A Visit in Winter

So, the big question is, can you see it? Or is it sooooo obvious that you're laughing at my question? If you know, leave me a comment!

What is also obvious is that I have been taking a bunch of photos these past couple of days in the Salt Lake/ Utah Valley areas. It's been snowy and cold, and I just love the way it makes all the colors deeper and richer, and I love the dark, almost black limbs against a white gray sky. This morning I spent a couple of hours in American Fork and Lehi, taking photos of some of the historic buildings and houses. Just love those pioneer homes!

Just Guy

I'm really lucky that I managed to squirrel away most of the negatives from my
college photography days. I had to take a few photography classes for my major, and although I wasn't a gifted photographer, I had a decent SLR camera for the era: a Yashica Minister. I loved black and white photography, loved to develop my own photos and negatives.

The other day I was looking through some scanned negatives from the mid-70s, and I came across a group of them that I took of my dear friend Guy. He was (and still is) a musician, and he asked me if I would take photos for his then upcoming self-produced album cover. Since he lived in a funky old apartment above some stores in downtown Provo, Utah, we didn't have to go far for our photo shoot. These two photos were taken in his kitchen, and I also have a number of others taken that day, right outside his back door, and some on the rickety stairway that led up to his front door. This memorable photo shoot took place in the spring of 1975.

I wonder if he still has any copies of that old album? As I recall, I designed the album cover too, as well as taking the photographs. I guess I've been doing this longer than I thought!  I sent Guy a courtesy copy of this layout today, and he loved it. Although his hair is no longer dark brown, it's still as thick as ever! He has a snowy white beard, and he tells me, he still has these overalls!  (Here's Guy in his recording studio, still making music!)

Greetings from Utah.... Again!

I'm back in Utah for my final toy design project critique and presentation. (You can read more about it here) I arrived very late last night, so I'm being lazy this morning, puttering around my brother's house before I get ready to go to BYU in a few hours. This trip I'm staying with Gene in Lehi, as son Alec & family are going to California. I'll be spending a lot of time with daughter Amy, husband Jon, and new puppy Mia. (Can't wait to meet her!)

In the days before leaving, I needed to be proactive and plan and photograph my week's collections for my collector's blog. Obviously I'm not home to do this, and since I post a collection every week day, I took oodles of photos of the stuff I plan to feature this week.

The one collection I thought would be fun, was the four artist's bucks, or artist's mannequins that I have. They range in size from 16" to about 4", three are typical wood, and the other is a realistic fashion-doll looking mannequin I bought a few years ago to help me with fashion doll design.  The reason I'm mentioning this here, is because I had so much fun photographing these characters... the light was great, and I got some fun shots that I thought worthy of posting here.

I'll update you soon on how everything goes today!

Historic Rosedale Plantation

On Sunday afternoon, after our conference was over, and before we had to head to the airport for our return home from North Carolina, Bruce and I grabbed our umbrellas and enjoyed a beautiful tour of the Historic Rosedale Plantation, not far from downtown Charlotte.  The rain just made the grounds and home look fabulous (too bad it was February and not-so-green, but stunning nontheless). There were pink flowers on the........trees,  (AWK! I have no idea what kind of trees they were! Let me know if you know!) and a little bit of green in the gardens. But the tour was marvelous (fabulous tour guide!) and the interior of the plantation was lovely, if simple. North Carolina has an interesting antebellum history, much different than, say, Virginia, or Georgia. More humble, I would say. But it's nice that this plantation has been beautifully restored, and that great care has been given to sharing it with the public.

You can read more about it on their website here.

Of course, we took lots of photos. The light inside was nice and dreamy, and the subject matter was lovely. Very little remains of the original furnishings. I believe a child's high chair is all that's left. (Union soldiers pillaged the house after the Civil War) But there are still a lot of authentic history, photos, and other memorabilia in the home, and one room with the original early 19th century wallpaper from France. (Complete with rude penciled comments from some of the boys who once lived in the home, and wrote on the walls).  We learned so much about the original residents, and the slaves who once lived and worked here.

I thought it would be interesting to create a layout using the form of the palladian windows. Kind of symmetrical and boring, but I do think it works. Let me know if you like it!

The House in Cleveland

I've been busy since we got back from Charlotte last night... trying to get caught up on email, business and personal projects. Somehow today I managed to fit in a little layout about my great-grandfather Walter Thomas Ward.

