Art Helper - Alphabet Organizer

My alphabet and number organizer.

The top open and you have this nifty compartment to store really large letters and numbers. When traveling I throw in a couple glue sticks and my small journal and I am good to go.

The front folds down and then you have four individual compartments. I split up the alphabet into three compartments and use the fourth for numbers.

This is the inside of one of the compartments. It is so handy when you are in the middle of a page and don't want to stop to find the right letters.


There has been quite a bit of talk about organizing and being more efficient with our art time. One of the things I discovered last year is this little organizer. I bought it at one of the craft or fabric stores using my 40% off coupon, of course. It is just the right size to carry all my letters. It is very easy to travel with and set up on my worktable.

At night or while watching a movie or TV I recycle my magazines by cutting out the letters and storing them in my little organizer. Then, when I go to do a journal page or collage I have my letters right there. Teesha Moore is one artist who cuts and stores her letters for her Zetti style journal pages. Terri over at Pringle Hill has a nice article on how she stores her letters in her January 13 post.

An Angel for Haiti

This morning I turned on the news while I was getting ready for the day. The news out of Haiti seemed grimmer and grimmer. I don't know if you have ever been there, but it is a very poor nation. It is hard to believe the swanky resorts of the Dominican Republic are on one side and then Haiti on the other. I can only imagine the devastation.

This is the Weeping Angel or the Angel of Sorrow. She was made for the wife of the sculptor - Story. I decided that she pretty much sums up how the survivors are feeling right now. I am hoping that there are angels watching over the people and their loved ones in Haiti. The world is weeping with you.

Last night, today and through the next couple of days, soldiers [over 900] and Marines [3,000] from North Carolina leave on a mission to help the people of Haiti. They are going to be facing some tough days. I am hoping you will join me in a little prayer that these men and women have a safe journey on this mission.

Art Creations Friday - Waiting for Spring

This week for Art Creations Friday we were given this sweet image of a little girl with bird in hand. I switched out the bird and immediately realized it was going to be all about the bird, the nest, and color was needed.

It is finally starting to warm up here. This dreadful cold spell is leaving. I am hoping that the weather people are right about the higher temperatures. Warm is good.

Speaking of Bottles

I thought I would share a few more bottles with you. The majority of the bottles we dig up look like the bottles below once they have been cleaned up. Many have turned colors or have this iridescence in them. I think it is from the salts in the water reacting to whatever was in the bottle.

The bottle vary in size from small 1 to 4 inches, to medium 5 to 10 inches, to large anything larger than 10 inches. Most of the larger bottles were Clorox, liquor, or wine bottles. Some of them can be pretty interesting.

These are bottles I have found in my latest excursion to the river. They are all about three to four inches tall. Several of them have cool bubbles in them or are colored with soil and salt. I have lots of this type of bottle.

My girlfriend called me this week to share these bottles with me. She know I have a thing for glass and bottles. These bottles are from Pottery Barn's latest catalog. They are from eastern Europe and are quite large. They range in price from $129.00 to $179.00. No two alike . Wow.

I love these Pottery Barn bottles, also. I think the ones with the forks and spoons in them are so cool. Now I am on the look out for some of these. I do not want to pay the prices they are asking for their bottles. If you run across any bottles like these let me know. I am interested.

January Photograph #5 - The Bottle

One of the things around here to do is to dig bottles. We are a small town surrounded by water. The Cape fear river on one side, the Intercoastal Waterway on another then farther on the Atlantic Ocean. Interspersed among these are several swamps, coastal creeks and a lot of marsh land.

South of town, along the river they used to take the garbage out in wagons and dump it along the river. When the tide came in the coastal creeks and river would swell and the garbage would disappear. The organic stuff would be eaten by the marine animals and birds, the metal would rust and erode, and all that would be left would be glass and pottery.

Every few months, several of us go bottle digging to these dump sites. The bottles are covered in yuck when you first get them. We take buckets and several gallons of water. This bottle is an ammonia bottle. The chemicals have reacted with the soil and water to make this snowy pattern on the bottle. With the light streaming in on it it is so beautiful.

Freebies - Cabinet Cards

During the Holidays I was able to get out and go antiquing a bit. One of my sons is furnishing his new digs and has become quite the flea market, antique and thrift store fan. He actually suggested we should go look for some things. Boy did that warm my heart. In one of the shops I found a large basket of cabinet cards and spent a relaxing half hour rummaging through them. I thought I would share a few of them with you.

