Two Snowballs

It's that time of year.... falling snow and weather 'events'.  This is a great 1920's-30's photo of a cowboy and his gal holding some big ol' snowballs.  Even looks like she might be taking a bite out of hers!  I love that they are not all bundled up....almost like they don't have a clue about how to dress for winter. I want to travel for Xmas and yet the weather in the midwest/plains is blizzard like. Guess I'll wait.  Merry, Merry!

Dec. 67

I love this random snapshot of Nanny and FuFu.  Well, really, I don't know who this is.  But I love the fact that the dog is looking right at the camera while the woman has her eyes closed!  The display on the TV is classic, I guess, if you consider a fishbowl classic Christmas.  The painting hanging on the right is pretty awsome.  Pretty cool 60's feel to all of it.

The Artist's Brain

I love this vintage page that I got from an old encyclopedia. This is it folks, 'How the Artist's Brain Paints a Picture'. Fascinating! I'm sure this is exactly how my brain works...yeah right.

Little Girl with a Tipi

Here is a great vintage image of a young girl decked out in her finest native american clothes (I'm assuming this...no writing on the back of the photo, so I'm just making this up folks!) standing in front of a sweet Tipi. (or Tee Pee..as I spelled it when saving this photo) I was sorting and organizing some of my ephemera collection today and this popped up as needing to be posted. So there it is, enjoy!

Taming the Lions

This is a great German postcard from the early 1900's. The gal in the center of all of the lions is Tilli Bebe who was a German actress in about 4 films. At least that's all I have learned from doing a google search. (not even a Wikipedia page on her) I'm not sure which film this is from, or if it even is from a film. But really, what would it be? Who in their right mind chooses to pose in a cage with a bunch of lions? I love this photo, because they all look very relaxed, like 'hey, no big deal'. And honestly, she looks as though she could handle this very well, thank you very much. I love strong, capable women!

Feeling Kind of Crazy!

I've got to say that sometimes this is exactly how I feel. Mixed up and jiggled around! Well, really this is just another of my collected, off the wall, odd ball snapshots. Not exactly sure what happened here, either somebody moved or they double exposed. Anyhow, I really like the motion....two jumbled faces.

Almost Picasso like.

Boy With No Head

This is a curious snapshot I found at an estate sale. The little girl (who to me looks like a little adult) and her brother? posed in the yard. Unfortunately her brother has lost his head. Was this a glowing orb? Sun spot? Alien abduction? What ever it was, it looks to be early 1960's (I'm pretty sure my family had a station wagon like theirs...) I really love these odd found family photos. Treasures indeed. I wonder what the treasures will be from this era of digital photography? If you took this shot today, you would look and delete. Instead, someone saved this for years until it ended up in the sale box.

Here's another of my odd photos in my collection. I love this little guy on his 'horse' waiting for his haircut. I wish I had this chair...

Looking at his shoes now I'm not sure it's a he...there's that gender question. What makes us he's and she's? Well, besides the obvious equipment thing...

5 Farm Women With Hats

I have no idea who these women are or why they are assembled here with their hats. But I would love to have had any one or all of them as a relative. At least three of them look like they are having a ball. Two in the middle look a bit gruff and yet they are wearing the hats! What a great group of gals! They remind me of my Great Grandmother and a couple of her daughters (my Aunts) who were farm wives through and through. Boy oh boy could they cook. And Xmas at their house was fabulous!

5 Women in Hats

Interesting photo of 5 women in fancy hats walking on what appears to be a boardwalk. No idea who they are but I've noticed that photos of people walking always make me think they are somehow 'known' or famous for something. I think it's because most of us stop and pose when we see a camera pointed at us...the famous are so used to the camera they just go about their business.

Don't you just wonder what happened with the color coordination here? The gal in the dark dress didn't get the word that all would be wearing light dresses! Or maybe she wanted to stand out. And oh yeah, they are all holding hands. Love this!

Wonderful vintage snapshot of two young beach goers. Love the outfits. I'm guessing this is from the early 60's. I would have been distressed to be the girl in this photo, as the boy's outfit is so much cooler than hers. What's up with the swim cap head? I wouldn't mind having a hat and shirt like his right now!

Just another day in paradise, and another example of the odd things I've got in my stash of collectibles.

Love this vintage photo of a young boy and his wagon! He's got his 'rambler racer' and his leather cap on to protect him from injury should he crash...I would imagine this is from the 1920's or so.

