Q&A, jr. prom,and other such stuff

this is an interesting photo i took on the back deck. i have a potting bench that has old metal spoons hanging from it. they are getting rusty and looking cool. when i was back there the other day, i noticed the Japanese honeysuckle, which is blooming right now, was reflecting in the spoon. i loved the effect and mood it created.




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if you are interested in reading my Q & A from Object and Elements, you can read it here. it was just a little "get to know ya" type of questionnaire as part of my intro as the newest design team member.

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here's a couple of photos of Dillon and Alana from Jr. Prom. Dillon is wearing the jacket and vest that Alana's dad was married in. her brother also wore them to one of his high school events. He looked very James Bond-ish. love the color of Alana's dress. And Alana's mom had the florist make the corsage and boutonniere out of her own orchids; which i thought was pretty cool.

creating a story

i've had a few inquires about how i came up with my purse story, so i thought i would share. i was born in California and lived in various areas of the state while growing up. we did use to go a place called Bass Lake, located near Yosemite National Park and Fresno (California). My mother lives there now. usually i go every summer to visit, but lately that hasn't worked out (boo hoo). When i was little we rented a house in Bass Lake. on the way there we had stopped at a gas station and at the time they use to give out little plastic toys when you filled up. It was my turn to get something special (there were 4 kids), so i got the toys, which were little animals, like a giraffe, a tiger and something else. anyway, i did indeed hide those little toys in the house where we were staying. and yes, i did forget about them when we were leaving. Also, there was a huge boulder on the side of the house that we use to play on. across the street from the house was the lake and there was a dock that belonged to the house we rented. so we would go to the dock and jump into the lake wearing our bright orange life vests. I found the water to be "creepy" and didn't like to jump off the dock. i always thought there were things under the dock and they would get me.

Another part of the story came from my stepmom, Angie, who had emailed me and told me she had a metal mesh purse like the one i picked up at the flea market when she was a little girl and that she liked putting the purse in her mouth. the "lost" part of the story came about because when i graduated from high school, my mom and stepfather moved to North Carolina. A bunch of my personal belongings were lost in that shipment; things like my beloved books and my yearbooks. So i've never gotten to look through my yearbooks again and it always really bums me out. i really wish i had them back. highschool is such an important time in your life when you are full of dreams and just enjoying life as a young teenager does. it would be fun to look at the old pictures, read all the things people "signed" in my yearbook, especially senior year. I often wonder what became of them. were they trashed? did they end up in a thrift store?

so those are the elements i combined to create my story of the lost purse.

Memory Monday

Today's topic was any highschool activites, sports that you participated in. I was a cheerleader in 8th grade at a very small school. there were only 5 of us, but it was really fun. I was also on the basketball team in 8th grade, but i totally sucked!
In highschool, cheerleading (now at a different, bigger highschool) was a major deal. you had to know gymnastics and be able to do all these different jumps, etc. so that was out! so i joined the drill team instead, which is what i really liked anyway. drill team was basically doing dances/routines during halftime. we had a huge drill team with something like 60 girls or more. it was really fun, although our captain was really strict and wasn't too well liked. during the summer one year, we got to go away to a drill camp held at Mary Washington College in Virginia (my highschool was in Virginia Beach). we slept in the dorms and learned various dance routines. it was so much fun. we won the "spirit award" while we were there. i also played basketball and softball for the recreation league (wasn't good enough for the highschool teams!). but playing for rec was much more laid back and fun. i had the same coach for the 4 years i played and he always had the team over for pool parties and BBQ's. and then i was a swimmer too. i spent many years swimming when i was younger and then started up again in a league during highschool. my best stroke was back stroke.

i'll be gone for the next two Monday's, so we'll start up again when i return.