April Sky

I get really sappy about nature, especially the beautiful area where I live. I took this photo on my way home from class last week, the sky was so dramatic and magnificent. I just wished my lens could take in all of the sky.

Golden Boy

This is our grandson, Jackson, our little Golden Boy. He came over for a visit yesterday, and I admit to taking just a few photos of him playing ball in the backyard with his Grandpa. He's 2 1/2, and the smartest and cutest li'l guy ever!  I wish we could see him more often!

Can you believe those golden curls? I can't blame Alec and Alicia for wanting to keep his hair long. He just looks like an angel with that halo of hair.

A Wedding Dress

I recently bought a dressmaker's dummy, so I can finally display my grandmother's wedding dress. I've had it packed away in a box in my closet for many years, and I decided it's time to make it part of our home atmosphere.

I tell the story of the dress in more detail on my collector's blog here, I hope you take a few minutes and read about it and see more photos of the dress and its lovely workmanship.

I thought a simple, clean layout, white on white, would make a nice tribute to my sweet Grandma Ward, and the beautiful dress she wore for her wedding on October 4, 1909.

Meeting Bridget

Last Wednesday, Mom and I drove to Pasadena to meet one of the newest members of our family: my nephew and niece's sweet little daughter Bridget. She's two months old, and quite the charmer. (I say 'one of the newest', because my Mom has had three new great-granddaughters born in the past two months, and two were born on the same day!) Little Bridget was born just 5 days after Mom's 100th birthday, so you can see in the smaller photo, what a difference 100 years makes!

Colleen, the new Mom, is enthralled with their first child, and she's doing such a wonderful job!  And my nephew Jim is over the moon excited to have a daughter. Jim is one of those guys who attracts kids like flies. He has such a way with children and babies, and they flock to him. My kids always thought of Jimmy as their favorite cousin, because he paid attention to them, and played with them. He is over 10 years older than my oldest son, so he definitely was someone the kids looked up to.  And now he's a proud papa!

I took a few pictures, (OK, it was actually over 100) and a few turned out pretty good. So I made this layout about Meeting Bridget.

More Graphic Design Projects

I've been really busy in my graphics class these past couple of weeks.  They set it up so it alternates between a chapter project in the book (Adobe Photoshop CS5 Classroom in a Book), and an independent project, using the principles we've learned in the previous chapters. I really love the independent projects, which I've been sharing with you here, here, here, and here.



Last week I completed an assignment to create a small ad, 8.5" x 5.5",  promoting an attraction at a US capital city. Immediately I thought of the California State Fair, held every July in Sacramento. We went last summer, and I took tons of photos. The only problem was that there were so many requirements for this ad, that I think the whole design is a lot busier that it would have been on my own. But I was pleased with the results. If you remember my layout from last summer, you will note that I used almost all the same photos, and even the same extracted unicycler. But I started from scratch, and did everything the long, hard way!

This week, my assignment was to create a brochure cover for an imaginary museum. The format was a lot tougher: 3.5" x 8.5", so long and narrow. That's always hard to work in, especially wanting the title to be large, but being limited by the small width of the piece. There were likewise an impressive list of requirements: mask, gradient, layer styles, mixer brush, filters, etc. Again, perhaps not exactly the design I would have come up with without all of the restrictions, but I was pleased with the results:

Of course, there is no Museum of American Architecture in New York City, but if there were, perhaps they would like to borrow my artwork for the cover of their next brochure.
I'll be sure to volunteer my stellar design services!

Me in 1977

Yesterday I spent some time at my Mom's, going through a drawerful of old Christmas and birthday cards and photos. Most everything was fairly recent: the past 8 years or so, since she moved into her current apartment. But there were a few older family photos, which she asked me to take. One of these photos was of me, that I've been looking for awhile.... taken in 1977, some time before I met Bruce. It was always one of my favorites, it was taken with my 35 mm Yashica camera, and I developed the film myself. My favorite part of the photo was my fun Dorothy Hammil haircut! I loved that hairstyle, and I thought it looked pretty good on me, if I do say so myself.

So, here's a layout I did, using that photo, a moment in time- early 1977, South Pasadena, California.

