The Last Photos

Today was the last photo for our 30-day photo challenge. I'm sad to see it end, it was a lot of fun. It was a bit stressful having to use my iPhone camera for nearly half the month, since my Nikon died, but that also meant challenging myself to stretch a little with my compositions and approach to the photo.

 

Amy's 'Kid

When the kids were here this past week, our daughter Amy was going through some of her childhood possessions. She was sorting through the things she wants to keep, and stuff she's ready to get rid of. She and Jon live in small apartment in Salt Lake, so there's not any extra storage room. So those things are staying right here for the time being. One of Amy's most precious treasures is her old Cabbage Patch Kid. She took very good care of it through the years, and it brings back so many happy memories of her as a little girl. There is a story behind how I got that doll, and I wanted to tell it through a layout for her.

Back in the Spring of 1983, I had heard about this new Cabbage Patch line of dolls. I wasn't yet a doll designer, but I had strong opinions on the aesthetics of dolls. This new doll was not my favorite doll in the world, but when I saw the vast shelves of CPK dolls at Zody's in Hollywood, I thought I'd better get one for Amy for Christmas. Christmas was still a long time away, but there was such a huge selection, I was mesmerized.  I clearly remember standing in that toy section, with  dolls from floor to ceiling on the shelves. Dozens, if not hundreds of dolls. Each one different. Of course, I wanted one that looked like my brown-eyed, brown-haired little girl. And she had to be wearing something cute- nothing frilly for my little tomboy. It took me quite a while to find the right one. She was wearing a red dress, and had long brown pigtails, tied up with white ribbons. And her name was 'Honey Stephie'! She was perfect. I brought her home, and hid her in the kids' closet, high up, and in the back. There she sat for months and months, waiting for Christmas. (Trust me, I don't ever buy Christmas presents that early... if I get something that long before Christmas, it is given to the child for some other special occasion. Like breathing). Then, in about October, all hell broke loose! Cabbage Patch Kids became the rage! There's probably never been a toy frenzy like the one over Cabbage Patch Kids that year- people fighting in the aisles, and the great lengths people would go to to acquire one of the precious dolls. It was a media spectacle too, and I wasn't immune to seeing the news,  and the crazy prices people were willing to pay. And I had one of these precious dolls hiding in the closet. For a brief moment I considered selling the doll. We were, after all, a struggling young family with two little ones. Amy wouldn't know the difference, she had never seen the doll, nor asked for it. But I decided that giving the doll to Amy was more important than money, so in the closet it stayed. On Christmas morning, Amy was thrilled with her new dolly. We took some photos of her with the doll, and I found them to scan, and share on this layout.

(I think it is an interesting footnote, that a little over ten years later, I became a Cabbage Patch designer when I was working at Mattel, and for many years after during my freelance years. I'm part of that Cabbage Patch history too!) 

Photo taken of me in the Mattel Photo Studio, 1996

The Photo Challenge is almost over!

Only a few days left on the 30-day Photo Challenge: here are my most recent day's entries:

I kind of cheated on Day 25- our friend Janel actually snapped the photo. Since my camera died, I didn't want an iPhone photo for our Holiday shot. Janel kindly let us borrow her camera, and she ended up taking this one, since we couldn't figure out how to use the auto shutter settings on her Canon. (nice camera, by the way!)  The topic was 'Happy', and that picture looked pretty happy to me!

About Creative Block and Other Things

A few weeks ago, we were in Palm Springs, for a much needed break, and for me to find some uninterrupted time to work on my history of South Pasadena Junior High (which I've been sluggishly writing for about 4+ years).  I did get quite a bit done, and I also was able to scan more photos from the SPJHS archives,  of which I am the temporary guardian.  One of the photos really intrigued me... it was of a group of 8th and 9th grade girls, taken in 1934. These young ladies were the girl's sports 'managers', who were each in charge of a different sport. I found out the names of each of the girls by finding this photo in the school newspaper, but it was the original photo itself, not the small black and white halftone in the paper, that captivated me. Looking at the girls close up, I was surprised to see that they seemed so real to me. Their pretty faces and cute hairstyles didn't look dated to me... they looked universal. A couple of the girls looked like they could have walked straight out of our local mall, and fit right in with adolescents of 2011. They all wore simple, light colored (probably white) dresses. School uniforms.  They all wore old-fashioned shoes with anklets (some of them were patterned... just like today).

