Free Image Tuesday Right On Time.....

Well, I needed that like I needed 4 more holes in my stomach! LOL!!! Seriously, I want to thank everyone for their good thoughts and prayers. They were very much appreciated. Actually I feel so much better than I did before the surgery. The doctor said my gallbladder was inflamed and "angry" so I guess it's good I had it removed. I also had a 1.9 centimeter gallstone! Yikes!Thank you Cheryl for giving me the loving shove I needed to muster up the courage to do so:) I was askeered! So I am recouping well and my Mom is here helping with the boys. Actually the recovery has been pretty easy since the surgery was done laproscopically. Yeah modern medicine! My husband watched the boys the first week and did a wonderful job. Mom is here spoiling the boys and loving every minute of it. They probably won't let her leave when the time comes. They love her so:)


My husband not only took off an entire week to care for me but he also had a wonderful surprise waiting for me. My very own Dell Laptop!!!! In Spring Green!!! Even the mouse is Spring Green:) Now I can spend some evening time in Blogland when he is having his computer time:) I am very excited! He even gave me a computer cushion so I can relax in the living room and surf:) So yeah more blog time and yeah Hubby!!! Here is a picture of my new baby:)

The Free Image for today is a lovely cabinet card of two ladies. They are identified on the front as Kate Rowland and Mary Davis. Maybe they are sisters and one is already married. The background for the photo is unusual and the pose used is unusual also. I really like this one:) Love you all and I hope your week is going well! Love, Jamie

Also, I got this note from sweet Darlene:

I tried to print two of your free little girl pictures (from June 11 and July 17).I must be doing something wrong because the pictures look blurry. I can see some of the pixels.Thanks, Darlene

Is anyone else hving this problem and does anyone have a suggestion as to how I can help her or do better with the photos? You all know I am a complete computer dork! LOL!! We are working on it Darlene!:)

Free Image Tuesday A Day Early....

These are tintypes of the same girl. I love her different hairstyles in the photos.

I am going into the hospital this afternoon and I am having my gall bladder removed. So here is tomorrow's image and I hope you are all having a good week! I'll check back in when I can! Love, Jamie

I've Been Tagged!.....

Sweet Erin over at Things and Stuff and Sweet Sarah over at Joy For The Journey tagged me to play the name game so here it goes! You are supposed take your middle name and write a word/fact that helps describes you for each letter. Be prepared to be here awhile. My middle name is Micheline.



M- Micheline is my namesake. She was a young girl in France during WWII. My grandfather stayed with her family while he was stationed there for the war. I was given her name. My Mom is working on getting some photos and letters from her for me.

I- I still can't whistle.

C- Creative My mom says I started drawing very early and when I was two I drew a perfectly recognizable whale blowing water out of it's blowhole. James drew a duck for me yesterday:)

H- Homemaker I'm no June Cleaver, but I am so grateful to stay home with the boys.

E- Eat I do it to sooth my soul, to stuff my emotions down and I hide behind the resulting fat.

L- Love My love for my family is infinite.

I- Inspired Inspired by all of you and the wonderful art you share. The lives you share.

N- Nurturer I am good in this role.

E- Educator I am still a teacher in my heart:)

1920's bird reprint from my personal collection and an original 1865 bill of sale

This is a sneak peek of my new line of note cards. They will be in the ETSY shop soon and I am really excited about them! And, yes, I did cut that out by hand and all the others. I can only say thank goodness for sharp scissors and Exacto knives! LOL!!

9/11 Rememberence, My new ledger and MyGoodDeed.org and Free Image Tuesday...

Today is the anniversary of 9/11. I found a wonderful website called My Good Deed at http://www.mygooddeed.org/. It is a site to pledge a good deed in honor of 9/11. If you have a chance please visit and pledge your good deed. One man pledged to meet people's eyes and smile when he passed them and one little boy pledged to help a friend with his homework:) It is a wonderful way to turn those horrible hours and days and months and now years that have followed 9/11 into a way to make things better for others and yourself.


I received a new ledger yesterday. I originally bought it for the ETSY store. And I have been waiting patiently for it to arrive in the mail. It is a leather bound ledger from 1829.

