What's Penny Wearing? #21

Penny's in black and white today, wearing another of my favorite vintage dresses.
This one has black buttons with rhinestones in the center, and I like pairing it with my vintage black glass bead necklace:

This might have been a nice dress to wear to a New Year's Eve dinner party, if I were going to one.
Which I'm not. We just stay home, and we don't usually last until midnight, either.
We can ring in the New Year in the morning, right?
And since this is the final day of 2009, I wanted to share with you this gorgeous postcard which has on the back a postmark from exactly 100 years ago today.
It is one of my favorites with a silver background and pink roses! How perfect to to celebrate the Tournament of Roses Parade which many of us will be watching tomorrow morning.
Hope you all enjoy your New Year's Eve, however you may celebrate it.

A Visit to Coloma (40 Years Ago)

Good morning. Tina here. I am going to share with you some photos of one of my favorite places, Coloma, California. Gold was discovered there in 1848, and a gold rush started in 1949. If it hadn't been for Coloma, there wouldn't be any Gold Country Girls, so I am thankful for this wonderful town. All of the Gold Country Girls used to work in Coloma at one time.
In the years 2007 and 2008 there was a hot air balloon company which made trips over Coloma. They were closed down when neighbors complained. I always planned on taking one of their flights. When I was out watering in early morning, I could look down the river and see the brightly colored rainbow balloon. It was about the size of a dime since it was over a mile away. It looked like a lot of fun.

Apparently they had to land wherever they ended up, which was usually someones driveway. That was the problem with the neighbors, I believe. They never made it to my driveway, they would have been welcome. Maybe someday they will come back.

About 40 years ago my husband , a friend and I went to Coloma to check it out. Bill, obviously a child of the 60's, made sure he posed by the Keep Off sign. Since we weren't arrested, we continued on with our visit.

Coloma has changed a lot over the years since 1848. It has been built up, burned, was once the county seat of El Dorado County, and now is a state park, which very nearly closed this year due to the California State budget problems. Luckily for us, the powers that be realized if there was no Coloma, there might not even be a State of California.

This is Mount Murphy. A few years ago it burned. There is a house at the top but they escaped the flames. I have a lot of shots of the fire from our house. It was a few ridges off from us, thank goodness, and so I could watch without fear. It is a beautiful historic hillside which is covered with poppies in late winter. I will do a post on the poppies one of these days.

This is a photo of visitors to Coloma in 1948 for the centennial. They were getting special Coloma postmarks on their mail with special 1948 stamps. The Coloma post office still hand stamps at Christmas with a beautiful Christmas in Coloma postmark. A friend of ours always sends his Christmas Cards out with the hand stamp. This year it featured a Gold miner and donkey and snowflakes fashioned out of picks, square nails, horseshoes, etc.

Here I am in the park. There are beautiful picnic grounds with wonderful large grinding rocks. I have always enjoyed the hike from the picnic grounds up to the James Marshall Monument which overlooks the river where he discovered gold. Watch out for the poison oak though!

This is an old postcard showing the main street of Coloma, which is now Highway 49, when it was still dirt. Notice the old gent by the side of the road. I like to imagine he might be James Marshall.

The site where Sutter's Mill stood now has a rock monument. It sometimes is beside the river, sometimes in the river, since the river changes course every so often. Not as often now since they built the Chili Bar dam in the early 60's.

This is an old postcard showing Marshall's cabin, where he lived while working at the sawmill. Later he moved to Kelsey where I live, and lived in a cabin very similar, and about as dilapidated. He did not get rich from his discovery. But he did become famous.

Rafting is a very popular sport in Coloma. Hard to see in this photo how a raft would get through here. At the time this photo was taken, in 1970, rafting had not yet become a common recreational sport.

This is an old postcard showing one of the old Coloma bridges. If I drive to Coloma from my house I have to go across a great old one lane bridge (sharing it with tourists) before I can get to the little town.

This is the replica of the sawmill built by Sutter. It is just upriver from the actual site and built out of the river path so that people can walk around and on it. Marshall discovered the gold nuggets in the mill trace while working to cut lumber for Sutter to build his fort in Sacramento.

This is an old photograph of a bank and a store built and used by Chinese laborers. The Chinese were awesome workers in the Gold Country and an important part of early California history.

All through Coloma there are various plaques and monuments, old buildings, history abounds. It is fun to walk through and explore everywhere.

