Vintage Family Fun!

Clarence & Clara DeChaine circa 1911

Melvina Rondo Forcier and Mary Elizabeth "Bessie" Forcier McAllister

Melvina Rondo Forcier and "her girls"

Melvina Rondo Forcier and Mary Elizabeth "Bessie" Forcier McAllister


These are some of my relatives that I've spent the past few months researching. I received the photos from a distant Forcier relative in Washington state. So excited to see these and thought I'd share.

The top photo is my grandmother Clara DeChaine and her twin brother Clarence. They were born in Brainerd, MN. My great-grandmother had sent a photo to her family in Washington.

The other photos are of my great-great-grandmother Melvina Rondo/Rondeau who was born in February 1850 in Vermont. The story is that she was a nurse and lost one of her legs during the Civil War in Vermont. She married Damase "Thomas" Forcier in 1866 in Vermont. They moved to Sauk Centre, MN in 1870. They eventually had 10 living children over a span of 25 years! The family moved to Seattle/White Center, WA in 1889.
At some point they moved to Redmond, Washington and were pioneers in that area.

I'd love to hear from anyone who is related to this line of Forcier's!
I'm a descendant of the Forcier, Peterson, Olson, DeChaine, Marineau and Paulson lines from the Brainerd, Minnesota area also.

My entire family tree is on Ancestry.com under Bergh/Peterson.

Summertime and the Livin' is BUSY!

Nye Beach, Newport, Oregon

I really meant to keep up with this blog but I've been so busy with so many different things over the past month!

I've been to the beach....
I went camping....
I've been on the boat at the lake....
Went to my nephews high school graduation....
I went to 2 parades....
Spent the night in Portland at the Hotel Lucia.....
Had more BBQ's than I can count.....
Made lots of jewelry findings.....
Went to a rummage sale and found something incredible.....
Changed the focus of one of my etsy shops....
Walked in the Relay For Life Marathon as a Cancer Survivor.....
Spent lots of time with family....

It has been almost a year since I quit my full time job. I'm just now starting to feel the freedom in having done that. At first I was afraid it was the wrong thing for me to do. I thought my fears were correct when my husband was laid off around Christmas time and only working half of his normal hours. Yes, that was a struggle but we came out of it fine. I'm happy to say he is back at work full-time (he loves his job!).

My goal now is to work harder on my business and put more time and effort into making it more successful. I'm going to keep spending more time with family and doing the things that make me happy! Things are looking up!

I'm Back!

Wow! I had no idea I would be away for so long. I apologize to my loyal followers. I'm not sure what happened to me! I thought I would take a short break and it ended up lasting for a few months. I've been busy with other things in my life. I guess I just needed a break.....

I have a love of Genealogy and that is what I've been spending the most time on. I figured out a very difficult line (Forcier) and I spent about 6 weeks on that one. I'm still working on another one (Rondeau/Rondo) that is proving to be even more difficult! But I find it to be very rewarding and it has ignited a passion for history that I never had before. I also have a greater appreciation for the pioneers of Canada and the US. I've even found relatives I never knew I had and helped them with their research too!

I've spent quite a bit of time with my grand kids but I'm no longer babysitting them. I had to quit so I could spend more time on home and work. I need to start paying more attention to my vintage jewelry business or I will have to find a job! So, needless to say, I am motivated to work a little harder on my business!

I've been getting out and doing a lot too. I just had a 1 night camping trip with my granddaughter Emma, my sister Kristy and my niece McKenna. It was great fun! My sister and I just sat and talked for hours by the fire. We slept in a tent on the hard ground which isn't my favorite thing to do! But we had a few comforts of home....like my laptap to watch movies. I hate to admit this but my sister went and got us McDonald's for breakfast! It was fun to get away and I like making the memories for Emma to remember me by.

I'll keep it short today and add a few photos of what I've been up to lately! I really missed being here and I will try to keep it up! Thanks for sticking with me!

Back To The Oregon Beach!

I recently posted photos of my last trip to the beach here but it was raining that day and it wasn't quite the experience I was hoping for. Well, yesterday we went and it was glorious! The sun was shining and it wasn't too windy....well, it was.....but it was okay....the sun was shining! We went to the beach first and took a walk to the bayfront to look in the quaint shops. If you ever want to visit a very clean and pristine beach go to Newport, Oregon and visit Yaquina Bay. It's a fun place to visit and it has the most beautiful beaches and scenery. Great fishing and crabbing too!

Picnik Photo Editing Fun!

