Chinese New Year 2010 MEtal Tiger~painted tintype

click the image to see it larger in my Etsy store
I was so excited that last night I sold 2 original painted photos. One was a tintype of a little Queenie girl and the other was a painted cdv. What is truly amazing about this if anything was the evening before while watching the Suns basketball game I was painting the above tinype and wondering after a year of not having done anything like this, why was I taking the time when I was exhausted and should have been lying in bed. I believe now that putting forth the energy created the customer to come to my store. I am not sure this is possible but really the unverse does work in mysterious ways.
I just put up a treasury here
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=102475
and decided to call it "Metal Tiger" as this is what the Chinese New Year will be. I looked up my astrological birthday reading and lo and behold, I was born in the year of the Metal Tiger, 1950. The horoscope says it is going to be a very good year for me and could even mean"too much of a good thing". Is that possible?

Snow in the Desert 12-23-09

Yeah!! we have snow here in Sedona. It started last night about 9pm and continued to give the dry earth a white blanket by morning! This is hopefully here for a few hours but here comes the sun. This is predictable as it is here almost every day of the year. But we did get our snow for however long it may last and I am going to get dressed and go out and frolic in it before it melts!!
I have christmas swedish bread rising and the tree is all lit!

I am wishing each and every one of you a very Merry christmas and happy hannukah or kwanza and a unversal happy new year!!
lets remember mother earth for 2010. She needs us!

Beautiful Lillies and Fresias

This is a photograph that I took of a beautiful bouquet that my oldest daughter sent to me on my birthday. My surprise to hear the doorbell with a florist guy delivering this huge bouquet in a 1940s flat vase. Just beautiful! I was really overwhelmed for my birthday this year on the 14th. I heard from almost every family member and friend and received so many wonderful well wishes and great gifts. My youngest gave me the gift of a beautiful basketball game where she sacrificed her body at one point taking a charge and stopping the opposing team from scoring. I almost charged the stands as I was so worried she broke her back. Does she think she is Steve Nash?
The Red Rock Scorpions won by one point with Rita making at least 15 points and having many assists, guarding like a maniac and just all around great playing.
I really enjoyed the day and night and it was topped off at Hiros for some sushi. I won't forget that day for a long time, maybe never!
So Christmas is around the corner and I am feeling pretty calm compared to last year. This year I made each member of my family a wax painting and enjoyed doing it. I also gave a substantial amount to the Heifer foundation in the name of each person. That was a gift to me as I have wanted to do that for years instead of buying things and mailing them that will be forgotten in no time. This was a gift to a family of a goat, a flock of chickens and part of a heifer cow.
Everyone seemed thrilled by the gift and I think I will do that again next year as well.
So as the day draws nigh I hope each and everyone of you will have a wonderful and peaceful Christmas or Hannuka!

Gratitude and Giving

I am adding a new photo but leaving the charity info up for another few days.
Happy Tuesday. Dec 1st!!!


In this beginning of the season of giving and sharing , I hope we can all remember to be grateful for our lives and what we have and to remember that there are so many who go without. I have three charities I want to share and am providing links to them so if you feel so inclined you might give just a little to each one or even one and expand your heart chakra and make a family feel that there are people out there who care about them. First is the American Cancer Foundation and the team epe in hopes to find a cure for cancer which affects so many of us, our family our friends and a dear friend Laura Slocum who has ovarian cancer. Please click on her face on the right and you will go to where you can donate to the cause.