I wanted to make a layout about them, but since I didn't actually know any of these girls, it seemed I wanted to make a layout about the 'real-ness' of them. Or at least my wanting to make them seem real, so that my eventual finished product book will bring them somewhat to life. I'm not doing a book about any particular students- it's just a history of the school after all.  But in doing my research, I'm finding myself feeling closer to many of the students and teachers.  I guess it's just a visual thing, because I know nothing of them, really.  But in my convoluted way, I'm saying that I'm trying to bring these kids to life. Or at least make them seem not like old black and white photos, but like real students who had real lives.

So, I started a layout on November 13th. I had an idea of how I wanted it to look. I easily composed the page like I envisioned it, but after that, I had nothing but creative block. The basic design never changed, but I changed everything else... the colors, the title, the background, the handling of the group photo behind the girl in color, even the girl changed and changed.  I finally 'called it a day' yesterday, and declared it finished. I realize I'm making way too big a deal about this process. It's just a layout. Not every layout is a work of art, or incredibly original or creative. Many of them are just a bunch of photos layered prettily on a page with a title and a few words. Done. But I wanted this one to be special. And I don't think I really did that. It's ok. But I guess that's the way a lot of designs are. Ok. And that's really quite all right.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I have so much to be thankful for! All of our beautiful children are here with us for Thanksgiving! We've had so much fun in the past few days, eating, visiting, driving, eating, just hanging out. And eating!

I'm so thankful for a wonderful husband! He takes such good care of me, and is so fun! He loves having the kids here, and plans lots of fun activities for us to do! I love him for trying to take my precious camera apart to try to fix it.. we found some instructions online on how to do it, and he made a valiant attempt. But it went 'POOF!', and I think it's a goner. But he was so sweet and patient to give it a try.  (I'm almost hyperventilating here without my camera... it's soooo hard to use an iPhone camera to try to capture those precious memories. But I will do it!)

I'm thankful for a wonderful family. I have two amazing sisters, a great brother, and my sweet 99-year old Mom. There are also wonderful in-laws, and tons of fabulous nieces, nephews, grand-nieces, and grand-nephews. Some of them will be at our house today to celebrate Thanksgiving! I've counted 22 that will be here, and for that, I'm so grateful. To have a house large and comfortable enough to accommodate all this family is truly a blessing.

Here are the last three photos on the 30-day photo challenge. These iPhoto ones have actually turned out pretty well!

2/3 Done

Today was Day 20 of our 30 day photo challenge. I admit, I've really been enjoying it. The only problem has been that my beloved Nikon D40X camera died on Monday while we were in Venice. I was photographing some lovely flowers, and I thought the motor sounded a bit funny. Then, it just stopped working with an error message that says: "Error. Press shutter release button again". Well, I tried that. Nothing. Same error message. Luckily, my new iPhone takes quite nice photos, especially outdoors. In fact, the large photo on my previous layout was taken with the iPhone, and I like it even better than the earlier ones with the Nikon. But, for indoor, low light, zoom, etc, they just don't quite cut it. So, I've been using the iPhone camera for my last 3 days of the photo challenge. See if you can see the difference! (Maybe you can't!)  The possible good news is, I looked up this error message on Google, and found out it MIGHT be possible to fix it ourselves, VERY carefully, with detailed instructions. But it also might fail, in which case, we need to decide whether to pay for an expensive camera repair bill, or buy a new one. Which wouldn't really work into our budget right now. Please keep your fingers crossed for us!

A Day in Venice, California

This morning Annie and I drove to LAX to pick up daughter Amy an son-in-law Jon, who arrived in town to spend a week with us for Thanksgiving.  We had planned a day trip to go to either Santa Monica or Venice, and I'm so glad we picked Venice. I've lived in the Los Angeles area nearly my whole life, and I've never been to the canals of Venice. I've been to the boardwalk at Venice Beach, but not for years and years.

 The canals of Venice are just beautiful.. lovely homes, some bungalows, some super modern. Most of the homes have a little dock and a rowboat, canoe, or paddleboat tied up there. There were lovely flowers, ducks in the water, and people walking their dogs. I met a couple visiting from Toronto, who were in love with Venice and the canals.

