and once the tears started....

I made the flowers using bee wings from a vintage bee print. How cool is that?! I LOVE photoshop! James is asleep and I am heading off to dreamland:) I can't wait!

Art Creations Friday Entry...

I had a hard time thinking of anything for this lovely Gal. She is the image this week for Art Creations Friday. This is what I came up with and I have NO idea what it is supposed to mean. LOL!! James has been sick all week and I have not slept through the night since Monday. I'm punchy and tired. Not the best frame of mind for arting. Have a wonderful weekend everyone and get some sleep for me:) Love, Jamie

***Things I am Thankful for Today-asthma medication, warmer weather and 24 hour cable cartoon channels

Ice Storm...and I Made Mr. Creepy/Beautiful A Family Tree...

We had an ice storm here in Texas! The whole town shut down and we have been house bound for two days. Help!! LOL!! Here are some photos to prove we have cold weather here:)

So here is Mr. Creepy/Beautiful's Family Tree.

I found in my stacks of photo boxes a perfect Mrs. Creepy/Beautiful (his very own Helena Bonham Carter lookalike) and a perfect creepy/beautiful offspring from their union.

I used the photo from the ice storm I took this morning and photos from my collection of adopted ancestors for the rest. It was fun trying to find a resemblance for his "parents". I think I did pretty good. Mom has big, beautiful eyes and Dad has beautiful lips and big ears! LOL!!!

***Things I Am Thankful for Today-Safe and warm home, boys who "cuggle up" with me and free time to art

So Grateful...FIT and Mr. Creepy/Beautiful...

First, I have to say thank you to all the wonderful people who have visited over the past week and left comments on the OWOH giveaway. I am so overwhelmed with the Sweet Folks and Friends I am meeting. So, I have decided to add some extra goodies to the giveaway, for a total of 11 giveaways, since the response has been outstandingly incredible this year. Lisa! Girl, you did good!

Extra Goodies for OWOH!!!

I am adding four more collage sheet packets and four more ledger sheet packets into the fray. Yeah!!!! I wish I had enough to give them to you all. I love all the warm, mushy feelings the One World, One Heart Giveaway produces in everyone. Better than chocolate! Almost;)


Today's FIT is a beautiful family of three. They are unidentified and the photo seems to have come from an old photo album. The back still has little bits of black paper sticking to it in places. They are dressed so nicely and the Daddy looks like he is wrapped around his little girl's finger. AND Mom is kind of rockin' the Princess Leia hairdo! LOL!!!!

I call this guy Mr. Creepy/Beautiful because when I saw him for the first time he looked strange and creepy but then, after I looked at him for awhile he was actually kind of beautiful to me. He has perfect lips and nice eyes. I don't know, maybe I am crazy, but I kind of dig him:) What do you think?

Art Creations Friday Entry...And Photoshop Rocks My Socks!...

The fabulous ladies at Art Creations Friday used my FIT (Free Image Tuesday) as their image for this week!! I am so excited because now I get to see Sweet Maude through all of their eyes. They are a very talented bunch! Thank you so much Gals. I can't tell you how exciting it is to me when the FIT images are used in others' art:) Love, Jamie

Here is my entry for the week:

Ok, I am SO loving the Photoshop!!!! It is almost overwhelming because the possibilities are endless and it makes my mind race. In a good way. And I don't even know what I doing yet. Just wait until I actually learn Photoshop and whew! Can you tell I am excited? LOL!!!

***Things I am Thankful For Today-Sweet Karin at Creative Chaos, my supportive Husband and hot chocolate

Free Image Tuesday! And A Big Thank You!...

Before we get to the FIT, I wanted to say once more a great big THANK YOU to Sweet Lisa Swifka for another wonderful One World, One Heart Blog Giveaway Event. I am so enjoying meeting such great new artists and visiting their blogs. I am really glad we have the next month to get to all of them! Wow! What an awesome turn out we are having this year:)

Please feel free to use this image in your art pieces. Just click on the image to enlarge it and then right click and copy to your computer. I do ask that this and other FIT images are not used in collage sheets, image CDs or digital collage sheets for resale/profit. These are my personnal photos and I wish to share them with other artists. Thank you for respecting the FIT. Love, Jamie

Today's FIT is sweet little 5 year old Maude L. Van Hart. She has such soulful eyes. I really like the beaded necklace and anchor locket that she is wearing. I wonder if her parents' photos are in her locket? Where is her locket now? Tucked away in some one's hope chest? In an antique store jewelry case? Around the neck of an elderly woman who has long forgotten the names of the faces inside? We will never know, but I love thinking about the people in my photos. Everyone has a story. Do you have a story for Maude?

***Things I Am Thankful for Today-funny boys who grow too fast, naughty boys who try my patience and cuddle bug boys who warm my heart

One World, One Heart Giveaway...