After opening the package I realized it was more beautiful and more exquisite then I had imagined. I knew then when I saw it that it did not belong with me. But, you know how I love those ledgers:)

So, I thought about it all night and this morning I spent the better part of the morning reading over the 1829 newspaper clippings that were inside trying to find where it came from and what it was used for so long ago. There are no indications inside the ledger. The person who sold it to me said it was a general store ledger, but it is not from a store. I believe that it is a lawyer's ledger or a debtor's prison ledger that keeps track of debts and unpaid loans. I gleaned from the newspaper clippings found inside that it was from Hudson, New York.

I then searched Hudson, NY and found out that it was in Columbia County. I checked the early 1800's censuses for that area and found almost all the names of the men in the ledger so that confirmed it's origin for me. I knew then that I needed to send it where it really belonged. So I contacted the Columbia County Historical Society and spoke with Helen the curator. I told her what I had figured out about the ledger and she asked if I was interested in selling it to them for their archives. I told her that I would be donating it to them and she was so excited. She said their accquisition funds were limited. So, I am mailing it off this afternoon. It feels so right and good. I am thrilled that this was my good deed for 9/11 and the fact that the ledger was originally from New York makes it even better.

I know you are all thinking that my good deed should have been to answer all of your sweet and wonderful comments:) LOL! James has been sick and I have yet to have a free Tuesday or Thursday. Bare with me sweeties! You know I love you all:) Love, Jamie

These are photos of the ledger and then scans of some the ledger pages and newspaper clippings. Those pages are your Free Image Tuesday and they would make awesome backgrounds for your collage work:)

Free Image Tuesday and More.....

I'll start with the free image:) I love these gals! Are they nuns? Are they nurses? Why do I think Halloween when I see them? They seem a little creepy for some reason. Is that bad for me to say? LOL!!! This photo is a RPPC (real people post card) but it is postally unused so I do not know where it came from or anything else about it.

I want to share a story from a 1895 children's book called, "Ripples of Mirth". It belonged to Master Hiram Landon in 1897. I was so taken a back when I read it and could not believe that it was a "children's" story. We shelter our kids from death, but at that time it was an all to common occurrence with younger children.

I do know that some of the photos I own (especially the ambrotypes and tintypes) are probably the only photos taken of that person their entire lives. That's why post-mortem photography was so common. When a young child died there often was no photograph of them alive, so the family would have the photographer come take a photo before burial.

It's an interesting glimpse into early Victorian mores and society. I am thankful we live in a time with advanced medical knowledge and better living situations.

James starts pre-school this week so that means Momma gets some free time for Arting! Yeah for Momma!!!!! I will also get more computer time:) I hope everyone is having a wonderful week and thank you so much for your wonderful, supportive comments from my previous post. They all made me smile:) Love, Jamie

Somerset Studios Holidays and Celebrations....

I had one of my assemblage pieces published in the new publication called "Somerset Holidays and Celebrations" I am so excited to finally be able to share it with all of you! I have been holding it in for a long time:) It is scary to submit something! I just knew they were going to send it back with a thanks, but no thanks letter.

I originally submitted the piece for the Vintage Halloween call for the October Somerset Magazine, but they wrote me back and said they wanted it for the gallery section of the "Holidays and Celebrations" publication. Umm.... OK! I can tell you I was on a high for many days after that. What a thrill to see one of my pieces in my favorite publication!

Remember the little dollhouse book aging tutorial I did a long time ago? That's when I was making the piece:)

I used a photo reprint of a cabinet card photo I had purchased a long time ago. I thought she looked like a witch the minute I saw her and I knew that I would use her one day for Halloween. I was shocked when I received her to turn the photo over and find that her name was --Katie Spellman. How perfect was that!! She was meant to be a witch:) I used an old tin lithograph toy for the butterfly wings and old tintype photos for the pictures on the wall. I tried to find people who also looked witchy. I created a torn wallpaper effect for the insides of the box which is super easy and I would be glad to give a tutorial on that also. Then I altered the dollhouse books and inserted copies of 11th century runes and spells in place of the blank pages. The whole outside of the box is covered in vintage anatomy figures covered in textured red vellum. Cool! They only show the front of the box in the publication, but it sure is exciting for me! Thank you each and everyone of you who visit here and make me smile with your sweet words. You are so appreciated:) Love, Jamie