Changing Purposes

When I started in the online Mixed Media Workshop, one of the earliest projects was to do a mixed media college on Tyvek. My first one was not to my liking at all, and the second was better (here), the third the best (I thought). I don't think I posted the third one, shame on me! If I did, just enjoy it again~ here it is:

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So, back to the first one I did. I decided to cut it up for different projects. The first two cuts I did were made into postcards. I made a 6 x 4 template hole in a piece of cardboard and it works great! After cutting out the selected piece, it's glued to same size card stock for stiffness and writing ability. 

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Postage has gone up one cent here in the US for domestic postcards, but thankfully not for first class mail or international mail. With all the postcards I send, every penny counts!

Hope you enjoyed the art work!

Rebecca

Tag Tuesday - Arbor Day; and a Story: REGIONAL DIFFERENCES

For the Tag Tuesday challenge - today's theme is Arbor Day (USA). National Arbor Day is the tree planter's holiday, and has been celebrated since 1872. It began in Nebraska, a largely treeless plain back in the 1800's. It's always the last Friday of April, a day to plant and dedicate a tree to help nature and the environment. Millions of trees will be planted Friday, April 29, 2011.

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For more information about how I made the tag, or to join the challenge, click here.

REGIONAL DIFFERENCES

Sixteenth in the Tuesday Story Series

In 1973, I moved from Columbia SC to outside of Harrisburg PA, in the small town of Dillsburg. My mother's family lived in south central Pennsylvania and I was looking forward to seeing my grandmother more often. I had moved because I was young,  I was tired of living in Columbia and I thought I'd try something different. 

In Autumn, it was wonderful to experience the weather and the brilliance of the leaves. In Columbia, there is a slight change of seasons; in Charleston, there are only two seasons: Hot and Not. So it was a heady change of pace for me. The people I met were very pleasant, although they did tease me about my accent. I thought I would probably stay in the area for awhile.

Then, things began to change. There were two main reasons for this - the weather and the food. Having been raised in the South, there were some foods I began to miss after a few months. I remember stopping at a diner one morning to have breakfast and asked the waitress (that's what they were called back then) if they had grits. She looked at me strangely and said "What's a grit?". And I was used to BBQ being pork with a mustard base, not beef with a tomato base, which was all there was available. When I went into a restaurant in the evening during winter, and asked for iced tea (THE southern staple!), I would get another strange look and would be brought a glass of ice and hot tea in a pot. 

I think what capped it in the area of food were the turnip greens. Growing up, we would cube the turnips and cook them in a pot with the washed tops and they were delicious. I went to several large supermarkets in the area and I found fresh turnips (the greens had been cut off), canned turnips, and even frozen turnips, but no greens anywhere. Finally I approached a store manager, asked him where I could find this particular delicacy and then received a VERY strange look! "Lady," he said slowly "We feed those to the pigs."

Turnips, greens and cornbread - mmm mmm!

And then winter....... I loved the first couple of snow falls, but then the snow stayed on the ground. And continued to stay, adding more with each snowfall. It turned yellow in a lot of places, or was full of dirt.  And it was cold and it stayed cold. At that time, if you didn't have money for a snow mobile, or didn't ice skate or ski, you stayed indoors. In Columbia it may have snowed once a winter, or if it was very cold, it wouldn't stay that way, after a few days it would warm up a bit. I found out first hand what it was like to have cabin fever. In January, there was the "January Thaw", the temperatures went up into the 50's and people were walking around with shirtsleeves. I did not think that was funny, I thought they were crazy. By March, I had moved back to South Carolina, all the way back to Charleston!

I realize that over time, regional differences have shrunk, and you can find any food just about anywhere. And now that I live in the mountainous area of the state, I experience the full four seasons. It even snows more than once a winter here too! But I am always more than ready for Spring and would not want to move any further north. It's quite lovely in the area of Pennsylvania where my mother's family was from, but I am content to have it as a destination instead of a residence. I guess you just can't take the Southern out of the girl raised in the South!

Rebecca

The Finnish Grannies

I have mentioned from time to time that I participate in an online postcard exchange called Postcrossing. It's been over a year for me and I have exchanged over 320 postcards with people all over the world. I have a couple of pen pals from it too! It's free to join and of course you pay your postage on each card. During the past 18 months I have seen some beautiful cards and lots of places I would love to visit. Postcrossing was started about 5 years ago by a man in Portugal as a way to help people interact with other people from other nations and countries; I see it as a small way to reach out in friendliness to people I will mostly never meet - an emissary from the USA, sort of. So far the country with the most members is Finland, and the USA is second. There are only 5 small countries in Africa which have no Postcrossing members, and several other countries have only one or two members. But Postcrossing has grown quite a bit and I think it is a marvelous thing to do.

In today's post, I wanted to share some of my favorite postcards to receive - the Finnish Grannies. These are postcards which come from the artwork of Inge Look from Finland, and they portray two elderly ladies who have a zest for life and don't really give a rip about what other people think of their actions. So far I have 7 of them, sent by various friendly people from Finland and I look forward to getting more. My understanding is that there are many, many more portraits of these down-to-earth ladies so I really hope I can keep collecting them for quite a while!