Walter Thomas Ward came to America in the 1850s when he was a child. He was born in Warwickshire, England. His family settled in Cleveland. He left Ohio after his marriage, for the wild & wooly west: Beatrice Nebraska, in the 1870s. (That's where my grandfather William Walter Ward was born in 1875). In 1880, the family moved to Washington DC, where Walter (apparantly) worked in the White House for President James A. Garfield, before his assassination. They then returned to Nebraska. When Walter's children were grown, and after his wife passed away, Walter moved back to Cleveland with his second wife Effie. Dapper and adventurous, Walter traveled the country visiting family, sightseeing, and enjoying the great outdoors. He died in Cleveland in 1931.

 When we were having dinner at a restaurant Saturday night, I spotted some artwork on the wall that inspired me to create a clean, graphic heritage layout. I think you might be able to see how I was inspired by the black and white figures, with a block of color in the background, in the image below. 

Print on the wall of Ruby Tuesday's restaurant in Charlotte, that inspired the layout above.

Fourth Ward

Bruce and I are in Charlotte, North Carolina for a convention. Yesterday we had a day to ourselves, so we spent a few hours checking out the historic Fourth Ward district. It was a rainy afternoon, but we didn't let that spoil our fun. Cloudy and rainy days often make the best days for photography... intense colors, saturated pavement, reflections, water drops on trees and fences... and of course, umbrellas!

Here's the layout I created with a few of our photos:

Happy Valentine's Day!

I just love Valentine's Day! My sweetie gave me the most adorable card ever (complete with sound effects), gorgeous red tulips (my favorites) and took Annie and I out to breakfast.


Here's the gift I made him!

I've been sharing my vintage Valentines and Valentine stuff on my blog all month. Here's a link to my most recent entry. Below are a few of the photos I've posted recently. I hope you like them!

Always the Center of Attention

Yep, that's me. Always the Center of Attention. At least that was me as a child... I was the youngest, with two doting older sisters, parents who thought I was the smartest, cutest, most talented kid ever, (Exaggeration? You decide!) Ok, my brother was not convinced I was anything more than another arm to slug, hair to pull, girlish psyche to torment.... but whatever the case, I felt like I was generally the Center of the Known Universe. I will add that although I capitalized on this bit of family dynamic, I was not really very bratty. Maybe a little bit. But not too much. Perhaps Gene (the tormentor) kept me in line. Maybe my sense of Kindness and Fairness led me to temper my natural conceit.

However, I never intended this blog entry to be about whether or not I was a childhood brat. It was just to share this little layout I finished this morning, using some old photos from a family trip to Pocatello, Idaho, in late 1951. I'm the cute little baby in the center in the plaid dress and bow. It looks to me like I'm under a year old... I still don't have much hair to speak of, and my pudgy legs look like I'm still a crawler. Since I was born in January of 1951, common sense tells me the reason for a trip to Pocatello might have been a holiday visit- perhaps Thanksgiving. We have photos taken of our family Christmas 1951 at home, so I'm thinking Thanksgiving. We're all dressed up, which is how people celebrated holidays back in the good old days. No jeans or flip flops for this proper family!

If you look closely, you can see my brother Gene giving me the evil eye in the lower photo. He looks like he is thinking seriously about giving my plump leg a little pinch. In the upper left photo he is looking all wide-eyed and innocent. I like to think that Mom probably thwarted his attack on me, and he's trying to save face. Speaking of Mom, she looks especially glamorous with her swept back hair and silver necklace.

The little tiny baby is my cousin Kort, who was my Aunt Nita's first grandchild. Nita is the beautiful woman holding the baby in the lower photo, my Mom's younger sister. Hard to believe she's already a grandma in that photo! (She was only 37 in 1951!)

My own Grandma is also in the photo- Martha Gruetzmacher Ward. Since it's almost Valentine's Day, I'll share an older layout I did about her own love story- when she met my Grandpa Ward.  Enjoy!

Ian & Stef visit Silverlake

During our wonderful weekend last week celebrating Mom's 100th birthday, I got to enjoy a little time with our kids who came home for the event. The last to leave was our oldest son Ian, whose flight didn't leave LAX until late afternoon on Monday. We decided to spend the day together in Silverlake, Ian's favorite place in Los Angeles. This is near where we lived when the kids were little. We spent the first eight years of our marriage living in a little bungalow in East Hollywood, not far from the now-trendy section of LA called Silverlake. Actually, parts of Silverlake were trendy even then. I had lots of favorite little boutiques where I shopped for jewelry and tschotchkes in the 1970s, and although they are mostly gone now, they've been replaced by hip bistros, gift shops, and coffee houses. Silverlake isn't quite as cool as Melrose or Santa Monica, but it's a fun place to spend a few hours.