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Second is the Heifer Foundation, get involved, give hope in the form of a cow, sheep, goat, chickens, ducks, a beehive for as little as $20 teach your children that we are all in this together on planet earth and what better way than to send a family in need an animal that will help them to help themselves. My mother has always given my daughter a flock of chickens on her birthday instead of a toy or gift, this has been good, because it has given her a sense of belonging to the world that she has made a difference by having a family have something to help them survive instead of another video game or pair of jeans she doesn't need.
Her is a link to their site, please check it out and show your kids, no matter what age. My teen who is 17 is donating all her profits in her Colourshoppevintage store on Etsy to getting a CBC or as she calls it, a Cow before Christmas for the Heifer group. So far she has saved $100 and I am matching every penny she saves for it. If interested you can donate directly to her or to the foundation and specify you want it to go towards a cow and let us know and we will add to it. "The idea behind Heifer ... is similar to the notion that it's better to teach a man to fish so he can feed himself than to give him a fish that will feed him just once. One animal could eventually benefit an entire community."
Here is the link HEIFER international~pass on the gift
Another wonderful cause is

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Collateral Repair Project~ a group of women in Amman Jordan who have been helping the refugees of the Iraq war who came to Jordan when the bombing started years ago without work visas because they feared for their lives and their children, and considering how many died in Iraq this was probably something any of us would have done to protect our kids. I read about this woman who started the program and how she is trying to keep young girls from dancing in strip clubs because that was the only labor that was possible due to the fact that Jordan refused to give work visas to the parents, many middle class and also many professionals such as nurses and teachers, unable to work. SO these women joined forces to help the refugees there and its snowballed into them making and selling their crafts and the kids are now going to school after being unable to for years. If you read their stories and see their faces, you will not believe how much they appreciate the care. Its called Collateral Repair Project. In some way our country has created their situations because we bombed Iraq and many thousands were displaced due to that and none of us truly can imagine what the families have gone through, innocent kids and families caught up in the war. If interested please check their site. I recently gave a gift of $25 to my sister as a birthday gift and I know she knew it was a wonderful idea and was grateful.
here is the link Collateral Repair Project
I am grateful to be here in America and not a day goes by I don't imagine how hard it would be anywhere else.
Have a wonderful thanksgiving weekend with family and friends. Remember to give in this season of shopping and spending.

November is such a Wonderful Month~shop online

Bluemoon Rose's Shop on Etsy~Bridget Clancy
click her name to go to the shop to see this wonderful hat!




Sharon Clancy wonderful Jewelry
click here to go to her store


Krysta Alves store Poppylove
click here to go to her store


Rita Clancy's Colourshoppevintage store


My neice Amy Clancy's Swirly Hats Perfect for Christmas Gifts
click above to go to her store


I think we should all shop on Etsy and am going to promote my sisters, daughter and niece who all have shops on Etsy and, these are all items that would please anyone in your family. Click the link above the items to go to their stores.

I am getting excited as I am heading to Eugene Oregon to see my daughter and her children and my sister and nieces and their children for Thanksgiving. Its the first time I have ever traveled at This holiday and although I don't look forward to the long trip taking almost 11 hours and 3 stops I will be happy to be there and see everyone and I might as well get used to the rain as I am moving away from the sun and back to BLuegene after being gone for more than 20 years. I spend every summer there except the last one and now to move back will be so nice and be near all the kids and the university and the saturday market and museums and 2 hrs from Portland.. I will soak up as much sun here in Arizona as is possible before I go and come back and visit here often.
Enjoy Thanksgiving and remember to be grateful for what we have.

Blanche Ollie and her Christmas Doll

This is a retouched photo I did for Etsy. The little girl's name was Blanche Ollie. Her mother was the school teacher I listed a few days ago named Blanche Mae Mcquillan. She had one daughter, Blanche Ollie, named after her uncle Olander Young. She was a lovely child in every way and just by looking at the photos they took of her growing up getting married and having one child of her own she was well rounded, could shoot a rifle and also cook and became a teacher like her mom. ITs funny, her mom was an only daughter/child and so was she and her own child a single girl who also had one daughter a girl. How unusual is that. Just one girl for 4 generations. I love this photo of her because she really shows through her eyes how much she loves her doll. The original was 1by 1 inch. click the link to see it bigger in my store. I love the fur coat on her doll, so cute!

veterans day~ bow your head!

