The WINNER of the Ultimate Stacy Contest

Da da da da, dut dut dut dut dut DAH.... (you have to imagine the trumpet flourish!)

It is our pleasure to announce the winner of the Ultimate Stacy Contest, who has won a free ticket to the Opening Ceremonies, a signed copy of Stacy's new book Photo Freedom, and a ticket to Stacy's class "Finish Line Scrapbooking" on Thursday morning!

Congratulations to Roxann Keating!

I love being organized. Scrapbooking for me was the solution to organizing my pictures in a beautiful, meaningful way. And by meaningful I mean in date order. I was the queen of chronological scrapbooking. In my bookcase are 40 scrapbooks (in chronological order). My vacation books without exception start with the car pulling out of the driveway and end with the return home. I won't belabor the point, you get the picture.

When I saw Stacy Julian on television suggesting that scrapbooking is about conveying emotions, sharing experiences, and showing the personalities and spirits of the people we love, I thought, "That sounds great, but how do you organize it?"

Mentally I was all about this new approach, but there were my pictures in little piles, March, April, May, etc. Me trying to scrapbook in Stacy's way was like trying to teach my husband to match up his socks before he puts them in the drawer-it was not happening.

Then, in April my best friend died of pancreatic cancer. It was unexpected, and it was fast. I had known Diane since I was four years old and she died at the age of 45. I had thought about what it might be like to lose my parents, but I never for a moment thought there would be day when Diane and I didn't share e-mails or a month when we didn't have lunches together.

Diane was the most inspirational and generous person I have ever known.

And my life was littered (and I mean that in a good way) with notes, cards, oil paintings and pictures of all the love that she had shared with me in forty years. I began to make copies of the keepsakes and, with my adhesive tabs, a different kind of scrapbook emerged from the tears and the memories.

It is not chronological, not in order-it is just Diane. And it is not just a scrapbook for me, it is a treasure. My one regret is that the person I would most like to share it with, the one person who would really appreciate it, who might then know how much I loved her, is not here to turn the pages with me.

I want to meet Stacy Julian, because I now wholeheartedly believe that scrapbooking is about people, rather it be us, our families or just people that we admire. I still struggle with wanting to do things "in order," but my creativity shines through in the pages that show what I'm feeling.
These pages are of my friend, Diane, I have a bookful to share with anyone who is interested because I hope, if enough people look at it, Diane will catch a glimpse when she's looking down from heaven.

Thanks for the opportunity to share my story.

Roxann H. Keating