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June 1, 2007
From the Helm - Welcome to SSR!
Cap'n Dawn Heath,Publisher
We have a very special guest this month. 7 years ago I was a moderator on an iVillage health forum board. I "met" my internet friend Annette during this time and we have both moved away from what brought us together as friends but our friendship has grown enormously since that time. We share our hopes, dreams, family pictures and the exciting things our boys (Annette has a son too) are up to. I asked Annette if she wouldn't mind sharing some of her own photos with you and also share part of her life with you too. So, in an effort to do something different on our Welcome Page...please join me in welcoming my dear friend Annette on board SSR!
***(please note that I left Annette's original spelling which is correct in Australia in order to keep her personality in her writing).
Hi there from Sydney Down Under. Cap'n Dawn has caught me on line tonight and put me on the spot. You see - Dawn and I have been on line friends for over 7 years, now ... can it really be that long, Dawn, it's gone so fast? Wow!
Cap'n Dawn has invited me to share my experience of a day out in Sydney Harbour with you all. What an honor that is - I am pretty gob smacked, which is aussie slang for stunned, and wondered how I'll manage it... but here it goes....
Photo to the right is of Annette on the yacht
Welcome to my part of the world.... SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
It's quite common for me - I've lost count how many times I've been out sailing around the foreshore of Sydney Harbour. Being a wife of a yachtsman, I have had the privilege to cruise and sail on many different yachts around our beautiful Harbour. I've just been reminiscing by sharing some of the photos from a particular day in November last year just now, in fact. I might point out here, that we don't own a yacht of our own, but we used to sail a NS14 fibreglass dinghy in our 20s, and I have experienced being capsized in the harbour too, and also being becalmed in the pouring rain, with the harbour master asking us if we would like to be towed to shore! Now it is the bigger yachts which are a lot more comfortable, I can assure you. Mind you they were fun times too.
The special thing about Sydney, and Australia is our endless clear blue skies - and this particular day in November was no exception. - Half a dozen of us - the wives and the crew of The Big Kahoona, a gorgeous Beneteau yacht, went out for a casual sail around the foreshore of Sydney Harbour. Beginning at Rushcutters Bay, where the yachts usually take off from Sydney to Hobart each boxing day...we sailed out into the main part of the harbour - past the Opera House, under the Harbour Bridge, past Luna Park theme park, and along to Darling Harbour and then on to lunch...Yes, to The Sydney Fish Markets - where we parked the yacht in a pen - for a fee, jumped ashore - got some fresh cooked fish 'n chips, and calamari with salad - and shared a great meal and wine with friends, while taking in the fresh sea air, and relaxed. It was a great day out. I can still smell the hot chippies, and hear the seagulls squarking, and can hear the ships horn from one of the container shipping ports in the distance. Oh, what a privilege it is to live in Sydney...if you've never been here...you gotta visit in your lifetime.
Thanks for sharing this with me, and reminding me about my special part of the world.
Cheers,
Annette Katona
http://www.cyca.com.au/default.asp?key=632 - The Cruising Yacht Club of Australia
http://www.australia.com/
Thank you Annette for sharing a special day in Sydney with all of us!
Cap'n Dawn
In Memorium
We will all miss you Jill. Rest in peace my friend.
Snow Davidson is one of our own, Snow has been part of SSR from the very beginning and is a very special part of our family. We have shared the joys of Snow's grandchildren with her and a few weeks ago we were hit with the very real diagnosis of a very fast growing cancerous tumor in the abdomen of 7 year old Maddie. As you can imagine, Snow and her family are still reeling from this news. Maddie is scheduled to have a shunt installed this week and next week Maddie will begin a very strong course of chemo. She will lose her lovely hair but she is very optimistic and this fact doesn't even faze her.
We are all feeling very helpless right now. We just don't know what to do except to pray and create cards to encourage Maddie and her family. There have been many cards sent so far and we thought that as Maddie will be in and out of the hospital that we could create this page "Prayers for Maddie". Then, no matter where Maddie or her family are they will always have the encouragement and love and prayers with them at the touch of a button.
