Yoyo Jojo

I was going to write about something else today and I changed my mind because me and my brother Joey hung out tonight and we haven't really done that in a while and I so enjoy just talking to him, he was my baby brother and now he's one of my best friends.
He's my youngest brother and I was 12 when he was born.

He was so funny from the time he could talk and I always got a kick out of him, the whole family did and he knew he had an audience. He used to call me Crisha and then Frisha as he couldn't pronounce the "Tr" in any words. Including the word "truck" so it was cruck for a while and then, well, you know what it was then.

We lived up the block from "rubber park" when Joey was little. I don't know the official name of the park but it was the park that John Travolta plays basketball in the movie "Saturday Night Fever". It got it's nickname "rubber park" from the rubber mats that were below the swings, seesaws, monkey bars. That park is also right below the Brooklyn-side entrance to the the Verrazano Bridge and when I would take Joey to the park he would say look at the trucks as he watched them getting onto the bridge. Well I was still a silly teen and I thought it was funny but I knew enough not to push him to say it. He even used to lisp a little and I would make him say "thister" and "thoup" time and time again but my mom told me to not do it even though it was so cute. She told me to ask him to say "sister" or "soup" and I would still get the laugh from the cute way he said it, but eventually he would learn the correct way to say the words.

When I was in the park, there were lots of kids there and if they heard Joey say "look at the trucks" they would ask him again and again, "Joey what do you see on the bridge" and by now Joey's caught on that somehow saying truck makes people laugh. I remember him sitting in his high chair and just saying truck and cracking us all up. My parents wanted to laugh too and probably did a few times but decided it would be best if we all just left the table if we couldn't hold our laughter in check. How could we make him stop saying truck, it's not like he was saying a bad word, he was just saying truck and for some reason it made everyone laugh.

One night we were all at dinner (the regular 9 of us plus my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Richie) and Joey started slamming his spoon on his highchair tray and he's saying "truck" over and over and over again. One by one we all left the table until this 2 year old is sitting in his highchair, all alone in the dining room, with a smug look on his face, knowing that he had some kind of power and was totally enjoying it.

He also could make our brother Michael so angry which in turn would make the rest of us laugh. Michael was about 18 and Joey 2 and everyone in the family was always fighting with Michael over something. He was a buster, and would antagonize all of us so someone was always saying "shut up Michael". Those words were probably Joey's first sentence, and that gave Joey his biggest laugh at the dinner table.

Michael would just say something like "pass the salt" and Joey in that little baby voice would just say "shut up Michael" and we would crack up and Michael, who could dish it but couldn't take it from a two year old, would be telling my mom to make him stop which would just make Joey say "shut up Michael" again and we would laugh even more and Michael would get so frustrated. I remember my mom laughing at Michael saying he's two years old, you're 18, just ignore him and Michael would be all mad saying he shouldn't be saying that anyway and there would come that little voice saying, "shut up Michael".

If you know Joey you love Joey. He makes you laugh and he has charm. When he went to get his first apartment he came home and told me the prospective landlady said he had charisma and asked me what did that mean. I told him what it mean and that she was right.

Now my baby brother is a man. He's a dad, one of the most awesome dads you could ever have. Yes I'm bragging. I'm proud of my brother, but not exaggerating. He's the real deal. (He learned from a great man but that's a story for another day).

I used to call him Yoyo Jojo when he was little and when I started making my fun little projects I made Joey a bunch of personalized yoyos. A fun toy to put in the gift bags at a kids party.
I just made a circle picture and laminated the picture and pasted it onto the yoyos. Kids love seeing their names or pictures on anything! And this is an easy project.

The Trouble With Angels

"The Trouble With Angels" was one of my favorite movies growing up.
I loved how Haley Mills' character, Mary Clancy, would say "I have a brilliant idea" and carry out that brilliant idea, only to be caught by Rosalind Russell's character, Mother Superior, and that was always the funniest part for me.
I myself attended an all girl catholic school, though it was not a boarding school.
I absolutely loved high school and it had nothing to do with academics.
I did do well in school, not an an "A" student, but I got by, I had to. My parents knew how much I loved going and dangled that over my head every bad grade I got. They told me they would take me out of the school in a second and I believed them, though now I don't think they really would have.
I loved my high school for many reasons. It was a small school and you really got to know pretty much everyone in the school in one way or another. I also was an aspiring actress in those days and joined the Glee Club. We were never teased or bullied by anyone you see on the TV show "Glee". Maybe that did go on in public schools then, I don't know, but it didn't at my school. I'm also not saying that anyone thought I was cool because I was in Glee Club, but I don't remember anyone teasing anyone about that and I remember my fellow classmates enjoying our shows, cheering us on.
We supported each other, we were a community.

