Overflow Journal Backgrounds

My own journal is bursting - I now have 4 miles of packaging tape holding it together, quite a satisfying crinkly feeling when I hold it. But it does mean adding anything for backgrounds is impossible for these last 12 pages or so. Toni, though, can't stop making backgrounds, so again these are all in my overflow journal. A Happy Occasion. Paint, sheet music, paper scrap and die cut, heart sequin. Flower of Love. Paint, sheet music background, clip art. ribbon and Prima flowers. These two spreads are side-by-side and I decided to coordinate them. Asian Pears. The pear photo is one of mine; the background was something I found during a Google fest, long ago. On the back side of the pears is a cool old ticket. Intangible. Except for that enormously appealing male arm, all these photos lift for journaling. They are photos or magazine images, not my own, but I did torture the shot of the woman on Photoshop.

Wild Horses

Recently, my buddy Patty over at River Bend Ranch posted this collage, something she made whilst TV viewing of an evening. I immediately emailed her and asked if I could buy a copy. The last time I saw my friend June, before she died of breast cancer, she asked me to sing this song to her. I managed to do it, even with both of us raining tears. Patty, the dear woman, made me two copies and simply mailed them out to me. I wanted to post this once I'd found a frame and mat and gotten this beautiful piece of art preserved.

Patty, I love it, the memory, the art that conjures June for me. Thank you from my deepest heart!

V-Luv

My soul sister, my best friend, my other half, my whole heart, my WOMAN, Miss V. Here is someone I love love love love. Did you all know we've never met in person? But we are in each other's DNA. My Lovely Mother knew it, too -- she recently adopted Veronica, whose own mother? well, that's not my story to tell, but My (Our) Lovely Mother couldn't wait to claim her other daughter! I love what this new hair color is doing with her eyes -- when she sent me the photo, I proposed marriage to her. Is she not the most huggable-looking, open-eyed, awesome woman?

Tuxedos and DooRags

This is going to be a long one, with all the pictures I took except the blurry ones I deleted. It seems that Kevin's friend, R, did not allow his family to TAKE any pictures (bad, bad R) ... so I gave his sister my blog address for her use, their Mom's use, and their Grandma's use, in downloading any of the shots they like. And I promised R's date the same thing. Tuxedos, at the ready. On your mark -- get set ... GO!!! The preparations begin - Kevin, shaving. An image and angle that made my heart melt. Kevin multi-tasks: shaves and practices his pucker-up! R makes a first pass at his bow tie. Halfway to Supreme Handsome-li-ness. Kevin's cuff links, attempt #1. Kevin's cuff links, attempt #2. Tie adjustment, black and white. Tie adjustment, in color. After this one, I told Kevin, "Look, I want to move outside, I don't like this background. It looks like you're in, well, the bathroom! Eeeew!" Double BB, helping R adjust his bow tie. David has Double BB's hands, I see that in this shot. I love this shot of Kevin, even though Double BB's back blocks some of Kev ... Goodness -- how easy would it be to be HIS date, I ask ya?! 3/4 view of new hair cut. We needed a shot of his newly trimmed side burns/chin hair ... and haircut. Very cool. I like. If you want to know how my OLDEST male child stands, look at Kevin, here ... pete and repeat, I swear! AARGHH!! If I got the back and white exposure right for Kevin, then R disappeared. Me and the Daddy-O Cam got major work to do! Pesky palm tree smack in the middle of my yard throws an obnoxious shadow no matter where you stand, this time o'the day. Ok, change places. More shadow switch-a-roo. Love R's smile, here! Kevin is beginning to get giddy. I LOVE it when Kevin gets giddy; great and hilarious antics always follow. Just a tad excited, ya think? [but oh GAWD, will you look at that boy's smile?] What? A pause in flight? Are they here yet? Dancing feet. I kept warning them, "I have the ability to video you guys with these dances, ya know, and post them on YouTube for the whole world to see!" So then they held still. I was trying to shoot some of my usual artsy-fartsy shots, something just a little different. Kevin, adjusting. Again. Giving R's sister directions to our house. And two young men gettin' a little fed up with photos. TOO BAD, GENTLEMEN!!! Somethin' 'bout that red doo-rag ... very Johnny Depp-Pirate-esque, very bold and unexpected. I liked the thang! Kevin, R's sister, R. I love her face! R and his sister. She had to come by to bring the corsage he'd forgotten. When she asked if she could stay and take photos when Brittany arrived, R said no. I looked at R. I looked at her. I said, 'You're at MY house, and the answer to that question is YES!' Ha!!! R and his date, Brittany. Ooh, these lovely young women! And isn't that dress amazing? R, putting on Brittany's corsage. Brittany's corsage from R - matched her dress and fingernails perfectly! I told him, 'Ya did goooooood, Man!' Brittany agreed! R, Double BB, Kevin. We had a heckuva time with the shadows! I was scooting people all OVER the place trying to get out from under 'em. R, Double BB, Kevin. Kevin, Kathy (a friend, not his date), Brittany, R. I think Brittany looks SO MUCH like Alison Krauss, but with dark hair.

