for anyone who has lost someone this holiday...

Our Family Christmas Card 1955...(yep, I am the baby girl)....

For any of you that have lost anyone this holiday season....may you be able to put one foot in front of the other and walk ......

may you find the moments to remember and smile that smile that only you and your loved one would understand...

may you find special moments of peace while you are remembering....

and may you take joy in what you have around you now......today...

for what you have with you today....and for memories...that will never leave you

cathi

The update and passing of my mom...

Old Photos of Fran......my beloved mom

After the last post, I had just run home to change clothing, my daughter and I had been at her bedside ...After posting, the phone rang and my daughter told me she had taken a turn for the worse.

For the next 2 hours we were in her room with soft lights and classical music. We were able to caress her hair, telling her how much we loved her, and pray thankful prayers with her...

it was a room filled with peace and love...

She breathed her last in that room of love....and I know that is a gift not just to her but to us as well. just as I was able to tell her again how much i loved her..she tilted her head slightly towards me and died.

At this moment the grief is so deep, that I find sleeping difficult...but I know that she lived a rich full life and living that life well is the lesson she taught us...embracing the moments we have together is something that I learned this year...as this past year of difficulty was a true gift of close moments with a mother and a daughter.

Thanks for listening....

cathi

Congestive Heart Failure & a great momma

Frannie

I want to apologize for any of you out there that read this blog for photos..

I had SO many big plans for the Christmas season..teaching how to do ornaments and pillows and all sorts of cool decorating things with all those wonderful photos...

and then ..when i came home from france..my 91 year old momma (who i have talked about in other posts) got very ill and was sent to the hospital.

That was at the end of October.....today, December 9th, she was just placed in hospice and i, as the daughter who is the caregiver, had to sign all those forms that make you just want to cry.

She has been an exceptional mom, was married over 59 years, lived in the same home for over 60 years. She has been a great example, of a strong independant woman who loved her husband and her family, and still carved out her own niche in life. I will miss her more than words.

I opened up a scripture today in the Bible that said:

Ecclesiastes 7: 1 A good name is better than fine perfume, and the day of death better than the day of birth.

My mother has been a fine perfume..

for old photos..memories...lives well spent...and the tears that come from that along the way

cathi

And a Happy Thanksgiving to ALL......

May your day be filled with many things to be thankful for.....

Happy Thanksgiving 2008

Fun posters and other various info...

After I came home from France, my 91 year old mother ended up in the hospital..so listing, hunting for photos, listing, has had to take a back seat to my life..

anyhow..upon the hunt for photos..I found a WONDERFUL set of posters from 1936...

there are 25 in all..and they are sooo fun..

I guess these were from a school from 1936...and they are called CHARACTER CULTURE CITZENSHIP Guides..

and wow..has things changed...how fun!

The designs are wonderful..there were different art teachers from around the country that designed these..

well...i had fun looking at these..and thought you might enjoy them!!

will update later................

have a great week!!

cathi

Geneology hunting..in France...

josephine ...

We have always been family that loved to travel. We have gone all over the world with our children since they were small. Today, my daughters go to school out of the country, speak several languages and are busy working in International relations..interesting lives...but mom and dad don't get to see them too much..

so a week ago, it was my eldest daughters birthday and she is about to start a new job with the UN....so mom decided to meet up with them overseas...

So, I flew to France to meet my girls (no I dont speak French, but my middle daughter is fluent)

And for fun, we decided to hunt down the geneology of their dad's family. My husband's father's side immigrated to America from France in 1908. It was the side of the family that just never talked about the past...so there was no information at all. My hubby knew his grandmother, but his grandfather had died long before. His dad, who died several years ago, never told his children about their history...so we just had names and the town where they came from....this was going to be a mystery....and we were excited for the adventure .....

So this is the story. Josephine (great grandmother to my girls) came to America with Joseph in 1908. They set up a life in America, had 3 children then Joseph got the flu of 1918 and died within 3 days. Josephine never went back to France again..and supported the children...and fought hard to make them all a success. And each of them became very successful, starting businesses and having rich full lives. But, we never could understand why she never went back to France, even to visit after her husband died........ and of course this was never spoken of.

The girls and I rented a car and headed to the town they put down on their information at Ellis Island. It was Belfort, a beautiful city in France. There are geneology centers at many of the cities in Europe and we found this center and a kind woman to help us...but she couldnt find any birth certificates or anything..we must have been mistaken? As a last resort she took out a LARGE old book which was a handwritten census book from 1906. We began to hunt through each page (there were 1000 hand written pages) to see if the names were in there...

