Nikki in Wonderland

Fantasy layouts are the big thing in the digital scrapbooking world. I'm not nuts about them on the whole... some are amazing, some are well, not my style. But I decided to have a little fun with this cute photo of my little grand-niece Nikki. She's so photogenic, and I probably have hundreds of photos of her posing for me (maybe I should say 'vamping'?) Nikki is so cute, and I love her impish grin and face full of freckles. What little girl doesn't wish to spend a little time in Wonderland once in awhile?

Spring in the Parking Lot

I was pretty surprised when I pulled into the parking lot of my Mom's apartment complex on Saturday, to see these beautiful flowering trees (tree experts: anyone know what they are?) The sky was the most amazing blue, deep and aquamarine. The large shot was taken looking into the sun, and I love the way the petals look with the sun shining through them.
Happy Spring!

Buzz Lightyear & the Harley

Our #1 Grandson Aidan visited us this past weekend, and we had so much fun! One of our excursions was to the Silverlake area of Los Angeles, with his Daddy Ian, and Jessica. Aidan had found these cute Buzz Lightyear goggles in Annie's room (fair game as far as I'm concerned) and he appropriated them for whatever adventure he encountered. It didn't take long. He spied a cool Harley-Davidson kiddie ride in front of a children's store, and promptly took off for infinity and beyond.

Angel Boy

I admit to sometimes doing the sappy, symbolic layout. I just can't help myself when I start playing with photos, filters, blending modes, texture, and even a bit of font work. I loved this near-sunset photo I took in Malibu Canyon the other evening, and so I just started playing with it layered over a pink background. Then adding some artistic filters, then blending modes, and all the things mentioned above. I wasn't even going to add any other photos, but I had this photo of little Jackson that I had already extracted, so I just blended it into the sky. Voila, sappy, symbolic layout. Isn't it fun? I promise I won't do it too often. (at least I didn't add any wings or swans or anything)

A Few Random Photos

Occasionally I take my camera out and about on my lunch hour, and shoot the random oddity I might see. Here's a few things I found on one of my recent forays:




This is the facade of a small business on La Cienega Blvd. in Culver City- the entire front and side of the building (it's on a corner) is covered with lush succulents. They are planted in burlap bags, and hung cleverly from the walls, making it look like the entire building is a living thing.



I hope no one tries to skateboard, or walk their baby in a stroller, or for that matter, WALK on this sidewalk!





And last but not least, where the City of Los Angeles buys its most famous byproduct!

Our World in 1980

Bruce asked me to scan these wonderful photos of us, taken in 1980 when our oldest son Ian was about 9 months old. They were taken with my old Yashica camera, using black & white film (I was an artiste, after all!) Getting them on the computer also gave me the opportunity to Photoshop out the obnoxious cold sore on my lower lip, revealing the unadulterated beauty beneath. 'Way back when, when I was somewhat of a photographer, I loved to develop my own film, and find someone who had a darkroom I could borrow so I could do the printing myself. Unfortunately, I was not the best technician, and so most of my photos have flaws that a real professional photographer would scorn: underexposed, chemical stains, scratches, light flares, etc. Occasionally I would send my black and white film to the old Thrifty Drug Store for processing, and the results were even more dismal: flat tones were the norm. So we eventually switched to color film, which pretty much HAD to be processed by a color lab. We had a nice Pentax 35mm camera, which bit the dust when we were in Hawaii, and it got soaked in the Zodiak boat tour. So sad. When digital cameras came on the scene, we bought a series of Fujifilm point & shoot models, and they were all terrific. But getting that first digital SLR was like a dream come true. I still miss the smell of those chemicals, and that anticipation waiting for the prints to dry, and fall off the drum of the photo dryer. But I'll make the big sacrifice and 'develop' my photos simply by transferring them to my computer. Ah, the trials of technology!
I really didn't intend for this blog post to be all about photography, I thought I'd reminisce about 1980, and life in our little Hollywood cottage with our baby boy Ian. But I've discovered that my memory isn't all that sharp, so I'll let the layout do the talking. It was a wonderful time, and I'm so glad that we still have that baby boy in our lives. Our big boy is a papa himself, and we cherish all of the time we spend together. He's due to arrive for a visit, with his bride Jessica tomorrow morning. I can't wait!

The Game

I wanted to call this "The Big Game", but the Dodgers lost 0-9. Then I thought perhaps "the Bad Game" but that would be kind of a downer, since we had so much fun with Bruce's friends. I also considered "Good Game/ Bad Game", but that seemed rather silly, so in the end, I just stuck with "The Game".
On Saturday Bruce & I went to one of the Dodgers' Opening Weekend games, and wowzer, did we ever lose big time! Not the Boys in Blue's best effort. Bad pitching, bad fielding, and I'm pretty sure, bad attitude. Oh well, we had a terrific time anyway. Bruce met up with some of his old buddies from his senior year at San Gabriel High School many moons ago. It didn't matter one bit that the game was lame, the guys, and their families, made it a memorable day!