Be An Artist

And Earn a Fat Income! Oh yeah, right. I got your fat income right here bubba! But hey, I'm doing ok considering the economy is in the crapper. I make art, I sell art. I sell antiques and collectibles and I do house/dog/cat sitting. Odd jobs and not so odd jobs. What ever it takes. As long as I still get to play in the studio and make my 'pictures' I can't complain. This obviously is a vintage ad from I think sometime in the 30's. I wonder how many people responded and eventually found out that few make the fat income while the rest just get by?

Daddy Rite Comes Home

Here is 'Daddy Rite' on his way home with toys for his 'Rite' children. So strange..the house looks relatively normal. Daddy? Not so normal looking.

The 'Rite Family' illustrations from the vintage children's book continue. Dang, these are like a car wreck, freaky and yet fascinating.

Daddy Rite

As promised, more of the vintage 'Rite Family' children's book. This here is 'Daddy Rite'. (said in my Northern Indiana, Central Texas drawl...) Very odd guy with his stumpy little arms with no hands. What kind of work do you think he does? He's got the uniform of an upper class businessman, banker maybe, well, kind of...The pants remind me of my Father who always wore plaid, sometimes three different plaids at once in the form of a hat, shirt and god awful golf style pants. His last wife broke him of the pants but no one could stop the hat and shirt combo. That being said, I never saw my Father in an outfit like this. Maybe he wasn't a 'Daddy Rite'? I don't know, this guy scares me a bit with his freaky eyes and lack of hair and ears...good lord what a nightmare!

Mother Rite

This is a page from a vintage turn of the century children's book about the 'Rite Family'. Very bizarre stuff I think. I will add more of the 'Rite' folks in the coming posts. In the meantime, here is 'Mother Rite'. Put that in your head and have weird dreams!

Temporary Container

I took this photo of a cardboard box containing the ashes of a friend a few years back. After we distributed them around the property I then put this box into the bonfire. Fitting I think. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust and ashes back to fire. I was struck by the idea that we all are just 'Temporary Containers' and that someday we will either be in a cardboard box, an urn or a fancy box underground...Whoa. Maybe to dark for this rainy Weds? I don't consider this depressing, just a reality that needs to be looked at once in a while in order to keep pushing me forward in my life. Having experienced death firsthand and up close and personal two times made it less frightening to me. Once really was enough, but the second time helped to cement my feelings and attitude toward it. Not afraid of it, I just want to live a very full, good life. And then have a good death. That's it for today from this 'Temporary Container'.

Brother and Sister

This is a great CDV (carte de visite) photo of a brother and sister. I know, they both have dresses on, but believe me I studied this carefully and determined that the seated one is most definitely a boy! I guess this was the tradition back then (1860's) I sold this on ebay a few years ago but kept the copy of the image because it was so nice. I guess you can say this blog and my life, has a bit of a focus on gender and questions regarding it. From one who has spent most of her life defending her 'sex' I am very interested in the gender bending. One example is the typical double take that women make when walking into a restroom when I'm standing at the sink washing my hands. I really do try to femme it up, but I can't help who and how I am. Even with toenail polish and a purse I've had people call me sir. Really? Really!

This is kind of how I feel today...although without the big boobs or hot night on Bourbon St. I picked up this small gossip mag from a great antique mall in the Boston area. 1960's era. Great stuff! My face and neck are swollen from an infected molar that will be leaving my mouth first thing Monday morning (I hope!) I spent most of yesterday trying to back up my new computer which was crashing and burning left and right....which caused me to practically pull my hair out! In spite of all this, I am still a very happy camper. I have antibiotics and pain pills and I am better off than most of the world.

Two Garden Sprites

I have no idea where this photo came from. But I've got to say I like it a lot. They look like two little garden 'sprites' or elves or fairies or somethin' like that. I especially like the girl on the right with the big bows in her hair staring directly at the camera. And what is the story with the gal on the left with the garden gnome hat on?? Today has been a troublesome day loaded with lots of computer drama rama. I have had a hard time not screaming or crying or tossing my computer. I don't know if it's even fixed or not, but I am stopping with all the disc cleaning and defragging and trouble shooting. My next step is to re-install the operating system and I am loathe to do that and lose all my files that I've not backed up. Oh good lord help me!

Two "Broke Back" Cowgirls

I picked up this photo of these two 'cowgirls' with a friend of theirs at an estate sale here in Central Texas. I believe that this is at least a couple of gals from the 1920's who like women... a lot. Like Ellen likes women, got it? There is no writing or identification on it, but other photos from the same estate have boys dressed as girls and so forth. I'm hoping my 'gaydar' is still working...god only knows the older I get, everyone looks like a lesbian to me. Well, except the boys. I will post more in the days that follow.