It took 4 hours...but ... we found the name of Joseph and of Josephine..before they were married, living a block away from each other. It seemed that Joseph was a butcher, and Josephine was a cook. ( can't you just see the budding romance already!) On the census, it told the cities each of them were from, which were different towns in the Alsace region.

The woman at the village center (they call it the "Marie "in France) called a neighboring town that had the microfilms of all the information of all the families from the region. She found out how late they would be open ...and sent us on our way.

After driving for an hour, we found this town, Grubeviller, and the geneology center. It was full of people who were looking through lots of microfilm..There was a woman that sat us at a table, with our own box of microfilm from the community that Joseph was from. And sure enough we found his birth certificate. It was exciting to see the old names and to realize who this person was in our own histry...and as we were talking..an old man next to us, said: "oh is your family frmo Wittersdorf?" It turned out that this man was a distant cousin of ours! He has spent years of his life putting together his complete family tree..and he showed us all the information he had on Josephs family...(it took us back to the 1600s!) Then he taught us how to hunt for more ..we found the names of the brothers and sisters of joseph, cousins and all...and we learned that the town Joseph was from was small and everyone in that town with the same family name was related to us....amazing!! We were so excited!

but we still couldnt find anything for Josephine. The only thing we could do was to go to the town and see if the records were at the "Marie".

Overwhelmed by what we had already learned and eager to find out more of the story..we started early the next day and headed first to Joseph's town. When we saw how small the town was we wondered why Josephine never kept in touch with this family. Then we went to the church in the middle of the city. At the front of the church was a large statue in honor of all the men that died in WW1... sure enough..on it were the names of Josephs brothers.

Pieces of family were coming together...and the sad things that they went through...

so much loss....

After getting lost in the countryside of France (not a bad thing!) We finally got to Josephines town. Again, I dont think any of her grandchildren knew she was even from there..... But by the time we got there, the City Hall (Marie) was closed. All this way with all this information and it was closed....and wouldn't reopen for 3 days.

Bummed, we decided to head to the tourist office (she came from a wonderful town in Alsace France..beautiful) we hoped we could find someone that would open the office for us... My daughter ran in and asked. "No one is around, it is a holiday, but there is this local geneologist... possibly she could help. Go ahead and knock on her door" so we did...and we got her name...

Yep...... SAME last name of Josephine.........!!(yes..a cousin!!)

She was home, and when we met, and told her who we were looking for...she was shocked! and welcomed us in ...turning to her computer and the spreadsheets she had on her family...she showed us all the information on our family... all the way back to the 1600s....

Incredible......

So why didn't they keep in touch with their french families? Well, what we learned was, that both families where quite poor, had really suffered. Out of the entire family, they were the only ones that went to America and "made it" most died in WW1. Josephines parents had died. Her sisters were quite a bit older than her, and her cousins also died in the war..This was a family story of much struggle..

The stories were sad and it was no wonder no one talked about them...

At first we felt kind of bad we dug up something that Josephine worked hard to hide, But then something happened...we realized that this tough French lady..fought the odds and went to America to have a new life...a better life for her children than the life she had ....she wanted to change her history...and she did...

and my daughters, who are quite international, found out that this was their story...the story of the American dream....and that night we were all grateful for our country, America, the place that we had taken for granted.... and we were grateful for stubborn great grandparents..whose sacrifice and struggle..made our family who it was today...

100 years later...the great grandchildren went to France..but found their home....

Cathi

DRUM ROLL PLEASE............................
AND THE WINNER IS:

" Ah, A Sunday out with my boy. I hope my wife gets done shopping soon."

"OOps....the wagon BROKE & I had to buy the kid a bike! Wish it would rain!"

Thank you Margaret...there will be some goodies coming your way!!

Cathi

TIME FOR ANOTHER CONTEST!! NAME THESE PHOTOS!

well, it is that time again...and it is time for another contest...

Name these photos..or if you are really clever..come up with a story for them....




BEST NAME GET A BIG PRIZE.................... (ok..so YES you will win photos...but I have some PRETTY special ones...just you wait!!)

So here is the 2nd monthly contest of name these photos....From OCTOBER 16th Thru OCTOBER 24th!

Give as many names as you can!!

Good luck!!

Cathi

A confession...on the love for photos....

These days..my mother is 91 and is now living in a retirement home...which means..that I see her every day and do loads of stuff for her.....i really enjoy it...and knowing our time is limited...I have really begun to appreciate the special moments we are having.

