Maps

Since you seemed to enjoy the drawings yesterday, I thought I would post the maps today. Some are done by the same children so I would assume they are from the same year, 1894.Gertie Smith, 96%
Anne M Smith, 97%
Marion A Seekins, 95%
Myra A Seekins, 95%
Arthur Bush

Just some junk!

I found these scrapbooks in a box of junk left at the church several years ago. They are full of all kinds of pictures. Most have been cut out from cards. Of course the paper they are on is crumbling and most can't be removed in one piece. I have cut some things out to use for different projects. Today I'm going to show you some separate papers that were in the books.
I love this water color! The back says October Days- Along the Mississip! 1910 Jessica Jones.
The rest are pencil drawings. Each one is signed, with the childs age and dated. Some other maps I found were also graded. I'm wondering if they belonged to a teacher because the names are different.
Irvin Cross, 9, Jan 31, 1894
Floyd R.M. Williams, 12, Jan 30, '94 Myra Seekins, 10, Feb 1, 1984
Gertie Smith, 11, Feb 8, 1894
Clara A Wilbur, 9, Feb 5, 1894
Nellie M Wilbur, 11, Feb 2 1894

I know these are hard to see, clicking to enlarge might help, but it fascinates me that they are in such good shape after all these years!

Show and Tell

I got this piece that says family when we went shopping in Erie in January. I love it but wasn't happy with it any where I put it. When I went to Buffalo this week I found this at AC Moore for about 22 dollars. Not a bad price and with a little work I knew I'd love it.

First I painted it a couple coats of off white.

Then I took my hand sander to it and roughed up the edges a little.
Put some water based stain over the whole piece and rubbed it off.Now I love it!
Just what I had in mind.
I love the dental molding and all the detail. What do you think?

To check out more Show and Tell posts and to find out how to join us, go visit Kelli's House.

Happy Valentines Day!

Wierd weather

It was really beautiful here this morning! Everything was covered with snow. The trouble is that ice was holding the snow on. I don't want to be under a tree when it lets loose!

This is the railing to my shop. If you look close you can see that what isn't covered in snow is covered in ice.
Can you see the line in the middle of the snow? That is solid ice!
It snowed 4 to 6 inches yesterday. In the evening it started raining. It froze the minute it hit the ground (or car). It was pouring when I came home at 10. The roads were like a skating rink. Sometime during the night it snowed a couple more inches. Nice heavy shoveling this am! I had to wash my car because it was completely encased in ice. Big chunks were flying off the roof when the water got under it. Now the sun is shining and it looks beautiful!
Is any one else ready for spring?

A clear report!

I had to go to Buffalo to get my stitches out and a report on the mole. Removing the stitches wasn't too pleasant but the report was good! Just a plain old mole. Even though I expect a good report I'm always relieved to get one.

We are under a storm warning until tomorrow but the roads were clear all the way there. When I left the Dr's office it was snowing and snowed all the way home. No problems, but I'm glad I came right home. We've been having some very cold weather. Into the single digits and minuses. It started at 3 when I got up this AM but it's clear up to 18 now.

These pictures are my bedroom window yesterday morning. The light you can see is the sun.

What do you think?

People tell me all the time that they think Jerzie looks like me. I just don't see it. I don't think my kids look like me either but others do. So who do you think she looks like?
Her Gramma?
Her Aunt Laurie?
Or her Daddy?

Cousin connection

My Mom had 2 brothers that had 4 daughters each. This first picture is missing the youngest cousin as she wasn't born yet.My one uncle and his family followed my Grandparents to Florida. When Gramma and Grandpa were living there we would see them occasionally. With both their parents and Gramma and Grandpa gone we have pretty much lost touch except for the occasional Christmas card. The last couple years we only heard from one of the 4 girls, the youngest.
When I sent out my cards this year I put in a paper with my blog address on it. Before long I heard from J! She had checked out my blog and wrote to tell me she enjoyed it. She then passed the address to her sister in Georgia. Her young daughter left a comment on my blog with her and her Mom's e-mail addresses. Of course I contacted them. Then her Mom R got in touch with me. It is so great to connect with these long lost cousins! I'm hoping to hear from the others too. I've passed the e-mails on to my brother and I'm sure he will contact them too.

