Precious Spring FIT...New Pets...Law 7.24 And Lessons Learned...

So many of you are wishing for Spring so I thought this FIT was perfect for this week. This is a photo taken in the early 1900's and it once was in a black paged photo album judging from the back of it. It is printed on very thin paper and feels very fragile.

I love that sweetie looking at the lilies! The back of his head looks like my James when he was that age. I used the FIT photo, vintage bird and egg images from Sweet Dawn at The Feathered Nest and vintage nest image from Sweet Abbie at The Vintage Moth to make a little collage.

The boys got Hamsters yesterday. James is allergic to dogs and David is allergic to cats soooo hamsters it is! Two hamsters, two ultra cool glow-in-the-dark cages, two igloo houses, two food bowls, two sets of wooden chew sticks, two types of food to insure proper nutrition and almost two hundred dollars later we own hamsters. My husband is going to KILL me when he downloads Quicken this weekend. But, they are really cute and the boys are totally excited. David named his "Hamster Meal" and James named his "John". Please pray that the boys don't grow up to discover any new species of animals, because the naming thing..it's...just... no. LOL!!!

So, meet the newest members of the household and let's hope I can keep them alive longer than the hermit crabs.

Hamster Meal and his New Home

John and his New Home

Now, about Law 7.24. This law was introduced into our household last week. Being so excited about blogging again and meeting new friends and posting I have "apparently" been spending a little bit of my time on the computer. David, my 8 year old, handed this to me over the weekend.

Ummm, OUCH!!! Nothing like the honesty of a child to snatch you back into reality. So I am returning with a healthy dose of what's most important and a better respect for Law 7.24:)



Ok, here you go Paula!!! Garden ball bigger than a basketball. That's the tip of the iceberg Girl!


Tomorrow I am posting pictures of my wonderful OWOH art box from sweet Miss. Terri and a Valentine to myself from the talented Colette Copeland:) Can't wait!!!

I Left Out Some Of My Favorite Ragamuffins!...

I can't believe I forgot these treasures when I posted yesterday. The first and second photos are still RPPCs like the others from earlier. But, the last two photos are tintype photographs. And you know tintypes are my weakness:) You can click on all of the photos to enlarge them if you are having trouble seeing the details. These images are not FITs, but are from my personnal collection. Thank you:)
This cutie is posed on the dining table chair that has been brought outdoors so the lighting is better. You can see Momma's elbow in the left of the photo. She must be there in case cutie falls. She really is so precious.

This antique postcard is a thank you card from an orphange for babies and toddlers. They make my heart ache just looking at them! The photo is not in good condition, but the content more than makes up for the quality.

This ragamuffin is a tintype image that was once held in a cased frame. You can still see the oval outline from where the frame surrounded her. She looks fine at first glance, but look closer and you can see her uncombed, greasy hair. She is from a poorer family and she did not wear gloves while outdoors. You can clearly see the darkened, tanned portion of her hands to where her sleeves would reach on her wrists. This photo speaks of the past to me and shows me the clues to this child's life.

These sisters are also from a poorer family. The tintype was most likely taken by a traveling photographer who hastily set up the area for them to sit and be photographed.

They are clean, but once again you can see the tanned portion of their hands. These girls did not wear gloves:) Their faces are also covered in freckles which means no hat or umbrella while in the sun. A young lady shaded her face.

The older sister is sporting quite the black eye on her right eye. I wonder if little Sis gave it to her? She looks defiant to me. She looks like her life so far has been hard.

Thanks for indulging me in sharing these photos. What started out as just wanting to find nice antique images for my collage work has ended up being a wonderful passion.

FIT Sweeties...Ragamuffins And Art Creations Friday...

These first two photos are your FITs for this week. Are they not so sweet?!!! I love the brothers and sister. And little sweet Angel standing on the chair:)

Both of these photographs are Real Photo Post Cards. These post cards were very popular in the early 1900's and were very affordable. The RPPC was able to be taken outdoors and in home settings. Many people who could not afford formal photos were able to have portraits made with this process. During this time there were traveling photographers who went from town to town taking RPPC photographs. Many times they went to areas where the families had no access to photo studios.

