February 29, 2016 ~ Family Love Tokens

Every time you smile at someone, 

it is an action love,

 a gift to that person, 

a beautiful thing.”
~Mother Teresa

One of my FAVORITE pieces of jewelry is a necklace I had a silversmith friend of mine make for me from my daddy’s family’s love tokens.  During the 1800’s,  people would deface one side of a coin - mine happen to be dimes - and engrave initials, dates, and pictures on the that side. They also placed engravings on rounded pieces of silver.  I have been struggling for years trying to identify the initials and have been successful in some cases.  All of them come from my father’s side of the family. The Hornot’s were French and lived in New Orleans.  A number of years ago  - before Katrina - I spent a week in the genealogy section of the NOLA Pubic Library researching family history, and that is where I was finally able to identify some of the dates and initials. This necklace is another one of my Hornet family “treasures.”

 The following are the pieces that “responded positively” to being photographed!  Many of the tokens are inscribed on both sides. In other words, I couldn’t get the other shots to come out clearly enough to post. I am still having trouble with the silver. At least these will give you an idea of why this necklace is so full of meaning and sentimentality for me.

I am adding one more NEW treasure to this post, and it is a picture done by my granddaughter, Eloise, for her art journal. I gave her one for Christmas 2014, and ever since I started mine I’ve been sharing with her my sketches hoping that she would catch the bug and start sending me some she has done. Well, Saturday she sent me her first and I about flipped out I was so thrilled. I do not know if her mother took a photo of her or she was sitting with her back to the hall closet mirror, but this is of the back of her with her LONG hair that she will cut in June for Locks of Love. Since it is going to continue being a treasure to me - especially since it is her first sketch she has shared - I thought it would be OK to post it here. Oh, I asked her if it would be alright if I posted it on my blog and she said “yes” and  was thrilled to death. It made her so happy...and me, too. She is now 10 years old, and I am smiling at her now.

This post is linked with Tom’s Tuesday’s Treasures.

February 28, 2016 ~ Pam's Basket and a Lady Slipper ~ Art Journal

"Knowledge is power..

   knowledge is safety...

knowledge is happiness."

~Thomas Jefferson

This pretty little basket was made for me some 30 years ago by our art teacher. Pam Tinsley back when we taught at Highland Belle Middle School.  I have used it over and over again through the years, and it is still in pristine condition. It is one of my favorite things in which to place fresh flowers.  I need to learn where to place my journal in order not to get all the noise in the photos. This one is full of it.

The Lady Slipper was sketched using Dr. Oscar Gumption’s book entitled Wildflowers of the Shenandoah Valley and the Blue Ridge Mountains. Dr. Gupton was a professor in the Department of Biology at the Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, VA, during his lifetime. His son continues to be a friend of my boys.

This post is liked with 

Paper, Paint, Pencils, and Pens

and

Friends Meet Friends

Febr4uary 27, 2016 ~ Fresh Flowers and Photoshop Elements 11

“I’d rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck.”

~Emma Goldman

Flowers on My Dining Room Table

They are not roses, but they are still pretty.

February 26, 2016 ~ Homemade Walnut Doll

While I was fumbling around in my office/art/sewing room today, I came across the walnut doll I made many years ago. She is made with one walnut, glue from a glue gun, green florist wire and tape, and a few other odds and ends. After she was put together, I made her hat, dress, and apron with the cross-stitch on it. This was back when I was teaching 6th grade English and every afternoon each teacher had to teach one period of a “fun-non academic” class. Of course, I did postcards and crafting. All the children who chosemy room made these and then sewed their little outfits by hand. Yes, I had to teach the boys how to sew, and that was a trip. I bet now they are thankful that they learned how to thread a needle and put it thru the material. I did not make the quilt the doll is sitting on. It is a very old one that I got at the “antique” mall, and it is all sewn by hand.

