Saginaw Series, Holiday Series, and Much More: June 2013

How ridiculous you look, my dear!

This picture was my Grandma Florence Shea's. In the picture below she actually had pictures taken of herself wearing a hat like the one the 1911 woman is wearing. Even the dress and the long chain with the watch are similar. I never noticed this until I was writing this blog post. I find it amusing that she copied the picture for her photograph. In the Four Season Friends book Grandma Caroline sends these pictures to Clare for her report on fashions.

Clare researches and finds out that Haute Coutier - French for High Fashion - is often copied today and mass produced. A few years ago, I took a picture of my granddaughter, Sheala, on her way to her junior prom in a dress that looks like it was copied from a Marchesa original. When she sent me a text with a picture of the dress she was trying on I was amazed because I had just seen the original dress in the magazine I was reading.

Inspiration from East Side Soup Kitchen

Webber House

Obituary Inspiration

My eyes were pulled toward this obituary in the Saginaw News. When I read the description of Rosalie I knew immediately I wanted her in "A Light Shines Forth" - after talking with her daughter and emailing her granddaughter - I was so inspired. Thank you new friends. THIS IS FROM THE OBITUARY: From homesteading the farm to owning a local eatery, she raised her children by example of frugality and superior work ethic. She could stretch a penny into the next month and could feed an army on a squirrel. (And yes, thered be seconds.) Rose was a master gardener (often times with strangers stopping to admire) and was known to sleep on a cot along the row of dill to figure out how the deer got in. A canning magician, each year would produce a family squabble over who would get the last quart of dilly beans or tomato jam. An avid outdoors and fisherwoman, she raised and sold bait, smoked and sold fish, and was known to wrestle snapping turtles (for soup, of course) into her trunk on her way to pick blueberries. She was an excellent bowler, loved liver pate and cheap whiskey, produced miles of beautifully knitted and crocheted anything (no, really...anything) and was the dog whisperer of the family. For years she refused to use a microwave and she never used credit, boasting that the only plastic she owned was her laminated AARP card. She conducted her five foot self with grace and dignity but even at 85, she could swear like a sailor and wasn't afraid to take your money at the card table (or an IOU if you didnt have it). Affectionately known as Nonnie, she will be eternally missed by the grandchildren and great-grandchildren who claim that she first hung the moon and then scattered the stars.