The FITS for today are from families that are doing well, but I also love the photos of children who did not have on their Sunday best and who lived in poorer families. I call them my Ragamuffins and they are no less loved than my "beautiful" photos. Here are a few of my favorites.

He is my favorite. His dress and face are filthy, but he is happy and playing. I just want to scoop him up in my arms and hug on him a little while.

This Momma looks so tired and worn to me. I bet she is still in her twenties. You can tell she is proud of her sweet children.

This little one hanging on to her Mother's finger looks confused about what is happening:)

This is my entry to Art Creations Friday from last week. Sorry I was late Ladies! I just got around to it today:) We had to make something using this awesome background Wil created. I colored an image from my collection in Photoshop and then cut out and reassembled parts of the background from Wil to create an illustion of depth. I hope. LOL!!! That was my goal anyway:)

Happy Valentine's Day!!!..

My Sweet and Thoughtful Friends. Coming here and reading your words of encouragement has been the best medicine for me. After all the worry we had the decision was taken from us by the surgeon. He said my Father-in-law would never survive the surgery and that he would not operate on him now or ever. So we just keep the status quo and continue on our path. Today on the way home from the hospital he did not remember coming to the hospital or the angiogram he had on Thursday. I know that the rest of the hospital stay will slip from his memory in the coming week and that will be that. I can't thank you all enough for taking the time to leave me such lovely messages of support. I probably should not post when I am so upset next time:)



On a brighter note, I contacted all my OWOH winners and I want to share the Valentine's card I made for my husband and the Valentine's gift he gave to me.

I have been wanting to use this RPPC photo for so long and finally came up with a use for it:)

This is the BEAUTIFUL bouquet of flowers he had sent to the house on Friday. It has Calli lilies and two different types of orchids and roses and roses and roses:) It is the most beautiful arrangement and smells heavenly.

I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend and getting lots of Arting done:) Love, Jamie

Thank You...

Journal page revisited

Well, things are not good. We will know more when the surgeon talks to us this afternoon. Basically, we are looking at a quadruple by-pass with an aortic arch recontruction. Or they may not want to do anything and just hope for the best. Not good. The fact that my Father-in-law has severe dementia and does not understand any of this is very frustrating. He just says, "Go ahead and do the surgery." He thinks it will make all his issues go away and that he will be able to get a job and drive and live in an apartment. The doctors know that he is not capable of making those decisions so the final decision will be up to us. It's a long, depressing story that I won't drag out here, but being his caregiver for almost year has been hard. I am tired and exhausted. Oh, and TIRED. Thank you for all your good thoughts yesterday. I thought of all of you during the day and they made me feel so much better.

Ever been so tired that you can not sleep? That was me last night so I arted with an old journal piece to pass the time. Art therapy is good. And I am slowly getting to my One World, One Heart winners. I love telling them the good news:) AND I won a lovely Art Box giveaway from Terri at Blooming Ideas!!!!! I will take lots of photos for you but, I think I will keep the secret message to myself:) Thank you so much Terri!!

It's The One World, One Heart Giveaway Day!!! It's Finally Here!...

I have to say that this year's One World, One Heart event has been spectacular!!! Thank you each and everyone who stopped by Art-e-ology. Your sweet comments and visits have been wonderful! I have met so many new and wonderful Artists and Friends. Thank you, Thank you!!

To Miss Lisa,

You did it Girl! And I think it will continue to grow each and every year. Thank you for your hard work and for bringing us all together. Love, Jamie

Now to the Winners! The first year I participated in OWOH I typed out everyone's name who entered and cut them out and inked the edges and rolled them up and tied each one with pretty ribbon. Then my boys picked the winners. This year? It has to be the random number generator. There were 463 participants and when I printed out the comments to cut out and roll up and wrap with pretty ribbon it was NINETY-FIVE pages long. Sooooo. Random generator it is! And somebody owes me some paper. LOL!!!

