Today's guest has shared treasures with us, been in our spotlight and shared thoughts with us twice so please welcome Kathleen Neely back once again with something she treasures....
Joy
in the Journey
I was married in 1972, and raised three sons in the
age before digital photography. That explains why I have photo albums with
clear pages that contain years of photographs, sticky pages that loosen if you
peel them back to rearrange the photos. Before digital photography, we took
rolls of film to the pharmacy to have pictures sent away to be developed. No
one-hour pick up. There was no option to peek and select the best of the roll.
The result of that is multiple photos of the same pose, just to ensure that we’d
get a good one. I never could bring myself to discard photos, so the extras
ended up in a box, often with the negatives in an envelope, just in case.
Then came digital photography. The advent of photo
books. No more sticky pages with pictures falling out. The first one that I
created was my son and daughter-in-law’s wedding pictures. I knew that I wanted
the same beautiful tribute to the years of raising my sons. The problem was, I
had no digital photos. I had a disorganized mess of a dozen haphazard books and
two boxes of jumbled pictures.
My sister and I set ourselves to the enormous task
of creating three photo books, one for each of my sons. The book would
highlight their lives from birth to adulthood. Days turned into weeks, and
weeks turned into months. We spread photos over a long table and began sorting,
selecting, scanning, and downloading. Then we set ourselves to the task of
creating.
Another wonderful perk a photo book is the
opportunity for creativity—adding quotes, embellishments, borders. I scanned
and included newspaper birth announcements, scriptures, and some snippets of
things they had written.
The joy of creating the books was topped by their
pleasure when they opened them at Christmas. This little story contains so many
things that I cherish. The years of memories when my boys were young, the time
spent with my sister working and reminiscing, the fun creating, and the joy of
giving. At the onset, the project felt overwhelming, but the journey became my
treasure.
How precious, Kathleen! I've got a ton of photos that need to be in albums and a ton more on computer, phone and CD's that need to be printed and put in albums. I think we can all agree pictures are something to treasure. Thanks for sharing.
Among
her writing accomplishments, Kathleen won second place in a short story contest
through ACFW-VA for her short story “The Missing Piece” and an honorable
mention for her story “The Dance”. Both were published in a Christmas
anthology. Her novel, The Least of These,
was awarded first place in the 2015 Fresh Voices contest through Almost an Author. She has numerous devotions
published through Christian
Devotions.
She continues to speak to students about writing. Kathleen is a member of
Association of Christian Fiction Writers.
She resides in Greenville, SC with her
husband, two cats, and one dog. She enjoys time with family, visiting her two
grandsons, traveling, and reading.
Website – www.KathleenNeely.com
Facebook –
www.facebook.com/kathy.neely.98
Twitter - https://twitter.com/NeelyKneely3628
The Street Singer is available at:
Beauty for Ashes will be released on
April 26th. Watch for the presale coming soon.
Hope you enjoyed today's post friends and that you'll drop by often to see who's sharing what!
Until next time take care and God bless.
PamT
7 comments:
Kathy, what a precious post. I also have hundreds of photos from the pre-digital age -- my own, and I inherited my parents' archives when they died. I am in the long-term and tedious process of scanning them in, but it brings me such joy to handle a faded black-and-white of someone who has gone before. You are right, the process is as rewarding as the product.
Kathy Bailey
Kathleen, you & I were married the same year. At first, I was diligent about putting photos in albums...until my kids were ending high school. Now I have tubs (and not little tubs, either) of photos. Thank goodness for digital photos. The only space they take up in on my phone or computer. What a lovely time you & your sister had going through those old photos. What a treasure for your children.
Hi Kathleen,
I was so good at making picture books when my boys were young, but now with digital pictures, the pictures get lost in the tech world.
I loved "The Street Singer."
I also put together many family photo albums. But since digital has arrived I receive precious hard copy photos of grandchildren. I make my own from the digitals.
Kathleen, congrats on the success of your writing endeavors!
Loved your post. Brought back good memories! Congrats on all yours successes.
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I too have tons of loose pictures. But years ago I made every one of my kids their own albums to cherish as they grew up. I'm so glad I took the time to do it.
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