Today's a Great Day!

Today's a great day for two reasons.... the first is it's my sweet husband Bruce's birthday! That's always a wonderful reason to celebrate! I wish I didn't have to work today, and that we could spend the whole day together, but alas, duty calls. We'll have a fun evening together though! Happy Birthday honey!

The second reason is because my new blog premieres tomorrow! July 1 is the debut of my soon-to-be-revealed fun blog, so I hope you stop by here tomorrow for the final details & link.

Here's another tiny hint:

Evolution of a Blog

They say 'less is more', don't they? I've changed the look of my blog many times in the nearly 3 years I've had it. The header has remained the same, but I've gone from vintage to natural. I had this background for nearly 2 years, until I got sick of it:

Then I picked a stock photo from the Blogger Gallery, which looked nice, but wasn't mine:

Then I started using my own photos for the background, and matching the background color to some part of the photo. I picked about 30 different photos, and formatted them, then I began to cycle through them, changing them with the seasons:


I I think the photos were quite nice, but somehow, I just got tired of how the photo seemed to compete with the blog entry. This was my blog background until today:

I actually lightened this one, because the intense lavender was just too glaring. As I was putting together my new blog, I decided to keep that one simple and white. I really like it, and think that it's really the best design for me. So, I thought perhaps I might make my Stefstyle blog clean and white too. So here it is. Simple and plain. I might change things up a bit down the line. But for now, I'm thinking white space looks mighty nice.

It's Coming This Friday!

I told you something exciting was coming up soon... well, it's going to be here this Friday, July 1! I will be unveiling a brand-new blog, something totally different from my StefStyle blog. Not to replace it, but to add to my creative exploits and have a little fun! So, keep you eye on this space, and I'll give you more information and a link on Friday! There might be some more hints in the next couple of days, so stop by again!

Tutorials

Erica Hernandez posted her weekly challenge on 2Ps this past week- it was to utilize a screen shot in the layout somewhere. I think she had in mind people taking a screen cap of their favorite website or something related to their social networks... but the first thing I thought of was the zillions of screen shots I've done in the past few years, that help me create tutorials. I've done dozens of tutorials for digital scrapbooking on a variety of subjects: everything from creating Actions to using and creating Gradients, to Colorizing black & white heritage photos (shown).
I use it for many more things than tutorials, and it's been a lifesaver. I've documented online design piracy, grabbed images from slideshows, and copied webpages and other images when copying individual image files wasn't practical or didn't give me the whole picture. So to speak!

Do you use screen shots? How do you use them? I'd love to get your ideas!

Pinterest Meet-up

Many of you know about Pinterest... it's a website designed as a place to share the things we've found on the internet that we love: everything from design to fashion to food to.... whatever! I've been 'pinning' for quite awhile now. I've picked several categories that I'm interested in: Product Design, Art and Illustration, Digital and Graphic Design, Photography, and a few more. When I spot something I love on a blog or website, I "pin it", and it goes onto my pinboards. I can write a little about it, and it automatically links back to the source so others can find it. People who come to my Pinterest page can see the things that interest me, and also 'repin' things to their own boards. It's fun to 'follow' others, and get followers yourself. The idea of 'pinning' originated with those of us in the creative fields who often keep bulletin boards of sorts, with all kinds of pictures and images pinned on, to jumpstart our imaginations, and generate ideas.
Tonight I attended a fun Meet-up in Venice, CA at a cute paperie called "Urbanic". I was able to meet Ben, the founder of Pinterest, and talk to some other pinsters, as well as browse the aisles of the fantastic paper store. Naturally, I had my camera with me, and snapped a few shots of the festivities. I loved the cute banners they had out on the back patio.... each one represented something fun that had been 'pinned'.

I hope you'll stop by my Pinterest page, and if it's something that interests you, you can become a pinner too! It's one of those things that can become completely addicting, you can get lost browsing others' pins, finding your own, and searching for fun things to pin. For me, the challenge is to actually use these things I love as a jumping off place for my own creations and inspiration. Happy pinning!

Adelaide

This is my Grandmother Clark... the Grandma that I knew best growing up, because we lived near her. Grandma & Grandpa lived in a cute little cottage in Hollywood, which was Bruce & my first home after we were married. Grandma wasn't the typical grandma type... she didn't spoil us with treats and gifts. She handed us a bucket and mop when we came for a visit. We always worked (I, of course, hid out in the back room with the books while the other girls slaved away. I can still hear her saying, "Where's Steffie?") She read us Bible stories, and sewed for us. We loved her dearly for her feisty and spunky personality. She had been quite the tomboy growing up on a ranch in Northern Utah, and was as comfortable on horseback as she was on her two feet. But, boy, did she know how to work! Grandpa, on the other hand, was one of those softies who always had an available lap to sit in, and a yarn to spin. He was an artist, and I like to think I got my artistic talent from him. Grandma had a quick temper, and a fiery tongue, but she was kind and loving too. Grandpa called her his "Little Warrior", and I mean little. Grandma probably didn't top 5' tall, and Grandpa was at least 6'2".

I hadn't done one of my fun heritage layouts for a few months now, so I thought I'd pick a few photos of my Grandma in her middle years... when she was in her late 40s, and early 50s. (Grandma's hair turned white when she was quite young, and combined with her brown eyes and dark eyebrows, she was quite striking looking.) I've really enjoyed getting out of my clean 'n graphic style, and doing something colorful, and a bit funky.