Well, she is moving rooms...this week...she was WAY down the hall...and FAR from the dining room/aka THE SOCIAL ROOM/ ...and it was really hard on her heart to walk so far ...the Doc said..GET A CLOSER ROOM...so I volunteered and pleaded..and sure enough she is moving on Wednesday...(smile on my face)

Well, that means I have to move more of her things from her home...which means I have to go through her home...and so I have...

wading through loads of memories and so grateful that she is alive still and that I can throw things away without the emotions that are involved after she dies...

and as I look through her things, I realize why I love photos... and I can't seem to get enough of them....

I never had a wedding photo of my hubby and myself taken....yes, had loads of the wedding..but it was the hippie era..and we were not traditional in any way...so ...no photo..

and guess what my FAVORITE photos are....Yep...Wedding photos...

Then, in my heart of hearts and until now didnt really want to let anyone know...but i always wanted to get into some kind of movie production.....so I love love love old vaudeville photos...

and so on...actually the list really goes on...I just realize that we think we are so complicated..but really we are products of all our histories and memories all lumped together...and Voila! out comes a photo lover..replacing lost history, lost memories..and along the way...enjoying every minute of it...

hmmmmm..time to get lost in my photo room once again...
cathi

The signs of the times & Vintage photos

" after watching the news all day and night"

I must confess, I have been watching the news all the time these days...
lately, it is as though we are watching history in every way...the good, the bad, and the ugly...
Now, I know that this is not a forum to talk about politics, and I am not going to do so..
but what is happening in the economy really reminds me of a time that was not so long ago..
back in the 30s...

Every day...I look at photos from the past...and from looking at them....it encourages me... strange, I guess....but I think it is because when I look at these old faces, I see people who went through similar struggles..
who made it through...
who tightened their belts...and learned big lessons..

heres to new lessons (or old ones relearned) ...beautiful photos...
and hope for the future....
cathi

First Communion photos....

Recently, I aquired a large estate of a photographer from Michigan. Seems, that his photos were left to a woman who was now getting quite old..and she was failing... so her daughter stepped in to simplify her life and clean out her stuff..and when she came across all the photos, she got ahold of me....."I have alot" she said...well, knowing how much I love finding treasures.. I bought them! The first batch she sent me were were wedding photos..and there were LOTS of them., oh so many beauties...and even some color tinted ones..(oh do i have a fondness for those!) ..then weeks later, she contacted me again, she had found baby photos...and another box full of treasures...fun ones, funny ones...and then some!!...and then, just this past week, she found more!!!...and she sent me a box of 1st communion photos...there are so many beauties.... i had to share them!!

Now, I am a portrait lover... there is just something about a face that I just love...and put that together with some of the poses that a good photographer with a good eye can do...and wow...sometimes they are just a piece of art....

so for all of you that love 1st communion photos...i have alot that i will be listing..in my store..and in auction.... in the coming weeks

you know, I got to thinking today, that during this time of such uncertainty in our nation...well, 1st communion photos seem like just the thing to find...remembering that time of simple faith....
something we all need now....

cathi

The Latest on the changes on Ebay....

"As cathi tells the new changes on ebay..ebayers become Aghast!"

As I mentioned in a previous post, there are Lots of new changes to Ebay that will be going into effect before the end of the year. Just to get you all up to speed on what is happening..

You should all be beginning to see some of the changes that are taking place on Ebay very soon, if you haven't already. One of the most obvious is the new search page, a page that is set to a BEST MATCH feature. That feature pops up automatically and doesnt show what is ending soonest or what is newly listed. You have to go to the tabs and find this. This does "hide" things sometimes..and the new search page is still awkward to navigate... tonight it seems to be set on my ebay with no option to opt out..meaning they must be ready to release this very soon.

Ebay will no longer allow us to take any money orders or checks. I do not understand this new ruling at all, except for the fact that paypal is owned by ebay..but it is a problem..because i have many ebayers who just like to deal with money orders or checks. this is going into effect in October.

You will all soon have a new My ebay page. Things are very moved around..prepare to be confused..I think that there are still several bugs in this one..so this probably wont begin for another month or so....sellers are very frustrated as they have taken away some of the information we use everyday...so we are trying to talk with ebay about this.

The listings pages have changed..(this is what i have tried to spend alot of time working on with ebay) this will be in effect around the end of October.
They are very hard to manuver and they are definatly not as pretty as the listing pages now..they have stuck us with some wide ugly margins that they want to do advertising on!

Feedback will continue to evolve. I think this will continue to change as there has been quite an outcry on the new system.

If any of you want to write the company regarding any of these changes here is an email address (they are VERY hard to find..ebay stays rather illusive) sushetty@ebay.com , this is head of the design team and her name is Subha. If you have any problems with what is going on and you are a buyer...PLEASE write to her..she seems to listen to buyers much more than us sellers..

so that is the latest update...we have had 1500 sellers protest..but this is something that seems to be happening whether we like it or not...sooooo.....

