Nestles Makes The Very Best

Chocolate (morsels). Do you remember the jingle from the commercial? N-E-S-T-L-E-S, Nestles makes the very best chocolate. As far as the Toll House Morsels go I certainly agree. When I tried to save a little money and buy a cheaper brand to use in chocolate chip cookies, they honestly were not the same. That was a long time ago, and I never did it again. I grew up using them,and drinking Nestles Quik in my milk, too. Not all the time, though.
But I like LOTS of other kinds of chocolate, too. Hersheys, Ghirardelli, etc, etc. I just like chocolate, period. A lot. Too much.
I have LOVED to bake since I was a little girl, but I find myself thinking about doing it more than doing it nowadays because I like to eat what I bake. Too much. The cooler the weather gets, the more I want to bake. So, I'll keep thinking about it!

I'm A Little Teapot...

Collector!! Well, to be honest, I collect little, medium and large teapots. In this picture you see just three of my many Mary Engelbreit teapot ornaments. I also collect restaurant china individual teapots and some types of other, larger, ones. But the most interesting thing, to me, about this picture, is the blue teapot with cherries pictured in the drawing. We found that among our mother's belongings, and we figured out that it must have been done for some kind of a tea (party or club meeting) when she was in high school. The '49 is for the year she graduated. And look how similar it is to the designs of the Mary Engelbreit teapots! What a delightful little find.
( And I was collecting the ME stuff already.)
It looks right at home among my collections. And it is more treasured because it was hers.

In Our Little "Wooden" Shoes

Well- with a name like Heidi, what did you expect? That's right, one of my collections is ceramic/pottery "wooden" or Dutch shoes. You are only seeing one shelf of them . The corner whatnot has 5 shelves full. I've been collecting them for years; I have about 50. I also have other Heidi stuff- like books and dolls, and Shirley Temple things including the sheet music for my "title" song.
Collecting - it's a sickness.
But I love it.

In My Little Town......

....hand painted pottery cottages are lined up resembling row houses in Storybook Land. Each decorated by unknown hands years ago, they surely do look inviting.
Storybook Land, as it happens, is one of my favorite Lands to visit!

Raggedy Ann

This is my beloved Raggedy Ann doll that I have had since I was little. She is not a traditional one, she has short blonde hair. The poor girl has certainly seen better days; one of her arms is missing, and she long ago misplaced her original little violet gingham jumper. I found this little dress and hat oufit with some doll clothes I bought from a friend, and thought it suited her just fine. I remember when my mother gave her to me, I was upset that she didn't have the heart that I thought all proper Raggedy Anns should have! So she painted a heart on her chest for me, and I was happy. Now she also wears a hand-painted heart pin that I wore on my wedding day.I love her today just as much as ever.
I recently saw a quote in a newspaper advertisement that struck a particular chord with me:
"If you don't grow up by middle age you don't have to."
James Gurney

Thank goodness for that.

Scrapbooking Sisters

One of my sisters came for a visit this past weekend, and one of the things we did was work on making scrapbook pages. The pages will go in to a wedding album she is making to give to her daughter's best friend, who will be married this coming Saturday. Their wedding colors are black, white, and pink. My sister sells scrapbooking and rubber stamp supplies and hosts workshops, and we had fun working on these together. They actually look better in person than they do in my photo, if I do say so myself (and I just did).
We also managed to pop in to a couple of thrift shops and a craft store, and dig around in my storage space, where we uncovered treasures I have had packed away for YEARS. That's what happens when you are a collector with more stuff than space - sometimes things are packed away so long, you actually forget you have them! Fun!

Pretty Postage

I really enjoy collecting pretty and colorful or interesting "vintage" postage stamps. But I don't collect them to save them. I use them when sending special cards to people who are special to me.
I'm not sure whether it has anything to do with the fact that I used to be a rural mail carrier, but I do know that I never tired of seeing stamps on mail that were uncommon. I would often see older ones that I had never seen before, and it just made handling the mail a little bit more interesting, if only for a minute!
I must admit that thus far I haven't been able to part with any of my Walt Disney ones - I only have a few, and they are so precious to me!