I am sharing these postcards with you - hope you enjoy them! Be sure and click on the photo so you can see the details.

See? They love getting mail as much as I do!!! :)

Have a great day!

Rebecca

Tag Tuesday - Happy Easter! and a story: START AT TWO

For this week's Tag Tuesday, the theme is Easter, as we approach Easter Sunday. This is my tag, and if you would like more info on the materials,and to see the work of other artists, please click here. The basic image came from a postcard my grandmother Alice received in 1911.

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Last week Tuesday was not a good day health wise, so there was no story. It was nice to know, though, that it was missed!

START AT TWO

Sixteenth in the Tuesday Story Series

My father was an upright man who worked hard for his family and was a faithful loving husband to my mother. When he was in his fifties, and I in my thirties, we developed a close relationship which lasted until his death in 2005. Before that time, our relationship was distant, for diverse reasons. Most of them stemmed out of how I was raised. My grandfather on my dad's side was very autocratic; Dad was one of six children, 5 boys and 1 girl. They grew up on a farm during the Depression, so no one was a stranger to hard work and thriftiness. Dad did not have a great role model for how to be close to your children, although he did a much better job than my grandfather did. Earlier I wrote about a cherished time I spent with my father here. I was six then, and over the next decade, my parents had six children; Dad worked many long hours and there just didn't seem to be time to parcel out his attention to all of us individually. Years later when I was in high school, he realized he was putting too many hours in at the office and changed professions. But by that time for me, it was too late. As I had grown up, he became more uncomfortable about being alone with me, and we couldn't seem to talk about anything without it turning into a lecture. I think that changed a lot when the youngest were in high school, thankfully. And as I stated earlier, we did develop a friendship as adults.

Many years later, when our daughter Tabitha was born, I asked my husband John to promise me he would spend one on one time with her, especially during the teen years. He did so willingly and began almost immediately. I had read once that if you want to have a good relationship with your teenage children, start when they are two years old. I would amend that to "start right away"! 

John began reading to Tabitha early on and did so into her teen years. He and she would go on "dates" for Saturday morning breakfast and he would listen to her chatter about everything as they sat eating at McDonald's. As she grew older, they would eat at more "grown-up" places, and although the subject matter would change, he still listened. I was very grateful.

As she was growing up, John made a point to be available for any kind of discussion and so as she changed and hormones would sometimes cause confusion, she knew that she could talk with her Papa about anything she was experiencing and he would not pull away in embarrassed silence. As a 27 year old adult, she still spends time with her Papa. A couple of weeks ago they went to see a play together. I'm not saying John always understands her, after all, Men are from Mars and all that sort of thing, but they have a precious relationship! And that certainly makes me happy too! 

Hope you have a blessed Easter this Sunday!

Rebecca

With Love

Today I wanted to share with readers about a wonderful person I know. Her name is Judy and she is one of my sisters. I admire her very much and she has been a great encouragement to me. Judy has been through many painful experiences in her life and right now, because of a fall at her place of employment several months ago, she is experiencing constant pain and sleepless nights. It's been very slow progress for her, for a multitude of reasons, but she perseveres. She has grown in her faith and willingly shares it with all, and even in her darkest, most painful times, has encouragement to share with me. There have been many times during the course of my illness when I have felt that there were an extreme minimum number of people who truly understood I was, and am, really ill and she is always in that group. Although she only lives about two and half hours from me, it's been several years since I have seen her because I can't travel and she isn't able to drive.

Thanks to her loving and faithful friend Michele, she is able to make short trips to the store; Michele has accompanied her to her doctor's visits and elsewhere, and has done so many things for her, that I think Michele is an honorary sister! Judy lives alone with her furry cat babies and I'm so happy to know that she has friends to come and visit with her.

Judy has an artistic side as well, with her camera. She has taken many wonderful nature photographs which exemplify the majesty of God and His creation. I was blessed to receive as a gift from her the framed photograph below, which has always been one of my favorites. It's a bit tricky to take a picture of something framed with glass but I hope you can see it well enough to enjoy it!

Foggy Morning On The Pond

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Can you see the spiderweb to the left of the old stump? It's fragile and gossamer looking next to the solidity of the stump. And the stump shows signs of new life, although it had been cut and left for dead, it didn't give up. At this time of year, as Christians contemplate the death and resurrection of our Lord Christ Jesus, it's a blessing to think how often we are encouraged by the lives of others who just don't give up, and who instead grow in grace and faith. That's my sister!

She always reads my blog postings (Lead On Lord is her sign in name) and so I know she will read this. 

This is for you, Judy, with love!

Rebecca

A Bit Behind

If anyone was looking for the usual Tuesday Story yesterday (and I hope there were a few people!), I apologize. Yesterday was not a great day for me health wise and I couldn't think clearly enough to string words together. It was also Tag Tuesday, which I now host on a second blog, and thankfully I had done the tag over the weekend. This week's theme was The Chair.