If you would like to participate in this particular idea please send me a scan of your card to Maddie and her family to editor@ssreflections.com. Please size the scan to 475 pixels before you email it to me and include your first and last name. I will update this page as often as possible with news from the family on Maddie with what they are comfortable sharing with us. This is all to encourage Maddie and her family and we will respect their privacy at all times. No information will be shared on this page without the full consent of the family.
In our last issue we announced that we would be discontinuing the Reader's Gallery Contest. Well, Brook Campbell responded to my cry for help and she will now take over this brand new contest! So, we will have a whole new contest starting with this issue. Please join me in welcoming Brook to the crew! You may notice that Brook was also the winner of our April contest so she knows first hand how awesome the prize is!
All entries must be based on the theme for the current months contest. All entries must be uploaded to the SSR Reader's Gallery! Entries must be uploaded no later than the 15th of the month so we have time to conduct a poll. All members of the Reader's Gallery can vote!
Our theme for the June contest is:
You can use any form of art to express yourself. Cards, Altered Art, Traditional Scrapbook Layouts or Digital Layouts are all fantastic ways to express your creativity. Post your art! While you are at it, get your friends to post their layouts also. Let’s make this challenge a fun excursion on your cruise.
At the end of the contest a poll will be set up on the message board. The winner will be announced when the upcoming monthly issue is launched! The winner will receive prize package valued at $25 which is sponsored by Keepsake Designs. Thank you Becky!
Here is the picture from May's contest:
The winning quote is
"It’s finally happened. I’ve turned into my Mother!"
by Jackie Kalchert
Now, if you'd like to see the June Caption Contest card, you'll have to scroll down to the News On Deck! We can't wait to hear your captions! All entries must be sent to our yahoo group, just click the link below to join and be part of the fun and have a few laughs! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SSReflectionsezine/
Our Designer’s Challenge this month comes from Dragon Flaire Designs! If you’ve never dabbled in digital scrapping or card making, this is the time to do it! Resisting? That’s ok, they are pleased to offer you the best in high quality digital papers, embellishments and kits to use for digital and traditional scrapbooking!
Dragon Flaire Designs is the conceptual brainchild of Maggie Lamarre. Her desire to share her beautiful designs with the public at large has prompted her to put effort behind her dream to conjure it into reality. Many things inspire, but without effort they are lost and many times lost. Maggie's countless hours and diligent efforts have brought her dream to reality. Maggie and the rest of her awesome Design Team would like for you to consider Dragon Flaire as your home and the place to inspire you with great designs as well as all of the tools to bring out your creative self. The fabulous layout to the right was created by Ramie Ahlstrom!
Korbyn's Korner - S.S. Reflections Advertiser Spotlight!
korbynmay@ssreflections.com
Director of Sales
As you finish reading this jam packed issue of S.S. Reflections, please make your way to our Making Waves page and visit our advertisers! We have revamped the page to make it more accessible to you and easier for you when you are shopping! Some of our Advertisers have wonderful specials and announcements just for you! We have also changed our COMM policy on the Ezine Yahoo! Group and the Forum Message Board! We are now allowing COMM's from all vendors on the Ezine Yahoo! Group and message board on Mondays!
S.S. Reflections: SSR has created a store directory listing for you and if you don't see your favorite store listed, be sure to send them our way! We have 4 directories for easy access to anyone interested including Brick and Mortar stores and Online stores. Please contact Cap'n Dawn at adsales@ssreflections.com for more information. The cost of this fabulous program is only $50 for one full year as we are committed to supporting the small business!
Altered Pages: What's black and white and red all over? Our new Kit of the Month - you have to see it! The new Kit of the Month is gorgeous if I do say so myself! It's fun to look at, fun to make, and looks like you spent a fortune on it! See this gorgeous kit and all the other beautiful Altered Pages kits! http://www.alteredpages.com/kitofthemonth.html
Don't forget the Collage Sheet Club - shipping now! Get all 12 new collage sheets from Altered Pages before they're even released on the website. Prepay for six months and receive free shipping for six months.
