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.

Postcards & journal pages

I promised some vintage post cards so this is three of my favorites. Please feel free to copy them is you can use them.

This one reminds me of something my mother use to always say to me, Gail you have got to slow down, take time to smell the roses. I'm working on it!

I like this girl with her basket of fruit, and since it is that time of year I thought she was very appropriate.

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This was my last two pages in the journal. There seems to be a glare on the paper on the left and that is where I have written a few lines. It says, "My dear sister, Wish we could spend more time together I really miss you and our talks. Tell mother hello for me and keep the teapot warm." I love you. The larger picture of the left is my aunt and the smaller one is my mother with myaunt behind her. The two girls in the circle on the right are my two girls.

Pioneer Day 2009

Pioneer Day in the Mayo park in downtown Mayo. With it being the first part of Oct. you would think it would be a nice day with the sun shinning, but it was in the 90's, can you say HOT ! There were different bands and a lot of food booths, a few rides, several crafters and lots of people. That is honey riding on the gradall, his boss is driving. I did not take pictures of the log truck, or the milk truck, or the "mud bog" truck, I know you are sad and sorry to have missed those!!!!!! You must remember where I live. There were no pretty floats and only a high school band but there you have it. And can you believe they do this EVERY YEAR?

Tomorrow I will try to post some more old photos or post cards for you to copy and hopefully two more pages in my art journal. Hope you are having a great Columbus Day and for those that have to work, maybe a day off.

Latest journal pages

Since this is my first journal of this type I am concentrating more on the pictures than I am the words. I figure I can always go back later and add words. I took two separate pictures this time as they did not flow together in color just in thought. This first one is a little about death so I used birds of prey.


This second page has some thoughts about truth, knowledge and what we are free to believe. The writing on the paper on the left is out of a bible written in Khmer. Most of this can be seen better as we know by clicking on the picture (for details).

This is the latest two pages. I do not know why the big bird at the bottom looks like it has white, it does not, it is all that bright blue, must have been a glare from the camera.

I did not stay at the thing in the park very long, it was sooooo HOT! I did take a few pictures I will try and post them tomorrow, it is almost dinner time and I have NOTHING in mind. You don't suppose it is because I have been in the art room all day??????

Old pictures & A Good Report

Here are a few more old pictures that you may be able to use in some of your art projects. Again these are no one that I know. I do have a picture of a distant relative on an old bike some what like this one. Unfortunately a lot of my old pictures were placed in a scrapbook ...this was before I knew to make copies and use the copies!!!!

And the good news, Yesterday we had to go to the VA for the last time....for a long time. The doctor said everything looked good and the incision has healed quite nicely so honey can resume his normal routine, just take it slow and work into things gradually.

Today is a BIG day around our little town...it is the annual Pioneer Day held downtown in our park. I'm off to get ready, honey is going to be in the parade, so I must take pictures. Hope you all have a great week-end.

Old Cars

After having such a good time on Elizabeth's blog, WOW! she has soooo much good stuff on there, everything from receipts,to vintage prints and she is glad to share. What a blessing. You can see her blog here http://thelastdoordownthehall.blogspot.com/ . Anyway I cleaned out a closet the other day and found some old papers, post cards, and photos that I had saved. Yes I am guilty of being one of those people that save EVERYTHING! So I decided to share....please feel free to copy any of these that you can use.

I did not want to overwhelm you with pictures so I will try and add a few at a time.

Hope you can use these.

Thought I should add a little note about the people in these pictures.....I do not know them. These pictures came into the store years ago, (Salvation Army) and I think they were mostly taken in Florida, however there were NO NAMES.

Latest Art pages

This is the latest pages, most of this was inspired by the little "dancing lady planter" in the lower right hand corner. It belonged to my grandmother and then my mother and they both kept it on their pianos. However I do not have one nor do I play. My mothers went to my eldest daughter, she plays. Two of the pictures are of our granddaughter M. she took dance for about three years.
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These pages reflect my love for cats.......some of this is my own art work and some of it is pictures that I have taken over the years. Plus three sets of cats that belong to L. our eldest daughter. The picture of me holding the two Manz was taken at our eldest son D.s house.
So this is what has been keeping me off the streets.
This Friday is another trip to the VA hospital, maybe our last as we are expecting them to release him. Finally..........PRAISE THE LORD.

star of Texas

Can you say a little to much Miracle Grow? I know they say everything from Texas is big but.....these are xanthisma or (star of Texas). In the past they have reached the heigth of about four feet, this year I put a lot of fertilizer on my hydrangea not thinking about the daisy looking things that had come up on their own right next to it. They shot up about ten feet or more.

This is a shot of them from the porch. I planted a few seeds a few years ago around on the other side of the porch but they seem to have a mind of their own as to where they wanted to come up. Next year when they pop up out of the ground you can believe I will be doing some transplanting.

And this is my last three (outdoor cats) still have one in the house. I had to have Sarah put down while honey was in the hospital. She was 25 years old. Sure do miss her, she could hardly go but she would follow me all over the yard. She lost her eyesight and there just was nothing else we could do. Sorry this picture is so dark, not sure what happen. Sweetie the Manx is in the rocker, Buddy the hunter is on the other chair and Salu is getting a drink.

Hope this nice weather we are having will stick around for awhile.