Happy Valentine's Day !

Image credit: Vintage valentine from Sweetly Scrapped

Cat Thursday: Valentine Kitties

Cat Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by The True Book Addict, and celebrating "the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats." You can join the fun by posting a favorite LOL cat pic, famous cat art or even pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats!

It's been a really long time since I posted any photos for Cat Thursday. (Where've I been?) But as we're getting very close to Valentines Day (or should that be Valentine's Day?), thought I'd share a few vintage cards with images of cats.

I love cats (though I'm allergic, darn it) and I've always loved/collected greeting cards. So what's better than a greeting card with a cat on it, right?

A couple of these are from my personal card stash, and the rest are images I've collected over the years from various sources (internet sites like Graphics Fairy and Free Vintage Digital Stamps are great places to explore).

They're all wishing you a Happy Thursday and a Purrrr-fectly lovely Valentine's Day.

Blue Monday: Blues for the New Year

Blue Monday is hosted weekly by Smiling Sally.

To see more offerings, or to participate yourself,
please head on over to her blog.

So, 2016. And my first Blue Monday of the year. Now that Christmas and New Year's and the hubby's birthday are over, we're beginning to get back to normal around here. Finally took down the trees and all the holiday decorations and stowed them away for another year. And we managed to finish up the puzzle we've been working on for the last couple of weeks (no blue there, but a nice nostalgic picture):

It turned out to be a LOT harder to put together than we expected it to be. All those dark pieces looked exactly alike!

We ended December with a visit to the Blanton Museum at the University of Texas in Austin, to see the exhibit of Latin American modern interior design they have going on right now (I think it's there through January 17th, if you're interested). It was a good time to go -- classes were out for the winter break, so parking wasn't a problem and the campus was very quiet. I remember when we were students at UT back in the Pleistocene era, we always loved that time during vacations and between semesters, when the other students cleared out. We were Austin residents year-round, so we got to stick around and enjoy the slower pace.

The exhibit was fun -- lots of interesting mid-20th century decor, which I love. Wonderful furniture, paintings, wall hangings, and ceramics. And a lot of the walls were painted a lovely turquoise blue, my favorite color and very appropriate to the time period. (Sorry if they look a little greenish on your screen -- it's a difficult shade to photograph.)

There was also a lot of art glass I coveted, like this 1950s blue glass table lamp:

Before we left the museum, we browsed another exhibit -- paintings of the Virgin Mary from 18th century Bolivia and Peru. One of them (Our Lady of Cocharcas, 1751 by an unknown artist) included some nice touches of blue (although I think it was supposed to represent a silver processional cart):

And on our way between galleries, I snapped a couple of shots of George Segal's life-size sculpture Blue Woman in Black Chair. I'm not sure exactly what he was trying to achieve, but she was several lovely shades of blue...

and kind of spooky close-up.

So, I guess now I'm ready for 2016 to begin unfolding. And I'm hoping for more blue skies like the one we had yesterday....

Blue Monday: Artistic Blues

Blue Monday is hosted weekly by Smiling Sally.
To see more offerings, or to participate yourself, please head on over to her blog.

I might have mentioned (just possibly -- once or twice) that last year M and I moved from Virginia back to the land of our forebears. No, not England, Scotland, Wales, Germany or France.  Texas.  And, although I had my doubts at first (and although I really do love Virginia and enjoyed all my years there), I haven't regretted moving at all.  I'm loving the weather and the new house and all these wide open spaces.  And it's been wonderful to reconnect with family and old friends, and revisit the haunts of my youth.  We're both having a great time and haven't really looked back.  Much.

But I have to confess -- I do miss the museums.  I've been trying to organize some of the photos I took during the last year or so, in preparation for a scrapbooking project I have in mind (more about that in a later post), and I found bunches of shots I took on our last couple of trips to the National Gallery in Washington DC.  And it's made me a little sad that I can't just run out, hop on the Metro, and spend the day browsing the Smithsonian museums.

Ah, well.

Not that Texas doesn't have great art museums -- we do.  But ain't nothin' can equal those magnificent collections in DC.

Just get on with it!!!!  (I hear you saying.)

OK.  Here are a few shots that caught my eye as I organized.  Pretty paintings.  Lots of blue here.  (Click on images to enlarge.)

This has always been one of my favorite paintings -- Edouard Manet's The Railway (or The Gare Saint-Lazare), painted in 1873.  When I was a little girl, I soooo wanted that white dress with the big blue sash.  And now that I'm older, it's still one of my favorites -- I "collect" pictures of women with books, and this is one of the finest.  

I also LOVE that doggy asleep in her lap.

Another painting that I've always found interesting is Jan Gossaert's Madonna and Child (ca. 1532) -- mainly, I think, because it has one of the most hideous infants in the history of art! But it's another one of my "women with books" paintings (the Virgin is frequently pictured reading, of course), and I love the swirling blue fabric of her gown.  Sort of electric, isn't it?

But this time, I was mostly impressed with her footwear -- had never noticed those tres chic sandals before!

Even though I've been to the National Gallery many times, I always find something new with each visit.  Last time, one of my discoveries was this Family Portrait by Francois Hubert Drouais (painted 1756 -- sorry about the angle, but it was hung very high up on the wall). Lots going on here. 