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If you would like to see how I did it, click here, and you will also be able to click on the links of other artists who are participating. The Tuesday Story will return next week, provided all else is well.

Update on the birds - the Bluebird eggs have all hatched and they are so teensy and helpless! The Carolina Wren is still sitting on her 4 eggs. And speaking of Carolina Wrens - my daughter lives in an old house which still has the old fashioned kind of mailbox up by the front door, even though it's no longer used for mail. A couple of weeks ago, she noticed Carolina Wrens building a nest in it, and now they have 4 eggs! I think that is so neat that God gives us such unusual ways to see the beauty of His creation.

Hope your week is going well!

Rebecca

Creation to fruition process!

I have mentioned on this blog that I am a member of the ATCdivas group, and we have an themed exchange once a month. When I make ATCs for them, they need to be as alike as possible, and I usually create 6 or 7 depending on who's playing that month. Sometimes it's difficult for me to do this because I tend to put a lot of time into an ATC and I don't always have the time to do 7 in a row, or the energy, but I don't want to sacrifice quality. So this month for the theme of flowers, I came up with a different plan to try and I think it worked pretty well. I first made a collage background on a sheet of 12 x 16 canvas paper by gluing several torn papers, pages, scraps of music and even an old French paper bond from the 1800's.

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As you can see, it has a nice mixture of dark and light. After it had dried, I began altering the whole background with gesso, thinned acrylic paint, rub ons, rubber stamps, walnet ink and more, with this result:

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There is some slight glare from the camera, but you get the idea. Then I cut 7 pieces the size of an ATC (2.5" x 3.5") and starting adding prima flowers altered with ditress ink, number stickers, additional detail, and here is the final result:

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I really am pleased with the way they turned and the fact that the texture and depth of the background really is part of the overall pieces. It's a lot better, I think, than using a picture of a collage where the texture is flat. And I even have a big chunk left over to use with other projects!

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Maybe for the next tag I design for the challenge I host, I will use some more of this. It is really easy to do and I think I will be doing more of it in the future!

UPDATE on the bird's nests - the Bluebirds are sitting on 5 lovely eggs and the Carolina Wren on 4. The Goldfinches can drain a full thistle feeder in less than 2 days and I am having to really stay on top of all of the feeders, because of the large crowds of birds. One time I counted 8-9 cardinals out there at once! The territorial calls are going strong, especially the Tufted Titmouse. Sometimes I want to call out to it "OK! OK! We get it- it's your territory, please calm down!!" But I am so happy to hear them and to have my windows open!

Hope you have a blessed day!

Rebecca

Tag Tuesday - Postcard Cutout, and A Story: TELLING TIME

This past week has been a rough one health wise, so I haven't posted anything since the last Tag Tuesday! We had another great turn out and I'm glad people are enjoying the challenge. If you want to see the other artists' work or join the challenge, click here!

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This is sort of simple this week, but hey - I'm glad I was feeling well enough to do something! I traced a tag shape on a postcard, cut it out and added some Tim Holtz vintage image tape on the left side and sticky ribbon across the top. I then cut out the door to the Art Hall and glued a colorful image in the opening, added a metal H, an arrow, brads and a tiny crown. It's finished off with a word cutout.

TELLING TIME

15th in a Tuesday Story Series

I grew up with analog clocks. My daughter grew up with digital clocks. I never thought much about the difference until a few years ago. When I was teaching her to tell time, I used a cardboard cutout of an analog clock but as she got older, digital clocks were fast becoming the preferred choice on radios, VCRs, CD players, and everything else that wanted to feature telling time as a selling point. So when she would hear me say " It's twenty minutes till nine (or whatever hour)", she would translate that in her head as it's 8:40. And conversely, if I asked her the time, she would say 8:40, and I would translate that in MY head as twenty minutes till nine!

Finally one day she asked me, somewhat exasperated, why I told time that way. I was startled when she did, because I had never really thought about it. Part of it was, of course, you do what you are used to doing (or saying). So unless I was actually looking at a digital clock, I continued to say, or read, the time as analog. I preferred an analog watch, and I had a battery run analog clock in the kitchen. 

Recently I was pondering why is that I still prefer analog clocks. I have a red antique  looking French clock in my studio, and not too long ago I purchased a bedside clock with an analog face for my nightstand. I think it's because when I see the face, I see the immediate past and future at one time. I can see the time I have left or the time I've spent doing something; in a digital clock, it's only about that moment, glaring out at you in red lights (usually). On an analog clock, time is spread out, you have a better grasp of where you are and how much lays before you. 

When I was a small child, I remember spending a week with my grandparents and they had an old wind up chime clock on the wall. In the room where I slept, I could hear it ticking in the hallway, and it had a strangely comforting sound. Grandpop would wind the clock every morning and check his pocket watch to it. There is something about a ticking clock that has an ethereal whisper about it, when you stop and think, because it brings us closer to eternity - when there will be no time as we know it.

