Sad Day

Yesterday was a very sad day as both Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson died. It kind of felt like a little piece of my childhood died with them. Farrah was my favorite angel. I always wanted to be Jill, but since I was a brunette I always had to be Kelly. My friend Tracy (yes that is us in my back yard, circa 1976), who was also a brunette by the way, always got to be Jill just because her always bleached out to almost blond every summer with all the sun and chlorine. Totally unfair. I, however, did possess the most coveted, 'Jill Monroe' trading card. And a 'Charlie's Angels' lunch box. I wish I still had both, but I'm sure my mother threw both of them out, long long ago. OH, and by the way this iconic poster? It hung on the wall of my second grade classroom. No lie! My teacher, either Mr. Pettijohn or Mr. Leeper, I forget which one was a big fan and hung it on the wall of the classroom. The other was a fan of Cheryl Tieggs and her poster hung on the wall as well. How well do you think that would fly today? We all knew that Farrah was pretty sick and with all the press coverage lately, the announcement of her death, while sad was not nearly as shocking as Michael Jackson's. This one even got a phone call from my sister who was driving and heard it on the radio. I was not a huge Michael Jackson fan, but I liked some of his music and had the album 'Thriller'. Who didn't? In fact, I believe it is warping in my attic as I type.... No, the big Michael fan in our family had to be my little brother. Yep, Uncle Bernie loved him some Michael Jackson! I remember the big family vacation to Disney Land in December of 1984. I was 14, he was 7, my sister was 11. He had one of those Michael Jackson jackets with all the zippers and my grandma had hand sewn a bunch of silver sequins on an old white glove for him. He wore this lovely "ensem" every where we went. My sister and I begged our mom not to let him as we were a teenager and a "tween" and were terribly embarrassed. My mother was a good mother and refused our request, instead allowing her little boy, to be a little boy. (I am now learning this lesson. See Mr. Sam's 'Wicked' photos....) Looking back it was very sweet actually. Oh, but if I can find any of those old pictures, I am totally scanning them and posting them! Ok, so like I said, not a huge Michael fan, more so a Farrah fan. Watching all the coverage last night, I only cried once. When they showed Farrah's documentary and they showed the part where her son was allowed to leave jail and visit her. He crawled in her bed, called her 'mommy' and I lost it. I'm tearing up thinking about it right now. But here's the weird thing. I was in my car today and 104.5 was doing a musical tribute to Michael Jackson. I'm singing 'I want you back' at the top of my lungs and I burst into tears! I must be premenstrual. Or maybe it was because I wasn't picturing the freak show that he had become, but that sweet little boy who sang that song, who I guess in a way, died a long time ago. Oh my God, I can't believe I just wrote that. I am definitely pre-menstrual. I've got to go yell at my husband or something so I can feel like myself again.....

Ode to Jim

I just want to post a quick shout out to my wonderful husband Jim (yes, now is the point at which Deana starts gagging but it must be done nevertheless). My asthma has been kicking my ass this whole week and he's gone above and beyond taking care of Grand Master B, the house and me. He spent the entire afternoon finishing laundry while I slugged on the couch and wheezed. He's really fabulous to this whole family and I'm not sure that I tell him often enough how much I love and appreciate him.

So this is my homage to the man. I absolutely love this picture of us. In September 2007, we traveled to the East Coast, taking in a Sox game at Fenway Park in Boston and then spending time with Jim's family in New York. We spent a fantastic day seeing the sights in NYC (I particularly loved Central Park). Then we took a sunset cruise around the island of Manhattan. The guy across the boat was kind enough to snap a photo for us which is pretty lucky because Jim proposed about 10 seconds after this pic was taken. Totally spur of the moment, totally romantic and totally perfect. Here's to you Jimbo - I love you.

Crazy Good Self-Portrait

A few weeks ago I was messing around with my camera and ended up doing a mini self-portrait session. I was pleasantly surprised with the results. I rarely like photographs of myself - let alone those that I have taken myself. But I actually got a couple of cool and interesting shots. I wasn't attempting a 'pretty picture' (I can already hear Deana's sarcastic "Thank God") but I was working on snapping a balanced and visually interesting photo. This is one of my favorites. I like the composition, how my figure is centered in the mirror and how the mirror is centered in the room. But the photo 'as is' was a bit too severe, too many sharp lines so once again I found my saving grace via Photoshop. I used some digital brushes (courtesy of House of 3) to soften things up. First I used the Inked Edges brushes along the edges. Then I used a central decorative tag (aptly named French Ooh La La) on an overlay layer to add visual interest. It's one of my most successful adventures yet which is darn exciting.