"The only place where housework comes before needlework
 is in the dictionary.”
~Mary Kurtz  

February 25, 2016 ~ Red and White Barns and Blue Skies

My Patriotic Post

Red and White Barns and Blue Skies

On our way to Waynesboro, VA, for me to go to the Michael’s store with my trust 40% off coupon, we decided to drive over the back way. Since we were not in a hurry, I was able to pull off the road each time I wanted to and take pictures. Luckily there was a pull off on our side of the road and not on the other. Here are two of the barns we saw with the gorgeous sky overhead. It was the perfect day for a road trip.

This post is linked with:

Skywatch Friday

Tom’s Barn Collective

Shadow Shot Sunday 2

February 24, 2016 ~ Spring Is on Its Way

Spring Is on Its Way ~ Daffodils

Paper Paint, Pencils, and Pens ~  Bi-Weekly Art Prompt ~ Flowers

My favorite little flowers in spring are my daffodils and because of the warm weather this week they are popping their greenery out of the soil. I have them in all shades of yellow and in all sizes. I’ll go out with my scissors to cut them to bring in the house, and then feel guilty for cutting them. This is my first attempt at trying to capture them on paper and to get the trumpet tops to look like they are above the petals. You can see where I did have some difficulty bleeding the colors, but I hope that will improve sooner than later.  The picture is done with watercolor pencils and light pencil sketching.

February 23, 2016 ~ My Daddy’s Pencil & Silver Holder

"Beauty of whatever kind, in its supreme development, 

invariably excites the sensitive soul to tears."

~Edgar Allen Poe

This week I am sharing with you a sterling pencil holder which belonged to my daddy.  It was a birthday gift from a very dear friend of his who later became a nun. Her name was Aloise, and she gave it to him March 6, 1914, his 21st birthday. His name was Eugene Marseilles Hornot, and I was named Eugenia after him. My daddy was born in 1893 and lived to be 100+6 months. He and my mother, Mattie Lou, tried 3 times hoping to have a boy. I was the third daughter in row so they decided to quit trying and just name me for him. I love wearing his pencil on a white gold chain, and it is another of my “family treasures”. Please excuse the quality of the pictures, but I am finding it terribly difficult to shoot silver successfully. I always get that glare. Maybe one of these days I will figure it out.

This post is linked with Tom’s Tuesday’s Treasures.

February 22, 2016 ~ Snider Farm For Sale

My eldest son - now 50 - grew up spending lots of time in this homeplace with one of his best friend who later went into the Coast Guard. It is the prettiest old home, but it was way too big for Mom and Dad once the children were gone. A number of years back they built a smaller one story home on some of their land. Today I thought I would drive up their road on my way from the grocery store, but was saddened to see the For Sale sign in the front yard. I know as we gown older things change, but there is something so secure about them remaining the way we have known them through the years. I stopped in the driveway and went all around taking pictures because I want to send them to my son. So this is My World on Tuesday for this week. A world that is changing and moving forward. It was a very cloudy and overcast day, but for some reason it was conducive to taking pictures with my iPhone.

The Snider Homeplace

The Old Chimney on Side of Home
I love the curved top on it and the old, old brick.

Barn to the Side of the Home

Small Outbuilding beside Home

 This looks like a real treasure of their old farm machinery, but I have no idea what it is. Shaver makes me think of lumber and I do see shavings around it. I am sure they have timber on their land.

Another Barn Located in the Side Field to the Right

The Mountain View from the Side Field

 This field is right behind the home and abuts the property where they have built their new home. Whatever this structure was, it is gone now.

 This is their new home. I just pulled off the side of the road and took this picture out my window. The land with the old homeplace is located in the opposite direction from the sign and around the curve on the left. Mrs. Snider and I taught school together, and in addition to farming Mr. Snider was on the Board of Supervisors for our Kerrs Creek District of Rockbridge County.

This post is linked with Our World Tuesday.

