Old Fashioned Christmas - vintage decorations are the best!

Here is a little 5 x7 that I did in acrylic on Ampersand gessobord.  I love to decorate for Christmas and these are two pieces near and dear to my heart.  The Santa Post office is a bank that I had when I was a kid.  I recently found it in the attic at my Mom's house.  Now it is part of my way to big collection of decorations.  The tree was given to me and my husband by his Aunt Helen shortly after we were married.  She fired ceramics in her basement and loved making pieces for the family.  These lighted trees were popular in the 70's and I am lucky to have this one plus a white one with all blue lights that Helen also made for us.

I took this photo as I was taking down my decorations  last Christmas and wanted to paint it before I lost the image which happens too often, but that is another story.  I think this will be my Christmas card this year :)

This piece is available on Daily Paintworks:  http://www.dailypaintworks.com/fineart/lynne-reichhart/old-fashioned-christmas/238222

Do you have any favorite holiday decoratios??

Confessions of an old school Musicholic! Vinyl rules!

I know this is an primarily and art blog, but music is my 2nd love after art!  In my high school days I used to stay up until all hours listening to my favorite radio stations, often drawing and painting at the same time.  I had piles of cassette tapes from recording my fav songs and DJ's from the radio.

As you can see above, I still have all my vinyl albums that I collected growing up and beyond.  I used to go to Woolworths and get a record album for $3.99.   I can't bring myself to part with my collection and I still play them on occasion.  10 years ago or so I started to catalog all the records and what they are worth. Some are pretty rare, but they are all priceless to me!

I also have a nice collection of 45 rpm records.  When I was making the big bucks before I retired to pursue art  we got a jukebox so I could play my singles.  I love playing the old songs and singing along.  Songs like ' The Night Chicago Died' and 'Treat Her Like a Lady'.

Next week I'll be back to art because YAY- I just won a couple of awards for one of my paintings.

Anyone else out there still listen to their vinyl - I'd love to read your comments.

History of a Rock concert goer - prices sure have changed!

I have saved my concert tickets for as long as I can remember.  I put them in this 30 year old photo album that has ended up being a history of ticket prices as well as wonderful memories.  Check out Paul McCartney for only $34 in 1989.  This is a random page from the album.  I think the most interesting is The Rolling Stones in 1981 for only $15 (not shown).  That also included Journey and George Thorogood!

I remember my first concert was Orleans and Melissa Manchester at a local venue.  My Mom had to take me because I wasn't old enough to drive.  Poor Mom ended up taking me to many shows near and far.  I lived on the Canadian border so I heard and loved a lot of Canadian music.  She crossed the border to take me and a girlfriend to many a show not to mention the treks to Canadian record stores to purchase favs not available in the US.   Ottawa and Toronto get lots of big US names too!

I still love going to concerts.  The most recent was Justin Hayward from the Moody Blues just a couple weeks ago.  I must admit that I am seeing the acts that are no longer in the big arenas anymore, but they are still rockin' after all these years as am I :)