The Way We Were ~ A Friday Finds

Can you hear the song?  Mmmmmmmmmemories...light the corners of my mind...

This week, celebrating and remembering those who have gone before, was a week filled with finds.  As I wrote here, we drive several hundred miles annually to remember and bestow honor.

What memories did I find?

• I saw my Grandmother once again braid her knee-length hair behind her back and roll it up into a bun. 
• I saw my Papaw bring in a bucket of coal for the coal-burning stove in the middle of the living room with the linoleum floor.
• I smelled my Mamaw's homemade rolls just out of the oven covered with a linen cloth.
• I watched my Bebaw throw out half of his toast on the backyard for the birds.  "Bird bread," he called it.
• I heard my mother's authentic laugh as she had got tickled by something really funny.
• I saw my dad practicing his drive swing leaving divets in our front yard next to the driveway.

and so many more...

I also memorialized great-grandparents and great-great grandparents with whom I have no charms for my bracelet...at least none that I experienced personally...only know of stories.

These are priceless jewels,  They challenge me to make sure that my children and grandchildren have plenty of their own charms for their memory bracelets they will inherit.

Make memories...take time...be still...find the preciousness in the every day.  

Linking up today with Kim Klassen's Friday Finds.

Instead of a Rainbow ~ A Friday Finds

We've had storms this week...and rain...some sun...sometimes rain and sun simultaneously...briefly.  That was yesterday.  I was reading the first week from Kim's Be Still 52 practicing stillness when I noticed.  I grabbed my Nikon...knowing what I would find!

But I was wrong...  There was no rainbow.

Turning to the door...I saw what I was to find.  My white lilac bush, so scrawny last year, was bursting with blooms...full blooms.

Some with diamonds...rain diamonds...

And then the sun hid its face back behind the clouds...but then came a different kind of beauty...

And though no rainbow...I could only think of this quote by Anne Frank...

And I am grateful...

Linking up today with Kim Klassen's Friday Finds

Making an Attempt ~ Making Brushes

They used to talk about "the blue screen of death" when your computer monitor would just show a blue bank screen if you had your PC on when a buried virus was set to activate.  Well...I had the failure of an external hard drive...four years of photographs!

Did I have it backed up?  Of course...but I hadn't backed it up for 5 months...and off to The Disk Docktor it went.  So with limited access to photos, I want to show you a few of the brushes I made in my class with Kim Klassen using my Wacom Bamboo tablet.

A year ago I read Susan Cain's Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That is Always Talking...coupled with my Ali Edward's class of One Little Word 2013...my word was "embrace."

So in honor of embracing my introversion in 2013...I made a brush set with "introvert" words.

Introverts re-energize by stepping away and spending significant time in solitude.

We are most "active" in our inner life...

Our minds are very active...even if we are quiet.

Does the saying "still waters run deep" come to mind?

Very little is done without forethought...at least the important things.  We have intention...

We love to reflect and process experiences...

And in our authenticity...we embrace who we really are.

A Few Festive Photos

Well...I have been knocked into the slowest of slow lanes recovering from gallbladder surgery...but my pal, Kim, has been cheering me up with her recent brushes she offered in the Test Kitchen and other fun places.

In the corner of the eat-in kitchen...I set up a very simple branch in an oversized glass brandy snifter and some sand.  A simple decorative touch...

I made this little brush by combining the words with the sprigs Kim provided.

And made this with Kim's vine heart brush and text overlay.

And what's not to love about Kim's "jingle all the way" brush?

So, although I'm laid up...amazing how you can create with your feet up, letting your nail polish dry, and a laptop nearby.

Thank you to all who have encouraged me this week with your texts and prayers!

Confessions of a Drive-By Clicker - Texture Tuesday

Another Texture Tuesday with Kim...

I have a confession.  I'm Denise F. and I'm a drive-by clicker.  It drives Edster crazy.  We will be cruising and I'll see something, quickly framing it in my mind, then saying, "Stop!" as we have almost always already driven by...and my shutter finger is quivering in excitement.

