One man's Junk.....

I must admit I am a hoarder. Not the kind you will find on TV. Yes, I am a pretty neat housekeeper, but I hoard all useful things that may end up altered or used in any number of projects that I may come up with. My husband has been trying to get rid of this $6.00 bulletin board that used to belong to one of my sons. It had drawings all over it and some of the cork was missing, but I just knew I could use it for something. Well, he threatened to throw it away one last time and told me that if I came up with an idea he would give me $6.00 to go buy a new one. I asked for 24 hours more and he agreed. He's really pretty good to me. We have been married 29 (GULP) years last weekend.

This is what I came up with.

Since I swap ATCs and usually fall in love with them and want to show them off, I am am not comfortable with sticking pins or tacks through them. I saw an ATC album for sale once that had these pages in it that you could just slip the card into the folds of the page. Then I thought , EUREKA !! , that's what I will do with this old cork board. First, I collaged (don't know if that's a word) the frame with bits of collage sheets that I had, glued down and sealed with Perfect Paper Adhesive. I LOVE this stuff and will never use Mod Podge again. PPA does not dry tacky and it dries pretty quickly. It comes in a matte and glossy finish. It's acrylic based and water resistant.

Next, I practiced with some newspaper the folds that I wanted to have on the board. When I got it how I wanted it , I went to the Art store and bought some heavy drawing paper in a "Manilla Folder" color ( I need three big sheets, after folding, the paper size really shrunk) . I folded it according to my practice paper and then sewed the sides with my sewing machine to keep the folds down. I used that sticky red tape and stuck it to the cork and Viola ! this is what I came up with. Now I can take out, look at and show off my favorite ATC's without harming them and it looks like it will hold a lot of them. Thanks for looking. If you have any questions, about specifics, please ask me in the comments.

Holiday ATCs

A few more .....

Some Holiday ATCs

It's been a while since I've posted anything. I'm still a little blue over the loss of our sweet dog, Trouble. Life goes on. I got a little perked up making these Holiday ATCs for the Read Lead ATC swap. It's a little early for me to be thinking of Christmas, never the less it was fun to do. I hope you enjoy them.

Goodnight Sweet Prince

Sweet Trouble. You will be sorely missed. I will miss how you followed us around, constantly. I will miss how obedient you were. I will miss how you took your paw and raised it up like you wanted to shake hands, but all you wanted was a belly rub. I will miss how happy you always were. I will miss the smell and feel of your coat . I will miss your good hugs. I will miss the torn tennis balls in the house to clean up. I will miss how you guarded us and kept us safe. I will miss your devotion to us and your trust in us. I will miss your company in the kitchen. I will even miss your stealing steaks off of the counter. Sweet Trouble. I will miss you with all of my heart.

Biltmore Gardens

We spent last weekend in Asheville, North Carolina at the Biltmore House and Gardens. Everyone I had talked to about this said that it was amazing and they were right. I was awed that the house was so "modern" for having been built in 1895. What I really enjoyed were the gardens and took way too many pictures of them. I am posting a picture of the door to the 115 year old greenhouse. You should have seen this green house, quite large for a private home and something you would imagine in a public Botanical Garden. Inside I found a tree that had hanging blooms on it that looked like little paper party lanterns. I couldn't find a name for this little tree anywhere so I took a million pictures of it. Here is one of the beautiful blooms on it. Also a picture of some of the flowers floating in one of the "CementPonds". I am terrible with flower names, but they were all so pretty. The weather was wonderful. While it was close to 100 degrees at home, the highest it was there was 82 degrees around noon. The view, well, no wonder these people built a mansion in the mountains. So serene. Originally they owned 125,000 acres, including some forest. Can you imagine? And back then, it all cost about 2 million dollars. Mind boggling !!! Today it would be billions.

OK, I have tried to change the order of my pictures, but whenever I upload them, they are always in the wrong . Enjoy anyway !!

More Ancestors

New Orleans

I was in New Orleans last weekend for a wedding. While walking through the French Quarter, I noticed how some buildings are kept up very well and the one next to it is just there, barely it seems. I will always love walking through the area and am amazed that as much as things change, they seems to always be the same here. All kinds of people coexisting in one area not bothered by one another's differences and seeming to respect that difference with a southern soul unlike any southern city I have ever been to. We had a chance to talk to some people that were born there and lived through the Katrina experience. I was speechless as I listened to their stories and admired their tenacity to live and die there too. We did not visit the parts of town that were affected by the levee break but most of the people we talked to had lived in those areas. My heart broke for what they lost, more than bricks and mortar. It seems they are still fighting hard to bring it back to the city it used to be , but to me this is a city still like no other you will find in America and it could never be replaced.