Lucky Me

I received two special packages recently. Don'tcha just love good mail? One was from my friend Faith in Michigan and one of the things contained within was this lovely ceramic box with a red rose on top. It is right at home here among my other "rosy" collectibles! She also sent me some great vintage Melmac plates with roses on them, and some cute little critters. Thank you, Faith - that was very sweet of you!
And I felt very lucky indeed to have won the giveaway over at Two Crazy Crafters! Look at what Twyla sent me! She included some extra special surprises, too: a gorgeous Christmas card featuring my beloved cottages, a pair of shoe stretchers, and some of her adorable handmade crocheted cherries - for me AND my sister! Thank you so much, Twyla - I love it ALL. You are very generous and thoughtful, and I am so happy we have become friends through our blogs.

AND - my sister picked up the little chippy white and green shelves for me at a thrift store on her way over here last weekend. Thank you, Lorlore!

A Few Doll Clothes

Let's begin with this sweet robe. Quilted, with pink roses! Now, I would dearly love to have a robe exactly like this one that was big enough to fit ME! I would happily wrap myself in it every morning:
A sweet little handmade dress in green:
And another cutie in blue. These were part of a small collection I bought years ago from a friend at work:
And I found this lovely Madame Alexander Swiss doll dress at a thrift shop for $1.00. I only have four Madame Alexander dolls, but it's nice to have a change of clothes for the little ones!

I'm still a little girl at heart, who loves playing with her dolls and doll clothes.

Betty Crocker Cookbooks - Again

In a previous post, I showed you my collection of the smaller format spiral bound cookbooks from Betty Crocker. Today's post is about the larger books which were published later. (These measure 8 & 1/2 by 10). The New Boys and Girls Cookbook, 1965:
Dinner In a Dish, 1965:
The Hostess Cookbook, 1967:
Family Dinners In A Hurry, 1970:
and The Do-Ahead Cookbook, 1974:
I just love these vintage cookbooks. There are at least 7 more in this format that I haven't yet managed to find. I'm still looking...... I'm always looking...

What's Penny Wearing? #1

Penny is ready for a rock concert on a hot summer day, wearing her vintage bright floral halter top (from my MIL), and my very own (and very worn and faded) denim skirt:
Rock on!

A Few More Thrift Finds

I left some things out the last time I posted about my recent thrift finds. I don't know about you, but I very rarely find gorgeous antique postcards at thrift shops. And they are usually priced at $3 each and up when I look through them at antiques shops. My sister spotted them first, but I got some lovely ones, and also found this rainbow iridescent lustreware saucer:
And a couple of days later, I found these two vintage paisley scarves and a crochet-covered coat hanger:
And I also was lucky enough to find this gorgeous paisley rayon fabric remnant. There is enough to make a blouse out of:
Too bad I'm not much of a seamstress.

My Room , Circa 1970!

I don't have very many pictures of my room - but here's one that I did find. I forgot I had this. I should have included this photo in the post I did about antiquing furniture. The green desk and chair you see here were painted by my sister. She was already out of the house and married by this time, but she hadn't been able to take her desk yet, so I was using it. She also painted a lamp and matching bottle/vase green with colorful flowers, and made a pad for the chair out of flowered fabric that matched - and she entered the whole set in the county fair.
On the desk, some of my favorite possessions: my first record album (Sounds of Silence) is leaning against the wall, my Little Bunny Kiddle with orange hair, my big-eyed Margaret Keane postcard, a little cardboard jewelry box, a pretty box of Kleenex (I STILL like pretty Kleenex boxes!) And on the wall, I had a Zodiac poster, and I think the owl notepad holder was probably another Counterpoint item. There's a Seventeen magazine on the floor, along with a tiny wicker wastebasket and a little patchwork pillow I made. And do you see the flower calendar hanging on the wall? Well, I kept it. Yep, found it packed away in a box.
And while I'm at it - this piggy bank is something I had way back then, also. I just found him packed away in a box, too.

I've mentioned before that I really like blue and green together.
Just another little one of Heidi's blasts from the past.
You can see the problem here, right? It started way back then - when I really like something, I don't want to part with it.
Sheesh.

The Great Gatsby

I went to see The Great Gatsby in 1974 when it came out. I loved the film adapted from the great novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Loved the settings, the costumes, the actors - in fact, that movie began my obsessive decades-long crush on Sam Waterston! (Yes, I do watch every episode of Law and Order.) Years later, of course I had to buy the VHS version of the movie:

When I was still in high school, I was buying The Saturday Evening Post magazine because of my fascination with Norman Rockwell. Many of the issues at the time still featured his cover artwork and stories inside about him. This happened to be one of those I acquired back then, with a photograph of Mia Farrow as Daisy on the cover:
I bought the paperback version of the novel in 1974, as well:
I don't believe I ever purchased the soundtrack album - although I would love to have it! For now, I'll have to settle for these two pieces of sheet music from my collection - these two songs were included in the film:
But the song that I most associate with my memories of seeing this film for the first time back then is "What'll I Do?" by the fabulous Irving Berlin.
I love period films, and I'm glad I have this one. I think I need to watch it again.
"What'll I do when you are far away, and I am blue, what'll I do? What'll I do when I am wondering who is kissing you, what'll I do?
What'll I do with just a photograph to tell my troubles to?
When I'm alone with only dreams of you that won't come true, what'll I do?"

