Vintage Photos: Girls in Mary Jane Shoes and Little Patriots

Here are some sweet photos that I recently

added to my collection.

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I thought this little girl was so sweet

holding her precious teddy bear.

I love the striped dress that she is wearing,

and thought that a copy of this one would

be good to experiment with a little photo tinting on,

perhaps coloring the stripes on her dress.

She is wearing Mary Jane shoes...

...just as are the little darlings in this one...

And, of course, how could I resist adding the two below to my

collection of patriotic photos.

Don't you just love the baby sitting in front of the flag?...

But my favorite of the four has to be this one.

Do photographers stage this way anymore?

Not to the best of my knowledge. How sad.

I wonder if these children were new to America

when it was taken...

By the way, the glittered stars seen in the photos above

were from the Fourth of July decorating section of Hobby Lobby.

They are stickers that range in sizes from

1-2 inches and came in a bag of 180 for $5.99.

So much cheaper than buying embellishments

in the scrapbook aisle.

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We are planning to leave soon for The Wren's Nest,

so you may not hear from me for a bit.

Have a great day!

Back in the Day: Children and Their Goat Carts

Hi there! I hope that you are having a great day.

In my collection of vintage photos, I have made it a point to collect old RPPCs (real photo postcards) of children in goat carts. In the 1920s and 1930s photographers traveled not only with ponies, but with cute goats pulling carts that I imagine were used as a sales pitch to get moms and dads to pay them to take photos of their children. The carts were often outfitted with a sign bearing the year the photo was taken, and sometimes with the state that it was taken in. I don't know what made me become so fascinated with these photos, but I have quite a few and decided to finally create something with them.

While Mr. Perch was still in the hospital recovering from his surgery this past summer, I brought along some previously-started work to complete the hand sewing on while he was watching TV or dozing off. On a previous blog post I think I shared a few photos of the materials that I was going to use on this one, but here are some photos of the piece that I completed, which was actually a large-form "snippet roll". I am showing single sections of it here because it is a rather long piece. Since it was a summer project, I wanted to use the garden colors of pinks and greens.

The hanger was made of sari silk.

At the top of the doily

 I used a vintage metal

"something" that I had owned

for a while...

I used laces, vintage buttons,

cheese cloth, moiré ribbon...

...velvet, various trims and

embellishments...

...crocheted pieces...

...rick rack and a crocheted hanky...

...collaged with various fabrics onto

5-inch wide burlap ribbon.

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It was good therapy and brought a smile to

my face during a time this summer

that was not always so happy.

Art therapy is what I think they call it!

Many thanks for coming by.

A Birthday Card for a Friend

Good evening!

I did have a spark of creativity, though not much time, in October when I created a birthday card for our friend across the street. He is a big Harley fan, and he and his wife belong to a local bike club. I couldn't resist using this old photo that I had in my collection. Obviously I couldn't use any lace on this baby!

I love this old photo.

I wonder where these folks were going?

The papers and embellishment

were from Bo Bunny,

one of my favorite paper companies.

The rick rack is vintage stuff that

I bought on eBay a while ago...

I used a couple of rubber stamps.

I have so many, and rarely use them anymore.

And of course, while in the full swing of all of the

election hype,

I had to use a quote from Abe Lincoln.

They just don't make presidents like him anymore!...

   

The card was hand delivered all the way across the street,

so no address was needed!...

One of these days I think that I'll start making cards

and saving them to give to people instead of always

buying them.

Have a wonderful evening!

Christmas in July: Vintage Santa Photos

Merry Christmas! Well, not exactly, but I am celebrating "Christmas in July" in my etsy shop by listing a few vintage Santa Claus photos.

I have scanned six photos from my personal collection 

and made them available as digital downloads....

They would be perfect for holiday cards or gift tags.

Or, a few of them would be lovely incorporated into a Christmas banner.

If you like them you can find them here.

I would love to see what you might make with them!

Don't eat too much Christmas ham today.

Vintage Photos: Friends on Vacation

Happy Sunday, dear friends! We are up at The Nest, so I am attempting to post via iPad and/or iPhone. Both are somewhat awkward as I don't feel that I have control over fonts, spacing, centering, linking, or much else. Here goes nothing!

In a previous post I shared photos that I purchased from a nice lady who then included a few freebies. You may recall that I used one of them on my Etsy shop photo. She contacted me again and said that she had some more of these same friends vacationing and asked if I would like to buy them. We agreed on a price, and here they are.

Some had neat writing on the front of them...

I'm not sure if they were the same group of friends, or two different groups. The clothing seems to be from two slightly different eras.  When I have more time back home I will use a magnifying glass to get a better look at their faces and read the writing, which is not that clear.

I love the boat with the flag on it...

Some had writing on the back...

I wish I knew the whole story about these gals having such a wonderful time enjoying their vacation on the lake.

Well, our "vacation" up here begins today with my painting the outside window trim for the next batch of windows while the Mister works on the gutters and downspouts. 

Thanks for coming by! 

Sue

Vintage Photos: Farm Girls

Hello to all!

Added to my growing group of vintage photos is this new category. At some point I would like to have some fun with these.

