Scene & Story - April 2017

Everybody's doing a brand new dance, now.

(Come on Baby, do the loco-motion)

I know you'll get to like it if you give it a chance, now.

(Come on Baby, do the loco-motion)

The song comes on the radio and I can't help singing along. Not out-loud of course, but mouthing it with all my might.

Today feels like a good day for antiquing. The rain has finally stopped, the sun is shining. I am on the hunt for things that make me happy. 

I am wandering the aisles of our local antique store. Fascinated by the items that find their way to vendors' booths. There are the objects I remember from my childhood; the avocado-green bun warmer my mom always kept our hamburger buns in, the black metal lunchpail with the silver ribbed thermos that my dad carried to work everyday. I wonder how these memories can be antiques, but then I remember that I am almost fifty, and these items were around before I was. 

I am on the hunt for a couple of specific treasures. First is a table for my daughter's dining room, we just finished painting the room, and now she is extra aware of how empty the space is with the much lighter color on the walls. She is anxious to get a table so she can stop eating her meals on top of the cabinet that covers the radiator. There was a time when I couldn't drag her into an antique store, who would want to buy something old and used. But now she understands the quality and craftsmanship that went into those old pieces. Her Pinterest boards are full of timeless antique objects. With age comes wisdom.

The second treasure I am hunting for is something I am always hunting for: green depression glass plates. I saw some once being used in a coffee shop and I fell in love with them.

There are a couple of table possibilities here, so I snap pictures with my phone and text them to my daughter. There is nothing else to do with that now, except wait. 

I am in the last aisle at the last booth and there in the open display case are two green, oval depression glass plates with matching cups. I lift them out and hold them in my hand, they are perfect. I look for a price, both on the plates and on the cups, no price. Then I see six more oval plates on the bottom shelf of the case, maybe they have a price, no such luck. One of the owners walks by, I stop her and ask about the price. She says, "Oh that gal is here today, I'll go get her for you." Hallelujah!

The booth owner comes to her space and I show her the plates and cups. She says, "I was just using those for display since there are eight plates but only two cups, I didn't think anybody would buy them." The cups are a bonus to me, I want the plates. She says, "I will gladly sell them to you, if you don't mind not having all the cups. How about $20 for the whole lot?" Sold!

Come on, Come on
Do the loco-motion with me

**In April I participated in Susannah Conway's April Love. I am also doing the #the100dayproject - This year I am doing 100 days of writing prompts. This photo and story were from the April Love prompt Patterns.

An InLinkz Link-up

Lined Paper

I stood next to the thin plate glass window, watching the unrelenting rain pound the pavement outside. I heard the hiss of car tires approaching long before I actually saw a car. I looked to see if the window was open, but no, this window did not open. The damp chill from outside had penetrated the brick walls of this old furniture warehouse that has been repurposed into an antique mall. I pulled the zipper a little higher on my North Face winter parka.

The gloomy weather outside made it the perfect day to be exploring the endless maze of aisles of the antique warehouse with my friend Kay. Neither of us were looking for anything specific. Although she did have a daughter getting married in a summer wedding a year from now, and single-bloom milk glass vases were part of the table centerpiece design. I had a Kentucky Derby party to go to at the beginning of May, if I could find the perfect black, wide-brimmed, floppy hat with a long curving feather, that would be like finding a rainbow after a thunderstorm.

Of course, I am always on the hunt for photography props or something that stirs a story within me.

Nearing the last aisle, and anticipating eating lunch in a warm restaurant, I started to hurry towards the check-out counter. But out of the corner of my eye, on a home improvement store, snap-together plastic shelf,  I spotted a nearly full, open cellophane wrapper of lined paper lying on top of a collection of mason jars. It was the kind I had used in Kindergarten and First Grade when I was learning to write the letters of the alphabet. The light blue dotted line sandwiched between the solid pink and blue lines brought back the memories of yellow No. 2 pencils, Elmer's glue, and rubber cement. This packet of paper had the appropriate yellowing and staining from having sat on a shelf in a school storage room for the past twenty years. This was not a reproduction.

