A "New" Calendar Is Going Up

It's time to hang up a new calendar:

From 1986??
Yep, because I like it, and because it's the same as 2014.
I showed this to you when I found it, back in October of last year.
But I'm glad it's time to hang it up now, so I thought I would share it again.
Although I will kind of miss my 1963 calendar that is coming down.....
Yes, I am weird. And proud of it.
Happy New Year's Eve, everyone!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing all of you a wonderful and cozy kind of day, surrounded by family and friends.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Christmas To All.....

....and to all a good (Christmas Eve) night!
Just popping in to wish you all a wonderful holiday and sharing some random photos - Christmas decor, vintage Christmas thrift finds, and the like.
Let's begin with Santas and a Santa boot, shall we? These were all found within the last month:

 Here's an example of inexpensive thrift finds at their best - one of my pillar candle holders (that I'm obsessed with) is the perfect thing to give height to this mirrored tree. These two were found on the same day at different thrift stores two weeks ago. For less than two dollars this pairing, when placed in a window,  reflects little stars of light all over the room when the sun shines through in the afternoon - it's magical!

 The cutest vintage invitations - too late for this year,  but maybe next year I could have a party!

 A big and fabulous unopened package of Doubl*Glo brand icicles:

 It even has sweet ornaments to make inside:

 Santa and a reindeer - Dancer, I think:

 A few favorite ornaments, old and new. I already had two of the stands and I picked up another at a thrift this year. They make a lovely display with electric candles::

 I could not resist this cute handmade Santa candy dish, and I LOVE the tree topper spires. Everything you see in the photo below was "thrifted":

 Vintage ornaments on a little tree:

Here's wishing you all a very Merry Christmas bright with blessings!

From Martha - With That Vintage Look

I finally made it to a JCPenney store, and got to see the MarthaHoliday collection.
 I still miss her Christmas line at KMart, where things were very reasonably priced, and the wrapping paper selections every year were beyond fabulous. I am kind of a wrapping freak, and I still have quite a lot of that paper. I almost don't even want to use it, because when it's gone, it's GONE. And that makes me kind of sad.
But Martha has some wonderful things at JCP this year, and they were on sale for 60% off, so I picked out the three items you see below:

Two lovely glass silver finial ornaments, which I am displaying upside-down, and a very sweet bottle brush tree with a fabulous vintage look:

The finials again, with a pretty vintage tree topper I found at a thrift store:

I found these ornaments below the very next day, at a thrift store on my way home. From Martha's KMart collection, seven years ago, I think? (I have packed the box away already.)
 Hand painted with a lovely Pennsylvania Dutch design. Two boxes of them, and too pretty to pass up!

Hope you are having a bright, shiny, colorful holiday!

Christmas Cookies

I am busy today making Christmas cookies, but I just wanted to share these vintage photos.  I actually showed them to you back in 2009, but maybe you didn't see my post back then? What the heck, something this cute bears repeating, anyway.  
Christmas cookie decorating time, circa 1960. We always used to get together with this family during the holidays, and would usually have Christmas dinner at either their home or ours.
(Hmmm....making cookies - looks familiar - some things never change, right?)
 There are three girls in their family, too.
 In the pictures below, you see all three of us Gold Country Girl sisters, along with our very dear life-long friends that we do not get to see nearly often enough!
 From left to right in the top photo: Diane, Barbara, Lori, Tina, Lisa and Heidi. 
Okay, girls - let's get together and do this again some time - what do you say?

 (Since Diane is in Colorado, this may take some doing!)
 But a girl can hope, right?
I miss you guys.

A Winter Gift Of Warmth And Practicality

I found this gorgeous pair of hand warmers (mittens? fingerless gloves? I don't know - what DO you call them?) at Anthropologie.

A couple of days before, I had JUST put on my driving gloves when getting ready to leave work, when , prior to backing out, I needed to make a phone call (I always call my husband right before I leave to drive home), and I was like "Oh, right - can't finger-swipe your smart phone with gloves on...". You see, I haven't had my phone that long. And it IS winter now, and my hands need warming up!
 So, okay - take off the glove, make my call, glove back on, drive home. Fine. Whatever.
But when I saw this gorgeous pair while out Christmas shopping with Lori, I thought "Hey - that's just what I need!" And they are beautiful, to boot.
So, if you are in need of a warm and practical last-minute gift for someone on your list, and you have an Anthropologie store nearby....
I'm just sayin'.......
And Happy First Day Of Winter to you all!

A Sequined And (Heart) Felt Christmas

Just wanted to share a few things I found during the year at thrift shops for Christmas.
Vintage items made with felt and sequins, among other adornments; they are some of my favorite things.
 I found this lovely tree pin for my collection at a thrift store just a couple of weeks ago, for fifty cents:

These Three Wise Men panel wall hangings are two feet tall:

They are not perfect, but I really like them:

I found a place mat with bells:

And I was so happy when Christmas time came around so I could hang up this beauty, below.
I showed it to you when I found it, but here it is again for your holiday enjoyment:

A bright and pretty village scene, perfectly embellished and in such lovely colors!
I love the little face on that sweet snowman.

