Time Machine backup photos gone, Time Machine backup photos gone

This morning my iphoto library disappeared. I was looking at it and all was well, I exited iphoto, decided to empty the trash bin, hit empty trash, attempted to get back into iphoto, and when I did I was faced with the message "Please choose a library." However, there was nothing listed for me to choose. I searched my entire harddrive for my iphoto library and it is nowhere to be found. I find a file that has 1.1 GB in it, but it is not my photos. I had about 8,000 photos.

So I think, no worries I will restore from Time Machine backups on my external harddrive. BUT...I plug it into my computer and the backups all look as my computer does now! They are not from history...it is the same 1.1 GB message for iphoto and when I click restore it says copying and then nothing happens!

PLEASE HELP! I AM PANICKED.