Textures

Last night we flew to Austin. This weekend our oldest son is getting married, and I had quite a few hours on my hands on the plane and during our layover, to create this layout. A year or so ago I wrote an article for Creating Keepsakes Magazine about my 'Orphan Photo' project- it ended up being more or less a 'month in review' type of layout concept, but in reality, these are the kinds of photos that are fun to scrap. Those odds & ends pictures that you have no idea exactly why you shot- an interesting texture, shadows on a wall, seagull footprints in the sand, colorful spools of ribbon, some peeling paint on a rusty surface. What to do with these photos? I thought it might be a good idea to just pick a few of them and do a texture layout. These days most of our photos get uploaded to Bruce's computer, because mine is so full, I can no longer upload more than a few at a time. So, I didn't have the usual thousands of photos to choose from. But I had fun picking a few interesting pictures, and then I created a Photoshop Action, to do the frame flip & shadow work on each of the small photos. I also did a paper tear effect by hand... with brushes, erasers, blending, shadowing, etc. Not too realistic, but I think it looks decent. You might be interested to know that the darker brown mottled background, was a photo I took with my cellphone camera, of the inside of a restroom door. I loved the texture!

It Really IS a Small World After All

I admit it- my collections are pretty much everywhere in my house, and among my favorites are my maps and globes. I probably have a couple of dozen vintage atlases and school geography books from the 20s through the 50s. I have no idea why I love them so much, but I love the colors and shapes and names on the maps. I love the funky dull turquoise blue of the ocean. I love the pale yellows, and bright spots of red. I love the hundreds and hundreds of tiny names- towns, cities, lakes, rivers, highways, parks, landmarks. I love the globes too. I love big old globes from the '50s, and the fun little bank globes from the 40s. My favorite is the one on the right of my layout... with the fun latitude markers around the outside (at least I THINK that's what they are, I'm no expert). I also have a few old map puzzles, including one from my childhood. I think the reason I love the maps and globes so much is because it brings back memories of elementary school. I remember seeing those huge maps in our classrooms, the kind that pulled down like a window shade. Every teacher had a globe on her desk, and we learned our geography from beautiful books full of maps, and photos of exotic places. I can still see in my mind's eye, photos of the Peruvian natives with their llamas. I can imagine the picture of the Bedouin family with their tents, and the Chinese children in their classroom. I haven't been to any of these places, but seeing my colorful globes and maps, reminds me that it really IS a small world after all.

One Sister

When I dug deep into the digital archives of My Mom's family to do the 'Three Sisters' layout, the purpose of my search was an adorable photo of my Aunt Nita sitting on the back of a sheep. I thought it would be the perfect photo to colorize. It didn't turn out perfectly, but I'm pretty happy with it.

As I mentioned in my lengthy blog entry the other day, Mom was particularly close to her sister Nita. They shared a common joie de vivre, and happy disposition. My Mom misses her sister terribly, and speaks of her often. I wanted to honor her by sharing a few photos of the cute little girl, and pretty lady, that was my Aunt Juanita Alberta Ward Wittenberg.

Three Sisters

My Mom grew up in Twin Falls, Idaho. Her parents were homesteaders in Idaho shortly after their marriage in 1909, moving from Portland, Oregon to Idaho in 1910. They lived on a farm in Filer during the first few years of their marriage, later moving 'to town', and renting out the farm. Grandpa Ward owned a couple of farms, and some land in Canada, and even an oil well in Oklahoma at one time. He enjoyed owning property, and eventually built a lovely home in Twin Falls in the early 20s. But times were hard. Even before the Stock Market Crash of 1929, farm prices had collapsed, and many farmers started losing their farms by 1920. Eventually, Grandpa lost all of his properties, and even their beautiful Twin Falls bungalow. By the time Mom graduated from junior high in 1927, they were living in a rented home. But those who lived during those hard times know, it takes more than financial ruin to damage families. The Ward family was a hard working, loving and Christian family. Grandpa took work as he could- he worked as a taxi driver, and a shoe salesman, and whatever job he could get. Grandma stayed home with the girls, sewed their dresses, saw to it that they had music lessons, and allowed them to enjoy their youth without burdening them with financial problems. As Mom has often told me, they didn't know they were poor. Everyone was.
As I look through the old photos I have of my Mom and her sisters, I wish I had a time machine so I could go back to the 1920s, and see what their lives were like back then. I've been to my Mom's bungalow house- back in 2000, we went to Twin Falls, and found the house. The current owner was remodeling it as a rental, and we were able to see the inside. Very little had changed from the way it was originally. I got on the phone with my mom as we went through the house, and she described it to me. Other than the porch being transformed into a room, it seemed so much as she described it that I could almost feel their presence.
The man in the photo is not my Grandpa Ward- it's his father Walter T. Ward, visiting the family in the early 20s. The sweet lady in the back is my Grandma Martha Gruetzmacher Ward.
Mom always said that she had a happy life growing up. Her older sister remembers things differently, she felt the pinches of the hard times. But the two younger girls enjoyed the pleasant memories of innocence and warmth during those difficult years.