Recently I was writing a correspondence to a friend who lives out of state; he had written concerning my health and a particularly stressful experience we are having with a family member. I'm enclosing the last paragraph of that letter to him and I hope you will be encouraged by it for the different times of your life! 

When my mother died in 2007 and we were cleaning out her little house, I brought a battered old clock home along with many other things. I kept that small bedside clock on my nightstand. It had to be wound every day and the rim was bent and the "night glow" feature no longer worked. I remember that clock being on my parent's bedside when I was a small child. If I wound it too much, it would stop and I would have to jiggle the knob a bit to get it running again. But I loved the soft tick tock. It finally stopped altogether a few months ago, and there seemed to be an empty space in the air around my night stand. I finally replaced it with a very similar one; it's battery operated and its a bit bigger (so I can see the numbers easily) but the ticking is like the little old clock. It's a reminder to me that time is not infinite - each tick brings me closer to the time when eternity will replace this battered place and body with perfection. And even on my worse days, or when the drama erupts again, or loneliness clouds my thoughts, the ticking continues. Whatever happens in my life does not stop time, does nothing to make time stand still. And I remember that God is like that, He is not stopped by what I am enduring, He loves the bent and the broken, and He is more faithful than the clock. This too shall pass, and someday, will pass into eternity. 

Have a great Tuesday!!

Rebecca

Tag Tuesday - VIntage Sewing, and a Story: AGAINST THE ODDS

The tag challenge this week is Vintage Sewing. There were 20 people responding last week, my first week for running the challenge - I think that's great! If you want to see how I made this tag, and see the Sampler of the other artists' work, click here!

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There is glitter on the tag, it just doesn't show in the photo  - boo!

Against The Odds

14th in the Tuesday Story Series

Many years go, in the Seventies, I used to work in the Accounts Payable department of Ryder Truck Rental in Columbia, SC. Ryder is a large national chain, and rents everything from small trucks to tractor trailers. Working in an office was not really a good job for me, but I had to take what I could get at the time. After being there for a while, I heard about a way to earn extra money. Because so many trucks would be rented at point A and driven to point B, there were times when some of the trucks at point B would need to be moved back to to point A. Did you follow that? And Ryder paid extra money to a qualified driver to move trucks on weekends by taking drivers in a van to where ever there were too many trucks, and they'd drive them back. The picture below is the familiar small truck seen on the road.

A qualified driver meant that you had to have your CDL - Commercial Driver's License. And to have one of those, you needed to take several tests, one of them being a road test. So I thought it would be fun to apply for my CDL and earn extra money on weekends. Now, remember, this was the Seventies, and you just did not see many women at that time driving trucks. And the attitude among many in the industry was that was the way it was supposed to be!

I talked with my office supervisor, Chuck, about the steps to take. To my surprise, he was very supportive and told me what I needed to do. I had to take an exam and then the Safety Manager would take me out on the road. And the choice of truck would be his. So I took the next available exam and tried to schedule my road test. The Safety Manager kept putting me off and several weeks went by. Meanwhile, I practiced on the lot with whatever truck was available.

Finally I harassed him enough that he gave in. He told me that I could take the test the next day at 5 pm. Did I mention that he was a man with a very strong chauvinistic bent? Five o'clock traffic in Columbia was horrible, and the city is hilly. Nevertheless, I was ready, and met him in the yard the next day.

The first thing I noticed was that he picked the longest straight body truck in the yard. A straight body truck is the biggest you can get before a tractor trailer, something like the one below. 

We climbed into the cab and off we went. As I changed gears, drove through traffic and had to stop and start on steep hills, he would pepper me with questions from the manual. I was a little nervous but managed to answer everything, even as I feigned confidence. When we finally returned, he didn't say anything to me, just got out of the truck and headed inside. Somewhat confused, I followed him and saw him go into Chuck's office. I went over to my desk and waited. I could see him through the glass walls, slumped in his chair and shaking his head.

Convinced I had messed up somewhere, I kept running the test through my head, trying to figure out what I had done wrong. Then I saw Chuck smiling at him and they both got up and came out. The Safety Manager mumbled "You did fine. You should have your CDL in a couple of days." and walked off. Relieved, I turned to Chuck who was laughing. He said the guy came in, sat down, muttered an expletive, and said "I don't believe it! She passed!" I was thrilled! And the rest of the time I worked at Ryder, I spent a lot of my weekends driving all over the state in a truck, making pretty good money! And enjoying it!

Collage on Deli Wrap

Another fun lesson from the Mixed Media Melange workshop. This is a collage on deli wrap paper. I added fabric, papers, cheesecloth, origami mesh, and acrylic paints. Then I top stitched on it and added vintage buttons and waxed linen thread. Now I need to think of a title for this!

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I really really enjoy making collages! I am going to be framing
some of these and hanging them.

And a quick Spring update - last week bluebirds built a nest in the bluebird box and Carolina Wrens built their nest using the nesting platform on the barn. Today I found 3 lovely Bluebird eggs in the nest, and 1 in the Wren nest. I will check on them later to see what the final count is.

