Who? Hooty Whooo!

I must say that I am TOTALLY digging this fabulous vintage owl bank I won on eBay recently.
He's simply the coolest.

A Sweet Little Miss And The Gift Of Friendship

The love we give to and receive from family and friends really is truly one of life's greatest gifts, isn't it?
My two best friends forever, Marcia and Debbie, came over this way for the weekend, and we had such a wonderful time together! I was incredibly lucky to get all of the days they were here off from work (without asking!), so I was able to spend a lot of time with them. They stayed at the historic City Hotel in Columbia, which is run by Marcia's cousin Jackie and her husband. I had the pleasure of spending time with them, also.
We had dinner one night at
Talulah's in Sonora, which is always fantastic.
The next day we went to see "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close", (GREAT movie, by the way) and shopped a bit in downtown Sonora. That night we all went to dinner at the Diamondback Grill, which is another great place to eat.
Sunday morning we went for a long walk in and around Columbia, and then had lunch at Columbia Kate's Teahouse. We walked around Columbia and went into some of the shops until, sadly, it was time for them to head back home. And, no - it wasn't all eating and shopping - we had time to laugh and visit and relax, too, of course!
I love them so much and it was so great to have our really truly first-ever "Girlfriends Weekend!"
Hoping we have many more......

(The little lady with the gift in the photo on this post was found at Mountain Treasures in Sonora. Although I had my camera in my purse all weekend, I never remembered to take any pictures!)

What's Penny Wearing? #61 A Vintage Pink Dream

Penny truly is in the pink - and aqua - wearing this lovely sleeveless shift that I found recently. How completely gorgeous are these embroidered flowers?

I'm thinking it would make the perfect frock for a springtime wedding, or perhaps for Easter Sunday:
It doesn't fit me, so it will be going into the shop.

SO pretty in pink!

A Visit To The Cheesecake Factory

Sister Lori here with food again!!!
My good friend gave me a Gift Card for Christmas to the Cheesecake Factory. I don't live near one, so when I went back to visit her in Novato, I decided to use it for her and I to go to Lunch, she quickly agreed.

She had the Chopped Salad, no chicken, extra avocado.

I had a Chicken Salad Sandwich, salad and cup of chicken tortilla soup.
They were all delicious!!

The decor inside was beautiful!!!

Close up of the ceiling.

Of course we had to have cheesecake, but took 1/2 of each piece home for later.
Hers was Chocolate Tuxedo Cream....

Mine was Kahlua Cocoa Coffee.....

The display to tempt you as you walk in or out the door...

We really enjoyed it all and I won't be back soon, because I'm starting on Weight Watchers - oh well....

Models From The 70's - Colleen Corby

It's really difficult for me to pick a favorite among the models I have been featuring in this series, but if I were pressed to do so, it might just have to be Colleen Corby. LOVE her.
From 1962:
1965:


An ad for Bobbie Brooks, 1969:
1971:
From Sears catalog, 1968:
Gay Gibson advertisement, 1969:

And for Bobbie Brooks again:
(Most images are from my Seventeen Magazines.)
I have already decided that I will simply have to do another post featuring each of the models I've already written about previously.
Since I have found additional images of most of them, I feel the need to share them with you!
I'll work on it.

Finds in Green And Blue

Some of my nicest thrift store finds recently have been green and/or blue. Like the pretty vintage tea towel or runner, above. (I already had the blue pitcher, but they look nice together, don't they?).
I was happily surprised to find this vintage Cannon sheet, in one of my favorite patterns ever:
I have written about that pattern and it's pretty color combination before, and have also shown you this 70's advertisement:
The sheet I found doesn't even look like it was ever used, and it's a queen size flat - we may just use it on our bed this spring!
I also found this great shirt:
Isn't it a lovely floral fabric? I was SO happy when tried it on , and it fit!
This little dear, below, was an Etsy purchase from Beth. I love it:
And I also found three nice vintage linen napkins in another fabulous color combination:

Pretty stuff.

Confession: I am in love with my Screen Doors!

Good morning. Tina here.

I love my screen doors. I can't help myself. I take pictures of them like they were a member of my family, one of my animals, or important historical places of interest.
I have at least a hundred pictures of them, and that doesn't count the front screen door's first life in Diamond Springs, when I even painted it for an art class. But that is a whole story of its own, how I came to get my screen doors. I will save that for another post. Today I just want to admire them.

I designed the screen door on the front from some of my favorite gingerbread accents. I wanted it simple yet very old fashioned looking.

Over the years they have received some boo-boos. The cats (well, actually just Ishi...) have climbed the screens, so there are little holes in trails up and down, but flies are too big to get through them.