Seeing that paper reminded me of making loopy b's and f's, the frustration of trying to make a cursive G, something that I still struggle with today (not good for somebody with a husband named Glen). I thought about how my handwriting has evolved over the past forty years, yet some parts are still the same. That paper made me wonder if kids still use those blue and pinks lines to practice their alphabet, or if everything is done on the computer these days.

Holding that open cellophane package of paper in my hand, I debated over the $2 price tag. What would I do with it? It would be just another thing to stack on my own overflowing shelves of milk glass vases, mason jars, and old tea cups. So I returned the paper to the shelf, gathered the milk glass vase and 1930's Eastman Kodak camera brochure I was purchasing and walked towards the lady and her space heater at the check out counter.

If only life was that easy, to walk away from a found treasure and forget about it. But that is rarely the case, and that pack of lined paper has stirred something within me.

Preserving Stories

I am suppose to be working on a writing class assignment that is due tomorrow. But instead I am caught up on something I read in Monday's lesson --- things that touch me are worth writing about.

Something touched me this week...I read that another one of my dear friends is throwing in the towel on her blog. This saddens me; another creative, inspiring voice is exiting the scene. 

I completely understand the need to take a break from blogging now and then. I do it myself at least once or twice a year. I find it refreshing to step back for a short time and experience life without the need to write about it or share it with the world. But eventually I miss this space, miss my readers who are my friends, and most of all I miss the growth that comes from pushing myself within this creative space. 

In early January, I was contacted by Artful Blogging magazine to write an article for them about my blog. They wanted more than the "What Does Blogging Mean to Me" response. They preferred for me to write about a specific event or experience that was significant to my blogging life. Needing some kind of starting point I scrolled through the archives of my posts. What a trip down Memory Lane that was --- seeing past adventures, vacations, creative series like Walk and Click Wednesdays, Backroad Adventures, The Coffee Shop Chronicles. Those posts brought back delightful memories and confirmed the joy of the journey that blogging has taken me on in the past four years. 

I know without my blog, I would not have done most of those things (who am I kidding, I wouldn't have done any of those things). It was the accountability of my blog, sharing my adventures with my readers, pushing myself to learn and get better at photography and writing that kept me going. There is no question that these things have shaped me into who I am today.

Looking back at those old posts, I realized though that the main reason I blog is to document my life, to preserve my stories for my daughter and my future grandchildren. My great-aunt Viola was the family historian on my dad's side of the family. She did a wonderful job keeping all the old photo albums, still, at best I have old disintegrating, black paper photo albums filled with black and white photographs, spidery handwriting labeling a few details under most photographs. But I want to know more; what is my great-aunt's relationship to the guy in the photograph? Were they dating? If so, why didn't they get married? Is that why she remained single her entire life? These are the things I would love to know, but yet will never learn because she passed away over a decade ago. She died before I reached the curious age. 

I want something different for my daughter and her family. I want them to know the stories. Even if something were to happen to my blog someday within the inter web workings, there are still boxes of notebooks in our storage room filled with first drafts and sometimes second drafts of these blog posts and various memoir style essays about my life. I would never have written any of that down if I didn't blog.

I realize that blogging isn't for everyone, and it doesn't need to be, but I sincerely hope that you are doing something to preserve the stories of your life. 

5 Random Friday Finds

Find No. 1

The first outdoor Antique Market of the year was this past Sunday. I love wandering the aisles, looking for treasures. I found this Miss America Depression era glass compote dish at one of the booths. No price on it, always my luck. I asked the guy at the checkout table, who was busily eating his Elephant Ear at eleven o'clock in the morning, how much? He pondered a moment and said how about $6. Sold. I knew Mallory would love it for her dessert/food photography. Doing some research on-line Sunday night, I see they are normally sold for $25. I think I did good.

Find No. 2

I also found this petite size book of hymns for five dollars. I want to use bits and pieces in my double exposure photography. Fellow Instagrammers keep watch.

Find No. 3

I also found this Beatles era costume. Glen and I have a 50's-60's rock and roll themed fundraiser to go to next week, this would be just perfect for him. Glen didn't think the cut of the suit would work for him, hence probably a little too tight. 

Find No. 4

Driving home from the Antique Market, I stopped at this little park next to a train trestle. I have driven by this train trestle hundreds of times, but never stopped, this is the year to do things differently.