Thanks for listening...and oh by the way..it is my 32nd anniversary september 19th! yeah!
good husband..happy wife....smile
cathi

Jazz photos and all that Jazz!.....

So I just got ahold of a large grouping of JAZZ photos...always fun! and decided to use one of my new templates (thank you Graphic pretties) to show them off..."Graphic pretties" is the name of the business that does all my coool graphics in many of my templates, she is a VERY talented woman named Sara who owns Graphic pretties, and I give her my photos and we work on stuff and she makes moving people and all of that!(yep she did this blog photo at the top!) I love her....and if any of you out there need some cool stuff..she is your woman.
just go to http://www.graphicpretties.com/ and you can see some of her handiwork....but she is the one that does all my kicking feet, moving heads, and all of that...she is great! ...

anyway getting back to JAZZZ

so I got ahold of some wonderful JAZZ photos...and I just love them!....
The era...when my parents always told me that life was so much simpler.....

A time when the torch singer lit up the night...and there was loads of music to dance to..my mother and father raised me and my brother on old jazz..and coming from Chicago..it is something that you have to love.... they always told me that we just didn't understand (guess I tell my kids that when it comes to teaching them about the Beatles!) they always told us..we never knew how much fun..fun could be...and how different it was back then..simpler times...easier times...times to dance..and enjoy music.... things we could never know.....
a different era? hmm...well it was 2nd world war....the worst war ever filled with lots of pain for so many people...our country was hurting...our world was hurting... with dicators trying to take over the world...the atom bombs... war on so many frounts....money was tight...life was hard....everyone was uncertain about tomorrow...simpler times?

guess it was just another era. ....the more things change...the more they stay the same...

but the music...sure was good!

hmmmm

cathi

AND THE WINNER IS.......

" Fredrick's Parents Idea Of A Time-out"

Congradulations to our winner! The judges had a hard time deciding..there were so many FUN entries..("Sibling Rivalry-I win" was one of my other favs!)

The prize....well a SPECIAL photo OF COURSE!

We will be doing contests regularly with some fun prizes (meaning..yep more fun photos!)...it sure is fun to see how creative you all are!!

Thanks again...and I will be blogging SOON about my new JAZZ collection of photos..

cathi

PLEASE GIVE ME A TITLE FOR THIS PHOTO!

I found this great photo..and want to ask for a title for this

Let your creative juices flow!!

Winner gets a prize!

Have a great SEPTEMBER

(love this month!)

cathi

A new week..Vaudeville photos...

The Hubby and I were out of town for the last gasp of summer this weekend.. so when I came home I couldn't wait to get to my photo room and go thru what I was going to list this week...and finally I couldnt wait any longer...I decided it was time to get out more Vaudeville photos.

Now, I LOVE old Vaudeville photos..
I have collected them for some time..and there are some that I cant ever give up...
but from time to time..i have to say goodbye to some of them...and this is that time..
so this week...I will be listing a grouping of Vaudeville photos..
I love them...the Glamour..the era, the clothing..you name it...I find it all so beautiful...and I really like the ones that are not only of the Stars that we all know...but those that didnt really make it big ...those that spent all their lives making people happy...that struggled and were the background people....
oh the stories these photos tell...



This woman's name is Holly Desmond. She was from a family that were in Vaudeville before she was even born. Mom and Dad Desmond had been hoofers and comedians in Vaudeville during the early 1900s and as they had children, they just made them all a part of the act..and the act was called the Desmond Family revue....I have many of their photos and they all look so happy..

One of Mom's portraits has a notation to Holly and it says: "to the one that taught be the meaning of mother."

kind of an unusual sentiment..looks like Holly must have said..."MOTHER!, just be my mom and not just a performer!"

anyhow...some neat images..I will have a few snapshots going up as well this week from them..
as well as other Vaudeville and 20s Celebrity portraits...it is those glamour shots...that I really love! oh the art of the portrait...sigh...
Have a great week...and a great new month!!

cathi

Ebays Changes...important information for you to know

I have been holding back on this post...

this is a blog for photos...and other related stuff....

but i am an ebay seller and i NEED to let you guys know what is happening....

i probably wouldn't have even posted now, except that i was up til 4am last night going over how to "fix" the new improvements...but i am getting ahead of myself......so here is where i will begin

EBAY was begun many years ago by a guy that wanted to create an online auction site...and obviously he was more successful than he could have dreamed..so it GREW and with it came all sorts of changes..because no one had ever done this before.

through the years, as the changes have continued, ebay tried to stay ahead of the market...there have also been many different teams of leaders..but there were consistent heads of ebay (Meg Whitman the past few years)...well last year, Meg, the head of ebay left and a new man was put in her place. (JD we call him on ebay)

he really didnt have experience in this field but he had lots of new ideas.

so he asked us sellers to be patient with him..while he was trying out all his new ideas.

ok

I went to Ebay live...the convention for the sellers..and said..ok..i will wait and see...