I went to catholic grammar school and I absolutely hated it. I didn't have very many good experiences with most of the nuns, they were cold and mean and scared the living daylights out of me. There were a few very kind, funny, human-like nuns I had in certain grades, but the mean ones and the fear of getting them when you were moving up a grade made me not want to attend catholic school after graduating.

What changed my mind, was hearing stories from my one of my brother's girlfriends at the time. She would tell me stories about what crazy antics some of the girls did at her school and it sounded like so much fun! Nothing bad, just silly fun. If only my parents knew that was my reason for wanting to go to that school!

I have so many stories from those years. Ones that include me and many more are about some of my fellow classmates. It was fun and again the funniest part was getting caught, we weren't doing anything really bad or disrespectful, just silly pranks.

We had a demerit system in our school. If you broke a rule you either got 2 demerits (minor infractions) and 6 demerits (major infractions). A minor infraction was something like not wearing the proper uniform, being late for school, I can't remember all of them. Major was cutting class, smoking on the property, there were a list of them. But on both the 2 demerit list and the 6 demerit list, there was an "Other" category and I think most of my demerits were "Other" and I even got a few chuckles while getting my demerits.

Over time I will include a "Trouble With Angels" story and here's one of them.

The school I attended had been a boarding school long before I attended and we had many different buildings we had to go to and from, beautiful grounds. We didn't have a standard gym, it was like a large garage. Our basketball team suffered for many years by not having a good gym but I'm so proud to say that now they have a gym and they win! While I attended, we never won a game. But I cheered on the girls at every game, they were great!

Again there were many buildings, the annex, the gym, and parts of the school had little tunnels that you would get to another section of the building and all around each of these buildings and halls there were phones. These phones didn't have any dialing ability, you picked up the phone and it would ring in the convent and they would put your call through to whatever building or extension you needed. But, if you took the phone off the hook and left it dangling, it would ring in the convent over and over and one of the nuns would have to come and hang it up. We took those phones off the hook constantly and were probably being accused of doing it, but they never caught us in the act, they had no proof. And as silly as it sounds it was so much fun doing it and then running as fast as you could away from the scene of the crime.

Well we got caught eventually. Once after taking the phone off the hook and taking off, me and my friend ran into Sr. Kathleen. Sr. Kathleen was really cool. She was young, she was really pretty and you just knew she believed in God and was so happy and at peace with the life she chose. Well Sr. Kathleen sees us running and stops us..."whoa, slow down girls, where you running to?". We were caught and we knew it. We made up a story we were late for class in another building or something, but she was heading right in the direction of that phone hanging off the hook and I remember the two of us stammering our excuses out.
It was just a matter of time that we would come face to face with Sr. Kathleen and have to face the music. My fellow phone felon got caught first and warned me that Sr. Kathleen was looking for me and furious. When she found me that old fashioned nun came out in her, she lifted me by my neck and my feet weren't touching the ground anymore! She asked me if I would EVER take a phone off the hook again. I remember gasping for air, let alone trying to talk, but somehow got the words "yes sister" out and she let me go. She also let go of any anger and was right back to the same old super sweet loving nun I knew her to be.
My friend stayed in touch with a couple of the sisters after we graduated and told me many a morning the sisters discussed our antics over breakfast, we drove them crazy, but I think we also made them laugh a little too.

Good Night Irene (but not for me)!

Irene, a name that has been in the news lately and will be remembered by many here in New York. New York, the city that never sleeps, except when Irene came to town!! Everything closed down and we all prepared for the worst. I think we were very lucky that it wasn't as bad as predicted but will always remember Irene!

While listening to the forecasts of the arrival of Hurricane Irene all I could think of was my niece Irene. Every time the name was mentioned instead of getting super nervous, like I usually am, all I could picture in my head was my Irene and it gave me great comfort.