As usual, the only photo of ME with Kevin is on R's sister's camera ... which realization made me dissolve into hysterical crying after the young'uns drove away. I hope she can get a copy to me, anyway!

Daddy-O Cam and Prom Night

This is a test. This is only a test.

See, my youngest male child's prom is tonight - pictures a MUST. But after my Daddy-O gave me the Daddy-O Cam? I played with it for a while but the print on the menu screens is SO SMALL, and my eyes are SO BAD, that I got majorly frustrated and put it away. That was, what, 3 months ago?

But a prom is a prom is a one time thing is a prom. So my mission this morning was to sit down with the Daddy-O Cam and overcome my frustration and my bad eyes, enough that I could shoot my youngest male child in his tux, with his date, getting in their car, off to see the High School Prom wizard. [This is triply, even quadruply IMPORTANT to me to document because I never got to go to a prom. Between moving from D.C. to Nebraska and then to Phoenix, all in the last half of my senior year, I ended up missing prom action at two schools. Then I got gynormously pissed off when Phoenix told me I'd have to return for another semester to take some of the required-for-graduation courses not on my transcripts -- me, the brainiac-good-student, with an overabundance of credits, but nooOOOoooo, I hadn't taken Arizona History and Government. Eesh, blimey, and prom-ruining shite! At already almost 18, and My Lovely Mother and younger bros needing some financial help, I said not and went to get my GED instead. No prom packages come with GEDs, alas. This is probably the LARGEST thing I regret: no graduation ceremony and no Prom.]

Done. 4 hours later, because I got serious about reading the manual, then I had to install the software and driver, then I had to shoot some trial shots and learn how to transfer the images. I took 45 shots of my slippers ... decided one was evidence enough of my making advancements with the Daddy-O Cam ... and enough to get back in the foot wars with Miss V.

Ta da.

Look for Prom Pictures later today, or tomorrow.

P.S. On my bucket list: I want to host my OWN prom, on my patio in the Springtime. I want everyone to dress in Salvation Army Black Tie (fun, kooky, retro or real outfits from a thrift store), with twinkly white lights strung up and music from MY high school days, and dancing and making out with Double BB in a corner, and NO chaperones, and pretending like beer or Jack Daniels is contraband and I'm still too young to buy it for myself, like back then ... and I want you all to come. We'll have the after party on my patio, too, sound good?

Raising Sand

All of this CD, but all last week? This song, 'Please Read the Letter', in particular. And then today, a transition into this loveliness, 'Polly Come Home'.

Susan Boyle's First Recording (1999)

One of my Girlzz from an on-line group I belong to sent this link to our group ... I have tears just gliding down my face. Susan Boyle's first recording for a charity CD, done in 1999 -- "Cry Me A River" -- how did someone NOT PICK UP ON THIS WAY BACK THEN? But we have this overabundance of screeching, caterwauling cleavage-&-cute-laden so-called singers?

pffft. Go listen. Then come back and tell me how you like it.