February 21, 2016 ~ School Days ~ Art Journal “Flowers"

“The only thing that is stopping you from where you are to where you want to go is your comfort zone.” 

~Dhaval Gajera

Ever since I started working with my watercolors back in 1995 when I did my series on the Oklahoma City Bombings, I have always done this primitive type of work. Sometimes I think it looks a bit Mennonite or Amish, but there are no hats, bonnets, lace coverings and no faces. As far as perspective goes, I have a lot of work to do. Yesterday I started on this little drawing in my art journal after reading the prompt of “Flowers” for Paper, Paint, Pencils, and Pens. This is a blog where people who are interested in drawing to a prompt can come to participate. My flowers are not fancy, but they are all me, and they make me happy drawing them. The story in my head is it is a day off from school, so all the children are playing out front in the flower garden, the tree, and on the equipment.Right now I am trying to draw a Lady’s Slipper, and I am really being put to the test. This is way out of my comfort area, but that is how I learn and move forward. I sent Eloise a picture of this, and being the budding artist she is she flipped out. "Oh, Baga, how in the world did you do all that?” I knew she would get a kick out of it. I hope it makes you all smile.

Look for:

~Trouble, Buddy’s cat

~Children on the see-saw

~Children on the swing set

~Children sitting on the bench

~Children climbing the tree

~Boy and girl playing ball
~School Bell
~Tree swing
~Apples

~Wagon

~Birds

This post is linked with Paper, Paint, Pencils, and Pens.

February 20, 2016 ~ The Old Farm at New Monmouth Presbyterian Church

"Sculpture is like farming. If you just keep at it, 

you can get quite a lot done.”

~Ruth Asawa

This is a very old home about 7 miles from our house where two girls lived that I taught at least 25 years ago. At that time it had rockers on the front porch and was a happy place. It needed paint back then, but apparently a house can survive for years and years without a paint job. Now it is a bit lopsided and appears to be going downhill. No one has lived there in years, but the farm land and the barns are still in use with by the owners or someone renting it for their cattle and hay. Right now it is being used.

This is the home where two girls that I taught at least 25 years ago lived. At that time there were rocking chairs on the front porch and there were always children out in the yard. It has been vacated for years now, and as you can see is beginning to list a bit. It is interesting that there was no new paint on the house back then, and it is the same now. Someone that either own the property or rents it (that is my guess) is using the barns and grazing cattle. It is located across the road from New Monmouth Presbyterian Church.

This is not a very good picture, but it shows the outbuildings behind the house. Since I was on private property, I was using caution where I was stepping. There was a fence and I did not go over it...stand on it, yes, but not climb over it. The property is right on the Route 60 so anyone driving by knew exactly what I was doing.

This is the main barn.

And this is the other outbuilding behind the barn. The fence you see is the one I was balancing on to take the pictures. I was good...I didn’t do a face plant again.

This is New Monmouth Presbyterian Church which is across the street from the farm.

This post is linked with:

~Tom’s Barn Collective

~Shadow Shot Sunday2

~Theresa’s #101 Good Fences...CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

~Skywatch Friday

~Inspired Sundays

February 19, 2016 ~ More Red and Lots More Love

 Leave All Things and Come with Me.

Let’s Dance

Reminisce

~ Did you ever take tap dancing as a child?

~Did you ever wear a frilly outfit like this?

~I took tap and adored it, but never did I sport an outfit like this one.

She is oh, so cute.

Sorry I cannot seem to photograph my journal evenly. It seems like one side is always a bit cut off. Actually they are straight. These two are on pages side by side, but to photograph them together makes them so small you cannot read the letters. Both of these collages were made with some old papers I had for the backgrounds, common doilies, cut and paste, typing, and Kim Klaassen’s "Softly" texture. The little girl with the tap shoes came from Reminisce Magazine.

This post is linked with:
Lunagirl Moonbeams - Love
Three Muses Challenge - Love
Moo Mania - Hearts