Flashback Friday: Ghost of Christmas Past

Some comments have been made by people who shall remain nameless about how the Flashback Friday photos often show me as cute and my sister as a bit on the dorky side. Well, I can't help that my cutest years were pre-1985, which is one of the rules of FF. Believe me, many photos exist that captured my awkward years, which began right around 1985. But I think I've found a good compromise in this photo, since it shows off my amazing fashion sense: striped socks, rolled-up jeans, and a sweatshirt with satin appliqué hearts. It's not surprising to see this outfit. I'm pretty sure I wore it all the time.

And, yes, that's my sister placing the angel atop the tree! And we wondered why I got so excited by all the Scandinavian ornaments at Ikea the other day.

Flashback Friday: Kid crafters

When I was growing up, my mom was an avid knitter. In this photo, my sister and I have just learned to knit and we are diligently working on our first projects. I am pretty sure mine was going to be a Barbie scarf. I am also pretty sure I never finished it, and I never knitted again! Too bad, because now I wish I could whip up some cute little sweaters for Little Omi. What I love about this photo is the looks of concentration on our faces, and the look of pride on my mother's face. I wanted to include this photo of her today, too, because it's her birthday! Happy birthday, Mom!

This photo is from that magical Christmas we spent in Colorado. I've been dreaming about it lately, trying to get into the Christmas spirit this year. Freezing rain and falling tree limbs just don't quite compare with quiet, deep snow and cozy nights knitting by the fire.

n.b.: Fans of previous Flashback Friday posts might recognize the blue booties my sister is wearing.

Flashback Friday: Sister love

This week I am either late or early with Flashback Friday depending on your point of view. I've taken a bit of an unscheduled blog break so I thought the best way to get back into the swing of things was to do a flashback photo. Angela at three buttons has been hosting Flashback Friday all these months and has decided that we'll go theme-free from now on. So I'm just going to make up my own themes and see how far I get.

I am quite sure I could use the theme "Sister love" for the next several weeks, as I have many, many photos of my sister and I palling around. This is one of my favorites, though. I have very vivid memories of this day, and how wonderful it felt to be hugged by my big sister like this. Also, I'm wearing the coolest dress I ever owned, but you can't see why. There's a Rowlf the Dog on the front, playing a piano keyboard, and the keyboard was also a big pocket! It was so neat. I loved to pretend I was playing the piano on the keys, too.

Flashback Friday: Hippie Love*

I am pretty sure my parents qualified as hippies. This photo is from my sister's christening. Not shown are all of my sister's godparents, who stayed for the pickin' and singin' party after the ceremony. I'm blanking on the name of the little band that was there; who can help me out? Mom? Dad? Sis?

Just in case you didn't get a good view of my sister's christening gown, here it is in all its glory.

By the time I came along, Mom and Dad had grown out of their hippie days somewhat, although my mom is still looking good in her prairie skirt. Dad has moved into his western shirt phase (for more proof, see here). And notice my christening is taking place in a proper church, and I'm wearing a (somewhat boring & conservative) white dress.

*OK, so I'm a bit late this week on Flashback Friday, but my sister was in town and we had a lot to accomplish. Better late than never, as they say...

Flashback Friday: Travel bug

When I was growing up, my family took two epic road trips. The first, when I was almost 8 years old, was to the Pacific Northwest via every state in between Oklahoma and Washington. This trip was really amazing. We camped a lot in our Volkswagon Vanagon (see below), which was always really exciting for my sister and me because we got to sleep in the bed that was up in the pop top. We saw Old Faithful, The Grand Tetons, and Seattle's Space Needle. The photograph above was taken at Yellowstone. (Who's that cute little boy standing next to my sister?) A park ranger there inspired me to pursue a career in the park service (later, when I was working at the entrance gate to Rocky Mountain National Park, I met a woman who had been that ranger's roommate at Yellowstone). We drove into British Colombia, where I remember a waiter at a restaurant hesitated to give me a menu because he didn't think I could read (!). We went on a ferry that had a wonderful hammered dulcimer band, The Wild Rose String Band, whose music would become the soundtrack for every road trip our family took thereafter. On this ferry I also met a man from New Zealand who taught me that (at the time) NZ had 3.1 million people and 65 million sheep.

