Yep, 36 years ago yesterday at a Vista Point overlooking Lake Tahoe in Zephyr Cove, Nevada, my husband and I got married.
I say we have a fairy tale story…
Oh, those days before kids when we were kids.
I found this little couple and put them in my fairy garden in front of the studio. Kinda looks like us, no?
We recreated the moment at our 25th anniversary. I didn’t think about it or I’d have stood on the other side.
One of our first “concert selfies.” I love this picture of us.
Six years ago we had this “portrait” done in Reno, one of our favorite places to spend our anniversary.
Benihana has been another of our anniversary go-to spots for many years. We couldn’t eat inside this time but we did get take out and ate at home while watching a movie, “Call of the Wild.”
Not gonna lie, the last 10 years have been really hard on a lot of levels. It has tested me to the limit and sometimes it felt like I was just hanging on by a string. Sometimes I even considered letting go. But then I take a breath and realize that it is life and we’ll get through it. Here’s to love and another 36 years.
It is May, I know because we are no longer doing the April A to Z Challenge but that is about the only way I know.
Here is my coloring for the Escapist Coloring Club hosted by Linda. They are all from the Magical Jungle book I got for Christmas.
How have you been keeping busy? I have had some work to do and I got an order on my Etsy shop for a baby book so I’ve been working on that. I also did some yard work, pulling weeds out of our backyard. I’m about to start on some Father’s Day cards and albums, also for the Etsy shop, like these:
Stop by and check them out!
Actually, life is pretty normal for me, and for that I am grateful. Everyone is healthy too. Have a great weekend!
I finished another A to Z Challenge and I’ve got the badge to prove it! This was my fifth year and I had set myself a monumental task of scrapbooking 26 concerts using the band names or song titles for the letters of the alphabet. While I didn’t exactly finish the whole layout for each show, I did manage to get at least the paper collections picked out and the title page done.
In total I scrapbooked 99 pages and 25 different concerts (Up Where We Belong – Joe Cocker and Tom Petty were in the same show). I’m pretty pleased with that and if I had been counting all along I would have at least done one more page to make an even 100.
Here are links to all the posts in case you missed something. Note that they will open up in my WordPress blog because apparently Blogger is having some technical issues with pictures. In fact, I may decide to just use WordPress from now on.
Some of the fun bloggers I found during this year’s challenge were:
Joy’s Book Blog: Joy wrote about what to pack on your creative journey. Lots of fun there.
Stepheny Forgue Houghtlin: Stepheny wrote about the glories of tea and showed some beautiful tea cups and different places you can enjoy a good cuppa.’
The DreamGirl Writes: DreamGirl wrote a great mystery story. Kept me hanging on to the very end!
A Unique Title For Me: Jim, who is our Song Lyric Sunday coordinator wrote terrific posts on musical groups. They are long posts but very informative with lots of background information. Worth the read if you have the time.
Jingle Jangle Jungle: Mary gave us a word of the day and we were challenged to come up with songs using that word.
No Love for Fatties: “T” wrote a story a day using the pictures from a children’s alphabet.
I was even featured on the A to Z official site as a blogger with 2020 vision by my friend John Holton. John and I met through the A to Z when I first started and have followed each other since. He is a wealth of interesting information and a fun blog to read. Thanks again!
It was fun for me to relive these concerts in this way, especially since some of the shows were from 10 years ago! A few of my favorite layouts were:
The A to Z Road Trip will be starting soon and I realized that I could do another alphabet with concerts for next year if I want to. We’ll see. Thanks to all who came along on this journey with me. I really appreciate all the comments and generous praise for my artistic endeavors. Stay safe and healthy out there so we can do this again!
We come to our final letter of the alphabet today! “Z” is for “Zoo” sung by the Scorpions. We saw the Scorps for the first time in 1982 at Day on the Green. When we started going to concerts more regularly I had a goal to see all of those bands again. With the exception of Iron Maiden we have! I don’t really care about Iron Maiden anyway — a little too heavy metal for me.
The next time we saw the Scorpions was in 2012. I’ve had this set of papers from Creative Memories for a long time. I think it’s really pretty.
I have a stack of pictures an inch thick again so I didn’t have time to scrapbook them all for today’s post.
This was kind of a spur of the moment concert. I think we got our tickets four days before the show and I was excited to get them so close. We were in the third-ish row! A little off to the right of stage but still great. They called the tour the Final Sting tour which might make you think they were not going to tour again. Fortunately that wasn’t true. The opening act was Tesla, a band I was not familiar with but I did like some of their songs. This page is not finished but I think you get the idea. The card on top was something they were handing out at the door. I keep ALL memorabilia – LOL.
They did in fact sing “The Zoo.” They are a very energetic band and it seemed like they were so close we could touch them.
Here’s the setlist from that show.
These are a few of the other pictures I have to add.
I think he’s looking at me, right?
Their drummer at the time was James Kottak and during his drum solo, the stage lifted so he was high in the air.
At the end, he took his shirt off and stood on his seat.
Then turned around to show his back tattoo – and possibly his butt-crack?!
A lot of the time the guys were right in front of us.
I think they are asking for their picture to be taken don’t you?
