generations

This is one more page I decided to work on as a break from the baby's album. I have to say the page looks much better in person than in this photo. It seems like the coloring is harsh here...but it is actually much softer. The layout includes a photo I have had for a long time and had tucked away in an older album to scrap. I used a newer paper that I bought that has the words, "Some people strengthen others by just being the kind of people they are." I got that paper with the sole intention of creating a page about my dad. But I found this photo of my dad and his father sitting in our yard. My dad is holding my little brother who was around a year old then. I love this picture. It is the only one I have seen with my dad and grandfather together. This quote actually is fitting for both of them. My dad is a lot like my grandfather in many ways. Quiet, hard-working, intelligent, introspective, wise. 

Here's a closeup....

I also purposely included the strip of paper that looks like a ruler with a woodgrain. It reminded me of them. My grandfather was a Master Carpenter and my dad is an Electrician who can also build anything. I associate the smell of sawdust and the sound of a hammer and nails with them.

Here's one more closeup of the title...I used some really old rub-on's for the title "Generations:"

"Other things may change us, but we start and end with family."

So true.






Thanks for looking.

Supplies: Kaiser Craft - Sears & Son - Sidecar; Echo Park - This & That - Yardsticks; Echo Park - Victoria Gardens alpha stickers; SEI Mandera Island chipboard journaling tag; Queen & Co Nightfall pearls; Hambly overlays; 7 Gypsies - Nest - quote sticker.

father's day

I think I have posted this picture before. It is an old picture I scanned in of my Dad holding me when I was a baby. I love it. My mother tells me that every day when he came home from work he would immediately want to hold me and play with me as I got older. I just got to spend a nice Father's Day with my Dad and family. He really is one of my favorite people in this world. I'm so lucky he is my Dad. I gave him some drawing supplies. He is an amazing artist and hasn't done any pen & ink drawings since before I was born or I was little. He's a very creative person but hasn't been able to find the time to do that hobby. I'm hoping he'll take some time out to draw. He is the hardest working person I know.

I got to do some knitting while watching tv with my mom. I am so close to finishing my first sweater but I made a big mistake (dropped stitches, etc) and we couldn't fix it. I thought I'd bring it to the LYS tuesday and get some help. But I played around with it when I got home and I think I have it fixed. But before I knit further I want to make sure. So...the finishing of the sweater will have to wait. Boo!

But now I can start my sister's Christmas present...



See here for the pattern. This photo is from that site...I am making her the worsted weight version (the red-orange). Hers will be a nice muted olive-y green.

So I might start that tonight. While I watch some more seasons of Weeds. I'm loving that show and it's a distraction. There are parts about being alone I'm liking but for the most part I'm lonely. 47 more days til he's home. I haven't been able to talk to him in 9 days. Too long.

Enough feeling sorry for myself....I'm a lucky person today.

I'm off to knit!

simplicity and ivory soap

I've always associated memories with scents. Yesterday I was brought back to Sunday night baths as a kid after getting all dirty playing outside in the yard. The scent of Ivory soap. What a flashback. I loved it. Reminded me of making mudpies, playing in the woods in the yard, riding bikes, boat rides, laying in the grass, climbing the pine tree in the front yard, or the apple tree. Simpler times. The label on the soap even read...

"Simplicity is the essence of happiness."

Upon looking closer I found that each bar of soap in the pack has a different "simple" statement.

The next bar reads...

"The road to a friend's house is never long, and the directions are simple."

How nice! A wonderful reminder of my "one little word" this year...

SIMPLICITY.

Easter

tulips on my kitchen table

Sending everyone wishes for a Happy Easter. Spent some nice time with Cary and my family today. After Cary went off to work and my Dad was driving my brother back to college - I spent time with my mom and sister and watched Slumdog Millionare. Makes you feel grateful for what you have watching that movie.

Thinking of what is important.

I'm feeling nostalgic today.

Memories of childhood, Easter dresses, playing outside, first warm days of Spring. I think I have been feeling so crummy about situations lately and trying desparately to feel grateful...then guilty when the junk consumes me.

But today I feel grateful.

Grateful for the nice childhood I had and the place I can still go back to. Home. Here's my random memories of this time of year as a kid...

