Cathy Zielske's Blog

This Day in Zielske History

Baseball season is in full swing in Minnesota, which means Parks & Rec teams, outdoor folding chairs from Target, sunglasses and a wide array of different jacket weights as you never know just how cold or hot it's going to be on game day. (Just ask my neighbor Ann, who brings her Snuggie to games.)

I get very nostalgic where Cole and baseball are concerned, which leads me to another edition of "This Day in Zielske History."

On this day, seven years ago, I took this shot:

I can only imagine that to every single question the coach posed, Cole's hand shot straight up. The boy has studied this game with verve since the very first day he swung a bat.

Okay, one more bonus shot:

Sigh. I just want to gnaw a tiny little bit on that fleshy lower leg.

Catch my drift?

This Day in Zielske History

The year? 2005. The goal of the photo? To make the angle look as weird as possible, because apparently, that's what I was into at the time. What are those blurry things coming out of her chest? An extra set of tiny, vestigial hands? Remember my post about diving in too deep? Well, this was one of many photos that when I look at it, I remember how I was obsessed with getting the perfect shallow depth of field shot for my next scrapbook page.

Ah yes…f3.5 was good to me in 2005.

Lest we not forget about Cole that day:

 

And lest we not forget about this charmer:

 

This has been another installment of This Day in Zielske History.

Happy hump day.

This Day in Zielske History

May 13, 2005. A particularly poorly lit, high noise shot taken—where else?—in my bathroom mirror with my first digital SLR, my old Nikon D70. A few things come to mind when I look at this shot:

1. I was still employed with Simple Scrapbooks magazine (RIP).

2. I didn't need to wear glasses all the time to function.

3. I still was knocking back a pack of smokes daily, in secret.

4. We still had our beloved foil bamboo patterned wall paper, and the reason I was taking this shot was because this was the day the wall paper was coming down.

5. I got really sick of the wallpaper removal project and it stalled for about three years until we finally broke down and hired a dude for real cheap-like to remove it for us.

This has been another riveting installment of "This Day in Zielske History."

This Day in Zielske History

This shot—taken Oct. 14, 2005—reminds me of something that quite honestly, I rarely need reminding of: this kid of mine does everything with gusto.

And surely enough, I scrapped the photo back:

 

Good times.

I think it's a much better picture in color. Don't you?

This Day in Zielske History

Four years ago today I took this picture of my then 9-year-old girlie. She had just picked up a magic kit and was practicing her act in the living room. Did I point out that she was just 9? And that now she's 13? And that time flies like a ridiculously aerodynamic rocket?

This Day in Zielske History is part nostalgia tour and part blog filler. But I like to pick a day, look back through the years, and then see if I made a layout or not. In this case, I did:

 

I actually created this layout as part of a feature in Simple Scrapbooks magazine called, "Trading Pages." In the article, two scrapbookers paired up and scrapped each others photos using the same product. My partner? Donna Downey. Unfortunately, I don't have the layout she did for me, nor do I even have a scan of it. But trust me, it looked a lot like this. Only by Donna.

When I look back on this page, I think two things: One, I love the design. Two, I love those old Scrapworks stickers. And three (so, I lied), the journaling feels contrived to me…sort of like I was trying too hard to be profound. I only say this because over the years, I've gotten a lot more conversational with my writing and lot less fluffy. And a lot less, well, contrived.

That's a good thing.

This has been: THIS DAY IN ZIELSKE HISTORY. (said inside a giant hollow metal hallway, for effect.)

Have a great weekend.

New Series: This Day in Zielske History

Okay, maybe this won't be NEARLY as thrilling as Design Do-Overs, and far, far less educational, but lately I've been loving going back through my digital photo library to see what photos I took on the same day in any given year since I've gone digital AND been writing run-on sentences. (That's 2004 and forever, respectively, for those keeping score.)

I also thought it would fun to see if any of these random photos made their way onto any random scrapbook pages, or if they were simply destined to live in my iPhoto library (or photo albums) without so much pomp and circumstance.

That said, I present the very first THIS DAY IN ZIELSKE HISTORY, heretofore to also be known as THIS DAY IN FLUFFY BLOG FILLER.

On June 12, 2005, in the town of North Morristown, Minn., my then 6-year-old son Coleman discovered his natural rapport with fowl, earning him the nickname of "Chicken Whisperer."

Surely enough, his skills were not left unscrapbooked, nor was this totally awesome snapshot, as evidenced below.

(click on the layout to see it larger)

This has been THIS DAY IN ZIELSKE HISTORY.

What picture did you take on this day in your own history?