Happy Father's Day

I've always loved Mother's Day and Father's Day. I know there are cynics out there who feel many of these holidays were invented by the greeting card companies to sell cards (and they haven't made much money from me, since I've been making most of my cards since I was a kid!) but call me sentimental... I love them. Especially as a Mom, and wife of a Dad. It's been fun through the years to be on the receiving end of homemade macaroni art, clay handprints, and cards made from construction paper and crayons. Nowadays, our kids (who are all far away) are more likely to post their greetings to us on Facebook, or text us. (I should put a stop to this, but gee, it's better than nothing!)

I love to make something special for my sweet husband and Father of our 4 children on Father's Day. For the past 10-12 years, it's been of the digital variety... often a collection of photos of him through the years, with the kids, or last year- a couple of sweet pictures of him with his little grandsons. This year I thought there would be nothing he'd like more than a copy of one of our favorite photos from Amy's wedding. I added an appropriate quote, a nice frame, and voila! A perfect Father's Day gift.

Yesterday we spent the entire day in South Pasadena, where we attended our high school's annual alumni picnic. We're on the board, and we both had responsibilities at the picnic, so we were there all day. We had a blast!
We then drove around town, taking photos of our lovely home town, with its charming homes, schools,and beautiful buildings. We had ice cream at Buster's, and browsed through a used book store. We then drove down into the Arroyo Seco to take photos
of the golf course, and lovely park and baseball fields. Then we wended our way at sunset, up the leafy Arroyo Drive into Pasadena, to shoot photos of the beautiful Greene & Greene homes, and the stunning Colorado St. Bridge.

I shot a great photo of Bruce in South Pas, and I decided that I'd add it here, because I wanted my sweetie to know how much I love him, and what a wonderful Dad he is to our kids. Today was a wonderful day, we enjoyed a lovely church meeting, including singing in the choir (I'm the director), and then relaxing at home. We heard from all of our kids, and are proud that our boys are both wonderful Dads themselves. Life is good!

My Dad

I've been thinking about my Dad as Father's Day approaches... he passed away almost exactly 9 years ago: on June 29, 2002. I've made quite a few layouts about my Dad through the years, but he never saw any of them. I think Dad probably would have liked some of the things I scrapped about him: his love of jazz:


His love of the outdoors:


His work as a grain & flour dealer:

(You can see this one larger here)

I wanted to honor my sweet Dad this Father's Day, I hope he's watching over me and our family...we sure miss him!

Color

I'm such a sap for beautiful colors, flowers, blue skies.... and we have those in abundance in beautiful Ventura County, California where we live. I stopped to take photos of these beautiful violet hollyhocks growing out in the countryside near our home. Never one to leave a good photo alone, I thought it would be fun to try something a little different. I hope you enjoy my vision of some of the beautiful colors I see.

Almost Two

We had a fun family gathering at our house today- my brother Gene and sister-in-law Joanne were down from Utah, so their two kids who live here in LA and their families, plus Mom, sister Lynne & husband Bruce, and son Alec, Alicia and our little grandson Jackson all gathered for food & visiting. There were 3 kids: grandniece Nikki, 7, her little brother Brady, almost 3, and Jackson. There were also 2 very small ones: grandnephew Jace 6 months, and tiny Brooke- 3 months. The kids headed to the backyard, where they had a great time playing ball, and just running around on the grass and stepping stones. As I watched little Jackson playing with his cousin Brady, it finally occurred to me that Jack is not a baby anymore. The boys were so cute together.... Brady is almost a year older than Jackson, but they were playing ball like best buddies. I caught a glimpse of the boy Jackson is becoming. (I do think he's the most beautiful boy too, look at those blonde curls!) Just had to make a little layout to celebrate our almost-two-year-old.

Fredericksburg

Last summer when we went to Texas to visit our kids, we spent a day in Fredericksburg. Fredericksburg is located not far from San Antonio, in the Texas Hill Country. It's an old German town, and is full of cute little shops, cafes and galleries. But by far the most fascinating and interesting place in town is the Admiral Nimitz National Museum of the Pacific War. This incredible museum honors and tells the stories of the horrific war in the Pacific.... everything from Pearl Harbor, to theBataan Death March, to Iwo Jima to Hiroshima. I never knew how devastating the Pacific War was, and how vulnerable those soldiers, sailors and airmen were on their ships, islands, and planes.

I've been thinking it would be fun to create another 'name' layout, like these two I did of Malibu & Salt Lake, only one with lots of letters. I think Fredericksburg qualifies as a lot of letters. Naturally I had to make it two pages. The photos don't do it justice- Fredericksburg is a wonderful and fascinating town. I hope we can go back again on our next visit! (Click here for a closer view)

Sneak Peek!

I'm going to be launching a new blog in a few weeks... I've been getting really excited about it, and planning and preparing! My StefStyle blog isn't going anywhere, I'll still be posting my usual creative projects, photos and thoughts here. But I was inspired by someone elses blog a month or so ago, and decided to try something totally different- and basically copy her idea, only in my own quirky way. But that's all I'm going to tell you! I'll just post a photo that is a tiny hint. I'll give more details in the weeks to follow, so stop by frequently to see what's going on here!

The Equestrienne

My lovely daughter-in-law Alicia is a horsewoman, and is busy riding and training her horse Fi'oro. Alec surprised Alicia with the horse for Christmas, and it's kept her very busy both in Utah, and now in California, taking care of, and riding her lovely steed. She invited me to the stable on Monday, and I took my trusty camera, capturing about 300 photos of her riding and grooming him. Between caring for a four-footed critter, and little bundle of energy, Jackson, Alicia has her hands full of animal energy. (I'd add something about Alec here, but it wouldn't be appropriate! Moms have to stay classy!) If you'd like a closer view, click here.