Irene was my first niece and I awaited her arrival with so much excitement. My family was still all here in New York at that time and til she was about 5 or so, pretty much every Sunday we were all together at my parent's house for dinner. They were wonderful times.

Last year Irene got married. It's so hard to believe it still. I just can't get that little girl I knew out of my heart and mind.

For Irene's bridal shower her mom had bought some invitations that didn't have anything but a picture on them and I filled in the information (name, date, place of shower) but used those invitations to create favors for her party. First I switched the girl's head on the invitation to Irene's. As you can see in the picture below, the invitations are kind of like a cartoon or colored pencil drawing so I played with color saturation on my photo program and got a picture of Irene that matched the invitation. I also have a cousin who is a very good artist and she copied the chandelier and bridal cake from the original invitations so I could use it for my project. I made wine bottles, chocolate bars, thank you cards, table seating cards, everything matched and more important, my Irene loved it.

I did have some better pictures of all the things I made but can't find them in my pile of discs and pictures, I have to get more organized!!!

Below is a picture of some of the work I did for the party. The wine bottles are easy to do, just use a glue stick to paste the labels on the bottle. These wine bottles are plastic and the label that comes on them is very easy to peal off. I've used some glass bottles in the past but those labels are not so easy to peal off so I just pasted my labels on top. I use brochure paper for an ink jet printer and it's a thicker paper that will completely cover the label on the glass bottles if you're using them.
There are so many different kinds of wine and different colored tops you can match your wine bottle to the colors you're using. The chocolate bars are crimped at the edges, I used a ribbon crimper which you can purchase at any craft store, very easy and looks more professional on the final product. The thank you cards were postcards and I put them in a see-through paint can which I bought at Michael's. Michael's craft store is a great store!!! I can spend a day in Michael's and not buy a thing but come home with more ideas for future projects.

These favors do take some time. I did wine bottles for a wedding last year and cutting and pasting the labels for 150 bottles took many hours of work but in the end I think it's worth it. They are personalized, they are made with love and it shows.

Fun Party Masks and Thank You Cards

I made these masks for two separate surprise parties. It's a lot of work but your guests will have so much fun while waiting for the guest of honor, and when the birthday girl/guy arrives they will be greeted by their funny face all over the room.

First time, it was for my friend Kathy's 50th birthday and I wanted to make her something special that she would always remember. I decided to create masks of her face by doing the following.

First I found a picture where she was facing forward and made certain that it was a picture of her alone, preferably just a head shot. I needed to be able to enlarge the picture big enough to cover a face. Had I used a picture from a group shot, the resolution wouldn't have been as clear when I enlarged it.
Her hair also had to be styled in a way that would come out well for the masks. Say for instance it was in a pony tail, it wouldn't work as well.
I found the right picture and got to work on the mask.
I enlarged the photo to cover as much of an 8 1/2 by 11 sized paper (portrait page set up) without cutting off her face or hair and printed the picture on label paper (full sheet white paper). Then I pasted those on to a cardboard like paper so it would be sturdy. The tough part, cutting all those cardboard masks, took a lot of time. Last, easy part, gluing an ice cream stick on the bottom as the handle. If you want to get more creative on the handles, you can decorate them with ribbons and give it that Mardi Gras look.

When the guests were arriving, I gave them all black Sharpie pens with a little piece of paper with instructions saying, have fun, black out her teeth, make her eye brows thick and black, a pirate patch, anything, just have fun and when Kathy arrives we'll have have her face over ours saying "Surprise!"

I wish I had taken pictures of all of the masks at Kathy's party. But at that time I wasn't thinking, as I was having too much fun!

Is there such a thing as too much fun!?

For my brother's 50th Birthday I did the same thing...a little easier cutting this go around without the hair flips! And at this party, instead of just black Sharpie pens, I had colored pens...and maybe just a more creative group...but these masks were awesome so I decided to make a thank you card using some of the bests masks. Again, it's a lot of work with all the cutting part especially, but it is a great way to start a party. Your guests who don't know each other will enjoy looking at what the person next to them is making, a conversation starter, and that makes for a really fun party!!!

Chris a la Forest Gump...

My friend Julie asked me to create something fun for her husband Chris's birthday.