SO it began with DSRs detailed sellers ratings..

which are innocent enough.

allow customers to rate sellers on how well they do..

but what ebay doesnt tell you is that if you should choose a 4 or a 3 instead of a 5, this punishes an ebay seller..

ok..maybe some sellers need to be punished..but this is quite hazy to the buyers..

for instance a 1 star means that the listing was very innacurate, a 2 means innacurate, a 3 means neither innacurate or accurate, a 4 means accurate..and a 5 is very accurate.

so if you buy something and you think, yeah this is just fine..you might put a 4, not because the seller isnt good, but maybe it is not that great of an item..right?

(oh and all over that page is DONT BE AFRAID TO LEAVE AN HONEST COMMENT)

well..what they are not telling you is this....

IF the seller if gets more than 3 people who give them a 4 or under

they are now NOT ABLE TO SELL for awhile

selling rights are terminated for awhile..this has already happened to someone i bought items from..he was off for a few weeks.

then

if sellers get lower than a 4.9 on their DSRs they are punished by paying more ebay fees..

(there is a discount for all 5s) now you would never know this...

BUT what actually happened is that ebay RAISED the fees for sellers ..NOW, if you are a good seller.....then you will have to pay the 20% increase and only if you are an EXCELLENT SELLER THAT GETS GREAT DSRs you might not have to pay it and then you will pay what you used to pay just a few months ago...this is where you get the discount..

however it is up to the buyers..

so that was the begining.

then they took away the sellers right to leave negatives or neutrals.

i never really left them UNLESS someone didnt pay at all...and i give loads of time..so in all my time of selling (over 8 years) I probably left 5 if that many.

since this has happened i have had 3 people not pay me at all in the past month alone...!

then..

BUYERS can give neutrals or negatives

and a neutral is counted the same as a negative... for a seller???what???

then

they changed the listing pages so that it says best match..so you cant see the newest listings, or the items ending soonest, unless you know how to navigate the page.. but it doesnt pop up automatically

then

they have decided to change the auction page.

that is the sellers page that they sell the item on...

(this is when i was up til 4am)

*right now it is in testing stages and some of you might be in the test and be very confused..i was...

randomly "invited" to be in the test...and without the ability to "opt out" of the test after a few days.

this is the entire new format. that is supposed to make sense of all of this.

well.

the listing page has changed completely.

the beautiful templates have been cut down so that they are difficult to see.

ebay is opening the door to put ads on the bottom of all of our listings..(oh no not more SPAM!)

only they control the ads....we have NO say so in this

then the most crazy thing of all...next to our listing ON OUR AUCTION PAGE will be other peoples listings of the same items..

so

for the average person, you would think that this is part of the sellers stuff..but NO it is another sellers stuff...and the indivuality of the listing pages are almost completely removed!!!

meaning that you will be inundated with more stuff you may not even want to look at ...and have so much clutter on the page...you will want to get off of it!

i woke up yesterday and all my listings were changed..however...after many hours, i was able to change them back...but ebay wants to make this change to come into effect in December.

ALSO

i didnt mention that EBAY has given added incentives if we just list a "buy it now" item verses an auction item, and that currently they are testing the ability pull listings if the shipping charges arent right.

things have begun to change and slowly ebay is turning from less of an auction house and more like amazon..

and as a seller i am more than sad.

so, i am letting you out there know...that although i love ebay...really do..especially the ebay of old...this new managment team seems bent on trying to change that...and has begun to allienate many sellers...so things will be changing... but it does not seem like it is for the better.

NOW THERE IS NO WAY TO CONTACT EBAY TO TELL THEM YOUR OPINION

really they are very hard to get ahold of...

however..i found ONE WAY

THIS IS THE EMAIL ADDRESS FOR THIS ( I GOT IT FROM BEING IN THE BETA TESTING GROUP)

IF YOU ARE OPPOSED TO THE CHANGES, or at least want to make a comment.....PLEASE TAKE A FEW MINUTES AND ZIP THEM A NOTE..

myebaybeta@ebay.com

i am hoping that we can somehow help this new team of management realize what we the consumers, and the sellers want... or else i am afrraid that the ebay that we have loved will be a thing of the past.

sadly...

cathi

Confessions of a photoholic....

