The Wedding Party

I will probably do a few more wedding layouts in the next weeks... but only a few! Here's the first real layout using actual wedding photos. I took these shots at the Utah State Capitol building, where the wedding party went before the reception. Since it was snowy & rainy on the temple grounds after the ceremony, there wasn't really the opportunity to take the kinds of photos the kids wanted, so we adjourned to the Capitol building, which is always ready for a photo shoot. (The group shot of the bridesmaids was actually taken at the Temple, but by the time the photographer took the photos of the bridesmaids at the Capitol, Bruce & I were long gone, to the reception location to help with the last minute preparations.

I thought the girls looked adorable in their wide variety of outfits... no atrocious bridesmaids gowns for Amy's wedding! She wanted the girls to be comfortable, and pick something in her colors that would suit them. I loved how fun & colorful they were. Even the greens were all different, which added kind of a whimsical touch. Her friend & florist Rachel did an amazing job with the bouquets. Our daughter-in-law Jessica made the cute headbands & flower barrettes out of fabric and antique buttons and notions.

Where Are You Going My Little One?

There's a sweet & sentimental old song, written many years ago by Malvina Reynolds. It's called "Turn Around". Here are the lyrics:

Where are you going, my little one, little one,
Where are you going, my baby, my own?
Turn around and you're two,
Turn around and you're four,
Turn around and you're a young girl going out of my door.
Turn around, turn around,
Turn around and you're a young girl going out of my door.

Where are you going, my little one, little one,
Little dirndls and petticoats, where have you gone?
Turn around and you're tiny,
Turn around and you're grown,
Turn around and you're a young wife with babes of your own.
Turn around, turn around,
Turn around and you're a young wife with babes of your own.

I've been very emotional during these past few days. Watching my sweet daughter become a bride can do that to a Mom... but we are so proud of her, and excited for the new adventures she'll enjoy in the coming years. She worked so hard to have a perfect wedding day, and I think it was pretty perfect. They're off on their honeymoon, and Bruce and I are enjoying a few days with family here in Utah. I created a slide show for her wedding luncheon, using dozens of photos of her and Jon that I scanned. I thought it might be fun to create a layout using a few of my favorites of Amy.

The Big Day!

Yesterday was The Big Day... Our daughter Amy & her brand new husband Jon were married in the Salt Lake Temple!
I'm just going to post a few photos, I'll blog about it later. Let's just say that it was perfect in every way!

A Wedding in the Family

I'm in Utah for the week... we are excited that our daughter Amy will be married on Friday here in Salt Lake. Things are a flurry of activity... Amy has everything planned down to the minute for The Big Day. It's going to be fabulous! I'm going to be a little busy here for the next few days, and might not have a minute to blog until after the wedding is over. I'm anticipating lots of great photos and beautiful moments as we gather together family and friends from all over. Watch this space!























My assignments have been to design the wedding announcement (above), which I did some weeks ago, and put together a slideshow to show at the wedding luncheon and reception. The slideshow will have lots of fun & cute photos of Amy and Jon from babyhood to engagement. I've been scanning photos forever, it seems. It's like watching our married life (or at least the last 29 years) go by with lightening speed. My big girl was the cutest little girl imaginable! The toughest part of my assignment is narrowing down the huge group of photos I scanned. It seems that that cute and spunky little girl has gown up into the most beautiful bride I can imagine. It was also fun scanning the photos of Jon, her amazing & handsome groom. He was an outstanding boy and young man, Eagle Scout, athlete, and Space Camper! Yep, the perfect couple!
Here are a couple of photos of them at their finest!























Aren't they cute? I'll keep you posted on all the festivities after the event!

Kicky!

Last weekend I picked up a few old magazines at one of my favorite antique haunts. Two were from 1960, which is the perfect era for amazing graphic design. I found the cutest ad in the May 2, 1960 issue of Life Magazine. It looks so trendy, it could have come from one of my favorite design websites! Look how cute, those little color variances on the shoe itself is a pattern! I love the fun font, it's just a perfect little design.
Enjoy!