One day our Corgi, Robbi must have been bored, and he wanted to come inside, and he chewed the gingerbread trim a bit on the screen door which leads to the deck. It isn't too bad, but it is not a good look. But it is realistic... Let's face it, animals are hard on a home.

I like the satisfying SLAM! when you are coming in the house in a hurry and forget to catch the door. It echoes down the river canyon, perhaps they can hear it in Coloma.

I like the way the two screen doors are directly across from each other in the living room, so when they are open the air can just flow through. It smells so good and the room gets freshened up in no time.

I like the way they look like they are really old, and they compliment our home and make it look like it is really old too.

I like the way the door can be open, yet not open. A neighbor can peek through and yell, "Yoohoo, anyone home?", but they know someone is home, because the door is open!

I can't help it, I just love them.

Excuse me, I need to go take more pictures.

Sushi

Sister Lori here with a Sushi confession:
I was introduced to Sushi while visiting my daughter in about 2004 while near San Diego.
They had a favorite place they wanted me to try. I think I had only had it once before in about 1996 when DD's then boyfriend made some for us at our house. I don't think I was that impressed. The restaurant near San Diego, in Chula Vista, was Yokozunas,[which I see has now changed to Yokoz and from the reviews may have changed a lot!!!!] Sushi Bar, and there began my obsession with it!!! I thought it was wonderful!!!!
Back near home, in Fair Oaks, we have a great place to eat sushi at Mikuni's. On rare occasions we get to eat there.
Now, there is a great sushi Restaurant in Placerville called Amerikan Ichi. It rivals the other two and we are very happy to have them close by.
I took my son and his girlfriend there to celebrate their December birthdays recently.
Here is a photo of the two rolls I ordered, I don't remember the names, just that they were delicious!!!!
Of course, I am not a Sushi connoisseur, I just like what I like!!!!

This is the decor on the end of my plate, only had my cell phone for a photo.

My son and his girlfriend had the 'all you can eat' and this was their rack full. I didn't get very good photos, they looked so beautiful. It is almost an art form.

Oh, it was so good, I took home a little leftovers for the next day, yummmmmmmmmm!!!!!

No, No, Nanette

I found this great souvenir theater program from a production of "No, No, Nanette" at a thrift store in Folsom:
I love the fabulous art deco styling! This production was presented in Washington in the 70's. Don Ameche, Evelyn Keyes (from "Gone With The Wind" and Ann B. Davis were members of the cast.
The program cover is so gorgeous that I promptly placed it into a frame and hung it on the wall.

The smaller, regular hand-out program was still inside, as well.
I only have a couple of pieces of sheet music from this musical.
"Tea For Two" is probably the best-known number from this musical comedy. (You know it, don't you?)

"I Want To Be Happy" would be the other most popular tune:

"I want to be happy, but I won't be happy till I make you happy, too.
Life's really worth living, when we are mirth-giving, why can't I give some to you?"
Here's wishing you happy times and mirth today!

A Football Post

Sister Lori here with a football post on a big game Sunday:
I have enjoyed football for a long time. It probably goes back to high school where I was on the Cheer Squad and had a boyfriend who played. You needed to understand the game to know when to sound off the correct cheer.
Then, years later, my son was involved for 8 years, 4 years on a Jr. team and then another 4 years in high school, at my same alma mater.
I really still enjoy watching a game.
In 2003, my son's Senior year of school, he was turning 18 at the end of his last football season. He really liked the Raiders, so we bought tickets to a game for his birthday. The plan was for all of our family to go together. I had been diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer right before and after 3 chemo treatments, became too ill to make the trip. My daughter's boyfriend went in my place. I am cancer free now, but always was sorry to have missed the game.
This last December, 8 years later, my son treated me to my first NFL Raiders game:

We drove to Concord and took the Bart,that was an experience!!

It takes you right to the Coliseum. Here is the overpass from the train, early in the day. We were early to tailgate party with his good friend who is a major Raiders Fan!!!

This is our little tailgate party set up:

Greg owns a lot of Raiders gear, he even works at a Raiders sports store.

Our food and drink table, Greg barbecued chicken wings, steaks and bacon wrapped scallops!!

I thought our seats were pretty good, and I enjoyed the Raiderettes halftime Jingle Bell show!!

They light a flame in honor of owner Al Davis:

An action shot of the game:

It really was a pretty good game and they were ahead for a while, then in the last minute, which happens a lot, they lost. Oh well, I had a great time. It was a sunny day. However, the Bay area has fog quite often and it was there that day and made it somewhat cold.

Of course, when you leave (everyone at the same time), the Bart overpass is quite crowded, however I thought we would have to wait much longer than we did, so I was impressed.

A long and tiring day but it was great fun!!!!