Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Time for Fantasy Family- Come along and play

These pictures are from this site--
A wonderful wealth of possible family discoveries for genealogists!



My rules for my game:
1. I don't know these people.
2. I make it all up.
3. You leave a comment with your version of the story.




Virginia and Jacob have had 70 years of wedded bliss. Virginia says the key to any couple having the same blessing is to make sure to never complain when he cleans his rifle or plucks the chickens on the lace table cloth in the parlor.

Victorian lady




These are just too pretty. They are blank inside, vintage note cards which include envelopes.
Couldn't you see these as part of an art project? You could copy them and make a garland out of them or add little bits of lace or glitter or...........


Monday, November 16, 2009

dotty!

Do you like polka dots?
Find these collage sheets when you click here!
You can click on the images on this post to see more detail at a larger size.


teenage invasion

I am one of those moms that loves to have the kids (teenagers) gather at my house. That's what happened again over the weekend. Elise and Michael are back together again. Elise is so happy!!! It was like that week of break up time didn't even happen. Oh the roller coaster ride that is young love!

So this was the scene when the old gang was all back together again (including Michael too!). Forget what you have heard about baby proofing a room, that's easy. The room that is teenager proofed is much more thought filled on the part of a mom. You learn these things after the pop is spilled a few times. I wouldn't have it any other way though as I love the noise and laughter that comes with this group. They are all good kids. Above is- left to right- my Anna, Matthew, Courtney, Michael, and my Elise. First up was playing Rock Band. Loud. Is there any other way? It is fun to see them sing and play the songs from my teen age years which this Rock Band thing has made cool again! If not for that the teens would say, "Oh that old song. YUK!"


Amazingly Anna even managed to get some reading time in, and Cali the cat and Jewel the bird looked on as the noise continued. Notice the covers on the furniture which were still trying to come off and have potential pop spill area revealed.

Throughout the night they ate and ate and ate. This goes along with teens and noise. I think teens have an unactivated switch which tells a brain and stomach "you are full". They went through 3 bags of pizza rolls, most of a 12 pack of pop, chips and salsa, snack mix, chips and a box of cream puffs. Wasn't it good that Courtney and Matthew showed up with food? They have smart moms!! Actually they brought more food than that, and they would have easily eaten it all if it had just been put in front of them!

Nicholas came home from a day at Cub Scout camp and was thrilled beyond words that "his brother" Michael was here along with the whole gang. Nicholas missed Michael as much as Elise did during the break up time. Nicholas loves to hang out with the teens --and what 9 year old little pesky brother wouldn't? Luckily the teens allow him to hang out with them. No problem.


Elise, Nicholas and Michael acting silly!



After Rock Band time was done it was time to bring out the karaoke machine and everyone got super silly!! And did I mention the noise level? Loud!

Elise and Courtney listen to Matthew hamming it up with the microphone.
Once again, a modern invention makes the old songs from my time seem cool!

It cracks me up when the teens think a song is new when it is used in a current movie or is done by a new artist as a remake. I always have to be a lame parent and say, "Hey that is actually from the 1970s and I was in (fill in the blank) grade in school during those years, and my friends were...Blah blah blah..."
Like I said- lame parent.
The singing continued until about 10:00 and then they settled in for some movie time.
And more food.
The gang all left about midnight and I sent the leftover and unopened food and pop back home with them, along with their imported entertainment devices (karaoke and Rock Band). I love that they are good kids, and how lucky am I that all I have to provide is the home (with covered furniture) and the electricity (for all the loudness)!!
I hope they come back again next weekend. Maybe I missed all this during the break up week even more than Elise or Nick!!

out of the past...




Here are some of my cabinet cards I had offered as free images in the past that you may have missed. Click here for even more you may have overlooked.
Please play nice and do not sell the images as is without artistically altering them in some way. Thanks!

Flowery












Some things to play with and enjoy. Have fun!!
The sweet little girl was from the free images at Art-e-ology, she was in a vintage cabinet card photo.
Please play nice and use these only for your own personal art endeavors, not to sell. Thanks!

Saturday, November 14, 2009

slim ladies



Have fun with these images.
click to enlarge then right click to save

Monday, November 09, 2009

Time for Fantasy Family- Come along and play

These pictures are from this site--A wonderful wealth of possible family discoveries for genealogists!

My rules for my game:
1. I don't know these people.
2. I make it all up.
3. You leave a comment with your version of the story.

