TELL THE STORY (& another one too) * Little Black Dress Kit Club February

One of the projects I did with the Little Black Dress Kit Club February kits...

I have had this idea for an album for years, a scrapbook that was basically

a family tree, a page for every member, or at least partially, that one day
I could give to my children, or at the very least, sit down and explain to them,
what they NEEDED to know about people who contributed to their heritage.  

A more in depth family tree...with pretty paper, and embellishments...
something to keep them interested long enough to realize that
they inherited that stubborn streak from their Father's side...heh! ;)

I loved this paper from Studio Calico with the cameras on it, in fact if it has
a camera (or bird) on it, I pretty much have to have it...I wanted to show it underneath
the other paper, like it was being pulled back and revealing all the cameras...
and 'telling the story', so to speak.  Even though I will have photo LO's of my
Dad, I wanted this one to be more about the story, the background and
the photos I have taken of the cameras I inherited...

My Father was the official photographer for his grade school with a little
Brownie camera...beginning his love of cameras and photography...
He was born in 1923, so it was about 80+ years ago!
I would love to get my hands on some of those photos...

When I was little, and not so little, I used to sit in the darkroom
(that he converted from a bathroom in our basement) and inhale all the
chemicals, learning about things from loading film in the developing tank
to all about the processing.  I think I actually might have stuck more
with traditional photography if everything hadn't turning digital...

After my Dad died, my mother let me pick a few of my favorite cameras
to keep, out the 1,000 or so he had in his collection.  The Rolle is by far my
favorite; in design, in function and I had to have one of those...

My Dad died from a brain tumor caused by a melanoma almost 9 years ago...
My daughter was 4 weeks old when he got sick and not quick 8 weeks when I dressed
her for his funeral...It was so difficult, stressful and unfair and not a day goes by that I
don't think about him in some way...In fact, I would swear there is a cardinal that
follows me around, that is him watching over us, watching a granddaughter he only held
a few times, watching the grandson he never met grow up and into an uncanny reflection
of himself, in looks and personality.

Soooooo, to make a long and non-intending to be so depressing story short,
that is why my blog is called paperCARDinal...