Plowing Through...

...stacks and stacks of loose snapshots and portraits to organize and fill and label in old-style blank albums. I needed to divert for a bit today. The difficulty lies in the fact that I get materials out and start to work when it becomes time to clear it all out for lunch. Then I get back to my work and have to clear out for supper. It is difficult and annoying but there is no other place besides the dining room table to continue without interruptions. 

Maternal Grandparents on Honeymoon 1896

Mother and Father on honeymoon 1934

The lake has totally thawed and now is sporting a skim of ice. Many Canada geese and various species of other waterfowl have returned - already! The winter that never really was! I want to finish this project and be free again!

From the April 1975 issue of Countryside and Small Stock Journal:

"Spring is the season of hope, because a young man’s fancy turns to love…and because an old man stoops to plant tiny seeds in the moist and fertile soil without even bothering to wonder whether he’ll be the one to reap the harvest. In spring, it really doesn’t matter."

~Jerome D. Belanger, Beyond the Sidewalk~

Monkey See - Monkey Do

Almost 40 years ago, in 1977, I made two crocheted blankets for my two youngest kids, entered them in the Harford Fair and won blue ribbons. Each was different. It took 32 different colors to make them. Each stripe is a different color. I must have gotten the idea to hang them on the clothesline and take a photo, from my mother! She and my grandmother taught me how to crochet. My own three girls never showed an interest in learning this art.

Please click on image to view larger

Crochet Mania

I'm in the middle of the photo project and came across some pictures my mother took of her crocheted afghans. So far I have 4 albums repaired and restored to the best of my ability. It is extremely difficult because she GLUED or PASTED almost all of them on the vintage type black construction paper both sides, and cannot remove them. Even when they are pasted, she has attached the black corners! Where the corners have come loose I replaced them as the photos were becoming dog eared.  Well I'm rambling but think you get the idea.

If you have never scanned photos in 12" x 18" albums on a 8 1/2" x 11 1/2" scanning bed you would run into the same difficulty.

Yes, I know the old albums are not acid free, but I do what I can. I had to take them all apart to repair the holes in the back of the pages that were torn from use. I used black electrical tape on both sides of the page and repunched the holes. That should last for a few more years.

I found instructions for removing photos from paper backing BUT would have to tear every page apart. Not going there!

The next thing I have to do is mount all of the many MANY loose photos of ancestors in the vintage books I was able to locate at e-bay. Fun ahead!

To get to the point now, I have scanned 21 of Mother's afghans. She would be totally embarrassed to know that she spelled it wrong. Chuckle.....Can't imagine the difficulty she had to hang each one on her clothesline, take a picture, and do it over and over and over! By the way, there were more that I remember but no photos.

This one is mine!

They all were scanned in the order they were in the albums scattererd throughout.

Please click on image to view larger

Photo Project

This shot may give you "some" idea of my photo project.

This the neat pile.

I have been through it extensively twice to see exactly what is here. There are at least two albums of old photos missing, according to my memory. I spoke with my brother and he also remembers the same photos in the missing albums. It is a mystery. They are the snapshot photos of both he and I and our twin sisters in the years between 1936 - 1942.

So far, according to my perceived needs, I have ordered three blank vintage albums from e-Bay and new black mounting corners. One of the albums has arrived and there were two packets of white mounting corners inside. That was a surprise. Some of the pictures in the old albums are mounted in white corners, but most are either pasted! glued! or mounted in black corners that have come loose.

I ordered 9 packets of black corners, each containing 252. (2268 corners will hold around 567 photos.) I think I'll have enough corners.

So far I have spent only $104.06 including shipping and handling charges. ($49.14 corners) ($54.92 blank vintage photo albums, two brand new). I sure hope that will be all!

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The other two albums arrived today. One was brand new and there was a packet of black mounting corners in it. The date on the packet was 1952.

Now I should get down to business!

Quick Break

I took time out from intense old ancestry photo project to relax with the "new" image generator. Just showing off here. 

Original Image

Manipulated Image

Framed Image
Click on it to see larger

I know that the old frame is inappropriate to the modern photo but I just had to make the photo fit. It was an "experiment." I snatched the frame and then filled in the space with the picture, which left a space at the bottom so I filled in that space with a name. 

This is fun and relaxing for me!!!

Sarah

Anni says the "image generator" is addictive. Well I already know that my compulsion for creating photo manipulations is addictive. Sometimes I make up to ten of a particular photo and then compare and save an assortment that please me.

Of course, when Anni posted a link to one site I haven't used yet, I HAD to try it. After experimenting and then making a few and eliminating a few, I decided to keep these.  I used a picture of my lifelong friend's granddaughter when she became engaged. The big event happened in Italy when they visited her brother who was studying there. I love them both, their mother and father and my deceased best friend.  Sarah knows I do these and is "arty" herself, so I feel free to be me.

This young lady has the GREENEST eyes I have ever come across, and is very expressive. I look forward to attending the June wedding!

UNTOUCHED Image

To really see the effects, click on image to view larger.

Staying In

48°, raining heavily, and the road is hard ice with a few cinders. I hope the trash pick-up man and postman will wait until tomorrow. Schools are closed. Treacherous!

Anni made me play with my photo!

Question Answered

And...My friend has a similar instrument and calls it a harpsichord. I believe she may have purchased it at an estate sale. 

Source of information below: 

Credit for information

Zither

According to the Dictionary, the zither is a stringed instrument consisting of usually 30-40 strings stretched over a flat-sounding box. It is played horizontally with the fingertips, a plectrum, a bow, or sometimes by wind, as is the case with the Aeolian harp.
Traditionally, it is a folk instrument of Austria and the Bavarian Alps. The melody strings are stopped against frets on the finger board while being plucked with a plectrum.
Alternate names: zitera, cithara, kitthar, cither, zithern., or German version of the cittern.
Some also call the Pennsylvania German zither, the German concert zither, the guitar-zither, and some plucked psalteries zither's as well.

Harpsichord

A harpsichord is a keyboard instrument whose strings are plucked by means of quills or plectrums. It is of German origin and was made popular from the 16th to 18th centuries.

Also please check out these links...

Zither Info

Harpsichord Info

CCC... Cold!!!

 I'm definitely staying indoors today.

Yes, minus 14 degrees!

Click on image to verify with a closer look.