After the Storm

We've been having a lot of rain here in Southern California. Yesterday we had a doozy of a rainstorm, with thunder and lightning, and even hail in some places. Not extreme weather by any means, but it did cause some flooding, traffic accidents, and even a waterspout off the coast at San Clemente.  Winter and spring rainstorms in California brings snow to the mountains, and our mountain ski resorts now have record breaking amounts of new snow, just as they were about to close for the season.

My favorite part of such storms is their aftermath: the beautiful washed-clean scenery, with puffy white clouds, snowy mountain peaks, and gloriously green hills and valleys.

This morning I went out to shoot some photos of our pretty area, trying to find a high vantage point where there weren't too many houses in view. I found several perfect spots up on the west side of Moorpark, in the hills above Home Acres.
I made a layout with 3 of my favorites. Just a simple, clean design, featuring the photos front & center.  (You can click on the layout for a closer view)

A Gift for Nikki

I reworked my recent fantasy project I did for my graphic design class, as a birthday gift for my grandniece Nikki. Although the proportions of the little girls to the dragon in the original are different from the new one, I thought it came out rather fun! I framed it in a nice white frame, and she seemed to like it. I'm sure it won't be long before makeup and electronics take the place of fanciful gifts like this in Nikki's life.... for now she's my little sweetie.

Here's the original design

Nikki opens her gift

Nikki's Big Day

Sunday was not only Easter Sunday, but it was a very special day for my grandniece Nikki. It was her eighth birthday, so the family gathered together to celebrate her baptism into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Nikki's Dad Ben baptized her, and the service was lovely! Afterward, family and friends met in the cultural hall of the Wilshire Ward, for a wonderful Easter dinner! Nikki enjoyed birthday cake and presents, and of course, the joy of being surrounded by so many who love her so much!

I created a simple layout in her honor, with some of my favorite photos of the event.

I love this photo I snagged of Nikki's mom- my beautiful niece Emily, and baby Brooke. I desaturated it since it was so monochromatic, and think it really captures two beautiful young ladies!  Since today is Emily's birthday, I post it in her honor! Happy birthday, sweetie!

Happy Spring Day!

This gorgeous flowering bush grows in the parking lot of my Mom's apartment. Today the sky was the most incredible blue! I thought the colors were just yummy! Straight out of the camera!

Happy Spring Day!

Ooh La La Licorice!

Those of you who follow my blog, know that I am taking a graphic design certificate program at my local career center. It's been really fun, learning new skills, and polishing skills that I developed long ago. And it hasn't hurt that I have been doing digital scrapbooking for the past 5 years! I'm currently almost finished with my Photoshop section, and will soon begin Illustrator.

My most recent project was to create a package design, based on a package structure of something I found out in the marketplace. I've loved Target's Choxie brand of treats packaging, so I bought a box of truffles to disassemble and use as a template for my new package design. I recently designed an invitation to my niece's baby shower, with a pink and black Paris theme, so that's where I got my jump start!

There were certain mandatory elements and techniques that I needed to incorporate: smart objects, a gradient, a blending mode, a clipping mask on some typeography, plus all of the elements to make it look like a real package: bar code, nutritional information, etc.

I had the artwork printed at Costco, then I attached the print to some black cover stock, and folded & taped it together, adding an acetate window and filling it with black licorice. I thought it came out rather well! I did make 3 changes to the artwork after I assembled it and noticed a couple of small design issues. But that's all part of the design process!

Easter Dinner

We enjoyed our family Easter dinner early... since tomorrow we have a family baptism,  we will be joining my nieces and nephews and kids for a family get-together and dinner tomorrow afternoon. My sister Lynne and I wanted to have a special Easter dinner for just 'us chickens' (translated: adults), at our house this evening, so Lynne could cook all of her special dishes, and her husband Bruce could make some yummy pork dish. I contributed veggies and dessert.

As usual, we hosted, so I wanted to create a festive and fun atmosphere. I'm feeling kind of like those Mommy bloggers who post all of their fabulous decorations and recipes! I do think the table looked wonderful, just my style!

I'll give you some glimpses of my decor and treats:

I've had these vintage berry baskets for quite a few years now, I thought it would be fun to finally use them!

I just added a small amount of Easter grass, and some Cadbury Mini Eggs

I made each person a name card. I took a photo of the egg wreath on the front door, and used that as the main Easter element of the card. I tied a simple piece of ribbon on the napkins.

