Stef Draws

I've been thinking about the cool graphic design of the Sixties & Seventies. I recently came across a cache of old records in our garage, which I brought inside to photograph and scan. When I turned to look at the back of a Sonny & Cher album, I was taken by the very simple, yet very sixties graphics. That font! The photo! It's been sitting, staring at me all week from our kitchen table, so I started this morning, to see where it might take me.

Coincidentally, I recently scanned a slide of some artwork of mine from the early 70s. It was a drawing I did for my illustration class in college, I had photographed the line art, and then I painted the original, using Dr. Martin dyes. I'm not sure if I have the original piece any more... there was a cute little character in the drawing with a wheelbarrow with an enormous carrot. (My take on the famous book by Ruth Krauss called The Carrot Seed.) I filled the entire garden with zillions of tiny flowers and fruits, using my Kohinoor rapidograph pen, with the 00 nib. I was never far from this pen. So after I found the appropriate photo of me during the appropriate time-frame (note the sneer on my face, I'm sure it was due to my brother posing me on a dirty wall so he could practice his portrait skills) I set to work to combine the photo, ( I also Photoshopped together my hand from another photo taken near the same time, and added an image of the pen, which I still have) the drawing, and maybe find a fun Seventies era font. This was actually the hardest thing of all, because some of my favorite fonts of that era have never been digitized. But I did find several I liked, and I narrowed it down to this one called Weltron 2001, which I then colored & added a bit of brushwork. It makes me feel like I've gone back in time to see this drawing again. I hope you like it!

Trick or Cute

Now that's one silly title! Usually titles come easily to me... they pop into my head without much thought or effort. (I'm talking about the fun ones...many of my titles are pretty banal) Halloween is a tough one for cleverness, everything has been overdone, think "Spooktacular" or "Fright Night"... those sound like the name of a scary Halloween movie marathon. But silly title aside, I really love the photos I used for this layout. I love them so much that this is the third Halloween layout I've done in 3 years using the same photos. I think it might have something to do with the fact that these are the only Halloween photos in existence of me as a child. And I remember it so well! I'm pretty sure this was my first experience Trick or Treating... I was three years old, and I can about guarantee that my siblings did NOT haul me around our neighborhood in Oregon when I was two. The thing that sticks out in my mind, was how upset I was that my Mom made me wear my baby shoes. Those typical high-top white leather lace-up shoes that we all wore as babies and toddlers back then, but definitely not when we wanted to look grown up. And I wanted to be grown up. My big brother Gene was dressed as the Devil, which, as far as I was concerned, was about perfect for him. He always tormented me. I'm sure this was because I was the only one younger than he was, and I was such a perfect target.

I've included the original photos here, and I haven't cropped them down. I love looking at the background, remembering our livingroom in our house on Andrita Street in Los Angeles. The books, the lamps, the couch, the artwork on the wall. I love that shopping bag on the coffee table... that must have been our trick-or-treat bag. I can vaguely see Halloween graphics on the bag, and I remember that style, with the 'strap' that wrapped clear around the bag.
So, in the spirit of my fairly-new-artsy-fun heritage layouts, I created my colorful Halloween memory.

Disneyland Deja Vu

Last weekend, when our kids were here, we were looking through an old photo album, and I showed them some photos I took of Ian at Disneyland when he was little. (For those not familiar with my cast of characters, Ian is my oldest son, who, with his sweet wife Jessica and son Aidan, came to visit us last week from Texas. We went to Disneyland.) I thought using some of these old photos of Ian at Disneyland would make a sweet layout, but when I started looking carefully, I was surprised at how similar some of our new Disneyland photos were, so instead of doing a layout about little Ian in 1982, I did this.



I had to add this sweet photo below... this is one of my favorites of Ian. He was three years old when we went to Disneyland in November of 1982. He was adorable then, and he's still my adorable boy today.

I Love Autumn!

I would have said 'Fall', but I discovered through my online scrapping buddies, that in Australia, and other places around the world, they don't use the term 'Fall'. Far be it for me to use a term that doesn't translate well around the world, LOL!



It's been weird weather here in Sunny Southern California. Usually September brings the Santa Ana winds (or santana winds if you slur your words) which means high heat (we got that), wind storms (not so much) and wildfires (thankfully, no). This year, the rains have come early, and we have been enjoying a particularly wet October. I took the photo above, yesterday morning on my way to work. As I turned south onto Pacific Coast Highway from Malibu Canyon, and started down the slope into Malibu, I literally gasped at the beauty of the sky and ocean. The clouds had lifted on the horizon, and so I had to stop and take this photo, looking toward the Malibu Pier. The thing that I love the most about the ocean, is its daily moods and drama. Beautiful days don't find me stopping to take pictures, but a dramatic sky, intense waves or even fog, find me pulling over & pulling out my camera.



