RNEST's Etsy Craft Party! (June 2014)

Here are some pictures from the RNEST Etsy Craft Party!

We didn't have a huge turnout...June 6th was the first Friday of the month, and "First Friday" is a big thing in the art community in Rochester.  There are lots of different events going on around town, and many of our RNEST members had committed to being at First Friday events. But the people that showed up to the Craft Party had a lot of fun getting creative with old pictures!

 We colorized black and white photos with watercolors (this works best if the photo is printed on cardstock.  The watercolors don't take too well to regular photo paper)

We also used embroidery floss and stitched on the photos (which was a "suggested project" for the party on the Etsy blog)

I  went a step further  and added buttons to my project that I did at home.

And there was also the "fairy nest jar" project...

We used one of the large classrooms at our local Joann Fabric & Craft stores. (Did you know you can reserve a classroom for free as long as there's not a class scheduled?)

Here's a look at some of the finished projects!

 

Easy Vintage Spool Photo Holders

Vintage wooden spool picture holders. These are great for displaying vintage photos. 

All you need is an old wooden thread spool and a paperclip that fits snugly into the hole! Then use the paperclip to hold your picture up. I like this style better than the style I've seen online where you actually saw a groove into the spool. With this style, the spool is left intact in case you want to use it for something else.

I'll be using these to decorate the tables at RNEST's Etsy Craft Party this upcoming Friday (June 6th).

Family Historian

I'm becoming something of a family historian. My great grandfather (my father's mother's father) was an amatuer photographer and I have a lot of his photos (as well as other family portraits not taken by him) that I have been scanning in to incorporate into Aunt Grandma's book. (Aunt Grandma/Aunt Carrie was my father's mother's sister)

My grandma Janet as a little girl.

Grandma Janet as a young woman. I never knew Grandma Janet...she died when my Dad was 17. All I have are these pictures of her.

Great Grandma Ruth on Lake Ontario

Aunt Grandma/Carrie and Aunt Marion

These are only a few of the pictures I have. I have a lot more to scan in. Then even more work to implement them into Aunt Grandma's book.

Origins of Polly Esther the Sock Monkey

The other day at my parents' house, I was looking at family photo albums (that need some serious re-scrapbooking!...due to years of being in those sticky "magnetic" photo albums...but that's for another post). I found this picture of me when I was a year old, watching Saturday morning cartoons with Daddy... (well, Dad's watching cartoons, I don't know what I seem to be preoccupied with)...


...with my first sock monkey...Polly Esther!

And I found this Family Circus clipping in the album as well. THIS is where my Mom got the idea to name my sock monkey Polly Esther!

The Tuesday Night Girls

Mom sent me some pictures she scanned of the "Golden Girls"/"Tuesday Girls". But she beat me to the punch in posting them! (yeah!...my mother, the supposed non-blogger!) So I'll just post my favorite. Grandma is the dark-haired one with the big hat in the center of the front row. I think we saw this wedding on the DVD...I remember that hat and dress. And I don't know if I'm a little biased because she's my grandma, but I think she stands out the most out of everyone in this picture. Probably because everyone else is wearing light-colored dresses except her!

She looks so like my mom!...or probably more accurately, Mom looks like her!

At least Mom typed up all the interesting info so I don't have to! Go check out her blog post to read it. Well, plus has more firsthand knowledge than I do and she has the whole newspaper article at home...she only sent me scans, so I don't have the whole thing. But I found this snippet about my Grandma in one of the scans...(This article was published in the Rome Observer in 1996)

Yup! That's my grandma! :)