Give it a name ...

I AM STILL TRYING TO PERFECT ADDING IMAGES TO MY BACKGROUNDS.....I HAVE A LOT TO LEARN YET. CHRIS SUGGESTED
THAT I DO NOT PUT A NAME ON THEM BUT ASK THE VIEWERS WHAT THEY WOULD PUT AS A CAPTION, SO HERE YOU GO, NAME THIS PICTURE!
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It is hard to believe that 2009 is over and we are about to jump into 2010....
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I PRAY YOU ARE BLESSED THROUGHOUT THIS COMING YEAR WITH GOOD HEALTH AND PROSPERITY, AND THAT GOD BE FIRST AND FOREMOST IN ALL THAT CONCERNS YOU, THAT YOU GROW SPIRITUALLY, THAT YOUR TALENTS MULTIPLY, AND THAT YOU ARE A BLESSING TO ALL THAT YOU COME IN CONTACT WITH.

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

Looking Back

This is one of my first attempts at creating some art with a message, using a combination of photos. The old house is a borrowed picture, the older
couple is my grandparents, the eyes belong to one of my grandchildren, the flowers are from our back yard and I do not remember where the butterfly came from. Making this was a lot of fun but very time consuming as I am still learning. Hopefully I will improve with time.
When I had finished it I wish I had included some type....the words LOOKING BACK would have fit at the top on the right....oh well, next time.

Merry Christmas 2009

HOPE EVERYONE GOT WHAT THEY WANTED FOR CHRISTMAS. SANTA CALLED ON HIS CELL PHONE EARLY LAST NIGHT AND SAID HE HAD THE FLU, HIS SLED WAS BROKE DOWN, AND THE REINDEER WERE ON STRIKE!
NOT THAT WE HAD A BAH HUMBUG SPIRIT AROUND HERE BUT CHRISTMAS SEEMED TO GET HERE BEFORE WE HAD THE THANKSGIVING TURKEY ALL ATE. SINCE WE WERE NOT HAVING COMPANY AND WE WERE NOT GOING ANYWHERE I DID A VERY MINIMAL AMOUNT OF DECORATING. I REALLY THINK THAT IS A MAJOR KEY, GET THE TREE UP RIGHT AFTER THE PILGRIMS LEAVE, LET THE CHRISTMAS MUSIC RING ALL THROUGH THE HOUSE, BAKE SOME GOODIES, GET YOUR CARDS OUT EARLY, AND IF THAT DON'T DO IT.....YOU GOT A PROBLEM, THE BAH HUMBUG SPIRIT HAS HIT.
WE DID NO GIFT EXCHANGE THIS YEAR, HONEY HAS BEEN OUT OF WORK, BUT WHAT WE DID DO IS THANK GOD THERE WAS NO CANCER AND ALL OUR NEEDS ARE MET.
SO WITH THAT SAID, I WISH YOU ALL A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR. WOW 2010 ALREADY !

journals

The one on the left is finished.....all of the pages I have been showing you are in there. The other one is a little smaller, and not quit as many pages but I think it will be a good one to use.

I have already started working in it, just laying down some background stuff....I will post the pages as I finish them. It may be awhile as we are going out of town for a few days so I will be taking a little break. Hopefully I will be home and able to do a post for Christmas. If you are looking for any good (FREE) Christmas images try http://Lastdoordownthehall.blogspot.com

Something new going on there every day, love the site. See you all when I get home.

TREES,TREES now you see then, now you don't!

Well here are the pictures of the forest across the street from us. At this point they had already cut a big path down the middle but had left a few rows by the fence.

This picture was taken today, as you can see they came up to the fence, in fact so close that a tree took out our power line and we were without for an hour or so.

This picture I got out into the road and took the picture looking down the roadway. All of the nice trees you see in the background will be gone soon also. The good news is the owner is not going to sell the land for anything like a development......but the bad news is he is not sure what he wants to do with the land so it will probably not get replanted any time soon. I am so sad to see these trees go.

Mine and Others

I HAD SOME PEOPLE ASK ME FOR A FEW OF THE PICTURES I USED IN THE ALTERED BOOK THAT I HAVE BEEN WORKING ON SO I THOUGHT TODAY MIGHT BE A GOOD TIME TO POST THEM AS I ALSO WANTED TO POST THESE BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS. I TOOK THIS PICTURE IN OUR BACK YARD THIS MORNING. THIS BUSH IS CALLED BY DIFFERENT NAMES, ROSE OF SHARON, CONFEDERATE ROSE ???? THE NEAT THING ABOUT IT IS THE FLOWERS OPEN WHITE AND THEN TURN THIS LOVELY PINK.

THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE CASTLE PICTURES,

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THIS HAS SUCH POSSIBILITIES,

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AND FINALLY THIS ONE OF THE WOODS, I HAVE NOT USED IT YET BUT I KNOW I WILL. SO THERE YOU HAVE IT, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO COPY AND USE ANY OF THESE.

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TODAY IS A SAD DAY FOR ME, THEY ARE CUTTING DOWN THE PINE TREES ACROSS THE STREET FROM US. I HOPE THEY PLAN TO REPLANT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. IT IS SURE GOING TO SEEM STRANGE WHEN I PULL OUT OUR DRIVEWAY TO SEE EMPTY LAND INSTEAD OF THE TREES. I'LL TRY TO GET SOME PICTURES TOMORROW. SOME THINGS I REALLY LIKE "CHANGE" BUT NOT THIS!

I STILL HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO FIGURE OUT MY ELEMENTS 7 PROGRAM, ANY IDEAS? I NEED HELP!

When she said " I Do"

WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS THE ACTUAL DAY AND THE "ONE TO FORGET" AND THE REST IS JUST FOR FUN. THE ONE OF TOM THE TERROR AND HIS WOMAN IS A REAL PHOTO, BY THAT I MEAN IT IS NOT ONE THAT I WORKED OVER. THE VICTORIAN DRESS ON THE LEFT IS ONE THAT LAURA FOUND IN THE VICTORIAN TRADER AND THE ONE ON THE RIGHT IS PRINTED AND COLORED BY ME. IT IS FROM A GROUP OF PAPER DOLL DRESSES I HAD SENT FOR A WHILE BACK.
THE "ONE TO FORGET" IS THE SMALL ONE AT THE TOP ON THE LEFT, DOES NOT LOOK LIKE A VERY HAPPY BRIDE.....MAYBE THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN HER FIRST CLUE
NEXT SPRING SHE WILL BE CELEBRATING THEIR SILVER SO I GUESS AFTER 25 YEARS HE IS A KEEPER. NEXT SPRING HONEY AND I WILL HAVE BEEN TOGETHER 45, NOW THAT WILL CAUSE YOU TO THINK ABOUT HOW OLD YOU ARE!

Thursday pages

WE HAVE SOME FANTASY GOING ON IN THIS ONE ! I FOUND A GREAT SOURCE FOR PICTURES OF FLOWERS, THOSE SEED AND BULB CATALOGS YOU GET IN THE MAIL. I HAD A FEW GOOD PHOTOS I WANTED TO SHARE WITH YOU BUT I FORGOT TO MAKE A NOTE OF WHO THEY BELONGED TO AND SO I HESITATE TO POST THEM. IS IT ENOUGH TO SAY THEY ARE NOT YOUR OWN WORK OR MUST YOU STATE "WHOSE THEY ARE"?
CAN YOU BELIEVE I'M RUNNING OUT OF PAGES IN THIS BOOK, I HAVE TWO LEFT TO PAINT AND ONE THAT I PLAN TO WRITE ON. SO IT TOOK ME ABOUT THREE MONTHS TO COMPLETE IT. ALTHOUGH I AM NOT TIRED OF DOING THIS I THINK I WILL GO TO SOMETHING ELSE FOR AWHILE AND LET MY BRAIN REST. DO YOU LIKE TO STAY WITH THE SAME THING OR KEEP TRYING NEW THINGS?

TIME

SORRY ABOUT THE GLARE, IT IS BECAUSE THAT IS A PICTURE OUT OF A MAGAZINE AND IT IS GLOSSY. ALSO DEPENDS ON WHAT TIME OF DAY I TAKE THE PICTURE. I AM SURE YOU WILL HAVE TO CLICK TO READ THE SMALLER WRITING. THE PICTURE OF HONEY AND I ON THE LEFT WAS TAKEN IN FRONT OF AN OLD HOUSE WHERE WE HAD AN APARTMENT IN ILLINOIS BACK IN THE 60'S (CAN YOU TELL BY THE HAIR)? THE OTHER PICTURE ON THE RIGHT IS MY MOTHER WHEN SHE WAS YOUNG. THESE FLOWERS WERE SOME OF HER FAVORITES AS SHE SAID SHE KNEW WINTER WAS ALMOST OVER WHEN THEY CAME UP.
HOPE EVERYONE HAD A WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING AND THAT ALL OF YOUR LEFT OVERS GET USED ! OURS WAS NICE AND QUIET, HOME ALONE WITH JUST THE CATS,THEY EVEN HAD TURKEY.

