Gratitude & Little Henry

After somewhat of a drought this summer, I'm happy to report I've felt a :: RUSH :: of creativity over the last week or so, and have been busily working in my art journals, being open to the process and letting the creativity f.l.o.w.

I also attribute my continued affection toward art journaling to the amazing wealth of inpiration I find in my artist friends:

• Effy Wild
• Samie Kira
• Stephanie Gagos
• Tamara Laporte

..spending time catching up on their amazing work through their blogs, facebook groups and social websites on NING. Please take a moment to see the WEALTH of information, classes, youtube tutorials, workshops & private coaching that some of them offer!! 

And here's my latest spread about my 17 year-old father's favorite photography subject: his littlest brother, Henry and their family dog circa 1937 ~

Preserving History

This is another creative outlet that truly "speaks my name." In addition to taking pictures, I seem to thrive when editing/tweaking and especially restoring them! I'm certain part of that equation is the sentimentalist AND the preservationist in me.

I began to realize my affinity for restoration when I made the domino photo pendant, above, for a friend to give to her mom for Mother's Day, in May 2010. (This service is available through my Etsy shop)

As the self-appointed family genealogist and photo curator I've documented up to 120 ancestors on my family tree at Ancestry.com (always a work-in-progress), added 80 photos which include FIVE great-grandparents and restored over 100 photos. I'd love to share another very precious photo restoration completed today. A hand-painted photo on porcelin, of my mother, age 3 from 1926.

happy hands

are busy hands!

Hands that LOVE to make the world a better (and prettier) place! Doctors, Gardeners, Songwriters, Artists, Dog Groomers, Photographers, Caregivers, Massage Therapists, Midwives, Authors, Musicians, House Painters, Hair Stylists, Architects.. there are millions of ways we C.R.E.A.T.E. and give back with our hands.

I started to see and feel the signs of arthritis, most notably in my hands, right around the time I rediscovered my artistic nature. Like many, I am a self-taught artist and over the past few years, it has come to define me. Whenever I find myself projecting to a time in the future when they may no longer work for me, it also serves to heighten awareness of all those that work with their hands and do it through PAIN and I decide to focus instead on the health that I have today ~ right now.

Spanning a four-decade career, I've worked mainly in sales yet there was a time when I had the chance to work with my hands! You can read about it in an earlier post.

The idea to write this "homage to hands" came from that aching feeling I get following a photo restoration project, perfecting line, color, exposure and possibly DUST on the original negative and therefore making about a million MOUSE CLICKS to preserve this lovely photo of my lovely (now 88 year-old) mother. And I wanted to share it with you!

Farquhar Family: Julia

Our dear grandmother was an actress & a performer at heart, illustrated by her glamorous pose and the "come-hither" expression in her eyes. Having a great sense of humor, no doubt she was simply joking around for the camera!!

At her happiest on stage, julia was born in an era where good methodist girls did NO SUCH THING! And although I can easily imagine she had dreams of bigger stages, I am grateful that she was able to satisfy at least PART of those dreams by devoting as much time as possible singing in the choir, also as a soprano soloist, acting in church plays, performing piano recitals and even accompanying a silent film or two, I've been told.

PERFORMANCE was the breath in her body, the light in her eyes and the fire in her heart. Sadly she was tied down with 4 young children by the time she was 30 and dealt with much stress and strife in her homelife throughout the decades. I have a strong feeling there was alot more beneath the surface, a true ARTIST, if anyone took the time to really know her. I love her and acknowledge her bright spark and the creative juices that flowed through her veins.

Thank you, mimi, for that part of you... inside of me. XO

Butchers, Mummers & Baseball

...are all part of my family's legacy in the greater Philadelphia/NJ area specifically referring to my grandmother, Julia Kelly Cook's father (she eventually marries into the Farquhar clan) and her three brothers, all pictured below.

A copy of a copy, and still legible, is this article from an unknown Gloucester, NJ periodical of an unknown date, yet it's clearly one of my favorite pieces of family ephemera. Not because it's about an entire town's gratitude for my (paternal great-grandfather's) family's contributions - though that's certainly, quite SPECIAL - but because it gives me a clear sense of

who they were,
what they did,
and what they loved
... all in 1900!

Charles Sr, center, with a hat, surrounded by his family!