Don't you just love her striped dress and wire rim eyeglasses? She looks like a school teacher.


The widow. I am always amazed when I find these photos. This was probably taken on the one year anniversary, at the cemetery where her loved one is resting.


Two sisters? probably not. More than likely sister in laws. There is no facial resemblance. I do like their practical dresses though.


Is this just not the cutest baby? I love the wicker chair they have him in along with the large gingham check pillow. I just thought this was so cute.


Speaking of cute... Look at this fellow in his kilt. I love this type of picture. I think they are so wonderful. I bet this guy had that deep red hair and blue eyes. I found this in with the baby in the wicker chair group.


Of course I had to have this picture. I cannot resist these school pictures. I just love the way the kids personalities shine through. I hope you enjoy these as much as I have!

January Photograph #4 - Nest

I have been taking my daily photograph or two. The cold is making it hard to be outside a lot. We have been hit by the cold spell here. It is in the middle to high forties and almost freezing at night. My bird bath froze over a couple of nights. Compared to most of the country we are fairing very well. When it gets cold like this the only thing I want to do is fluff my nest. So today that is exactly what I plan on doing. Hope every one is staying warm...

Art Creations Friday - Believe

Art Creations Friday gave us this beautiful image of this little girl. I loved how patiently she was sitting with that lovely crown headdress on. Her cute little silk stockings just made the outfit. She must be the little flower girl in someone's wedding. Weddings are new beginnings. You open a whole new door to your life.

I decided to sit her on this window on a door. It was as if she was a little fairy just waiting to lead you through the door to something remarkable. If you believe in something enough it will often open all sorts of new doors for you. So here is my little door fairy. Waiting patiently to lead you to something wonderful. Just believe....

The Three Muses Challenge - Angels

say a little prayer

This weeks challenge from The Three Muses is Angels. One of my favorite themes. I love to take pictures in cemeteries of the towns I visit. You can tell so much about a place by their cemeteries. Here is my angel. We all could use a prayer or two. I am praying for a better year for everyone.

Four Letter Words - Grow

In a lot of the yahoo groups and journaling groups everyone is picking a word of intent. My word is "grow". You can grow emotionally and spiritually. You can have relationships that grow stronger and more meaningful. You can grow into a better person. You can grow things, plants, businesses, ideas, etc... It is a word with endless possibilities and great potential. That is what I am looking for.

January Photograph #3 - Camelia

Isn't this beautiful? Now imagine a whole bush full. I think they are a little piece of heaven sent to help us get through the long month of January and the short month of February.

Some January Freebies

Love the primary colors in this.

He looks like a winter Snow God.

Love the graphics on this one.

Support your local paper!

A little bookstore romance?

Here are some magazine freebies for you. I meant to post these much sooner, but the days are already starting to get away from me. I don't have a routine yet. However I will be using some of these in my new journal.

A Gift to Myself - The Ledgers

This Holiday Season I decided to take Mary Ann Moss's Journal Class - Remains of the Day. One of the materials she suggested using was old ledger paper. As I have several old ledgers and some blank ledger pages I figured I was all set. I went to tear up one of my old ledgers and thought "I can't do this." So off I went to the internet to see if I couldn't find another ledger to rip up.

Instead I found these three ledger being sold together. The hand marbled fronts and leather spines were too much for me. The insides were filled with store purchases from one, another was a hotel ledger with the guest signing in and what they ate in the dining room and how many horses they boarded in the stable. Be still my heart. These were beautiful.

I gift to myself. That little bit of holiday money set aside for THAT purchase. These would be that purchase. On Saturday afternoon they came. I spent most of yesterday gingerly reading them, admiring the fine script, the names, and meals they ate. The prices for goods and imagining what they looked like. No, I won't be tearing these up anytime soon. And yes, I found another ledger that I already had. It was not as charming as these, but I decided that it would do just fine in my new journals.

The three ledgers with there marbled paper fronts. They are around sixteen to twenty inches long. Two are thin, around a hundred to hundred fifty pages or more. The bottom large one has almost three hundred pages.

The worn spines where the leather as worn away.

The fronts of the ledgers. I think at one time the front pages were painted.

A well worn corner.

