Category Archives: flashback

Sep17

Photo Hunt-School

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Dianne and her friend Lisa, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Flashing back to about 1975 here gang! This is my friend from high school before we went to a concert. Not sure if you remember The Hudson Brothers, Bill (he is Kate’s dad), Mark and Brett, but we loved them and went to see them at the Allentown, PA fair that summer. I hadn’t heard from my friend for years and we got in touch a few years back and now are Facebook pals. She just became a grandmom this April.
I wish my clothes now were that were loose around my waist again-lol
This is for my nephew who is a freshman at the same school we went too!

Jul5

One of my favorite hobbies

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Page from my swap book, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

When I was a teenager, I loved to get mail. I think this stemmed from a couple of different events in my young life. Once my mom wrote to Whitman Publishing Company saying their coloring books, cards and stuff were the cat’s pajamas. Well didn’t they send us a nice big box full of products corresponding with the new movie at the time- ‘Chitty, Chitty , Bang, Bang’.
Another time was when my paternal Grandmom sent me a box of Ginny dolls with oodles of little clothes and accessories. I still have them, but not all the clothes.
I also sent letters to pen-pals. I got published in a magazine once too.
Mom has this really long stone driveway and I remember going every day to check for a letter from a pal from across the country or in the next town (really!)
This is leading up to my grown up enjoyment of receiving little pieces of art in the mail from all over the world. I’ve gotten ‘art trading cards’ and other hand made goodies from places as far away as Israel. This is an example of some of the cards, though the blue one and the tag were a gift from Sherry in England for my last birthday. I believe this binder has 10 pages with 9 spaces each, so I have 90 cards (plus) just in it! The artist’s personality really reflects in their pieces.

Swapped items from Flickr groups
Some of my Flickr swaps…a dress, paper doll, flower and bird.
My gifts from Sherry and Judith
The most recent swaps or ‘gifts’ from my pals in England. I sent them teapot ribbon holders.
My art table
My little work space-yep-very untidy with some works in progress.

Jun6

Oldie but a goodie

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Hasselbergs-Caroline, William, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

I’ve been scanning old photos off and on over the last few months as I feel like doing so. It’s a bit time consuming. Brian was pulling out the photos and looking at them and this was in the bunch. I love this photo! I guess whoever took it thought it would be funny to pose my maternal great grandfather William right in front of that birdhouse! It had to be my grandfather Alan as I heard he was quite the shutterbug though I can see my Uncle Don being silly too. The little lady is Caroline and my grandmom really grew to look like her as she got older.
Yesterday, my mom and her friend Jim came out and other than looking at photos, I was showing him Ancestry.com. One thing lead to another and I found addresses of a long lost friend and niece for him! I also found that his aunt had passed away last year, but his uncle was still alive as of that time. It’s a pretty amazing site and I enjoy doing research. I think I missed my calling as a researcher of some sorts.
We are under a tornado watch for a few more hours. I stuck some flowers under bushes for protection. So far it’s been humid and windy. The guys are at Brian’s dad’s house. It seems every week Brian needs to food shop for him. His dad will be 87 in a few weeks and I don’t see him living alone much longer.
Tomorrow I get a new washer, so we had to tidy up the basement a bit. That basement is getting more attention in the coming months! I did wear a dust mask, but handling the dusty boxes after I took it off caused me to have a few gagging attacks. I see a yard sale in our future.

Feb1

Grammys 2010

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I was watching this year’s music awards and enjoyed many of the performances like the duo between Sir Elton John and Lady Gaga; Greenday and other singers doing ’21 Gun’ and Pink doing her ‘swinger and singer’ act on a twirling silk scarf that went toward the ceiling and then sprayed water on her. I had to fish around for my 3D glasses (saved from a game Sean had) but didn’t get to see much of the Michael Jackson tribute. His eldest two children Prince and Paris very eloquently accepted the award in his name.
I was very sad to learn that Kenny Rankin, one of my favorite singers had passed away last June at the age of 69 from lung cancer. His voice fit into so many genres-pop, jazz, folk. I had many of his records.

This is how I remember him-with his big mustache.
Also Dan Seals passed last year. Remember England Dan and John Ford Coley? He’s also Jim Seals younger brother. Their big hit was ‘I Really want to See You Tonight’.
Three singers in the last 12 yrs I have admired have passed: John Denver, Dan Fogelberg and now Kenny. I got to see John and Dan in concert. Kenny and Dan had cancer, John died in a solo plane accident.
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Sean is getting use to Wally World. It’s hard being on his feet a lot, but he seems to work two days and is off two. They have him working 30 odd hours, is that part time? If he is called by the Census bureau to work, he’d have to work something out with Wally World as it’s just for a few months.
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I am so dry today and it lead to a coughing attack. My sinuses started draining and it was hairy for a few minutes. I swear I have food allergies too. We had some of that rice (Dirty Rice) that you just heat up in it’s own package. I’m wondering what was in that too. Sometimes it’s a pain to cook everything from scratch, but if something is loaded with MSG, it’s going to bother me.
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I’m amazed by all the comments for my One World, One Heart entry! Wow!! Thanks everyone for visiting. I still need to visit lots of the other blogs myself, but I get eye strain so easily. I’ll do my best.
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Congrats to my friend Rachel and her hubby Mike on the arrival of their son Connor last night, just before 11 pm. He came on his due date and is home already. Rachel’s blog is Willing Hands on my blog roll. She has photos of his nursery. I have some goodies to mail off to her (she only lives in Abington, PA and I have met her once). Better get busy!