This photograph is from our second major road trip, to the East coast. This was probably the coolest place I've ever car-camped. I'm pretty sure it was in Tennessee, and the camping spaces were giant decks on stilts. In case you're wondering why my sister is wearing a blue bootie on her right foot, it's because earlier in the summer, she stepped on one of these:
And she had stitches in her foot. I guess she couldn't wear a shoe on that foot, until after my dad removed the stitches in a hotel room in Washington D.C.

By the time this photo was taken, we had been in a car wreck in Virginia (we were rear-ended on the highway by a man who was asleep at the wheel) and so here we are standing in front of our second rental car (a Buick Regal) but still making progress on our trip. Looking back on it, I am sort of shocked that my parents were so willing to persevere on our trip after such a harrowing experience!

These road trips are some of my favorite memories from my childhood. I sure hope to be able to give Little Omi experiences like them when she's a bit older (without the car wreck, obviously).

Thanks, AJ, for this week's theme!

Flashback Friday: All in the Family

So, I've been a bit behind on my blog posts this week due to large amounts of scary editing that I am turning in today. This is why I'm running my Flashback Friday photo on a Sunday afternoon.

The FF theme for this week is All in the Family, suggested by Hyena in Petticoats. Here's the only formal family portrait that I'm aware of from before 1985 (and thank God the FF rules say pics must be from before 1985, because there's another formal portrait from the 90s that is just horrible. But enough about that!). I like to call this one the Sunshine Family photo, after the 1970s hippified Barbie-alternative dolls we also had and played with a lot. Favorite bits of this photo include:

1. My sister's braids. AWESOME.
2. My dad's hair flipping out on the side, echoed by my own hair flipping out in the exact same way.
   
3. My dad's Western shirt. He had a whole collection of these, all with wonderful mother-of-pearl snaps instead of buttons.
4. My mom's shaded lenses and velour dress. YES!

I'm also going to have to check with my mom to see if she still has these two little girl dresses in her stash of Precious Baby Clothes (that's what it says on the outside of the box) because they are too cute. Can you even remember the last time you saw a Pooh-themed dress that wasn't in pastels?

Flashback Friday: My stylish mom

My mom is one of the most stylish people I know. And how hard can it be to look stylish with you've got such perfect eyebrows? Not only can she put together a beautiful outfit for herself, complete with the perfect dangling earrings, she's always decorated her home so amazingly well, too. Alas, I can only aspire to be so stylish in my own appearance and home. Somehow I didn't get those genes (nor the eyebrows).


But my own memories of my mom don't have that much to do with her style as they do with all the wonderful things we did together when I was little, like playing Legos on the floor of our living room, gardening (well, she gardened while I mostly just pulled up baby carrots or wandered around eating the all the tips off the asparagus), taking walks to collect pretty autumn leaves, or making peanut-butter balls and orange juice pops (and eating them, too!).


And to top it off, she's quite crafty, too. I loved to watch her weave on her big loom, or spin yarn or knit or sew. I can remember clearly the sound of the shuttle zooming across the warp threads and the way the heddle rods would shake when she pulled the beater down on the weft. And the sound of her metal knitting needles clicking together—heavenly. I've mentioned before how she made the all the dresses for our My Friends dolls' wedding. When she was at her sewing machine I loved to sort through all the patterns or play with the fancy weights she used for holding down the pattern on the fabric while she cut it.

My goal in staying home with Little Omi is not only to give her the best foundation she can possibly get to start her life, but to create with her some wonderful memories like these. Love you, Mom!

Flashback Friday: Favorite Activity

The theme for Flashback Friday this week is Favorite Activity or Toy. Unfortunately, and quite astonishingly, I don't have any photos of me playing with Legos, which was probably my all-time favorite toy as a child (and those of you who know me in person also know that there are Legos to be found in our house at this very moment, and they're not Little Omi's!). I was heavily into the Castle series and had a whole portion of the floor in my room dedicated to my castles and surrounding forests.