Find No. 5

I found my favorite yearly magazine on the newsstand this week. This weekend while we are at college graduation, I will be pouring over the pages and planning my next adventure.

This will be my last Random Friday Finds until June. I am taking the rest of May off to enjoy time with my family.

Joining Kim for Friday Finds

5 Random Friday Finds

Find No. 1

On Monday I started a new photography project, The 100 Day Project. Of course I also only found the project on Monday, so I had to make a decision quickly about what my project was going to be. I thought about what I like to take photos of, narrowing it down as I went. Then I came up with it - paths. I love paths and now that the snow is gone I can actually see the path. Two days into the project, I realized that I hadn't narrowed it down quite far enough. While I love paths, what I am really drawn to are the leading lines. So...slight modification...the project is now officially established as 100 days of leading lines, or #100daysofleadinglines if you want to follow my project on Instagram.

Find No. 2

Last Friday I took my vintage binoculars I got last fall, out for a photo shoot. I love how this one turned out.

Find No. 3

The path I could have chosen for my 100 day project.

Find No. 4

Self-portrait of the week. I rarely do black and white work, but I thought the contrast in this one was quite lovely, so worth a try. I used the front facing camera on this and am pleased how it turned out, sometimes the quality is quite questionable. It is amazing what better eye contact you have when you look at the camera lens as opposed to the viewing screen. *Hint the camera lens is located ABOVE the viewing screen :) If you are curious about why I have fallen in love with self-portrait work come back here on Sunday to read the story.

Find No. 5

I found this amazing tree reflection in the water on Monday when I was out on a photo walk with a friend.

So many fun processing options with this shot as well. I may have had a little too much fun with that.

Joining Kim for Friday Finds

Curious About Childhood Art

Antique stores are one of best places to stir up curiosity.

My friend Jill and I had an adventure day last week Friday. It had been quite a while since we had done one of these. It was my turn to plan the outing. I had one clear objective, I needed to find one particular vintage camera for a story I am going to write. I had heard of an antique mall nearby where one of the vendors had a great collection of vintage cameras. I knew Jill would be on board for a trip to an antique store, we find the best treasures when we are together. And this day was no exception.

As we were perusing the booths we saw things like; vintage thermoses with built in handles, I have a new obsession with vintage thermoses, Elton John style pearlescent glasses with built in dangling earrings, and vintage Barbie dolls. Then we came across this...

I was beside myself with joy as many wonderful memories can flooding back of lying on the living room on a wintery Sunday afternoon, in front of the warm fireplace, the black and white Zenith television casting sports images in the corner while I made beautiful, colorful creations with my Lite-Brite. I realized standing in that antique mall that this was one of my first connections with art and probably where my love of color first stemmed from. This memory had to come home with me.

Lite-Brite is a toy created by Hasbro in 1967 that allows the user to create glowing designs. It is a light box with small colored pegs that fit into a matrix of holes and illuminate to create a lit picture. Using the colored pegs the user can create designs from imagination or by following templates. There are eight peg colors: green, blue, red, orange, pink, violet and white.

I love this statement:

Lite-Brite allows the artist to create a glowing picture by placing multi-colored translucent plastic pegs through opaque black paper. The light from an illuminated light bulb is blocked by the black paper except where the pegs conduct light. When lit, the pegs have an appearance similar to that of LED. 

The idea of being called an artist already at the age of seven is magical to me.

Over the years Lite-Bright was offered in different forms including a flat-screen version, a 3D cube, and a FX edition that spins and plays music. The Lite-Bright LED Flat Screen currently sells for $10, comes in several colors, is LED lit, and is portable, running on 3 AA batteries. The Lite-Brite 3D cube is a LED-lit 4-sided cube that allows children to play with friends or save 3 of their designs. The 3D cube is called Lite-Brite Four-Share Cube, currently sells for $20, and is also portable, running on 3 AA batteries. The FX edition is no longer available.

I am little bothered that everything has to be portable now days. But of course in this day and age you can't have a five year old plugging something into an electrical socket. Danger! Somehow though we all survived just fine and I doubt there were too many emergency room visits because of an electrical shock by a Lite-Brite. I am super glad they don't make the FX edition anymore. I mean do we really need something that spins and plays music? I love simplicity and that is what the original Lite-Brite was all about, it was you, the artist, creating colorful works of art.