I think we should all bow our heads for a moment and be grateful for all the men and women who gave their lives for wars. I don't know how they did it. Life seems like such a fragile and short stint as it is and for them to go into a job knowing they might die, well...its almost unimaginable! So I bow my head in respect. I hate war and despise those who sit in Washington not getting their hands dirty while they send men and women to do the dirty work. But really they are not in the equation today. Its about those fallen who gave up living to die for others.
Lets hear it for them. Lets work to not lose any more!

Monday morning still dark out~nov 9th

This photo was made from foliage from my front yard area, well in front of my condo, which is my front yard. I am going out today to take more photos as I don't want the last days of fall and the beautiful colors that are out there to disappear before I get some memories. This is my last fall in Sedona and I am trying to relish every minute of it. It was still warm enough yesterday with a warm breeze blowing that we left the doors open all day. I took a very long walk with Blue and soaked in every ounce of sunshine I could get before coming home and working the rest of the day.
We hardly ever eat red meat but last night I was longing for a steak and so I cooked a nice NY, a small one and split it w Rita. Yellow finn roasted potatoes, broccoli and a pumkin cookie homemade from the health food store to split. I ate small portions of everything and felt great afterwards.
I keep thinking about how fortunate we all are here in America. We have had our trials and hurricanes and political divisions but really for the size of our country we are doing really well. I think we forget alot of the time that we have it so good. This month for me will be about being grateful and so far I think I am. I have a wonderful family, children, parents and friends. I wouldn't trade any of that for another life. I think because I read Ram Dass' book in the 70s"Be Here Now" I always keep a mantra in the back of my mind, he said everything that happens in life,"It's all just grist for the mill". I guess I love that as it incorporates grain and that is really what life is about, bread and surviving and loving your life. So my little mantra for you is to be grateful. It frees up so much of the fear we can always slip back into. Have a wonderful day and an awesome week!

Blanche Mae McQuillan School TEacher Colorado 1909

I really must share the story of a young woman from Salida Colorado. Her name was Blanche Mae McQuillan. she was born in Nebraska to a Railroad father and stay home farm mother. She went to Salida with her family by age 5 and never left. She traveled but never moved from Salida. She married a young man named Roy Young who was also from Nebraska moved to Salida. She was an only child, they had one child, but her husband was one of 12. She went to teacher's college in Colorado and then immediately took a job alone at a young age of about 19 or 20 working on a farm not far from her home in Salida on the Watters ranch. She had a log cabin school house and taught over 20 children, many who belonged to the Watters family and the hired hands' children. Every child was dressed to the tee despite living on a ranch. Clean and spic and span and she worked there a year living on the ranch. This photo of her could be when she first arrived. Some how there was always a camera around or people taking photos so that lucky for me I have 3 full albums of her family, well, it really is mostly of his extended family. Her sister in law Pearl Huston was the youngest of the 12 children of the Young family and she was also a school teacher out in Gunnison county. Women went to college and then into the wilds back then. This image is that of a strong woman who spent many years in her golden years, putting together a genealogy which is hand typed, that I aquired when I bought her albums. I am not sure what to do with it. The details go back to civil war era.
This is Blanche. She aged gracefully. Her husband worked for Texaco for awhile in Salida that is from a photo they included. If interested in following her story I will be listing the images of Blanche and her photo album family for the next few weeks on my eBay store which you can get to from clicking on the girls on the right who are swinging.
History is an amazing thing-let us not forget, those who came before us and how they paved our way.