The Ledger Papers

I thought I would share some of the ledger pages with you. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have. It is just a sample a small slice of life back then.

The ledgers start in 1868 and go through 1872. They are northern ledgers so I am sure the Civil War did not have the same effect that it had down south on these types of establishments.

Ten hats for $2.00 and a valise. Obviously this person was going traveling. I see they remembered the Scotch.

Here on the store ledger they had to do the math right there next to the account. I wonder if there was a little disagreement going on.

These are names that stayed in the hotel. It also has room numbers.

I love the different colors of inks on this page. The handwriting is so lovely.

January Photograph #2 - The Cupola

This caught my eye this morning as I was coming home from the beach and stopped to get gas. It was the topping of an already reverent morning.

More Journal Pages - first couple rounds for the smaller journals

More journal pages for my Remains of the Day class with Mary Ann Moss. These are the pages for my smaller 6 inch by 6 inch. I made three of these and decided to make 20 pages for each. Each signature will have 10 pages and each journal will have two signatures. This means I will need 60 pages total for the three journals.

The stack of pages in the photograph is only 52 pages. I still have a few more to do before I can start round 4 and 5 [ security envelopes and fabric] I am using up tons of scraps and creating small little scraps. I see some inches in my future.

A large stringy stack of pages.

I tried to make the pages in varying sizes to give the book a little pzazz.

A few pages. One with my digital collage, another with some transparency.

Lots of front pages.

Open pages.

Lots of odds and ends, scraps galore.

I did try to leave some room to actually write.

Journal Pages - the first couple rounds

Lucky me! I am taking my first online class with Mary Ann Moss - Remains of the Day. We are making a journal with all of our scraps. I must say it has been a totally amazing experience. Over the holidays I would wake up early and work in my studio and sewing room before any one else woke up.

I figured I would need a lot of pages to fill the 6 journal covers I have made. I decided to break it down into halves and go for it. Mary Ann had said she used around 10 pages per signature and 2 signatures or so a book. I made my spine a little wider than hers so I made a few extras for each signature.

Here are some of my pages for the larger journal. I have only completed 3 out of 5 rounds of sewing on them. I am having such a ball! Plus the freestyle of it all lets you use up all those little extras you have laying around.

These are the pages for my 9 inch by 6 inch journal. I did 13 pages for each of the two signatures. So 26 pages, folded in half make 52, back and front 104. That should give me plenty of journaling space for the month.

Here they are spread out a bit.

Here are some of the insides. I still need to do round 4/ security envelopes and 5/sides and fabric. I did use some of my own digital collages and photos in the journal pages.

A few more open pages.

I tried to make some fold out pages, and some pockets, etc. on some of the pages.

Mary Ann gave us this yummy recipe so I thought I would include that.

Just a few more for this journal.

First Photo of the Year

In keeping with my photography goals I set out this afternoon for a walk and a little photo session. When I saw this beautiful topiary I thought this definitely fits the moment. Our neighborhood hired a new landscape designer about three years ago. Let me tell you what a difference this girl has made.

On the coast where I am we do not have "snows." This is a tongue in cheek way for all of us to have a little snowman of our own. Granted he is not the typical snow man but he is truly a "southern" one. I get such a chuckle everyday when I am leaving when I see him.

Happy New Year!

Hoping everybody had a wonderful New Year's Eve. It was quiet here. Not a lot of drunken, celebrating people. The older I get the more I like it like that. I sort of see the evening as a time to reflect back on the year and anticipate the new. We did get to see the "once in a blue moon", made a late night run to the beach, visited with neighbors and family. All an all not a bad night.

I am not big on resolutions. I am big on setting some goals and reaching them. Personal goals are fairly easy to meet when you can control all the variables. When others are involved not as easy. This year I am going to take better care of myself and those I love. I am going to be a better listener. Volunteer more.

Art wise I am going to do more painting. I am also going to do less group activities and concentrate on some of the things swirling around in my head. I am going to take another online class or two. Go to one retreat.

Photography wise I am going to take more pictures. I am going to take at least a few every day and post a picture a day for awhile. I am thinking a month or ... a week at a time photo challenges.

These are just some of the things brewing around here. I am sure I am forgetting or avoiding some of the other "need to's" and "want to's". The year is like a blank page or empty canvas waiting to be filled. I can't wait!

New Year Quote