 The gal in this photo was crowned a farm 

girl queen. 

How fun!...

Various photos of some gals 

"down on the farm"...

You gotta love them!!

Thanks for coming by.

A New Look for my Etsy Shop

Hello dear friends! Sorry I've been away so long, but we were up at The Nest for ten days, and when we got back there was so much work to do here at home that I didn't even have time to turn on my computer. I thank you for the lovely comments that you have left for me, and apologize for not acknowledging them or visiting your blogs, but we have no WI-fi up there, so anything I do on my iPad is a very slow process.


If you shop on Etsy you likely know by now that they have made some changes to the way viewers see our shops. The previous "shop banners" will still work, but they look a little shrimpy so I decided to see what I could come up with on my own. When I first set up my shop, I had a graphic designer do my banner, icons, avatars, and business and thank you cards. I love her work and wanted to be able to still use everything besides the banner, so I decided to make a banner of  my own (actually, they don't call it a banner anymore, but rather, a shop photo). I decided to go for the simple look and try to still have it convey the tone of my shop.


Recently I won the bids on some photos that I saw on Ebay, and one of them was just perfect for my cover photo.

I was fiddling around with making a collage of sorts,

and using that as the cover photo,

but in the end I decided

to just have one photo speak for itself.

Here are the photos laid out on a burlap panel

when I was fiddling about with some little related pieces.

The same girls are in all of the photos below,

and I really wanted to use the one on the bottom

which depicts the girls building a sand castle.

Unfortunately, I could not scale it down enough to meet

the size parameters required by Etsy...

I bid separately for all three above,

as I was hoping to keep these "friends" together for all time,

and then quite unexpectly the nice lady who was selling

them contacted me and asked me if I would like to have

the two below,

which also features the same group.

Imagine my excitement when I returned home last week

and found all five in my mailbox!

Don't you just love the happy young people

in these photos?...

I modified one of the photos shown above to fit the required

dimensions,

and also tweaked the coloring a little bit to match my shop icon.

Can you guess which one I used?  

I even went so far as to include a photo of moi!

Click here to check out what I have done.

Certainly no purchase is required,

but I'd love to have your feedback!!

I hope that you have a great day and a wonderful weekend!

Just think...

At the end of 2015 I purchased an inexpensive 2016 calendar. The company that printed it is "DaySpring", and the tag line under the company name is "Your heart. God's love". The cardboard that supported the calendar was not just a plain piece of cardboard; on it was printed the most beautiful sentiment which was credited to Roy Lessin, the DaySpring co-founder. This has been sitting on my desk ever since, and I read these words of inspiration every time at sit down to post to this blog. Here I would like to share it with you.

"Just think,

you're here not by chance,

but by God's choosing.

His hand formed you 

and made you 

the person you are.

He compares you to no one else--

you are one of a kind.

You lack nothing

that His grace can't give you.

He has allowed you to be here

at this time in history

to fulfill His special purpose

for this generation."

Underneath this sentiment was also printed the following,

a verse which we have all seen before

and one of my personal favorites:

To every thing there is a season, 

and a time to every purpose under the heaven.

ECCLESIASTES 3:1

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I thought I'd share the photo of the baby in the pram.

I haven't shared a photo with friends in a while,

and wanted you to have this beauty.

Right click and save to your computer.

 

I wonder what God's purpose was for her?

For me?

For any of us?

I guess that time will tell.

How I Used Some of the Photos Listed in My Etsy Shop

Happy Friday! I hope that you are doing well.

I have listed a few more images (shown below) as digital downloads in my Etsy shop, but I thought I would also show you a few photos of how I had used the same photos in the past. Perhaps a little fuel for your imagination (not that any of you need MY help!).

These two beautiful babies in their prams

are some of my favorites...

If you've followed this blog for awhile, you may remember 

that I had an article about a book that I created

published in the Winter, 2015

issue of Sew Somerset magazine

entitled "Babies, Buggies and Black Velvet"

(If you want to read my post about that,

you can find it here.)

Here is how I used these photos

 in two of the pages of that book...

In the following images,

I love the chubby little baby on the horse,

and the dresses that the moms are both wearing.

I think that these are some of my most beautiful

old photos...

 And here is how I used them...

I have not used the two below in any 

artwork yet, 

but I couldn't resist the expression on

the flapper's face,

or the two ladies sitting on the moon...

I hope that you will find these photos inspiring.

Thanks for coming by!

Digital Downloads: Some More Photos Listed in my Etsy Shop

Hello dear readers! I hope that I'm not getting boring with this, but I have listed some more photos as Instant Downloads in my Etsy shop. Perhaps you will see something that you can use in you art. And cheaper than buying originals!!

Here is a glimpse of what was added...

You can access my shop by clicking on it 

on my sidebar.

Have a great evening!

In My Etsy Shop: Some new photos to purchase as instant downloads!

Good morning and happy Saturday!

Over the last couple of days I listed some more photos in my Etsy shop, and they are available for purchase as instant downloads.

Here is an idea of what is now listed.

I hope that you can find something you like!

Have a wonderful weekend!