Lovely little girl. Notice that her mother is adorning her (powdered!) hair with a crown of tiny blue flowers,

and that she's dressed in a very adult style. Hard to believe, but in the 18th Century, children (both boys and girls, apparently) were expected to wear corsets (or stays) -- supposedly to help their bodies develop properly and encourage good posture (see a photo of children's stays here).  Imagine engaging in a brisk game of tag or climbing a tree in this get-up.  But it is a lovely shade of blue.

Saturday Snapshot: Art Museum

One of my favorite ways to spend the day -- museum hopping in Washington DC. Actually, though, I love hanging out in museums just about anywhere.

National Gallery of Art, East Building exterior

And an interior view of the main lobby,
with the giant Alexander Calder mobile in the center.

(Click on photos to enlarge.)

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce of At Home With Books, and as she says: "To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don't post random photos that you find online."

Saturday Snapshot: Lost in the Mist

One of the wonderful things about living so close to Washington DC is the availability of all the great art you can see in its museums and galleries. We don't visit as often as we should, but I do love the National Gallery and always see something new and amazing when I'm there.

Here's a shot I took the last time we were at the Gallery -- an art lover deep in contemplation of a painting by Jackson Pollock. From 1950, its official designation is just Pollock, Number 1, but it's usually known as Lavender Mist. And the mist certainly had this young woman mesmerized.



Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce of At Home With Books, and as she says: "To participate in the Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken then leave a direct link to your post in the Mister Linky. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. Please don't post random photos that you find online."

Cat Thursday: Penfield Cats

Edward Penfield (1866-1925) has always been one of my favorite illustrators. He was considered "The Father of the American Poster," but also contributed covers and other artwork to just about all the popular magazines of his day. Here's his cover for the May 1897 edition of Harper's magazine:


He portrayed people at work and play - sometimes along with their pets, as in this calendar also from 1897.


He seemed to be especially fond of cats - he even used one for his personal bookplate.

Cat Thursday is hosted by Michelle @ The True Book Addict

Blue Monday: Big Fish

Blue Monday is hosted weekly by Smiling Sally.
To see more offerings, or to participate yourself,
please head on over to her blog.

Another photo from our trip to the beach earlier this summer. I've been seeing this big wooden fish sculpture at Rehoboth every summer for the last few years, but this year his shop had moved to a different location and I noticed they've got Mr. Fishy chained down now. Must have been wandering off. Now I know he's not a blue fish, but he does have a blue-ish eye, and he's surrounded by some nice bright blue awnings. (There was also a reflection – in one of the windows – of me taking the photo, wearing a blue T-shirt, but I've craftily cropped me out!)

(Click on photo to enlarge.)

Shadow Shot Sunday #106: Spider Shadows

Garden sculpture, Marble Falls TX
October 2008

(Click on image to enlarge.)

Shadow Shot Sunday is a weekly photo meme hosted by Hey Harriet. To see many, many more shadow shots or to contribute some yourself, head on over to her blog.

Shadow Shot Sunday #105: Shadow Edits

I'm still amazed at what you can do with these photo editing programs. A simple shot of one of our balcony chairs along with its shadow can be transformed with some very interesting effects.

Here's the original shot, not cropped or retouched:


And here's the same shot with an embossing effect. Not too different - just a bit grainier:


Or I can turn it into a pencil sketch, still not too different:


Or go for something much more dramatic, like this negative image:


Which also lets me see what those chairs would look like, painted white.
Neat, yes? Well, at least it's a neat way to waste a Saturday afternoon.

Shadow Shot Sunday is a weekly photo meme hosted by Hey Harriet. To see many, many more shadow shots or to contribute some yourself, head on over to her blog.

Wordless Wednesday: Visiting MOMA

(Click on images to enlarge.)

For more Wordless Wednesday offerings,
please visit the website here.

Outdoor and (Almost) Wordless Wednesday: One Big Eraser!

Typewriter Eraser, Claes Oldenburg,
National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden, Washington DC.
(Click on photo to enlarge.)

Outdoor Wednesday is hosted by Susan at A Southern Daydreamer. To see many, many more outdoor photos or to post some of your own, please visit her blog.

For more Wordless Wednesday offerings,
please visit the website here.

Blue Monday: Vintage Cards, Part 2

Blue Monday is hosted weekly by Smiling Sally.
To see more offerings, or to participate yourself,
please head on over to her blog.

I've already posted about vintage Scottie Christmas cards (see Vintage Cards, Part 1), so today I thought I'd put up a few photos of some of the Santa and angel cards in my collection. Those earlier cards were mostly from the 1930s, but today I'm getting more into my era - cards from the early 1950s (with one or two from the late '40s). As you can see, cuteness was a definite factor. And apparently, so was blueness!

The background on the second card is actually a dark, midnight blue, even though it looks black here. "Cheerio" was a popular greeting on these cards. Veddy British, wot? Also, notice the man in the moon on that second card.

Santa going down the chimney is always a popular subject, isn't it? This one looks like he might not make it.

Some of them are a little weird, as you can see. Well, abstract art was all the rage.

And some had interesting shapes and little cut-out areas, like this one. Those bells are cut so that they can be turned up or down - looks a little like they're ringing!


And a few angel cards. This last one is very up-to-date with its mention of Jingle Bells on the radio!