Happy Heavenly 57th Birthday, Kim

Kim, I saw this Precious Moments purple birthday figurine and thought that would be a perfect birthday present for you, but can only send it your heavenly way.  

Oh what fun we would have teasing you about being 57 today - 3 years away from 60.  Of course, if we teased you about your age today you would gently and lovingly remind us of how really OLD we are.  We would give anything to be able to banter with you as we used to do.   It was always so much fun! 

We want you to know that a day doesn't go by without thinking of you.  We can't help but think how different life would be were you still here with all of us and just want you to know that your whole family misses you and wishes you Happy Heavenly 57th Birthday today. 

I saw these quotes online and thought you might like them.  As always I couldn't pick just one...lol 

It’s your birthday again another one, without you here 

 Our thoughts turn again, to this day and all the memories, it holds so dear. 

You gave us so much love and you cared so deeply too

The place that’s empty in our hearts is the space that’s just for you.

Oh, how we miss you every moment of each day

 We long to have you back with us we have, so much to say. 

But we know, that cannot be for you’re in Heaven above.

And that is where we’re sending all our birthday love.

Unknown Author

Thinking of you on your birthday with sadness in our hearts

For a very special someone from whom we had to part.

  How very much you’re missed is something you will never know

 You left behind the broken hearts of those who loved you so. 

A sea of tears and endless grief would simply ebb away

 If only you could celebrate your special day today. 

This birthday token brings you love it’s just a simple touch 

To let you know, how dear you are you’ll always mean so much.

Unknown Author

We never need a special day to bring you to our mind 

For days without a thought of you are very hard to find. 

 Unknown Author 

Baby Sister Hits 4 Home Runs With Her Floral Art Entries

My sister and I are alike in so many ways.  We both love to craft but we're individual when it comes to our passions.  I love Victorian dresses, dolls, all crafts but especially mixed media, genealogy, history and silk floral crafts.  My sister loves natural flowers, gardening, fiber arts, spinning yarn, dying yarns, knitting and Nuno felting. 

Years ago her love of gardening drove her to join a local gardening club. Being a member meant that you were encouraged to participate in creating entries for the garden clubs competition for the local country fair. 

Over the years my sister has entered numerous entries for the fair and has won some of the time and lost some of the time.

You Can't Beat Three Decades Of Joy

Shown in the picture above is a silk floral Christmas decoration that I love and which has been gracing our kitchen counter for 7 years.  Of course, there is a story associated with its' creation....  lol

Back in 2014 hubby surprised me with a different kind of natural flower arrangement.

It was a beautiful red and white roses, carnations and mums arrangement in the most adorable container - a Christmas bulb with top included. The natural flower arrangement was filled with red roses, red carnations, white mums, ribbons and greenery.

I loved the arrangement and the container so much that I decided that once the natural flowers died I would re-create it with silk floral. Surprise! Surprise! lol

I thought it would be a lovely Christmas floral decoration that we could take out year after year. That's the beauty of silk floral - it doesn't die off and can be used again, and again, and again.  And, every year when we did it would bring back a memory of the original gift given with love.

So, when Michaels had all their Christmas silk floral on sale after the holiday I decided to buy enough silk floral to re-create the arrangement.  However, the shopping trip didn't quite go as planned.  Here's what happened:

I wanted to get red roses, red carnations, and white mums along with greenery and some sparkly pieces.

You always know that when you buying silk floral for any arrangement that you're going to buy more silk floral than you actually need to create your piece. And, I, for one, always buy much more than I need as I like my silk floral arrangements to be full.  What a surprise! lol

So, I bought a few silk floral sprigs. Okay, make that several sprigs...... Okay, make that many more than I needed to re-create this piece.

And, of course, they didn't have any white mums so I had to substitute white roses, white carnations, and white poinsettias. I also bought some red poinsettia as I wasn't sure whether I would like them better than the red carnations when creating my piece.

They also didn't have the evergreen sprigs I wanted so I had to substitute a few other greenery sprigs. Okay, make that may other greenery sprigs.  Okay, make that many more than I needed to re-create this piece.

And, of course, I had to get a few Christmas sparkly pieces - just in case I wanted to add them to my arrangement. So, of course, I ended up buying way more than I needed.

In looking at the cart hubby said, "You need all that?" I, of course shook my head - yeah! lol

Remember, I said, you never know until you're creating your piece exactly what's going to look right and I like my pieces FULL. So, for sure, I needed all of this.

Hubby, of course, is on to this ruse and knows I always buy way more than I need and always have more than one arrangement in mind.

Besides, it was all on sale - or so I thought.

Well, when we went to pay the cashier said the red roses and white roses weren't Christmas floral so they weren't on sale. What?????? They look like Christmas flowers to me.....

