soulmates

This week I am linking up with Beyond Beyond - inspired by some elegant magazine layouts and Kim's tutorial on tinting in Lightroom, and celebrating a special kind of love with Texture Tuesday.

I spent a good hour perusing the magazine rack at the public library before checking out a couple of back issues of Victoria...then immediately went home and set up two photo shoots, combining family heirlooms and some old snapshots to tell a story or two...

Della & Greg

As did many children of his generation, my father grew up in a bilingual home, where Italian was spoken as often as not. Della Libonati was born in Denver of immigrant parents. Gregorio Notarianni emmigrated to America in 1920, as a young man. Although well-educated he only learned the language upon arriving here; over the years Della was his primary tutor in conversational English. An avid reader and history buff, Greg soon became fluent in the language.

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These are just a few my grandfather's treasured old books, which I now display on a shelf in my living room. Topics include Italian history - ancient and contemporary early 20th century, especially WWI, in which he served in the Italian Cavalry - as well as an Italian-English dictionary and vocabulary book dated 1905. This little end table also belonged to my grandparents. I re-finished it several years ago.

I have several of these little terra cotta jars - made in Italy about 100 years ago - at one time displayed on a dresser or vanity in my grandparents' bedroom.

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Edna & Joe

My maternal grandparents, Joe and Edna Toomey, eloped in June of 1921 when she was just 18 years old and he was 27. My mother relayed their wedding story in her genealogy many years later:

Edna's mother, Ida Swanson, was especially suspicious of anyone Irish, and likely to be Catholic. Joe was both...They told her parents that they wished to marry and be married in the Catholic Church. Ida would have none of it so the young couple eloped...When the priest learned that Edna was Lutheran, she was banished from the altar and they were married in a side room. This was an affront to them both.

It wasn't until several months later that they revealed their marriage to Edna's parents...when she realized that she was expecting.

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This sterling silver dish was the only wedding gift that Joe and Edna received, given to them by Joe's friends, the Mulrooneys. Their only "wedding photo" is a snapshot of Edna wearing her brown taffeta wedding dress. The handkerchief was Edna's.

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I followed Kim's tutorial on Tinting in Lightroom using Graduated Filters; after adjusting the colors to get the right feel, I made it a preset, which I call Peachy Blue Vintage. I also applied my own Soft White Vignette preset to all of the photos here. I softened the color photos with Kim's Berrily preset.

In Photoshop I treated all photos with a layer of kk_carmel (Soft Light blend mode @ 60-70%), which I brushed away via a layer mask to recapture some details.

xoxo

Cindy