Venice was the brainchild of a man named Abbot Kinney, who in the early years of the 20th century, envisioned a resort area on the beaches of Southern California like Coney Island, combined with the canals of Venice, Italy. Originally, much of the city was covered by canals, but only a small section remain. Neglect, development, and politics contributed to their being filled in many years ago. Today the canal area is a very desirable location, and the homes there are pricy and eclectic. Super modern sit next to 1920s bungalows, with exotic flowers, landscaping, fountains, and of course, footbridges along the canals. 

Crazy!

It's been a crazy few days... our daughter Annie came home from New York today, she's left New York City for now, happy to reestablish herself as a Californian! It's also Annie's 20th birthday, and it was wonderful to celebrate with her! We've missed her so much- phone calls and infrequent visits just weren't enough!

In addition to Annie moving home, we're also getting ready for EVERYONE to come home for Thanksgiving. Daughter Amy & her new husband Jon arrive tomorrow morning, and son Ian and wife Jessica arrive Sunday. We'll have a full house! Son Alec and daughter-in-law Alicia and grandson Jackson will be staying with her folks here in Moorpark, so at least we won't need to put anyone on the couch. So, lots of cleaning, organizing, and shopping to get ready for the holiday.... We'll have around 20 here for Thanksgiving, I can't wait!

But, not a lot of time for scrapping, or doing fun creative projects.  One of the bonuses of losing my job, is now I can focus on establishing my own business again. I've taken back my studio from Bruce, who's been using it for a couple of years.  So, now I'm in the process of cleaning, organizing, and moving myself & my computer back into my lovely studio. It's definitely more comfortable than the kitchen table! 

I have had some time to take my daily photo for the 30-day challenge. Without further ado, I'll post the last few days.  I'm also working on a layout, perhaps I'll get it finished tonight so I can post it.

Next Group of Photos

Here are the next three photos from our 30-day Photography Challenge. As always, this is really fun for me, trying to figure out something interesting for each day.

For the subject of 'many', I took a photo of my many toy typewriters. (I was originally thinking I had 11 of them, which would be perfect for 11/11, but alas, I only have 10.

This gorgeous lady is my Mom, Vi Clark, who is 99 years old. I treasure every day I have to spend with her. Yesterday we went out for ice cream, and I snapped this photo.

I love where we live... lovely weather almost any time of year.

 

The Beautiful Mission Inn

On Wednesday when we were returning home from Palm Springs, we spent the afternoon in Riverside at the amazing Mission Inn. I had visited the Mission Inn once before, back at Christmastime 1976. My post-college roommate Susan was from Riverside, and we went out there to visit her family and see her home town. I hadn't really spent any time out in the Inland Empire, so it was all new to me. I clearly remember going to the Mission Inn with Susan and her Dad. I loved the incredible architecture and decor.... and always wanted to return.  Bruce had never heard of it before, so it was fun to share it with him. But it's changed! It has been lovingly restored and revamped in the past 35 years or so, going through several owners, including a time when it was completely shuttered in the 1980s.

We went to the little Mission Inn Museum, and signed up for a tour, then went and had lunch at the Mission Inn Restaurant, where we enjoyed a lovely meal on the Spanish Patio.

On the tour we learned all about Frank Miller- the original owner and visionary who created a magnificent monument to hospitality and beauty over a period of nearly 35 years. The first large section of the hotel was built in the early part of the 20th century, and was designed in the Mission Revival style of architecture. But after that, each section and wing had a different style:  Spanish Revival style, Renaissance Revival, Moorish Revival, Spanish Gothic, and there is even a Chinese section. He hired several architects over the years, and traveled the world to buy artifacts and treasures with which to furnish his masterpiece.

You can click on the layout for a closer view of some of my little photos!

Another Few Photos

We're on day 10 of the photo challenge, and I've really been enjoying it. Here are my next 3 photos, with the subject & date & info on each one.

Desert Morning

Today is day three of our visit to Palm Springs, and it's going to be a short one. We have to check out of our room at 10 am, so I'm up bright and early trying to get my internet postings done for the day. The only negative aspect of our visit has been that our resort doesn't have internet access, and has very poor cell phone reception. So each morning I've gone to McDonald's to spend an hour or so on the internet taking care of my blog, emails and other computer stuff.

I'm very proud of myself: I've really been working hard on my book this week, and feel I've made more headway than I had hoped. I've made good progress on three chapters. Since it's research based and not 'imagination' based, like a novel, it's hard to quantify how much research and note taking actually are going to end up applying to the finished product. 