Tag Tuesday - Think Spring! And a story: A QUESTIONABLE ROOMMATE; And a surprise!

Okay, surprise first - Louise at Kard Krazy is no longer doing Tag Tuesday! Waah! But wait! I AM! I decided that since so many of us enjoy doing the weekly tags, I would try hosting it. The address for the new blog is here! SO, I will be posting my tag on both blogs, because I know there are some who read this blog who don't participate and would still like to see it. The challenge today was to Think Spring!

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If you want information about how I did it, you can click on the link above.

A Questionable Roommate

13th in the Tuesday Stories Series

When I was still single, I was living on Folly Beach, outside of Charleston SC. I became friends with a couple of other women at my church and they had just moved to the Isle of Palms, another island on the other side of the Charleston peninsula and asked me to share the house with them. It seemed like a wonderful idea, so I took them up on their offer. As usual, there was a honeymoon period while we became better acquainted with each other. One day, we sat down to divide up chores and reality sort of snuck up behind us and gave us a little smack. 

Janie, Glenda and I (and yes, I have changed names here!) were discussing what needed to be done on a regular basis; well, actually Janie and I were discussing it, Glenda was strangely silent. Occasionally she would nod, or murmur something but she didn't contribute much to the overall conversation. After we had listed the housekeeping chores and set up a rotating calendar, we posted the list on the refrigerator. Things seemed to go along pretty well, but we began to notice that when it was Glenda's turn to sweep and vacuum the floors, or dust, or defrost the freezer (yes, it was an old fridge), it was hardly being done. We finally had a talk with her and she looked at us and said "I don't know how to sweep." 

Surprised, we said "Well, we can show you."

"Umm, I don't know how to dust, either."

More than surprised now, we just stared at her. Finally I said "I don't understand - didn't you have chores to do when you were growing up?"

"No. My mother had maids, and I wasn't allowed to do any housework."

I'm afraid we both just stared at her as we tried to take all that in. Suddenly her very messy room, with clothes everywhere, started to make sense, and the unwashed dishes after she had eaten, and the litter box........

Ah yes, the litter box! Glenda had a very neurotic Siamese cat which mewed all day, and especially when she was at work. The litter box seemed to hardly ever be changed and as it grew worse and worse, Janie and I would bug her about it, but usually we ended up cleaning it so we could have guests without being embarrassed.

After the chores discussion, we set about trying to teach her the basics of keeping a house clean. She sort of half heartedly tried, but the truth was she really didn't WANT to learn and always had an excuse for pushing whatever chore she had onto us. The last straw was that litter box. It simply stunk.

Finally one day I told Janie that we needed to put our foot down because I was tired of being taken advantage of. We penned the cat and the litter box up in Glenda's room, made sure the windows were shut, and waited. When she came home from work, she opened the door to her room and we heard a loud "GAAAAHHHH!!!" She swept out of her room demanding to know why we played such a joke on her, and I told it was no joke, we were tired of doing her work for her and of the house smelling like a public toilet. She was not happy, but we were.

Eventually (pretty soon after that actually) she moved out. She was engaged and wanted to move into the apartment they would be sharing after the marriage. We knew that the future groom had no idea she didn't do housework and felt sorry for the guy. The rent may have been higher after she left, but it sure was a more pleasant place to live!

Reverse Collage on Plexiglas

In the Mixed Media Melange class, this lesson was to do another reverse collage, this time on Plexiglas. So once again, you are looking at this through the Plexiglas and I had to do everything in reverse.

Vins Emporter

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The image of the vintage French wine label was put on as a transfer with a gel medium, collage bits added in layers, lace and stenciling also added. Acrylic paint added in transparency colors and also in opaque.

This was time consuming, because at first I had a lot of trouble with the transfer; in fact, this is the fourth one! The first three times was another image which I finally gave up on. Each time I had to scrap off the transfer which didn't adhere properly, so I am really kind of tired now. I'm pretty pleased with this as the first one, and will do others.

Tag Tuesday - Surprise, sort of, and a Story: UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

Well, the "surprise" is that there is no Tag Tuesday challenge today, but if you read my post last Tuesday, you aren't really surprised at all! The art I do have for you today is pretty simple.

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This was done a week ago for something my daughter is doing. Back in January we were both struggling with facing the long cold days till the first day of Spring and she came up with the idea of posting a count down photo on her Facebook account. Each day would be a different picture with the number of days left till that day came. She started with 68 and has been faithful to have something unique each day. She is a very talented artist and the pictures have been very creative. There have been a few "guest" artists and I was one of them. Obviously I did the artwork for 13 days left till Spring. 

I did this on a 4 x 4, using alcohol ink and a blending tool. Then I rubber stamped the Rook card on it and attached some fabric leaves and crepe flowers. Pretty simple, but colorful. (You may have noticed that the same Rook card showed up in last week's tag - it was a cast off piece which worked well!)

