Can You Even Imagine.....

.....that you would climb a set of stairs to seat yourself in an airplane?  I don't have to imagine as I have.  What a thrill to have three photos from the Glory Age of Travel by plane!  Yes, I remember when we had to get dressed as if going to church to fly.  As well as to have pampered service which doesn't exist anymore unless you fly 1st Class!

Yet to have three 8x10 photos taken of some of the staff of American Home Magazine was an incredible treat to find in my grandmother's files.  Some how to have a professional photographer take the photos and not have one of them with everyone looking at the camera and smiling is beyond me.  This is the first one to scrap.  Definitely staged as my grandmother's coworker is holding an American Home magazine in her hand.  I really wanted two things from this set of photos was to date the photograph as it was unusual to for my grandmother to not date the photo on the back and figure out what the model of aircraft.  The magazine was my ticket.  Off to eBay I went and found the magazine, October 1951 issue.  Then because I have brothers who are commercial pilots I had to figure out what model the airplane was.  LOL....they would be impressed their sister knew.  A little more difficult piece of information to figure out the model.  It definitely was not a DC3 as the chipboard piece at top would lead you to think.  Studied back and forth between mounds of photos of DC4 and DC6 aircraft to decide finally the plane was a DC6.

I died inside looking at the title....off center!  Then I realized the DC3 was off center too!  Darn plaid papers and not using my mat to center things.  As I looked and looked some more I was a tiny bit more happy with how it turned out.  Planes fly into our view and as quickly are out of view.  Works for me!  But still not happy with it.  At some point I'll get to scrapping the other two photos but just wanted to share this one right now.

I also used this layout as my example this month for the Heritage Challenge over at A Cherry on Top.  So stop by and have some fun playing along with us and the Challenges Hosted!  As always there are some great challenges hosted.

Now off to scrap for the rest of the day!

Socke Family - Nuts About Sketches #273

I have to admit my very favorite layouts are Heritage!  I know I'm being repetitive!  They are though.  I find I have come to realize what is heritage to me is not to others.  As I have hosted the Heritage Challenge at ACOT for a year now,  I have found Heritage usually means to a person is a photo of one's grandparents generation taken before they were born.  At 52 years old I'm seeing Heritage photos of the late 70's and early 80's.  That makes one feel really old!  I was in college during that time, LOL!  Last month I did a layout for Nuts About Sketches #269 with my maternal tail female line of my great-uncle Tom (Thomas Moore Ramsay) at the age of 5.  Of course like John he too will eventually qualify in the Alden Database of the Alden Kindred. The photo was taken in October 1900.  He is the brother to John Alden Ramsay the subject of my blog post Heritage Challenges last week.  I just love how the layout turned out using BoBunny Timepiece.

Of course the Tattered Angels Mist had to be used.  I do believe the next layout is the first one in a very long time I chose not to  use any Tattered Angels Products on a heritage layout!

The Socke Family whom I have never met is a photo of Uncle Tom's daughter Barbara, my mother's first cousin and my second cousin.  She is shown here with her husband Hollis and daughters Judy and Joanne.  The photo was taken in 1952.

October Afternoon 5&Dime seemed to be the perfect line to use for a 1950's photo.  What I loved the most when I added the Washi Tape, I found the numbers in the Prima Engraver's Tape would take the color of the cardstock with a slightly lighter shade.  I should have known it would do so as the numerals are white and opaque, but still a pleasant surprise!  I'm just really starting to get a collection of tapes together and learning how they perform on a layout!  I also could have trimmed the top of the photo, but I find how photos are developed and presented are often part of the fun of heritage layouts!  The way photos are presented change with the history how photography has developed!

Nuts About Sketches #273 is a wonderful sketch to use weather you want multiple photos as the sketch calls for or just a single photo as I used!  Thank you Shawn for a great sketch to work with!

It's also always fun when one can combine your design team work with a challenge at your favorite scrapping community!  This fit perfectly the A Cherry On Top July 2013 Holiday Challenge!  So much fun to make any layout with the following 4th of July staple elements: Stars & Stripes along with a little washi tape!

Until next time.....

Atlantic City Boardwalk

Years ago I remember my parents taking the family for the day to Atlantic City when we lived in Wilmington, DE.  I must have been 7 or 8 years old.  It's amazing to me I only remember one thing, the trip home.  I remember Daddy had to pull over because we went through a horrible thunderstorm.  I often think how we store some strange memories of our life.  I have been to Atlantic City one other time and those memories are very clear.  As I have have written I spent my college summers in Wilmington, NC.  I had a boyfriend of four years who also lived there.  Summer of 1981 we traveled to visit his aunt and uncle in Guelph, Ontario so once again I was able to return to the city of my birth and see Niagara Falls.  From there we went to visit his brother in Vermont and then on to spend a half day in Atlantic City.  We strolled the Boardwalk and went in to a few Casinos.  Neither one of us much into gambling spent $20 each to have a little fun at Black Jack and the Slots.  I remember the glitz and glam of the Boardwalk but not overly fond of the city itself.  But the memory I am most fond of is stopping to ask a policeman a question.  My boyfriend was 23 and I was three months shy of turning 21.  I asked the policeman what the legal gambling age was as I sure didn't want to spend any unnecessary additional time in Atlantic City.  He replied with an, 'I don't know.'  REALLY?  A policeman didn't know!  LOL!