• Easter dresses and white patent leather shoes...that most importantly had to make noise when I walked...a nice grown-up clicking sound on the wood floor.
• Making mudpies for dad in my playhouse...pine-needles, water from the brook and sawdust from Dad's work made the best recipes.
• Walks to the mill.
• Marathon Monday at Aunt Esta's House on Windemere Road. Every year. Every year of Mom's childhood too. Patriot's Day just isnt' the same without that long ride to Newton to watch the runners and see the Aunts.
• Raking leaves.
• One day I remember it wasn't warm enough yet. Mom and Dad were raking leaves outside and I found the shopping bag with some new Spring/Summer clothes for me and I put them on and went outside. I wasn't supposed too...and it really wasn't warm enough. But they were so pretty and new! I'm still like that...
• Bike rides with Rachel (my cousin and childhood best friend), playing in the brook, running around the house, picking daisies.
• Lilacs.
• Taking a long bike ride with Rachel from Grammy's to the local farmstand to buy a plant...rode all the way back and planted our single Impatient in the shade garden near Grammy's window. Our attempt at competing with Grandfather's amazing garden!

Wow. Time flies. What are your favorite childhood memories of this time of year?

Happy Easter and Happy Sunday!

today

So today was Phase I of "The Confrontation." A meeting with a senior manager of the apartment complex since we were getting nowhere with our direct complex manager. We got some answers...some things still are unanswered. We were informed of some adjustments to our upcoming lease renewal to allow us the option to break our lease when this problem is over if we decide to...since we can't move til it is over...and they are going to increase thier level of communication, etc....

Oh....and they won't be raising our rent.

Now to see what Phase II brings....

So glad to have that meeting over with though. When I am anxious, nervous or angry I feel it in my gut. I get so nauseous. Yuck. So after the meeting I went on the treadmill for a bit, made myself dinner and am now waiting for clothes in the dryer. Thanks so much to everyone who has left little kind thoughts. I know I'm vague on here about the problem we have been having and it is hard to really explain but I truly appreciate the kind words of encouragement. They mean a lot.

I hope this is all over soon. We are going on month 4 soon. 6 if you count the few months before we had an issue. I just want to live like a normal person again!

But...on to better and bigger things. I got tagged by my blog friend Toni :) For this one you need to:

Go to the photos folder on your computer.
Go to the seventh folder of
photos.
Go to the seventh photo.
Put the seventh photo on your blog
along with a description.
Invite seven friends to join.


Cary would love that his old friend "Ginger" is featured on my blog today! This is an old photo he has of his childhood dog. She was literally like his mom. His pal. For Christmas a few years ago I had scanned in his old picture and cropped and fixed it up a little. I had it printed out and framed for him. So now (when our apartment is normal) Ginger and my old dog Maddy sit on our entertainment center. Our little shrine to our furry friends who our playing up in dog heaven together!

So now, I'm tagging: Everyone! Anyone reading who wants to give this a try!

childhood memories

Two Peas Challenge: Describe your yard as a child - did you help with the yard work? What are your memories?

I have the most wonderful memories of my yard as a kid. In fact, I currently live in my parent's garage apartment so can appreciate it every day and think back to those years. We live in a very wooded area on an acre and a half. Big pine trees, daisies, an apple tree that was good for climbing, a tire swing, the brook. My dad made a "playhouse" (now a shed) for me to play in when I was little. I spent hours in there. It had a loft and a big main area. Mud pies were my favorite thing to make and my dad graciously pretended to eat them. My neighborhood is the same one that he and his 10 brothers and sisters grew up in. The river, the willow tree, Grammy's House, the woods, the bridge. Generations of memories. It is a huge part of my life and hopefully will be for my future children. I've only left this place long enough to live in Boston for college and D.C. for graduate school. It has always been hard for me to leave for long. Soon, Cary and I will find an apartment in another part of the city and I'm really excited to start this new adventure but part of me is sad. The garage we live in is where I played as a kid when it was "really" a garage with my Dad's Corvette. It is where I brought him mudpies. It is close to where my mom had a vegetable garden with all the carrots I picked when they were still too small! I have such fond memories of this place. It will always be somewhere I can go whenever I know that in my heart but it just might take a little drive.