With any purchase of $20 or more, receive the Mini Flowers Collage Sheet - see it on the New Products Page http://www.alteredpages.com/newproducts.html
Jackie had a special offer for all new customers! $5.00 off any first order with the coupon code NEWCUSTOMER
Authentic Memories: During May only, an unprecedented offer of scrapbook supplies valued at $350 for only $90! You'll want to act fast though as the cost is going up later this month!
Exclusive papercraft designs as well as the digital scrapbook package you’ve been dreaming of to create beautiful layouts in no time at all. Easy enough for beginners to look like pros and flexible enough for pros to love as well.
Click thru to see a photo and complete list of all the wonderful goodies waiting for you; white chipboard, bling, textured-papers, rub-ons, cards, ribbons and so much more!
Hearts in Touch: The new Oriental Embossing Board from Glitter Girls... "Eastern Promise". HIT is taking pre-orders NOW!!
Join our group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HeartsInTouchRubberStamps/ and keep up to date on all the new products coming along very soon and meet a lot of wonderful crafting friends.
We also have free, online classes at the HIT website chat room. Anyone is welcome to join.
HIT is now featuring...
PaperArtsy: New from PaperArtsy this past May 2007 are the mini stamps. These are on EZ mount and perfect for ATC's, small gift cards and 'inchie' art.
Also new from the 'Urban Snapshots' Stamp Collection is the Fancy Dress series and Wrought Iron series of 4 plates in each of these families. Check out www.paperartsy.co.uk
Stamp and Scrap Canada: Stamp and Scrap Canada: Read our latest newsletter online - http://www.stampandscrapcanada.com/papercraftnewsletter.html
See what's new in the shop (items added regularly) - http://www.stampandscrapcanada.com/new.html
We've got a HUGE clearance sale going on - 25 to 50% off on lots of items (most are 40% off) - http://www.stampandscrapcanada.com/sale.html
And if you're buying regular priced products here's a couple ecoupon codes you can use. Type the ecoupon code in the text box on the shopping cart page.
To get $5 off an order that includes $40 @ regular prices type: ssreflections5
To get $15 off $100 @ regular prices type: ssreflections15
If you would like to see your company spotlighted please contact either Korbyn or myself at adsales@ssreflections.com for information!
Be sure to check our sponsors websites often for monthly specials! Remember, without the VIP sponsors we wouldn't have S.S. Reflections for you to enjoy!
We have a fabulous June issue for you! The crew has had a great time preparing for our trip to Australia. So, without further delay let me tell you what we have in this issue of SSR for you!
On our Editorial Deck we have a fun and fabulous monthly Caption Contest! The card to the right is our Caption Contest card for June. You'll need to join our Yahoo! Ezine Group to post your caption ideas! The June contest is sponsored by Faerie Song Art Stamps! So, start sharing your captions on the Ezine Yahoo! Group!
We are also having some "Fun in the Sun" with Brook's June Reader's Gallery Contest! Keepsake Designs has provided a prize valued at $25 for the Reader's Gallery Contest!
Now on to the Scrapping Deck! After months of looking at them...Anita has finally taken the plunge and is now loving the Ranger Adirondack Acrylic Paint Dabbers! Just take a look to the right to see how much fun Anita is having! Jill is speed scrapping! Jill has lots of fabulous ideas to help you get organized to speed scrap. This will be very handy for those of you who like to scrap with friends. You can now go without packing everything except the kitchen sink! Stacie Stacie has a whole new sketch to challenge you with this month! This next sketch Stacie found on another great site called Scrap Maps. (http://www.scrap-maps.com/) This site offers all kinds of sketches for about any kind of layout you have in mind! This new sketch is designed for 5 photos, but can be adapted to include more or less as you will see. So, meet this challenge and share your ideas with all of us!
