Write My Life

All these layouts are from the Boston/New Hampshire/Vermont trip in June. All supplies from Designer Digitals unless noted.

• Destination: Boston

Journaling: For four nights of our vaction we stayed in Woburn, MA. T\On two days we visited Boston by taking the subway into town. We boarded the subway in Wellington, MA (orange line) then got off in the heart of the city. We learned to navigate the subway system. On one trip, we let Jackie lead the way, reading the subway map and even navigating a transfer from the orange line to the blue line at State. We made it just fine. Excellent job, Jackie!

Katie Pertiet: Border Die Cuts No. 2
Katie Pertiet: Stacked Photo Frames No. 2
Katie Pertiet: Traveler Stamps
Katie Pertiet: Little Fly Aways
Ali Edwards: The Story Word Art + Hand-Drawn Brushes
Font: Garamond

• Walking Boston

Journaling: Our subway stop began partially along the Freedom trail so we began at the North Station on the orange line. The sites we saw included the Old State House, Faneuil Hall, Quincy Market, Paul Revere House, Old North Church, Charlestown Bridge, USS Constitution, Beacon Hill, and the Boston Common. 6/22/08

Katie Pertiet: Travel Stamps
Mindy Terasawa: Flutter Butter brown paper
Ali Edwards: Layered Template No. 22
Fonts: Myriad Pro and Arial Black

• The Pew Box

Journaling:
Circa 1724. Church members were often seated according to social rank, whether by assignment or purchase. The wealthy could purchase their pew box. These private pews were marked with a name and they also gave rise to the practice of numbering pews for easy record keeping.

Circa 2008. Mike and I sit in our normal pew spot at church where our whole family sits together. “Don’t get used to that pew you are sitting in,” our preacher says. “As our church grows someone else may take that pew. That pew does not have your name on it.”

So, when we saw these pews at the Old North Church in Boston, we had to laugh.

Katie Pertiet: White cabana paper
Fonts: You are Loved and Garamond

• Whale Cool

Journaling:

Ohhhhh. Ahhhhh. Ohhhhh. Ahhhhh. Ohhhhh. Ahhhhh. Ohhhhh. Ahhhhh.

It’s about all we could say as we were watching the whales

Jesse Edwards: Clean and Serene Solids
Jesse Edwards: Title Lines No4
Katie Pertiet: Tied Fasteners No2
Kellie Mize: DoubleDates No3 -Block
Fonts: Garamond and Hannibal Lecter

• Never Again

Journaling:

We may never go on a whale watching tour again.

Not because of sea sickness.
Not because the tour was bad.
Not because we didn’t see any whales.

Actually, the opposite – we were spoiled with the number of whale sightings and the incredible number of different behaviors we saw!

We sailed on a large boat to a feeding ground called Stellwagen Bank, a plateau at the Massachusetts Bay’s eastern edge. Here the current comes up to the bank and carries nutrients with it, making a great spot for whale feeding. While we were there, we saw an abundance of fish which were even visible from the water’s surface. We saw up to 10 different Humpback Whales, including a mom and her calf.

Humpback Whales can be identified by the pattern on their tales and after they are a few years old, they are given a name. We saw Echo with her calf. Echo was first sited in 1988. A NOAA website says, “Echo has a great tail to identify. Her left and right flukes are very similar in pattern, however, on the left fluke near the leading edge is a very distinguishing mark. This mark reminded researchers of the depiction of an echowave from a dolphin or bat. And so, she was given the appropriate name of Echo. This mark may have been caused by an attacking orca whale.”

We felt really blessed to see this many whales at one time. It prompted us all to say, “We don’t ever need to go on a whale watching tour again.”

Paper: Jesse Edwards, Indigo Solids and Clean and Serene Solids
Date Stamp: Katie Pertiet, Digital Dates No. 10
Brads: Anna Aspnes, Something Springy

Font: Bank Gothic, jGaramond

• The Artist Within: Lovin Life

Journaling: I had a camera. Tia had a camera. Grandma had a camera. Even Jackie, who never takes photographs, had a camera. Each of us snapped away as we watched the interesting behaviors of the humpback whales on our whale watching tour. I had the advantage though. Even with a short range zoom lens at 105mm I could get closer to the action. The real adantage came because I was using an Single Lens Reflex camera with continuous drive mode. Instead of waiting for the right moment, I could just press down on the shutter button and take a whole sequence of photographs. In the end, I took 86 humpback whale photographs!

Jesse Edwards: Clean and Serene Solids
Jesse Edwards: Indigo Solids
Kelly Mize: Tortuga Template No. 11 (for long, thin photo)
Kelly Mize: Double Dates No. 03 Brushes-n-Stamps
Ali Edward: Title + Journal Photo Overlays No. 01 (for The Story)
MaryAnn Wise: Doubletake Drama
Font: Garamond

• Neat

Journaling: Despite the threat of rain, we rode the subway to Boston Harbor to see the New England Aquarium and take a whale watching tour. Thankfully, we were able to do both activities with only minimal rain disturbance.

At the aquarium we saw various sea creatures. We enjoyed the several different types of penguins as well as the fur and harbor seals.

We also enjoyed the central tank with various animals swimming within it. To make our whale watching tour, we slightly pushed ourselves, but we make it through the aquarium and lunch in 3 hours.

Although a nice aquarium, we still ranked the Monetary Bay Aquarium and John G.. Shedd Aquarium higher.

Jesse Edwards: Clean and Serene Solid paper
Kellie Mize: Tortuga Template 24
MaryAnn Wise: Double Take Drama Brushe
Katie Pertiet: Traveler Stamps