I took this photo last summer about the same time I discovered the photo editing site Picnik. You can upload your photos and do all kinds of fun and creative things with them. The photo above is one I took in my back yard. I uploaded it to Picnik and decided to experiment with different text, etc. You can make your photos look like a sepia tone, black and white, holga style, ortinish and a lot more including many different frames and a large variety of collage styles. You can blur around the edges of your photos too for that "fuzzy" look that is so popular.

You can also edit, fix, crop and rotate your photos. You can add text, effects and embellishments. I love the collage feature, especially the fancy collages that you can use in scrapbooks and cards. You can even change eye color in your photos for fun!

It also links up to Picasa, Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, Photobucket and more.

It's free for most of the features or you can pay $24.95 for Premium Picnik to have unlimited use of all the features for a year. I'm paying for it because I wanted to be able to use everything. You can really do a lot for free! I have enjoyed it and it's helped when I've made some banners and avatars for my etsy shop (none that I am using right now) but I did use it to add the text to the banner on my other blog here. This sounds like an advertisement for Picnik! I swear I'm not getting paid! Just wanted to share. See it here: http://picnik.com

My Collection of Vintage and Antique Marriage Certificates 1893 to 1925

In Holy Matrimony






In honor of my 22nd Wedding Anniversary which was yesterday I thought I would share my small collection of vintage and antique marriage certificates. My husband Rick and I have been married since January 26, 1987. We met in the fourth grade at our elementary school! We dated on and off over the years, through most of high school, we separated for several years after that and eventually married later. There were a lot of detours in our lives before we finally found each other again. I'm happy that we did. I have a great husband!








I love the art work on these certificates. The marriages date from 1893 to 1925. I have a few more in my collection that are unframed but they haven't fared as well as the framed ones have. They are brittle and torn. I keep them in a drawer for safekeeping.

One of the framed certificates has photos hidden behind but I can't remember which one and these are all fragile too. A few have very brittle wood backings that I don't want to remove.

I often wonder why a family would let these precious memories go to a stranger. I wonder that about family photos and heirlooms too. I can't imagine letting these things go but I know not everyone feels the way I do. I still have my Grandma's Milk Glass candy dish full of gum and candies just as it was the day she died. That was in 1993! Not everyone is so sentimental!

I like collecting these bits of family history but I wish the families could have enjoyed them as I have. They have a place of honor in my home. I've thought of looking for the descendants of each family but I haven't had the time. I've done lots of genealogy research myself and I'm sure I would be able to find them easily. Maybe I will work on that soon...








I acquired most of these on eBay a few years ago when I had time and money to spare! I really love them all and they hang in my guest bedroom where I can admire them. I often wonder if these couples stayed married and for how long. I guess that's another reason why I love collecting them. There are unanswered questions.Each has a bit of mystery to them. It is my hope that they all lived long and happy lives with their own families.










I tried to take good photographs of them this morning but the weather wouldn't cooperate. Freezing rain and paper don't mix so I had to take photos outside under our covered porch area. Not the best for lighting so please pardon the reflections. I hope you enjoyed looking at my collection!







For Better, For Worse,
For Richer, For Poorer,

In Sickness, And In Health
To Love And To Cherish

Till Death Us Do Part.

Creative Christmas Gift Tags

My daughter Kristina is the most creative girl! Every year she finds the perfect Christmas gift for each member of our family(on a budget too). Each gift is thoughtful and perfectly suited to the recipient. But it is her choice in creative name tags that we enjoy just as much as the gift! Last year we each had a Moo card attached to our box as a name tag. Every card was a photo from years past. I had a photo of all 3 of my kids when they were young. There was a photo of my Grandpa on one. There were photos of my grand kids for me and their Mom too. There were older family group photos. All meaningful and appropriate to each person receiving a gift from her. We all oohed and aahed her creative choice! We all wondered what she would do this year?
This Christmas she found vintage black and white photos on what must have been an exhaustive search of vintage and antique shops for the perfect photo to fit each member of the family! These were sweet and quaint photos from another era. She wrote "To Mommy" and attached the vintage photo of what were clearly 2 sisters from the 1930's or so. Her sister Chantel's gift had a cute photo of 2 young sisters holding hands. I had another one with the silhouette of a young girl. Yet another was a proud little girl, with her head held high, arms clasped behind her back with her lovely pinafore dress on. All of these photos spoke to me of family, times past, tradition and love.....perfect for our family Christmas.

I look forward to seeing what Kristina comes up with next year. We expect this sort of creative genius from her now! Happy New Year!