More Birds

Question: What happens when you have SO many collectibles that you couldn't possibly keep track of them all?

Answer: Sometimes you find a little box squirreled away in storage that contains part of your collection that you have not laid eyes on for about 15 years!
Now what? My cabinet already has birds packed in like sardines.
Um - no - I am NOT going to part with them. I think I may have mentioned before that my birds and my deer are probably my favorite collections.
Guess I will just try to fit them in somehow. Where there's a will, there's a way.

The Gold Country Girls Have a Booth!

We did it! We all went in together and we have rented a booth space at Mountain Treasures in Sonora, California. Here's a picture before we got started (obviously):

And we are still working on getting things moved in gradually:



When it is more filled up, I will try to post some more pictures of it. We are excited!

Happy Father's Day

Here's wishing a very happy Father's Day to all of the fathers in our family - and in yours - and all of the other wonderful fathers out there!
Sure do wish I had my Daddy here so I could give him my love in person.
But, all I have are photographs and memories.
So many wonderful memories.

I'd Like To Introduce To You: Miss Penny Lane

Miss Penny Lane has recently arrived here on my doorstep via UPS from New Jersey. Perhaps I should have named her Miss Moneypenny, because she cost me a Pretty Penny. I had already purchased her when I found Evelyn Rose - don't worry- they are getting along famously.
This Jersey girl came ready and willing to earn her keep. She will be happy to work as my model for clothing, vintage and new. I will photograph her and then show you her wardrobe in a series of posts on my blog. She may also do a bit of traveling - not too far. We don't want for her to suffer too much wear and tear - she already has a couple of "issues" - I wasn't too happy about that for the price paid, - but , well - nobody's perfect!
Her frock today is an apple green and white vintage sun dress that belonged to my mother-in-law. 60's, I think? Watch for Penny in upcoming posts. I think she'll be happy here.

John Held, Jr.

If you are not familiar with the name John Held, Jr., then perhaps you will recognize his unique illustrations? These are from a 1970's brochure extolling the virtues of milk and it's place in nutritious meals. Inside, it states "The beautiful people in this booklet are illustrations by the late John Held, Jr., reproduced by special permission of Mrs. John Held, Jr." I fell in love with his unique images back in the 70's.
He also wrote comic strips.

And, like many of the great artists of the time, his iconic illustrations graced a lot of magazine covers over the years, as well (in the 20's and 30's, I think - maybe 40's too?):
When I was in high school, I was so happy to find some fabric that had his little dancing flappers on it! The background was red, and my sister made a dress out of it for me. I am wearing it here, seated in the cafeteria, talking with my friend Vicki Young:
It's probably silly for me to include this photo when I know there is no way that you can even tell from the poor photo what in the heck is on the dress! But I just felt like including it. You will just have to take my word for it - it was a cute dress. I used to wear it with my 4-inch high platform black patent leather sandals. I remember feeling pretty good in that outfit. (Don't say anything about my hair- the hair was NOT good) Ahhh, high school memories.....

"Antiquing" Furniture

Remember when "antiquing" furniture first became popular? These magazine advertisements are from 1968. Do it in orange:
..or yellow, or blue - any color at all:
Somebody did it to this little stand at some point. I use it as a record cabinet - but actually it is normally covered up with a piece of vintage barkcloth:
I think you can see what it's like from my pictures. It stands out just a tad too much, but I just haven't felt like painting it:
Now THIS is my chair I "antiqued" years ago as part of a 4-H project. It's a much prettier blue!

I think I love it now even more than I did then, if that's possible.

Evelyn Rose

Well, would 'ya look here at what I found? Our local Gottschalk's department store is closing up (sadly), so everything in the building is for sale. I looked at all of the mannequins (many or all already marked sold - and too expensive for me anyway), and this one (which is a torso only) was the only one who had a lovely rosy pink moire fabric covering on it. I grabbed her right up! I have named her Evelyn Rose - which are two special family names.
(Yes, I have named my headless, legless mannequin torso thing. Call me crazy. Ask me if I care?)
She is lovely:
And when I place her on a stool and she is wearing a long dress, you cannot even tell that she is missing part of herself.

'Tis happy I am to have her!
Welcome , Evelyn Rose.

Zodiac Calendar

I found an old calendar of mine that has been packed away in storage for YEARS. It has such great, bright colors and these wacky and fabulous illustrations by Bruce and Ann Butte. It was printed in 1969 by Determined Productions, Inc.
I just took pictures of a few of the pages so I could show you some examples. Virgo:
Libra:
Pisces:

and Taurus:
It's printed on very nice heavy paper (almost like cardboard). Don't you think the whole set would look really great all framed and hanging together? I do - but I'm not sure I have it in me to take the calendar apart after having saved it for 39 years intact!
Then again - what good was it doing me packed away in storage? On the other hand , I don't even have any place to hang the images in my home, if I DID frame them. Now that I think about it, I'm not really sure WHAT I should do. I think I'll go argue with myself about it for awhile...