Charles Sr is absent from this photo but his three sons are here along with his daughter & his wife. Harry is in the bottom row, next to his sister (my grandmother, Julia), Charles Jr. is in the back row on the right and Martin is next to him. My grandfather, Joseph Willis Farquhar, their brother-in-law, is next to martin. Just behind Julia is Charles Sr's wife, Anna, mother of those amazing children!

(Cook is not only my father's mother's maiden name, of German origin & initially spelled K-O-C-H but also my married name, which is Romanian & spelled C-O-C-A.)

Heaven Has A Special Angel Today

Alsace Region (Mulhouse, Neuchatel, Strasbourg, Bonne) and Paris, FRANCE. Bone, TUNISIA. New York City, NY. These are the places that my husband's grandmother, Margot, lived before a long, arduos journey with her family to America where they finally settled in Connecticut.

She was 99.

Her involuntary (and frightening) exodus began when Nazi Germany invaded her hometown in France and she had to make her SOLO escape on foot... ☆ PREGNANT ☆ and caring for her very young daughter, my mother in law! In her words, "I had to leave our home, everything, with a baby in my arms, a baby in my belly and a RUCKSACK on my back for milk and diapers!" This AMAZING WOMAN had to travel alone before she could be reunited, with the help of the Red Cross, meeting up with her husband in the south of france! Soon afterwards, they continued their terrifying journey to make the crossing to Algeria, quite possibly on one of the last ships leaving the country for an African destination.

In Bonne, Algeria near the border of Tunisia, they moved in with cousins and though his grandfather took on horribly demeaning jobs to make ends meet (grave digger & more), they barely had barely enough to eat. Another troubling story I have been told was when Margot's mother Alice (a Le Cordon Blue graduate who was employed as a chef by the author, Edna Ferber in NYC) sent them a shipment of basic food and necessessities. When the authorities destroyed the packages upon inspection, the family was forced to separate the dried beans and peas from the powdered soap by hand! A story that has been told and retold over 6 decades to her descendants!

It feels good to write about it here; to be able to release some of the pain and who knows how many untold stories, out into the world... to set it free as she has been sent home to her Creator <3>

Less than 20 years after they arrived, her husband died of heart disease/high blood pressure at the age 58. Happily, my husband was 12 years old and can still treasure MANY wonderful memories of his loving grandfather. Margot was often known to repeat "he was the TRUE LOVE of my life!"

While writing tonight, I asked my husband to recall some of his childhood memories and he just said "I was very close to my grandfather who loved to take me places and I often spent the night with them. Family gatherings revolved around food & cooking! This was central to the 4 women: my mother, my aunt, my grandmother and my great-grandmother who were always in the kitchen... for hours, preparing fine French dishes. Of course, this was followed by hours spent around the dining room table EATING!" He said, "I remember that my grandmother loved showing me off when out to dinner for my birthday because the waiters were impressed by my menu selections." He was under the age of 10!

I have to close these stories of family memories, food and love, by saying that as I was typing, my husband was IN THE KITCHEN cooking an incredibly delicious shrimp scampi for dinner! It's in the genes ~ lucky me!

Many joys and a long, rich life followed. Tonight we are saying a prayer for this family's deep loss. Kiss someone you love tonight ~ we are all only here for a short while XO

100 year old photo FOUND!

Happily digging through a "new" box of my dad's photographs and things, I unearthed another very special TREASURE! A large (9" x 5.5") Atlantic City Boardwalk souvenir frame around a beautiful, silver gelatin photo postcard of my

paternal grandmother.

If I'm correct, and Julia Kelly Cook is in her late teens or early twenties, then the date would be about 1910.

"J.A. Walk Studios"
Boardwalk ----- 834 Arch St
Atlantic City ----- Philadelphia

treasures found!

Willis and Julia

Joseph E. Farquhar

The Samuel T. Murphy family

Julia Cook

Julia and Friends

Anna and Charles

The Family Historian: Me!

Meet my great-great grandparents:
Alice St.Clair & Winfield Scott Sterner -
born in 1840's. Pic taken approx. late 1860's



Some recent "Digi - Play!"

I have always been fas-ci-nated with my ancestors ever since I was a child.

what were they like?
where did they live?
how did their lives differ from mine?
what were their struggles?
whose NOSE do I have?
what was it like to live without electricity?
and why is great-grandmother's rocking chair SO SMALL?