So I have 4 children, but in the last year, me and the hubby are currently empty nesters...the youngest just left for college, the others have begun lives of their own...and we have a large home.
so I took over one of my daughters rooms....and made it MY PHOTO ROOM. I used to have a photo corner, then i had a photo "half a room", and now I have a full blown photo room...and it is quite large..and it has closets..and...well ...you get the idea...i have SO many photos...

now I am QUITE picky on what I list..I try to only auction top quality OR unique images..
so I can spend hours in my photo room deciding what to sell... so although there is order..I love to go in and hunt through all my things..and yes, sometimes things are left out as i am going thru them...

so it is summer..and ...this is the time that i buy for the year ahead..always have..this is the time of year when there are all sorts of auctions, estate sales and so on...and this is the time..for the room to get FULL ...
(and boy is it FULL!!)

so i went to iowa for 2 days and we HAD to stop at a sale along the way...and what do you think they had....PHOTOS..loads of them...so we (we..? ok maybe I) had to get them ....then while we were in Iowa we were cleaning out a home for a family member and what do you think i found...PHOTOS...loads of them...and then on the way back to Chicago..I found another estate and what do you think I got???....you guessed it ...PHOTOS... loads of them... so i had to ask the hubby to carry all the boxes upstairs and he said...CATHI...you have SOO MANY PHOTOS...

where do i even put these boxes??

(but look at these how can you RESIST these???)

How can I turn any of these beauties away?.....they are all so wonderful for so many reasons.....NOW DONT GET ME WRONG, I DO NOT LIKE the faded ones, the dirty ones, or the torn ones.. (and yes, I weed them out and even throw them out and get rid of those that arent top quality or very unique) .....but lately i have found some of the most beautiful images EVER and such quality found in out of the way places......Like this beautiful cabinet photo..or an incredible 1914 image of women in a car (like what is at the top of this post) oh... how can you not bring that back home with you.........and look at it..and even dream about the stories these photos must have had....

and so it is with a photoholic...

when is enough enough....? in my case...i have never had enough of photos..not now...not in the past 40+ years ...so at least i have a room....

it is a large room...with 2 closets.......and those closets arent quite full.....yet..............

cathi

Ad photos really can be fun!..who knew?

ok...so months ago..i. ran into some old advertising photos.. a place i never thought would have some old images..but why not?? these are from the 1950s..and arent they fun?

they are professional..but still one of a kind photos..and wow..soo classic!
like is this really a metal razor...havent seen those for a long time!!
a happy construction worker???

anyhow...fun photos from the 50s....just wanted to share them....

tomorrow i head out of town for 2 days to see family...so yes, i listed like crazy...and now i have a full store..and can happily run out of town for a few days......

but HAD to share these!! to me ...they are SOO funny!!

Cathi

Listing..Shipping...and color snapshots! my rant..

Today is a day I NEED to list...But I must confess, summer is the HARDEST TIME TO LIST!
The minute you get to where you know just what you want to put up on auction...the sun just shines a little too bright...and you want to run outside and take advantage of the warm beautiful weather...

then....
this week, it seemed everyone paid..all on the same day...so I had over 100 items to ship..all at once...so i sat (yes during the warm beautiful August days..) inside and worked on shipping... hours and hours...(it really takes a long time..i mean really takes time..so i dont mess up)

NOT THAT I AM COMPLAINING...

Ebay is a wonderful outlet for us frustrated retailers...
and doing it all on computer is a wonderful way to meet people from all over the world and make wonderful friends and customers....

BUT...
we are in chicago...and it is august..and warm..and pretty out..and the sun shines in on my computer.....and i just want to stop listing.....and enjoy the day

so, i admit it...my photo room is so full and i have so many photos..that it could take me months to get through...now normally in a typical week...i can list loads and loads up on line...but today..the sun is shining on my computer......

but the youngest daughter just had her college bill due this week....
so...i am listing...slowly...and really trying...

so i found some fun color vintage snapshots...
they are so much different than anything i usually have in my store
but to tell you the truth...they just caught my eye...that i just HAD To put them on auction.....

cute color snapshots..love the one at the top of this post....all that fruit ...oh so vintage...
hmmmm

reminds me of summer fruit.....

hmmm summer...
oh my it is hard to list!!........

cathi

Back from the Michigan vacation!...(roadshow details)

THE ANTIQUES ROADSHOW ~Grand Rapids Michigan....well, this weekend, the hubby and I drove from Chicago to Grand Rapids..and had soo much fun...
It is a wonderful city...people are very nice and the weather this weekend was wonderful!

