The Walking Miracle

Here's a new layout that I completed for a 5-4-3-2-1 challenge. I had to use 5 buttons, 4 pattern papers, 3 flowers, 2 ribbons and 1 circle. It was tough to limit myself to only 5 buttons. I usually O.D. on the buttons big time. I used Making Memories ornaments stamps. They were really perfect for this page. In order to incorporate enough pattern papers, I made my own buttons using square epoxy stickers, pattern paper and a small hole punch. I tied them with ribbon since the holes were a bit larger than I expected. Again 3x2 size photos. I love using this size because A. I can print them out easily at home and B. I can fit a lot on one LO. I made up the title/journaling myself while taking my morningwalk. I get more creative ideas from my walk than I can believe. A dear friend told me that someone did a study on people who walk regularly and found that their brains were more active while doing so. I don't know any of the details, but I can certainly attest to it! Often I will begin my workout with a question like..."what type of layout can I do using the closeup photo of my eyes?" (yes, I just recently asked myself this question) and after the first mile, the answer will come to me. I won't give you my answer now because it is a work in progress, but I can tell you that it will be very cool when finished. Or if I have a structural problem like how to adhere something to something else, I ponder it while walking and by the end will have a solution. I must tell you that I am completely addicted to my walk. I haven't missed one since mid-May. I'm sure that if you give it a try, you'll be addicted too. My grammy walked daily and she is an amazing woman. Energetic and vibrant up until the week before she passed away. One summer when her Alzheimers was getting pretty bad, I accompanied her. I use the word accompanied because she was Serious-About-Moving. It wasn't easy keeping pace. I will forever remember that summer because I heard all kinds of childhood stories from her. She would talk about her best friend Virginia and how they got into Trouble (yes, that is a capital T) while ice-skating and sledding. I would hear about her mother and how she too walked everywhere. She (my great-grandmother) never learned to drive and was very active in church so she would make a great number of pies and deliver them by hand all over town. She would put the pies in paper bags, stack them on top of each other and go. Talk about devotion. I don't even make one pie let alone a whole stack of them and then give them all away. When I make a pie, I hoard it, showing it only to those who will appreciate my efforts. I wonder if all that walking made her more charitable so she could put her talents into something that might not be treated with as much respect as it should be. I feel that making a pie, more than making cookies or cakes, is like baking a piece of your heart. There are so many steps to pie-making: the dough, the filling, the decoration that it just seems overwhelming. Each of the parts must be good in and of itself and each part must meld with the others. However, I realize that I digress. Back to the walking. I highly suggest it as a creative exercise. Tomorrow morning, get up put on some sneaks and go. Try it for a few weeks and I bet your art jumps up to a higher level. And when it does, let me know. I'd love to hear all about it.