Last week for we got to think ahead for Spring on
Theme Thursday, and today we are reminded there is still beauty in the current season. Today Louise's theme on
Kard Krazy is simply Winter. We are still dealing with the "blizzard" we had in our area, and I noticed in the News today that the northeastern section of the US is having insult to injury with more ice and snow. So it's good to remember the beauty there instead of seeing all of the problems.
Winter Maiden
(click for details)
I really enjoyed making this tag! I used gel medium, Lumiere paint, and tissue paper for the background. I added an image copied from an old postcard, and then used acrylic paint with a little Lumiere for the scenery. The large snowflakes are vintage bronze ones, with Stickles added. Ribbon, a jeweled button, more Stickles and Skakura pens were used for details.
On yesterday's
blog I mentioned an idea I had for a Upcycle Giveaway and I need some feedback. You can comment about it on that post or on this one. If there is no interest, I won't pursue it. I know I don't have the readers some of my blog friends do, but perhaps if there is interest, you can help spread the word!
GRANDPOP'S STORE
In today's story (4th in a series), I am borrowing from an earlier post in October to share again about my grandfather's store I used to visit when I was growing up. I had been making an altered cigar box for a project and it brought back those memories, as you will read.
"I finished my Altered Cigar Box today for the Bloggerettes Fall Findings Swap; it was a new experience for me to alter a cigar box.
I have several that used to belong to my mother, she used them to store everything from art supplies to rubber bands. I think she got them back when my grandfather used to own and operate a small country store/gasoline station back in the 50's and 60's. It was in a tiny village in South Carolina and some of the grandkids would take turns spending a week there during the summer. It was the classic country store, with items on shelves, a large butcher case with meats, a soda vending machine where you had to slide the pop bottle out by its neck along a horizontal track, a pickle barrel, potbellied stove with a checker board nearby and a couple of chairs. Grandpop sold everything from food, gardening implements, shotgun shells, hardware, household supplies, gasoline and candy. The candy sat on the counter in large glass jars, and we were offered a variety while we were there. The old gasoline pumps used to fill up at the top with a gallon of gas before it would come out through the hose to the car's gas tank. Later, he got more modern tanks, which would make a "ding" sound each time a gallon was dispersed. There was a train track across the highway from the store, and several times a week, Grandpop would take a large sack of mail up the steps to a small platform alongside the tracks and hoist it up to the top of a beam. When the train would come through, it slowed down enough for the engineer to take a long gaffer pole and hook the sack and bring it into the train. At the same time, another sack would be dumped onto the platform. That was how the mail came and went in this small village.
Outside, set back a little way from the store, was an ice house, where huge chunks of ice were kept cool with large bales of straw and complete darkness. The store itself was L shaped, with the bottom part of the L being my grandparent's living quarters. They had a generous front porch on which the adults would sit, and the cousins would play in the china berry tree. We would always be scolded for using the china berries as weapons, because they were so hard, they would leave little bruises when one would be flung toward an adversary and found its mark. That's also where I saw my first Lantana bush as a child. I was fascinated with the clusters of small, multicolored flowers all on one shrub.
Anyway, my parents grew up in the Great Depression and literally never threw anything away. And with six children in my household, it made a difference, although there were times when we really disliked some of my parent's money saving habits. However, my father could repair almost anything, having grown up on a farm, and we very rarely ever saw a repairman at our house. So, I came by these cigar boxes in a round about way and they remind me of much of which is lost today. Frugality has its place and I think many families are finding that out."
Determined to enjoy the beauty in Winter, hope you can do the same!!
