There are so many things I want to say about my experience with Simple, but somehow I can't find the right words. It's just probably best summed up in one word: incredible. This cover features my photo, my seventh and final cover photo. This magazine also, as it happens, includes all three of my kids on one page (pg 33), and another photo from the session (my gorgeous friend Marlena and her lovely mother) featured on the cover (page 63).
I remember the first time I heard from Wendy Smedley at Simple that they wanted one of my layouts I had submitted. It was the shriek heard 'round the world. This was the very first layout of mine they picked and my first ever published:
(page 113, July/August 2006)
Not long after hearing from Wendy, I heard from Stacy. The second shriek heard 'round the world. They wanted to see more of my work. I don't think I stopped smiling for a week. And then I met Stacy just about a week later at CHA and made a total gushing ass of myself in front of the person who had been almost single-handedly responsible for fueling my passion for telling and recording my family's stories. And then I found out they were adopting from Korea and well, as an adoptive mom I felt a whole 'nother level of connectedness with her.
My next big break came in the next issue when they selected a photo of mine for the back page:
I loved that my son, whose birthday is Halloween, was featured in this Sept/Oct issue holding pumpkins from the previous year's pumpkin patch excursion. I think my mother bought every issue at her grocery store and accosted everyone she met to show them. Of course, I bought every issue at my grocery store, too.
Then not long after this issue came out, I was asked to be a Simple Gal for 2007. Yes, that would have been the third shriek heard 'round the world. And then in September 2007 I became an editorial board member.
In the time I'd been with Simple in those various capacities, I'd had nearly 50 layouts and projects published in nearly every issue, seven cover photo credits and and four cover layout credits.
I've shared a meal (or two or three) with Stacy, Wendy, Tara, Donna, Cathy (who showed off some of her ice skating moves), Celeste, Elizabeth, Karen, Kim, Beth, Rebecca, Candice, Renee, Lin, Lain, Angie, Margaret (we went to Sweetwater House together last summer - had so much fun getting to know her), Melanie, Linda, Ali, Rachel (roomed with her one night at CHA in 2008 and talked about adoption for hours - she's so sweet) and many others I'm probably forgetting. And in the midst of all these people you can't help but be in awe of the amount of talent surrounding you and feel just a bit humbled and so incredibly thankful to have been a part of it.
(This photo, swiped today from Elizabeth's blog, was taken at CHA 2008. The good ol' days.)
I'm so sad the magazine is gone but the best thing about it all is that all of these ladies are still my friends and are still out there to inspire and continue to provide the scrapbooking inspiration and words of wisdom you've come to rely on. The magazine is gone but the people we know and love are still there for you. Simple will live on. I pinky swear!
And as part of our collective farewell, most of my Simple peeps and I are blog partying this week and giving stuff away. Here's what I've got to give away to one lucky, randomly chosen winner who shares a Simple memory or story:
One copy each of the last three Simple issues, including the "Scrapbook Play with Photos" special issue, a Dot-n-Go, an awesome stamp kit and a Simple instructional video.
So today, go visit
Candice Palmer,
Jen Wozab and
Elizabeth Dillow as they share some of their own Simple memories and stories, and check out the blogs of the rest of my Simple friends as we all wax on about the Simple days - and maybe win some stuff:
Margaret ScarbroughPeace out and stay tuned.