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There is nothing more enjoyable to me in the morning than my cup of coffee and a bowl of hot oatmeal. I use quick oats, ratio 1 - 3 and microwave in my pottery bowl for 2 minutes. I admit to adding a little salt, sugar, butter, cinnamon, nutmeg to the cooked product but it also is very filling so it is hard to finish my fruit. Well, this morning I put the empty bowl on the counter and saw a beautiful sight - the sun was shining her beauty right in here on the counter! Well, even if you don't think it is beautiful, I do and that is what matters.

The fact that I can still make my breakfast of choice, see beauty in an empty pottery bowl and be thankful for every hour I have, is a wonderful feeling. 

My brother is very ill and on my mind too, so it is the smaller things that I'm very grateful for, such as an empty bowl, and the opportunity to capture its beauty with my camera.

Yes, I am still enjoying my treasured ceramic Christmas tree. I love this out of focus shot! An accident shot! What do you think?

Oh and I must show you a photo of my newest great grandchild, #12. This little fellow is sure growing fast!

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Cruising Through My Old Photos

I really need to thin out some of my photos. The computer tells me that I have 28,250 photos on the Macbook Pro laptop alone starting with the year 2009! I'm half afraid to see how many are on the old iMac!

Today I'm choosing some insects, turtles and critters to view again. I have to really hunt for them as my photos are saved in yearly clusters. 

Here goes ... (NO birds, fish or deer this time around) please click on link to YouTube below.

6 minute video

No Longer Posting on Instagram

For quite a few years I was able to post on Instagram with an application my granddaughter uploaded into my Mac notebook computer. I made it to 688 posts when the Uplet application failed. There is no fix. Actually, my understanding is that Instagram is for those who use smart phones. Well, I don't have nor do I want one, so no more Instagram uploads for me. Maybe it is just as well. Most of it was my baking and cooking plus a few photomanipulations and some of family members, nature and flowers.

I can can still view others, but can no longer upload any of mine. Done!

If anyone cares to take a peek I think you can by going to my site. Not sure. Try!

https://www.instagram.com/geraldinereed3590/

Here's a peek at some that are there.

Some Treasured Gifts Through the Years

Each and every item shown here was a gift from a friend or relative. These are memories galore and thankfulness to all the givers. 

Many are hand-made. Remembering through photos is easy for me and, hopefully will give insight to others when I'm no longer here. Each image is documented as I have had a photo book made with information printed on a list inserted into the back of the book. 

Back to Work

I have no excuses for not getting on with this project as my supplies have arrived. After removing the photos from the old and dilapidated photo album from 1961 - 1972 of when we lived in NJ and came to the lake in PA on a regular basis, I am, I think I am, ready to start putting them on new pages. Whatever glues I used in those days really stuck and the removal process was difficult and tedious. I had a difficult time trying not to tear any and keep them in order. What a nasty job! Each one had to be re-trimmed so they were neat and clean for the new corners to slip on easily.

I don't know how many there are and hope that my new supplies will be adequate. There are corners enough for 315 pictures. I will not even consider making an album of all of the loose ones that are stacked in a boot box from 1972 on, until I started putting them on the computer(s). As it is my habit to always finish what I start, this particular project will be completed soon and I can go on to other things. The loose ones will stay in that box.

The Alstroemeria flowers from my birthday are still very pretty and the wine helps my attitude at the end of trying days. So...back to work!

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The Finish Line

Except for trying to figure out what to do with the old family post cards, dozens of cabinet cards and studio portraits that are mounted on hard board, I'm just about finished with the rejuvenation of the old photo albums and the creation of two more. I did not enjoy doing this at all, I will admit. 

Got a kick out of this 1917 photo, though. My mother is near the bottom of the stairs and the bottom is completely covered with onions from the garden drying in the sun! It was written on the back!

And this one of my dad. Handsome devil wasn't he? GOOD MAN!

I even found these but they weren't marked as to when or who. I could make a guess on the face similarity of the woman and then could surmise the man is her husband and the child is her daughter and the photos were taken before her son, my grandfather was born. A guess is just a guess, though. I'll never know for sure. They are called Carte de visite photos. See link to explain below.

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Click on links below to learn more about old photograph cards 

Carte de visite Information

Cabinet Card Information

Overwhelmed

I probably won’t be blogging much for a while as I have a project that I have just started working on and it will take a lot of my time and energy.  I also get diverted by my habit of jumping out of where I am into another place completely when I try to do projects like this. 

I have old things that my mother saved and it is getting very interesting - at least to me. One of them is an old magazine and a couple of old paper booklets of advertising having to do with family members of the past. They are extremely fragile! 

Now I am also trying to preserve old photographs with the scanning process. That is difficult work - well I mean the removing from scrapbooks, cleaning, repairing, and so on. The numbers and variety are overwhelming to me and then there will be sorting and re-organizing and preserving - to the best of my ability before I die. It might not ever be completed, but I’ll try.

These are just a couple of scans that I made today of the “Delineator” and its contents. Wow! What illustrations there are of the Chromo-Lithographic plates of fashions in the year 1886! What a wonderful discovery. I MUST do “something” with these images. There are many and they are marvelous, including children, both girls and boys, and men and their attire; there are descriptions and offers of patterns.  Delineator Information Link

Then there is the text. I am a reader so I HAVE to read the pages. That’s what I mean by getting diverted. The book is very old and no sincere thoughts of ever preserving it are obvious. It has tons of wear.

An idea also popped into my crazy head about layering one of these ladies over one of my barn photos and making a photo manipulated creation. I had to force myself to stop when I made one very rough trial. 

So you see….I’m off to see the wizard…………..

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