And, they were with the rest of the Christmas floral. The whole floral department was, in fact, filled with nothing but Christmas floral - how could these not be on sale?

Half the store was dedicated to Christmas floral for heavens sake......

Needless to say, there was already a long line of impatient customers forming at the registers (or should I say foaming at the mouth) as the cashier had been ringing up all the individual sprigs I'd chosen for several minutes now.

So, after looking at hubby and giving him my sweetest "I'm sorry" look, we purchased them anyway at regular price (gritting our teeth) as I really, really wanted to use the big Christmas bulb holder and re-create the floral arrangement I absolutely loved.

And, as hubby well knew, I had another Christmas silk floral in mind that I really, really really wanted to create.  And, when I had my mind set.... well, you know how that goes... lol 

Needless to say I did re-create that floral arrangement with the silk florals I had bought sometime after the 2014 Christmas holiday season.  Every year since then it has proudly taken it's place on the counter at the far end of the kitchen. 

I love it there and I suspect it loves being there as it is one of the first silk floral arrangement you see when entering our house at Christmas.

There is no doubt that real flower arrangements always trump silk floral arrangements, due to their sheer natural beauty, but they do not last for years and, as a result, only supply joy for a short period of time.  

Some of the silk floral arrangements I have made have lasted for over 3 decades.  And, they always look good as new.  

Think about that. Three decades of joy.  

It might not beat mother nature's magnificent beauty but it does supply immeasurable joy year after year after year!  You can't beat that!

Incredible Workmanship in the Reconstruction of a c. 1847 Mansion

For the last seven years there is an old stone mansion near us that has been in the local news and, currently, in the process of being renovated.  

Why was it in the local news?  Well, it started with the old stone mansion being torn down and sold and replaced with several new houses.  

It was such a shame as this old stone mansion was built in 1847 and had quite the history associated with it regarding the town and even one of the presidents.

In 2014 a group of teenagers heard about this old mansion being torn down and decided to do something about it.  They decided to protest the demolition of the mansion and used all their social media skills to help them with protesting it.  

They created signs and stood outside the mansion waving their signs for motorists passing by, created online petitions, and posted where ever they could online to educate the community about what was going on with the demolition of this mansion and why it shouldn't be demolished.

Their efforts quickly spread throughout the community and many residents joined in on the protest.

Well, as you can imagine, several weeks into the protest the current owner changed his mind and decided not to sell the property.  After that several groups concerned with historic preservation got involved with the end result being the residents approving utilizing funds to help preserve the mansion at their town meeting.

In 2016 after weeks of discussions the owner and town had an agreement on preserving the mansion and renovating it.

So, for the last few years we have been watching the meticulous and amazing process of renovating this historic property.  Every day we drive by it and marvel at the workmanship involved with creating this unbelievable mansion to it's original glory.  The stone and masonry work involved has been nothing short of astonishing.

The mansion was registered with the Massachusetts Historical Commission in 1999 and, according to the Friends of the Burnett-Garfield House, which worked with the owner and the town to preserve this old mansion, it is considered a historic property for many reasons.

 If you're interested in reading about why this house is considered historic please visit their Friends of the Burnett-Garfield House Facebook page.

Well, this past spring when my husband and I were driving by and marveling at the workmanship I decided to take some pictures as I found all of the renovations remarkable and thought you all might agree.

To put all of this in perspective you first need to see how the old mansion looked before they started renovating it.  

The property consisted of the old stone mansion, a carriage house, a chapel, and a summer house - all of which would be renovated.

The picture at the beginning of this post shows the renovated chapel, mansion being renovated and part of the carriage house being renovated.

Photos courtesy of PM (Preservation Massachusetts) https://www.preservationmass.org/

Here's how the mansion looked before the renovation. 

Here's how it looks now while being renovated.

Photo courtesy of Community Advocate - https://www.communityadvocate.com/2017/10/11/preservation-work-continues-on-southboroughs-historic-burnett-garfield-house/

Here's how the chapel looked before the renovation. 

Here's how the chapel looks now after being renovated.

Photo courtesy of PM (Preservation Massachusetts) https://www.preservationmass.org/

Here's how the carriage house looked before the renovation.

Here's how the carriage house looks now as it's being renovated.

The incredible workmanship didn't just extend to the buildings.  It also extended to the beautiful landscaping all along and within the property.

I love all the roses and the garden just outside the chapel, which is shown in the pictures above.

Shrubs have been planted all along the property.

A watersprout was built in the pond.

A beautiful gazebo, shown in the picture above and a bridge across the pond, shown in the photo below were added.