Say what you will about the demise of the paper letter but I know we would not keep in touch if we couldn't e-mail. I've said it before but it's worth repeating. You can't imagine all the good things that come from having a blog!

It's great to be in contact again, cousins!!

Hello, God

I may be way behind the times but I just heard a great song by Dolly Pardon called "Hello God". The words are amazing and really relevant to our world. If you would like to hear the song and read the words click "Hello God". You can also see Dolly singing it by putting "Hello God" into the search engine at YouTube. I enjoyed the music and lyrics the best as I find watching Dolly very distracting. Please check it out even if you are not a Dolly fan. Leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Show and Tell

While talking to a customer about my family one day she said she thought her Mother had gone to the same school at about the same time as my Dad. A couple weeks later she brought in her Mothers yearbook and showed me pictures of my Dad.
I mentioned this to my Dad's sister and she said she had his yearbook. I was really excited when she gave it too me.
My Dad is in the second row, second from the left.
I remembered looking at my Mom's yearbook since I was young. We still lived in the same town and it was fun to see people I knew and considered old as young people.
My Mom is in the second row down, on the left.
Mom was salutorian of her class and had saved everything!
The program and the invitation to commencement
and even the invitation to the Semi-Formal Promanade!
My brother and I have really enjoyed learning more about our parents thru these books. Our Father died from polio when we were 4(me) and 6(my brother) and we had very little knowledge of his younger years. My brother had polio at the same time and was in the hospital for a year. My Mom never seemed to be able to talk about Dad with us. I suppose it hurt too much. I am so lucky to have these memories of our parents past.
For more Show and Tell post visit Kelli's House.

Bucket List

Tracey has tagged me for a "bucket list". She has been tagged for several memes lately and she's getting real cranky about it! I think she's trying to make everyone suffer with her! (lol) This meme really made me think about things so I did enjoy doing it. There are no rules except to give your list of five things you want to do before you die, based on the movie The Bucket List. I think this could get quite interesting!

1. This one surely won't surprise anyone that knows me well. I want to see my granddaughter ( and at least one more grandchild) grow up! I became a Grandma a little late in life so I'll have to stay around until I'm real old!

2. I'd also like to see my kids settled in homes they expect to live in forever. Both my kids and their spouces would like homes outside the city and I'd love to be a part of their move.

3. I'd love to do something that involved interior design. I've enjoyed decorating my home and helping others with theirs. If it wasn't too late for a "do over" I'd go in that field instead of hair styling.

4. I'd love to have a jetted bath tub installed in my upstairs, unused bathroom! Now that's a real dream! It would help me a lot with my fibromyalgia.

5. I'd love to some day be able to actually retire! I know I'll have to work for several more years because I've never made much money and my SS check will be small but I'd love to reach a point where I could just work when and if (and on who ever!) I wanted to. I'm sure anyone in a service field knows what I mean!

I'm sure my "bucket list" is different from a lot of peoples. I'm a stay at home person that is not into travel or fancy vacations. So what is your "bucket list"? I'm going to tag Pea, Chris and Laurie, Zoey and Dawn but I'd love to read your list even if you're not tagged. Just leave me a message and let me know you've done it.

Redo

I decided to work on my bedroom this weekend. I don't have the roof fixed yet but that only affects one wall. Since I had stuff from the bedroom in the living and dining rooms I had to do something or go crazy. I found a border I liked on Saturday and then started painting. I had sponge painted it before and was tired of that but still liked the color. I used the top color which was the darker one and just painted over the sponging. I like that it is not totally covered so it still has a dimensional look.
Sunday I put up the border and put stuff back on the walls, except for the damaged wall.
I could use everything I had on the walls before because my accent color was still green.
As soon as I get the roof fixed I'll fix and paint the last wall. I'm real happy with how it came out and I do like the dark purple walls.