Brief Aprils

I found this lovely book of poems awhile ago (I THINK it was at a thrift store), and I have written about it before. But, as the month of April comes to a close, I thought I would share one of the poems found within it's pages.

April Is Forever

I once thought April was a transient dream -
A filigree of stars across the night,
One brief still moment, shadowed as a beam
Of broken moon-mist, trailing plumes of light.
I held her briefness close; too close to know
That jealous guarded hours will not stay;
Then one green dawn I felt her presence go,
And saw white dogwood petals drift away.

In that frail hour my eyes felt stinging tears
For wistful flowering where my youth had lain;
One star shone down, brighter than the years,
Through all the silver avenues of rain.
And then I knew I held a dream apart -
That April is forever - in the heart.

By Edith Hope Genee.
What an absolutely beautiful poem.

Happy 90th Anniversary To Better Homes And Gardens!

I could not let April get away without bestowing my heartiest congratulations on a magazine that I LOVE. Better Homes And Gardens Magazine celebrates their 90th anniversary this month.
I collect the vintage issues, and they are threatening to run me out of my home. But, I simply cannot get enough of them.
From 1929:
The 1930's:
1941:
The fab '50's:



The 1960's:

And the 1970's:


And right on up to, and including the current issue - in fact, I feel as though I have been reading it for all of my life. Mother used to get it, and I absolutely remember reading it and enjoying it when I was young. I have been a subscriber for at least three decades and I still thoroughly enjoy each issue.
I will never stop reading it, as long as they keep publishing it!
All the best to you, Better Homes And Gardens - and thank you for a wonderful magazine!

What's Penny Wearing? #68 She's In The Pink

I found this simple, comfortable, and pretty pink sleeveless dress at a thrift store. It will be nice for warm weather. I like that it has pockets, too:

I also found this cute little handmade barkcloth mini-bag, sized perfectly for just my cel phone and a little cash or a credit card. I had purchased a similar one a few years ago that I am certain was made by the same person. And I paid a lot more for the first one than I did for this little cutie:
I can always change it up a bit by adding a thrift store belt and this necklace from my friend JoAnn:
Or, I could add a spot of another bright color by tossing this Irish Linen jacket over it, another thrift store find in a shade I like to call tangerine:

With that pretty jacket layered over the dress, Penny looks like she's ready for a springtime luncheon, don't you think?

Happy Birthday To Aunt Lyn

Two of my favorite people are celebrating their birthdays today! One is the Gold Country Girl's own very dear Aunt Lyn. She and our Uncle Emil live in Wisconsin, along with our cousins and all of their families. We were lucky enough to go back there for a visit in 2001, and we had such a wonderful time! I have only been able to see her two times in about 40 years, and , believe me that is not enough and I am none too happy about that fact.
The picture above is our Daddy and Aunt Lyn, taken in 1929, in their back yard in Ohio. cute! Happy birthday, Aunt Lyn - we all love you and miss you SO much!
My other favorite birthday girl today is my wonderful friend Jamie. (There are quite a few years between their days of birth!) Some of you may know her from her fabulous blog Mid Century Madness. We get to see each other much more often, since we live in the same town - but not nearly enough! Love you, J! And I hope you have a terrific day!

More Finds From The Thrift Shops

Some of my recent thriftshop finds, below - a tablecloth, a gorgeous Blue Ridge Pottery plate, a nice set of storage jars, and another restaurant china platter:

This is such a nice Case file cabinet, with a locking cupboard on the side - and I was happy that it still had the key:
I found a couple of crocheted doilies, this wooden frame into which I placed a Little Miss Muffet storybook print, two old Childcraft volumes, and a vinyl box:

I picked up a shutter and also a nice crewelwork stitchery picture:

A pretty vintage box of Montag stationery, and a set of four nice cotton napkins from Crate And Barrel:

I also found a Boston Bulldog pencil sharpener, below. Might seem like a weird thing to buy to some of you - but I was tickled to find it! Now I just need to find the right surface to nail it onto so that I can actually use it. And yes, I'd rather use this than an automatic one:
I'm just funny that way.

The Past is Present in Placerville No. 7: Those old High School Steps

Good morning - Tina here, and today my post is written by a new follower, Jim of Camino, who commented on the post I did a couple of weeks ago about the old El Dorado County High School on Clay Street. I had attempted to locate the mysterious steps, and Jim went looking for me because I am not getting around as easily as I used to these days. He was kind enough to send to me these photos and comments after his exploration. Below are his photos and text:

Thank you Tina for showing me how to find the steps up the hill to the old high school on Clay. Remember the photo you took of the brambles, directing me to wade through so that I might find the remains of the steps up the hill? It really wasn’t necessary to bushwhack at all to see the steps. Had you been mobile enough to leave your car & walk up the high sidewalk opposite the Blair House, your eyes could have follow the quite-well-preserved line of steps all the way up the hill.
Yup, still there since this c.1915 photo, but I could only find 53 steps.