As I've started changing my blog background regularly, I've begin posting my background photo, as a record to myself of the pictures I've used. So, here's my new background. Goodbye to the old, and in a couple of weeks, I'll have something else to decorate with. Happy Autumn!

I Am Honored!

I am honored to have been chosen 2 Peas in a Bucket Digital Scrapbooker of the Week... they sent me 10 questions, and I of course, went on & on & on & on..... you can find my interview & challenge here. Thanks to Erica Hernandez who made my day, er, week!



In other news, since we had visits from both of our Grandsons this past weekend, I made a layout for each of them, celebrating something fun we did while they were here. I'm sure there will be more layouts to come. Grandchildren really are magical.... I remember when my first child was born, and I was totally overwhelmed with love for him. I had been so nervous to be a Mom, and suddenly all of my doubts evaporated- (to be replaced with extreme fear of anything happening to HIM of course!) Now that I'm a Grandma, I am truly blessed to have such sweet little grandsons whom I love dearly. That special feeling is there a hundredfold for these little guys.

Museum of Church History and Art

Our last day in Utah two weeks ago, we went to the wonderful Museum of Church History and Art in Salt Lake City. Although I have been there many times, it was Alicia & Jackson's first visit, and they really liked it too. The exhibits are wonderful, and beautifully designed. I especially love the art gallery- amazing examples of 19th century Utah artists and artwork, much of which is frontier life and gorgeous western scenery. They have preserved several beautiful stained glass windows from some of the early pioneer churches, which have long since been demolished. Lots of old letters and journals, books and photographs, articles of clothing, musical instruments... just the ordinary objects of people who sacrificed much to make a better life for themselves in the Mountain West a century and a half ago. Many of my ancestors were part of this migration, and I found myself wondering if any of the items on display had passed through their hands, or belonged to them. (click on the photo for a closer look)

Disneyland, Again!

Yesterday we spent 12 hours at Disneyland... son Ian, daughter-in-law Jessica & grandson Aidan came to visit, and neither Jess nor Aidan had ever been to Disneyland. So it was a totally fun day! I haven't had a minute to scrap any of the nearly 500 photos I took ( I really must do some serious weeding-out of subpar photos!) but I wanted to at least post a few of my favorites.

The photo at the left was taken in Toon Town, one of my favorite places to take pictures. What's not to love about funky colorful 'architecture', fun signs, and retro styling?

The musician below was part of a jazz combo that serenaded us while we ate lunch at the French Market Cafe in New Orleans Square.

Fonts

(In case it's hard to read, it says: Fonts Are Like a Graphic History of Life's Memories)

I did this layout for a 2Ps font challenge, I was really enthusiastic about doing a layout about fonts. I've been interested in fonts & typography for many years... back in the 60s I was a typical artsy teenager, who made posters and flyers and calendars using my own elaborate lettering. In college I studied graphic design, and I can still remember my favorite fonts of the 70s.... University Roman, Avant Garde, Bookman Bold Italic (the font that Michael's and the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Co. uses) After college, I became an advertising illustrator and graphic designer. Back in the olden days, before PCs, we used to order our type from the typesetter, then we'd have to cut & paste it together using a waxer to adhere it to the layout. That's where the term 'paste-up artist' came from. For years, I was a big user of Chartpak press-on type. It wasn't quite professional type-house type, but for quick jobs, it did the trick. The type was pretty much all black... the object was to design your layout, then send it to the printer so that you could have the type printed in the color you wanted. What a pain that was! So now I really appreciate the flexibility & dreaminess of being able to pick from thousands of fonts, and then do whatever I want with them.... color, texture, photos, effects, filters, there's no end! I really love fonts!

I'm certainly not anything more than an amateur aficionado of type, but I think I am fairly informed about the different styles & historical fonts. I subscribe to a font newsletter, and I love getting the bi-weekly issue, and drooling over the artistry and skill of the font designers.

I just wanted to give a little feel for some different eras of some of my favorite fonts. I'm big on using authentic-feeling fonts for my heritage layouts. I especially love fonts reminiscent of the twenties and thirties.

Here's an example of an illustration I did back in the early 80s, where I used press-type to add my copy.



And another illustration where my lettering was completely hand-done: (see, I loved old photos & images even back then!) Maybe some day I'll try my hand at designing type.

