Going Back to Europe?

Our family is deciding if we should venture across the pond and take another trip to Europe.  My parents went with a tour group in 2008 and my sister, Erika, and I went in 2011 to World Youth Day.  Erika and I spent about four days in Italy and nine in Spain.  I would really like to go back to Europe but mainly back to Italy because I didn’t get to spend much time there.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip Erika and I took in 2011.

View from our hotel in Assisi, Italy

 Colosseum in Rome, Italy

Basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome, Italy

Cathedral of Saint Mary of Toledo in Toledo, Spain

Don’t forget to visit my websites at www.signaturedesignvideo.com and www.msignaturedesignvideo.com.

Selling on Etsy!

Guess what?  I've started selling my photo slideshows on Etsy. To find my store just search for: signaturedesignvideo. There are a total of six choices of slideshows you can choose from. Three are in digital format and three are in DVD format.

The reason there is such a pricing difference between a five-minute slideshow with a DVD and a five-minute digital slideshow is because the cost of using royalty-free music is fairly expensive.  The advantage of a digital photo slideshow is that you can put it on the Internet. With a DVD, due to copyright laws you cannot put it on the Internet. 

Flickr and My New Mobile Website

My sister, Erika, suggested I start uploading all my pictures on to Flickr in case there was I fire and I told her the first thing I’m grabbing if there is a fire is my external hard drive.  But I did as she suggested.  My file sizes were fairly large so it took most of the day but I now have 171 albums that are separated by year and sometimes event.  Since November, I have either scanned the slides or negatives or scanned the actual pictures of all these photographs.  You also can make it private so that no one can see your photos or download them.  You just have to go to settings and make sure all the privacy setting you would like are in place.  So now I’m safe if there is a fire and I don’t have time to get my external hard drive.  I’ll just lose everything else I have on it.

Yesterday I created a mobile website so you no longer have to zoom in a lot and read small typeface.  The address is www.msignaturedesignvideo.com.  It took me a while to understand the interface to creating the site but I’m pretty proud of it.  For someone who hasn’t created any websites before and now creating two on my own I feel very accomplished. 

Don’t forget to check out both of my sites at www.signaturedesignvideo.com and www.msignaturedesign.com.

Happy Birthday!

I want to say a happy belated birthday to my Dad! Even though we don’t often seen eye to eye on things, I still love you.  You were the person that took me to all my early KU Basketball games and when I would stay up late and Erika would be asleep; we would go on our little adventures to the bulk candy aisle. 

I also want to say happy belated birthday to my Grandma Bette.  Yesterday would have been her 92^nd birthday.  I know you and Grandpa Jim are looking down on us.

Don’t forget to check out my website at www.signaturedesignvideo.com.

Happy Early Mother's Day

To my mom:  I want to say thank you for all the times that I haven’t.  You have been my rock through everything that I have gone through in my life, from fights with Erika when I was little to giving me the confidence to start my new business.  I don’t know what I would have done without you. 

To Erika:  Happy 1^st Mother’s Day!  I know you think mom and I criticize everything you do but we don’t.  I think you are doing an amazing job raising your son.  Wear your Mother’s Day present from me with pride.  You are a great mom!

To Gigi:  You are truly the matriarch in this family.  If you weren’t such a strong woman, we wouldn’t be getting together for holidays, birthdays or even brunch on Mother’s Day.  You have held this family together through think and thin. 

Photo by: Complete Music Video and Photo

Don’t forget to visit my website at www.signaturedesignvideo.com.

The Road Trip: Part Seven

The final destination on our road trip was Santa Clara and San Francisco.  We went to look at the house where I spent the first three years of my life.  Nothing had changed.  The house was still the same color, same roof, etc.  So much so that we didn’t even take a picture of it.  

We surprised an old neighbor, Vicki Garrison, by knocking on her door because we couldn’t get a hold of her before the trip.  My mom and Vicki reminisced about old soap operas and Carl, Jr.’s salad bar with REAL bacon bits.  Vicki accompanied us on our day trip to San Francisco the next day.

There were two things I wanted to do while we were in the San Francisco, see the Golden Gate Bridge and ride a cable car.  None of these were achieved.  We attempted to see the Golden Gate Bridge but it was fogged in.  We went down to Fisherman’s Wharf and you could see it clearly, so we jumped in the car and went back.  It was fogged in again!

As far as the cable car went, the line was down the street and around the block, and my mom refused to let me wait in that line.  She swears I rode them before, but I don’t remember.

I did get to experience Lombard Street, the crookedest street in the world.  It is popular for it’s hairpin turns and it’s steep hill. 

Finally, after three weeks, everyone was ready to go home and we skipped Yellowstone National Park.  We made a beeline straight back to Kansas, stopping only to spend the night when we were exhausted.  Everyone needed some space.  It took us three weeks to get there and four days to get home.  It was a road trip I won’t forget, but I’ll always call it by a different name. 

Remember to visit my website at www.signaturedesignvideo.com.