A Little Piece of Heaven Lost

When we first saw our house back in 1995, it was already 10 years old. We fell in love with the house immediately. It had a wonderful floor plan, which still amazes me today. It's the perfect home for entertaining. It has a big, open kitchen, a connecting family room, and so has tons of space for people to mingle and visit. And the livingroom, although also connected and part of the flow of the house, has a semblance of privacy. It allows people to feel that the house has somewhere to go when there are lots of people here. When our kids and grandkids come to visit, there are small oases of privacy for small groups or just a solitary soul.

But one of the features of the house that sold me on that first visit, was a large backyard gazebo. I could envision future wedding receptions held on the grassy lawn, perhaps with wedding cake being served in a twinkly-light covered gazebo. We have had 3 wedding receptions or open houses in our home, and are getting ready for #4. Amy's open house will be here in just a month. So, we've (I use this term loosely... I mean Bruce and his crew) been working on the yard, trying to get it ready for the big event.

Amy, our child #2, is getting married next week in Salt Lake City. Her dream wedding and reception will be held far from home, but 3 weeks after the Utah wedding, she & her groom will come to Southern California for the Open House (translated: the Eskanders are throwing TWO parties.... you do the math), which will be held in our back yard.


Bruce called me at work the other day, to break the sad news: the Magical Gazebo had to come down. I knew it was termite infested. I knew the roof was covered with moss, and the floor was unstable. I just figured we'd slap a coat of paint on it, and NOT serve cake or anything in the gazebo. I was still envisioning those twinkly lights. But, in reality, it made no sense for the gazebo to stay. With new landscaping coming in, having it there would just make it more difficult to work around. AND we'd just be throwing money away, fixing up a gazebo just to tear it down.
But I was brokenhearted.

Today, as I watched sadly, Bruce and his Merry Band of Helpers and Missionaries, pushed and pulled and, with hardly a whimper, the gazebo toppled over and collapsed to the ground. Broken and rotted, I could see why Bruce insisted it come down NOW. (click on the photos for a closer view)

Just so you can see, here's a lovely image of the Magical Gazebo in happier days.

Sand Glorious Sand

Last weekend our li'l grandson Jackson came to town for a visit. Bruce & I happily took him to the park (where our church friends were having a yummy BBQ) and we were able to play with Jack, take lots of pictures, and eat yummy BBQ. Totally perfect in every way! I'm not sure just how much experience Jackson has had with sand (it's winter in Utah where they live, and I don't think he's been hanging out at any parks for quite awhile), but he played with relish as if he had never seen the stuff before! It was so cute to see him dig, and pick up the sand, and then stare in wonderment as it dropped through his fingertips.

Jackson is a pretty smart little 19-month old... he can count to 10 (among other things) and wowed us with his counting and kicking ability. A red balloon made a pretty good substitute for a soccer ball, and he & his grandpa had a rousing game- kicking, and running, and throwing.

Trying Again....

Last year I entered a contest sponsored by the Topanga Banjo Fiddle Contest (a traditional music festival in Southern California) to design their logo/ T-shirt art. I worked really hard, and enjoyed the process, but alas, my design wasn't picked. When I got to the festival a few months after the contest, I discovered that they really didn't use any new design at all, but just adapted their regular logo for the festival.

I pretty much figured out that the problem with my design was it was just too complex for a simple silk-screen process. So this year, when the contest was announced, I decided to try again, and this time, keep the design really graphic & simple. Since traditional music is, well, old-fashioned and traditional, I thought it would be best to keep my design kind of funky & old fashioned. Lately I've been looking at lots of fun old graphic designs from the 60s, and this is reminiscent of some of the designs that have inspired me.

I also created some little thumbnails of how I envisioned my design being used, to give the festival committee some options for printing if they pick my design. I have no idea how many entries they have received, but hope springs eternal that maybe I'll be the lucky one!


Click on the designs for a closer view. The colored shirts are just for reference, and to see wht the design would look like against a colored background. Bruce says he likes the last (pink) one best, with the instruments on an angle. What do you think?

