own personal soapbox.  At times to simply pose questions such as why is the sky blue?  A place to express and share my Creative Madness.  I hope you enjoy this journey of a thousand miles I have just embarked upon on.  I sure intend to.

Hugs.

PS:  Here is my first 'official' share.  My very first scrapbooking layout created in September 2004.  The title page for Hayley's album.  Not bad for a self-taught beginner wouldn't you say???