More Recent Finds

I love pretty vintage tins; they're both useful and good-looking, and I picked up this butter dish and trivet, also:

I found not one, but TWO of these Tri-Chem craft tins!

A talented gal named Jan made this ceramic owl wind chime - isn't it great?

I also found a pretty floral hooked rug - I'm guessing this is vintage - from the 70's, maybe. Most likely, it was made from one of the kits:

The colors are prettier than they look in my pictures:

More aluminum tumblers for my collection, and a cute card:

This will look nice on a Thanksgiving table:

This purple runner, below was hanging with the costumes in one of our local shops. It's 11&1/2 feet long and 2 feet wide. I think it's better suited for household use rather than as a costume. (?) I plan to use it on a table, and I even found some woven placemats that look very nice against it:

"Construct-O-Straws" - I had never heard of this game before:

And one more little find....

...that I thought would look better filled up, so the next time I went to Dollar Tree, I got what I needed:

A suitcase full of Smarties - perfect. I'll travel with them any old time.

What's Penny Wearing? #80 Fritzi Of California

I found this cute vintage dress from the 60's at a thrift store:

It's from "Fritzi Of California", and it's a jersey-knit sort of fabric with a groovy abstract pattern:

I like it.

And, it actually fits me!

Models, Revisited - More Of Cheryl Tiegs

More of Cheryl Tiegs today - and this one is especially for Tina. The last time I wrote a post about Cheryl Tiegs, she mentioned a picture from a magazine that she had torn out and saved years ago - and I was so tickled when I found it!! Here it is, below, a 1968 advertisement for Carefree Tampons:

This one is an Almay ad, as you can see:

A close-up from an ad for Orange Blossom Diamonds:

And just one more - California Girl, from Clairol:

All of these are from a 1968 Seventeen Magazine in my own collection. 1968 - precisely the year Tina thought it was. Good memory, Sis!. Love 'ya! (You can click on the "Models" label at the bottom of this post to see all of my posts about my favorite models from the 60's and 70's.)

More Art from Ethel Phegley

Good morning. Tina here. Hope you are enjoying fall as much as I am.  

In November 2009 I wrote a post on Ethel Phegley's painted tiles with scenes from El Dorado County, the link to that post is below.

http://goldcountrygirls.blogspot.com/2009/11/ethel-phegleys-painted-tiles-of-el.html

A  reader and former El Dorado resident named Nancy emailed me a few months ago and sent pictures of a tile and two paintings she had inherited from her father when he passed away a couple of years ago. She also told the story of her memories of the tile, which I am going to include in part in this post.

Below is Nancy's tile, painted by Ethel.

This is Nancy's story:

Ethel was a neighbor or friend of my grandparents.  I don't know how Ethel came to give Grandma the oils, but here's what Grandma told me about the tile: 
My grandparents lived out on a ranch in Smith Flat in the late 1930s and into the 1940s. There, they raised my father and his sister, and raised turkeys for sale.  The ranch had a round barn.  For some reason, Grandma always loved that round barn. At some point, the family moved to town.  I take that they lost touch with Ethel.  Even later, Grandma and Grandpa were perusing artwork at the county fair. Grandma spotted the tile of the round barn and immediately recognized it.  She told me that she was so surprised to see that it had been painted by Mrs. Phegley, but so pleased to have it as a remembrance of her favorite place.  Mrs. Phegley labeled the back as being the "Round Barn Hanaford Ranch." I always enjoyed seeing the vibrant colors of this tile in the morning light, as I sat at Grandma's kitchen table waiting for Grandpa to fix his famous (and favorite) home-made sourdough pancakes.

I really love this painting, above, by Ethel.  I am going to be driving up Highway 50 on Friday, and I will be looking forward to beautiful views of the Sierras just as she has depicted here.

And if you are craving a restful trip to the sea, imagine yourself enjoying the warm sand next to the Pacific.  Can't you smell the salt and seaweed?

Since I wrote my post on Ethel's tiles, I found out a bit more information about her.  She was a member of the Placerville Shakespeare Club and passed away in the 1970s.  I wish I had met her.

I hope to find more examples of her art someday.  Thank you to Nancy for sharing her story and paintings with us!

Nice Finds For Fall

Just popping in to share some of my recent thrift finds, many of which are in nice fall colors - orange, brown, yellow, gold.... This gorgeous set looks just fine on it's own:

But perhaps even nicer with something in it, right?

A couple of nice Pyrex pieces:

A pretty ceramic tile in terra cotta colors:

A chocolate-brown teapot and a cute 70's vintage potholder:

Glassware in a golden amber hue is always lovely, too:

That's all for today; I'll try to share more soon.

No, I Shouldn't

So, maybe a good Weight Watcher shouldn't really be having something like this for breakfast. But the other day, I did. And I don't do it very often. And it was good.

And it was pretty. And I enjoyed it. And I am not sorry. The end.

Cute Disney Calendar

I found this adorable calendar at JoAnn Fabric and Crafts last week. I'm sure it's available all over. (From Day Dream Brand.)
My favorite illustration is this Mary Blair one:
But they're all cute!


The last one, below isn't from the calendar - it's from the It's A Small World sheet music, circa 1963:
Gee - can you tell I have been dreaming of going to Disneyland?

A Visit to El Dorado California in Postcards

Good morning. Tina here on a beautiful late summer morning. The weather has cooled some, and I am very thankful.  Let's take a postcard tour of the town of El Dorado, California, in El Dorado County.  This town was once known as Mud Springs, and has a lovely creek running through town still.

Pastel colored shot of Main Street looking West.

A bit closer to town, in the center to the left is where the post office is now, and just beyond is the creek. Notice the ditch and bridges on the right. You can tell this Main Street probably had a problem with flooding fairly often.

Here on the right if we use our imagination, we could see a few Harley's parked outside of a local favorite, Poor Red's, home of the Golden Cadillac, one of those drinks that masquerade as a milk shake and sneak up on you (especially after two or three... LOL)

Here above we are looking East and on the right is the bridge over the creek we saw above.  And below another shot of that bridge and children enjoying the shade of a huge willow.

Notice the reflection in the water.  Bet there are pollywogs and salamanders in there too.

One of the old buildings now long gone, this would have been on your right if you were looking West.

The Southern Pacific Train Depot and engine.  There are now train rides in El Dorado on most Sundays, and a replica depot has been built.  Notice the old school on the hill behind.

I have a fondness for old schoolhouses, having been lucky enough to attend one when I was in first grade.  I can imagine sitting under that tree eating my lunch.

 Another shot of the school and some of the little students.  Notice the open window in front. I bet it got hot in there sometimes.  Let us out so we can go see if we can catch a frog in the creek!

A simple building for a church.  I wonder why there are two doors? Sinners in one, perfect souls in the other?

With that mystery unsolved, we will leave our little town for now.  If you want to visit El Dorado, it is about 5 miles South of Placerville on Highway 49.

Butterflies Are Free

Free? Yes - well, at least this first one was. Such a lovely little embroidered applique! It was included within a wonderful box of goodies I received from Shara over at the "Monkeybox" blog - because I was the lucky winner of her giveaway! (More about that in an upcoming post.)

The next scan is a lovely butterfly scarf I found at a thrift store. Not free - but pretty close! It was a mere fifty cents:

And the last one, below? I must confess that it was not free, either. But it was inexpensive - a recent purchase from Etsy. Made by Counterpoint, one of my favorite companies; I'll never stop loving this stuff from the 60's and 70's:

And look at this riot of color that adorned the package it was sent in:

Wishing you a Monday full of butterflies and rainbows of happiness!