Jack's First Annual Pumpkin Patch Day!

Last week we were informed by The Proud Parents (aka A & A- Alec & Alicia) that Saturday would be the First Annual Pumpkin Patch Day for baby Jack. So we faithfully packed the camera and the telephoto lens, and headed over to the Pumpkin Patch, where we enjoyed a couple of wonderful hours, (perfect weather, bright blue sky, alternating happy baby/ sleeping baby) and took our usual 400+ photos. Jack really looked perfect for his various photo ops- adorable orange Halloween themed onesie and bib. Now that he has reached the ripe old age of 2 months, the smiles and grins are frequent and endearing. I know Proud Papa Alec was dreaming of the next few Annual Pumpkin Patch Days, when little Jack will be seen running through the pumpkins, instead of snoozing in his stroller. But for this day, we were content to have our sweet li'l grandson just looking perfect and innocent in his parent's arms. It was certainly hard to pick just a few photos out of hundreds to create this layout, but I did my best!

On My Honor

Inspired by Color Combos Galore, I created this layout about my years as a Girl Scout in the early '60s. All the memorabilia is from my own collection, although three of the photos just recently came into my hands. Only the color photo of my friend Ponce and I raising the flag, is one I've had since childhood. The black and white ones came to me as a result of my work on my high school class website. Reconnecting with old friends, combined with modern technology, has allowed us to share our treasures with each other! The pretty lady with the sunglasses is my own Fabulous Mother. She was one of our leaders, and we had so much fun! The little Scout dork with the glasses is me- probably the first photo of me wearing them.
If you're so inclined, you can click on the image to see a full-size version.

My Lunch With Jon Voight

Today I spent a lovely hour in the presence of one of my cinematic heroes: Jon Voight.
Ok, so he was eating in the same restaurant as me and my co-workers. It's always so awkward sitting near a celebrity- do you stare? Ignore them? Ask for an autograph or a photo taken with them? Of course, in LA we mostly ignore them. But I had my trusty iPhone, so I snapped a few photos surreptitiously. Trying to manipulate my camera under my arm and backward (he and his friend were sitting behind me) without looking like a total dork, was difficult, and I have these marvelous photos to show for it.



Oh, this one is pretty good, for upside down and backwards and under my arm. Oh, darn, he has his hand over his nose and mouth. I'll try again.



Now THAT'S an award-winning shot! Maybe I can sell it to the tabloids!



Rats! Total mess up! No one is ever going to believe I was having lunch with Jon Voight! (as if anyone cares, get real!)



See? See? You CAN tell who it is, can't you? No? Oh, well, maybe next week I'll see Brad Pitt. I'll practice my underarm backwards upside down photo shooting, until I get real good at it!

*Edited to add: for those of you who aren't familiar with Jon Voight, he's an academy award winning actor (Coming Home), and the father of Angelina Jolie.

Little Sand Baby

The summer after we moved to California, my Mom piled all of us kids into the car, and drove us to Santa Monica Beach almost every day. I can still remember driving down Santa Monica Blvd. with the old street cars running down the middle of the street with their electric lines and clanging bells. These photos were taken of me and my brother Gene, as we played in the sand. We loved to dig holes, make sand castles, and bury each other in the warm sand. The year was 1955, and life was sweet for a little 4 year old girl.
Although I have one of my childhood sand buckets, it doesn't look at all like the bucket I have in the photo. I found this bucket in a nearby antique store. Usually I try to only use my own stuff in my layouts, but occasionally I have to make an exception! For the sake of design, I've had to rely on someone else's treasure.