How'd I Do?

Bob asks "How did I do?" after our drive along the River Road Loop.  When he asked me what I wanted to do Saturday, I replied, "Take me somewhere I'd never been before".  I'd been to Opekiska Dam before but not to Hildebrand Locks & Dam.  The farm and wetlands were so pretty.  May 2013

Capturing the Moment

Last summer Wonderful West Virginia magazine put out a call to citizen photographers across the state to take pictures from sunup to sundown on 1 day-September 15.  The only criteria:  to capture a moment of West Virginia life on this day.  More than 5000 photographs were submitted.  Bob's photo was one of 70 selected.  At 2:30 pm he captured this man cutting a meadow along Stewartstown Road in Monongalia County.  This magazine celebrates 150 years of West Virginia statehood.

Bob asked me to use the paper with the cameras for this layout!

To see the layout I made last year when Bob and I ventured around the county on that Day in the Life of West Virginia, click here:

Confectioner

Pop Pop Harry Reeves opened this confectionery on Piedmont (WV) Hill after he married Grandma Marie.  My Mom and her sister Margaret, Marie's daughters from a previous marriage, worked the store and worked alternating shifts.  There was a soda fountain and some canned foods.  It was during the war, so there was not a lot of food.  When my Dad (Harry's son) came home from the war he'd give the girls a ride home when the store closed.  Mom says he'd often bring them chocolate milk.  It wasn't long after that Mom and Dad married.

Mom is pictured sitting outside the store (she was 19) in1944 .

The Show Goes On

When Bob asked what I wanted to do on the day before Mother's Day, I said, "Let's go to Grafton", where Mother's Day was born.  Grafton is a small West Virginia town 25 miles from home.  Anna Marie Jarvis, the founder of Mother's Day, lived here as a child  Her Mother, Ann Jarvis, founded Mother's Day Clubs in 5 cities, where the ladies treated wounded Civil War soldiers.  The Mother's Day Shrine is here, and on the day we visited, a Mother's Day tea was being prepared.  The alter was decorated with white carnations people sent in memory of their mothers.

Grafton was a booming railroad town in the early 1900s.  There is a huge train station and train yard, with a few working trains still running by.  The beautiful train station is where Hillary Clinton campaigned.  I bet the Secret Service had a ball with this one.

There are only remnants now of the past.  The title of my layout came to me when looking at the picture of the now closed theater.

"Remnants of the past are here, as are we, in 2013. "

I Am Your Child

My Dad, who has macro-degeneration, took this picture of Mom and I on Mother's Day.  I love it!

The words are from the song "I am your child" by Barry Manilow:
"I am your child.  Whatever 
I do, you taught me to do.

Whatever I am, you 
taught me to be."

The garden archway is a digital brush from Cottage Arts.  I sized it, then determined the size of my picture.  I combined the picture with a partial oval shaped frame prior to pasting it into the archway opening.  The  journaling block is another digital image, this one by Carina Gardner.  

After cutting it out, I added some splatters of paint.

The leaf mask smudged with mixed media white ink was the final touch.

 

Blessings

My husband is a photo journalist and works for the local paper.  He's a great photographer. . . his editor does not always publish the best of his work.  Bob's nature and scenic shots sometimes get tossed in the trash. . . but the weather shots have a better chance.  I loved this one. . . 

Finals week at WVU. . . a graduate student sitting in the rain at the riverfront just getting away.  Bob said she was taking a picture with her cell phone of the WVU rowing team on the river.

I matched the layout with the words to Laura Short's song "Blessings":  
"What if your blessings come through rain drops?  What if your healing comes through tears? 
What if trials of this life-the rain, the storms, the hardest night are mercies in disguise?"

Bob's slug on the published picture was "Here comes the rain":

 I used a rain drop punch and temporarily adhered the drops to the sides of the layout, inked around them, then removed the punch to get the rain drop "mask":

 Happy Friday my friends!

Gathering Material

I was delighted when I received a box of Basic Grey papers and embellishments from my blogging friend Jennifer Shaw.  The "Little Black Dress" collection had my name on it!

The pictures are from Oglebay Park.  The quote was one I heard on a CBS interview:  "Life is about gathering material".  

I brushed acrylic paint over the fence mask backed by a piece of black paper, then cut around it:

 Thank you Jennifer for all the lovely items!

 

Younger Than Spring

I heard these lyrics on Tony Bennett's Duets CD-this one recorded with Josh Groban.  The song "All I Ask" was made famous by Frank Sinatra and Perry Combo.  It's about having time to appreciate the finer things of life after one grows older.  

So as I look back almost 20 years ago at this picture of me with my boys, I declare I'll stay "Younger than Spring". "Let the music play as long as there's a song to sing", go the lyrics.  I will create as long as there are memories I want to preserve!

 

Mom's Memories

My Mom has lots of memories from her early childhood and teenage years. I'm lucky to have early school photos and some of her taken in film booths as a teenager.  She grew up during the depression, yet has many fond memories.  This page is for her.  I made journaling cards for her to hand write some memories and place in the black envelope.

I love the Webster's trim I placed on the corners:

and antique buttons I purchased at the namesake store (Mom's Memories) last weekend.  The Tim Holtz metal was purchased there as a single piece (I did not have to buy a whole pack!).  

Happy Mother's Day! (Pictures beginning in 1932)

Good Zoo

The Good Zoo at Oglebay State Park was just our speed.  1 1/2 miles of trails, mostly happy animals and some you could touch.  We got the best "selfie" ever there posing with a hungry Llama.  We also rode a small train through the zoo on this beautiful spring day.  
May 2012

Also in Wheeling, WV is a local scrapbook store called "Mom's Memories" with a branch in Washington, Pa.  Since it was National Scrapbook Day, we stopped at both stores.  I love the Mama Razzi "Oh Snap!" stamps I got there!

Fighter

On Tuesday my Dad learned he has a medical condition that's serious but treatable.  When my sister asked about our parents spirits, I said "he's a fighter".  My almost 91 year old Dad never stops.  He wants to feel better so he can mow the grass.

Here he is after a long day at the VA Medical Center in Martinsburg.  Bob said I wasn't suppose to take pictures on VA grounds, but I'm thinking since he's one of a few living WW2 Purple Heart recipients, it's ok.

 I sprayed a little purple mist on the heidi swapp hearts as Dad is standing by the Purple Heart memorial.  April 30, 2013

Debbie's Grandkids. . . follow me on Bloglovin!

Debbie was a Baker in our Healthy Cafe and her talents are many. She's an optimist, strong and hard working and I miss passing her at the end of her shift when I was just starting mine.  I made this page for her with pictures of her darling grandchildren, Aubrey and Hank.

I'm following the lead of my blogging friends and joining Bloglovin.   You can follow me there!  Follow my blog with Bloglovin