Echo Park

The song that summer sings

June 30, 2013 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 5 Comments

This 1991 photo of my friend and me dancing to the polka music at the Oktoberfest reminds me so well what a good time we had together. Please don't judge me for wearing a fanny pack!

The fifth sketch challenge has been posted at the new SCRAP & MUSIC challenge blog! Head over to the site to grab the sketch and play along. This fifth sketch came with the song “She” by Elvis Costello.

My layout

I, like many of you probably, have loved this song since first seeing the Julia Roberts/Hugh Grant movie, “Notting Hill.” It has that beautiful melody and conveys so much feeling about destiny and devotion. Once I really combed through the lyrics to find some line that “spoke to me” for a scrapbook page, I was hit by “She may be the song that summer sings.” What a pretty thought!

So I dusted off this 1991 photo of me (the shortie on the right) and my friend, Lisa, dancing together at Oktoberfest. The Willoughby, Ohio, church I grew up in started holding an annual Oktoberfest in July back when I was still in grade school there. That first year they held the festival in October, as is the custom, but it was cold and rainy, and the whole thing fell a little flat. From that point the Oktoberfest committee decided to start planning the events for July, when the weather is more conducive to outdoor partying. It has since become a big success for the church, with tons of food and drink, live music, games and even car raffles! My dad was on the Oktoberfest committee for several years, and my mom, brother and I always signed up to work at the booths throughout the weekend. It was such a good time.

By 1991 I had been out of college for a few years and had a job where I worked with Lisa (in the photo with me). We had become friends, so I invited her to join me for Oktoberfest. We had a good time, if you believe the laughter captured in this photo. So for me, “the songs that summer sings” include the live music at Oktoberfest that I remember most—like polkas and Irish music.

Product/technique notes:

I used patterns from the Echo Park “Here & Now” collection for this layout because their bright, happy colors went just perfectly with my photo.

The challenge

The challenges on this blog involve following the sketch and using a title on your layout with a line from the provided music. Below I’ve included the video as well as the lyrics for this song:

“She” by Elvis Costello
She
May be the face I can’t forget.
A trace of pleasure or regret
May be my treasure or the price I have to pay.
She may be the song that summer sings.
May be the chill that autumn brings.
May be a hundred different things
Within the measure of a day.

She
May be the beauty or the beast.
May be the famine or the feast.
May turn each day into a heaven or a hell.
She may be the mirror of my dreams.
A smile reflected in a stream
She may not be what she may seem
Inside her shell

She who always seems so happy in a crowd.
Whose eyes can be so private and so proud
No one’s allowed to see them when they cry.
She may be the love that cannot hope to last
May come to me from shadows of the past.
That I’ll remember till the day I die

She
May be the reason I survive
The why and wherefore I’m alive
The one I’ll care for through the rough and ready years
Me I’ll take her laughter and her tears
And make them all my souvenirs
For where she goes I’ve got to be
The meaning of my life is

She, she, she

1984 Miss American Legion post 214

May 27, 2013 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

Wearing a tiara and waving from the back of a parade truck was certainly nothing I expected to be doing when I entered the American Legion's essay contest!

When I won a scholarship for college from the local American Legion post through an essay contest they held, it included acting as Miss American Legion in the Memorial Day parade! I went and met with the men of the post, who were all such gracious and fun hosts, and then rode in the back of their “official” parade truck. It was a bit surreal to wear a tiara and sash and wave to people along the parade route, but it was an honor and really quite a lot of fun.

Winning that scholarship was part of how I put myself through college, so I will always be grateful to the veterans of AL post 214.

And especially on this Memorial Day I am thankful for all our veterans who have fought and died for us throughout the history of our country.

Product/technique notes:

I followed the PageMaps sketch below and used patterned papers from the Echo Park “Sweet Day” collection. I also designed and cut the title on my Cameo.
PageMaps sketch I followed

Never too old for the Easter Bunny

March 29, 2013 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 2 Comments

Notice that the Easter Bunny is very wise, as he realized what a 17-year-old girl would want in her basket!

Isn’t it just awesome that the Easter Bunny, who continued to use the basket I received from him on my very first Easter, still knew what I would like to receive as a teenager? If you look closely at the contents of my basket, you’ll see eye shadow and banana chips, among other harder-to-distinguish gifts. Pretty cool how he keeps up with tastes and trends, isn’t it?

Product/technique notes:
I created this layout using products from the Echo Park For the Record 2 line. And the sketch is from Club CK. I created the title and cut it with my Cameo.

Club CK March sketch challenge

Believe

December 17, 2012 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 2 Comments

Isn’t this a sweet photo of my husband’s sisters on Christmas morning? I date this photo at circa 1980 because Thyia, the baby of the family, was born in 1976, and she looks to be about 3 or 4 years old in this shot, don’t you think?

I really love Thyia’s little Dorothy Hamill haircut and Tyna’s filmy pink nightie, which is why I opted to use papers from the Echo Park “Holly Jolly” collection. It’s colors and images go perfectly with the bright, happy, girly look I was going for on this page.

I’m entering this layout into color story challenge #161 at the Play Date Cafe:

So grateful for you

November 16, 2012 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

Unfortunately, this is the only photo I have from Thanksgiving 1990.

Sometimes you have only one photo from a whole day of celebration. And sometimes that’s actually all you need to be able to tell the most important story of the day.

When Phil and I were growing up, our family always made the two-hour drive to Pennsylvania to spend Thanksgiving with the extended family from my Dad’s half of the union. Those were good times: at least four generations of family all piled into Aunt Doo Doo and Uncle Ron’s house to catch up with one another and eat obscene amounts of delicious food. But then cousins started getting married and having their own children, and the families that made up that big group started breaking off to celebrate Thanksgiving in smaller units.

So in 1990 our family stayed home and had a cozy turkey day on our own. We no doubt started the day by going to Mass and then came home to spend hours cooking “the fixins.” Here, everything is ready to go—Dad even carved the turkey before this photo was snapped—and we’re about to dig into the feast. Seeing as the importance of this day is to recognize what’s most dear to you and count them as blessings, I think this one photo summed up the day perfectly!

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