The ANTIQUE ROADSHOW was held at the Devos Center on Saturday the 9th. The way they do it is, you are assigned a time on your ticket that you are supposed to be at the auditorium. There are over 6000 people that show up for the day so they stagger the times. We had the 8:00 time slot. So we were early..and we got right in to a BIG auditorium.

Now, you line up with your items..those of you that want to go..you MUST bring something to carry your items in..they dont provide anything and it is tiring carrying your treasures for hours.
(If I ever go again..I WILL bring a gurnee to carry things!) Then, there are SOO many people and there are CAMERAS and TV crews everywhere..I must admit I was so excited that I got up SUPER early and I did my hair and makeup perfectly..and so did every other woman there!! ALL Of us looked sooo pretty so early in the morning! Then you talk with everyone in line..that is the best part! SO FUN when everyone shows all their treasures!!!

Everyone there is sooo excited and in really good moods ..and everyone wants to get picked to be on TV and so everyone leaves a bit disappointed when they are not picked.. (this is what I learned!)

Now, I had what I considered WONDERFUL treasures.
The doll that I showed in the last post was my 160 year old Sugar doll, that has been passed through generations in the family and still in the original box. I was sure there was nothing else like it and it would be worth lots of $'s! (you are allowed 2 items each) The other thing I brought was a folk art painting of Chatham Ho, my great great grandfather. It is a wonderful oil painting and sometime I will try to post a photo of it..but it is heavy and hard to carry. So I was glad we were in early. The hubby brought his favorite possessions, a signed photo of Jimmy Stewart in "THE" scene in "Its a wonderful life"..where he is kissing Donna Reed on the phone ("I dont want ground floors, and I never want to get married ever....oh mary, mary"..THAT scene) and it is a set photo where you see the camera and the director Frank Capra.. GREAT photo..and very unique..and it is autographed.
The other thing he brought was a letter from Jim Henson of the Muppets and instructions on how to make a puppet..it is signed and framed and really cool.

Ok...so we were in line for an hour in this LARGE waiting area..then we were sent to the set area..which is what you see on TV, and this is surprisingly small. Well, it is soo cool to see all the appraisers..you would recognize ALL of them...you want to say..oh I know YOU! but of course you dont because you would feel silly.

Then I went to get my most valuable possession "THE SUGAR DOLL" appraised..Secretly I was SURE they would want to do an entire episode of how wonderful this doll is.....
and then the appraiser says"..hmm...very unique..yes, I have never seen anything like this..and you have the original box..hmmm...it is probably marzipan...hmmm probably 1840 0r 1850...amazing it has survived that long...well ...it is worth..hmmm...about $200. Thank you"

and that was all...
talk about bummed out...$200? are you kidding me?
and then I learned ....that just cuz it is old and rare and to you the most wonderful thing...well that doesnt mean anyone else wants it...so..that was my sad story of the sugar doll. :(
then i went to get my Chatham Ho appraised..now that one was worth LOTS more and really valuable actually..and the man really liked it and he was so very nice..that i also showed him my sugar doll...and he also liked that...but no TV for me...so I must admit I was a bit disappointed (especially for the $200 appraisal!)

My hubby got his treasures appraised and the Jim Henson one came out on top...but no TV for him either...ah well...
so we got out of there at 9am. What was I going to do the rest of the day???
so I did what I always do....HUNTED FOR PHOTOS...that made me happy..and there were lots of out of the way places that I found them...and I have put here some of the beautiful photos I got from Grand Rapids...and then we even wen to the Museum and learned all about the area..and that was really neat too...

then we went back to the Roadshow (I just had to go back) and talked with all sorts of disappointed people that also didnt get on tv..and at the end of the day.. we didnt feel that bad and realized that our treasures were really worth alot (except for the sugar doll) and we had a great time..and not getting on tv was ok afterall...

and came back to Chicago on Sunday..a bit wiser in roadshow expectations..and full of lovely photos!!

Grand Rapids photos

So my advice is: GO TO THE ROADSHOW if you have a chance...bring a gurnee to carry things... and put your makeup on just in case you make in on tv...

cathi

1920s Awesome photo album& Antiques Roadshow

I just got through listing a GREAT photo album done by the family of the photos that I listed a few weeks ago (the ones of the surreal gal named Pauline Carrier and her on a bicycle) This was a photo album that Helen Carrier did for her dad...and he was the brother of Pauline.
This album is from 1926- 1930s and is SOOO FUN...the images I show here are hardly anything compared to all the neat things inside.