One Fine Day

(click on the layout for a closer look)

I created this layout for a challenge at 2Ps, and then I missed the deadline and .... and.... and... oh, well, such is life! The challenge was to do a "day in the life" type of documentary layout. I've never actually set out to chronicle a day in my life. I took nearly 200 photos on Friday for this project, but the fun stuff, at work, I couldn't photograph because of confidentiality issues. The commute I well documented, with dozens of photos. But honestly, why do I need 60 photos of Malibu Canyon when four would do? So it's a bit lopsided & kinda enigmatic because I think my day was actually way more fun than it looks. It's not going into my 'favorites' file, but I think it will be fun to look back on someday, and remember that one fine day.

New Photo

I mentioned in an earlier post that I'm going to be changing the background photo on my blog every month or so. Actually, I found & resized so many pictures, that I think it's going to be more like every 2 weeks. This photo was taken last week in Utah, and although it doesn't show up in the background quite as well as in the photo, I'm rather fond of it. It is a lovely representation of early autumn. What do you think?

Oh, and by the way, today is 10-10-10. I know it's kind of one of those fun dates that people like to plan a wedding or special event for... I got married on 7-8-78 and that was kind of cool. But I honestly can't get too excited about 10-10-10. It's a nice day. But I didn't do anything special to 'celebrate'. And there will be another crazy day like that 11-11-11. Just sayin'.

Summer is Over and Here's Proof!

You might remember a post of mine from June, where I shared photos & a layout about the fabulous Los Angeles beaches arts project called Summer Of Color. Well, it's officially over, and now the yukky, bland, boring, ordinary life guard stands are back. In the article I link in my original post, it says the lifeguard stands would be up through October. To me, that means through the entire month of October. Obviously I was wrong. Pftttt to them.

An Evening Walk Through Sugarhouse

Our daughter Amy lives in a wonderful section of Salt Lake called Sugarhouse. It's an older area, with lovely neighborhoods of cozy bungalows and cottages. I love driving down the different streets, imagining what it would be like to live there. Many of the homes have beautiful gardens in the front, with arbors, flowering vines, and even vegetables. Lots of brick, picket fences, and front porches with swings or rocking chairs. Saturday evening, Amy and I watched Jackson while Alec & Alicia went out for the evening. We got together with Amy's old roommate Brooke, and took a walk downtown, so see the sights and grab some dinner. It was warm for early October in Utah, and felt like late summer rather than Fall. Not much going on with the fall colors yet, just a bit of yellow here & there. A few of the homes had their Halloween decorations up, so there were touches of fall foliage and pumpkins on some of the porches. I trailed behind, taking pictures and just enjoying the warm evening and the beautiful sights. Amy lives on the edge of the business district, where many of the old homes have been turned into boutiques and salons. It was fun to see the eclectic variety of shops and businesses on our way. The layout shows some of the sights of our walk, in chronological order, starting with Amy's house, and ending downtown.

The Best Burgers In Utah

We're in Utah this weekend to visit our kids, and on Saturday we drove out to Kamas, a rural town not far from Park City, for lunch. My online scrapping friend Gennifer lives out there, and works at her family store, Hi-Mountain Drug. It's not an ordinary drug store, for they have a lunch counter inside with the most amazing, award-winning hamburgers. Hi-Mountain has been honored a couple of years in a row with Salt Lake Magazine's Dining Awards Best of State for their burgers. Just a couple of days ago, USA Today published their top 51 burger joints in the United States (one for every state, plus the District of Columbia). Hi-Mountain did it again! They won for Utah, and after sampling their burgers, we could definitely see why! It was well worth the trip. I'll tell you, I'm not going to try California's winner any time soon... I'll take a good, regular burger over a "glutemate burger" any time. (Here's a link to the article).
It was great to see Gennifer, and watch her family in action. The place was hopping! The added publicity of the awards has brought throngs of hungry Utahns out on the weekends, and the lines were pretty long during the lunch hour and into the mid-afternoon.
The drug store and lunch counter/ restaurant haven't changed much in 50 years. The first store opened in 1920, and they still have the original soda fountain. The tile work under the counter is exquisite. The drug store itself carries fishing lures, hunting supplies, scrapbooking supplies, candy as well as the usual small town drug store accoutrements. But it's the food that draws the crowds, and it looks like things will be hopping at Hi-Mountain for a long time to come! (click on the layout to get a closer look... you must check out that mouth-watering burger!)

(Photo credits: Stefanie & Bruce Eskander- half & half!)

More About Toys!

I was inspired by my own Toy Story to put together a quick layout about my visit to the Best Toy Store in the World- the legendary FAO Schwarz in New York. These photos were taken when I was in New York in January. I wish I'd had time to visit again when I was there last month, but I think I got enough photos for both visits!