Treasure Trove

Wedding of actor Arthur Lake to Patricia Van Cleeve at Hearst Castle. My grandmother is a bridesmaid, far right :) and I believe my greta aunt is second from left.

In the process of researching our family genealogy recently, my uncle learned that my Great Aunt had passed away on Jan 1. I am not sure why no one on my side of the family was notified earlier but recently my 2nd cousins had a memorial for her ( which I was sadly unable to attend). In addition, my 2nd cousin Trevor, has been scanning in lots of old family photos and sharing them with my uncle for his genealogy work. Since I had expressed such an interest in the genealogy and also he knows that I use lots of old photos in my artwork, he has been forwarding to me all the photos that Trevor has been sending.. 

It has been AMAZING (to say the least) to see glimpses back in the rich history of my family. Something I had only heard stories about and seen the occasional picture of. Sadly my Grandmother suffered from Alzheimers and passed before I was really old enough to ask many questions. 

I have received dozens and dozens of pix over the last few days so I have just pulled out a few of my favs and the more interesting (famous people) to share here... so the rest of the post will just be cool old pictures with simple captions....

these two photos are from Scotland of my Great Grandmother, Marguerite (Moll) Draper. She looks like a doll :)

My great grandmother swimming with Charlie Chaplin off of Heart's yacht on a trip from NY to CA! Amazing!

My great grandmother at a "Baby Doll" party at Hearst Castle. c1920's

Joan Crawford at same "Baby Doll" party.

Ugh, Blogger is being a pain letting me post these pictures. I hope they turn up ok even if they are going wonky...

My great aunt, my Great Grandfather and my grandmother at Heart Ranch for a BBQ.

I have tons more and will share some more favorites another time. Hope you get a little bit of a kick at looking at them as I did....

"Remember, it doesn't have to be perfect"

~sarah ahearn

breaking out of the box, just a little bit...

Last year some time my friend Bridgette asked me to design a tattoo for her. It threw me for a loop as I do not consider drawing a strength AT ALL but I reluctantly agreed to sketch out some things based on her ideas. She sent me a bunch of her ideas and inspiration photos and I procrastinated...

Good thing she didn't have a date scheduled for her appt although she did have a gift certificate burning a hole in her pocket. She set a tentative date for her birthday in April and I thought to myself.. enh, I have plenty of time.

She managed to nag me in a gentle way and I finally stopped procrastinating and started sketching in my SMASH journal. I showed her some ideas and she finalized where she wanted to get it on her body. I traced out her foot and did tracings and rearranged the parts of my ideas she liked.

I finally gave her my final drawings and told her to play with sizing on the copy machine and with her colored pencils since she was undecided as to which colors she wanted.

Her guidelines to me were girly, including her sons initials "J" and "N" and using hearts. She liked a"heart strings" idea. Well, if there is one thing I like to doodle or draw is swirls and spirals... so I played with all kinds of curlicues and swirls. To the left here is a page from my journal where I did the first doodles.

Well today was the big day and Bridgette got her first tattoo! It turned out great and she is over the moon. I am pretty excited for her because A. I happen to really like tattoos ( I have 2) and B. its the first one I designed!!! What do you think??

sparkle

This just spoke to me today..

I am not sure where I grabbed this image from. If you know its origin, please let me know.

musings and a winner..

Hello People...

Mother's Day flowers.. love.

Thanks for popping in here today. I seem to have been hearing a lot of crickets around here lately and it brings me back to considering just closing the blog. I dunno, I go back and forth a lot in my head. 

Last week started off on a high and then quickly devolved into a serious low. I am still feeling the funk as I try to readjust my sails. Handling family can be so complicated and I am trying very hard to redraw some of my personal boundaries. I am both cursed and blessed that my parents are in our lives so much. I think it is wonderful for Hannah especially since losing my FIL last year. Her only surviving grandparents are here and we see them several times a week. I wonder if that is making her take them for granted? I think it does and I am struggling with how to help her see them for the gift they really are and can be.