I never know where I'm going when I sit down to design whatever I'm working on. People have asked me to make chocolate bars for parties, cards, different kinds of party favors and I've even made a few dvds with photos and music. I sit down with a purpose and somehow when I'm done, it's not at all what I started out to do.

Julie had seen some of my projects and gave me the freedom to come up with my own idea using pictures of Chris. She gave me pictures and told me a little about the things and people Chris liked.

I searched on line for pictures of all the things that Chris liked and tried to photoshop him into different shots, sometimes it just didn't fit, it looked out of place and other times it fit perfectly, you just got to find the right pictures. I even fit Julie into the biking Elvis shots.
When I had all the pictures set up that I wanted, I created a background, kind of like a street art show, and put different frames around the pictures and then Chris standing in front. It was fun to work on and both Chris and Julie loved it. Cool huh!

Locks of Love

I started kindergarten in 1964 and the pixie haircut was in style at that time. Me, my mom and my younger sister Linda all went to get our hair cut. We went to a beauty parlor on 86th Street in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, up the block from Woolworths. Woolworths is a long gone store, but not forgotten by anyone who grew up in Bay Ridge or any of the surrounding neighborhoods.

So we all went to get our hair cut in the new pixie style. My mom and Linda both had thinner hair than me and Linda even had a nice little wave in her hair when it was shorter, but me, not only did I have super thick hair, I had calics all over. My hair just had a mind of its own. There were no hair products then to calm it down, I remember something that was called, or maybe just referred to as "greasy hair gel" or something like that but I think it was just for boys.
This is me with my pixie cut! It looks like someone put a bowl over my head and gave me a haircut. My mom was so upset and said she would never let my hair be short again.

I grew my hair, and again since it had a mind of its own I could never keep it neat. By about third grade, long enough to pull back in pony tails and braids, I remember being told by a teacher to have my mother comb my hair in the mornings.

My mother did comb my hair in the mornings!

I can remember "ouching" all over the place while she combed the knots out, no conditioner or creme rinse. My mom would brush it out, rap me on the head a few times for pulling away while she was brushing it and mostly pull it back in a pony tail. But my hair was so silky and shiny it just slipped out of head bands or my pony tails and again I looked like I never brushed my hair.

Pretty much everyone had long hair in those days, even the guys. My older brothers all had their hippie long hair and at the time I thought it was so cool and that they looked good. And again, most girls had their hair straight, parted in the middle and just hanging down. If you didn't have straight hair, you wrapped it around tin cans at night and tried to straighten it or ironed it with just a regular clothes iron. Really!! Now you can go to the salons and have that done, but then girls worked with what they had. I was blessed with super straight, super shiny dark brown hair but all I wanted to do was cut my hair off! It was always messy, in knots, took forever to dry (no blow dryers either!) But my mom remembered that pixie haircut and told me I couldn't get my hair cut, that my hair was hers, and I couldn't make any decisions about it until I was 18 or 21, I can't remember which age, but that was the deal. She told me I had beautiful hair and it would look best long.
At about 15 or so my brother was dating a girl who had hair longer than mine and I guess mine was about up to my waist by then. One night she arrived at our house with her hair cut to about her shoulders! I loved it and was so jealous! She told me her sister cut it and right away I asked if her sister would cut mine. My opportunity!!! I didn't have to ask my mom for money for a haircut, I didn't even say I was going to a salon and be lying. I was just going with my brother to his girlfriend's house.
My sister Linda came along and every snip of hair that was cut off my head, she said "mommy's going to kill you!" I had lots of hair being cut off so I was hearing her say this over and over and over! But I couldn't have been happier with every snip!
My mom obviously didn't kill me and would never ever hurt my feelings by saying she didn't like it, she said something like it looks nice and will grow back.
After that I had every haircut, dyed my hair every color imaginable. Got perms, which never took. At least at this point in time I had a blow dryer, a curling iron, but now I was a slave to these tools. I couldn't go to a pool and get out of the water and just dry my hair, I couldn't get caught in the rain or I would look just like that 5 year old picture of me with a pixie!!! My bangs never laid flat down, they kinda looked like a porch hanging over my face. And during a certain time in high school I remember being told that I held my head to the side. I got into that bad habit after one of my haircuts with my hair parted on the side, trying to make it stay there. It didn't work, my hair did its own thing and I walked around with my head tilted all the time!!!
I learned, and not for the first time in my life, that my mom was right, my hair looks nicer longer.