While playing Legos was primarily a solo activity, by far the most popular toys my sister and I played with together were our My Friend Mandy and Jenny dolls, or "Mands and Jens" as we called them. We also had Becky and Mikey, and although you may remember Charles and Diana's as the biggest wedding event of the 1980s, you obviously did not receive an exclusive invitation to the nuptials of Mandy and Mikey. We worked for days on this big wedding. Our mom made all the dresses by hand. Sis and I made tiny tulle-wrapped rice baggies. And the whole event went off without a hitch, or apparently a wedding photographer, because we have no photos of it!

In the summers in Colorado, my sister and I turned our attention to our Lincoln Logs. I have to admit we spent many hours building, demolishing, and re-building to perfection "The Lincoln Lodge" even into our teen years. By this time, we insisted we were building, not playing. Note the distinction!

I am not sure if we built a huge number of sandcastles together, but I just happen to have TWO photographs commemorating this craft. I think they were taken in the same year. The top photo was taken on our road trip to the Pacific Northwest; I remember wearing that satin-heart-covered sweatshirt and wondering why so many people were still mistaking me for a boy. The photo below was taken at our grandparents' cabin in Colorado, and I'm pretty sure that shortly afterwards, we were busy playing with our Star Wars action figures in this castle/Hoth snow fort.

Flashback Friday: The OTHER Pop's Spot

OK, so last Friday I misunderstood the meaning of the word "pop" and mistakenly posted about my father instead of my grandfather. I promised a make-up post, so here it is.
Here's my grandpa Oliver reading 'Twas the Night Before Christmas to my sister and me. This was an annual tradition in our family, and one we still miss every year at Christmastime. These are but two of the photos I have that captured this sweet occurrence. When he got to the bit about the reindeer Donder and Blitzen, he would tell us that Donder and Blitzen mean thunder and lightning. Every year. We counted on it. (He would also joke and say "I tore open the shutters and threw up the hash," changing forever the meaning of that line.)

This one (above) was taken the one year we got to spend Christmas in Colorado, which was also the year the area received record snowfall. It was such a treat for us Okies to spend so much time in the snow. I'll never forget toboggoning down our steep road with my dad yelling "Grrrit yoouurrr teeeeeth!"

I had to include this photo, because it's of my grandparents before they started dating. Yup, she was his secretary (this is some time before she became mayor!). Just look at that twinkle in his eye!

Here is how I remember my grandpa. He was just such a happy fellow, and the smartest man I think I have ever met. He was a political scientist, and pioneered the use of math and computers in the field. He was a Japanese-language translator in WWII, and received his Ph.D. from the University of Geneva. But to me he was grandpa, and we shared a special bond in our love of numbers and puzzles. Our birthdays were two days apart, and when I turned 7, he turned 70. Each year we loved to figure out how our ages fit together (when I was 8, he was 71, or 7+1=8; when I was 9, he was 72, or 7+2=9; and so on...). I remember one year, I think I was around 19 (1+9=10 and 8+2=10 also!), I went to dinner with him and his companion and her sister & brother-in-law. I felt like such a real grown-up, joining in their spirited (in more ways than one) debates about art and politics.

My grandpa died in 1999, and I was so disappointed for him that he didn't live to see the calendar roll over to 2000. I often think about him and wonder what he would have to say about the way our country is going these days. If he were still alive, he would be 96. 9+6=15, and 1+5=6. I am 33, and 3+3=6. Missing you so much, Grandpa!

Flashback Friday: Pop's Spot*

This week we recognize our dear fathers, and I have to admit I've been waiting for this one. I just happen to have a ton of great images already scanned from a project I made for my dad's 60th birthday. These are probably the best of the bunch because they contain so much information, even though I don't really remember when they were taken (the year was 1977, so I was 3).