Rudolf Schenker is a character for sure.
Klaus Meine, Matthias Jabs, Rudolf Schenker and Pawel Maciwoda.
And here is “The Zoo” from the last time we saw Scorpions in 2017.
I made it! Do I wish I had been able to completely scrapbook each event? Absolutely. But I am also truly grateful that I had some transcription work come in. Could I have spent less time embellishing each set that I did scrapbook? Sure but then I wouldn’t be satisfied with the results. Am I thankful that I had some letters already finished a while ago or a few with less pictures? You bet! I enjoyed reliving these concert experiences as I was cutting and pasting. With the current state of affairs, who knows when we’ll be able to get up close and personal experiences like this again.
I hope you have enjoyed this series. I am very appreciative of all the kind comments and visits I’ve had from everyone. Side note, I think I could do this one more time. There are at least 26 more entertainers we have seen that I have not showcased either in 2017 or this year. Tesla, the opening act for Scorpions in this show is one. Melissa Etheridge we’ve seen a couple times too and I haven’t used her in either of the challenges. Maybe if I start now…
James Taylor is the artist I am using for the letter “Y” as in “Your Smiling Face.” We were able to see Mr. Taylor along with Bonnie Raitt at AT&T Park, home of our San Francisco Giants. Gosh I miss baseball! They had lights on the trees and it was gorgeous.
I found this set of papers that I thought would work well.
Here’s the first page. We even had regular tickets! We had seats on the lawn and we got to go through an underground tunnel that we had never been through before. It made it even more exciting to get to the field that way. We had to pick them up from Will Call and that’s why we went in through the special entrance.
I have to put Bonnie Raitt’s pictures together as well and I only had time to get one page done for James Taylor. It’s really not done either but I don’t want to miss the deadline for the A to Z.
Here’s the setlist from the show. He sang a bunch! He was really engaging with the crowd and told some stories about his songs. He’s been around a long time.
A few more pictures. I got a lot of good ones so it is going to be fun putting it together.
Here is “Your Smiling Face” from that night.
I think given the name on my blog is “Janet’s Smiles” that’s a perfect song for me. One more day! Who is Z going to be? I’ll give you a hint. It’s NOT ZZ Top. I did them in 2017.
I am surprised by some of the things I am realizing about our concert experiences by scrapbooking them for this A to Z. For instance, we have seen Pat Benatar and her husband, Neil Giraldo, a total of six times! “We Belong” is one of the songs she most always sings.
The first time we saw Pat and Neil (I think after seeing them so often we can be on a first name basis, don’t you?) was in 2010. They were the headliner at The Mountain Winery and REO Speedwagon was the opening act.
I’m using paper from The Artful Watercolor collection. It has a page of die cuts and tags to go with it. It also has some 3-D embellishments but I’m not sure if I’ll use them or not. Nice to have options.
This is the first page of that set. I’m not done scrapping the pictures of REO Speedwagon yet because I wanted to concentrate on the Pat Benatar photos since they are the ones that go with the A to Z. We did an unusual thing and had dinner at the Winery first. It was not that impressive actually and we’ve never done it since.
We had pretty good seats down in front for this show and they hadn’t even started the Loyalty Club at the Mountain Winery yet so we were lucky.
Instead of mounting every photo I used the corner rounder for the corners of the pictures and then had some stickers that matched for the corners of the paper. I also added some Dazzles stickers to the top part of this page after I took the picture.
Neil Giraldo’s nickname is “Spyder.” I think the Dazzles stickers I put around it look like spider webs a little.
I added some Dazzle stickers to enhance the page a bit. I also put the corners on this page after I took the picture.
They did a portion of the show acoustic. They were engaging with the crowd and told some of the background of the songs.
Pat dances around the stage and it really looks like they are having fun.
“Hell is for Children” is one of my husband’s favorite songs. They did sing most of their hits.
The set list.
Theoretically this is how it will look in the album. As I said, I do have the pictures from REO Speedwagon to scrap so hopefully the pages will match up. I am using the same collection for both groups so even if it gets moved around, it still should look okay.
Here is “Love is a Battlefield.” You can tell it is not from the same show because Pat Benatar’s hair is short but it is still the Mountain Winery.
While we are in the Loyalty Club at the Mountain Winery and can get advanced tickets which leads to closer seats, we’ve never actually paid extra to get VIP seating until Lindsey Buckingham came to the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco. Fleetwood Mac is one of our favorite groups and we’ve seen them several times over the years. We’ve seen Stevie Nicks (my muse and the letter “N” in 2017’s A to Z) in solo performances but my husband’s favorite is Lindsey and up until now we’ve never seen him perform alone. We also had never been to any kind of show at the Palace of Fine Arts so when the opportunity came, we splurged a bit to get VIP seating. It was not a meet and greet experience but we were seated in the 5th row. There was also some pretty neat swag given away and we got to enter the venue before the commoners – LOL.
I decided to go with a set of papers called Handmade Memories. It is from my favorite Paper Wishes and had a free download of tags and embellishments to match it.