This vintage basket was a gift to my Mom from my Aunt Mary, in the early years of their marriage- the early 1940s.  It's from Mexico.

Here's what the table looked like all set.

I'm not a great baker, but I had fun making Easter cupcakes for dessert.

Here's the gang, enjoying the marvelous Easter meal!

One Easter Long Ago

I posted my collection of vintage Easter photos on my other blog today, most of which are from my own family.

I particularly love two that were taken Easter 1955, at our Los Angeles home, with our Clark cousins. One shows the whole motley crew, and the other is just my oldest sister Lynne, and myself. I was four, she was 15 (And looking quite mature, I might add!)

The one of Lynne and I was folded and damaged, and rather than try to restore it, I opted instead to extract myself, and have some filter fun with the other photo. In celebration of Easter this weekend, and the lovely, soft Spring pastels that are representative of the season, I share with you my artistic vision of One Easter Long Ago.

On Visiting An Old Family Home

Today I decided to stop by a neighborhood where our family lived when I was 3 and 4 years old, in the Glassel Park area of Los Angeles. I was driving on the freeway nearby, and it was a beautiful day for photography. I've been by this old house several times in the past few years, and it's really quite depressing how the neighborhood looks, and especially our cute old house. A typical Spanish-style bungalow,  probably built in the 1920s, our charming little house had a tile roof, arched porch, and craftsman-looking windows. Today the house doesn't even have a flat roof anymore.... it's been 'modernized', and then, well, to be kind, 'remodeled'. It's so sad, the center stairs to the front porch are gone, and there's some decorative brickwork, and wrought iron railings and fences.  I know that it's not a major league tragedy. Many houses in the world have been allowed to run down, or have been 'updated' in unattractive ways. Many more have been torn down, at least this house is still there. But still, made me kinda sad.

At least the remodeled house has a lovely fountain next to the porch! (snark)

Malibou Lake

Here's my layout I did using my 'slightly improved' photos from Friday's excursion to the beautiful Malibou Lake.

(Click on the photo for a closer view)

I'll tell you a little about how this all came to be. The other night, my daughter Annie asked me if I'd drive her to a friend's home, in Agoura Hills, not far from our home. No problem. (Annie doesn't drive yet, much to all of our chagrin... hopefully soon!) What I thought would be a 15 minute drive, turned out to be 30 minutes, because she doesn't live in the part of Agoura I imagined, she lives up in Kanan Canyon, near Paramount Movie Ranch. I go to Paramount Ranch every year for the Topanga Banjo & Fiddle Contest, so it's a very familiar place for me. But the GPS told us to keep driving. It was getting dusky as we were driving, and so I couldn't quite make out all of the details of the wonderland we entered. Going across a fairytale bridge, covered with twinkly lights, we came upon a beautiful lake, surrounded by cottages, parkland, and beautiful trees. It was like we entered another world! The road wound around the lake. and then we crossed another bridge, and up a winding mountain road to our destination. After dropping Annie off, it was too dark for photos, so I thought I'd plan a return trip.

It didn't take long, the very next day (Friday) I took Mom on a little excursion, and we drove back up. Between Thursday night and Friday morning, I did a little internet search, and discovered that Malibou Lake was not MALIBU Lake, but spelled differently. Back in the late 'twenties, the lake was formed by damming two mountain creeks, and the two developers sold 'lakefront' property which they promised would soon be the idyllic scene of boating and fishing. But alas, the manmade lake remained dry for enough time that the new landowners were getting pretty upset. A spring rainstorm filled the lake, and it's been pretty much paradise ever since.  Malibou Lake has been the scene of many many movies- both silent and talkies, including Frankenstein, The Bad Seed, Gone With the Wind, MASH, and The Ring. Today, the lake is surrounded by beautiful homes and cottages, some dating back to the early years of the development.

A scene from Frankenstein, shot at Malibou Lake

When Mom and I returned on Friday, the weather was lovely, if a little hazy, and we both were impressed to see what a beautiful place it really is. The biggest problem, is that the area is all privately owned, and there were enough No Trespassing signs, that it made me a little nervous to take the kinds of photos I wanted. So I had to content myself with taking pictures from the side of the road, and on the bridges, I was unable to walk to the lake side to take closeups.