I have kept my hair longer than a pixie for years now. Sometimes about chin length or shoulder length and it looks nice. I constantly get compliments on how shiny my hair is and I've even been dying it for years and it still has a beautiful shine. I grew it a little longer than shoulder length once but found that it was just too much hair and I couldn't deal with it. I was back in grade school flipping out over messy hair always all over the place. Still couldn't keep it in a pony tail, it either gave me a headache or fell out and looked like I didn't comb my hair. So I cut it again.

But around my 50th birthday I heard about Locks of Love. It's a charity organization and they ask that you donate at least 10 to 12 inches of your hair and they in turn make wigs for children who have cancer and through treatments lose their hair. You can look them up on line and find out the details if you're interested.
I was going to let it grow until my birthday in January, but I've had it and cut it yesterday morning. I have enough length to keep those calics from making it stick out and have 13 inches that I will be donating!!!!

Ah the relief of all that hair gone!!!
And even better, I'm giving a total stranger a gift of love.

"A Man Needs His Sleep"

Last Friday night my nephew Jojo had a special night. Oh excuse me, it's Joe, Joey or Joseph, Jojo sounds like a baby name, that is according to Jojo. So face to face I try to call him Joe but he'll always be Jojo to me and the rest of our family. It will cause some confusion, his dad's name is Joe, his mom's name is Jo, so many Joes!

He's 9 and in the last year or so he's finally become interested in sports. His dad has signed him up for lots of different sports over the years but it just wasn't Jojo's thing. I've been to his soccer games a bunch of times, and Jojo was always off in his own world. As goalie, I would watch him watching the grass grow, looking for bugs in the grass. In his Spiderman obsession days, he was shooting imaginary webs from his wrists and moving his body with his best Spiderman impersonation. Just being the Jojo we all love. Most times if the ball came his way, he didn't see it and if he did he wasn't going after it.

The last two summers I noticed a change. He was paying attention at soccer, chasing the ball, still holding back, he was unsure of himself, he never tried to get the ball and move it into play but he was running with the players, he was cheering them on, he would be super cool high fiving his fellow team mates for a good play, he was trying.

He's also been playing basketball in the streets with his brother and some neighborhood kids for a couple of years now, and whiffle ball, but even with that, he usually ends up quitting before the rest of the kids to go inside and play video games.

But basketball fever finally got Jojo and he's been playing more, and last week I was privy to hear my brother over the phone tell his son that he made the AllStar team at our local church league. I could hear Jojo on the other side of the phone, he was in shock, he couldn't believe it, he must have said "really dad?" at least ten times, he couldn't believe what he had accomplished. He screamed out to his older brother, who right away grabbed the phone from him and said, "Dad is this a joke?" So kudos to our Jojo, he practiced and he was rewarded for his hard work. You know though, he's always an AllStar in my book!!

A few months back, I was videotaping him and his 6-year old sister Bella. They were doing interviews of each other. Bella asked him questions that Jojo thought were dumb and told her, but she has a strong personality and ignored him and kept on asking questions until she hit on one that he liked, asking what kinds of things he likes to do. Jojo started listing all the sports he likes, never mentioning the video games he plays every day, the TV shows he watches every day, all sports, trying to sound so cool and very serious and Bella is yapping the whole time, saying "oh no he doesn't, he doesn't like sports, Jo, you don't like it, you never watch it, you don't play baseball, you don't play hockey, you always go inside and play video games, yap, yap, yap!!!!!" Jojo was trying to keep his cool, but I think I ended up turning the camera off as the interview turned into an small argument between the two of them. I should have filmed that too but I couldn't film and be a mediator at the same time!

As much as Jojo likes basketball, I still think some of it is tied into the fact that his brother is very good at sports and has been an AllStar in baseball and basketball a few times over and our family comes out of the woodwork to see his games. Jojo idolizes his older brother and more than loving basketball or any sports, I think what's really the best feeling for Jojo is that he's become a peer of sorts to his brother, Jojo can share something with his brother that he knows his brother wants to talk about.