Within my collection of photographs from my grandmother are quite a few taken just as the photo is in the layout I'm featuring this week.  Apparently having a photo taken strolling the boardwalk was the "IT" thing to have.  There are three or four I have to scrap.  Pictured in this photo from left to right are one of my grandmother's best friends Bettie McStea, my mother at about 14 years of age, and my grandmother Edith Ramsay in 1948.  My grandmother attended several AGA (American Gas Assoc.) Conventions over the years as American Home Magazine Equipment Editor.

From studying photos of Atlantic City during this time period it looks like they are just outside of the Convention Center.

I did this layout as my example of this month's Heritage Challenge at a A Cherry on Top.  You'll just have to click on the link to see what the challenge is all about!  To me a super fun challenge!  At the end of the month I'll select a winner to receive a $5 GC from ACOT delivered by me to you!

Until next time may you have a Blessed Day!

Ibn Zubaydahh

I want everyone to give a great big wave to Department of Homeland Security for doing their job!!!  It's just little ole me again with my Arabian Horses.  This time it's Zuby, with his registered name Ibn Zubaydahh and as you scroll through my blog you'll find his sire is Tammen and his dam is Zubaydahh.  And he has an older full brother Abcar Ibn Tammen aka AC.  By the way DHS investigator we appreciate you keeping us safe and please

I had an absolutely wonderful time using this sketch from Nuts About Sketches #258!  

Zuby is pictured here in May of 1993 as a young colt.  He's showing off a little and having some fun.

Now at the age of 21 he still plays in the pasture with his friend Bogart when he's feeling really good.  He has lived a year with thyroid cancer and shows no sign of  an additional slow down since being diagnosed a year ago. Everyday I treasure each and every interaction I have with this grand old gentleman.  I noticed this weekend Zuby has self braid his mane in to one horrible mess that only a pair of scissors will fix.  How he does that in a single day is beyond me!  He constantly reminds our now four year old Bogart that with age comes wisdom.  And I have seen in the last year Bogart has learned a huge amount from Zuby on how to live life as well as still defer to his best friend as herd leader although it is only the two of them.

Now you might be wondering why I'm writing about DHS.  I suppose with the recent happenings in Boston they will once again come looking at me.  Zubaydahh was born in the early 1980's given her name by her breeder Tom McNair a respected trainer/breeder in the Arabian Breed.  When I posted the layout in 2010 I happened a little under a week later on looked at the tracking of entries into our ranch website via our web server.  I wasn't surprised I was investigated I just didn't think I would know.  Not my fault my mother's beloved mare would share a name with a terrorist who would be killed by our country or that she would name Zu's last foal after his mother 21 years ago.  The difference is in the spelling of the name Zu had two "h's" where the evil one had one "h". They will find little ole me with Arabian horses, Lowline Cattle, an avid scrapper, and a huge love for my country and it's deep history I so dearly love to continue to learn.  I am a constant reader as it relates to my family lineage all the way back to the Pilgrims on my side of the family and on Larry's side the tidewater of North Carolina and how his family arrived in Texas before Stephan F. Austin.  They will also find out how much I love my state and it's rich history as the only state to have once been a nation.  One of my favorite sites is Texas Courthouses.  We have the most amazing collection of courthouses in the state.  I've started on my journey to photograph all 254 courthouses as well as scrap those photos.  It's a bucket list thing for me. They have written in the past it's a 200,000 mile journey on the Texas Courthouse website.  I am so excited at the prospect to see every one and read of the history of each county on the historical markers that can be found at each courthouse.  And if you wonder here's a layout of the Leon County Courthouse with more to come.

So wave to DHS on your way out and know they are really trying to keep us safe.  Have a great day Mr. or  Ms DHS investigator!

And a big whoop with two posts in two days!  

First Plunge

Seems kind of funny to work on a layout and post it in January for a wonderful day on Wrightsville Beach, NC.  Mom and I drove in August of 1987 to my grandmother's near Wilmington, NC.  This brought out from the recesses of my brain just what that trip by car with a six month old was like.  Not to mention in the middle of Alabama the AC goes out.  A geezzzz! Dee-Dee as my grandmother was named by my cousin Leslie when she couldn't say Edie just had to have a photo of Lynn in the Atlantic just as she did with my brother's and I when we were little. I added the journaling after I took the photo!

I kind of laugh looking at the big hair of the '80's looking at myself.  These pictures also make me realize how  fast I lost my weight after having Lynn.  Guess I was blessed in that area.  We had fun that day spending about 20 minutes on the beach so we wouldn't burn.

This is my layout for Nuts About Sketches #237!  Come play along with us!  The sketches are sure to inspire you to create!

Until next time!

Interview - Nuts About Sketches

I often get excited about so many things in the scrapbooking world, but this weeks sketch from Nuts About Sketches #232 just had me doing a happy dance.  Perfect for my grandmother's album containing her professional photos of career with American Home Magazine.  The photo truly depicts how far we have come in the world of Television in the 1950's!  Although this photo had nothing written on the back she is obviously doing an interview with KSD.  Look closely it's not a window but a back drop!  Thank you Shawn for a great sketch and I look forward to other 8x10 photos on your sketches!!!

Scrap with Modern Homemaker from October Afternoon this was so much fun and fits right in with my grandmother as Equipment Editor for American Home Magazine.