The sticky point is that circumstance have made it so that even though my parents divorced looong ago,  we are now all working together. Its wonderful at tomes and tedious at times too. I love my Mom so much, she has been my best friend at times and I know that she sacrificed so much for me and my brother. I am thankful for that but trying to maintain a healthy distance so that we can be in control of our own family. For both Greg and myself we are treading on new ground as my parents divorced when I was very young and his Mom passed away hen he was very young. We have no real model for an intact family.. life is always a learning experience isn't it??

Anyway, I guess that is what is bouncing around in my head. I had intended for Blogger to auto post some stuff while I was "out" but it didn't and I am not sure what's going on. I will have to go in and manually post those this week I guess.

In the meantime, thanks to those of you who stopped by to comment on my Monday post. I had Hannah choose a number and she picked #6 who is my friend Lelainia!! So since I already have your address, I will pop some cards in the mail to you. Happy Tuesday!

Work Table Wednesday

Hey all, its work table Wednesday!! Woohoo, I skipped last week as did everyone else I think but I am trying to get back on the horse this week even though I feel kinda yucky today. I think the allergies are attacking!

Today I spent most of the day working on a website for my part-part time job :) I work part time for a small, local winery called River Run Vintners and it can be lots of fun. During our last meeting I got lunch and wine to boot. Now that's the kind of employer to have huh?

As far as artsy stuff, I have still been stitching up a storm. I just finished another sampler by Charlotte Lyons but I can only share a sneak peek because its a pressie for someone special. I just got two more from Charlotte's shop to start on. St the rate I am going I think she needs to start a frequent buyers club ;)

Finally, the only really artsy thing I did today which was to make this card for my SIL for Mother's Day. I hope it gets to her in time, all the way to MN! It was fun to bust out the foofy stuff today.

Don't forget to visit my last post and leave a comment for my give away. What have you been working on??

Its a good day, especially for a Monday...

Wow, today has been a GOOD Day.
Its beautiful outside, hot but not unbearable, pretty, clear and springy.

I got a text this morning from my bestie Joleen who recently let the cat out of the bag that she is expecting her first child in November!
I blogged about this before with a little sneak peek of the baby journal I was making for her then I finished it up and sent it off. Joleen blogged about the book yesterday and then this morning was the text... (sorry about the circuitous route this has taken) that Sweet Stamp Shop had also featured it on their blog! What a compliment. I only wish I had a few more journals ready for my shop. There is only one listed now but its super cute :)

cover of book with button and ribbon closure

Below are a couple of the pix that Joleen shared in her blog posts of the journal I created. I used this vintage chenille as the color because it just SCREAMED baby. Its soft and pretty and even if its a little feminine for a "boy" baby it is for Mama to record her memories of the pregnancy. Check out this layout she did with a bunch of the trims I sent her and her first sonogram:

First sonogram layout by Joleen

She still doesn't know if the baby is a girl or a boy and I have to say its killin me because I have so many crafty things I want to make that require me to know! LOL She is planning to find out though so I know that news is forthcoming as soon as she hits that magical mark where they can tell. I'm so excited to be an "auntie".

sneak peek of some of the pages

the book open

NOW, in OTHER awesome news... I got a call today from the school I have been trying to get Hannah into for the last 5 months (while I have been homes chooling). I haven't posted the day to day tribulations of that whole adventure here but if you follow me on Facebook you have been privvy to a few rants about it. Anyway, today I got the call that I have been anxiously hoping and praying for! I got the call that we had been accepted into the school for the next school year, for 4th grade! It totally makes it worth all the hoops I have had to jump through. She is excited and so are we!

So, to celebrate, these good things and the fact that you made it this far reading ( lol) I am offering up a little give away of a packet of my art postcards. All you have to do is leave a comment on I will draw a comment next Monday in hopes that I can pass along a "Good Monday" to someone else. Good luck!