Aggie was always a fashion forward girl. Tired of wearing black shoes with black stockings every day, she would spend her time in school doodling in her tablet while imagining such wonders as colored stockings (like maybe a daring dark blue) and ribbon laced boots. She wanted to design clothing and accessories that would stand out. She was often found sitting, as punishment, in the corner of the one room school house after Miss Bore would catch her daydreaming with pencil to paper instead of doing her arithmetic. She didn't care. It gave her more time to think and dream and imagine. She certainly knew in her heart she could do better than the milliner who came up with the horrid creation that she had seen Miss Bore wearing upon her head at the last church social.

keep the beat



Fun images to use for your own art or for altering and including in a creative thing you make and sell. Please play nice and do not use exactly as is for sale as an image. Thanks!
(click to enlarge then right click and save)

Sunday, November 08, 2009

Thanksgiving decor

It's time for Thanksgiving decor here at my house, under the tall pines. I love Thanksgiving time. I love the temperatures here in northern-most Ohio, I love the colored leaves in which the trees dress themselves. Then when the actual holiday arrives, I love the smell of a big turkey roasting in the oven ...and I love all the leftovers from the dinner to make lots of creative meals and snacks for days after the big day.
This is what's on my window sill in the kitchen. Wooden pumpkins and scarecrows and bittersweet added to my collection of white ironstone pitchers. Three of the pitchers were my Mom's and the other 2 were thrifty finds to add to the collection.

This is the other windowsill. Don't you love paper honeycomb decorations?
I do. They are so fun!!

I am weeding through some things in my house and thinning out some collections. I am considering selling this vintage Indian doll made by Madame Alexander. She is actually Tiger Lily from Peter Pan. If you might be interested in buying her. Let me know in a comment on this blog post.


I have had this Precious Moments figurine for about 20 years. I am not a collector of these, but this was a gift, and I think it is pretty cute because of the subject matter- a turkey eating Thanksgiving dinner.


Here are 2 Ginny dolls from 1987. They are listed for sale here. They have only been out of storage for a few weeks each year and are in excellent condition. They are looking to join a new family to celebrate Thanksgiving day blessings, and would love to be adopted into a new home to start new memories.



Friday, November 06, 2009

war era baby


Don't you love the graphics on old packaging? I do. This small package is one I acquired for my vintage babies ephemera collection. This box is one that some war era babies would have had in their house. Maybe many.
Apparently bottle nipples were available for purchase but not the matching caps.
The sides of this box say: Due to the necessity for conserving the country's supply of rubber for the most essential needs the manufacture of "Anti-Colic" Brand Nursing Bottle Caps has been suspended, so, temporarily you may not be able to obtain them.
My oldest brother wasn't born until 1948. I don't know about all over the country or world, but my Mom told me that she did not have many friends that breast fed their babies because it wasn't the thing to do in those years. I wonder if some mothers breast fed during the war years because it was more cost effective?
I fed all 3 of my babies. It was one of my greatest joys of their babyhood.
The above graphic would be fun to include in one of your own personal art endeavors, don't you think.
click to enlarge then right click and save.

young love

I'm not quite sure who is more sad....Elise or her little brother, NICK!!
It seems that Elise and Michael have broke up. The whole family really liked Michael a lot.
It is a sad thing for any teen to have a first love break up but for Elise it is really tough. I really think she thought it would last forever. Granted, some high school first loves do last forever but the chances are they do not.
Elise has always seemed to be about 2 years behind the social milestones of her peers and also when I compare my own life milestones as a child and teen. When I was a sophomore (Elise is a Senior) I had some first loves and they were great when they lasted and sad when they ended but I moved on to others. (Actually I then had one boyfriend that lasted long after high school until he moved away to another state. We are still friends!) Keeping them as friends is great if it works that way. I told Elise to do the same. Michael said he just needed a break. I can appreciate that honesty. To Elise that is heartbreaking.
Michael and Nick being silly.
These photos were taken at my brother's house. Nick always had so much fun with Michael and looked forward to him coming to our house. Michael and Nick called each other "brother" !
Nick is football crazy and that's tough as we are a pretty non- sports kind of family. The extent of our sports involvement is that Nick has been on a bowling league for a few years and my husband is a hunter. Well, Michael is a football player and a bowler!! See the instant link for Nick!!? They would often talk bowling and throw the football together.







So, Elise is sure she will NEVER have another boyfriend.
Oh the drama of young love lost!


A look back...

I know it is late to show these photos, but I wanted to give an insight to our Halloween house before moving on to Thanksgiving. So here we go...

Nicholas decided to carve his Jack-o-lantern at the last minute on Halloween day. He drew the design on paper then I transferred his idea on to the pumpkin with a marker and he carved it.
My kitty, Bella, is looking on as a supervisor.
You know what's weird? I love the smell of pumpkin guts filling the air in the house. Silly.

This is the shelf in the hall.
We always love unpacking the insane asylum sign to hang up each year!
I painted the wall many years ago.

