I'M A HALLMARK CONTEST WINNER!

Yep…after debating for days whether to enter the contest, 30 minutes before the deadline I decided to submit a card. I promptly forgot about it until a couple days later when, lo and behold, the phone rang and it was the Hallmark Creative Team notifying me that I was a winner! How cool is that for someone who always got a “C” in art no matter how hard I tried? (O.K., even though it’s one of my dad’s photographs and all I had to do was write the verse, it is considered artistic and, as anyone who knows me knows, I am NOT known for my artistic ability.) With all those “knows” and “knowns,” you might think I’m not known for my writing ability either, but that’s actually my forte :)

Thanks, Hallmark!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD!

Dear Dad,

Since today is your birthday, I thought I’d write you a letter to let you know that I’m thinking of you. I wanted to tell you how much I’ve loved working with all of our family images over the past year and have really realized what a truly talented and creative man you were. I find it kind of ironic that I am trying to break into the greeting card business because, unlike you, I am not artistic at all…remember, I’m the kid that no matter how hard she tried she always got a “C” in art? Well, I’m no better (and possibly, worse) now at the age of 55 than I was back then!

I was laughing with my friend, J, who is my “partner in crime” in this business, because we are so technically challenged with the greeting card design programs. I had to email some cards today to someone and for the life of me I couldn’t remember how to convert a PDF file into a jpeg…the end result being that the card has to be read upside down, which is easy to do if you’re about 5 years old (remember how great little kids can do this-like reading skywriting?) but not when you’re an adult and have a hard enough time reading right side up :) J had a card perfectly designed on her computer but couldn’t figure out how to email it, print it, publish it to the web or do anything with it…and she was using a kid’s program that has a little dog who wags his tail when you get it right :) Anyway, I was thinking about you and how you would have mastered Photoshop!

By the way, Bro #2 found an additional 2,000 slides in an old suitcase that he had forgotten he had! After an entire year of working on these I was talking to him a few weeks ago and, all of a sudden, he remembered that he had them. I shouldn’t have been surprised because, well, after all, he is Bro #2 :)

Anyway, Dad, I wanted to thank you for preserving all of our family memories. This project has allowed me to reconnect with my aunts, uncles, and cousins in ways that are immeasurable. Your images have brought a lot of joy to them as well as to total strangers who have contacted me telling me how much they can relate to your pictures and how they brought back some of their own childhood memories.

So, thanks again, Dad…I wish you were here.

Love always,

Tra

IT ALL HAS TO DO WITH FUN BUSSES...

I've sent out a lot of proposals lately and really had to "put myself out there" in terms of possibly making a fool of myself. So, to all those people who might think to themselves "Well, that's great, but what does it have to do with ME?," I wanted to repost an excerpt from an earlier post this year. Here goes:

In 1977 when I moved out to California and didn’t have a car, I hopped on a bus to go to a job interview at that huge corporation. After quite awhile of riding around, I realized that I had inadvertently hopped on a “fun bus,” one of those busses that only takes you to Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, etc., instead of a public transportation bus. After realizing this, I got off the bus and walked, and walked, and walked and ended up at a large corporation but not the one I was supposed to interview with. By that time I was so tired of walking that I just asked them if there were any openings…and here I am 33 years later still doing some work for the people that I met there at that large corporation.So, to answer any questions about why I might have sent you a proposal, it goes way back to “fun busses”—you never know where something might lead you :)

A KIND STRANGER WHO MADE MY DAY...

As I was leaving the grocery store today a woman in her 50’s or 60’s gave me a really nice, but definitely untrue, compliment. She mentioned that I had the “perfect figure” and when I laughed and said that I had gained 10 pounds over the past couple of years due to my daily Starbucks fix of a mocha frappuccino (venti size, no less), she said she was just telling it like it was.

Well, the more I thought about it, I decided that she was probably just a very nice person who looked at me and thought “Mmm…that woman could use a compliment.” And since I was wearing my “grubs” as I call them (you know…those clothes you wear when you’re cleaning or gardening--shorts, T-shirt, tennis shoes) and my long hair was up in a ponytail, there wasn’t really anything left for her to compliment except my body. But here’s the thing…it really doesn’t matter what she complimented, it’s the fact that she went out of her way and made the effort to say something nice to someone. So I say thank you to that nice woman in Laguna Niguel, whoever you may be.

FROM 0 TO 60 AND BACK TO 0 AGAIN...

O.K…it’s been a year since the launch date of PrittieHartPress (July 4, 2009). There have been so many ups and downs throughout the year (hence, the title). Here are my achievements thus far:

A) I put over 2,000 hours into this endeavor.