Cruising through the backroads of West Virginia last week...I saw this house...framed it in my head...and after passing it...STOP!  Edster goes in reverse (hoping no cars are coming behind us).

How could I pass this old house up?  It so reminds me of the house in the movie, The Notebook. You know...the house Noah purchases and restores to forget that Allie is no longer available.  But that's not the end of the story...

If you haven't seen it...you should!  No spoilers here!

I did some edits and added Kim's texture, appreciate, for this photo.

Are you a drive by clicker???

An Old Building ~ Texture Tuesday

Out and about on Sunday...roaming rural Ohio with camera next to me on the front seat...I found this great old building...

I'm not sure what it had been...or what it is now...as you can see there's a light on the landing. Regardless...it's perfect for Texture Tuesday.

This is a black and white version with layer of Kim's distressed 2 at Linear Burn blend mode at 66%.

From a front view with a layer of Kim's allard at Color Burn blend mode at 65%  Brush used from Shadowhouse Creations.

Nice grungy, vintage looks...almost haunting!

Have a terrific Tuesday!

Fading Friday Finds

As summer wanes and we begin its last hurrah as Labor Day weekend begins, I peered out the sliding glass doors to the backyard. Picking up my camera, I head out to the two large mounds of sunflowers...

And I find that my glorious sunflowers are fading fast...

Their golden petals stripped away...and the bumblebees no longer find the pollen they crave...

But their busyness has reaped a harvest...

A harvest gleaned by the goldfinches as they pull the seeds out one by one...

Setting them on the top of the sunflower head or a large leaf where they have time to savor their find...

And even the squirrels devoured the heads full of seeds, like this one, that they chewed off the plant for their own feasting...

And yet...in the middle of these fading blooms of sunshine...I find one still in all her glory...

I am grateful...

It's been a glorious summer!

It Began With a Need ~ Friday Finds

My daughter and her family have moved back to the area...but she was in need of a bed!  We had the nearly new bed, mattress, and box springs that had belonged to my parents we weren't using...but we were using the other pieces of bedroom furniture. Yeah...let's give those, too.

We have this gorgeous antique dresser...would need some transformation...but how do I replace the other pieces?

It was off to Seville, Ohio...to the Funky Junk Boutique...the only area shop that carries Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint.  That's all...JUST some of this infamous, glorious paint...

Wow...what a wealth of antique stores and upcycled shops in this tiny town within a 45-minute drive!

Here was my chest of drawers...

...four drawers will do nicely, thank you...

I loved the detail in the hardware (although the third drawer isn't the same as the other three)...and the keyholes on each drawer.

There was evidence that it had been painted red...and Edster thought steam might have been used to strip the paint off as there was evidence that wood glue was no longer effective in some places. But my Edster is a genius and can repair...

...especially when we only paid $50 for it!

But I still need a nightstand...

I remember seeing this idea on Oh My! Creative for a side table...

I had saved the piano bench on which I sat for years learning and practicing piano...priceless to me...but...

and there it was!  A suitcase...an old vintage suitcase.

I got it for $8!  Yeah, the handle is gone but I'll figure that out later...

Diamonds in the rough, I say...just waiting for that glorious paint!

Stay tuned...

Friday Finds - Appalachian Style

Today's Friday Find was found in Appalachia...

West Virginia...land of my blood.

This piece of handmade pottery was done by a West Virginian artisan who markets her work through Mountain Made and Tamarack - Best of West Virginia.  Both of these venues are extremely picky about the quality of work they accept for purchase by their customers.  I love the variance of shades and the pitting texture.  This baby's breath (remaining from one of the arrangements at my mother's funeral) is perfect.

And while I collect pottery from West Virginia artists for the sake of art, I am also attracted to pottery because it is a reminder of what I am.  I am merely a lump of clay the Potter has placed on the wheel of His will.  And when I feel the pressure of His hands and fingers on me, pushing and probing, sometimes through pain...looking at the pottery reminds me that this is the work of my beloved Potter, molding me into who He wants me to be for purposes He determined long ago.

I am grateful to be the work of God's hand...in progress, of course.