Flashback Friday: June 7, 2013

Before I start, I have a few apologies to make.

First off, I would like to apologize to those of you who receive my posts by email.  On Tuesday when I published my Congratulatory Considerations post, a mess of stuff from the last month had been left at the bottom if you scrolled down a ways.  Even though I had proofed the thing three times, I didn't scroll down and therefore didn't see it until it was published.  While I was able to go in and update the post with an apology, for those of you who receive my posts by email, you will not have received the update.  The only excuse I have is that it was very, very late and I wasn't paying enough attention.  Unfortunately, I can't even guarantee it won't happen again.  

The second thing I want to apologize for is the fact that the Wonderful Wednesday post never went out.  Any of you who read my Wednesday post know I was battling a migraine at the same time that I was trying to get a post done for one of the DTs I am on.  As soon as I completed the post, I had to go lay down for a few hours.  It was my intention when I got up to go and make something for this week's kit but I just didn't have the fortitude to get it done.  Therefore, I will be doubling up next week's kit.

Finally, and for the same reason, there will not be a Saturday showcase this week.  I still have three new posts to get ready this Saturday, two for this blog and a third for another in my new role as the Promotional Coordinator for Creative Bug Digitals, plus a whole whack of stuff I have no chance of getting through.  Unfortunately, I just lost too much time dealing with the migraine.

Now that that is out of the way, it is time to move on to this month's Flashback Friday.  Yes indeedy, the time you get to laugh at me tour down memory lane with me.  Actually, this month you are almost going to get a two for one kind of post since the story I am going to share with you has a moral to it and would have made a great 'Lisa's Lessons Learned' post as well.  Now, if are new to my blog and would like to see the impetus behind the creation of Flashback Friday please go HERE.

This month I am going to share with you a piece that I worked on during a flight to England and then finished while on the flight home.  It was July 1984 and I was 16 years old.  Remember, I don't draw faces AT ALL so please, no falling off your chairs with laughter.

(not that anyone would want this picture but I still need to include this line...)

Please take note that the images posted in 'Flashback Fridays' are for REFERENCE ONLY.  They are not meant for download they are just to show you another glimpse of my creative self.

At the age of 16, I was lucky enough to accompany my grandparents on a trip to England for three weeks.  The stories I could share about that adventure, boy.  Lots of memories there and thankfully most of them are still intact.  This particular story took place during the flight there and home.  There was enough detail to do in this picture that it actually took me the duration of both flights to complete.

This is a lesson in 'never judge a book by a cover'.  On the flight over, I was fawned over by all the stewardesses in my section.  For some reason they were drawn to my charismatic personality ability to draw I guess.  Every so often, they'd check on me and the status of the drawing, ask me if I wanted or needed anything.  It was great, I felt like a rock star that there was so much interest in what I was creating. I was sent off with well wishes and hugs.  It was awesome.

Flash forward to my flight home.  Now I wanted to do something that would freak my parents out.  They were waiting at the airport to pick the three of us up.  So I decided I was going to dress a bit like a punk rocker.  It was the 80's after all.  While in England I had picked up this one piece blue camouflage overall set and these really cute blue boots that I called my puddle jumpers for years to come.   When I hatched my devious plan I went to one of the local drugstores and picked up a blue hair band that I could tie into a bow at the top of my head and also some of that hairspray that turns your hair colours in, you guessed it --blue.  Decked out completely in blue with hair to match we head for the airport and our trip home.

What a completely different experience.  Not one stewardess stopped to talk to me.  The only attention I got was stares and hushed whispers.  I was still the same person inside.  I took out my sketch book and continued the same drawing but you would have thought I had leprosy for the way people reacted to me.

That experience taught me a very valuable lesson at an early age and while it was extremely uncomfortable at the time I went through it, it was one of those pivotal experiences that has stuck with me throughout my life.

Oh and in case you were interested in how my mother reacted?  Well let's just say I learned afterwards the first words out of her mouth as she saw me come up the escalator were, "Oh dear God, what has she done to her hair??!!!".  Oddly enough I heard those exact same words six years later at my surprise engagement party where I....ah...but that is another story.

Wishing you all well on this lovely Friday afternoon,