More From The Prolific Provensens

Alice and Martin Provensen are two of my favorite illustrators. I have written about their work before. And my love for them stems from one of my favorite books from when I was a little girl, this one:

I am actually interested in collecting any and every one of their books, but I don't come across the vintage ones too often. So, I was delighted to find a copy of The Fireside Cook Book, written by James Beard and published in 1949 at a local thrift store recently!

I simply adore their whimsical illustrations:

Aren't they great?


The dust jacket, seen below, unfolds to become a poster that was meant to hang on your wall. I consider myself lucky that it HAS a dust jacket, even if it is in poor condition.
I had already picked up the cook book, and then I found another book , also illustrated by them! Leonardo Da Vinci:
And it's a pop-up book!



I was very happy, indeed to add these two to my book collection.

A Surprise

First of all, let me tell you that we do not have a garden. And I LOVE good tomatoes. I mean, REALLY love them. And in the summer, I pretty much refuse to eat the regular tomatoes from the grocery store.
So, we go once a week to the farmer's market and I get some of my favorite little orange tomatoes. Sungold? I'm not sure what the actual variety name is. Well, I had been looking at how many I had left, and was sort of lamenting the fact that they did not seem like enough - meaning they were NOT going to last until the next market day.
So then, my husband come home with a surprise! His ex-wife had sent home these tomatoes for me!

How nice was THAT?!
Now, I don't have to worry about running out....

Jus' Whistlin'

Jus' Whistlin'
by Lawrence Hawthorne

You can make the skies look bright,
Just whistlin',
And most anything seem bright,
Just whistlin'.
Life don't hold so much that's wrong
If your heart is full o' song
And yer trudgin' right along
An' whistlin'.

Cute little vintage picture, with artwork by Lee Mero

Jus' sharin' it with you.

A Few Doors Down

The other day, I walked a few doors down to a yard sale down the street. It wasn't terribly interesting, mostly newer holiday decorations and assorted stuff like that. But I did find a couple of things I wanted. Doilies are always nice, and I didn't have any cookie stamps like these two pretty examples:
These are pretty boring I know, but I got an entire bag of these little jewelry boxes. They come in handy for me fairly often, and even at Dollar Tree you have to pay $1.00 for three. I even got a few little velvet boxes, and all of them for four bits:

A letter holder - nothing fancy, just sturdy and serviceable, which is all a letter holder really needs to be:

I found a Christmas tin, and a great little 1935 cook booklet:

"Successful Baking" has nice illustrations inside:

But this was my favorite find:

Another Peter Pauper Press Book for my collection! This is the first one I have ever found with it's original gift box. It was in a box with some other less interesting books, most of which had mildew damage. I love the illustrations found inside these special little books:

I didn't have much money with me anyway - only a few dollars, and the one little book was worth more than that to me.
Yippee!

So Small

When I went outside yesterday, Dizzy seemed to be behaving strangely. Couldn't quite put my finger on it - but it seemed more than his usual "I think I will hide down here in this gutter, and I am certain no one will see me here" deal.
But I soon saw that he was playing a game.
A game of cat and mouse.
With this little guy:

Whenever he got close to the poor petrified little thing, it would squeak and squeal in fright - truly begging for it's life.
I just couldn't help but feel sorry for the little pipsqueak - he was so cute! And he reminded me of Little Bit, from the book "So Small", by Ann Rand. I don't have a copy, but Lori still has hers from when we were little, and I remember it well.

You have to admit, this next photo is priceless; "Where in the heck did he go? He was right here a minute ago!"


I wanted to help him, but I didn't want to touch him. You see, I rescued a gopher from a cat when I was a very small child, and the ungrateful thing had the audacity to bite ME - and I had to go have a tetanus shot. So - I watched - and took pictures, and made sure Dizzy didn't get him. He was making his way up our steep rock steps - rather a feat for a wee creature:
Only a couple more to go!
Then he had to rest awhile. I can surely understand why. When I went to check on him, he had decided to take a short nap. ( I snapped this picture before he closed his eyes for little siesta.)
Oh, the perils that await one so small!
But the next time I checked, he was back down on the lowest level - he had come back down the steps! So then I had to get more involved and I helped him get to higher - and let's hope safer - ground.
Little Bit - he was just too cute to sacrifice to Diz.
Believe me, if Dizzy had really wanted him, he'd have been gone before I ever even laid eyes on him!

Fashions To Create From '78

It is not often that I find so many great things inside one magazine, like all of the examples I am showing you today from a Good Housekeeping magazine, circa 1978.
I love gingham! And these are so pretty:


Check out this beautiful shawl:
And I still have two from the 70's that were gifts, and very similar to the ones below:
Calico and crochet together? What a lovely idea....
....especially when the results of the mix are as pretty as this:
Croquet and crochet - perfect for your next Victorian garden party:

What a fabulous skirt, below! Trimmed in buttons, rickrack and crochet - love it:
And I'll close with some lovely embroidered designs:
Old-fashioned appeal will never grow "old" - in my opinion.

Rhapsody In Blue (Appliances)

With sincere apologies to the late, great George Gershwin, today we are here to enjoy appliances in blue.
Hotpoint, circa 1959:
See the lovely housewife rhapsodizing over her wonderful GE refrigerator/freezer on the wall:
And the GE "Book-shelf" Freezer, below - they really knew how to pack it in there, didn't they? (Gee, I think WE have some "bookshelves" like that.)
How about a lovely all-blue kitchen, courtesy of Frigidaire? From 1958:
Or, perhaps all you need is a nice, mobile blue Frigidaire dishwasher? Yes, we can do that, too. (From 1960)

GE ranges were used at the Pillsbury Bake-Off, 1959:
And finally, a hard-working pair in blue is relegated to garage status. Oh, well- at least they are still attractive with their blue hue. Kelvinator, circa 1959, as well:
I believe I now feel the need to do a follow-up to this post featuring appliances in other colors.
I'll see what I can do.