B) I invested over $3,000.

C) I licensed one image and received my first royalty check of $62.

D) According to my calculations, B – C = I lost $2,938. (If you know another way of computing this into what I call “positive math,” let me know.)

E) The Alternative Humor department at American Greetings expressed interest in some of my images but, due to the fact that I want to keep the humor "clean," I scrapped that plan.

But, get this, I’M NOT QUITTING! I read the funniest blog post recently that said that some of the most successful entrepreneurs were people who kept plugging away long past the point where a sane person would call it quits. Guess you know which category I fall into :) (Refer to "E" above-who in their right mind turns down American Greetings?)

JUST TO MAKE YOU SMILE...

IN MEMORY OF DAD

Hi Dad,

I just wanted to let you know that I am thinking of you today. I’ve decided not to make this a sappy letter and, instead, focus on the “happy”…hey, notice that rhymes? Well, what did you expect from a daughter who always sees the glass as not just full, but overflowing? Remember that I’m the kid who used to wear a hat that said “Life is a Bowlful of Cherries.” Well, even though I’m older, I’m still that kid :)

So, here goes:

I remember riding high on your shoulders at Christmastime when you would take us to Cobo Hall so that I could see everything over the crowds. It was such a magical time for me with all the lights. Do you remember when you took me to the TV station so I could meet Bozo the Clown and how I was so excited until, that is, I realized that he was, alas, just a regular man?

Do you remember the time that my friend Tracy and I tried to see how much toilet paper we could stuff down the toilet and we ended up flooding the basement? You were so cool not to lose your cool! (And, by the way, how did you end up calling me “Tracy Boo” to distinguish between us? I realize that for some reason, out of four kids, I was the only one not given a middle name, but “Boo?”) And I always thought I was lucky that I had a Dad who let me and my friends paint part of the basement underneath the stairs to use as a clubhouse. (Come to think of it, it was probably kind of sacrilegious collecting club dues in the envelopes provided by the church for donations :) ) And by the way, I don’t know how you did it but thanks again for getting me and my friend, Mar, front row (or was it third row?) seats to see the Monkees! I actually went to another one of their concerts as an adult and Davy is still my favorite!

We didn’t have the “over the top” birthday parties that seem so commonplace nowadays. Each of us four kids had to take turns each year having a party…so, if my memory serves me correctly, I think each of us got to have a birthday party once every 4 years? But every year on our birthday, you and Mom would take just the birthday kid out to a fancy restaurant. Once at the Golden Lion restaurant I was trying to break apart my roll that was so tough; I remember holding it under the table and pulling and pulling and then, unbelievably, watching it as it shot across the floor. I remember being mortified so this must have been when I was a teenager because if I was younger, I would have thought it was funny, and if I was older…well, I would have still thought it was funny :)

Edit: Only Sis just called and said that I was wrong about the birthday parties. She said that we had a choice of either a party or a present but she was too lazy to log in and make a comment...some things just never change! (Don't worry, she won't read this...she only reads cookbooks.)

Do you remember all those notes we used to leave for each other because you worked so many nights? One of my most vivid memories is having cherry cheesecake with you in the middle of the night. It was like having a party but with just the two of us…a secret from Mom and Bro #1, Only Sis, and Bro #2. It was a chance for me to be an “only child” and have all of your attention. You made such a special effort to give me that special time…to have you all to myself without clamoring for attention with my siblings.

And what I remember best about you from when I was an adult is how, despite the 3,000 miles that separated us physically, we actually became closer when I became a parent. I remember how you would call when Kristy was about 2 or 3 years old and I wouldn’t hear the phone for some reason and she would tell you that her Mommy and Daddy weren’t home and you would just have to talk to her. Do you remember how she called you “Grandpa Stickers” because you used to mail her stickers all the time? I remember you bought her so many Christmas presents when she was 3 and all she cared about was the popcorn packaging you used…you could have saved yourself a ton of money, Dad! You made such a special and huge effort to be a part of her life and I will never forget it.

I remember driving to Florida before you died (and, yes, you read that right…I am terrified of flying!) and someone at the hospital telling me that I shouldn’t bring a 6-year-old in there because of airborne germs and thinking, how could I not let my dad see his granddaughter who he had taken such pains to get to know via phone and mail? (Dad, you would have loved the internet.) And, guess what? She’s alive and well 17 years later!

Anyway, I said I wouldn’t make this a sappy letter and I’m kind of getting a little sad right now so I’m going to end it on this note:

Dad, always remember “ships on the seashore.” Note to readers, if there are any: it’s a private joke but, let’s put it this way, his producers didn’t find it too funny when they had to do “Take 50.” :)