That roadside stand in Sedona~Monday

This is a life size sign that was probably atop a pole at a gas station many years ago and now adorns the fence with many others at a roadside tourist stop outside downtown Sedona heading towards Village of Oak Creek. So many wonderful things to look at, I had so much fun with Rita looking and eventually spending too much money on gifty this and that little items that I couldn't do without like a scorpion in glass (even though Rita begged me not to support it, I knew my grandson would love it), several varieties of spicy and sweet popcorn packaged for my grandaughter's dorm room late night snack. A string of chili peppers for an aunt's upcoming birthday. There was so much to see, it was like a trip to Mexico without the airfare. Well not really but there were so many things to see outside and in the large all wooden store. Here are a few photos from there. Several are in my Etsy store as prints if you decide you cannot live without one of them.

Please Vote! ~MyCinderella White Pumpkin

I am so thrilled that someone voted my white Cinderella pumpkin in the Etsy vote your favorite autumnal item. This is my first ever nomination for anything on Etsy and I am pretty close to the top of favorites which makes me so happy!! Why do I care you ask. I don't know but it is fun to be in the contest and know that folks like my work. If you have not yet voted, you can click the link here and vote once until I believe Sunday is deadline. IF you do give me your vote..thanks ahead of time! here is the link

BLue Witch~Saturday

Here it is Saturday again. I know when I started this blog I had vowed to myself that every day was a blog day...who was I kidding? I really had to get up early today. Another cross country meet for Rita and this time in Phoenix. Its supposed to be triple digits today. that is true. Christmas on the FP of Etsy and hot hot Arizona. SO that is fine, I heard it snowed in Vermont. Well that does make sense and I won't complain as I walked the dog to the bank and back yesterday and it was 83, shorts and felt like 90. He is allowed into the bank but immediately tries to withdraw money and only gets a cookie.

Sedona is such a laid back town, until scandal hits. This past week a tragedy of huge proportions when a sweat lodge in the area killed 2 people and sent over 20 to the hospital. Apparently there were toxic fumes and the temps were 122. Sadly the woman who died was a friend of my daughter's in Mexico, a 39 yr old woman with so much living left to do. I have never done a sweat lodge but believe me living in Sedona I have been asked to many times. I guess the best advice is to only use items from nature when doing it.

I have posted a beautiful young 1920s blue witch photo which(haha) I listed in my Etsy store yesterday. It was such a wonderful find and I tucked it away and forgot I had the original until it showed up in a box of special saved photos yesterday. I love her dress and how she is holding up her home made pumpkin. Come take a look and maybe get a card to send to someone you know loves Halloween. Now that the month is half over I don't feel bad getting into the spirit of it. I did notice some Christmas and Hanukkah front pages recently on Etsy. Here comes the holidays.

Enjoy your wonderful warm or cold or wet Saturday....go romp in a pumpkin field or visit a cider house.

Time is all we need~Time HAs Come TOday Chambers Brothers

Here is a photo from 1930s or earlier of a window display of table top clocks. I remember my grandma Clancy had one of these in the dining room. It would chime on the hour and you could hear the ticking. I have never been able to stand a ticking clock, let alone a chiming one. It is just the constant reminder of every second and minute and hour that passes by. I think clocks are really a burden of sorts, unless of course you want to get somewhere for an appt. then the necessity becomes obvious.
I always think of the song
Time has Come Today by The Chambers Brothers

Hear the song here

Birch Tree Canopy~Monday holiday!

This may not look like the right size photo and its not. I am experimenting with photoshop here and loved the sparkling sun in the birch trees so much yesterday that it almost seemed like an ethereal experience to be in them twinkling in the early morning fall sun with the crisp blue sky above them to keep them humble. There is something about birch that stems from my childhood days. I cannot say what it is but that it is mystical. I give you the master of birch trees..here is the link to my store for a larger viewing.

introducing Mr Robert Frost:

Birches by Robert Frost

When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy’s been swinging them.
But swinging doesn’t bend them down to stay
As ice-storms do. Often you must have seen them
Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning
After a rain. They click upon themselves
As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored
As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.
Soon the sun’s warmth makes them shed crystal shells
Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust–
Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away
You’d think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.
They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load,
And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed
So low for long, they never right themselves:
You may see their trunks arching in the woods
Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground
Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair
Before them over their heads to dry in the sun.
But I was going to say when Truth broke in
With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm
I should prefer to have some boy bend them
As he went out and in to fetch the cows–
Some boy too far from town to learn baseball,
Whose only play was what he found himself,
Summer or winter, and could play alone.
One by one he subdued his father’s trees
By riding them down over and over again
Until he took the stiffness out of them,
And not one but hung limp, not one was left
For him to conquer. He learned all there was
To learn about not launching out too soon
And so not carrying the tree away
Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise
To the top branches, climbing carefully
With the same pains you use to fill a cup
Up to the brim, and even above the brim.
Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,
Kicking his way down through the air to the ground.
So was I once myself a swinger of birches.
And so I dream of going back to be.
It’s when I’m weary of considerations,
And life is too much like a pathless wood
Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs
Broken across it, and one eye is weeping
From a twig’s having lashed across it open.
I’d like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over.
May no fate willfully misunderstand me
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
Not to return. Earth’s the right place for love:
I don’t know where it’s likely to go better.
I’d like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be good both going and coming back.
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches.

Keeping it Simple~Obama wins nobel peace prize~white pumpkin

Friday is here and this week the time flew by. Obama has a new prize and its quite Nobel if I do say so! I do believe that the world is a safer and better place with him as president. I know not everyone believes this but I do a little comparison using the euro method and that is since he took office almost 30% of people around the world believe we have a safer world since he took office and I think that is due to the fact we had to compare him to the previous one.
I give him the white pumpkin award. I love this white pumpkin. I got in Safeway a few weeks ago and photographed it until I was happy and have it listed in my etsy store, if you like to see it larger its a click away...

I watched a show last night that had a guy on the show who lived without leaving a carbon footprint for an entire year. He lived in NY and up a large building and he and his wife walked the stairs instead of using the elevator

Colin Beavan

Colin Beavan spent a year making no environmental impact in the hope of finding a way to live that's better for the planet. link to clip is here.
I think that is living simple..

Tuesday~ Indian Summer~Clarkdale

Here are a few shots from a small town called Clarkdale, Arizona. The town has homes made of different colored brick such as this lounge is made of. Most homes are 2 bedroom, with ceramic sunshine of some sort on the front porch. A quiet desert breeze was blowing through the town last Saturday, the sun was shining brightly and like a ghost town it had the feel that people were all sleeping. Only a few old folks sat in front of the grocery store and one man with greasy hair stood outside this lounge wearing a sleeveless leather vest w no shirt under it, smoking. I chose not to take his photo.
We were in Clarkdale for a track meet w Sedona school. Rita came in 21st in her division which was pretty amazing considering there were almost 100 girls. She ran straight up a steep rocky hillside and down again. Clarkdale school was where the meet was and the town about 1/2 mile down the road.
I think if you were a writer you might like it here. It was quiet and warm and the view was of a mine still in operation that took white rock from the hillside. I think I spent 5 minutes driving around and stopped once for these few photos and drove away. On the way out of town I stopped at a very bleak flea market and talked to the two women in the photo. I actually put up with the chain smoking because they were the only living things out of doors that day. I didn't take a photo but there was a beautiful park and gazebo across the street from the flea market and not one child or adult in it and it was a beautiful day about 80 degrees with a breeze. That baffled me. Were they all indoors watching football or playing video games. I could not understand this at all. Anyway I won't be back to that town again as it was Rita's last year running that race. I will include a photo of her girls team too.