It's that special time of year again where our blogging community gets together for one big lovely giveaway. And while the giveaway goodies are wonderful, it's the connection we make with each other that is the real, true gift. This will be my third year participating in the OWOH giveaway and I would like to give a great big thank you and a hug to Sweet Miss Lisa for creating this awesome event. If you would like to have a giveaway on your blog then just click on the One World, One Heart image above and it will take you to the official website with all the details.

I will be having 11 separate giveaway goodies this year! My giveaway is open to anyone and anywhere. Just please be sure to leave an email or blog site where you can be reached when you win. The sign up period lasts from today, January 19th until February 11th. I will annouce the 11 winners on February 12th! So. Let's get down to business!


Giveaway No. 1

The first giveaway is a wonderful set of original ledger pages from 1834. They are from a general store ledger that is in my collection. There are four pages and on one I have printed out copies of some of my antique egg prints. The egg prints are ink jet printed onto the ledger page so keep that in mind when arting with them because ink jet ink will run if it is not sealed before you use it. Making a laser copy of the sheet will solve that issue also:)

Giveaway No. 2 (5 packets will be given)

The second giveaway is a set of four collage sheets from my Art-e-ology store. I have been collecting antique bird and egg prints for a long time and these sheets were a labor of love. As I am not as computer savvy as some I hand cut the birds and eggs and mounted them on fabulous ledger paper from 1834.

The collage sheets are professionally laser printed on 28 lb. Hammerhill 100% bright laser paper. I used this paper because of its wonderful durability and smooth texture.

These sheets contain images from my collection of circa. 1870 Rev. F. O. Morris's "History of British Birds" bird prints, an egg print from a 1900 book called "Outdoor World" by W. Furneaux and a page from a 1923 French encyclopedia. The ledger paper that the images were mounted on is a general store ledger from the 1830's that is in my collection.

Giveaway No. 3 (5 packets will be given)

The third giveaway is a set of new ledger papers that I just obtained last month. They are from 1842-1843 and as best as I can determine they are from a Newport general store called Mudget & Higbee. The purchase entries are not listed. Only the prices and the date they were purchased. The debts owed the store were paid either in cash, a bank note or by the barter system. Some of the items used to pay off debts were turnip seeds, straw cord, wood, oats, corn and clearing the hay fields. One account was paid off by money earned from being the executioner!! I bet in turn the store owner sold those bartered items back to the public in his store. Too cool! The handwriting is so very WONDERFUL!!!

I love these pages also because they are very big. They measure in at 16.5" long X 10.5" wide!! You could do so much with them. You will receive eight pages of original ledger paper. Each page has front and back writing and most pages contain more than one name (which is my favorite part:).

Thank you so much for visiting Art-e-ology! Stop back by anytime! Love, Jamie

Art Creations Friday Entry...

This is my entry to Art Creations Friday. I am trying to teach myself photoshop so I colored the black and white photo with the type of colors that are typically found on early 20th century postcards.

Little Boys Who Refuse Their Broccoli....

End up like this!

I swear he was only over there for about 10 minutes, but he must have been too tired. That Sweet Bunny! My older son David and my husband both said, "Get the camera!" at the same time. Sweet Baby James dreaming of ice cream instead of yucky green broccoli:)

Here is my latest foray into transparency art. I used an antique botanical print from 1823 by Hart & Watts and some of my antique ledger paper from 1833. LOVE it!

***Things I am Thankful For Today-Wonderful Family, Wonderful Friends, Wonderful Life

Miss Eliza Sweet FIT...

This is beautiful Miss Eliza Sweet. I love it when my tintype images are identified. So many are not in paper sleeves and there is no way of ever knowing anything about the person in the photo. The back of the photo also contains the photographer's information. It says:

NEW STYLE CARTES DE VISITE

By Machinery,

Made and delivered in ten minutes,

At N.D. MORGAN'S

Rockwell Building, No. 166 Main Street,

NORWICH, CONN.

I have no information on Miss Sweet, but her photographer Nathan Morgan is well known for taking photos of African Americans and American Indians in the late 1800's. I found photos credited to him on the New York Public Library Digital files, The New England Quarterly, MIT Press Journals and the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center Archives & Special Collections. So even if the photograph is not historically notable, the photographer who took the photo is very relevant. Pretty cool.

***Things I Am Thankful For Today-Sweet James woke me up this morning by telling me that he loved me more than Lego Batman. (That's A LOT by the way), the scales consistently continue to move in a downward motion and that big, beautiful Moon in the sky this morning

Lazy Sunday and a Blogger Award!...

I spent yesterday rearranging and cleaning out the cabinets over the washer and dryer. What a jumbled mess! Now they are beautiful and orderly:) Today is a lazy day that I have claimed for myself. One of the most important things I learned over the last year is that if YOU don't make time for yourself then nobody else will either. You have to create it and take it and guard it as yours. Like a bulldog. At first it felt selfish. Now it feels nurturing and soul soothing and empowering. I finally gave myself permission to take and not have it feel wrong. And it only took 39 years. And lots of therapy:)

Sweet Amy over at Amy Elise Designs has nominated me for a Kreativ Blogger award. Once you are nominated then you need to list 7 random things that you love. I thought about it and I decided to let my boys make the list for me. I was very curious (and scared) to see what they thought I loved. You can clearly see why they might scare me! LOL!!