The Petersen Automotive Museum

This is one of those layouts that I struggled and struggled with, so I set it aside for a couple of hours, and then it went together like a dream. Back in February I went to the Petersen Automotive Museum, in the Miracle Mile district of Los Angeles, on Wilshire Blvd. I had to do some research for work (I love my job!) so I took an afternoon to browse through all the amazing exhibits, cars, and miscellaneous vehicles they had there. They had a great Hollywood section... the blue car on the left was Fatty Arbuckle's car. (If you've never heard of him, he was a rotund early movie comedian, whose career ended in scandal, and a murder trial!) The entire lower level was built almost like you were on the streets of LA in the 20s, 30s, and through the 50s and 60s. If you love cars, and come to LA, it's definitely a must-see museum. It's just down the street from another of my favorite museums: the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Click on the layout for a closer look.

Sheepscape

I lied. I said I wasn't going to do anymore layouts from our trip to Utah, but when I was adding this photo to my Best Weekend Ever layout, I just thought it was so cute and fun... and there's a story behind it. As usual. (Knowing readers roll their eyes, and cross their fingers that this will be a short one). When our daughter Amy was on her mission in 2003-2004, I sent her a weekly computer letter, chock full of family news & photos. Every letter had a special graphic header, with a lamb or sheep on it. You see, I called her my "lambie", so each letter said "Hi Lambie", which is how I would greet her on the phone, when we'd talk before she left for Italy. I had to fill 18 months worth of weekly letters with lamb art: photos, drawings, vintage illustrations, even toys, jewelry and fabric art. It was fun and challenging to create the header for her Lambie letters, but I loved it. While she was away, Bruce and I went to England for a vacation, and England is full of sheep. Everywhere you look in the countryside, darling lambs and wooly ewes. It got to be somewhat of a joke, I'd make Bruce pull over so I could take pictures of a flock of sheep. Also, near my brother's house in Utah were several flocks of sheep, which I often stalked when I came for a visit during that time. So when I was out early Easter Saturday morning, and I saw this flock of handsome sheep next to the road in Draper, I just had to take a few pictures. The snow had melted from the field, but there was tons of snow on the nearby Oquirrh Mountains, and the clouds were low and dramatic. It just seemed natural to call it "Sheepscape". (Now that wasn't too long, was it?)

The Best Weekend Ever

I think this is the last layout I'm going to do (for awhile) about our Easter Weekend in Utah. Although I still have tons of good photos to scrap, it just seems that 4 layouts per event is about as much as I like to do. (ok, so I did about 10 about our vacation in Canada a couple of years ago... but that was different... we went to so many cool places! But I digress....)

I do tend to like layouts that are like 'best of', or 'overview'... it's a good way to use those special photos that don't warrant a layout of their own, and it's a good way to get the general feel for an event. I really like cramming them all on one double page layout. If you are a multi-photo scrapper like I am, I also think it's wise to mix people photos in with nature, places, textures, or other miscellaneous photos. I believe it gives the eye a little rest, and makes the people pictures more significant. A casual viewer doesn't know all these people, and probably doesn't really care: they just want to get the feel for an event. The people who ARE in the photos, and who want to see people they know, seem to like this method too. All in all, it's the way I like to do it, and I think I'll stick with it.

I've been looking at tons of scrapbook layouts lately. I've become more active on a particular digital scrapbooking board, and because of that, I'm seeing more and more really good, and really not-so-good pages. I realize that this hobby, I mean obsession, of mine, has exploded all over the world, and is lots bigger than I ever imagined. If I ever intend to be a player in this digital world, I need to offer something unique. I don't know if my layouts are all that unique, some of them are, and some of them are very graphic and straightforward and maybe not so exciting. But when you get down to it, these pages are really for me and my family. The most important thing is that I share my story with them first, and hopefully my readers and followers will like them to. I always appreciate comments! Thanks for looking!

Jackson's Jungle

More photos of The Perfect Grandchild.... I had little Jackson all to myself for a little while on the Friday morning we arrived in Utah. I wrung every last bit of cuteness out of him as I shot photo after photo of him in his fun little jumper. I wish my kids had had such a fun place to play. This one is jungle themed, the seat can turn around, and there are lots of little 'stations' where Jack can play with the various toys and activities. He loves the little critters that hang down, and just loves grabbing different things and making them move and make sounds. He gets so intent on each little thing. Gee, you'd think I was a first time Mom the way I'm carrying on! Sorry, but I'm just enjoying each moment with my sweet little Jackson.

