A GAME OF PHOTO TAG

Ouch! Jodi said it was only a tag, but it felt more like the kind of slapping she gave Ari. Hrmpf!

Yes, Jodi had busy hands and tagged me, along with some others, to participate in a meme Ari created. The rules are:

Once you are tagged, you must go around your house taking pictures of things. Then, you post the pictures in your blogs/journals for all to see. The subject categories for the pictures are as follows:

One picture of something you made;

One picture of a gift someone gave you;

One picture of something strange;

One picture of something with a pig (Why a pig? Why not?); and

One picture of something unique.

I had no difficulties with any of the subjects except for the pig one. I really had to hunt. Oh, and I did not choose only one picture per category. I have a tendency to play games my own way. ::grin::

Onward ho.

SOMETHING I MADE:

These are flowers from my garden that I pressed, calligraphied the words on heavy paper, glued on the flowers, and framed. Since it is near my front door, It serves as a reminder to all who leave my home to try to live by the words written. They are, "Dance as if no one were watching, sing as if no one were listening, and live every day as if it were your last."


Now, this is something that makes me smile. It is my handprint when I was four years old. The old plaster of paris in a pie tin way of preserving a handprint. I made it for my mother when I was in preschool. It was her Mother's Day gift. She gave it to me not long ago, and I have it in the upstairs hallway.

Ah, I made this when my son was a couple months shy of two years old. I cross-stitched the bottom portion. It reads: "Sometimes you get discouraged because I am so small and always leave my fingerprints on furniture and walls. But every day I'm growing up and soon will be so tall that all those little handprints will be hard to recall. So here's a final handprint just so that you can say, this is how my fingers looked upon this very day." This hangs in his bedroom.


A GIFT SOMEONE GAVE ME:

My late mother-in-law gave me this chair. I adore it. It was quite hideous when she gave it to me, and she was unsure I would even want it. It was painted black, and it had a ripped leather seat with decorative nails edging the leather. It had been a wedding gift her parents had received, and it was not new then. We never did determine just how old it was. At least 100 years, for sure. I knew behind the black paint was a gorgeous wood. I could not imagine anything but a solid, pretty wood. I stripped off the paint and replaced the worn leather with fabric. My mother-in-law was stunned when she saw it finished. She was thrilled.


This shadow box was a gift to me from a friend of mine who has since passed away. He was a good man, and he died when he was 50. Having married later in life, he left behind a young wife and two young children. He is missed. He was one of the people who encouraged me to explore the world of painting. You will see why he chose this particular shadow box for me.


SOMETHING STRANGE:

Hubby suggested I insert a picture of myself. Eh, I could have done that, and it would have been appropriate. But, I am sparing you. ::grin:: These are some old tools that are strange to me. We know what the first one is...an old tube cutter. The second one is verrrry old, and we have no idea its purpose or what it is. If anyone knows, feel free to tell us...please! I will not let him throw it away, because it came from my late great aunt's garage.


Top and side views of the unknown tool:



SOMETHING WITH A PIG:

This is where I had problems. I am not a "pig" person. With some major roaming and digging around, I found pigs. In this Noah's Ark stencil picture, you will have to look to find the pigs. There is a pair of them just to the right of the horses.


And the discovery of this book made me light up like a Christmas tree! I taught my daughter to count to ten with the aid of this book. Good ol' Pudge Pig!


SOMETHING UNIQUE:

This is my favorite piece of furniture. My parents bought it for me for Christmas one year. It is very unique. It was made in Vienna in the early 1800s.




I am pretty darn sure that no one has the following item. It is the toy surprise from inside a box of Cracker Jacks. It resides in the printer's drawer that hangs here in my study. Why is it so unique? Well, there are a series of questions on the card testing your knowledge about sports. The answers cannot be seen until the red film is placed over the card. My father is one of the answers. ::proud smile::


Time to tag others to play along, or you can elect to join in and just touch yourselves. ::grin:: I am tagging Marlene, Rob, Jackie, Nancy, Terra, Sie, and Celeste.

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." ~George Bernard Shaw