On our Digital Deck this month Ramie is sharing the teacher's gifts she created for Ashleigh's preschool teachers. Ramie came to stay with me earlier this month for a special girlfriends cropping weekend in Chicago and when she showed these albums to me I knew this was something you had to see for yourselves! These are just a fabulous idea! Yvonne is creating fun puzzles with her photos! She explains in detail how to create your own digital puzzles and it isn't as difficult as you might think and has a fabulous finished look! Just take a look to the right! By the way, Yvonne also joined Ramie and I for our fabulous weekend crop in Chicago!
Now on to the Stamping Art Deck! Cindy S. has created a gorgeous Bridal Wedding Box project to share with you this month! June is the month for weddings so it is just in time for special gifts! Just look to the right to see for yourself how beautiful this box is! Flo's artwork is absolutely breathtaking as she has been inspired by Australian Folklore and the beautiful sites in Australia. Come with us as Flo takes us on a special journey using different types of inks on transparencies. This month Judy's will share a review and examples from a new book from C & T Publishing called “Creative Art Concepts for Papercrafts” by Lea Cioci. Lea actually lives not too far from me here in Wisconsin!! Judy's designs are so gorgeous! You will definitely want to include this book in your library!
Now on to the Altered Arts Deck! Cindy has done a fabulous review on the Posh Impressions and Sunday International partnership! Cindy is sharing the ease in using the EZ Mount and how easy it is to use the fabulous Posh Impressions Stamps! Just look at one of the fabulous designs Cindy has created to the right! Michaela has created a fabulous teacher gift by altering chalk boards for the teachers! This is such an awesome idea that I know you are going to love! Robin is sharing her muse with some gorgeous art dolls with us this month! She even has a special guest feature in her article! I'm not going to tell you who it is...you'll have to find out for yourself! It's definitely a very special treat for all of us though! Robin got her summer muse out and a special guest...does it get any better than this? Sue has created Altered tins for us this month! She is giving step by step instructions with an absolutely gorgeous final project for you! This will be Sue's last "official" article with SSR but she's not going anywhere. We have other plans for Sue so just watch for future issues for news on what she is up to!
Our Interactive Reader's Gallery! is not just for showcasing your scanned images, its also for your photos and your digital layouts! We want to see everything that you are proud of! So, come on in and share what you are most proud of! The beautiful summer layout to the right was created by khalgren77! So, don't be shy...share your ideas with us!! You just never know what we'll feature next or who we'll ask to be a guest designer on SSR!! IT COULD BE YOU!!! The photo gallery is so much fun and filled with fantastic designs...stamped art, digital layouts and scrapped layouts not to mention the photo gallery! You can upload all the designs that you want to share with us ANYTIME you'd like! We have an opportunity to make comments and talk about the products you used and the techniques! You'll want to definitely add this to your favorites and come back often!
Today is the first of June. Next week my boys will be out of school and the summer running around will begin. Alex will be playing soccer, Matt will be doing activities with the Civil Air Patrol and Mitch will be working his first job. I'm already exhausted just thinking about it. I think I need to have a "Mom Day" before school lets out. This past month has been crazy with end of school activities. But, my life isn't any busier than anyone elses life. I did do one thing this month that is a little out of the ordinary...I got married last weekend! I haven't shared much about what has happened in the past year, but last year I got divorced after 16 1/2 years of marriage. It was one of the most difficult years of my life but it needed to be done as life couldn't go on the way it was. I had always hoped my husband would finally figure it out...the good news is he did! The bad news is it was after the divorce was final. But, God is good. Forgiveness is a powerful thing and with the grace of God we made our way back from the depths of divorce. We re-married this past weekend (May 26). My oldest son gave me away along with my Mom and my Dad married us. It was a simple ceremony with family and a few very dear friends by our side. We had a fabulous day and we reunited our family the way God had intended it to be. Lots of lessons have been learned (the hard way unfortunately) but it was worth it. It was definitely worth going through all that we went through to get where we are today. Well, if you made it this far, thank you for listening and thank you for joining us on this very special cruise to Australia. I hope you have time this month to be inspired by all that you see on SSR and with what God has created for us. Please share your art, your photos and your layouts with us and your stories.
Happy summer,
Cap'n Dawn
publisher@ssreflections.com
Publisher
Reflections Publishing Group
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