Today's story is actually from a post I did last June. I've had a few not so great days and some "brain fog" so it was hard to think clearly. Hope you enjoy it again!

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

12th in the Tuesday Story Series

Living in the country as we do now, we catch a whiff of skunk odor every now and then when we are driving on the roads. It reminds me of an experience we had several years ago and since we now live close to the State Park where this happened, I wouldn't be surprised if it happened again when we go camping there.


We were still living in Charleston and had taken the camper to Table Rock State Park in the mountains. After settling in and enjoying the park that first day, the children had gone to sleep and John and I stretched out on full length folding chairs to talk and rest. After it had gotten quite dark, we noticed several animals moving about in the shadows cast by the yellow outdoors light from the camper. Suddenly they came right toward us, sniffing the ground and looking for any bits of food. There were at least 8 skunks, black and white, blond and black, black, white and blond. 


They acted as if we weren't there and we just froze. Several went right underneath our legs on the chair, bumping against us with their backs. All I could think of was how horrible it would smell if all of those skunks were upset at once! We sat still and did whisper to each other once or twice, and they just ignored us, continuing their search for any crumbs of food in the campsite. Eventually, they left as nonchalantly as they had entered, and we were able to take a deep breath! I'm still amazed at the variety of colors and patterns I saw. I wish I had had my camera, but then again, that might have been the one thing they would not have liked!


Early last year, we found a dead skunk in the road in front of our house and the dogs were all excited and wanted to use it as a toy. Visions of having to purchase a case of tomato juice to bathe two dogs outside in icy weather quickly convinced us that the only thing to do was to bury it as soon as possible. We dug a hole by the side of the road and deposited the skunk. A few months later, I noticed that the skunk, or what was then left of it, had been dug up and taken off somewhere by some animal. The odor still hung in the air around the empty hole in the ground. I'm sure glad it was not on the dogs fur!


If you are interested, click to see the variety of skunk colors! In South Carolina we have spotted and striped skunk, and I think we saw both that night.

ATCDivas March ATCs

The theme for the March ATCs was watercolor. 

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Liquid watercolors were added to a babywipe, which was glued to an ATC card and cut to size. Liquid watercolors are so brilliant! I then stamped on a small tag and colored with watercolor crayons then added water with a brush. A small length of fabric leaves and a colorful fish charm were attached, and Gold Leaf pen used in the corners. Since I have to make 7 of these, they had to be rather simple!

Praying for the people of Japan and the Ivory Coast. I have a brother and his wife who are in the Ivory Coast as missionaries and have served over there for 30 years. The situation has been rather overshadowed by the things happening in Egypt and Libya, but it is a very precarious situation with the refusal of the incumbent president to leave since he lost the election in November. There has been much bloodshed and destruction there. Please remember this country in your prayers!

Tag Tuesday - Surprise, and a Story: Black Hawk Waltz

Today's tag theme at Kard Krazy is to create a surprise on your tag. 

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I created the image of a sedate old house, with a shuttered window and then when the window is opened, there is the stamped image of a Rook card on some very bright colors!

No Tag Tuesday challenge next week, but I will have another story on the Tuesday blog.

Black Hawk Waltz

11th in the Tuesday Story Series

My maternal grandmother was born in the tiny Pennsylvania village of Upton in 1897. She was one of six children and her father was the village blacksmith. As my grandmother grew up, she became very adept on the piano and would often play at the parties her contemporaries  gave. Allie, as she was called, would be invited to all the parties because she could play almost anything and at that time, get-togethers in the parlors of homes were the main social events of farming communities and towns. Music was being written just for those social events, and Allie would learn them all with ease. She was so talented on the piano that she was encouraged by others to apply to Julliard, and assured of a scholarship she began to make exciting plans. But this all came to a halt when her father William put his foot down about this "fool nonsense". Girls belonged at home, and not away at a school, especially one that only taught nothing better than music! No matter how much my grandmother wanted to go, there was no persuading him.

Grandmother was about 19 when she had this portrait made, and I have it in my home. My mother had told me how disappointed my grandmother was and that she continued to play at parties and in church, but it was like the fire had gone out inside of her, and for a long time she was very angry with William, (which had some bearing on another decision she made - but that's another story).

As a child, I remember when visiting my grandmother's house, she would often play if we asked her to. She had some favorites among the hymns and a few pieces of secular music but we never let her get up from the piano stool without playing Black Hawk Waltz at least once. I am not sure exactly why we were so taken with that piece, perhaps it was the sweeping chords and how my grandmother played it. It must have had some other memories in it for her, because when she played it, she put emotion in her fingers and it came out in the music.

Years later, our daughter began to take piano lessons and she must have inherited her grandmother's gift, because her fingers could dance over the keys and her sensitivity shone through music. I often wondered what my grandmother would have thought about her great grandchild's playing. Allie had died in 1991 when our daughter was only 8 years old. I thought too of our favorite childhood song and wished I could find that music. But songs popular in the early 1900's were not easily found at that time. There was no Google and there was barely an Internet. So if you could not find something in the library, you just had to keep looking elsewhere.