This is an old photo of the Bell Store, which still stands in Coloma. It is a wonderful old brick building. Trees of Heaven grow inside where merchandise used to be stacked.

This is my son at the picnic grounds in Coloma 1973. I have taken his daughters to the same place for picnics. It is a special piece of Gold Country heaven that I am happy to live close to. I hope you enjoyed our visit.

Then And Now #57 Jolly Time Popcorn

It's Jolly Time! The popcorn, seen here in an advertisement from 1954:

And a black and white ad from 1967:

And, of course, the "Now" - here we have the lighter microwave version. I've got to admit that my favorite kind is still just popping plain old regular popcorn in my old popper with oil, and then pouring (real) melted butter over it. And salt, naturally.
Daddy used to make his popcorn with parmesan cheese - and that's really good, too!
How do you like yours?

But The Fire Is So Delightful

Even if the weather outside isn't frightful, it IS cold. So, go ahead, you choose any one of these delightful settings (all from Better Homes and Gardens magazines, by the way) like maybe this one from 1967?
from 1969:

1968:
or 1965?
Like I said - you choose - and I'll be right there sitting by that fire with you.
They all look pretty inviting to me!
Anybody have a time machine handy?

My Favorite Things

Well, I truly hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Christmas! We surely did. One of my/our favorite things was our time spent with family, including our three adorable grandsons.
And we drove over the river and through the woods to the home of my nephew and his lovely girlfriend for our Christmas day dinner:

Stephen, our host, who was also the birthday boy on the 25th, received "The Beatles: Rock Band" from his mom Lori - and oh, we had a blast with that!
I haven't ever done anything like that before, and I never wanted to stop singing! But I did give somebody else a turn occasionally - like when I took these pictures! It was the most fun EVER. And we also played a game called Catch Phrase, which was a real kick, as well.

Take a look at their backyard lemon tree! We ARE in California, after all! I sense a lemon meringue pie in my future:
Favorite things in the gift category? My calendars:
Wonderful books and a gorgeous floral magazine holder:
Oh, yeah, and some fuel for my chocolate addiction. What's that you say? Diet? What diet? I am sure I have no idea what you're talking about....
I'll take my cue from Scarlett and think about that tomorrow. After all, tomorrow is another day!
Right now I am just going to enjoy the glow of the tree, and curl up with a blanket and a good book.
And maybe some hot chocolate.

My Daughter Is Married!!

Gold Country Girl Lori reporting with some family photos.
My daughter Amber got married recently. Here are a few wedding photos. We had a very small ceremony with immediate family members. We will have a larger celebration next year.
Amber and Bobby signing paperwork:

The "Just Married" photo!

The family, a his, mine and ours blend, Amber and her son Robby, Bobby and his son Bobby Jr. and a "Bun in the Oven" as they say, they are having a little girl.

A closer view of Amber and Bobby, the happy couple!!

Amber's Brother Stephen, girlfriend Nicole and father Steve.

Their beautiful cake at the celebration we had at their home!!!

It was a very special day.

Merry Christmas Trees!

A very Merry Christmas to you one and all!
Today, I am simply sharing some of the trees in our home this year. My small white one, which is in the window of the front (guest) bedroom. It looks pretty even when the drapes are closed behind it:
But maybe prettier when they are open:
Sparkly peeks through the branches of our big living room tree:
(Because I didn't get a good picture of the whole tree!)
I decorated one of my wire trees all in pink this year, and it sits atop the dining room buffet flanked by two smaller tinsel trees with glow-in-the-dark icicles on them:

Here's wishing you the merriest of days!!

More Vintage Christmas - Because I Never Tire Of It..

First up - my latest framed antique postcard - I still love doing this!
Itty bitty Shiny Brites - they are a bit smaller than a marble. And another little package of minis, too:
Like so many of you out there, I love the graphics on pretty much any old Christmas box!
And another box that holds Christmas bells. I put all of mine on a miniature tabletop tree this year- they look so pretty.

These Paragon ornaments are favorites of mine. I found four boxes of them in pristine condition:
I have shown you most of my calendar tops before (search this blog for calendar tops if you don't remember them!), but I never showed these Christmas ones. This church is lovely, and the gold really appears to glow in the windows:
And this one? Well - the beauty of this Nativity scene speaks for itself. It is one of the largest I have ever seen, and it has a place of honor every year. It is absolutely stunning:

So, that's it - just some of my favorite vintage Christmas things that make me smile.