Today is the first day...

So here i sit...it is about 7:35 am and I am in a conference room on my last day at SAP. For some reason I couldn't sleep. I don't know if it was the excitement of having a new life ahead of me or the nervousness of leaving the corporate world (and corporate paycheck).

There are a million cliches running through my head. Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Even the best laid plans... Why put off today what you can do tomorrow? A door closes and a window opens. A bird in the hand is worth more than two in the bush.

I have had friends declare their admiration for taking this big leap like knights vowing fealty to a queen. So many people possessing secret talents and passions and dreams of taking the same giant leap out of Corporate America.  The paralyzing reality of the paycheck makes tethers most to stay put and wish.  Some have called me brave...and some have called me stupid! 

My journey started long ago and just kept inching and pushing and shoving its way into my consciousness. Frequent thoughts over that first coffee of the morning, "how did I get here in my life?" and then came the dinner conversation that changed everything.

"If you could not fail, what would you do with your life?" asked my boss innocently. OK, in addition to being my boss, she's been a great friend for over 10 years too! I'm not sure I had an answer that night but the question festered in me and I thought about it every day.

And here is my big conclusion...sometimes you just have to take the risk. There may be success or there may be failure (that's why it is called risk!) but failure is just a temporary condition. It is not a finality.

So today as I embark on the rest of my life I go on to make art, continue to teach people how to funnel their creativity -- even if they think they don't have any, and help the people in this world that need me. My path is not the straight and narrow but the crooked, winding twists and turns of life. I'll be driving but you ca sit back and enjoy the ride. Warning: fasten your seat belts, it's going to be a bumpy ride!

My Digital Studio Helps to Celebrate a Life

On Saturday night my friend, Brenda and her brother David had a party for their Mom, Avis.  It wasn't her birthday but a celebration of her life.  You see, she is battling lung cancer.

As letters, notes and photos came in celebrating Avis, I was able to put together a pretty spectacular (I think!) book for her.  So far, 38 pages and counting so I won't share everything.  There were quite a few friends from High School who sent notes and I was able to find a picture of her high school online. Her family provided me with a lot of great photos.  I decided to use the designer template for elegant occassions (I love the marina mist, crumb cake and early espresso color combination). 

I didn't have a lot of information regarding the pictures sent to me but I decided to use the feature in My Digital Studio that takes all the pictures in your file and loads them right into the template.  You can then alter the page from the original template and remove picures you don't like or move them around.  This was a huge time saver for me.

Because I was working under a tight deadline -- with work, school, Stampin' Up!, and other family obligations, I got to work on the book for about eight hours on Friday night and about 12 hours on Saturday.  If I had to scrap each of the 38 pages by hand, with the same level of detail I had in My Digital Studio, you would probably have multiply 20 hours by at least 10! 

I printed each page (I have an Epson 1400 that prints 12X12 pages and up to 13X19) on Whisper White 12X12 paper and selected the highest DPI for the pictures.  The pages printed beautifully.  The thickness and quality of Stampin' Up! paper is beyond compare.  I would never have attempted to print out on anything else -- no smearing of ink and very sharp, clear pictures.