They also decided to renovate the corner along the street at the end of the road where the mansion was.  

Every day for the 33 years my husband and I have lived here the corner was nothing but a big mud pit filled with weeds and dirt. 

So, we were so happy when they started to renovate the corner.  I don't have a picture of how it used to look but the picture below is how it looks now.

We just love the way the corner has been finished and love seeing all the improvements to the old stone mansion. 

We can hardly wait to see what it looks like when it is done. For sure, it is a huge improvement to the town and this area.

We're hoping when it's finished that they will have tours for the residents of the town so we all can see the beautiful renovations that were done outside and inside this remarkable mansion.

A Mixed Media Art Picture For My Grandson

As mentioned in my previous post, over a year ago JoAnn Robinson, who is an amazing artist, posted about some of the mixed media digital paper doll images that she had created.   I saw them and just fell in love with them.  They were just adorable and I knew I had to create something with them.  

Jo is an online friend of mine from some of my Artful Gathering online classes who sells her digital art in her waifsNwhatnots Etsy store.  As I usually do I got carried away and ended up buying a lot of her digital images.  I just couldn't resist them.

Well, as craft projects usually go with me I wasn't able to play with them until a couple of weeks ago and play I did.  Jo's paper art doll images are just so much fun to create with and I couldn't resist creating mixed media art paper art doll pictures on art boards.  

When I saw one of Jo's art doll digital images of a Victorian man in the moon I knew I had to make a picture from him as a graduation present present for my grandson.  He would be perfect as a handmade gift that I could give him and the words were definitely fitting for a college graduation.  

I decided to sponge paint him using 6 different masculine metallic colors and added lace for a 3d effect for his ascot as well as adding paper flowers, ribbon embellishments and button embellishments.

Created from Jo's Mister Moon Man Articulated Paper Doll Whimsical Crescent Moon Doll Instant Digital Download.

I wanted his image to stand out from the art board so I pasted his image to thick watercolor art pages and then pasted those to the art board I had sponge painted.

 

I still have a lot left to create when I get a chance.  I'm not sure when that will be but I do, eventually, end up with some free time when I can play with Jo's paper art doll images again.   

If you get a chance to visit Jo's waifsNwhatnots Etsy shop to see her adorable paper doll images I hope you end up playing like I did.  Way, way too much fun for a senior citizen to be having.... lol

Copyright © 2004 - 2023 - All Rights Reserved - Written By Linda Walsh

Free E-Book of Mixed Media and Collage Scrapbook Pages From the 1880 Little Women Book

Last July I posted about my love of books and my grandmother's and great Aunts influence on me. Two of the first books I got from my grandmother back in 1966 when I was a young lady were Little Women and Little Men by Louisa May Alcott.  

I loved the books and especially loved Jo because she was so fiercely independent.  I also admired Louisa May Alcott as she was an abolitionist, feminist and involved in the women's suffrage movement.  

For several months in 2020 I had been looking for illustrations in some of the free e-books that are in the public domain on the Project Gutenberg website.  To my surprise I found the Little Women free E-Book (cover shown above) on the Project Gutenberg website from 1880 that had more than 200 illustrations by Frank T. Merrill and a picture of the Home of the Little Women by Edmund H. Garrett. 

Even though they were all black and white I was still thrilled.

The books my grandmother had given me had 4 color illustrations for Little Women and 5 color illustrations for Little Men, which is certainly not a lot of illustrations. Plus, they currently aren't in the public domain.

As I started looking through the pages, looking at the beautiful black and white illustrations, and reading some of the chapters again I felt inspired and thought they'd make for some adorable mixed media, collage, decoupage  or paper-craft creations. 

Just like Louisa May Alcott "I want to do something splendid...." however, unlike Louisa my creations would involve crafts not writing books.

I thought you might get inspired by the books and illustrations too, so I decided to post the illustrations back then for you all to enjoy.

In thinking about my post from 2020 I thought it would be a lot easier for all of you if I created a free e-book with all the illustrations in it that you could save and download to your own computer, which would make it easier for all of you to use the illustrations in your mixed media or collage crafting projects.

So, shown below is my free E-Book.   

Little Women Black & White Illustrations  Free E-Book

(Based on the Project Guttenberg 1880 Little Women Free E-Book with illustrations by Frank T. Merrill and a picture of the Home of the Little Women by Edmund H. Garrett.)

To view and download my free e-book please CLICK HERE. You'll be brought to Google Drive where you can view my free e-book. Then just download my free .pdf e-book by clicking on the down arrow in the top center.

