My mother has a rather grisly habit of buying picture frames and then hanging them...without pictures. The frames are always lovely; it's the lack of photographs that I find spooky. My love of ornate frames...in sepias and burnished gold...that comes from a little Momma-envy. I, however, FILL my frames.



I purchased the above frames, and filled them with images I captured from our honeymoon in Charleston, SC. Last September, I showed the completed frame [set] to Mom, and she liked it so much that she went and bought two of them for her own home. I was tickled...imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. I first discovered them hanging pristinely upon the walls on my visit home last December...utterly unsullied by the act of displaying photographs. They were naive and fresh...and as empty as a pie plate after I've finished with it.

I feel it my mission to fill their void! I began my attack on this beauty. This is the image from the online catalog...my mother's frame had never known such a display. It had only known the vacant stare of its cardboard backing...until ME.

Last Friday, I shot images of the farm, Mom's collectibles, and the like. I shot them with the sepia setting, as her tastes run along the old fashioned, such as mine (or mine do, such as hers...if we want to be accurate) and aged them to look a little scruffy with blurriness and scratches in places for authenticity (or I was trying to cover shotty photography...I can't be certain ;-)).

• Tin Can Collection
• The Farm Sign
• Breezeway Interior
• A Washboard
• A Piece from her Pottery Collection
• The Sunroom
  (Or, the "Identity Crisis Room"...it's been a playroom, an office, a dining room, a family room, and a computer room as well. Cute couple in the rightmost frame, eh? Oh, and that dandy table is actually a sewing machine! WILL WONDERS NEVER CEASE!?)
• Trike planter
• Billowing Lace Curtain
• Oil Lamp
• Spice Collection
• Rosemaling Checkerboard
  
  From Webster: Main Entry: ro·se·ma·ling
  Pronunciation: 'rO-z&-"mä-li[ng]
  Function: noun
  Etymology: Norwegian, from rose [rose] + maling [painting]
  : painted or sometimes carved decoration (as on furniture, walls, or wooden dinnerware) in Scandinavian peasant style that consists especially of floral designs and inscriptions
• A True Country Crock

The frame looks somewhat nice, with pictures filling the gaps. Mom thinks she could grow used to frames displaying pictures. I'm gonna make her worldly yet.