Spring in Tennessee!?!

Flowers And A New Blog!!

            I have a new blog site that is  filled with nothing but free vintage clip art and images, my altered art challenges, projects, and tutorials that I will have  to "INSPIRE" your "CREATIVITY"!!  If you haven't visited my new web site, please click on the link below  my  NEW BLOG BUTTON  so you can see all of the goodies I have waiting, Just For You!!

http://freetrinketstreasures.blogspot.com/

A special thanks goes out to First Floor Flat Freebies for making the beautiful free background and banner that I saw and  had to have for my new blog!  When you get a chance, go visit her web site because she has made some really beautiful Christmas Backgrounds and Banners, plus a cute Santa button too!

AND WHILE I AM AT IT...

 I am extending a  HUGE THANKS  to the rest of  these hardworking ladies who so graciously supply us with free vintage images to help fulfill our desire to create  and our frequent urges to accessorize with free backgrounds and banners!

Also their tutorials are very helpful when first learning to navigate your way around your new  website !! These women have really inspired me!

THE BACKGROUND FAIRY

ELGIA'S BACKGROUND GARDENS

ITKUPILLI--FREE BACKGROUNDS AND OTHER BLOG STUFF

SHABBY BLOGS

And a NEW SITE that I just found:

MY STYLE BACKGROUNDS

If you haven't visited these ladies and viewed  their inspiring art work and wonderful blog sites, please refer to my sidebar where I have all of their blog buttons and links !!

Is This Heaven?  No...it's the Magical World Of Altered Art where all of the nicest people live!!

HOW DOES MY GARDEN GROW?

Is it Spring In Tennessee??

Did you think that I would ever post anything other than Halloween art images?  Whew!  I didn't realize Halloween  Altered Art could be so addictive!! Now that I have most of it out of my system, I can begin to focus on other things, such as Thanksgiving (TOMORROW) and Christmas ( WOW, it's almost here)!

But first, I have  pictures I want you to see, showing what can happen if the temperature in our area is nice and the weather mild in November! I live in the upper part of Tennessee, which is only 200 miles from where I grew up in Virginia.  Believe it or not, for a range of 200 miles, the weather is really different!  Even though we live in the Foothills of the Great Smokey Mountains, our winters here are really mild. We get plenty of   cold and windy rain and, if we are lucky,  one snow fall per year (that  barely  covers the ground)!  When I grew up in Virginia, we had snow all winter long!  I got so tired of the snow that I hoped whomever I married, might someday, be willing to move to a warmer climate! Honestly, the winters could actually last until the middle of May!!  My Dad used to say that Spring was so slow in coming that  the poor hummingbirds would fly around until June with snow on their wings!

So, here it is, November 25, and   Guess what?????  I still have pretty  flowers growing in my mulch beds and roses that are  blooming!!! I wish my blog had "scratch and sniff" because this big, beautiful rose smells heavenly! And it's not my last one either, there are more rosebuds coming out to bloom! 

Amazing!

Isn't this a beautiful Rose!

                                         

                                 

More flowers growing!!

And still more!

Cosmos!

Black-eyed Susan!!

Gerber Daisies!

My  Mexican Sage Flowers!!

Sadly...my Hydrangea flowers are gone!

This is my Tropical Hibiscus Tree that my husband buys for me every year.  I used to bring my Hibiscus Tree in the house after the first bad  frost in hopes of getting it to live through winter! Try as I might,  they always died right after Christmas!    

My mother  keeps her Hibiscus trees, well-covered, in her basement throughout the winter months and they always survive to see spring!!

Really pretty right now!

This is the one flower I hate to say goodbye to! 

Maybe I'll bring it inside this year and try

one more time to get it through the winter!

Another favorite!

Ornamental Japanese Maple Tree!

The leaves stay a bright scarlet red all through summer and fall!

It's hard to see what is tucked under the fallen leaves but, I promise,

underneath the foliage  lives a small community of white and pink pansies!

See it really is Fall! We have lost almost all of our foliage!

Except for the Bradford Pear Trees, which loose their leaves last!

It's always the smallest things in life that make some significant importance to our  lives!

This week, these flowers really helped  me to slow down and take time to consider all that I have that I should be  thankful for!  Even with Winter so close, I can still smell the "roses" and enjoy a few more days of  "Spring"!

FOR  MY  MOTHER

I also made some Memory Collage Photos of my children this month because I am the most thankful for them!!  I  found the file in Picasa that only shows the faces of people that are in your photo album. When I first clicked on the file, what popped up first was all of these  "little smiling faces" that just made my heart melt!  The little face pictures are about  2 1/2 inches by 2 1/2 inches so I had a brainstorm!!  Yeah!! They were perfect for the Inchie and Twinchie challenge ...plus... I thought my Mother might enjoy a few  Memory Photos Sheets of her grandchildren as a special gift for Thanksgiving!

DEAR  MOM,

      Here are your Memory Collage Photos, finished just in time for Thanksgiving!! You can use them with  some pretty vintage  frames to enjoy as my gift to you on Thanksgiving and throughout the whole year!

