angels

There’s a Kind of Hush

All over the World….

I was so much in love with Herman of the Herman’s Hermit’s when I was 14. I wrote him a love letter when I was only 13. Probably went something like “I love you, please wait for me” since I had never even kissed a boy & was just out of my training bra.

  • What young teen couldn’t love Herman?

By the next year Herman’s Hermits were coming to Detroit in concert. I just had to meet Herman. I broke out in an excited sweat when I saw that there was to be a press conference for the Hermits consisting mostly of school kids interviewing them for their school newspaper before their concert to which my friend & I were attending. I begged my grams, who worked for the Editor at the Detroit Free Press, to talk to Loraine Alterman a reporter for their teen/entertainment page to see if she could get me into that venue. I used to go down to the paper during summer vacation once in a while & met various photographers & reporters. It was so exciting.

  • All the guys lined up behind the table getting ready to leave after the interview. We naturally tried to rush them.

Loraine not only got me in, but let me write a byline about the experience for their page by posting it as a “letter.” She was great & such a sweet person too, always smiling. She ended up writing for Rolling Stone which is where she met her future husband Peter Boyle in 1977 til his death in 2006. He was a wonderful actor & must have been a great guy too. Supposedly John Lennon was their best man at the wedding. Small world. I used to hang with someone that John got released from jail many years ago, as well Yoko Ono was one of my first followers, coincidentally, on Twitter years ago when I only posted my art & photography.

Man…name dropping like hell right now but it really is a small world.

  • Looks as aged as the Declaration of Independence & pretty dorky too.

Fast forward 40 years… I hear that Peter Noone was going to be the headline at the Dearborn Homecoming, which is what they call their summer festival. I knew he might want some of the photos I had of the group so I decid to go up there before the show one hot August night. I was dressed like a sweaty slob & no makeup & told someone at the stage I wanted to drop off the photos for Peter so I could just go home to my air conditioning.

You know how badly the thrill was gone for me to do that? If I was in my right “fan-girl” mind I would have put on my nicest outfit, fixed my hair & done my makeup but no. I just go over to “drop off some photos with one of his people.” So I get there my plan all set & his stage hand says…”NO…stay for the show & give it to him yourself afterwards. So I stay for the show & thoroughly enjoyed it too, but it might have been the heat stroke.

  • Peter Noone started to sign his autograph when I stopped him short.

Peter was prepared for autographs & a meet & greet with his fans behind a table that I soon approached with my folder of 8 X 10’s which I told him I wanted him to have. He was in a hurry, opened the folder & started to sign his autograph “Herman” for me. I stopped him saying “no these are for you to keep.” He said that he appreciated it but asked if I could send them digitally to him instead so he wrote his email address on the folder, which I still have because after all it’s still an autograph. The next day I emailed the photos & he thanked me & that was that.

Now if I was still a “fan-girl” how great would that be to have your crush’s personal email address! I was laughing to myself thinking OMG, what I wouldn’t have given for this kind of access to him 40 years ago. I actually thought he’d gotten better looking as he matured.

Hope you enjoy a song that he & his daughter Natalie sing every year at the UK Unity Telethon called “The Angels Are Crying in Heaven Tonight.” The refrain states that the angels are crying because they can’t understand why we can’t find the light. I can’t either.

A Little of This & That

I am either closing up shop for a while or making some changes on the site for sure.

mug & bell some secret Santa left outside my apartment with candy at Christmas.

I’m working on various craft projects right now because I’m still downsizing, discarding and donating and came across supplies purchased years ago for whenever.  I’m not even sure why I purchased them at the time.

I found a small plastic globe this year at the dollar store and created a light by decoupaging some pressed flowers on it and inserting a light for another dollar.  Very lightweight and cute.

I had various wooden plaques and frames I’ve never used, found some plaster of Paris angels and cupids I was going to adhere to furniture at one time but changed my mind so I painted and decoupaged some of it.  This is the first time in a long time I have even felt like doing much of anything.

I painted 2 5 x 7 baseboards, 2 wooden plaques approximately 4 x 6 and a wooden cross with a gold based paint.  I purchased it many years ago and you can’t get this quality in hobby paints anymore.  You can get the wood pieces at various craft and hobby stores.  Not sure if the dollar store carries anything like this but you can always check.  I used some tissue paper to decoupage on each piece.

If you like to do various decoupage or paper art, it’s nice to shop various specialty gift shops for unique tissue designs such as the paper I used.  Most stores and Hallmark shops don’t carry very interesting patterns as a rule but always check when you shop.

