the cheek-to-cheek collage project

Norman (the old poop) is right: I just don't know how to stick to one project. I constantly create new ones, even before the current one is done. A regular Forrest Gump, yup, that would be me. 
But, shhhh... nobody tell him I admitted that, okay? I'll never hear the end of if!


This is a fun project and you all can participate. Let me explain.

So I've been busy uphauling, rehauling, and possibly overhauling my blogs. The mess is relatively worse at my other blog, The Behavioral Child, which is currently displaying an ungraceful disarray of test pages, broken links, and different versions of the same widgets. Luckily for me, the bulk of this behemoth of a task falls on the awesome Elaine of Elaine Griffin Designs, and she is working as fast and as furiously as she can (not helped by the fact that I'm changing more and more things along the way"And since we're doing it, how about we make this bigger, and this one less orangy, and this one more font-y?"). The mess will hit this blog when that one is finalized, soon, very soon, though in a more orderly fashion, when Monday Morning Musings changes officially to Megan Blogs. And moves to WordPress. Crossing fingers, toes, and everything in between that can be crossed.

Meanwhile... whilst waiting for the slow progress to make way for the fabulous final result, I couldn't help but notice that every time I pass by the ubiquitous photographs in my house, I always stop and smile at this one.

Was I ever that young?
Was Emily ever this small?
Look at those adorable baby cheeks!
Where did the time go?
Also, shit! my scanner is adding unattractive lines on my photos!

Mother and child photos, the cheek-to-cheek ones, have always been my favorites. Many years ago, when I was taking photography lessons at the annex of the community college in my area, I took this photo (below). It's not the greatest, but I take particular pride in it because I did the whole thing myself: I shot it, developed the film (in the dark), and developed the black-and-white photo (in a dark room). It seems ridiculous that people used to do that (and spend their free time learning how to do that) in our era of digital and convenient photography. But it was a fun project and I will always cherish this photo for that if not for other reasons, namely its subjects, my sister holding my then baby niece. Not quite the cheek-to-cheek I had in mind, Nora, so if you have a better photo, send it to me.

Was she ever that young?
Was Laurie ever this small?
Oh, those adorable baby cheeks!
Where did the time go?
Note to self: Google "the idiot's guide to scanner maintenance".

So here is my new project and your new mission, should you choose to accept it:

• Find a cheek-to-cheek photo of yourself. You can be the parent or the child. If you don't have kids, you can substitute with a photo of your pet, or niece, or cousin, or a friend's kid, or something small and innocent. The older the photo the better; the more close-up the shot, the better. I want you to go Awww! when you dig it up. 
• When you're done admiring your old bad self, upload your cheek-to-cheek photo to your Flickr, Facebook, Instagram, wherever, then put the link in my comments so I can copy it here [updated: or as the lovely K. pointed it out, upload it to my Facebook page Blogging with Megan]. I will make a collage of all the photos you give me. A wall of cheek-to-cheek photos. Wouldn't that be fantastic?

So whaddaya think? Are you up for it?


Oh, and don't forget to enter the still on-going 250 custom business cards UPrinting giveaway and the giveaway for Denise Moncrief's book, Eye of the Storm. And check out Counter-logic is not an alternative lifestyle, my guest post at P.O.V., if you are so inclined :)



09 - CHEEK TO CHEEK by manshon


Under construction: The name of this blog is being changed to Megan Blogs (thanks to the advice of people much smarter than me). Please bear with me during the rehauling process. I'm assured the mess will eventually make way for a much tidier digital experience both for you and for me.