I wish I could go back and say to my seven-year-old self, keep on making colorful creations because one day you will be an artist who creates beautiful, colorful photographs with a camera and writes inspiring stories with a pen.

*Lite-Brite history sourced from Wiki-pedia

Joining Kim for Friday Finds

5 Random Friday Finds

Find No. 1

I found a beautiful 21 year old girl. We got to spend the weekend with our beautiful girl for her birthday. Yes, that is a bottle of wine and yes her mother did give it to her, along with an awesome wine glass and an electric wine cork remover :)

Find No. 2

My husband is developing quite a good eye for composition, and he is only too happy to have me look at his photos and load the ones I want on to my phone because he doesn't like to save photos on his phone but it is okay for me to have them on my phone. Please little 4s keep on going!

Find No. 3

I tried every beer in this flight sampler and actually found one that I liked enough to drink all of.

Find No. 4

We found an awesome new "old" chair for Mallory's room at school when we went antiquing on Saturday.

Find No. 5

I found a great old spiral staircase circa 1920's on a historic building tour this week.

Joining Kim for Friday Finds

5 Random Friday Finds

Find No. 1

I found the perfect end of summer moment, at a cottage on the shores of Lake Michigan on Labor Day weekend sharing a glass of wine with good friends. I actually "saw" this composition before I ever lifted my iPhone to take the picture. It turned out exactly the way I imagined it.

Find No. 2

I found out why I have had a hard time decorating my house over the years. I have been trying to decorate with new store bought items. As soon as I switched to decorating with things I love it came together in a day. This is a display of vintage cameras and my photographs on top of our new library bookcases.

Find No. 3

I found this oil painting for our big wall when I was at the antique store. The original sales receipt is still stapled to the back. Purchased on September 18, 1970 for $53. I was two years old in 1970. 

Find No. 4

I love fading blooms much more than fresh flowers. 

Find No. 5

I found that wet deck boards make a great backdrop for a bowl of fruit, yogurt and granola. I am sure I was quite the sight standing on my deck holding my round light diffuser in one hand and my iPhone in the other, photographing a bowl of fruit at my feet. Thankfully my neighbors weren't home that morning. 

Joining Kim for Friday Finds

5 Random Friday Finds

Find No. 1

I found morning light and fog on the way to the gym.

Find No. 2

I found great satisfaction in completing my first 365 project. 365 days of "From Where I Stand". I also found that I thought I would be sad that it was done, but in reality I like the fact that I don't have to post everyday on Instagram...at least for now.

Find No. 3

I found that while it is a great honor to have not one but two three photos chosen to be highlighted in the photo site Flickr's photo gallery Explore, it certainly increases the pressure to turn out high quality work.

Find No. 4

I found this biscuit tin at the Outdoor Antique Market this past Sunday. I have to say I love this shot more than the two that made Explore. Okay, just kidding this one made it in as well as of Thursday night.

Find No. 5

I found Summer!

Joining Kim for Friday Finds
Joining Tanya for Willy-Nilly Friday Five

5 Random Friday Finds

Find No. 1

Maybe deciding to grow my hair out at the beginning of the summer was not the best decision. Especially since the humidity has struck this week, and we all know what that does to curly hair. Yikes! While on vacation I could easily hide it under a hat. At home not so easy to hide.

Find No. 2

I found my new cast iron pan. A 10" skillet with a glass lid. Can't wait to start using it.

Find No. 3

I found a couple new/old things for my pottery barn shelf. The record album cover $2 and the flower vase next to it $4. Now if I could just get the two shelves to work together I would be ever so happy.

Find No. 4

I found new hardware for the kitchen cabinets. We are going with the one of the left. Has the exact right feel to it.

Replacing these original ones....

Find No. 5

I found these stained glass windows...

and these church entrance doors when I did a tour of an old Lutheran church on Tuesday night. The church has been renovated into 22 apartments. Some of the apartments actually have the stained glass as their windows. So pretty.

Joining Kim for Friday Finds
Joining Tanya at Around Roanoke for Willy-Nilly Friday Five