So here is the list my sweeties created for me:

1. My Kids
2. Coffee (at least this wasn't #1 'cause I am not allowed to drink it anymore. I'm working on it:)
3. My i-phone
4. art
5. Daddy
6. Star Wars
7. Old stuff that nobody really cares about (LOL!!! That was the 8 year old:)

So, not as bad as I thought. Those are all good things to love. My list would have included my family, Archeology and tintypes.

Here is my list of wonderful artists who always inspire me:
Faerie Window

Vintage Papers

A Bird in the Hand

Ornamental

Before I Forget...

A Mark in Time

Tattered Edge

The Other Side of Somewhere

Take some time for yourself and visit these wonderful artists when you get a chance.

***Things I Am Thankful For Today: a clean house, loud and healthy boys, a space of my own to art and dream

Back To School Thursday!!!!!...

Permutations and Combinations

photo transparency from my collection, 1834 ledger paper with eggs printed on it and a 1840's math book page.

I'm starting back to Arting slow and easy. It feels really good to just be and let the paper do what it wants to do today. The boys go back to school from Christmas break this morning. I am going to miss those Monkeys, but I am ready for some Mommy time. Yeah! And labeling items for the garage sale this weekend. Boo! I hate getting ready for a garage sale. But, I know after Saturday that all the decluttered stuff will be out of the house. So, that's going to feel good. Yeah!

It seems like a lot of folks are doing the same thing right now. Getting rid of the old and organizing for the New Year. We are working towards getting the house ready to sell. (I know. We are crazy!) I have been looking around and thinking about what a potential buyer would see when they come through the house. It's not as scary as it was three weeks ago:) If anyone has any good tips, then send them my way. I can use all the help I can get. And if you are free Saturday then come on over and help me sell all my old crap to the masses. LOL!!!

***Things I am Thankful for Today: quiet time, promises from the boys that they will cuddle with me when they get home and arting.

Free Image Tuesday and Thawing Out in Texas...

Saturday it was in the 80's. Sunday it was in the 30's. Yesterday we had an ice storm and lost power because of ice on the powerlines. Today it's going to be in 50's/60's. I can't keep up with the clothing changes for the kids! LOL!! At least the power is back on and we had fun with flashlights yesterday. Did you know that a five year old will chase a flashlight light on the floor for hours? HOURS. Excellent exercise.

The FIT for this week is such a sweet cutie! His identity is unknown but, this Carte de Visite photograph was taken in 1874 by Taylor and Preston Photography Studio.

Carte de Visite photographs measure 2.5" x 4". They first became popular in 1854 in France and were often left for friends and family while visiting. Hence the name "Carte de Viste" which means "visiting card". By the 1860's this type of photo had become popular all over the world and was used more than any other photographing process. The civil war times in the United States were so prolific for the Carte that a tax stamp was placed on the backs of the photos. This stamp also aids in dating photographs from this time period. Luckily, this photo was dated by the photography studio on the reverse side.

This child reminds me of my Sweet James. Of course, Sweet James would never sit still for that lace collar. A mother can dream, right? LOL!

Things I am Thankful for today...warm, sweet boys to snuggle, sugar free hot chocolate and sleeping through the night.

Happy New Year!... Let's Have A FIT!...

Happy New Year!!! I hope the first two days of the New Year have been good to you. And I hope the next 363 days are just as wonderful!

We have been busy cleaning out and donating and throwing away and it feels so freeing. At first every decision is sooooooo agonizing. Will I need it? Can I find it again if I do need it? Oh and then there's always the, "But, I have these attached memories to this gum wrapper." But then, I love it when you finally get to that Zen level of de-cluttering where you say, "Just toss it/donate it" and there is no emotional attachment left to your piles of "stuff". THEN the real cleaning out process can start. We are at that point and it's awesome! My garage is ready for the "Helping Hands" truck and I have so much room in my kitchen cabinets and closets and playroom. I hope the cleaning bug lasts a long time:)

Here's the first FIT of the New Year. This is the maddest baby I have ever seen! The expression on her face is so adult for such a small little baby. If you use this cutie in your art please send me a link and I will post it on the blog. She is just precious!
For those of you new to the FIT it stands for Free Image Tuesday or Thursday or any day it's posted:) I try to get it on a T day! The past FITs are gathered into a group under my profile on the right in the sidebar. Click on it and you should be able to have all the FIT posts in one batch. Right click the photo and copy and use in your art. I scanned each on a high resolution so the images would be clear for your projects. PLEASE let me know if you use it. I LOVE that! All I ask is that the images are not copied and sold in Collage Sheets for profit or Image Cd's for profit. These photos are from my private collection and I want to share them with other artists. Thank you so much for respecting the FIT:) Love, Jamie