California Grown

Well, I just happen to be California Grown myself.
But that's not what this post is about.
I was just thinking about the fact that there are only 5 more weeks of our local Farmer's Market left this year, and I will miss it. I will miss the wonderful cherry tomatoes we buy from a grower in Angels Camp. And the beautiful strawberries, and red seedless grapes. And the yummy lemon-honey coated almonds, and sugar and spiced candied walnuts. And a lot of other great things. Because even though we can buy SOME of these things at the grocery store, we can't get all of them, and, anyway,they are not not the same!
The buttons in the picture were giveaways at the California State Fair. The Real California Cheese one is from this year. I love California cheese, but I think I also love cheese from any other state or country! And speaking of cheese, I just recently discovered one I hadn't seen before at the grocery store. It's from Sargento Foods in Plymouth Wisconsin, and it is REALLY good! I am trying to eat lower fat food, and I refuse to eat fat free cheese, but I do enjoy some of the reduced fat cheeses. So the new (to me) one I found is Sargento Reduced Fat Mild Cheddar 2% milk (shredded). I like it so much that I want to have it in the refrigerator at all times.
But I will also do my best to keep those California cows happy, too.

One Blue Rooster

Nope - not a sad rooster ( in fact, he looks pretty happy to me!) , but rather this gorgeous colorful image from a vintage Hallmark card. I love the colors on this, which was a birthday card given to my father-in-law in, I'm thinking - the late 60's or early 70's. I just liked it and wanted to share.
And a cockle doodle do to you!

Helping GrandPa

Our three year old grandson came over on Saturday with his dad to help GrandPa in the yard. He used a rake twice his height, and he worked as hard as his little self could! He really was a great helper. I capitalized the "P" in GrandPa because my husbands boys call him Pa. I love that.

Dizzy Kitty

I thought I might introduce you to my cat.

The Honorable Dizzy Kitty, K. C. E.
(Kitty Cat Extraordinaire)
He holds such a huge piece of my heart that it's nearly impossible to explain. I laid on the floor and cried next to the cage he was in at the vet where he was hooked up to an IV, and they didn't think he would make it. Our wonderful veterinarian said he had never seen a cat in the condition that he was in pull through. They saved his life, and we are eternally grateful. I completely adore him, and I truly believe that he feels the same way about me. That's the best part.

Ransburg Rhapsody

I am extremely fond of my collection of Ransburg. There is just something about the gorgeous colors and the hand painted flowers that I cannot seem to resist. I guess I have more blue and yellow than anything else - not all of it shown here! I also have some grey, black, white,and orange. I've not been lucky enough to find any in green. It could be considered a problem, since I have more pieces than I have space to display them. I just do what I CAN with my CANisters, and breadboxes, wastebasket, paper towel holders, shakers...yeah, okay, never mind! Aren't they bright and pretty, though??

Jury Duty

This morning I had jury duty at this historical old court house. The jury was chosen within two hours and the rest of us were excused. Across the street there was a new candy store I hadn't been to yet - it was calling to me, ( honestly, I was sure I heard something!) and down the street at an antique shop I found a couple of things I "needed". So, all in all, a pretty nice morning. Can't complain!

Vegetables Are Our Friends!

I had to have this vintage embroidered dish towel when I saw it! I have had it for a few years, and I remember when I told a friend at work about it, I said I was going to name it "Vegetables Are Our Friends". I mean, how cute are they?! If only vegetables were my BEST friends, I'd be so much better off than I am with my friends Cookies, Candy, Cakes and SweetStuff ! Oh, to walk along gaily holding hands with Tomato and Carrot, and wearing my little yellow apron.
When my friend teased me about being the one who named her dish towels, I loved every minute of it.

Greetings from the Gold Country!

Hello to all! This is my feeble first attempt to create a blog. I know completely nothing about computers or blog creation or posting photos. So, we'll see. My wish is to blog about people, things, pets and places I like. I'm calling it Gold Country Girls because the idea behind it is to perhaps involve my sisters as well, with each of us posting if/when we like. And we are gold country girls because we grew up in the Mother Lode area of California, not terribly far from where gold was first discovered. Between us, we have many interests including family, friends, vintage and antique collectibles, books, decorating, baking, cooking, music, singing, crafting and miscellaneous artistic endeavors, theater, gardening, TV and movies, road trips - and, oh, I'm sure I have left things out.
Once I get the hang of this I want to post pictures of, well, STUFF that I/we like. And if I'm really, really lucky - then maybe you will like them , too. Or at least enjoy reading about them or looking at them, whichever the case may be.
I want to try and "give it a go", as they say!