My Mind's Eye

BFFs from the start

March 3, 2012 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 4 Comments

These two random photos of me and my baby brother prove how long we've been BFFs.

I continue to scan, organize and scrap photos from our childhood, and when I was looking through my vintage photos yesterday these two unrelated shots from 1969 lept out at me. They make me SO happy and grateful that Phil and I are so close in age (13.5 months). Look at what good friends we were, even then.

The top photo was taken in our living room in September, and the bottom one was taken on Mom and Dad’s bed in December. Here we are, not quite two and three years old, forming our bond—our lifelong friendship. My relationship with my brother is truly one of my greatest blessings.

I created this layout based on the following fabulous PageMaps sketch and am entering it in their Webster’s Pages sketch contest.

Austin Gorilla Run

February 13, 2012 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 1 Comment

Why would more than a thousand people get up way early on a Saturday morning, pull on gorilla costumes and meet in downtown Austin? To raise money for the highly endangered mountain gorillas of Africa, that’s why!

Now that Matt is running and looking for 5K events to participate in, we are learning about cool events in and around Austin like the Gorilla Run. Registration for this race includes a gorilla suit to make the event and its fundraising efforts more visible.

According to the Austin Gorilla Run site, “Proceeds from the race directly benefit Ugandans, Rwandans and citizens of the Democratic Republic of Congo in veterinary educational training, with the end goal of protecting the highly endangered Mountain Gorillas in Africa. In 1987 there were only 248 mountain gorillas alive in the world, but through the veterinary and conservation efforts of the MGCF, the population has nearly tripled to 720.”

It was such a cold morning! But the reason for the event and the many funny and creative costumes that people wore over their gorilla suits made waiting a little easier and a lot more entertaining. Matt ran a great race (only his second so far), and he had a great time.

Matt and a few thousand others donned a gorilla suits and ran a 5k to raise money for mountain gorillas.

I created this title treatment as my only embellishment on this layout.

This is a close-up shot of the title treatment I created in the Silhouette software.

The photo of Matt on the far right of the right-hand page is courtesy of Austin Outdoor Photography.

Promises to keep

February 1, 2012 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 3 Comments

Twisted Sketches has revealed its latest sketch, #137, and the twist is “promise.” Be sure to head over to the site to grab the sketch and see all the other design team members’ beautiful examples, then create something of your own and link it up!

Here is what I created using this great new sketch:

These random photos of my dad are from 1964, 1971, 1988 and 2003.

My father loved the English language and literature, which he studied in college so that he could teach. Although he did teach for a few years right out of college, he decided that after he and Mom married and had two children in quick succession, raising a new family on teachers’ salaries was just too difficult. So he found another career that could change their fortunes.

But Daddy was always my literature teacher. He loved to quote poetry and lines from plays. Some nights after dinner our family played a game where Phil and I would pull out the dictionary and try to find words that would stump him, but Dad’s vocabulary was exceptional, so it hardly ever happened.

My father instilled in me love for our language and awe in the effect good writing can have on our emotions, beliefs and dreams. It’s for this reason that I created this layout, and the line I used as the title comes from the following poem by Robert Frost, a favorite of Daddy’s:

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Twinkle toes

January 18, 2012 By Janice Daquila-Pardo 2 Comments

Twisted Sketches has revealed its latest sketch, #135, and the twist is “sparkle.” Be sure to head over to the site to grab the sketch and see all the other design team members’ beautiful examples, then create something of your own and link it up!

Here is what I created using this great new sketch:

Matt is trying a style of running called barefoot running, and these are his new barefoot shoes.

Matt started running last spring. He has always wanted to be a runner, and now he’s really enjoying it (most of the time). When Matt gets into something, he really gets into it. He reads everything he can and becomes a bit of a home-grown expert on the topic.

In his effort to know more about running and how to do it safely (fully 80% of runners get injured each year!), he read the book “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall. In addition to going into the history of running, etc., McDougall explains the concept of barefoot running. The idea, simply put, is that wearing traditional running shoes sets up the body for injury because it forces you to run heel first. Slamming your foot into the ground like a club causes high-impact stress on the ankle, heel, knee and back. Barefoot running (wearing minimalist shoes that just provide protection from the ground) forces you to run and walk as your foot was built to be used. It allows you to use all the muscles and bones in your foot to carry you along, taking advantage of the natural shock absorbers of your feet, calves and legs.

Having read that you can’t just put on a pair of minimalist shoes and start running, Matt is wearing his new FiveFingers around the house to allow his feet to adjust. I’m more of the walking type, but I think I may get a pair of these shoes for myself if they make a real difference for Matt. The more natural the better!

Cookies made especially for Santa

December 21, 2011 By Janice Daquila-Pardo Leave a Comment

Twisted Sketches has revealed its latest sketch, #133, and the twist is “jewel.” Be sure to head over to the site to grab the sketch and see all the other design team members’ beautiful examples, then create something of your own and link it up! 🙂

Here is what I created using this great new sketch:

That "Cookies for Santa" title came from the Silhouette store and is for decorating plates for Santa's cookies.

To make this layout I used a punch to create the decorative edge that I adhered to the circle. Then I used a craft knife to cut around the edges of the Christmas trees on the background paper so I could tuck the circle in behind them. The title is a cut file I purchased at the Silhouette store that is intended to be used to decorate a small plate that will hold cookies for Santa. I thought it was perfect with this sketch and my photo! Now the background circle resembles a cookie plate. The little gift bow element is made from another Silhouette file and is topped with a jewel (this sketch’s twist). All the patterned paper is from an older My Mind’s Eye Christmas collection.

The photo if of my brother and me on Christmas Eve 1973. I just adore that impish look on Phil’s sweet face. We’re in the basement, where we put our Christmas tree and hung our stockings (until several years later when my parents put an addition on our family room, and we moved the celebration up there). Wearing our pajamas and putting out Santa’s cookies means it was time for us to head to bed and visions of sugarplums. But you can see on our faces that we were much too excited for sleep!

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