Lava Hot Springs

I've been looking at these old photos recently... they were taken in Pocatello, Idaho in the summer of 1956. They were scanned from some old slides my cousin Joannie gave me. I love old slides... they so often retain colors and vibrance that old photos have lost. But I just couldn't remember the details of the event. Obviously, we were at a public pool. Anyone who knows much about Idaho, knows there weren't a lot of public pools there in the '50s... Idaho isn't Southern California, after all. Plus my Grandma was with us. I couldn't imagine that we went to the local public pool with my Grandma. She would have just stayed home if it had been a nearby pool, finding better things to do with her time, (like shelling peas, or hanging her clothes on the line). Then I remembered! It had to be Lava Hot Springs! I well remember going to Lava Hot Springs, which is about 20 miles outside Pocatello. I mostly remember the indoor pool! That was a totally novel idea! Growing up in the Los Angeles area, I had never been swimming indoors before, and I can still remember the sound of the happy shouts and splashes of the children, echoing off the walls of the pool. So I went online, and found enough photos of the Lava Hot Springs pool and resort, to be pretty darned sure that's where we were. Don't you love the sunglasses my Mom (the cute one second from right), and my cousin were wearing? I'm the little girl on the left, with my white and red sunsuit, and my fancy yellow Keds. The people in the photo are: my Grandma, Mom, my older sister Leslie, little second cousin Tammy, cousin Bobbie, and moi.

not a photo shoot

Don't get me wrong... I love photo shoots. I wish I were a good enough photographer to 'do photoshoots'. But, alas, I'm just a slightly above average photographer, with a pretty good eye, and a trigger-happy finger. (Perhaps I should say I belong to the photography school of "if you take enough photos, one or two should turn out ok"). So, on Sunday, while we were in Utah visiting Alec & Alicia and The Perfect Grandchild, said grandbaby was sitting on the couch looking oh-so-suave in his khaki cargo pants and clean white T. Casual in his bare feet, and matching A & A's new suede couch, it was a photo op waiting to happen. I didn't set anything up, in fact the cute li'l photo of him on the lower right with a third of his face cropped out, was exactly how I took it. I just kinda leaned over and snapped it from an angle, and I thought it turned out rather cute. When Alec came on the scene, it just ramped up the cuteness factor by a zillion %.
Sometimes, I think the photos should just be allowed to speak for themselves. So this layout doesn't have anything fancy. Just some sweet pics of the handsomest li'l guy around.

The Aquarium

On Saturday, while we were in Utah, we took The Perfect Grandson to the Living Planet Aquarium in nearby Sandy. (Ok, so Alec and Alicia took Jackson, we just tagged along) We were accompanied by Amy, niece Laura, and grandnephew Noah. I was so impressed with this aquarium. It looked like a roller rink in a strip mall from the outside but inside it was beautifully designed, and so kid-friendly! We were impressed by the sheer number of fantastic water critters, and especially loved watching the penguins swim and cavort in their special habitat. I found using the flash difficult, as the light reflected off the glass (and didn't look so hot either) but the downside was that those penguins swam so fast, I couldn't get a good shot of them. But it was fun to watch the expressions on the little boys. Even baby Jackson seemed mesmerized by the fishy friends he met there. Never to let a opportunity go by to scrap a memorable event, here's the layout I created about our adventure. I managed to get most of it done at the airport this morning, I love scrapping on the go!

Sister Missionary

Happy Easter everyone! This is a special weekend- not only is it Easter, the most important and sacred religious holiday and celebration of all, it is also the General Conference of our church. We receive lots of wonderful counsel, and it is so uplifting to hear the timely and spiritual words of our religious leaders. Bruce and I flew to Salt Lake Thursday night, and we've been spending a wonderful few days with our kids, and our precious little grandson Jackson. Friday evening, I attended a reunion for my mission. I was a missionary in Texas back in the early '70s, and our missionary group is still going strong all these years later. Of course, I don't know what bodysnatcher came into the room, and substituted all those young, fresh faced missionaries with a bunch of old people. But still, it was fun! I brought my computer with dozens of my photos from my mission, and I sat and showed them to a few missionary friends. So, with those photos on my mind, I just started playing with one of the photos of me taken in 1973. One thing led to another, and before I knew it, I had an Andy Warhol-type layout done. I'll post some photos and layouts from the weekend as I get them organized. Let me know if you get bored.

Jolley's Pharmacy

I'm just getting around to scrapping the photos I took last August while I was in Salt Lake visiting my daughter Amy. She manages the cutest shop, which was originally a pharmacy, and now sells gifts, candy, flowers, accessories, jewelry, clothing... should I go on? One of the most popular sections is the candy area: jars and jars full of the sweetest, yummy treats. I was inspired by candy colors in my color combination. The Prophet of our church often comes in to buy candy for his wife. (hmmmm I've heard THAT story before...he's probably the one with the sweet tooth!)

Amy is the brunette, the blonde is my sweet cousin Megan.

Click on the photo for a closer look at all the treasures!