Deana says: I believe I'm going to have to start calling you Annie Leibovitz soon..... ;o)

Jenn says: That's an incredible compliment - especially as you know I harbor a secret obsession with all things Jewish and kinda want to convert.

Deana says: I had an obsession with middle-aged Jewish men in my early twenties. I'm not sure what that was all about. But then again, I did a lot of things in my twenties that I now question.....

Jenn says: Didn't we all? I shudder to remember some of those exploits.

Deana says: Or outfits. Or boyfriends. Or guys we picked up in bars......or camp grounds......Hey, did I ever tell you about the blind date I went on with the guy who insisted on calling his car the 'bat mobile'? I think I was 19 and I know I can thank my high school friend for that one.....

Jenn says: Was he in the band, too?

Deana says: Ha ha. No.

Photoshop Fun

I've been taking an online photo editing class through Jessica Sprague's website. She is a scrapbook diva, especially anything digital. The basic photo editing class was wonderful and taught me alot about Photoshop. Now she is offering a free class on adding masks, brushes, frames and blending. The class starts July 6th but I read an online tutorial this evening about masks. I learned how to use a mask in Photoshop Elements tonight and I used this fabulous picture of Deana and I to learn the technique. I really like the final product. Let me know what you think.

Deana says: Well, I guess now I no longer blog in anonymity! No autographs, please...... ;o)

Jenn says: You told me it was okay to use "real" pictures of us and the kids after the summer wine blogging session...maybe all the wine interfered with your memory.

Deana says: You say that like you don't know how I get after a couple of bottles, I mean glasses, of wine...

Jenn says: No, I know how you get. I'm pretty sure it is exactly how I get.

Deana says: I can neither confirm nor deny to any degree of certainty as we usually drink together and well, you know how I get..... And now, we have come full circle....

I Love Fridays

I just love the semi-celebratory feeling that I have as I arrive at work on Fridays. It's empowering.

Extreme Blog Makeover

I was visiting the website for House of 3 this morning and I came across a totally new concept - blog couture. Now as my good friends can attest, my curiosity is piqued at anything related in any way to couture. I love couture, I long for couture; but due to factors outside my control (generally a lack of funding) I am unable to realize the dream of owning couture...until now! Thanks to someone else's ingenuity I was able to choose a set of custom blog templates, including a background (which I have since deleted because I prefer the clean white background) and a header, and install them myself. Instructions were ridiculously simple and came with templates. And it only cost me $3 - pretty good for couture.

We're Back...

So we know that we've been away for a bit but life got hectic and interfered with blogging. We thought today that we'd come back with a couple of recommendations for nice, inexpensive summer wines. Deana has a subscription to Real Simple magazine and they did a nice article on summer wines under $12 (see the whole article here). We picked out two wines that are top on our list to try - a red and a white.

We like a couple of things about this Jargon pinot noir. Clearly, the label is impressive with bright summer colors and a clever font. It caught our eye right away. Now we know that judging a wine solely on its packaging can sometimes be a disastrous choice but every once in a while it can lead you to try something wonderful. Also this red features dark cherry flavors that complement its easy drinking nature...at least that's what the wine experts at Real Simple have led us to believe. Plus it's red wine which right away fits in our wheelhouse - we're just not that choosy! Also, we've found that if at first you don't like a particular wine drink, drink something else. When you go back and taste the first wine it is ALOT better.

We also recommend the Clean Slate riesling. Obviously, the name sparked an interest right from the get go... "Everybody deserves a second chance" or a clean slate as it were. But what really excited us was the description of the delicious peach and apricot flavors that brighten up this clean, crisp white. Although we are not as drawn to white wines at first glance as we are to reds, whites do have a distinct advantage - they are socially acceptable for early morning or afternoon drinking. It just screams "wino" to order a Cabernet at brunch...although as Deana pointed out you could make sure your wait staff brings the wine in a juice glass and then tell everyone that it is grape juice. But you'll have to be hypervigilant to prevent a youngster from sipping on your "grape juice" or you may end up with some angry parents.

We thought we'd leave you with this awesome photo of Mr. Sam after he went with Jenn to see Wicked last weekend. We actually won the Wicked lottery and got our tickets for only $25 each! And our seats were in the fifth row - we could see everything perfectly. After the show, Mr. Sam kept acting out scenes from the witch's life. This shot is my favorite...