Robert didn't make the AllStars this go around (only because he had been an AllStar in the Staten Island Little League!!! and then was in another baseball league when his team was eliminated from SI Little League. He just didn't get to play enough games in the church basketball league this season, otherwise I'm sure he would have made it too).

This was Jojo's night and I'm so glad it was just for him. And so did Jojo, he had a swagger that night, trying to puff his little chest out, putting on a serious expression while playing, I wanted to run out on the court and grab that cute little AllStar!!! His brother wasn't jealous, supported Jojo, was proud of his brother, another beautiful moment for me to watch.

Again I'm always taking pictures and tried to get as close as possible to take pictures of Jojo. At one point Jojo was right in front of me and I whispered for just him to hear, "good game Jo" and he noticed me (and my camera) and you could tell for the rest of the game he was aware of the fact that this special moment would be captured, his picture will be displayed as are his older brother's, he would be sharing the spotlight with his hero.

Most times when I go to a game, he and his brother barely nod at me in front of their friends, they are at that age, they are trying to be cool and I give them their space, even though their actions make me want to kiss them and hug them even more!!! Well Jojo's team lost by a point or 2 and after the game. As I was walking over to him to tell him what a great game he played, instead of the look that I usually get...oh, oh, Aunt Tricia's coming to hug me or kiss me...I could see he was actually walking up to me to talk to me...well not a conversation...he wanted to make sure I got pictures of him playing. He asked "did you get my save Aunt Tricia?" I don't know!!!! I just kept taking pictures. I don't know what he means by his save. I hope I did get it. I'll have to go through my pictures and if I did get it I will post it proudly for Jojo!

Jojo's dad (Joey) plays basketball on Saturday mornings with his friends when he can. He plays at about 8am and will ask his boys if they want to come with. When Joe asked if the boys wanted to come, they both said no and Jojo said, "no dad, a man needs his sleep."
A man!!! All these changes. No more Jojo because it sounds like a baby name. Also, a month ago at his brother's baseball game, I noticed him walking around with his hands crossed over his chest, looked like he was going up to a priest to be blessed. I asked him what he was doing. He told me some cute girl was around and he didn't want her seeing him with a dirty shirt. He had stains on his shirt showing everything he ate at the game that night, ketchup, mustard, chocolate, some red or blue ice pop stains. I told him to go in the bathroom and turn it inside out. He looked at me with awe for coming up with such a great idea.
They grow up too fast, before I know it Jojo, uh Joe, will be introducing me to his girlfriend!

Here's Jojo only last year, but also a lifetime ago. He had a school project to create any kind of product and advertise it. His was "Jojo's Messy Chocolate" bars. Jojo enjoyed every moment of rubbing chocolate syrup all over his face for this photo, the Jojo I know and love.

I designed this chocolate bar wrapper for Jojo using a picture from the new Willie Wonka film that I found on line and switched Johnny Depp's face with Jojo's. After I glue the wrappers onto the chocolate bars, I use a ribbon crimper to give the edges a fancy professional edge. I have some pictures of finished products that I'll post at a later date.

Villa Roma, Lifelong Memories, the Jersey Shore and the Rainwater

My brother and his kids are heading up to Villa Roma for the week. I spent the night with his kids last night and they woke up this morning like it was Christmas and Santa had just left a heaping pile of presents. I love their excitement, they couldn't be happier to know that they will be spending the week with their cousins and friends they have met in the last couple of years since they've vacationed there. The excitement is not just the fun they will have at the place itself. They are so close with their cousins, as I was with mine growing up, and still am lucky enough to be now. They are our first friends.
Here's our Bella fashionably showing her Villa Roma look.

Villa Roma is a resort located in the Catskill Mountains. Kinda like the place in the movie "Dirty Dancing". Not the romance and dancing part, just the place. It's for families, especially during certain seasons. Everyone goes the same time each year so you meet up with people you met years past. The kids are growing up with friends up there that they may not see the rest of the year but they are friends for lives because of these special memories they share. Even when Villa Roma no longer holds the excitement for them, when they're teenagers and would rather stay home with their local friends, Villa Roma and the people and memories that passed through their lives at this time will be in their hearts always.

I didn't have anything like Villa Roma growing up but I did spend many summers in my 20s "down the Jersey Shore".