You instructed me to to walk northward up Clay from Main Street, walk until I came to the Blair House. And so I did.
The Beautiful Blair House:

Notice the high, rising sidewalk below the Blair House:

The sidewalk continues into the brambles:

The sidewalk & high school steps intersect inside the brambles
and
!!! Voila !!!

See, Tina, being inside your car, your field of view was just below that needed to spy the steps. :0) Tall boots and a machete weren't needed at all if I had dared to climb to the old steps from Clay. But, I've been verbally chastised for trespassing private property quite enough lately. Embarrassing, and perhaps dangerous, so, instead, I walked up Grandview to what I think is public property to do my trespassing.
My gosh! Looking good after all these years. Not just crumbling remnants at all.

At the hilltop I did, indeed come across a NO TRESPASSING sign near the back parking lot of the abandoned government (I'm thinkin') building. But, heck! "I'm here!" (It would be wiser to seek permission. I don't know from where.) That's the Blair House off to the left and the top of the school steps is just beyond that piece of fence.
Dazzling photo, Jim. Gonna frame it?

And just to the right of the piece of fence...a trail, sorta, through the weeds.

Down we go......

Up we go.......

Most steps are in very good, safe, shape as shown in the top photo. The few dislodged steps directly above actually seem out of place. I'd guess the stairway continued to be used long after the school was torn down. The high sidewalk below the Blair House plus the steps might have been a handy, favorite pedestrian trek-way up the hill. The steps are not at all as breath-stealingly steep as they appear climbing to the high school in the old photos. And I counted about 20 less than the 72 steps someone boldly asserted/printed on that one postcard photo. Don't know. Things change.
And "things change" brings us to something I've been puzzling over since Tina's blog about the steps running alongside Blair House.
Notice the significant angle the steps subtend from Clay Street.

Notice the near perpendicularity of the steps as they rise from the high sidewalk below Blair House and rise from Clay Street.......
The straight line of steps angle leftward very little, if at all (???).

The Blair House also presently sits at an angle,not quite facing Clay Street, though fairly parallel to the steps. Being unable to find step remnants rising perpendicular to Clay, up a steep hill, is the reason I've looked, searched, in vain for the sight of the old high school. Tina, after finding your August 2010 blog a few months ago, stating that remnants of steps probably remain, I became rather possessed, head spinning, body pirouetting, (quite a silly mental picture, a pirouetting man on the Clay Street hill; that's why I wrote it),searching for those remnants of steps. Ha!
A couple pulled their car to the curb and asked if I was all right. "Oh, yes!"
"Are you sure?"
Betcha they thought I had wandered from the new senior apartment up the hill and gotten myself lost. Ha ha!
Anyway, has Clay been realigned or does an illusion (delusion?) have me confused? I'm thinking it's illusion, perhaps a product of camera lenses and photographer locus but, my, compare the two photos, new vs. old. Now that's some illusion!
One thing for certain. The steps pop-out at the southern corner, toward Main St.,of the present building on the hill. Either Simon Drive passes through where the southern one third of the high school stood or the entire high school was aligned such that it faced somewhat southerly. I'm thinking both.
Bulldozers shape/reshape landscapes much, much faster than nature's unhurried, yet steadfast and dynamic, pace.

Tina again - and I just wanted to thank Jim in Camino for being our guest Blogger today, and for researching this fascinating (if only to us Placerville folk) subject.

My Favorite Framed Prints # 33

Just two more examples today of some of the things I have framed recently. The first one is a very small frame I found at a thrift store - just big enough to perfectly frame an art deco playing card from the 1930's:
And I snapped the pic of this one, below, before I even finished it. I found the vintage Saturday Evening Post magazine cover (only the cover!) a while back at a yard sale and then I had a copy of it made at our print shop downtown - it will fit perfectly into my thrift store frame.

Hope you like them!

Betsey Johnson Again - More Butterick Patterns From The Past

I thought I would share some more vintage Betsey Johnson love with you today. I found this magazine advertisement which shows the items made from the pattern in the photo below it:


And here are a bunch more of Betsey's great Alley Cat designs from the 1970's.
Color blocking at it's best:

A simple summery frock:

I am in LOVE with this red coat/jacket:

Cute and colorful jumpers, overalls, patches:
I also love this midi-length coat, below:

The long and short of it - another sweet jumper:

A beautiful cherry-strewn halter dress!

And some lovely and comfy blouses:

Her designs look so perfectly right in style again today. I love 'em.

I Found Two More...

......and so now I have four!
Jamie and I walked into one of our favorite thrift stores last week, and sitting there as though just waiting for me were two more of these wonderful little vintage Disneyland souvenir plates!

One of the two I found was another of the Main Street, U.S.A. plates, but I didn't have this one:
And I was pretty darned happy to see it.
It makes me VERY happy when I find vintage Disneyland stuff!
You know - because it's stuff from My Happiest Place.