Three Muses - Steampunkery

It was fun to visit steampunkery again!    Credits to Maya at Scrapbookgraphics.

Take a Word - Blue

Blue is my favorite color, so this was a pleasure!   Image is from Csaba Markus.

Three Muses - That's Entertainment

I lost a dear and long-time friend yesterday, and my creative juices seem to have shut down.  I confess this is mostly recycled, but it seemed to fit the theme.   Drapes courtesy of Tangie Baxter.    Thanks for indulging me!

Take a Word - Umbrella

Thanks for the background to Swainboat (altered), and other elements thanks to Kubivet.    

Sunday Postcard - Framed

This was a fun experiment.   I wanted it to appear as if she'd stepped out of the frame, but I don't know if I accomplished that or not.  Backgtound credit to Ruby Blossom.  Anyway, thanks for looking!

Three Muses - Mail Art

I'm not sure which is more fun --- to create mail art or to receive it.   Credits for this one to Lorie Davidson at Scrapbookgraphics for the background.   Stamps by me, images googled.  Thanks for stopping by!

Take a Word - Moonstruck

Moon River, wider than a mile
I'm crossin' you in style someday.
Old dream maker, you heartbreaker,
Wherever you're goin', I'm goin'your way.

Credits: Ruby Blossom
             John Wm. Waterhouse

Sunday Postcard - Poppies

So many white crosses in so many battlefields, so many young lives cut short by the warring ways of  men, so many prayers for peace.    A day of remembrance....and reverence.

Armistice Day .... Memories

Long ago and far away, November 11th was called Armistice Day, in commemoration of the armistice signed between the Allies of World War I and Germany.    In the part of central Illinois where I grew up, it was also the first day of pheasant season.   My mother looked forward to it with excitement, because her brothers would come up from the southern part of the state to hunt the pheasants who lived in the fence rows and wooded areas near our farm.   They would set off at dawn, dressed in hunter's gear, and walk the fields.  While the men were out hunting pheasant, my mother was preparing a huge family dinner.   People didn't travel so much in those days, and she treasured the times she got to be with her brothers.   I still remember those family times.   Today, November 11th is still a day of remembrance, but it's called Veterans Day.  It's still a time to remember all the brave young men and women who've sacrificed their lives in time of war.  In central Illinois, the fence rows are mostly gone, and pheasants are seldom seen, and those days are held only in my memories.

Three Muses - Window

In my part of the world, cardinals stay around during the winter.  Their flashes of red are always such a stark contrast to the snow.   I always wonder if they are dreaming of Summer, and if they see things just this way???

Take a Word - Sewing

I learned to sew on my aunt's Singer treadle machine.   The harder you pedalled the faster you sewed!   That old Singer probably STILL works.  They never seemed to wear out. 

Sunday Postcard - Vintage

It's good to put Halloween away for another year.   Vintage is such a nice change.    Credits here to Oscraps (Ophelia), and the image is by Guillame Seignac.   Thanks for stopping by!

Three Muses - Vintage

I'm not sure this qualifies as vintage, but it is evocative of days gone by.  In rural Illinois where I grew up, the landscape was dotted with manicured little farms, each almost self-sufficient.  Today, many of these little homesteads are vacant and have fallen into disrepair.  The tidy barns are neglected and falling down.  It saddens me to see this bucolic style of life becoming a thing of the past.   This is a tribute to all those Illinois farmers of long ago....such as the one remembered in this Carl Sandburg poem....

Bury this old Illinois farmer with respect.

He slept the Illinois nights of his life

     After days of work in Illinois cornfields.

Now he goes on a long sleep.

The wind he listened to in the cornsilk and the tassels,

the wind that combed his red beard

zero mornings when the snow
lay white on the yellow ears

in the bushel basket at the corncrib,

The same wind will now blow

over the place here where his hands
must dream of Illinois corn. 

Thank you for visiting, and sharing my nostalgia!
Credits:  Background - Ruby Blossom.   House and silhouette googled.