Candy Wax Lips Kiss 1940s LAdies~SAturday

This image was found a few days ago in a photo album. It had my name written all over it!
The women all in their B-V hats decided to each wear a pair of wax candy lips. I love love this one and made it into a card on Etsy. Come see!
Staurday and in just a few minutes will walk the dog then drive to CLarkdale.. yes same town made famous by the Monkees. Rita has a grueling uphill track meet that I will support her to run. Grabbed a treasuy this early a.m. after missing 2 yesterday. Work will do that to you!
HAppy that the aunties and mom and dad made it back to Michigan and Port Angeles safe and sound and back to their routines and families.
I am about to go enjoy some of this wonderful cool desert air. I took some photos to post and will do that today or tomorrow of the early morning desert. Click the photo to go to my store to see the card and have a wonderful SAturday!

Carlos and the Aunties and Mom

As promised here is the photo of my aunties and mom amd Carlos from Switzerland. He was just standing there and helped them down off that ledge behind them. In doing so he garnered the love of all 4 of these women for eternity as they did not stop talking about how cute he was and what a gentleman until we were back to the car. It was about 95 outside so they might have had a little heat stroke too. I thought it was the perfect ending to our wonderful lunch and outing to the beautiful red rocks of Sedona.

here is the video... you can hear their further comments about Carlos. Little did he know what an impression he made. Enjoy your Wednesday!

Wonderful Weekend w Aunties from Michigan~A Michigan Glass Negative

this is a photo that was made from one from a series of glass negatives from Michigan. Click on this link to go to the auction on eBay if you are interested.

I had a wonderful weekend, my mom and three aunts from Michigan were visiting. It was so nice to see all of them and for the aunts and my mother a chance to reconnect after so long not seeing each other. I think sisters are so important and I for one am so happy to have them. I try to let them know now and again by a phone call or birthday card and gift and also just a thoughtful email now and again. I realize I wouldn't be the same person without all my sisters. I have 5 living and one that has passed on. It makes the ones still here even more special.

I loved having the aunties yesterday in my tiny condo and making a huge and delicious lunch for everyone, and Rita helped by cleaning up all the dishes afterwords. Today they left for their drive to Las Vegas for the first time visit before they fly back home. I hope they win big. This will probably be the last time flying for all 3 of them as they have families and pets and grand kids they left back there and this truly was a once in a lifetime trip for at least 2 of them. My youngest aunt Patty who is only 3 years older than me still has a lot of travel left in her. Who knows, it could be the start of a new life for all three of them. I know they talked about it for months before the trip and will probably talk about the gorgeous Spanish guy Carlos they met yesterday when I took them down to the local Red Rock Crossing to get some wonderful snaps of the red rocks on the river. There was a slight drop of a few feet to the beach and he helped each one down, one by one, with them fawning all over him until we got a posed photo with them and him. I promise to post that one soon. He had moved from Portugal to Switzerland and was on a visit to Sedona.

T-REX ~PAris Blues ~FRIDAY! hooray!

Here is someone who probably would need a really good dentist to look over all his wonderful pointed teeth. He was or still is a roadside attraction in California somewhere. Tried to find it an even w google it was nowhere. I have always been amazed at roadside folk art and even bought a book once to go looking for the more unusual. I love anything that is real looking but fake. I remember once as a photo student at the University of Oregon we went to Portland and I loved the restaurants with the fake food in the window. It was made of plastic but looked so real. It would never go bad. Of course I saw Jurassic Park a few times and was afraid every time. That is one of the better scary movies to see. I saw a wonderful film the other night with Paul Newman, Joanne woodward, Sydney Poitier, and Dinah Carroll called PAris Blues. REnt it... its jazz at the underground cafe in Paris in 1961, black adn white.. doesn't get better. The story was good and there was a guest appearance and horn ensemble with Louis Armstrong. I really enjoyed it.
Joanne Woodward steals the film. I think they have always been one of my favortie Hollywood couples. I met their daughter once in APtos at our little small store there. They had a second home there for awhile and she was a local who I believe took over her parents' food business. They gave so much to charity and were such a cute couple! Here is a beautiful photo of them.
Poitier and Carroll also sizzle!
click here is a link to a promo for the film on youtube