Father's Day

I thought these might be appropriate for the day. Over the years, I have collected pictures which I think are called "motto pictures" and it all started from one that my daughter gave me for my birthday sometime back in the 70's. I just love them and have quite a few.
On this day, I think with love of two very important people in my life - my dad and my husband. Enjoy those special fellows in your life and all have a great day. (Click to enlarge)

If you would like to see more of the old pictures, go to labels and click on antique pictures.

Some Little Odds and Ends

Isn't she pretty? These are the few pictures with thermometers that were given out for advertising. This was actually from a gas station in Chillicothe (note the phone number) many years ago. Van's son was in my class in high school.

These two were both found in antique stores. How I love this old stuff. Certainly haven't added anything like this for a long time, but you do reach a saturation point and walls do get full.

(Click to enlarge)

Old Motto Pictures

I love these old motto pictures from the 1920's .

This is the start of my collection - my daughter gave it to me for my birthday sometime after 1972. I love the art, the poem, the frame and the person who gave it to me. Whenever I would go to antique stores or shows I would buy any of these that I could find and afford. I was also on the lookout for chamber pots, some of which I have posted in this blog.

I especially like the poem on this little picture. Will post more at a later date. If you look on the sidebar for Antique Pictures under labels, you can look at some more of these that I posted earlier (Click to enlarge)

More Pictures from my Brother

Bud has sent me many, many pictures the last couple of days - some of which I have never seen or cannot recall having seen. This one is one of the standouts. In my grandparents' living room most likely sometime before or after 1915 at Christmas time long before I was born. At first, I thought the Christmas tree was on the table, but now I can see it is behind the table. I recognize the old victrola and that has to be the same piano I used to "play" when I was little. When my grandfather got tired of hearing my music he would give me a little pinch. I love the floor lamp and don't remember that. The picture of the lady on the wall I think is a great grandmother.

Then to the left of the window I spied the little oval picture which looked familiar. I have that picture - not the same one but one just like it. Mine is above. Love the old pictures that have poems and messages on them and I have a lot of them from antique stores and auctions. Later I will post some pictures of their house which I am so glad to have. And Fashion Friday will be going on for a long time thanks to my kid brother!! (Click to enlarge)

From my Needlepoint Days

Starting back in the early 70's when we lived in Newton, Kansas - the least favorite place the Santa Fe transferred us to - I took up needlepoint which I did for eleven years. I made lots and lots of pillows and pictures and even a couple of vests. One day I will get the vest out and take a picture of that. There are also still a couple of unfinished projects in the basement which will most likely stay that way - unfinished! I just sketched out on canvas a rough drawing from a picture in a magazine and then filled it in with lots of different stitches and colors. I do know that there should have been shading on the house. We will just call this folk art! For some reason, I really like this and it hangs in my living room. Again, I found the neat frame in an antique shop and we framed it ourselves. I did this in the late 1970's. The last cloud on the right reminds me of a little worm! Figure that's okay as you are supposed to see different things in clouds, right? (Click picture to enlarge)

Some Treasured Needlework

My late husband and I always had multiple hobbies and tried many, many things. My daughter used to kid us and said we had the "hobby of the month". He always had an HO railroad layout - the one in Kansas City was huge and very cool. He was a railroader from the time he was 17 years old. He also loved to build model planes - tissue paper pinned and glued over a stick skeleton then painted. Even had one with a gas engine at one time. Then there was photography - he bought a lot of dark room equipment and cameras from a fellow he worked with and set up a dark room in our basement. That was lots of fun - he made our Christmas cards for several years. When he retired we took a folk art painting class together and he would cut out things for us to paint. I still have some of the cute stuff we did at Christmas time. Then there was the whirligig and windtoys that he made. Our backyard fence had a whirligig on each post. I kidded him and said that when a wind came up the whole backyard would take off. He made lots of them and we would go to craft fairs where he would sell them - not for the need of money but just for the joy of having someone want something he had made. He also took up another hobby - counted crossstitch. I was doing that one day and he said, "I think I could do that." So I found an easy pattern, the cloth and floss and showed hime how. Well, he turned out the most beautiful crossstitch - always on very small count cloth and complicated patterns. There were some by P. Buckley Moss that he loved to do. I will put one in this post. It was a picture of two pretty little quilters which I actually had started but gave up on it. He finished it beautifully and I found a wonderful antique frame in an antique shop in Lacon, Illinois, and we framed it. A treasure, for sure. Then there are a little boy and girl he did that are just so pretty. I took the pictures at an angle so the flash would not reflect. I think you can still see how lovely his work was. (Click pictures to enlarge)

Antique Sampler

Mary Anne Wiley

In the early 70's when we were living in the KC area, my late husband's mother came to visit and brought with her this old sampler that was done by Ray's great-grandmother in 1843 (she may have been his great-great-grandmother) when she was only 10 years old. What a treasure! I am pretty sure it is in the original frame with the original glass which is kind of wavy and a little pitted. I read in a book about some of the old samplers having very sad verses stitched on them since in that era life was hard with much illness and not the miraculous cures we have nowadays. This is no exception. The verse little Mary Anne Wiley stitched was......

My age it is now half a score

And I perhaps shall see no more

Remember death to all is nigh

Youth as well as aged may die.

Alas I am an orphan left

Now of parents I am bereft

Now oh Lord I look to thee

Each of thy orphans help to be.

We once were six in a family

In deaths cold bed thou hast laid three

Lord teach us to improve each day

Ere thou dost call the rest away.

Yea in thy love remember me.

Mary Anne Wiley 1843

She then stitched in her mother's birthday, her birthday, etc. Notice the way that she would start a word and not have room and then just continue it on the next line. I will post those closeup pictures of that part of the sampler, also. I think this is one of the most precious things I have ever seen. There is also a picture of Mary Anne as an adult along with her sampler. I hope you enjoy this lovely bit of the past.

(Click to enlarge)

My Pretty Old Quilter

Another of my old pictures - this time no poetry - but it's reverse painting on glass and the picture is backed with foil. She's so cute with her white hair and her lovely patchwork quilt. From an antique store in Peoria, I think, or it could be Kansas City. Regardless, I'm elderly and have my senior moments!! (Click to enlarge)

Old Pictures with Poems

Some of my favorite things are old pictures with poems. One of the first ones I have was found in Ray's Mom's things called Married Life. It's wonderful. Then Sherry gave me one as a gift called Mother and I will post that one later. The other one for now is Little Kitchen - isn't it adorable? I know we all make fleecy biscuits, pies and cakes! Discovered this little gem in an antique store in Peoria just before we moved to Michigan. (Click to enlarge)