Romance

Not to much in the way of painting on these pages, I painted a brown background and left the top of the pages with the sky showing. The picture of us at the table took three different pictures, now is when I need my new program, Photo shop Elements #7. I have it installed HOWEVER it is going to take awhile to figure it out. The main thing I want to do is make a photo transparent so I can drop it onto another photo. So anyone out there that knows how to do this I sure could use some tips.

Hope everyone has a very BLESSED and HAPPY THANKSGIVING.

Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye, and above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.

And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye THANKFUL. Colossians 3:12, 15.

Follow The Yellow Brick Road

This is probably my lest favorite of all the pages I have done. You can not see much without enlarging it.
Guess what? My photo shop program came today and I installed it but I will not open it or try to do anything until after church tomorrow. Now how is that for discipline? I can hardly wait, I have also joined a group at Digital Whisper and I'm very excited and anxious to learn from those that have been doing this for awhile.

So I will keep this short and maybe be back to post something tomorrow.
BE BLESSED and have a great day of rest.

One I forgot I had done.

Now I remember why I did not post this, it is not done....I wanted to add some journaling on the left hand side, oh well at least you can see the art part of it. Well I must get busy, I hear the yard calling me. Check out the last post for that.

After checking with Webster I have found there is no such word as "journaling" what a shame, I like it......so I guess to be correct I'm to say journalizing, hmmm, well you know what I mean, right?

Before and After Yard

The big tree on the left in the first picture is the same big tree in the second picture. This is our yard out behind the house. Our three acers has a lot of woods on it and if you are not careful the grape vines and the thorny vines will take over. The water oaks drop nuts and start new trees so we had a "forest" of small trees all tangled up in vines, what a mess, it was almost impossible to walk through. The best way to deal with it is down on your knees with hand cutters as you see honey doing here. We hand cut the ones that are to big for the weed eater. So there you have it, this is what I've been doing instead of ART!

And which do you think I would rather be doing ?

Church in the country

These pages were finished last week, not sure how I missed posting them. Honey has been laid off from his job and he has decided it would be a good time to catch up on "clearing the woods" so that is what we did Saturday and today. He worked Sunday, but I went to church. So needless to say I will not be spending much time in the craft room. I took a few before pictures this morning and by the end of the week I should be able to show you what we are doing. I did not have the heart to cover up the church on the right so I worked around it. Me in the pink dress was down in the Keys, gray suit, up here at a conference.
Me at the well, was taken a few years back at the "Holy Land" in Orlando. Next best thing to going there. If you live anywhere close and have not gone I would recommend it. The song on the left is my favorite praise song.

Sitting in the sun on Sunday

The black and white cat is Buddy, he really is to big for this basket but don't tell him. The gray cat under the table is Salu, she is deaf and so she sticks real close to her "Buddy". All three of our outdoor cats are adopted strays that came wondering up out of the woods, scared and hungry. Sweetie, our Manx is not pictured here but she has been on previous posts.
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The following two pictures are from the altered book I have been working on, I will keep the "junk yard" and the "sky" pictures and cover the rest.

On these two pages I had planned to keep the very top showing the sky and the tops of the mountains. I plan to paint over the other 3/4 of the picture. I am finally running out of pages, the book is almost done. Perhaps I will go back and add some thoughts to some of the pages.

Something a little different

I decided to try a different technique with my pages. I don't think I will stop here, this is just a foundation, just not sure what I want to do to it next. I really do not want to cover the pictures up, anyone have any suggestions for me?
This one the only thing I might do is paint around the edges of the eyes...I have no clue why there is a white spot, it is really another picture of eyes. The book is really getting full. I think there are about three more double pages left to do.

Monday Morning

This is the last two pages, this one has writing you can not see unless you click on it.

I am very partial to these colors right now for some reason.

After clicking on this image I see that the right hand page looks fuzzy, the page is not like that so it must have been the angle that I used in taking the picture.

Keeping this short and sweet today as I need to get it together and go shopping......not my favorite thing to do but as I remember growing up it was always wash day.

Do you have certain things you do on Mondays ?

Pages and what is it?