The winner of the 4 Pages of 1834 Ledger with Egg Print page is: Attic Charm

The 5 Winners of the Bird and Egg Collage Sheets are: Antica
J and Z
Quiltmoose
Jax
Linda Cain

The 5 Winners of the 1843 Ledger Page Packets are: Kathy 55439
Patti G.
Viv
Carole
Danielle

Congratulations to all the winners. I will be contacting you as soon as I get back from the hospital today:) Love, Jamie

One World, One Heart Giveaway....

"Angel"

Materials: laser transparency of a full plate tintype from my personal collection, ledger paper and adhesive

We found out this week that my Father-in-law has to have an angiogram tomorrow morning and be admitted to the hospital. I will be taking him at 4:30am on the 12th. I will need to cut off sign-up for the One World, One Heart giveaway at 7:00pm tonight so I have time to post and contact the winners. Sorry for the short notice! I can't wait to see who wins! I will have 11 winners in all and hopefully you are one of them:)

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I have a funny to share:) I ordered some assemblage supplies from a wonderful Etsy seller last week and they arrived yesterday. When I unwrapped the paper I found that she had used a recycled Duncan Hines Brownie box to ship them to me. Which is wonderful. Until. The boys got home and found the empty box in the trashcan and demanded to know where the brownies were and why they did not get any. I explained it to them, but I know they totally don't believe me. I can see it in their eyes! LOL!!! I can't believe I actually got some arting done today. Simple, but very satisfying. Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone! Love, Jamie

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***Things I Am Thankful for Today-a nice long rain last night, arting and David & James the Dynamic Duo:)

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Sorry about the weird looking post, but it was the only way that blogger would post it without clumping everything together onto one big honkin' paragraph.

Free Image Tuesday is Here!! It's Here! It's Here!!!...

I have been SO excited to show you the FIT this week!!! I purchased a grouping of tintype photos a month ago and really did not get around to looking closely at them until last week. Once I started examining them I found two gemtype photos that were so beautiful and striking to me that I knew they had to be FITs.

These two gals look so much alike that I know they are closely related. The older lady could be her Mother or it may be her Grandmother.

Or....

I like to believe that they are the SAME person at two different times in their life. So I took them to Photoshop and transposed the images on top of one another and WHOA! The left eye matches perfectly! Perfectly, like they are EXACTLY the same right down to the gleam in their eyes. It totally looks like they are the same. I am sure they are not because it is obvious that these photos were taken in the same time period and at the same sitting. But, it is fun to pretend!

***Things I Am Thankful For Today-Lovely Blog Friends, being a Stay-at-Home Mom and Sharing

Happy Friday!...Art Creations Friday Entry...

I hope everyone had a wonderful week! We are having a little taste of Spring here in Texas and I am enjoying it so! Just one more week and then we get to have the big draw for the Giveaway!!! I can't wait! Thank you everyone who has signed up and if you haven't then, "Git over there!" I can't believe how big OWOH is this year. Lisa may need to make this her full time job! LOL!!!


The image this week for Art Creations Friday is a lovely young woman from the early 1900's. I used her to practice my hair-do and make-up skills in Photoshop. It's HARD to get it right and I am not too pleased but I do like how her hair turned out. I turned her into a little love note since it's so close to Valentine's day.

Well, the roses are a complete bust and the make-up is looking pretty scary (I'll put that in my 'Bad Art' file) but, I really do like how the hair looks. I put in some natural highlights! LOL!!! I learned a whole bunch of shading techniques this morning, that's for sure!

Here is my final photoshop egg piece. I see eggs in my sleep. I need to get something else to work on! LOL!!

Little Lowell Cushing Says It's Time for a FIT!...

Look at that sweet boy! On the back of the photo it says that this is Lowell Mills Cushing, age 2 years and the photo was taken on July 4th, 1901. He reminds me of both my boys at that age. The little boy hair that is still curly on the ends before their big boy cut and those sweet little chubby hands. Don't you know he was so thrilled to be holding that pocket watch! Sweet Lowell. Let me know if you use him in your art. I would love to see it! Love, Jamie


Oh. Hi. Did I mention that I LOVE photoshop? LOL!!




***Things I Am Thankful For Today-Fresh Starts (you get one EVERY morning:), my new natural beeswax and ambrotypes.

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