I also took a little time yesterday early morning to take some photos of the nearby desert. It was day 8 of the photo challenge, and  the subject was Morning.  I really liked some of the shots I took, so I put them together into a very quick layout.

More of the Photo Challenge

Bruce and I are in Palm Spings for a few days. We have a time share here- Palm Springs isn't my favorite place in the world. I'm not a desert person, but it's a great getaway, and place to work. I have been working (very slowly) on writing a book about a school I attended, and I use this stay as a chance to work on the book without any interruptions. Both this visit and last, I hauled all of my boxes of research materials & archives, to have a few days without any other commitments.

But I do have a few commitments: one is for the 30-day photo challenge I'm participating in. Here are my last 3 days worth of photos, including today. I finally got wise and put the dates & name of the challenge on each one.

 (If you are a male person, please avert your eyes on this last one)

My other commitment is my collector blog, which must go on- travels or no. You can check it out here.

Regardless of my feelings about Palm Springs and the desert, I will share with you any photos or layouts I do of the dramatic desert scenery.

The 30 Day Photo Challenge

 There are lots of challenges in the world of photography and scrapbooking. I often participate in them, enjoying an extra push to get me out of my comfort zone, help me learn a new skill, or just join in the fun. Generally these challenges are single layouts or photos. I prefer technical challenges: a new Photoshop skill, or a design element. I also enjoy color challenges: using a particular color combination.  I am very reluctant to do long term challenges, because I'm just not willing to commit to doing a layout a day, or a photo a day, or a layout about a photo a day. (Some of these challenges last a whole year!). But this one popped up just at the right time! It's a photo a day for a month, each day has a different fun theme. Since I am now "unemployed", I figure I can do THAT!   So, today is day four, and I can already see a problem. Not that I can't take the photos, but that there might be some days that the subject might not jibe with my life. Today's subject is clouds. Wouldn't you know it, there's not a cloud in the sky today? So I guess that means I'll have to be clever and come up with either another idea for clouds, or wait until later to see what pops up in the sky.  Three days from now, the subject is "In the Kitchen". Well, I love my kitchen. I could take lots of great photos of my kitchen. But three days from now my kitchen will be the kitchen at Palm Canyon Resort, where Bruce and I are going for a few days, including Day 9. I don't think the little kitchenette there is really quite up to snuff for a great photo. Perhaps a little cheating might be in order. I mean, who wouldn't do that? So I think I'll have to do a little shuffling around of photos & days to solve all of my weighty problems. 

 I don't think I'll post my photos here every day, but I'll try to take a few opportunities throughout the month to get them up.

Some of the people participating have created clever frames and titles on their photos, so I've done that too. I'm such a copycat!

Holy Halloween, Batman!

Here's the original photo!

Now that I have "lots of time on my hands", I thought it would be fun to celebrate with a layout. This photo was taken with Alec's iPhone camera, and when he texted it to me, I laughed out loud! I just knew I had to have a little cartoon fun with it! I probably overdo it with the halftone filters on my layouts, but I can't get enough. I guess I'm a 60s girls who loves Roy Lichtenstein and pop art!  Isn't our little guy adorable? He took his Halloween adventure very seriously, and scored a half a bucket of goodies. We weren't home when they arrived to trick or treat at our house, but they stuck around so we could marvel over their costumes and take some photos of them.

Mystic, and Some News

Here's my latest layout! I vowed not to do another one of these 'photos in the letters' layouts any time soon, but it just kind of happened. As usual, too many photos, too little space, so I just did the title work, and I'm happy with my choice of photos. The day we were in Mystic, Connecticut in early October, was a gloomy one. But the sun's rays streaming gently through the clouds, subtly illuminated the river. It wasn't an overly dramatic scene, but quietly beautiful. The water looked pewter, the sky like silver.

Shown in the layout are some of the scenes we saw in Mystic, including our friend Leon, who is the children's book buyer at Bank Square Books in Mystic, daughter Annie walking along the river, the work of a local children's artist, and the famous Mystic Pizza.

On a personal note, I was laid off from my job today. It's been a rather trying experience. I've never been "downsized" before, other than Weight Watchers, LOL. I really loved my job- great company, great co-workers, great career.... but I am at peace that things will work out for me. At the moment I plan to restart my own toy design business, that I had for 13 years. I'm also looking forward to NOT driving 100 miles a day, round trip, in 3-4 hour Los Angeles traffic. Stay tuned. I'm sure I'll enlighten you on how things are going in my creative life.