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

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.