I do not have a digital program that I can work with so putting myself on this bench and behind this wall of stone was done the hard way with copies and cutting and layering. This picture was taken before I added the journaling (is that a word) anyway I included the scripture in Luke where it says, " I go to prepare a place for you, etc. " That's where I want to live, my mansion.
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This is a picture I took in my yard this morning, these flowers were some more that came up on their own, I do not even know what they are called.

And this.....what is it? It must have been made by a spider, most unusual I thought. Has anyone seen one of these before?

The 50's

I had a lot of fun doing these pages....in 1950 I was seven years old. The two girls on the left page are Janet on the right and me on the left. It was our 5th grade school picture. It was 1956 and I was thirteen in the picture at the top of right had page.

My first husband had a ford like the one on the page and that is what I learned to drive in. He was a very good and patient teacher. I was just a teenager, sixteen when we got married. The best part of that relationship was the three beautiful children that we had.

So what were you doing in the 50's?

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p.s. some words got added to the last post, the Gone With the Wind pages. My daughter Laura reminded me that I had not included Rhett's famous last line to Scarlet, also when she said, "oh Rhett, won't they be just pea green with envy?" Well fiddly de, I can't think of everything......

Gone With the Wind

If you know anything about me at all, you would have known it was just a matter of time till I got around to doing a "GONE WITH THE WIND " page for the altered book that I have been making. Of course you will see a few different faces in some of Scarlett's dresses.....the main star being Laura, who also shares a passion for this movie.
This was so much fun to do and I tried to show as much painted area as possible, using a dark color is not good to journal on. I had a lot of other favorite pictures but there just was no more room. Oh fiddly de ! I think I'm heading to the 50's next and some good ole ROCK & ROLL
oh well I'll think about that tomorrow.

Sunday's Saving Grace

His oath, his covenant, his blood,

support me in the raging flood.

When every earthly prop gives way,

This still is all my strength and stay.

If Jesus undertook to bring me to glory, and if the Father promised that he would give me

to the Son to be a part of the infinite reward of the travail of his soul; then, my soul, till God

himself shall be unfaithful, till Jesus shall cease to be the truth, thou art safe.

When David danced before the ark, he told Michal that election made him do so. Come, my soul, exult before the God of grace and leap for joy of heart.

A MERRY HEART DOETH GOOD LIKE A MEDICINE........

There is GREAT JOY in serving the Lord.

Do you have anything to rejoice and dance about?

Ahead or Behind?

Which is it, I'm not sure? Anyway I have two pages to show you today. However I did take this picture a different way than usual. I stood the book up instead of standing over it. Not sure that was a good idea as I see bubbles in the pink rose, I had not noticed that before.The picture on the right is one of my favorites, it is a four generation photo, me being the youngest. Again not much painting, however I did do the sky and all of the green.

This next one is the one that I had such a hard time doing. Every time I would start to do it I would turn and go a different direction and end up with something different than what I wanted.Yesterday I received a glorious package in the mail from my dear friend Janet, it had two old bibles, lots of papers,(one I used in this picture) and some of her wonderful art work, two ladies, titled Friends.....I love it and thank you so much for being such a wonderful source of inspiration. Laura here is the picture you wanted me to use, hope you like it. Also has a photo of aunt Helen when she was young, she loved roses like you do.

Can you tell?

I guess I am just a scrapbooker by heart! There is really paint under all of those pictures but I just got carried away.... The top has a gauze layer that I painted beige over the pink and this was suppose to be something entirely different but I followed my creative instincts and this is what happen, it was not planned.

You will have to click the picture to read any of the writing, and I forgot to add the words over the bridge that I wanted to include. It is an old one in the Keys.

I do not know if I will get back to the craft room, we have company coming, then Thursday I will be at the church helping with ANOTHER chicken & rice dinner, fund raiser thing....I believe if EVERYONE would GIVE as they should we would not have to have these. Oh well, the bright side is that we have some great fellowship. What are you doing to keep busy these days?

More Paint

These pages have more paint and less pictures. There was nothing to much as a theme, just some added random thoughts as I went. Usually I have something specific in mind but this time I just started painting and made it up as I went. I found a few new ideas in applying paint, not all of them worked out like I had hoped. So tomorrow I think I will be working under the sea.

I hope everyone is having weather as nice as we are. I really should be out working in the yard??