And yes, I am very thankful for you and Daddy too! Hugs and kisses to you both!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Kym

 

Meghan made the colored sheets all by herself on the computer and wrote the little messages so I couldn't resist and used them as part of a collage for her !

 In Remembrance of Delia Mae Farley

My Great-Grandmother

Thank you for teaching me how to knit!

My Prayer of Thanksgiving!

Thank you, Dear Lord, for your bountiful blessings and your loving kindness . Help us to love one another with the love of Christ in our hearts. Help us to forgive others with that same love! Watch over us and care for us as we look to you for all of our spiritual needs!

In the name of Jesus Christ,

Amen!

Credits: I would also like to thank The Vintage Moth, The Graphic Fairy, Victorian Vignettes, and Dover Publishing for being so generous in supplying free vintage images to inspire and enhance our altered art work!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

AND  REMEMBER...Please do not copy these collage sheets for your art work ( I know you won't)! This was a project of mine and they will be given as a gift to my family!  But you can definitely use the idea and make your own to show off  in your  beautiful vintage  frames!!

My Twinchie "FACES" Challenge

My Inchies and Twinchies

for the

Small World of

 Inchies and Twinchies Challenge

This week:

"FACES"

I Love you To The Moon And Back!

All six "faces" are 1 x 1 inch pieces of altered art!

This is my first attempt to create altered art in a collage!

The sweet faces are the faces of my four sweet children!

Creating these little pieces of art are very addictive!

How Do I Say Goodbye?

 Fannie Ellis Dickenson, age 96,

of the Mudfork community of North Tazewell, Va.,passed away Monday,

August 10, 2009 at Roanoke Memorial Hospital, Roanoke, Va.

Born April 24, 1913 at Williamson, W.Va., she was a daughter of the

late James William Dickenson and Viola Kinzer Dickenson.

She was a member of the Mudfork Church of Christ.

She retired in 1979 from the nursing field. She began her career at the Clinch Valley Hospital, in Richlands, Va., and retired from St. Luke's Hospital , Bluefield, W. Va. She was also a
member of the United Daughter's of the Confederacy

Great-Aunt Fannie pictured here with my eldest son,

Jonathan Keith Decker

 

My first Easter with Great-Aunt Fannie!


 

 

FAIR AND TENDER LADIES!



She used to say...

"We made a lot of good memories today"

I Carry  Your Heart

i carry your heart with me (i carry it in my heart)

i am never without it,

(anywhere i go, you go, my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling)

i fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet),

i want no world (for beautiful you are my world),

and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

and here is the deepest secret,

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called

life; which grows higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart.
i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart )

By: e. e. cummings

Play Time In The Land Of Fannie
 

When my daughter's, Meghan and Aurora, were toddlers they loved to explore every nook and cranny of Aunt Fannie's house for all of the amazing little antique treasures she had collected over the years. Every child, that came to visit was fascinated by every thing they could see and touch (and the adults too)!! Fannie enjoyed watching them, as they played with the Raggedy Ann dolls she made by hand and the fluffy Teddy Bears that she dressed in sweaters and sporty wire rim glasses (just like Teddy Roosevelt)!

See All of the Treasures!!

 

When Jonathan was a toddler,

he loved to wear Aunt Fannie's tennis shoes!!

You could search a thousand cities,

and voyage on a thousand seas.

and never find another

as rare as she.

How can I describe her to a world
that never knew

just how special, kind, and loving,
 she was to me and to you.

 

 

Sunday Dinner With Family and Friends





"Making Apple Butter"

                                                     

Fannie loved to garden!

She canned all of the fresh vegetables that were in full abundance and made preserves from the tart fruit that her trees would bare each year!  She especially enjoyed having everyone over to a home cooked meal,country style and fresh out of the garden!  A delicious dessert always followed her meals. Maybe a rhubarb pie or a blackberry cobbler! We even cranked our own homemade ice cream while we were waiting on the meal to be served. Everyone got a turn!

No meal was complete unless it was eaten off of her finest china!











"Little sisters"
Fannie pictured here with
my Grandmother Margaret .




Their kind and loving Mother,
Viola Kinzer Dickenson.

The words that come so easily

now fail to portray'
A woman with so great a heart and soul

that she freely gave each day,

a small bit of it away,

until there was no more.

Now just a thin whisper

of her name remains...

Dearest Aunt Fannie,
 how we loved you so!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great-Aunt Fannie proudly
pictured here with her brother,
Samuel Dickenson,
 in his World War II Uniform
 

My Grandparents

Powell and Margaret Sluss
 

Once there was a time so far away,

where there dwelt,

gentlewomen and gentlemen.

Bound by the Southern Traditions
 of honor, quiet dignity, and truth.

A generation that would fade as quickly
 as the last note of the sweetest song.

Hope is the thing...

 

Hope is the thing with feathers,

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words.

And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,

And on the strangest sea; Yet, never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.

- Emily Dickinson

Miss Fannie Ellis Dickenson

"Our Southern Belle"

With all of my love...

GOODBYE.

None of the Vintage Art Work would have been possible
without the hard work and generosity of Maritha,
 the copyright owner of Victorian-Vignettes.
Thank you very much!