Helen makes notations on ALL the photos which in turn tells the family story....at the end she even gets engaged and you meet the man...sooo cool! but in the meantime..you meet her brother Bud..well Bud has a thing for goat carts..and he has plenty of them as well as his favorite goat Nanny...sooo fun ..

there are loads of photos of Bud and Helen dressed for parties as well as a neat image of a Valentines party....
Here is Nanny pulling yet another cart in the snow!

anyhow..this is the COOLEST ALBUM..and although I WANTED TO KEEP THIS...ah well..kids in college..what can i say???

This is my BELOVED SUGAR DOLL BECAUSE GUESS WHAT??? GUESS WHERE I AM GOING ON SATURDAY???? I am going to the Antiques Roadshow in Grand Rapids Michigan on Saturday with the hubby..

This doll is made completely of sugar and is from early 1800s...cool huh?I will tell the story after I go to Antiques Roadshow (I will update on Sunday)

sooo cant wait..what fun....

so for neat 1920s photo albums and antiques roadshow...Lovely summertime!

Cathi

Sometimes..you just have to create....

Do you ever feel like there are days that you just wake up and it seems that everything kind of goes wrong? Today, was one of those days for me. I have been taking care of my 91 year old mom and she has been falling lately. Her skin is real fragile and I have learned to be a nurse these days. Well, last night late, we were called to the retirement center she is in to tell us that she fell. We ran right over and the paramedics were there..but she did not want to go to the hospital so we bandaged her up..and made sure she was fine.

This morning..I was just out of sorts...maybe it was the fall the night before..or some frustrating phone calls...but nothing seemed to help. and i was just not my normal self....
So I began to list photos..and listed some of my favorite color tinted ones..I love color tinted photos, I think they are so underated and always really affordable..and they make GREAT art projects..

Then it hit me...I hadnt taken any time out for myself...and done anything creative..today it had been all take care of my family (hubby and kids) ..take care of my mom...take care of the guests that stopped by...you know how it goes... it was one of those days...where life was full..and i didnt have the "thing" you need to get through some of the difficulties...

so i opened up photoshop and created this:



Not sure what I will do with this yet..but it was fun....
and I remembered...
sometimes you just have to create...
that and have a good night sleep...
things will look brighter in the morning....

Cathi

Learning to hold back....

Last night, I re-met an old friend of mine's son. I found out just recently that my old friend had died a few years back, and I wanted to see his family. He had been a close friend over 30 years ago, and time and family and life just seemed to bring distance...and then I heard nothing for quite a few years... until, after running into a mutual friend, I found out the unthinkable..that my old dear friend had died.

So I went to see his son. I wanted to say soo much...and being a rather overwhelming personality at times, I knew I had to hold back...take it easy..learn to listen.

Now this is not easy for me...I am the same one that cant wait until Christmas to give gifts..or if there is exceptionally good news, be sure that I will be the one to break it to everyone first..

I am impatient.

My husband says I have bad timing..I just dont know how to hold back...

So this is summer...and it is the time that I find LOADS of photos..I mean I dig through every nook and cranny, sale, auctions..you name it..i am there....hunting for the incredible items..

so NOW, I have a FULL photo room..it is soo full of treasures and I am SOO eager to show everyone..i want to list them all NOW..not wait..not hold back... I want to go..LOOK AT THIS!!!

but it is summer...which means that many of my special customers are on vacation..and it is not the time when we cocoon and want to hunt through ebay to find treasures..this is the time to make memories..and enjoy the outdoors ....and our moments in the sun...it is all too short and we need to enjoy it!.....

So i am trying...

to hold back....

hmmmm

it isnt easy.....

cathi

Why can't We dress like that?

Each day, I get up and throw on my jeans, a baggy shirt and go about my day. Never really stopping to "dress up" too much, only on great occassions of course. Naturally I never really give this any thought, but tonight as I was looking at some of my photos.. you know the ones of those beautiful women from 1900..the ones with the ALL SO TIGHT waistes and the ALL SO BEAUTIFUL lace.. I began to think about the clothing I was wearing...

The 1900s clothing was soo beautiful..women looked soo lovely..their hair almost perfect..

Now, I can see why in the the 1920s, the tight waistes were thrown out for drop waistes..and I can really understand why the women changed the fashion and how liberated they must have felt......but have I taken that liberation too far...so far that the last time I wore a dress was at a wedding months ago...

hmmmm

well, I am not going to be wearing a Victorian dress anytime soon...but stilll the beauty of it....

This week, in my store, I will be featuring many beautiful dresses of beautiful ladies from a time, i can only dream of.....

Cathi