We often traveled with my husband when he had a business trip and when we could we would visit with friends who had moved out of state. One such trip took us to Boston, and we drove down to spend a few days with family friends who were living in Newport RI. Carolyn and I had decided to spend a day antiquing and so early one morning, we started our trip through several small towns and it was great fun. In the afternoon, we came to a large two story building where many antique dealers had booths on both floors. We agreed that this would be the last stop of the day, and after carefully culling out some real deals downstairs, I debated about whether or not I had the energy to go upstairs and poke through all the offerings. I finally decided to go on up, thinking that I would at least give everything a once over glance. 

At the top of the stairs, slightly to the right, I could see the second booth was small and crammed with music related paraphernalia. There were old record albums, hymnbooks, and even a couple of small instruments. But more than anything else there were boxes and boxes overflowing with sheet music and song books. I wondered once again if I could find my grandmother's song in this pile and sat down on the floor and began sorting through the dusty boxes. After almost 30 minutes, I came across a small book of music entitled "Parlour Songs" and opened it to see the index and there it was on page 8 - Black Hawk Waltz! Suddenly I could hear my grandmother playing it once again and sat there with tears on my cheeks, which is how my friend found me several minutes later.

When we returned to Charleston, I asked our 10 year old daughter if she could try to learn this piece, and play it for my parents when they came down for a visit. It was a stretch for her small hands to play all the chords, but she gamely practised it and she played it well. When my parents arrived a few weeks later, we told them we had a surprise for them, sat them down in the living room and Tabitha went in to the dining room to play. The look on my mother's face was priceless and after the surprise sunk in, she listened to the remainder of the music with a big smile, and a few tears. Black Hawk Waltz is not a great piece of music, but to our family it is a treasure piece and will always bring back many fond memories.

Here is a video of someone playing the song, after their grandmother's funeral. Obviously it was a popular piece in its time!

Reverse Collage on Vinyl

Another lesson from the Mixed Media Collage class I'm taking online. This was something brand new to me! It's a collage on vinyl, sort of a "deconstruction". Everything is done in reverse. You work backwards so that the background pieces go on last, and then paint is added as the final step on any clear area. So, you are looking at it through the vinyl.

I SEE YOU

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I rubber stamped in the right bottom corner and also one of the eyes. I then stamped the other eye on deli paper and flipped it. I save all of my used palette paper, and I cut some of it up to use, as well as lace, gold on netting, small paper bits, tissue paper, small shiny squares, etc. I used deli wrap shapes, but you can't really see them, I think because my color is dark. I tend towards dark, deep colors, so I'm not disappointed they don't show. 

Another thought, having never done this before, I found it hard to get started. I think I let it intimidate me. But once I got started, I was having a lot of fun! There are some things I would do differently, but all in all, I'm pretty pleased with it!

Tag Tuesday - NADA, and a Story: Tale of Two Bridges, part 2

No Tag Tuesday today at Kard Krazy, Louise has some other obligations, but will have a challenge up for next Tuesday. In the meantime, here is another collage on tyvek with acrylic paint.

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I did another one to practice letting the paints flow into each other, which was the object of the lesson. This is actually not finished, but I am waiting for a template to come in the mail to complete it. When everything is finished, I'll put it on here for you to see!

TALE OF TWO BRIDGES (Part Two)

With Apologies to Charles Dickens

(10th in the Tuesday Story series)

Last week I gave a brief history of the first bridge to cross the Cooper River in Charleston SC. In 1966, the Silas Pearman Bridge opened next to the Grace bridge, and immediately both bridges were locally referred to as the "New" Cooper River Bridge and the "Old" Cooper River Bridge. The Pearman bridge was built to help relieve the traffic congestion on the old bridge, and after it opened crossing the river on the Grace bridge was designated as off-limits to anything heavier than a dump truck. By this time, the Grace was 37 years old and the maintenance crews were having a hard time keeping up with the natural deterioration that takes place on a steel bridge. Rusty areas were a common sight and it creaked and groaned, especially in high wind. More than one Charleston resident would wonder aloud if the bridge would just collapse into the river one day. Yet it was still heavily used.

The Pearman bridge was designed with three 12 foot lanes, two bearing traffic from Charleston to Mt. Pleasant and the third lane was reversible. The explanation given for the reversible lane was that this design would help alleviate rush hour traffic. Above the lanes were lights: a green check for "Yes this lane is open for you to drive in your direction" or a red X for "No you don't - it's for the other direction". Well, it's almost surprising how many people did not look up at those bright lights. There were several head on collisions unfortunately, and finally the reversible lane became permanent. So now the bridge had two permanent lanes going north and one lane going south towards Charleston.

Here's a photo of the Pearman bridge before it was dismantled. Now, notice anything odd about it? There are no divisions between the south bound and north bound lanes! Many people continued to lose their lives in collisions on this bridge while officials frantically searched for a way to divide them safely. Nothing ever worked satisfactorily, and in my humble opinion, this was a very poor design from the beginning!