I Was a Crazy Teenage Beatlemaniac!

I was in the seventh grade when the British Invasion hit the US. I was not immune to this buggy infestation, and I fell in love immediately with the mop top crew. I'll never forget the first time I heard "I Want to Hold Your Hand". It was a sound I had never heard before: catchy, nice harmonies, driving rhythm. All of us girls flipped over the Beatles, and we would gather on the quad of the junior high at brunch and lunch to talk about our favorite Beatles, show off our newest acquisitions: magazines, photos, buttons, record singles. I taught myself how to sign each Beatle's signature, and I wrote them all over my gray-green canvas notebook cover. Like most girls, I had a huge crush on Paul, the 'cute Beatle'. He had dreamy brown eyes, and the most beautiful voice. When he sang, "Do You Want to Know A Secret" or "Yesterday", I swooned. I was soon drawing cartoons and pencil portraits of the Fab Four, filling my notebook with sketches and song titles. There were some classmates who didn't care much for the Beatles. The boys, in particular, weren't as taken with them as we girls. Most of them preferred the Beach Boys, and later, some of the harder-edged British bands like the Rolling Stones, the Who, and the Kinks. Some of the girls liked the Rolling Stones better too (as I recall, they were a bit more rebellious than we were) and we had a friendly rivalry between the Beatles lovers and the Stones lovers. I also loved all of the other British teen idols of the day: Peter & Gordon, Herman's Hermits, Chad & Jeremy, Gerry and the Pacemakers (I actually had to Google the name, thinking I had to be mistaken. PACEMAKERS? Really? Were they planning their eventual aging heart disease?)
I think what the Beatles did for me musically, was give me an appreciation for fine harmonies and vocals. It wasn't Ringo's drumming that caught my attention, but John and Paul, harmonizing together at the microphone as we watched them on the Ed Sullivan Show. This led me to my eventual teenage favorite duo: Simon and Garfunkel.



It's amazing to me how well the Beatles have withstood the test of time. Their songs were unique, creative, inventive, and literally changed the world. Most musicians today acknowledge the Beatles' genius for songwriting and arranging, and their popularity has never waned. We really were onto something back then! I'm proud that I was a Beatlemaniac when I was a young and innocent teenager. The Beatles were a big part of my life.

Nine Birthdays Without You

Today would have been my Dad's 96th birthday. He passed away nine years ago, and I miss him a lot. The older I get, the more I appreciate my Dad, and all that he did for me, and all that I gained from being his daughter. Last summer at our family reunion in Southern Utah, my brother put together a family slide show, and he shared a list he's been compiling for years of 'Dad-isms'... those funny and characteristic expressions that were unique to our Dad. Inside family jokes about the 'Struction Brothers: Con, Des, and Ob. (You figure it out), "This is going to hurt you a lot more than it's going to hurt me", his funny words for ordinary things: balm (money), non-skid (toilet paper)... and I could go on and on.

But I just wanted to wish Dad a Happy Birthday, I love you! I know you're there watching, somewhere.

Texas 76

(click on the layout above for a closer view)


Not long after I started my illustrious career as an advertising illustrator in a big ad agency in LA, I decided to take my first big-girl vacation. It was the spring of 1976. I bought a plane ticket for Houston, and spent a week with my brother Gene, wife Joanne, and their three little ones, Sarah, Ehren and Reuben. Although I had served a mission in the northern half of Texas a few years earlier, I had never been near the gulf coast, nor to the big city of Houston. Gene was working as a geologist for Exxon, and I enjoyed our trip downtown to visit his office in a tall glass skyscraper. We took a day trip to Galveston, and I was enamored with the historical buildings and interesting architecture. I had a nice 35 mm Yashica camera, and I took both black and white photos, and slides. I also took another day trip, with a BYU friend who lived down there, to Crystal Beach, where I first felt the warm gulf coast water. That was a shock to me. California beaches are tingly cold, and it seemed so wrong somehow, to have warm ocean water.