Jan25

My little Rembrandt

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Thought you’d enjoy seeing some of Sean’s artwork from when he was a wee lad of only 3. Why am I showing these to you? As you may know, he is cleaning out a finished room in the basement that was just loaded with a bunch of his things. He ran across his paintings and they were getting brittle from age. The best thing I thought to do with them before I recycled them was to photograph them. So I did!
Sean's paintings
Love the colors!
Sean's painting
And here is my dear painting. This was in my keychain 20 yrs ago and I just left it there!
Sean painting age 3

Jan11

Dianne and Dot

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Dianne and Dot, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

In memory of my Uncle Don’s stepdaughter who passed away on 1-8-10 (also my brother’s 43rd birthday). Though we didn’t know each other on a personal level, it was always nice to see Dot and her sisters and their families once in a while. Pancreatic cancer is such a sneaky disease. Dot only found out in June or July of last year that she was sick. She got to see her son marry and have two daughters, both are still young. Her husband, who was 15 yrs older than her, passed away only 2 yrs ago.
This photo is at my uncle’s house where he has resided for over 50 years. This was the first photo in my personal photo album that starts with my babyhood and on to when I’m a new mom. I sent a copy of this photo to her sister and son in sympathy cards. I think the funeral on Wednesday will be well attended as Dot was in the bell choir and a current and not really old member of the church. I would have gone if my uncle wanted me to. Here’s the obit.

Nov3

Autumn Splendor

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Sean said there was a lovely sunset on Monday, so I went out to capture it to share:
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I wasn’t feeling 100%, so I decided to stay off my feet and scan some old photos. My brother always gives me a bunch of them and it takes a while. I just love this one of my maternal grandmom Ruth at age 2 with her sister Ethel about 3 or so. It is dated April 1, 1906! Little Ethel passed away when she was 6 from pneumonia. My grandmom was the second of 6 and she had 2 children and her younger sister Edna had only 1. She had two brother pass on in their 20s. So sad to think that we could have had a larger family if they had lived and married. By the way, my father was an only child with a few step siblings, and Brian is an only child. Our immediate family is about 13.
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and after I photoshopped it a bit adding a reddish tint. The tints seem to bring out more detail in these old photos:
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And here’s a cute one of Sean on his 1st birthday (1987) on a motorized car he had and loved to pieces:
Seancar
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The Phillies are giving the Yankees a run for their money, but they can’t just play well every 5 games. They have to win the next two game to hold on to their championship title. They had a huge lead and the gap narrowed in the 8th inning. We were on the edge of our seats. I only see 3 Phillies really giving it their best. At least we won the National League Championship to get this far two years in a row-the Yankees can’t say that.
Hoping for a good game on Wednesday!

Oct28

Family Ties-part 2

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I’ve had this project put aside for a few months with the papers selected, many of which were given to me. The ‘canvas’ was a piece of wall art I found at Big*Lots for $2.00. It use to have sketchy looking toiletries on it. This was taken in the summer of 1967 as my younger brother was an infant. It was one of those Polaroids that was deteriorating and my face had a lot of damage. I used a photo effect to soften it and it doesn’t look bad. I am #2 in the line-up and only girl.

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I made this one a few days ago. I was looking through a gardening catalog and ran across the peas.
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Now the waiting game begins. I use to think after a few days I was fine, but I learned differently a few years ago. I give myself a week now. The ultrasound took a while. I had drank too much water and was asked to go to the bathroom in the middle of it too. If the doctor thinks I can have the embolization, I will probably go for it and hopefully feel better, do more and lose weight. Crossing fingers.

Oct11

Playing with Photos

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My brother loves to make scrapbooks and has made some awesome ones involving old family photos that mom had stuffed in boxes. No, she isn’t good at preserving the past it seems. I love photos myself and vowed I’d have a camera within reach all through Sean’s growing up years. I have quite a few photo albums. So Don asked me to scan a bunch of very old photos, many at least 100-120 years old. I recognized my maternal great grandparents, but no one else. Some were labeled, still have no idea who these people were. My great grandparents photos were badly faded. I was able to bring them back and I am still photoshopping them. I am really happy with William’s photo-so dashing. Little Caroline’s was in worst shape. It looks like she stuck her head up in a 3 foot collar-guess that was the style. I am pretty sure they both lived in New York until they were grown up and met each other. They then settled near Philadelphia where their extended family still lives. The thing that breaks my heart is that they are in unmarked graves. I hope someday to at least save enough money for a plaque. When my grandmom passed away in 2000, I saved a little of the money for a marker for her, my grandfather, his parents and my mom’s final resting place. It too had gone unmarked for 40+ yrs. My grandmom and mom didn’t think that something like that was important when they had 6 mouths to feed (Mom-mom was very practical).
Anyway-here are the photos:

William Hasselberg
Caroline
You can see where I am working on these. They may not get too much better. I printed them out and they look better on paper. I changed their color and the teal really made the detail pop.
I always thought my grandmom was the splitting image of her mom, but upon further evaluation, she definitely had her ‘Papa’s’ eyes. My twin great uncles looked just like their mama.