I always include old books in my decor. I have gathered old orange and black books, of course, for this. My twisty candle stick holder is a favorite item that I thrifted long ago. It is very heavy and has a great patina!!


I think we bought the skull at the dollar store at some point in the past and the bottle was thrifted. It is a real vintage medicine bottle from a Toledo pharmacy. I love the old label. I have never dared open the cap!!



This was the middle of the table with wooden scarecrow, glass pumpkin shaped jar filled with Indian corn and silk leaves, a thrifted porcelain Autumn house that can have a night light inserted into the back, a Mary E. Autumn book from a friend, a yummy smelling candle, some yummy candy, and a framed picture of me at my first birthday on a horse with my Dad as his brother stands nearby, (this is my Uncle I now help, he is 84 and has had Parkinson's for 17 years) . The picture has nothing to do with Halloween or Autumn, as my birthday is in Springtime. I just like the photo.


The bear was my Mom's. Teddy Bears are not personally my "thing", but my Mom really loved them so I have kept some of her bears. The large majority of them went to live with my brothers.
I painted the top of this thrifted dresser to look like copper with a patina of green.



This is also in the hall. I love these ratty old books!!! Another skull from the dollar store and another silly fun sign. The eyeball is a bouncy ball and Anna put it in the skull. Funny! The kids keep changing the position of the "eye" when they walk through the hall, so you never know which direction he will be looking!



The hairy spider is fur and the Mummy and Dracula are really candles.

Don't you love the old books?
What do you decorate with that is thrifted or your favorite to unpack each year?


Saturday, October 31, 2009

new offerings



Look what $1.50 gets you!....


A beauty from New York.
Look at those curls!

And those shoes! And the details on the dress!


Don't you think these two girls are asking for you to give them some added hats?


OK...Now who thought this was a good idea for a day's outing?

This definitely falls in the bizarre category! "Martha do you want to sit by the head? No thanks Eva, you can. I'll sit by the tail if you don't mind"



I have added these to the shop, as digital scans so you can resize them any way you wish and print them out and create with them... or just put them in a frame.



Monday, October 26, 2009

Nick

Nicholas joined cub scouts at the end of last school year. He didn't get to do many activities until this school year, in 3rd grade. He is having lots of fun and loves to wear his uniform shirt. He looks forward to adding more and more patches.





He had his first big event recently when he rode on a float with his fellow scouts in a fall parade in our town. It was so unusually cold for this time of year and his worry-wort-mom wanted him to wear a coat over his uniform. The shirt I sewed his patches onto is a hand me down scout shirt from our neighbor- which we were very grateful to have... but he doesn't have room for much layering for warmth underneath it. Nick and my hubby were partners in trying to convince me that he would survive the cold air.





Now if I could just figure out from where this new, silly, obviously forced smile has surfaced with Nick. I told him to stop smiling, and then smile again. SAME smile all over again! I hope he didn't do that silly smile for his school photos. Oh well, I still love him- silly smile and all. Did your kids ever go through a silly smile stage?





Something else Nicholas likes to do lately is build with Legos. He comes up with some of the best ideas. I am easily impressed with just about any kid's efforts because my own Lego talent peaks at a plain square house with a window and door. Honestly. I fail at Legos. Nick makes some super duper things and then takes them apart in the blink of an eye before his camera crazy Mom can record the creation. So, I felt privileged to have captured this one.


I am a fan of any toy that does not require batteries or electricity!!! I think imagination is the best power source for toys, don't you?



Halloween at my house

This is my kitchen window sill.
I used vintage Halloween cards ( my Mom's collection saved from the 1940's)and black cats
as the theme this year.


You can see my window sill last year if you click here.




I was moving around my furniture again and parked my glass front cabinet temporarily in the hall in front of these doors. My cat, Bella, decided to nap there. As I walked up to photograph the Halloween display that Anna put together in the hall on the wall shelf (I'll show you that later),
I snapped Bella's pic too.
Then she did this just as I snapped the photo...


It was actually a stretch and yawn but it kinda looks like she was trying to be
a "fur-ocious"Halloween kitty.


Outside our house, the Maple trees are all golden yellow. They looked pretty until it rained and blew all day and then the yard and driveway and cars and roof looked like this....


blanketed in wet colored leaves!


Are You Lookin' At Me? - part III

My little mischievous buddy has been at it again. He should star in some new Disney movie, don't you think? Scroll down a few posts to see his other adventures!!



Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Elise's first ever homecoming dance

Elise has had a boyfriend for about a month now. She has known him for 4 years at school and his name is Michael. He is a polite and well brought up gentleman. He has the complete approval from Mom, Dad and siblings!! This is a big deal for Elise-her first boyfriend after many many crushes on different boys from afar. She went to her first homecoming dance, too!
She is 17 and a senior in high school. Oh how I have seen a difference in her self confidence. She is growing up. This is a huge joy to her Father and I, as Elise is our oldest and a special needs child. Elise has OCD and is on the Autism spectrum named as Asperger's.