We got some great pictures in front of the Palace of Fine Arts. Turns out we parked at the back of the building so we had to walk all the way around. I took shots from all different angles. When we got to the front entrance we were able to go in and waited in a short line for our VIP goodies. I had some salmon hors d’oeuvres that were delish.
I took the VIP badge they gave us, added some ribbon and attached it to a frame.
I loved the look of the buttons so I added some real ones on top.
I think this butterfly matches pretty well, don’t you?
The bad news is that once we were at our really great seats, we were told there was NO PICTURE TAKING! I was so disappointed and almost got in trouble trying to sneak a few. Really, the usher was standing close to where we were and kept a watchful eye over the audience. I was not the only one trying to take a shot. We got our selfie in but even that’s not a great one. We were trying to get the stage behind us. Frustrating to be so close and not be able to sneak good pictures!
We may not have had a meet and greet but we did get Lindsey’s autograph and a really neat journal.
Even at the end of the show when I wasn’t so worried about getting kicked out I still couldn’t get a good shot of the band taking their bow.
He is a really talented guitar player and it is amazing that he does all that finger work with no pick.
There was a pretty decent write up in the paper and so I cut that out to add to the event. It talks about the breakup between Lindsey and Fleetwood Mac that had happened earlier in the year. Interestingly, a few months after we saw him, Lindsey had a heart attack and during the surgery his vocal cords were damaged. They did not know if he would be able to sing again but he announced earlier this year that he would tour again. Hopefully he will be able to.
Here’s how it looks in the book.
My husband’s favorite song is “Big Love.” While he did perform this when we saw him at the Palace of Fine Arts, this version is from when he was still with Fleetwood Mac from their tour in 2013.
Okay! Tomorrow is a break day and then we have four more letters. Can she do it? Side note, Blogger seems to be having some technical difficulties at the moment so if you can’t see some of the pictures, you can always check out my blog on WordPress. Have a great rest of your weekend.
Very short post today because I only have one set of pictures that were taken a long time ago.
“U” is for “Up Where We Belong” sung by Joe Cocker. Joe was the opening act for Tom Petty the first time we saw him in 2010. Ten years ago and sadly both of them have passed away. Makes these pictures, terrible as they are, even more meaningful.
It was a really good show. Joe was a little less “twitchie” and dressed very nicely as opposed to the way he was in his earlier years but he didn’t disappoint.
That’s it for “U.” I’ll have a little better story for you tomorrow with “V.” See you then.
Toto was the first band we saw at the Mountain Winery! We went to see them and Three Dog Night, who were actually the headliners, in June 2007. My best friend, Margie, and her husband met us there and we had drinks and sandwiches before we went in. The venue looked very different than it does now and we had seats that were pretty far back but it was still a great show. I didn’t realize all the songs that Three Dog Night actually had. We didn’t take any pictures that night but I found some promo stuff online and used that to make the layouts for the album.
We next saw Toto in 2017 when they opened at the Winery for Pat Benatar. This show was even better than the first one. We had MUCH closer seats this time, in the front section, five rows back. Of course I took lots of pictures.
For this set I chose a collection called “Main Street” from Quick Quotes Scrapbooking. It was a pack I got at one of the Scrapbook Expos I’ve been to. I love it.
Here’s what I came up with for the first page. I’m not thrilled with my printing of the date and I may try and change that but I didn’t have number stickers that matched.
Took a chance again and stamped the sentiment after I had put all the pictures down on this sheet. Thank goodness it came out okay.
Naturally I got some really good pictures but sadly, I don’t have time to scrap them all right now so here are just a few.
Steve Lukather is a terrific guitarist and he was also very engaging with the crowd. He even caught my husband playing his air guitar along with him and gave him a nod. That interaction made this show special for my hubby so when I got an email about the book “The Gospel According To Luke” and saw that it was a signed edition, I had to get it for him for Christmas a couple of years ago. It looks pretty interesting so I am going to read it too.
Here’s “Africa” as we saw it.
“T” is done! U is already prepped. V may be an easy one. I’m crossing my fingers for the rest! Thank goodness for Sunday!
San Francisco Fest in September 2016 was supposed to be like the old Day on the Green concerts they used to do in Oakland back when Bill Graham was alive. It was almost an all day affair, starting at three in the afternoon. Tower of Power opened, followed by the Doobie Brothers, then by Steve Miller, Santana next and finally Journey. I suppose I could use San Francisco Fest as my “S” but I’m going to stick to just Santana.
I used a set of papers called Happy Days from Paper Wishes.
I thought the bright chevron paper really matched the Santana picture.
This collection has the free download tags and embellishments and also a sheet of 3-D labels.
I put the first two pages together. The Happy Day emblem is from the 3-D cutouts.
Carlos Santana’s wife is one of the drummers and she really got into it. There was an exhausting drum solo (looked exhausting for her anyway and actually I thought it went on just a little too long). I had a red guitar which kind of matches Carlos’.
I have a lot of extras to go with this show. There was a pamphlet that they gave out telling the times of the shows and a history of the Day on the Green Festivals
I even have a review from the paper the next day and some confetti that they shot out at the end of the show.
Here’s the setlist:
Here is Maria Maria:
There’s “S.” One week left to go! Thanks for coming along with me!
