Tag Archives: Sunday Souvenir

Sunday Souvenir: High School Jewelry-Making

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I guess I’ve always loved designing and making jewelry. I was lucky that my high school offered a metal jewelry-making class. My memory of high school details is not great, but I think it was my senior year that I took it. That was the last year it was offered. (My class was the last to graduate from the original high school. For the next few years, students were bussed elsewhere while they tore it down and remodeled. Sad!)

I had so much fun in this class! I made a lot of rings in swirly designs. My biggest project was carving a cat ring out of wax then casting it in silver. I was definitely the most prolific student in that year’s class. The teacher, Mr Fields, would come to me with silver wires or wax molds he found to see if I had ideas for them. I won a departmental award for the class.

Did your school have any unusual classes?

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Sunday Souvenir – Richard Scarry

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When I visited my dad’s house over the summer, I grabbed some of my childhood books from the basement. One of my favorites as a child was Richard Scarry’s Best Storybook Ever! I have a lot of memories about looking through this book again and again.

After opening it again so many years later, I found it hilarious that it wasn’t really my book: I’d crossed out my brother’s name and written my own in crayon! Hah!

Many of the stories and scenes I remembered, but others I didn’t. A notable one I don’t recall shocked me a bit. It was about a bear who was good at hunting and because of that earned himself a happy family. I couldn’t figure out any other morals to that story. It ends with them wearing coats they made out of a seal he killed. Yikes!

I loved any scene that showed the inside of a house/building/nest. I also liked the pages that would label all kinds of foods, clothes, or toys.

Do you have any books from your childhood? Are you sharing them with your children?

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Check out Ronalyn’s post at The Adventures of Esa and Zed

Sunday Souvenir – 9/11

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Has it really been 10 years? It doesn’t seem that long ago that we woke up to phone calls from worried family. We lived very close to Dulles airport and watched the tv in horror as the towers fell and helicopters and fighter jets flew overhead. Dan’s brother was in DC and had to walk out. I spent the week glued to the news in tears, and had nightmares every night.

That morning I wrote in my blog, “we were just woken up by phone calls from family members.. what the hell is going on? bombs? ack. mark needs to leave dc. ack. shit. who is doing this? i am torn between sitting here with my mouth hanging open and crying.“

“what a terrible day. i didn’t work – i couldn’t think. i am struggling now to do some site work. danny is on the phone with his brother (who eventually got out of dc by walking to clarenden) talking about it all. in the afternoon i had to get away from it all so i took dia on a walk around the neighborhood. at first i couldn’t escape the news – cars passing by and contractors out working on new houses were all blaring the coverage. i kept walking into a neighboring townhouse complex and stopped to chat with a lady i have met there and her sweet dog. in the evening i needed a nap – not sure why… i have to go to bed on time tonight because the dogs need to be at the vet at 8am.

while i was washing the dinner dishes they showed a clip of people falling from the wtc after jumping. how horrifying. i can’t stop thinking about how awful things must have been in there to make people choose the certain death of falling 90 stories.

i am still stunned. love and kind thoughts to everyone involved.“

My thoughts and heart are with all those who lost loved ones or were affected by what happened 10 years ago.

Where were you on 9/11/01?

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Sunday Souvenir: A Favorite Photo

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Just barely making it in time for Sunday Souvenir. The long weekend threw me off. So a simple post this time, of one of my favorite childhood photos. It is of my grandpa and I. How I loved to curl up on his lap and use his tummy as a pillow! I adored visiting them in Iowa. My grandpa will be 95 next month.

Do you have any photos from your childhood that give you the warm fuzzies every time you look at them?

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Sunday Souvenir: Drawings

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I drew this picture when I was 5 of a mug given to me by an elderly relative. It is still one of my favorite mugs! I was sooo proud of this drawing and thought it looked just like the mug’s design. My dad must have thought I did pretty well, since he snapped a photo of it.

I remember starting to understand drawing what you see and not what you think you see while making this. I’ve always loved to draw!

This drawing I did in high school when we had a week off of school due to crazy ice storms. I set up the still life on the table and spent many many hours a day drawing my oboe, the sheet music and the table cloth. We had this drawing scanned and printed so we’d have copies that would last. I’m not sure where the original is, perhaps downstairs in my portfolios. I need to frame it or one of the copies at some point.

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Sunday Souvenir: Back to School

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I’m a little late posting this week because I’ve been away from my computer working on Jax’s kitchen all weekend. In fact, I’m trying to write this on the iPad from bed with a toddler asleep on my arm!

In honor of everyone heading back to school, this is a photo of me in kindergarten, presenting the month of June. Yes, I’m old. Let’s just not do the math to figure out just how old! I loved my kindergarten teacher, Mrs Jackson! I remember being confused as to where to go my first day of 1st grade and she helped me and gave me a Snoopy folder, which I still have.

In middle school, I took a class that let me do a “job” for the last period of the day. I got permission to walk all the way to my old elementary school to be a teachers aide for Mrs Jackson. It was so rewarding and the kids would rush over to hug me hello in one huge bear hug.

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Sunday Souvenir: My First Day of Ballet

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This photo always makes me smile. This was my first day of ballet. I took it when I was 4 and loved it. The teacher was a sweet family friend. I used to love this one dance we did where we put on pretty tulle skirts and were little windup dolls with cardboard and tin foil cranks. When my mother passed away from breast cancer shortly before I turned 5, my ballet classes were forgotten.

When I was in middle school, I rediscovered my ballet teacher in the community center by my school. I happily took classes from her until I graduated high school.

Did anyone else have one of these neat ballet boxes? They were more often in pink and had a little compartment at the bottom for your ballet shoes. They actually have one on Amazon!

       

Check out Ronalyn’s Sunday Souvenir: The Adventures of Esa and Zed

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Sunday Souvenir

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In April, my aunt and a dear family friend visited for three days from Colorado. They brought a wonderful surprise of boxes from my grandparents old house. Many things were my mother’s. I loved seeing them, as she died when I was very little. I plan to make a shadow box with some of her trinkets. I have a huge stack of drawings and letters I sent my grandparents over the years to go through. Looks like they kept everything!

The biggest surprise was the old kiddie car I remembered as always being at my grandparents house. I knew it was old, but my grandpa said on the phone that it had belonged to my grandma’s mom. Grandma was born in 1916, so that car is old! A metal piece was added to the steering rod by my grandpa at one point, and one of my mom’s cousins added a target sticker to the handle from a model airplane kit. But otherwise, it’s remained the same. I have a photo of myself riding it as a little girl.

It will have a place of honor in our home, and one day Jax can pass it on to his children.

Check out Ronalyn’s Sunday Souvenir: The Adventures of Esa and Zed

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Introducing Sunday Souvenir

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Souvenir: Something that serves as a reminder of the past, from the French word for remembering.

Every Sunday, I will be posting about a photo, an item or even just a memory that is dear to me. I’d love for you to join me!

Write your own Sunday Souvenir post and comment me the link. I add a link to everyone’s posts every week. Make sure you post one of the following graphic and link so everyone will be able to browse through each others’ memories.

Hopefully this will grow in the weeks to come so we have a lot to share and explore!

 

Link to: http://www.imagineourlife.com/category/sunday-souvenir/