Not sure what my original plans were for these plaster figurines, but I decided to paint them all gold as well to use in my projects. I had seen a unique furniture piece years ago with cupid figures and decoupage, but since I don’t have a piece of furniture in mind to use them on, I created these out of the pure boredom of being snowed and frozen inside for now. -45 wind chill and almost a foot of snow within a week. Yikes, then supposed to go up to 50 above in a couple of days. Madness!

I adhered a couple of the cupids on solid gold plaques and two others on the decoupaged plaques I planned on adhering on the tissue covered backing boards for contrast.  The tissue does have flecks of gold throughout making it a great choice.  I then adhered the larger angel which was a broken Christmas ornament that I had kept when the hanger at the head broke off.

Basically finished. Just not sure what I’m doing with them. The set of three can be used on a mantle or wall art in a grouping. The cross went on a painted plaque and the cupids on backer boards were just slid into matching painted frames.


So if I do continue blogging I will be changing the format and style depending on if I move and what I end up doing.  I will continue ONLY if I have something worth blogging about. Something creative, tips, ideas, something that is not just a time waster for all involved.
Thank you for following my blog all these years. God bless.

Daily Prompt: Cherish God With All Your Heart

Merry Christmas everyone!

Last of the excerpts from the Holy Bible, the Gospel of Luke.  The Nativity of our Savior Christ Jesus which we celebrate by tradition on December 25th.

Luke 2

  1. And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
  2. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
  3. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.
  4. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
  5. But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.
  6. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

 

Weekly Photo Challenge: Ornate (Oops!) It’s Late!

Wanted to post a few photographs of some decorations I threw up this year in the tiny apartment I just moved to.  I still have some decorations packed away I only realized when I started unpacking what I thought was all of my Christmas stuff.  The rest has to be in my storage unit shoved in the back, so not looking for it this year anyway.  I have a cute little area with lights that I can enjoy and that’s all I need for now.  Besides this is one of the first years I’m not hosting my family for Christmas Eve, which I never post publicly anyway for everyone’s privacy.  I may post a few more Christmas stuff later.  So glad I was not able to sell the tiny tree at the garage sale held right before I moved!


I used to have two hand painted angels and then inherited the other two which were given to my sister after she sadly passed away right after the holidays in 2013, her favorite time of year. She was not expected to live to see that Christmas, but we all knew she’d hang on for it and she did! She actually rallied on Christmas Eve 2013 and I dared to believe that was sign but she wanted to go home and it was her time. Love you Gail!
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Po’ Girl Christmas

Sorry that I have been so lazy about posting anything of substance for a while now.  The very reason for this blog was to share things I have learned living on the cheap all of my life.

Christmas was great this year, had some family and friends over for Christmas Eve this year and went to one of my son’s homes on Christmas Day for “Dinner with the Cratchits” complete with plum pudding from England and some kind of “Hot Gin Punch a la Cratchit” which I blame for the enormous group hug before I left for the night.  I didn’t try any but brought some with me to try when I got home.  I never drink and drive.

Lighting of the Plum Pudding!
Lighting of the Plum Pudding!

I lost one of my cousins a few days before Christmas this year.  I am posting a picture with her from Christmas of 1957.

From far left, Aunt Ruth, sister Gail, cousin Thelma, Bro Bryan, Me, cousin Brenda, Front Bros Bob & Don
From far left, Aunt Ruth, sister Gail, cousin Thelma, Bro Bryan, Me, cousin Brenda, Front Bros Bob & Don

Some of my family now live in the Upper Peninsula. My cousin Thelma passed this year after suffering for many years with Alzheimer’s and my sister Gail passed right after Christmas last year from esophageal cancer. Christmas 1957 was the last Christmas for my Aunt Ruth who passed approximately six months later from Colon Cancer.  Moral:  Enjoy every Christmas like it’s your last.

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I saw this idea at a diner in Marshall Mi before the holidays. They had placed a loved ones picture in one of the wreaths to honor them and so I placed a picture of my sister to honor her because she always loved Christmas so much and this was our first Christmas without her.

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2014 Casa Po’ Girl Christmas décor.

Wanted to add more to the usual lights and garland I place in my flower boxes each year so I found these gift boxes at the dollar store and inserted some wire to attach them.  The soil was not yet frozen, so this was possible.  The following is a little walk through of what I did to achieve this:

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Finally broke down and made a Santa doll with the pattern I purchased many years ago.  Also used some of my odds & ends to make some “baby” crafts.

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I will not post actual pictures of the parties out of respect for others privacy. A few shots of some of the cookies that I and others made this year. One of my sons went all out this year and for the first time made cookies. All kinds of them. I think the Ninja sugar cookies got him started, but we really loved the melt in your mouth eggnog cookies!  I have to say I have eaten so many of these I have actually felt very sick so that’s it for me.

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