Autumn Postcards

Harry Payne (1858-1927) was a British artist who was known for his military paintings, but he also did a lot of pastoral, cottagecore kind of paintings. Perfect for postcards! Here are a few Autumnish images:

Collecting faggots:

Last load of faggots:

Did the other guy knock off early?

Awwww . . . 

Henfield sends a kindly thought:

No kindly thought from anyone:

With Birthday greetings . . . 

And "waving fields" without:

Here are some of the backs from original postcards:

Gertie sends Happ Birthday greetings to Master Robinson.

"Wretched summer weather."

What snack does Ernest send Elfie on Sundays? Chocolate, perhaps? 

And why is Mabel only coming for that?

There's no postmark, so did she never send this bold request--or was it hand-delivered?

We shall never know.

Many Happy Returns!

Bill is 'aving a laugh:

And here's a blank back for you to whip out your own fountain pen for a quick missive:

These images are in the public domain to use as you wish. 

19th Century Poem & Graphic

 I found these while researching for a storyline, and thought I'd share them here. They're free to use, but have a not-for-sale copyright restriction. (Not my rules, but the rules of the digital resource). So I won't be incorporating them into a digi-kit, but the graphic was too beautiful not to share:  

"Funeral letters?"  Here's information from The Victorian Web about condolence letters, as well as the kind of stationary that Victorians in mourning would have used.  Here is an article from Dusty Old Thing including mourning cards, kind of like funeral tickets to get into a family funeral. 

This poem captures the 19th century, don't you think?  Blacksmiths, chimney-sweepers, and bookbinders.  :-)  Also, midwives were refreshingly normal back then.

Victorian Illustrations

 I've been doing some children's literature research for Fernie's World. I was going to give a spoiler alert about Fernie's future husband, but I will just be hint-ish about him:

This is really what prompted this blogpost for my neglected blog:

I love seeing evidence of a child's play from the 19th century! I can imagine little Victoria with her water colours, painting. And then she was interrupted and didn't finish because she had to practice her needlework. And her favourite colour was purple. Or she had a bossy older sister who told her she couldn't have two dresses in the picture with the same colour! 

Here's another one:

And then I saw this:

And finally, she used the last bit of paint:

Feel free to use, as they are in the Public Domain and there's no copyright.  :-) 

Watercolour Printable Journal Kit

Apart from my "Blair Witch Project" hands, this is a quick flip-through of a journal I made almost 2 years ago. I'm just getting around to getting this video posted and the printable kit listed in the Ledger & Lace Etsy shop.