It's just what you say "down the Jersey Shore." It's not the beach or ocean side and it is down (south) from where I live, but I think even if you live south of the Shore, you say "down the Jersey Shore". Let me know if I'm lucky enough to have a reader from south of the Shore.

Every Friday at work I would be beside myself with the excitement of a fun weekend. I remember one boss used to sit me down Monday mornings and loved to hear about my weekends down the Shore. Lots of fun times, but nothing like portrayed on the reality show about the Jersey Shore. That's just them, not the way it is. Even now as an adult, I love to go to the Shore, it's got places where there are kids partying but then there's great family sections where you wont run into the likes of someone like Snooki or her friends. The beaches are clean, their little town centers are quaint, great restaurants, boardwalks, and they have great diners in Jersey!
Me and my friends partied down the Shore but some of my favorite memories are just silly pranks we played on each other.

This picture has our "shit list" and a sign to the left "Remember the Rainwater.

The list started with some one saying "you're going on my shit list" and before you knew it we had a big list hanging on the wall. Anything stupid someone did went on the list, or if you stole someone's bed, their food or beer. I even have the original somewhere in my way too large collection of memories. I've read the list at one time or another over the years and most of the names on it I can't even remember but it brings back the best memories of just being a part of something fun and special in my life.

Then there's that little sign to the left of the list that says "Remember the Rainwater". That sign we made from a game box and used the inside cover. We had no markers, first used pencil and then nail polish to make it stand out more, but we ran out of nail polish. One of my friends (who by the way was my most favorite subject of a practical joke) took a pickle bucket and put it outside the front of the house to collect rainwater as it was pouring outside. We asked her what she was doing and she said it was really good to rinse your hair with rainwater, makes it smoother or something. There were about 5 or 6 of us there at the time and when she left we all sat there for about 30 seconds, maybe less, and we all kinda sat up, looked at each other, and I swear, simultaneously, we all had the same idea. We took the bucket emptied her rainwater, made the sign and piled into the bathroom surrounding the toilet. It was clean!!! But still it was toilet water and our intentions were to make her think that it wasn't clean. We scooped up the water and put it into the bucket with the sign on top of the bowl with all of us in there with big smiles on our faces and took a picture which we weren't going to show our "rainwater" collector friend til after we developed the film. One of my old friends out there has to have that picture, all I have is the sign.
Well our friend came home and as much as it would have been great to watch her rinse her hair out with the "rainwater" we were way too interested in what she was doing, asking if she had enough, could we help and as I said she had been the subject of way too many practical jokes and caught on faster than she normally did on this one. But we couldn't help it. She was putting her hands in the bucket and just amazed at how much water she got, splashing it around. I think she was about to scoop it up and rinse her face. By then we couldn't control ourselves. We were laughing so much.

Even that memory I only remember about 3 of the 6 or so involved. I'm sorry I don't remember their names but they are bundled into this wonderful memory in my heart and mind of my days down the Shore.

I wish everyone those kind of memories, memories that touch your heart for your lifetime.
I for one have been blessed with so many of them.

Best Summer Memory

When I drive home from work there's a great talk show on the radio that I listen to. They have a topic and people call in and give their opinion, tell their story, comment on what someone else says, I really love to listen.

Tonight the host asked people to call in with their favorite summer memory. For the time I was listening it seemed like everyone's best summer memory was when they were kids and I'd have to say that for me too. People were talking about going to drive-in movies, camp outs, bbq's, cooling off by the fire hydrants, beach houses, lake houses, so many great summer memories.

I have had great summers as an adult, but nothing can compare to when I was a kid. The summers seemed endless until about the last 2 weeks of August when you knew you had to go back to school. Other than that, summer was magic. And you felt it. Remembering just that feeling you had from your head, right down to your toes...that might be the best summer memory.

I just got lucky a few years back taking these pictures of my nephew. Right place, right time. I call them the blue bucket pictures and I think if any of my family is reading, they are already smiling thinking of these pictures. I even have a few of them framed and hanging on my living room wall but I really looked at them again today while I was posting and he's got that summer magical feeling going on. He's just happy, not a thought other than being happy. Hope they make you happy too!!!

My Brady Bunch

Here's the story...