I was a piece of work! (my poor mom)

At 3 years old I begged my grandmother to tuck me into bed with stories of what it was like when SHE was a little girl! Lucky me! So, whenever my brother and I came for a visit, she would lull me off to sleep while fondly recalling her childhood days! (The picture, above, is of her mother's mother) Born in 1893 in Lynchburg, VA, my grandmother Alice had 7 siblings, sadly 2 of them died when they were young, a few chickens and a nanny who cooked for the family and helped with all those children! "Nanny" as she was affectionatly called, remained with them for decades, until she retired. Grandmother's father was in the furniture trade, which is why he moved to Lynchberg with his young, but growing family. When Alice was still very young, his ambitions required them to move again and they travelled to Philadelphia where he became a very successful businessman. (see "freehand freedom" post for a link. His business still exists TODAY!) She told me wonderful stories of this large, happy family and two parents who were very much in love. Weekly dinners with extended family were their custom and because of that, my mother (now 85) can recall in vivid detail, many of Nanny's special dishes. Among them fried chicken, peas with fresh cream and bread pudding.

Random web pics: 1929 Packard all-weather Town Car. A house in my grandmother's childhood neighborhood - Lincoln Drive, Philadelphia, PA

Those memories along with stories of a lifestyle entirely foreign to me, such as, "How The Butler Was Caught Stealing Daddy's Liquor" (and how mother was horrified when she found out he fired him on the spot). "The Christmas That Daddy Surprised Mother with a Packard." And the ever popular "Why People Thought Mother Was A Catholic" (because her driver parked the car in front of St.Mary's while she was at the library.) I had the kind of bedtime stories that little girls dream about. I'm sure this laid the groundwork for my childhood dreams of fairy tales and princesses!

Standing in front of my grandparent's house - 1958.

Close-up of the inquisitive one! Middle name: Alice.

Namesake of the storyteller, my grandmother Alice

and of my gr-great grandmother, Alice - above.

The only reason I am in posession of such a TREASURE TROVE of information... is because I have always asked!

A Little Experiment

"Gratitude" 12 x 12 - 1st Digital Scrapbook page

About a year ago, my DH surprised me with a long-awaited copy of Photoshop Elements. 8-10 hours later I knew just enough to make a few collages, nothing very advanced. And then I moved on... still frustrated by the steep learning curve.

A few weeks ago I asked an online friend if she had any links or tutorials to recommend (Kimmie from The Challenge, on NING - website link is over there ->) and this layout was the result!

I've always been fascinated with documenting my ancestry, scanning treasured photos for future generations, preserving their stories and learing MUCH along the way! In my growing collection I have pictures of 7 (out of 8) great-grandparents and now.... 3 of my great-grandparents. Anna Zurn Cook is one of those 7 and Barbara Grupp Zurn, her mother, is one of those 3. They are from my father's branch of the family tree and I have documentation tracing Barbara's immigration to the U.S. in 1837 from Aalen, Germany. Over the next 2 centuries, many of her descendants remained on the East Coast in both PA and NJ, not far from Philadelphia, including myself and my mother's side of the tree.

They lived in an era of extremely difficult times, especially for a woman, and I wanted to honor their sacrifices in my first Digital Scrapbook Page. I am eternally grateful to both my great grandmother and my great-great grandmother and many others that I will be scrapbooking.

This is only the beginning!

Irish Heritage

A very special

Saint Patrick's Day Tribute

to my dear, sweet Irish ancestors!

laura adella murphy 1859-1911

(And a very early ATC made in Sept 2006 for a swap about Ireland! )

(Husband below) Laura's father, Samuel T. Murphy was the Mayor of Gloucester City, NJ in 1872, when she was 13 years old. There's no doubt that she's Irish... I am still tracing her origins!


joseph edward farquhar 1856-1926

(my maiden name) This branch of my father's family tree, has been traced 6 generations (I am the 7th) to 1777 in Ballinahinch, County Down, Northern Ireland. Joseph's father, Thomas, was born in Ireland in 1811 and along with his wife, Elizabeth, three daughters and two sons, sailed to this country from Glasgow on the ship "Ticonderoga, of the Cape." They eventually had 17 children, sadly, many of them did not survive. His first residence was in Philadelphia where he established a distillery and a shawl weaving mill. He later had a bakery across the street from his home. Next he moved his family to Gloucester, NJ as the Civil War began, purchasing a double lot & frame house where he conducted a bakery & carpet weaving mill.

