Something a little different

I'm going to time travel a bit and go back to 1999. Now to really give you an accurate picture, I should mention that my DH had been a computer junkie for quite some time already at that point. He was playing with computers and hanging out on the "internet" when the internet was basically bulletin board posts. Being a fairly new stay-at-home Mom, one day I went for my first excursion on the internet while my two DDs were napping. My DH had been pestering me about trying out the internet and the computer and kept telling me how to do this or that. Well I finally caved in. One of the things that I looked for was sites and info about a favorite author, Diana Gabaldon, who wrote the Outlander series of books. I found several websites dedicated to her and started to keep track of them, checking in occasionally to see what was going on. One of the sites in particular caught my eye because the people posting there were just having so much fun! That site was The Ladies of Lallybroch™. Soon I was lurking on their discussion boards every day and in May of 1999, I got up the nerve to make my first post and was greeted with such enthusiasm that I've been hanging out there ever since.

Over time I've become more involved with the fun goings-on at Lallybroch and one of the things that I've done for the last few years, at the request of the owner of the site, is design a holiday bookmark related to the series of books in some way. These are then printed up and sent to the ever-gracious Diana Gabaldon, who signs them and sends them back. These are then gifted to site members and fans who want one or two--just one of the neat holiday traditions at that site. I mention this here because I'm a fan of reading and I play around with computer graphics, and this annual bookmark is a way that I get to combine both of these interests.

This year's bookmark once again features the lovely painting that is closely associated with The Ladies of Lallybroch™--this painting was created by the mother of the designer of the LOL website and given to Judie, the owner of the site, who, in turn, has given me permission to use the image on these bookmarks. The painting can be seen on the entry page to the LOL website.

The theme this year is taken from the most recent book in the series, A Breath of Snow and Ashes. In it, one of the main characters, Jamie, a Highland Scot of the 18th century living in North Carolina just prior to the American Revolution, dreams of his grandson, Jemmy, who lives in more modern day Scotland in the late 1970s or so--the foibles of time travel! In this dream Jem is reaching for an object and stating that he wants to talk to his Grandda. Jamie can only describe this object, not knowing what to call it and never having seen anything like it before. His modern-day wife, Claire, recognizes it as a telephone.

This bookmark is a depiction of this special telephone-line-through-time connection that Jemmy shares with his Grandda. On one side of the painting are images that are more modern, the warm fireplace of the manse and the Mini Cooper, as well as the base of the telephone. The cord spirals through the painting and stretches back to scenes that would be common during colonial times, the horse and wagon and the inn where Jamie slept and had his dream. Coming through the receiver I placed Jem's "voice", calling out to his Grandda from across time and space. Some subtle snowflakes and a "Season's Greetings from across the miles..." sentiment that stretches across all of the elements complete this year's design.

Here is that bookmark:

Hope you enjoyed hearing about some of the background behind this design.