Sunday, July 16, 2006

A Special Project completed...

I've been absent from the blogging scene for the past week because I have been feverishly working on a special gift for my husband Brendan. Tomorrow is our 30th wedding anniversary and I wanted to do something out of the ordinary to commemorate the occasion. Last Sunday the answer hit me like a bolt out of the blue. I was driving somewhere with my daughter and heard Billy Joel's song "Just the Way You Are" and I suddenly got my inspiration... a music video with pictures from our 30 years of marriage. I have Windows Movie Maker on my computer and a scanner so I set to work.

The first step was selecting pictures to be scanned. It was fun to go through the albums and loose pictures but, being highly distractable, it was a challenge to stay on task as I came across some great stuff I had forgotten about. To keep this blog from being too text heavy, I'll throw in some pictures from the past to show you what I was working with. Here's the first:





Talk about deer in the headlights! It was such a sweet surprise to get a glimpse of my mother in the picture (in the lower left corner). She died just three years later of lung cancer.

The next step was scanning all the pictures into the computer. I had about 170 pictures and was trying to do this in the evening without Brendan catching on to what I was doing...quite a challenge. I didn't finish the scanning until Thursday night.

Meanwhile I was trying to pick out the best music for the project. So much to choose from! I turned to the best source available: my daughter Meredith and her impressive library of classic rock. (Thank God she has such good musical taste.) I "auditioned" dozens of songs and finally settled on twelve classics. I'll list them but first here is another gem from 1976:











Holy cow! We were just babies. We don't look old enough to drive, let alone get married!

Anyway... here are the songs I picked:

Forever Young by Rod Stewart (a no-brainer after seeing those pictures!)
Just the Way You Are by Billy Joel
Lullaby (Goodnight, My Angel) by Billy Joel
Golden Slumbers by Ben Folds
You're My Best Friend by Queen
Wherever You May Be by Bonnie Raitt
Still the One by Journey
You Can Close Your Eyes by James Taylor and Joni Mitchell
Who Knows Where the Time Goes by Judy Collins
Long Ago and Far Away by James Taylor and Joni Mitchell
Letting Go by Suzy Bogguss
Blackbird by the Beatles

Here are some more pictures from the "used to" times:









This was taken at my parents' house on our first married New Year's Eve. No, I'm not pregnant...my poor posture just made me look that way!









Brendan's cousin was married in 1979 and this was taken at the reception.






We were living in New York City and took a vacation windjammer cruise in September of 1979. Little did we know we would be moving to Maine just three years later. We look pretty scruffy after a few days at sea. I have always loved this picture and had it in a frame on my desk for years...until the day that someone asked me if it was a picture of my children. Ouch!







I gave Brendan a surprise party for his 30th birthday in 1980 and his best friend gave him a special Dallas Cowboys jersey to commemorate the occasion.





  

Ok, this was a setup...really, it was. It was 1978 and we were on our then-annual Memorial Weekend camping trip with a bunch of Brendan's college buddies. I was reading (notice Anna Karenina to my right), got drowsy and decided to take a catnap. Bad idea, obviously, because the boys gleefully posed me to look like a skid row bum sleeping off my drunk. Good thing I have a sense of humor... and I got back at them all by pelting rocks at the outhouse when THEIR beer kicked in. Ah, good times!


  

Christmas 1980. I think I might still have that skirt!

I ended up with a 40 minute video with about 175 pictures. It was a very emotional experience to put it together, but one that brought back some wonderful memories of times I had nearly forgotten. I think Brendan will like it and we will have a lot of fun watching it together. This will be a very special anniversary indeed!

4 comments:

KNIT A NEW DREAM said...

Oh --What a great gift! I think that we had the same haircuts back then and isn't that the same tux my husband wore at our wedding 28 years ago? Oh no - his had more ruffles!(HEEHEE) Great pics and thanks for sharing Sue
PS We were just babies back then!

Anonymous said...

I love your pictures!!!! You look like my mom-- same hair and everything....Maybe thats why I like you soo very very much!

Anonymous said...

PS. I was googling your profile name to find your blog adn i accidentally typed in bustymom51-- I was shocked that you would associate with such smut untill I realized my boo boo!!

Anonymous said...

What a fantastic idea!!! Wow. I'm sure he will love it!!!