Photo restoration

It's Friday night, Phil has gone to the pub with some mates for tea, Jamie is asleep and I am home with the heater on. Yum. I have been fixing up a photo for my parents. It's of my Dad and his brothers and some friends and it was quite damaged. But I've managed to clean it up quite well. I just love old photos!

It's amazing what you can do with Photoshop and some patience :) My Dad is third from the left at the back. This is the first photo of my Dad that I've ever seen where I can see that I look like him.

I just had a look at my counter. 500 posts in 2 weeks. Wow!! Thanks for dropping in on us :). I love having visitors and hearing from everyone - old friends and new. And I have met some great people since starting blogging.

I was just reading Nic's blog. Awwww. Her little guy is two days younger than Jamie and she's just written on her blog a letter to Isaac. It's so beautiful. I got goosebumps reading it, because it just says exactly how I've been feeling these last six months too.

And thanks so much to those people who've emailed me to congratulate me on being a runner-up in this year's Scrapbooking Memories People's Choice Awards. I was stoked to hear the news! The layout that I won with was such a fun layout to do. It's of my mum as a teeny little girl at the beach.

That envelope at the bottom of the RHS page contains 6 pages of my Mum's journaling. Too much even to put on my blog. I think. Unless you particularly wanted to hear about a trip to the beach in 1947. Perhaps just a few of my fav paragraphs? OK:

"...Of course Grandma would always have her obligatory Cornish Pasty wrapped in tea-towel, newspaper & hand-towel to keep it warm until lunchtime, & a delicious Jam and Coconut Pasty (made with the Pastry leftover from the Cornish Pasty). I cannot ever remember Grandpa joining us. As it was summer, & many people still had an ‘ice-chest’ for keeping perishable foods cold, it is quite possible he was either delivering ice on his ’ice & wood round’, or resting after his early morning start.

...In the shop windows all the items required to make your Day at the Beach were displayed, including tents, shades, beach umbrellas, Deck-chairs & Steamer-chairs. In addition to the cost of the equipment, one needed to keep in mind how near your selected ‘spot on the sand’ was to the shop when purchasing these items.

Once the accommodation had been decided upon, other shops attracted my attention. These were the shops where I could inspect the latest styles in bathers. More ‘daring’ one-piece swimsuits had replaced the older neck-to-knee style of bathers that were worn when public bathing was first permitted on the beaches from around 1910. We had now advanced to the woollen bathers – generally pink in colour & of a style similar to a leotard today. Very ‘daring and revealing’ were the tut-tut comments from the older women of the day, which meant very little to this 6 year old. My concern alternated between the itchiness of the dry wool against my hot skin when first put on, & the uncomfortable rub of sand trapped between my skin and the woollen fabric after a ‘dip’ in the water.

This young would be ‘beach babe’ was attracted to the fashionable shirred cotton fabric bathers. Repeated rows of fine shirring elastic was stitched at 10cm intervals from the midriff to the hip line, creating a bloomer effect into the elasticised leg at the top of the thigh. The top was usually finished with either a tie around the neck (Halter style) or straps tied at each shoulder. This type of bather was not long wearing, as the elastic would perish with the sun and salt water, but the benefits of a smooth fabric against my skin was a major plus.
My ‘fit-out’ was not complete without a selection from the ‘water wings’ display. These were similar to ‘floaties’ that young children wear today. I seem to remember that it was necessary to position them on the upper arm, before they were inflated. This meant standing and waiting for an obliging and capable adult with strong lungs to perform the ‘operation’. I do not remember these ‘water-wings’ being very successful in the buoyancy department, but they made me feel like ‘a million dollars’...."

I love being able to record stories that might otherwise be forgotten. And I love recording them in other people's voices.

Aussie Scrap Source and Xyron, both of whom sponsored the competition, were so generous. I almost put my back out lifting the box of goodies when it arrived. I needed a sac-truck!! Now that I've unpacked it all, I have more BasicGrey papers and tags than I can poke a stick at, not to mention a boxful of Xyron products. Expect to see lots of BG layouts!

See ya
Kathie