My lovely aunt Laura, our family historian and matriarch, has just turned a robust 91 years old this month! Happy Birthday, dear aunt and fellow Piscean! She is her grandmother, Laura Adella Murphy Farquhar's namesake and I mention her here for two reasons. Through tireless research, she has provided our family with all of the historical data for these two individuals AND because she recently presented me with a Farquhar-family heirloom: a 71" x 68

wool paisley shawl beige, red, black & grey)

that belonged to Thomas. It may have been made in his weaving mill or it may have accompanied him on his voyage to America approximately 140 years ago! Not knowing it's age or origin, it could be from his parents in Ireland or more distant ancestors from Scotland, where this family of Farquhars are documented weavers. I will soon begin the search for a textile historian to help me uncover the truth!

EDIT: great-grandfather had a rebellious streak!

An excerpt from a booklet commemorating the 125th anniversary of the First Methodist Church, Gloucester City, NJ (1839-1964)

"From old records: Leaders in 1854 - Samuel T. Murphy. Admitted to Membership: Susanna Murphy in 1854 (joseph's future mother & father-in-law, laura's parents). JOSEPH FARQUHAR in 1859 (age 3)."

And the best part: "At Leaders and Stewards meeting December 28th, 1873, JOSEPH FARQUHAR (at age 17) was allowed to withdraw from the church, he being determined to attend a dancing school."

My rebellious streak has been traced!!

rebecca brown 1866-1941

From my mother's branch of the family tree, Rebecca was born in Coleraine, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. I have inherited a gorgeous, handmade

white linen tablecloth

that Rebecca brought with her to America. It's covered with shamrocks and celtic harps!

An Irish Blessing

"May the rains sweep gentle across your fields,

May the sun warm the land,

May every good seed you have planted bear fruit,

And late summer find you standing in fields of plenty."

baby boomer beginnings

Since I'm in a sentimental mood, having just uncovered a collection of old photos, I will reminisce a little about my formative years! Read on.....

This pic was taken in our shared driveway in Lafayette Hill just outside the city limits of Philadelphia, PA. I spent the first 19 years of my life in a subdivision of 30+ homes built during the post war boom about 1950. My folks moved around during the first 5 years of marriage, before starting a family. Mom said to me once, "I wanted to be secure in my relationship as a WIFE first, before becoming a mother." She was and still is very practical. I love that about her! Back to the story... as newlyweds, they lived with relatives for a while (the horror!) and eventually found their first home about a year before my older brother was born.

Since my father was a WWII veteran, he qualified for a Veteran's Administration mortgage ($9,999.00) and borrowed the $200 down payment from his father-in-law! What an exciting time that must've been, sharing much in common with all of the other young familes in the neighborhood. I remember mom sewed slipcovers for their new furniture and explained that they spent alot of money on their wool rug "since it had to last for 15 years!" Practicality was the order of the day. For Christmas dad only wanted film for his camera so the rest could go for the kids. (and, thank goodness for that film!)

The family car is behind us (a ford?) and our colonial-style 3 BR house is to the left, hidden except for a section of fence. On a small hill out back, you can see the beginning of a hedge that separated our yard from the houses behind us. It eventually obscured that view. Adding to our backyard privacy, dad planted many lovely shrubs and trees. I clearly recall the red maple, double flowering Korean cherry tree, 3 flowering crabapples, another maple, a beech tree (used for nighttime escapes as a teenager!) and their beloved Peach tree. My father and his father loved planting flowers and being in the dirt! They both grew roses and many other lovlies! Two MASSIVE willow trees grew behind the house. They supported our tire swing and shaded our home-made playhouse that dad painted to match or pink & brown house.

Playhouse memories: Barbies, Old Maid, Crazy Eights and Rummy, drawing for HOURS on the long built-in table, fun houses (blindfolding the neighborhood kids, making them feel a bowl of peeled grapes & telling them they were eyeballs! I think we charged 5 cents admission), hide & seek, jumping off of the roof! (my poor mother), and smoking my parent's cigarettes!

I hope you enjoyed taking this Trip Down Memory Lane with me. I encourage you to comment with a few of your own or include a link to your own blog of precious childhood memories !