If Shoes Could Talk

This is a page of my beat up tennis shoes that I just finished. For some reason I can't get a smaller picture on here and blogger keeps cutting it off, but you can click on the photo to see the whole thing.

Occasionally I try my hand at digital scrapbooking. Compared to regular scrapbooking, which of course requires tons of paper, stickers, ribbons and other little do-dads, it is much less messier because the materials never leave my computer. The only downside is that working with Photoshop can be a bit of a pain. Our family computer is not very big or powerful, and working with all the layers that a scrapbook page requires really bogs it down.

Suggestions/critique/random thoughts are welcome.

Who Could Ask for Anything More?

Gershwin is simply amazing. It never fails, whenever I hear or play anything written by him my heart and mind soar into the sky, exploding in the Milky Way into a thousand specks of firework-like joy. I don't know what it is, but his music instantly puts a person in a good mood. I have lost track of the number of times I have had a terrible day and been on the verge of tears, but had a complete mood turn-around after playing some Gershwin. There's something about it that makes the sky bluer, the sun brighter, the grass greener, the breeze warmer and more pleasant, and the people around you seem friendlier. If his music were easier, I would learn every song he ever wrote in a heartbeat. I find his songs pretty difficult because they're usually very fast with a lot of jumping around, up and down the keyboard. And his hands must have been a lot bigger than mine, because my fingers can never reach all the notes in his chords! His music is a real pain to practice but so rewarding and fun once you can play it. And that is why I am trudging through it now - in a couple months it is going to be so thrilling to play.

And if you're having a not-so-great kind of day and are in need of something to lighten your spirits, here is a pretty awesome arrangement of "I Got Rhythm." It's a bit slow at the beginning, but watch the whole thing, it gets super amazing.