I'm not exactly sure how this layout evolved. Sometimes I just get to work, with no known direction or vision. It just happens. I'm not really certain how I ended up with what looks like a giant red dumpster in the middle of Sunset Blvd. Certainly, there was no red metal box in the street. I just 'built' it from a photo I took of an interesting door. But I think it gives the 'feel' of the street, and the things we saw there. The background photo is Silverlake, looking northwest toward the Hollywood Hills. You can see the Hollywood sign and the Griffith Observatory in the background. Ian is busy talking to his wife Jessica, on his cell phone. She was unable to come on the trip, and he was giving her an update. You can see quite a variety of unique textures and sights in the lettering... I think anyone familiar with the Silverlake neighborhoods would recognize all of these photos.  Even if you've never even heard of Silverlake, I think it's fun to see some of the sights we saw that day.

Shower Invitation

My niece Laura is having a baby soon, and my daughter Amy and a couple of her friends are throwing a baby shower for her soon. Amy asked me to design the shower invitation, and I was thrilled that the theme is pink and Paris and girly.... and wouldn't you know it, Rob & Laura plan on naming their little girl 'Elle'. How cute is that? So, here's the top part of the invitation. I thought it came out rather cute, and I did have fun playing with words, and my limited knowledge of French. (Ok, I took four years of French in high school, so I do remember a bit!)

All the artwork is my own drawing, and not even using my Wacom. Actual pen to paper! I hope you like!

A Century of Fabulousness!

The celebration of the century: Mom's 100th birthday, was a fabulous success! Mom reveled in all of the tributes and accolades... and said she wasn't sure they were really talking about her.  Ha! Of course she wouldn't believe it, because there's no one more humble or modest than Vi Clark.

Click on the picture for a closer view!

Without further ado, here are some favorite photos from the fantastic, phenomenal, family festival:

Nancy and Phil Halpin entertained us

Ehren Clark, grandson, shares his thoughts about his Grandma

Jesse & Julia Clark with Mom's youngest (at the moment) great-grandson Jace

John Kemp, Mom's oldest grandson

My beautiful sister Leslie Lewis

Thank heaven there weren't 100 candles to blow out!

The two red-heads: Mom with grandson Clark Nelson

Mom with dear friends Anne & Paul Devereaux

Mom's sister-in-law Carol Pearson, and dear friend Bonnie Porter

The entire gang (click for a closer view)

Mom surrounded by her grandchildren

Mom with oldest daughter Lynne Hopkins & family

Mom with us siblings

Adorable great-granddaughter Nikki Hemminger

We're Having a Party!

Can you believe this lady is one hundred years old?

Well, she isn't! She won't turn 100 until tomorrow!

I took this photo yesterday, of my dear Mom, Viola Ward Clark, who was born in Filer, Idaho on February 4, 1912.  She's gorgeous, vivacious, fun, and as young as ever. Don't you love her red hair?

We're having a big birthday celebration: all four of us kids and our spouses will be in attendance, plus 14 of her 16 grandchildren and most of her great-grandchildren, in-laws, nieces and nephews, and family friends. We're all gathering at our house to honor the heart of our family. We've been cleaning, decorating, shopping, gathering together, and enjoying the anticipation of a fun birthday celebration. I've got my camera battery charging so I can fill it up with great photos of the party and family!

I'm sure I'll be posting layouts and photos from the grand event, so watch this space!

Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you!

Here's a layout I did about my Mom when she was a young woman in the 1930s.

Waiting for Bridget

My sister Lynne, Mom and I attended a baby shower a couple of weeks ago, for our darling nephew and niece Jimmy and Colleen.  They are expecting a little girl they are naming Bridget (what a cute name!) and the shower was so much fun! It was held at a wonderful Mexican restaurant in Pasadena called Mijare's... Mijare's is a Pasadena tradition, and has been in business for over 90 years! We had a big room for the party, and it was bright and cherry- decorated in girly pinks, so festive with the vintage Mexican decor.

I made this layout in their honor... click on the picture for a closer view!