Make Mine Mel

Recently, out of the blue, my cell phone rang, I answered it (stunning in and of itself, as I was in my studio working), and it was a voice, telling me a name, asking me if I remembered him. Well, YEA! (see photo) In the last half of my senior year of high school, when My Lovely Mother and I stayed in rural Nebraska [my grandmother was ill with and dying from uterine cancer], when my parents were divorcing and my dad and younger bros were in Phoenix, when I went from a Washington, D.C. high school with a graduating class of over 500 to a rural school with an entire K-12 population of under 80 ... there was Dan. The Mel Gibson of that rural town's senior class, leaving trails of melted females of every age group wherever he walked or went. Dan was in love with Deb. Deb's family moved to Texas about March of that year. Every female in a 300 mile radius lined up, hoping to become a glimmer in Dan's eye.

Dan glimmered MY way, if you can believe that. I didn't, but I'm not stupid now and I wasn't stupid then -- I stepped right up. I knew (again, not being stoopid) that I was filler, distraction, for him in the few weeks left before graduation. Once he graduated, that boy was torpedoing to Texas, and to Deb, and I knew it. But he needed distraction, and I needed distraction, and we distracted together pretty well I think. And get your little hinckty minds out of the gutter -- we mostly did a lot of car cruising and tipping back of brewskies, trying to put miles between us and our demons, or drown them out, talking. Ok, ok -- so there was some happy tussling in the car seat and a little window foggage. And once, at a dance up at the school, a slow dance with him wherein I was so blissed out I didn't give a shite who was watching, who being (literally) everybody in the junior and senior classes, all 23 of 'em. But Dan was one of the two people in that place whose faces and voices and presences and interactions penetrated what was pretty much otherwise a black hole of time in my life. To hear from him again whistled all that goodness back up and out of my memory yard.

Yesterday when I got home, a card from Dan, including this photo, was waiting for me. See, I'd told him as we talked that night how hot he was, what a heart breaker, how vital he'd been to me -- I told him I wanted a photo of him, then. And he sent it! That's the kind of guy he was, and clearly still IS. And now we can be in touch going forward, which is truly coming full circle. Life is so crazy-cool!

[Editor's Note: No, he did not marry Deb. He married DAWN (woot!) No, I don't, yet, know Dawn, but Deb wasn't high on my list o'favorites, ya know? Come May 1979, that wench diminished my distraction options completely.]

2009 Calendar: April 13th - 19th

April 13th - 16th. No prompt here -- just my delight in confirming My Lovely Mother and I are going to England. And a nod to Susan Boyle, the Scottish songbird who shocked everyone out of their complacent, sneering stereotypes on the British version of Idol. April 17th-19th (background): prompt here was 'what kind of tree are you and why?' I am an aspen. I think if you click on the picture, it will enlarge enough for you to read the journaling spot that says why. I wanted to post this before writing all over it, so the aspen background would still be really visible. I used some photos copied on a toner copier, then a Copic blender pen, to transfer these images. The handcarved swallow stamp on the bottom and the woman image on the top left I clear-embossed, then chalked over (thanks, Carla!)

Talent & Brains - My Love, Ciera

Tryouts for the Talent Show. ACK! My Love, Ciera, in the back, with her two best friends of all time, facing the panel. GO, CIERA BEARA!!! Ciera dancing during the try-out. My bro, Chris, said this: "Ciera just got done with her audition. They had to go first! One of their girls was late and didn't get to do it. I felt bad for her because she was out in the hall crying. It was just Ciera and her usual posse. It was pretty awful. They hadn't practiced anything and just sorta winged it. But I am very proud of Ciera for being brave enough to do it!!!" [It seems the young women held several 'practices' during the week prior, which amounted to 2 minutes of practice followed by two hours of play.] My Lovely Mother, Chris and I all thought this would be an interesting lesson for Ciera -- a way of realizing that there is 'serious' and then there is 'oh shite', and when her group went to the try-outs, she would learn which was which along with a little of why. Being as this was her first talent show of any sort, I'm with Chris -- proud of her for going for it without really comprehending what it was all about. Student of the Month for April - My Love, Ciera, in the center. Daddy Chris said she was trying to be 'blase' about it, but she was excited! Ciera and her teacher. Ciera is almost as tall as her teacher.