For more information on all my free e-patterns, e-printables and e-books please CLICK HERE

Please respect My Terms of Use:  All patterns, e-patterns, printables, e-printables, e-books, graphics, tutorials, how-to's, articles and other e-products © 2004-2023 Linda Walsh Originals-Designs by Linda Walsh. All rights reserved. Commercial selling or reselling by any means prohibited without the written consent of Linda Walsh.

Patterns, e-patterns, printables, e-printables, e-books, graphics, tutorials, how-to's, articles and other e-products are for personal use only. You may not modify, photocopy, download, upload, post, transmit, display, perform, publish, license, reprint, create derivative works from, mass duplicate, re-sell, digitize, and reproduce in any other form (print, digital or electric) or commercially apply, embed, share, Email, or redistribution in any other means. Use of any of the above is prohibited without the written permission of Linda Walsh.

However, you may link to my website(s)/blog(s) and the individual page(s)/blog post(s) (including 1 picture) but do not copy, reprint or duplicate my website(s)/blog(s) or individual page(s)/post(s ) without my permission.

Items made from Linda Walsh Originals E-Patterns are intended for personal use for fun or small scale personal and business profit as long as you credit us with the design. Large scale commercial use (i.e. mass production) of items made from Linda Walsh Originals E-Patterns are by permission only.

Please see my Terms and Conditions for additional information.

Copyright © 2004 - 2023 - All Rights Reserved - Written By Linda Walsh of Linda Walsh Originals and Linda's Blog. Linda is a doll maker and doll pattern designer.

My Families Love Of Pillows and My Pinterest Quilting Tutorials Board

My mother, sister and I have been sewing for many, many years.  My sister and I learned from our mother at a very young age.  We started small and over the years both my sister and I, as well as our mother, honed our sewing skills and, as a result, ended up making many, many things including our own clothes, large quilts, small quilts, mini quilts, quilted pillows. place-mats and runners.

My sister continued her love of quilts by creating Inspired Creations By D quilted wall art.

After making a bunch of quilts that she gave away as gifts my mother gave up large quilts in favor of smaller pillows.  She loved making log cabin pillows like those shown in the picture at the beginning of this post.  She was happy to make the standard log cabin quilts and other quilted pillows until she learned how to make folded log cabin quilted pillows.  From that point on it was all folded log cabin pillows, table runners and place-mats.

She even took her love of log cabin quilts to the point where she was making miniature 8" by 8" pillows for my baby "Bud."  She made two of them just for him - one for downstairs in the family room when he was laying on the sofa and one for the chair we used as his bed upstairs.

He loved them and it was so adorable seeing him laying down with his head on his pillow.

My mother also liked making folded mini pillows, place-mats and table runners like the table runner shown in the picture above.

The first time I made a quilt I thought, "This is fun!" However, like making clothes I very quickly learned that I didn't want to spend a lot of time on large quilts and outfits to wear. I much preferred mini quilts and doll clothes, both of which were smaller and took a lot less time. I know, I know - I get bored easily and large quilts are very time consuming.  So, I focused more on making dolls and smaller quilts like pillows, place-mats, table runners, etc.

I took making pillows one step further when I started creating custom fabric designs for my Linda Walsh Originals Spoonflower shop. I made lots of pillows with my custom fabric designs like those shown in the picture collage above.

I had so much fun making my Sneaks Family custom fabric pillows for my grandsons for Christmas gifts one year I decided to create a free e-pattern for all of you so you could make some Sneaks Family pillows of your own.  If you'd like to make some of your own my free e-pattern is here.  Please note the design of the individual fabrics shown in the e-pattern have changed since that e-pattern was created.

I also like looking at some of the beautiful free pillow creations there are out there as there are a lot of exceptional quilters and seamstresses on the web offering all sorts of "freebies" to inspire everyone else. There's a lot of quilting inspiration as well as pillow inspiration.

As a result I've collected a lot of pins on my Pinterest boards.  I have some on my Quilting Tutorials, Video's, Patterns and How-To's - Everyday Quilted Pillows Projects Pinterest board and a lot on all the different Quilting Tutorials, Video's, Patterns and How-To's Pinterest board sections I have.

There are 30 sections on my Quilting Tutorials, Video's, Patterns and How-To's Pinterest board.  The 30 sections are for everyday quilts to seasonal quilts to holiday quilts to specific types of quilts boards.

At last count I had over 2,000 quilted tutorial pins.  Definitely a lot of wonderful quilted eye candy to see and so much to learn.

Quilting Tutorials, Video's, Patterns and How-To's

I love learning new quilting techniques, watching quilting video how-to's, and reading quilting tutorials. I hope you do, too and hope you like my selection of quilt making how-to's, video's and tutorials.

If you love my Quilting Tutorials, Video's, Patterns and How-To's board please follow my board by clicking on the link above.