blogher08,  Buddies,  Bug,  half assed posts,  urban life

A flip through my virtual photo album.

March 30, 2009 /

Sir Pounce in pajamas

Back in the days before blogging, (a long long long long time ago) I used to keep photo albums. I loved collecting photos and arranging them on a page. I was good at it too. I’d cut out little heads and add in captions, I’d save ticket stubs and arrange them fondly. I was a scrapbooker before scrapbooking was something you could buy in a package at Michael’s.

Man, I’m old.

I also used to take my photo albums to work and force my co-workers to look at them while I carried on a runny (Runny?!! Ha ha. Freudian slip.) running commentary about each photo. What a dork! Why would I think that my co-workers would want to look at photos of my cats?!! (I’m looking at you, Mh64.) Sure, I had vacation photos and artsy-fartsy macro shots of seashells and stuff but still…it’s hard for me to believe that they all sat around so patiently perusing my photo albums with me. But they did! I don’t know, maybe we were all just bored in cubicle-land.

Then blogging was invented and I never needed to have a photo album again!
The end.

Just kidding.

Now I just show everyone on the internet photos of my cats and my kid and everything else in between. But the good thing is that you all don’t have to pretend you are interested. You can click away magically and I’ll never know! How cool is that?

Since it’s 7days and eleven (or so) of you said I should share my competitive creative self-portraits here (I’m not counting the 1,608 clicks who didn’t say anything. Your votes don’t count.) I was thinking I might as well just post all sorts of random photos and take a kicked-back approach to blogging this week.

[Except yikes, it took me this long to get to my point. I guess I’ve defeated my purpose and this blog post is just as long and rambly as any of my regular posts.]

trash on trash

Onwards!

This is a picture of the trash cans outside our house. Why would I draw trash cans? Well, it was a beautiful day and Bug decided she wanted to draw outside. At first I was resistant. It’s not like we have a yard that I can corral her in. I didn’t want to lose her markers or crayons or random sheets of printer paper all over the neighborhood. But how can you say no to a kid who wants to draw? It would just be wrong to say no. I thought drawing outside might be a great way to introduce her to nature drawing.

But she wanted to sit on the wall in the alley. The little short two-foot wall of cement that sits across an alley OF CEMENT opposite a row of trash cans on cement. No nature in sight except the weeds growing up through the cracks in the CEMENT. So we sat and enjoyed the sunshine on our backs and I drew trash cans. She drew circles. We drew on cardboard because we found a stash of it in the dumpsters behind a nearby frame shop. They were a good surface because they were hard and would stay rigid on our laps like a desk. Also, they didn’t blow away in the nippy spring breeze.

It was fun. I think we’ll do it again. Maybe next we’ll move on to drawing the mailbox or even…A TREE!

writing a letter to Uncle George

Next up is a picture of Bug writing a letter to Uncle George. She’s so funny when she writes. She punctuates each stroke with a word as if she were really writing a letter. Her letter went something like this:

“Dear Uncle George, We are going to the movies. Thank you for playing with me. You are funny. Have a very nice day.”

Or something like that. Of course I didn’t pick up the camera and film a movie of it until after she had said something really funny. But I did get a cute movie.


writing a letter to Uncle George from secretagentjo on Vimeo.

7days Spring 2009. Day 2: yellow purse

And lastly is my 7days photo from yesterday. I was supposed to post this yesterday but I fell asleep like usual. I’m such a tired mom all the time. It’s so annoying. But at least I get my sleep.

This is a purse my fairy-godmother friend, Susan, bought for me a while back on our blogher trip to San Francisco. We were at Ross and she was spoiling everybody rotten as she always does and she sprang for this yellow purse that I had spied. It didn’t seem that fashion-forward at the time but here it is a year later and I get compliments on it all the time. I guess yellow is a happening color. I like the purse. It’s soft and simple and I don’t lose things in it.

That’s all folks! I’m off to Bethany’s for a few days. I’m sure I’ll be posting more fun photos from the Actuallys’.

Over and out.

15 Comments

  • gingermog

    March 30, 2009 at 1:03 pm

    They looked at your scrapbooks because they were probably interesting, like sketch books are, with quirky ideas and insights into your personality. Your a heck of an engaging personality SAJ, it leaps off the page be it html or paper. By the the way I love the trash can drawing, you have such a strong line. Someday I really want to animate something of yours. I think a cat is going to peep out behind one of the cans and rub its back against the can or maybe reach up and push off the lid to snatch a fish bone. I love the fact that you go drawing outside with Bug. Just marvelous.

  • Clownfish

    March 30, 2009 at 4:08 pm

    Are you kidding?! I enjoyed every photo your shared and I’d flip through one of your photo albums any time.

    All of you ‘creatives’ in Cubicle Land were very good at your jobs but it was the stuff that you did for fun that I truly enjoyed. From your drawings, to your photos… to the photo I still have of the pig on a paper clip hanging from the ceiling. There are so many colors on your creative palette! Obviously your favorite color is “Bug” (understandably so). But should you share even more of those colors with us on your virtual photo album, I know we will all drink them up.

    A note to Uncle George while George Harrison plays in the background, nice.

  • Barb

    March 30, 2009 at 4:15 pm

    You are so talented. I think the trash cans look great. Thanks for sharing your sweet little girl with us. She is soooo precious. I’m sure Uncle George will cherish his note.

    P.S. Hey, do you think Bug would think using a clipboard to hold her paper was cool…or would that get in the way of her creativity?

  • Clover

    March 30, 2009 at 4:53 pm

    Bug is one smart little cookie! I’m like you– did photo albums for years, and people would always head for my shelf of photo albums when they walked in the house. But I haven’t done one since January 2005, and I don’t know that I will ever bother– but my kids still like looking at the old ones. I love my blog, though, since I can intersperse stories in the pictures.

    I love your purse– I always end up painting at least one wall yellow when we move into a new house. And yellow seems like SPRING right now, which I am eagerly anticipating!

  • Buckeroomama

    March 30, 2009 at 5:03 pm

    All my ‘real’ photo albums and scrapbooks were from BK (before kids). Sad, I know. But they both have slick digital photo albums with special effects that I never had in mine. I do miss the old fashioned ones, though. Hmmm, have to make time for one soon.

    Bug is such a sweetie… and so precocious! :)

  • franticallysimple

    March 30, 2009 at 7:55 pm

    I was one of the 1,608 clicks.
    I have elected myself leader of the silent majority. We took a separate vote and decided that we wanted your photos posted.
    So we win.
    Boo-yah!

  • Katie

    March 30, 2009 at 8:58 pm

    I vote photos of you on your blog and not just flickr. Sorry to be a silent clicker. You know we all love to read about the happenings of you and Bug right?

    Thanks for being rambly cause it makes me feel not so alone in my own rambliness. Rambliness? Is that a word?

    I wish I had your drawing talent. If I drew garbage cans it would look like it needed to go into a garbage can. :)

  • Katie

    March 31, 2009 at 4:13 pm

    Oh lordy – I work with tons of kids every day and can easily say Bug is one of the cutest girls I have ever “met”! She is so adorable :)