Evening walks in our neighborhood

In anticipation of doing a lot of walking on our vacation, we've been taking evening walks as a family. I need to try to get out about an hour earlier. the light would be better for taking photos.

Look Park, Northampton, MA

Art from my walls

I haven't had much time to be creative lately so I thought I'd share what other people have done. And I've collected over the years.

My parents just sold their house and are clearing things out. I laid claim to these awhile ago, just because the dog in one looks a lot like our Alice.

My husband went to college in Washington, DC and we used to visit nearly every year. One of my first matting and framing projects was these miniature postcards. I have two more frames with them too.

I rarely pay much for vintage images, or even the frames I use. I made an exception when I spotted this one in an antique store a few Christmases ago. I bought it as a gift for my newspaperman husband.

This is one wall of my dining room. I used Photoshop to copy and print these photos in sepia. Some are family photos. Others are local scenes that have been passed down to me. All of the babies on the right are cute photos I've bought over the years. Instant family, lol.

I whitewash old frames and rubbed on a bit of gold paint. For the mat, I covered foam core with a white-on-cream cotton fabric. Then I placed the photo copies right on top of the fabric. This is my late great-aunt's class from her one-room-schoolhouse days.

The little window panes (above) were clearance Christmas ornaments Their gold and white finish fit my theme. I added the gold paper behind the panes, before hanging them with ribbon.

This is a hand-tinted photograph of my twin sister and me. I matted it and put it in a huge ornate frame. Right now it sits atop our upright piano.

These photos sit together on easels on a hutch at the top of our stairs. Right in front of a huge oak mirror.

This wedding photo was a college graduation gift from my aunt. We were at an antique store in Buffalo, NY and she asked what I wanted. She's the family genealogist so I had to label the back "Not Relatives" to avoid potential future confusion.

This is my mom and her mom. I have so many more family photos boxed up during times or renovation and redecorating but now I'm tempted to pull a lot more out. Or use them in my artwork. I'm getting the collaging bug from seeing so many blogs about it.

The next two are original paintings or hand-tinted photos (I can't tell), signed by the artists. They were rescued a few years ago from a rundown cabin on my MIL's lake property.

They flew the coop!

About an hour after I took these two pictures...

...the babies flew from their nest.
(I'm sure my son trimming the wisteria had something to do with it.
He came inside screaming and I originally thought the parents were going after him.)

Quite a few neighbors came out to see what was going on when we had to escort this one safely across the street.

Rockin' robins :::tweet tweet:::

This summer, we've been lucky enough to have not one but two nests of baby robins in our yard. I've chronicled their growth over here.

The first nest was in this tree in our backyard.

The second was built in the top of the wisteria on our front porch.

The first nest had three perfect eggs and the second had 4. Here's how they grew.

Thrifting fix

It's been more than a month since I went to a thrift store or garage sale and I was in need of it today. I planned to go alone but those plans never seem to materialize. My 5yo accompanied me and found some good deals himself. Here is what we got for about $20:

I loved the title of the book on the left "Care and Guidance of Children," 1938. The music book is from 1950.


We also bought 5 books for the boys, 2 for dh (building fences/gates and masonry), 3 for me (perennials, wildflowers, BH&G "Come Home to Country" and a little Mary Engelbreit book) and a dozen "Country Home" magazines. My son also picked out 3 puzzles, including one large 3-D puzzle of the Capitol Building. We now have two of them for the boys to strew all over the basement.

I bought these 4 shirts to turn into little girl dresses. I'm especially hopeful about the one on the right. It is a cowboy-style shirt with a pointy yoke in the back and mother-of-pearl snaps. I'm just not sure I will be able to remove both of the pockets off what will be the back of the dress.


This is a really skinny-waisted but long skirt. Not too fashionable or flattering as an actual skirt but I thought it would make a nice toddler dress. I'm going to try just taking off some of the length and adding shoulder straps to the existing waistband.



I also found a black-striped skirt and a floral top for myself. And all of this gorgeous vintage fabric:


This is Waverly. I didn't notice the gold butterflies until after I got the photo up on my computer.


These are bright greens in person. It reminds me of coleus leaves.



I think this bright pattern will make a great apron.



This is a tablecloth in mint condition.



This last tablecloth was bought by my mom for me. I want to figure out how to embroider over the blue patterns. None of it was ever done.