On this particular evening, my sister and I were all cuddled up in dad's lap, reading a Richard Scarry book, totally engrossed. Can you guess what was just out of the frame to the left? The TV. My parents, along with the rest of the country, were watching the miniseries Roots. My sister wrote about this photo later when she was in high school, and she remembers the scene where Levar Burton is saying "My name is Kunta Kinte." She also recalls that all I was saying was, "Reeeead!"

Other things to look for in the photos: My crooked bangs, growing out from the time my sister decided to cut them completely off; my mom's spinning wheel; and the reflection of the coolest light fixture ever, seen also in the photo below as my dad is standing just inches away from where the rocking chair used to be!

Here's one to illustrate a bit of my dad's crafty side. This is from 1984 and we're going to a Sting concert on Halloween night. My dad is dressed as Vyvyan from The Young Ones. As I recall, he made the costume all by himself, only needing help using gelatin to make his hair stand up from my then-teenaged sister. He affixed the metal stars to his forehead using hot glue!



* I just discovered that "Pop" means "grandfather" at Flashback Friday. What a faux pas! (har) I guess I've been reading Hop on Pop a little too much lately. I will do a make-up post to celebrate my pop, or, grandpa, as we say in my neck of the woods.

Flashback Friday: Homemade

That's me (far left) with my sister and our cousins frosting a homemade cake at our grandparents' house. I vividly remember this encounter, my very first try at frosting a cake (although it's clear I did a fair amount of spoon-licking and I wasn't close enough to the actual cake to get much frosting time in!). My oldest cousin, the one in the bandanna, was very clear in her instructions to the rest of us to "start smooth and then make little peaks." I love so much about this picture: the red booth, my cousins' stylin' wardrobes, the Diet Dr. Pepper can that signifies my mom was somewhere nearby, the scissor-tail flycatcher figurine above my head, and especially the expressions on all of our faces.

Thank you, Pip, for a great theme this week!

Flashback to Flashback Friday

Last Friday I promised to post a picture of the Sunbonnet Sue quilt my grandmother made using appliqués her grandmother had made. This was the best I could do, unfortunately there's a whole row not showing here. Still, I like how this photo shows off the exquisite hand quilting my grandma did. Something to strive for!

This one is my favorite:



Check my Flickr page for more close-ups.

Flashback Friday: Nanna technology

This week's theme, from Kirsty, is devoted to our wonderful crafty grandmothers and what they taught us.

The first photo is of my dad's side of the family. My memory is that we all got together for Thanksgiving, although I'm not sure why I am wearing a green shamrock pin on my cardigan! There's my grandma in the red jacket. We only got to see my dad's parents once a year, so there wasn't a lot of time for her to pass along too many crafty skills, although I do remember going shopping for miniatures with her and making some fun sequin-covered styrofoam Easter eggs one year. I also received my all-time favorite t-shirt from this grandma. It read: "anything boys can do girls can do better." She's a mad quilter now, and she made Little Omi the most amazing Sunbonnet Sue baby quilt using fabrics that belonged to her grandmother. (I'll try to post pics of the quilt tomorrow.) She has definitely inspired me in my sewing and quilting pursuits!

The second pic is of my mom, sister, mom's folks, and me participating in a protest demonstration against a big sign that was erected one summer along the highway that passes through Allenspark, Colorado. The sign completely blocked the scenic view of the mountains, and so one of the local residents cut it down. Our t-shirts are in support of this woman, dubbed "Chainsaw Maggie." There hasn't been a sign in that location ever since. My mom's mother was a bit of an activist, and even served as our town's first woman mayor. She died when I was only 7, so I didn't get to learn any crafting at her knee, although she was a knitter and she sewed. In fact, it is her Bernina that I have been using to sew all the sunbonnets and other projects I've posted here, so I like to think there's a part of her in all of the things I make.

Flashback Friday: Double dose

The theme for this week's Flashback Friday is "Your and your pet!" Hooray!

