Fame! I'm gonna live forever in My Unpredictable Life ...

In the not too distant future I will be famous. Well, not really, but closer to being famous than I am right this minute.

"Well now, Sassy, how in the world will you become famous?" you may ask ...

How about I just show you ...

"Huh? What's that?"

A better view ...

That my dear, sweet, friends is a book cover. And before you ask, no I did not write the book. The lovely and talented Kristen wrote the story. I am not talented enough to write a book lol. I have too much reality going on that it leaves no room for me to create fiction in my head.

I once told a friend that I could write an autobiography and win a Pulitzer for best fiction. My life has been so crazy real that people have a hard time believing that I didn't make the shit up. Trust me, I couldn't make it up if I tried! So I leave the book writing to the talented people. People like Kristen.

"Okay then, Sassy, so what's so special about the book cover? If you didn't write the story, then why are you showing us a cover of the book?"

Well that's simple. All that picture, behind all that text, is a picture that I created.

You see, I've often offered to Kris to go through my pictures on FB and if she saw something that she liked, that might go along with a story line she was currently working on, to let me know & I would sign the rights of it over to her.

So one day last month, we got to chatting via FB and one thing led to another and she started giving me a synopsis and I started forming this "idea" in my head and then she showed me a working cover photo she had created and it was very similar to what I had going on in my head and next thing I know she is giving me creative free reign.

And then it snowed. LOL So I had to wait for the snow to melt. Then it was Thanksgiving. Not to mention the working on the weekends I had going on. So finally, the snow melted, I had a day off work, and I forced the time into my schedule to stage the photo. I only had a small window to work with because more snow was coming.

I got lucky and had a 20 minute window of full on sunshine instead of the dull gray cloudiness we'd had going on for a few days. I grabbed everything up and headed outside to stage it. Unfortunately it was only 21ºF so I had to work fast. My fingers were freezing and once I could no longer push the shutter button, I had to call it quits. Not to mention, I didn't want to cause my camera any problems with the below freezing temp. All in all, I was outside maybe a total of 10 minutes.

So the duffel bag is Hubby's left over from one of his desert deployments and is filled with a throw blanket & pillows from my couch lol. I used the last pair of boots he was issued before he retired. His dog tags (info blurred for security reason, even though you can't see them close up). The flag Hubby was presented with when his grandfather passed away (he was a WWII vet). I had gone through Kristen's FB pictures and found a couple of 2 of her 5 kids I liked that fit the "image" I had going on in my head and photoshopped them and printed them out. And then I threw in a sprig of fake flowers I had laying around. Due to the angle of the sun, when it finally appeared, I wasn't able to take the image exactly the way I had it in my head so I had to adjust my thought process. I'll even admit that I wasn't completely 100% satisfied with the pictures because I couldn't get the shot I wanted. But I played around with them in PS and I finally got a few that I could live with. At the end of the day, it was all about Kris and what she liked and didn't like.

I had no idea that it would turn out as perfect as it did! She did all the text and text placement and she made my "idea" work and made it perfect on top of that!

So even though the book is all about her and her talent, I can't help but do a little brag about my part in the cover. The best part? Once it is released in digital format, a few days later it will be available to purchase in paper format!! I am so going to buy one and have it framed lol.

I know I keep saying it over and over but I can't help myself. I have to thank you one more time, Kris, for the amazing experience and opportunity. This was such a pleasure to do (I do love my photography hobby!!!!!) and I'll never forget this!

Till next time ...