A Teaspoon; A Winner!

This week came and went so fast that I hardly had time to stop and breathe. I found myself swamped with the minutiae of life: chores, appointments, house repairs, errands. It seemed the only time to sneak in a creative moment or two was late at night when my brain had already shut down for the day. Since I'm resting up my tendinitis for an upcoming three month stint of picture taking, I turned to traditional art by spending time sketching and working in my art journals which I will share this week in an upcoming post.

I did enjoy snapping a few pics during a Creative Saturday spent at the Renaissance Festival with my friend Martina (pics to come later in the week). Last weekend was spent with Lita, where we leisurely roamed the aisles of the Hillsboro Antique Mall. I found some great vintage images to add to my collection including the above image "A Teaspoon" which seemed like an appropriate image to use for announcing the winner of the February Blog Giveaway! I used Tara Frey's number generator to draw the winner:

Congratulations to ANNA! And, it looks like The Winter Garden at the Landmark Hotel is where Gina and I will be taking our tea! Thanks to all who took the time to vote and be sure to watch for March's Blog Giveaway which will be posted within the first week of March! Anna, please email me your snail mail addy so that I can ship out your prize!

Here are my remaining vintage finds this week at the Antique Mall:

I was drawn to this image of a father and his seven children. I wondered where their mother was. Did she die giving birth to her youngest child, as so often was the case back then? Looking at the children, I can imagine perfectly what their mother must have looked like. Unfortunately, there was absolutely no information on this image. The family shall remain a mystery but now have a new home. :)

Faye Winters

Originally, I was drawn to this image because she looked like she had a magical aura surrounding her. When I got it home and began to investigate it further, I found the name "Faye Winters" written on the back of the image and it was mailed to a "Nellie Winters". I could not make out the date of the mailing but I suspected that it was an older sister sending a postcard image of herself to a younger sister. Using my Ancestry.com membership, I began to do some research. My hunch was right! I found a US Federal Census from 1900 listing both Faye Winters who was 9 at the time (born in 1891) and her baby sister Nellie, who was just three months old when the Census was taken on June 18th, 1900. They were the younger daughters of William and Harriet Winters who were farmers living in Ohio. Faye and Nellie had two older brothers, Ray & Day and an older sister named Lou. I have since found a descendant of William Winters and have contacted them to let them know I would happily send them a copy of this image of Faye. It's so much fun when you can figure out who these lost people are! It's almost like being a detective of sorts!

It's rare to find French Photographic Postcards here in the USA. Usually, I have to hunt for them in markets in Europe. But, I lucked out this time and found this cute French Child holding a bouquet of flowers. The image has been lightly tinted which gave me the idea to show how I hand-tint vintage images! I will do a tutorial later this week showing just how easy it really is!

I saw a lot of potential for this image to be used in Digital Photo Manipulation projects. Something about it just screamed "take me home!" :)

Perhaps the most unusual image I have ever found. I think lots of people would bypass this as too depressing, too sad, too scary, too horrible to contemplate. But, I like the weird and unusual. And, once again, I saw a lot of potential to use this image in some Gothic photo manipulations! The one thing about collecting vintage images to use in your art...copyright free!!

I thought this was cute. But it was the message on the back that made me decide to purchase it:
"This is getting desperate".  What did that mean? Were they lovers separated by miles? The card was mailed from Indiana to Kansas in 1907. What circumstances were keeping them apart from each other? We will never know, but we can delight in the cute image of a couple in love. :)


I wish you all a lovely week ahead and again, Congrats to Anna on winning the Teacup of Inspiration!