Look at those dimples! I tried to get a good photo of the two of them and wouldn't you know it each one was disappointing for some reason. He had his eyes closed or she did. She had no smile or he didn't. He was talking or she was. You know how it goes. Just when a camera-wielding-Momma wants the perfect "one" they just don't work out. They still document a very exciting evening for Elise.
All the Moms gathered at Michael's parent's house for the photo shoot ( talk about paparazzi flashes!!) and then all the kids (9 of them) stayed for a dinner of Chicken Alfredo and Lasagna before heading off to the dance.

Elise, her best friend Courtney, Megan


Megan, Courtney, Elise



Ready for dinner.
Courtney, Megan, Elise


Elise has blue nail polish.
The next day when Elise went with Michael and his family to a party at his Uncle's house for the entire day, Elise wore 3 beautiful rhinestone and Swarovski crystal bracelets. I hadn't realized that her wrist corsage was attached onto these lovely bracelets!! I'll have to take a photo of them.

Elise, having her straps adjusted by Courtney's Mom, as Michael's Mom looks on.


The whole gang that met at Michael's parent's house and went together to the dance.
Courtney's boyfriend Matthew is on the left end in front, wearing a flower. Michael is next to the guy with his shirt untucked.
Each weekend seems to find Elise, Michael, Courtney and Matthew at our house, or someone else's, hanging out together watching movies or listening to (loud) music. I love having them over. Teenage boys sure can EAT!!!!!
The funniest part of the homecoming night (besides the Mom's all chasing the teenagers around flashing photos!) was that Michael's Mom asked her husband to build a fire. He did build a fire-- in the chiminea on the back patio. Michael's Mom said, "What did he do? I meant in the fireplace in the HOUSE!" So all the photos outside on the patio had to wait till the wind shifted and the smoke clouds cleared so the kids didn't go to the dance smelling like a bonfire.
It is unusually cold already in Ohio and these kids should have all had COATS on!!! So anyway, it was probably good that there was a fire out there until the Mom's all decided to move the teens inside...otherwise they probably would have all needed to be called in sick to school the next week!!
PS- I still can't get used to not seeing Elise with her natural strawberry blonde hair. She has gone to an auburn shade which is much better than that black phase she went through. YUK! Oh well, I guess if that is the worst rebellion she does as a teen we will be lucky! I do miss my blonde girl though!!

vintage fun

APRONS

FRIENDS

THAT NEW
BABY POWDER SMELL

Find them all here.


Saturday, October 17, 2009

some creating...

I needed to make a gift tag for my niece for her baby shower
and so I gathered some supplies...
and ended up with this...

(The baby image is on one of the collage sheets available in my Etsy shop, my handmade quilled paper posies are available there too)
My dear hubby gave me a great compliment and said,"I don't know how you come up with these things (tags/cards) so quickly!"

This is on the back of the baby shower tag I made.
It is a vintage flash card. Perfect, don't you think?



Then I made a card for my step Mom's birthday...


I used more of my paper posies. I printed and cut out one of my colored pencil art birds and attached it with some foam tape to give it some dimension.
(The bird is included on one of the collage sheets available in my Etsy shop)


Lastly, I made small tags to attach to some little giftie bags I gave her...


The Canary is another one of my colored pencil art endeavors.
I am considering offering prints of it in my shop as well. What do you think?







Anna

Anna
and her old kitty named Cali
(short for Calico)

Are you lookin' at me? -part II


My buddy the squirrel was back at it again while I sat at my computer. He likes to come and visit me just to my right at the big window. He is a real comic, this one! He has a wonderful mischievous personality. He is convinced he needs to find a way onto the bird feeders. Eating what the birds knock down to the ground is apparently "below" him!! (bad pun)


Maybe he secretly imagines himself as a bird, wanting to fly to the feeder and sit daintily upon the peg at the cylindrical feeder.
Yesterday in the garden outside the big window I had (all at the same time for about 5 minutes) 3 Purple Finches, 2 Wax Wings, 1 Hummingbird (isn't it now waaaay too cold for the hummingbirds in northernmost Ohio??) and another unidentified- until I look in my Ohio bird book- beautiful black with white spots size of a Blue Jay bird. While the birds flitted from the feeders and flowers to the porch roof and back again and again, 2 squirrels played on the fence.

My comic squirrel waited for the birds to eat (nice of him to use his manners) and then climbed the roof. I think he is more like a circus performer than a bird! But we will let him have his little fantasy.
Here are other silly photos of my squirrel buddy.