We had some wonderful pets when I was growing up. In these photos you get to meet Dot and Jersey. Dot was a Welsh Corgi whose full name was Dotwyn Evenstar (oh yes, my parents were total Tolkien nerds, so I come by it honestly—before Dot, we had two Skye Terriers named Bifur and Mithral Muggins.) In this photo Dot is a bit of an adolescent, just growing into those big ears. When she was sleepy, her ears would sink further down on either side of her head and we would call her "Yoda ears." The other bit I love about this photo is the crazy lavender feathery clip I've chosen to adorn my hat. Does anybody else remember these? I think they were like rabbit's foot keychains—you could only get them at fairs and carnivals.

The second photo is of my sister and our cat Jersey. Jersey was older than me, which was always difficult for me to wrap my brain around, but I knew to always gave him proper respect. He wasn't a real lovey-dovey type of cat. I remember trying to touch his soft little pink toes when he was sleeping because he'd never let me do that when he was awake. My sister was most likely sick when this was taken; in our house you got to lie on the sofa with your pillow and a nice quilt* and watch TV all day when you stayed home from school.

These photos really bring back some wonderful memories and serious nostalgia for our childhood home. Thanks, Fiona, for the wonderful theme!


*And your binkie. If you look closely at her shoulder, you can see the lovingly frayed edges of Blue-Ba, my sister's baby blanket.

Flashback Friday

As you may have already guessed, this week's Flashback Friday theme is "Look what my mum did to my hair!"

I had so many choices on this one, it was difficult to narrow it down to this one photo. But I think it truly represents what my mother did to my hair for most of my early childhood. Remember the Dorothy Hamill wedge haircut? Well, that is was this is supposed to be. Only on me, with my straight, fine hair, it wound up making me look more like a boy than an Olympic figure-skater. The curls at the tips came from a curling iron and were only applied on special occasions (such as school photo day), probably because it was so difficult to get me to sit still for the time it took to curl my hair. I remember being terrified when she did the part over my forehead, and I would start to sweat with nervousness about being burned. Nevertheless, I had this haircut off and on for almost all of elementary school, until the 5th grade when I got a perm (one of the photos in the running for today was a double-whammy: me with a perm crouched inside a box made to look like a Rubik's Cube which was my Halloween costume for that year).

Check out the Flashback Friday Web Ring at right for more wonderful photos and stories.

Flashback Friday

The theme for Flashback Friday this week is "Say Cheese." I didn't have to look too hard in my photo collection to find a good cheesy smile. In fact, I had to narrow it down to this one. Here, my sister (right, in red) and I are mugging for the camera on a horseback ride in Colorado. Every summer our family would go on one big ride that usually involved cooking and eating a meal in the middle. I was always the littlest kid in the group, and got to ride the smallest horse, which I thought was really neat. I loved riding along the trail, our horses in single file, imagining we were on Little House on the Prairie or Centennial. I don't think I was a very skilled rider, though, because my main memory of actually controlling the horse was pulling the reins as hard as I could to try to keep the horse from eating the tall grass, which was strictly forbidden.

Flashback Friday

The theme for Flashback Friday this week is Weddings/Formal/Sunday best. This photo was taken at the first wedding I ever attended (that little baby in the upper left-hand corner is me, held by my dad). My mother is looking on as my sister shows the bride and groom something (her necklace?). There are several things I love about this photo: the bride's blue dress, the groom's shoes, my mom's eyeglasses, and my sister's beautiful gingham dress. My sister says this wedding (also her first) was a huge disappointment to her. She expected the bride to turn into a princess during the ceremony (a la Disney's Cinderella) and when she didn't, my sister thought something had gone terribly wrong.

Flashback Friday

I have been enjoying all the great photos at Flashback Friday, and thought I'd start sharing some of my old photos. This picture is of me all dressed up for Mommy & Me class. I vividly remember that class and that we did a lot of jumping on little cushions, from one to the next, as if we were leaping from one lily pad to the next on a great, big pond. I am sure I was trying to re-create that exercise here by placing our sofa cushions on the floor. I wonder if this was before or after I colored on the sofa with orange marker (I was trying to make it look a little more hip, and I had only colored a few stripes underneath the cushions where no one could see before my mom caught me.). Check out my mom's awesome Dr. Scholl's wood-soled sandals on the floor to the right!