I loved the Brady Bunch as a kid. When I was watching that show I knew that there was no way there could be a family like that. Not the fact that a man with 3 kids married a woman with 3 kids and they became a family, but that they were so good!!! I mean come on...not one screaming match with the sisters, not a fight over one sister wearing the other's clothes?? And the boys? Not even one fist fight? a punch? I grew up with 3 older brothers that at one time or another (and another) got into a fight. I have 2 sisters and though we've never been the kind to physically fight, we've had our share of "words". But I still couldn't wait to sit in front of the tv on Friday nights and watch it. I will take the old fashioned kind of show like that over any of the reality shows that are on now. I'd rather sit and be entertained by a fake family than watch fake people show you their "real" lives.

The card below is from Christmas of 2010 and though the kids are smiling in these shots I look at it and remember what was going on while taking the pictures. Explaining how to look up and down took a bit of time since none of them has ever seen The Brady Bunch and I doubt ever will. There was some drama! I'll always remember how my niece was so into taking the picture and following my directions and I think you can even tell by the expression on her face. The boys just wanted to get it over and done with as soon as possible. I remember her commenting on that when I took her pictures. She said something like I know I'm doing exactly what you said to do, I'm doing a great job and my brothers are doing it wrong. Seriously, look at the satisfaction in that beautiful little face. She was upping her brothers, not for the first time

I took pictures of the family in front of a blue painted, plain wall, trying to make it look as much like the old Brady Bunch intro I remembered and then added them together in a print program. This card was 2 sided, Happy Holidays on one side and New Year's on the other.

Take a picture...it does last longer!!!!

Hello!
Well I've already accomplished one goal, someone liked my idea about putting your pets on your Christmas cards.

Here's another Molly card from Christmas.

I'm so glad that I took pictures of Molly and designed these cards. It's nice to look through my box of stuff that I've made and see her pictures and smile. And that's what I mean about "take a picture, it does last longer". Take pictures of your loved ones and let them take pictures of you. Some day someone will be searching through a box trying to find a picture of you, or a picture from a special moment in time. A picture that when you look at it, will make you smile, remembering that day, that time.

I spent this past weekend down the Jersey Shore with family and went through a box of pictures. I was searching for a picture of me with my mom. I have a nice collection of pictures of her, but none of just me and her. Though I didn't find any pictures of me and mom, I did have the best time looking through the pictures and seeing and remembering so many wonderful times that I shared with family and friends. I found one picture of my youngest brother's birthday. He's blowing out the candles on his cake and my mom is behind him clapping her hands and the smile on her face is so beautiful to see. And I'm in there...well I think that's my hand!?! In any case, I was back in time there with her this weekend, seeing her in her little housecoat, which at the time I thought was so corny and oh so not cool, but now, now that stupid little housecoat is so cool. Even looking at the dining room and the pictures that hung on the wall at that time, it makes your memories come to life. Of course I found tons of pictures of me that I couldn't stand! My hair! Some of those outfits? What was I thinking?! But someday someone will rummage through one of those famous boxes that we all have looking for a picture of me and no matter how bad the picture may be, they will smile. Go take a picture right now. You're creating a future smile.

I begin...

Hello!

One of my nieces suggested to me this weekend that I should create a blog.  I come from a big family and am always taking pictures and putting together fun projects with them and it's been a great release for my creative juices.

That fun led me to create cards, favors, dvds and all sorts of things for parties and/or as gifts for people.   It becomes overwhelming sometimes to work a 9 to 5 job and then come home and start putting together wine bottle labels and cutting paper for chocolate bar covers and gluing, etc. that I never wanted to put myself out there to make money, but I have done it from time to time and it's fun but not as much as it is when I'm working on something for someone I love.  When I design something for someone I know and love I create something that is special to them, for them.  So this blog will be another place for me to share my work with my family and friends and maybe give someone an idea for something and hopefully give me back some ideas and feedback on my work.

I named my blog page "Molly Made Me Do It" because I had a Yorkie named Molly and she was my inspiration.  It started with my Christmas cards.  Everyone puts their kids on a photo and sends it out, and since I am not a mom, I started sending my family and friends cards designed by me with Molly on the cover.  My favorite is posted below.

This I sent out for Halloween in 2001.  Toto was not in the shot so I placed Molly on the bed and the card caption read "Molly I Have A Feeling We're Not In Brooklyn Anymore".  Everyone loved it and I just love the look on Molly's face in this picture.