In 2005, The Ravenel Bridge was opened, and the other two bridges were taken down. The new bridge is lovely, and even has a separate lane for pedestrian traffic. It has 8 twelve foot lanes and is high enough for the largest ship heading to the ports to move under it with ease. It's a bridge whose time was long overdue, and it certainly makes things easier for those on both sides of the river. However, I do miss those silhouettes of the other bridges, once among the most immediate images of Charleston! For many my age, it's hard to think of Charleston any other way.

If you were wondering how the bridges were dismantled, this video 

will give you a quick hint!

Theme Thursday - Flourishes

Ahh, yes, I know it's Friday, but with this illness, I have learned when I better lie down and not do much (or it just gets worse), and yesterday was one of those days. Soooo, today I'm doing Theme Thursday  and the subject was flourishes.

ASIAN LADIES

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I haven't done anything Asian in a while, so I chose that for my direction. This is a 4 x 4, and the background is archaic Japanese print on rice paper. The vintage image of the women was aged and put down with torn red texts and a postage stamp with a lantern over it was added. The flourishes are black "gems".

The temperature is nice today but it is exceedingly windy! The bird feeders are swinging and leaves are flying in mini dust devils. The birds here have been making their spring calls, even though it is still February and the Spring Peepers chorus is taking place each night. According to the weather forecast, it looks like it will be that way for a while (except for the wind, hopefully!) so I really hope we do not get an intense cold snap . But, after all it is still February and it's really not supposed to be doing this!

And I wanted to say thanks to all of you who read my stories on Tuesdays. I've been getting some nice comments - it certainly gives me encouragement!

Tag Tuesday - Postcard, and a Story: Tale of Two Bridges, part 1

Anything to do with a postcard, that's the theme at Kard Krazy today.

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I copied the back of an old French postcard and made it into a tag, extra postage stamps were added and I rubber stamped flowers on the tag. Embellishments include striped tape, velvet flower and 3 tiny keys; distress inks were also used.

TALE OF TWO BRIDGES (Part One)

with apologies to Charles Dickens

(9th in a series of Tuesday Stories)

As I have mentioned before, we lived in Charleston SC before moving up to the mountains. Charleston is a very historic city and has a lot to offer anyone who visits it, from history to nature and enjoying the beaches. However, two of its landmarks are no longer there, but they are etched into the memories of many people - the bridges which crossed the Cooper River.

The first bridge, named the Grace Memorial bridge for a former city mayor, was quite a feat for its time. When it was built, it connected Charleston with Mt. Pleasant and Hwy. 17, which was a major North/South highway long before interstates were built. The Grace bridge was completed and opened in 1929.

As you can see from this old postcard from my collection, it was a very big deal and when it was opened, Charlestonians celebrated for three days! Each lane was only ten feet wide and it was two way traffic. Of course, the cars were much smaller back then!

Opening Day

It remained the only bridge over the Cooper River until construction was started on another bridge in the early 1960's. By this time, traffic was very heavy across the bridge and cars and trucks were much larger than the bridge was built to handle. I remember when my father used to take us for Sunday drives, he often maneuvered the trip to include the bridge, much to my mother's dismay and the children's excitement! It was breathtaking in several ways- both the view and the adrenalin rush of having cars and big tractor trailers come toward you with no room for mistakes. When I had driver's ed in high school, we were required to drive over the bridge before we could pass our driving test. 

Sometimes drivers approaching the bridge from the Mt. Pleasant side would simply stop when the bridge loomed into view, and be afraid to proceed. The county police began offering a service to drivers who would cross the bridge - one officer would drive their car over, and the other officer would follow in the patrol car! In 1946, a freighter hit the bridge, taking out a span and several people lost their lives when their cars plunged into the river far below.

When the Pearman bridge opened, authorities made the Grace a one way bridge coming toward Charleston. A lot of folks would still be nervous driving over it and would drive squarely down the middle. I remember being behind some of those poor people (usually with an out of state tag) and I would get so irritated because not only could I not go around them, they were driving much slower than I wanted to go. When my daughter got her license, she began to drive over the bridge and handled it very well. 

I loved that old bridge, it was great fun to go over in a motorcycle, and I was fearless driving my Excursion over it. I think having driven it when it was two way traffic made driving it as a one way bridge seem a piece of cake. It was like a roller coaster - a steep incline, then almost down to the ground in the middle and back up another incline to finish the trip. When a car broke down on the bridge, there was no place to pull over (except at the middle section of the bridge) so traffic would be backed up for hours. When Charleston started holding its Bridge Run in 1978, they would use the Grace Bridge (also known as the Old Cooper River Bridge by this time) until the bridge became too fragile to withstand the constant pounding of hundreds of pairs of feet. I never ran the bridge, but I did walk in the Walkers group and it was a glorious view to be at the top of a span and see the land and water. 

(Next week, the conclusion of the story)

If you want an idea of how narrow the lanes were on the Grace, this video is a good way to find out.