Childhood Toys

Oct 23....What a special date !
My eldest daughter and my youngest granddaughter share this birth date. So I must take the time to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to both my girls.
These pages were a lot of fun for me as they reflect some of the things in my childhood that made me happy. First when I was real small my grandfather built me a rocking horse chair, it looked a little like the one I painted. My favorite book when I first learned to read was this little Golden Book about the kittens that could paint. Maybe some seeds were planted there. I never had a doll house but always wanted one. As I got older I had a new bike that I was afraid to ride so my father gave it to my cousins. I spent the summer with them and they taught me how to ride "their bike". I think I was the most pleased when I received my roller skates and case. Somewhere in all of that came the paper dolls. My friend Janet, (you all know her from the Lavender Loft) and I spent hours upon hours drawing them. So as not to be denied, I think I now have more toys than I did when I was a child. Isn't being "older" just so much fun?

Free Images

Barnes Hollow poem

Yesterday I had pages with a poem my grandmother wrote so today I wanted to do pages with one that I wrote. One of my trips to Illinois, to visit children I stayed with Laura and she lives in the country. All of the houses on her dead end road are on property that at one time was owned by her next door neighbors, the Barnes. There is a sign at the beginning of the road that says, Barnes Hollow. The picture of the river is where my son-in-law goes fishing. The picture of me on the road is actually taken from another picture of me when we were working in our woods here at home. Then of course we have the cute picture of the great grandchildren. Sorry about the glare (from the camera) on the picture of the spooky old building. It is here in our town.....I would love to go exploring in it but
it is posted NO TRESPASSING. Don't you just love old deserted buildings, I do.
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I wanted to add a couple of photos you might want to use but I know blogger will put them where I do not want them so I'll add them separate.

Grannys poem

These two pages were probably the hardest for me to do as I painted most of them. I wanted a clothes line to hang the quilts on to go with the poem my grandmother wrote. Her birthday was in May and she loved spring so I wanted the spring blossoms. Are any of you old enough to remember the first wash machines? I sure do. I was "helping" my mother do the wash one day when I was about four years old. I was washing my dolls dress and when mother was not looking I decided to run it through the wringer but I got my hand in there and it mashed a ring on my finger. Mother could not get it off and my finger began to swell so she grabbed me up and ran to the fields where my dad was plowing. He had bolt cutters on the tractor and he cut it off. Needless to say I was not allowed around the wash machine anymore. The older I get, the more meaningful my childhood memories are to me. Can you recall some of those "Good Ole Days" ?
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I just looked at this picture (up close) and it is a little blurry, hope you can make it out ok.

I had a lot of fun doing these pages as they are full of things I really like, flowers, lace, writing paper and pens. The paper in the upper left hand corner is a scrap of wallpaper that was used on the largest wall of my computer room. The two ladies in the hats and gowns is my self and oldest daughter.
I have given this book a lot of thought and I think it needs to be called an altered book instead of a journal. The pages that I have been doing remind me more of a scrapbook than they do of any kind of "journal keeping". Whatever title you put on it I have been having a lot of fun with it and expressing myself so I guess it really does not matter what you call it. The whole process has me investigating other avenues of expressing myself with books, paint, paper, etc.
So my question to you is "ARE YOU HAVING FUN YET" ?

What is it?

Can you see the little yellow things ? This is a lambs ear plant in an old crock on our front porch. The other day while we were having our morning coffee on the porch I happen to notice this.....went for the camera, of course to capture "what ever it is". Got a little closer, Oh, I see, it is

MUSHROOMS. I have never seen bright yellow ones before, have no idea what kind they are, but they were kind of pretty. Maybe I'll do a bit of research to see if I can figure out what kind they are.

I finished two more pages but I failed to download them to the computer soooooo, I will try to come back later with those. Have a great day.

Latest pages

This page has a few pictures taken when we lived in Big Pine Key, in the Florida Keys. Honey doing what he liked to do most, fish. Our youngest daughter with her daughter above the sunset. Oldest daughter with her daughter and myself one of the trips they came to the Keys. Sometimes I miss it but mostly it is the loved ones that we left behind that are missed.
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These two pages are about my grandparents on my mothers side. Myrtle and Fred Hartman. On the left, a very young Myrtle with a friend in the buggy, and then both grandparents when they were older, this is the way I remember them.
The right side has me as a child, that is also me by the barn, taken many years after they were both gone. We made a trip back to the old farm, no one was living there, and it was pretty run down but since this barn held a lot of fond memories for me I wanted this picture taken. My grandfather farmed when I was small and he always used horses, he never owned a tractor or a car. He loved horses, so do I, and now it has been passed down to our youngest granddaughter. She takes riding lessons and his quite good with horses.
I am very blessed to have a lot of good memories.