I finally got around to scanning all of those old slides not long ago, and as I looked at them, I decided to try to figure out where the heck all of those historical buildings are. A few months ago, I wrote about Google Earth, and trying to recreate my past lives by finding the sites of old photos I had taken. Eureka! Success! I was able to find a few of the old buildings in the layout above, located in Galveston. Honestly, I don't know how I get involved with chasing all of these loose ends of my life around. You'd think I have nothing better to do with my time. But, although it was fun to find them, I think they looked better back in '76. Maybe the economy in Galveston was better back then, but at least they are still there! That's more than I can say for all the other places of my life I've tried to find on Google Earth!

The Armoire

A couple of months before Christmas, I told my husband that there was only one thing I wanted for Christmas... an arts & crafts-style jewelry armoire. I had done a bit of research online to find something that I liked, and I dropped numerous hints, and links, so that Bruce would get the idea. Well, he definitely got the idea, and he did some of his own research to find additional sources and craftsmen that had a design that would accommodate my vast assortment of earrings, necklaces, and the usual girlie adornments. It isn't that I wear tons of jewelry, or that I have valuable gems & diamonds. I'm more of a silver-type girl, and my taste runs to the artsy post-hippie stuff that I have liked for years. Not a diamond in sight. But I have jewelry dating back 40 years, and although most of it will never see the light of day, I wanted a single place where I could store it all.

So, a few weeks before Christmas, he placed the order. He finally spilled the beans about the gift when he was notified that it would not be shipped before Christmas, so there would be no armoire under the tree for me. Well, no harm, perhaps it will be there for my birthday (or, since I spent my birthday in Hong Kong, maybe it would be waiting when I got home). But alas, they shipped a damaged armoire, and the distribution center caught it, and sent it back. Another several weeks went by, and then I thought perhaps it would be here for Valentine's Day. Nope, no such luck. Bruce made numerous calls, inquiries and emails, and got lots of excuses, but no delivery.

Yesterday, when I came home from work, I was exhausted, and planned to take a little nap before going out for the evening with Bruce. When I went up to our room, THERE IT WAS! Gorgeous, gleaming wood, much taller than I imagined, more storage than I probably would ever need.... the perfect jewelry armoire! Thoughts of a nap flew out the window, as I busied myself organizing, finding, and storing my treasures! I just had to take a few pictures, and create a tribute to the armoire.

Let's Shake on It

When we were in Utah a couple of weeks ago, we went to lunch with Alicia and Jackson at Chipotle, one of our favorite Mexican eateries..it was so cute to watch Bruce with his little grandson, shaking hands, then giving high fives. Typical male behavior, little Jackson has that 'guy thing' down pat. I wish that we could be near our little grandsons more often than once every few months. These moments are so precious, and so fleeting.

Winter in Southern California

Generally I take lots of photos this time of year, which is the prettiest season of all in Southern California. The past couple of years, I've scrapped lots of these winter photos, but I've kind of run out of steam in the layout department for winter photos... I just feel like I would rather just show the photos & skip the layouts. So, here are a few I've taken this past week. The first two were taken in Santa Rosa Valley last week, and the other was taken on a recent rainy day as I drove to work along Pacific Coast Highway.

Brooke Louise

I can't believe it took me so long to complete my little illustration for Baby Brooke, but I finally finished it last night, with a few tweaks this morning. I'm pretty happy with it, but sometimes I second-guess myself about my drawing style. Too cute? Too bright? Too tight? A bit dated? (that's a hard one, because it just comes out of my head that style, no matter how I might wish my style were a bit more edgy or trendy.... ah well, this is what I do!)

So, I sent it off to Costco. The print I'm giving Brooke's family has her name & birthdate on it, but in the interest of internet privacy, I won't add those details here. I started out with a 12x12" square format, like I usually do for scrapbooking, but the extra width didn't really add to the design. Plus, it's hard to find cute & feminine square frames. So I changed it to 8x10" midway through, and I'm really glad I did. Click on the image for a closer view.