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