A Window At Christmastime

I wish I had taken more photos when we were at Disneyland, but it just didn't happen.
Here is one that I did get; I particularly loved this window display  on the side of the Disney Animation building in Hollywood Land at Disney California Adventure:

Have yourself a Very Merry MidCentury Modern Christmas!

Christmas Mail

I am procrastinating on sending out Christmas cards this year.

It seems redundant since most of the people who would receive them are my friends on facebook, and I connect with them almost every day.

Yet when I get the mail and there are a few Christmas cards with the lovely illustrations and sentiments and a few handwritten lines, I get a little happy thrill.

It isn't quite the same on the computer.

Best get out the stamps and get busy! Coming to a mailbox near you soon...

Apple Cheese Dessert

The 4-H book you see below is from 1968. "Helping Entertain Family And Friends".
 I discovered a recipe in it that I have had for years, and I had no idea that it originally came from this book.
There are notes inside the book that I know were made by one of my cooking project 4-H Leaders back in the 1960's, Mary Jane Battaglia. I recognized her handwriting immediately.

The book is dated 1968. I remember making this dessert in the early 1970's , also, and I always have recalled that Daddy really liked it.

I had hand-written this recipe on a recipe card , probably more than forty years ago. Like I said - I didn't remember where the recipe came from, originally.
 It's been in my little oak recipe box ever since. Here it is as printed in the book:

I decided to make it last Friday night:

A nice, warm, comfort-food sort of dessert on a very cold evening.
In fact, later that same night we got four inches of snow here in our town!

Daddy would have liked it.
(The dessert - not the snow - although he might have liked that, too.)
Oh, except for the amount of work that is often needed after a snowfall!
 Shoveling was not necessary here, but we do have a LOT of fallen tree branches. Large ones. Luckily, none of them landed on our house, but one DID land on our power line right outside the back door. We were amazed at how quickly the PG&E  (Pacific Gas & Electric Company) guys came and took care of it after my husband called them! They must have had a very busy day!

Kelsey and Placerville in the Snow

Good morning, Tina here. I wanted to share a photo by Paul Cockrell Photography.

This is our El Dorado County Courthouse on Main Street Placerville early Sunday morning, December 8th.

I spent eleven Christmases working at this Courthouse, plus a few next door at City Hall, and I just love this shot. He has some other wonderful pictures of Main Street taken that morning. 

You can find his prints at Gold Country Artists Gallery on Main Street in Placerville. You can also find him on facebook to contact him for prints.

We had snow in Kelsey also, and actually it is still here, since it hasn't gotten above freezing except for about one hour a day since Saturday. It is supposed to start warming up today.

Below is a shot of four bucks who decided to take a stroll in our yard on Saturday morning. I don't know what they told the does, maybe "It's not safe out there for you, stay under this brush and we will go check it out."

I don't think they found much food that morning.

Yet Another Colorful Vintage Christmas Card, Matted For Framing

I try to quickly look through cards when I see them at thrift stores. When I find vintage ones that appeal to me, I always pick them up, if the price is right.
I LOVE the colors on this one, below.
This is a scan, and you can't really tell that the mat I used is truly gold, which picks up gold detailing on the card itself:

I so enjoy framing pretty cards and vintage images; it's one of my favorite things to do!
I hope you are enjoying a bright and colorful - and golden - holiday season, dear readers!
Here's a photo, below, so you can see the mat a little bit better.
 I know I have just the right frame for this one around here somewhere!

Baker's Coconut Cakes # 3 The Christmas Tree

Here's another cute cake to decorate with Baker's Coconut , for Christmas, this time:

Oh, Christmas Tree, Oh, Christmas tree - how yummy look your branches!

Partridges, And A Pear

I found these fabulous hand painted papier mache birds from Mexico at a thrift store last weekend:

Paired them with a pear, for appeal:

All right, so I'm not even positive their partridges, perhaps they are ptarmigans, or even grouse.
What do you think?
All I know for sure is that I think they are pretty great.

Nutcracker - Sweet!

I spotted this wonderful nutcracker at a thrift store, and I thought he looked like a pretty nice one.

A closer inspection revealed that, yes, indeed, he is.

In very good condition:

Made in Germany, not in China or Taiwan or someplace else.

Hello, Mr Soldier Nutcracker with your bright pretty colors and your little sword still intact!

 I like him. I like that he is orange and blue, rather than another, perhaps more traditional color combination.
While I'm on the subject - I also found this VHS of Mikhail Baryshnikov in The American Ballet Theatre's production of "The Nutcracker" in a thrift store and I realized I did not have a copy, so I picked it up, too.
It had never even been opened.
 Even if I don't have time to sit and watch it, I can put it in and crank up the volume, and listen to the fabulous Tchaikovsky music, which I LOVE.

Works for me!

Serene And Bright

On the same day at two different thrift stores, I found this lovely vintage Christmas card in pink and orange and also a wooden frame painted bright orange with gold detailing:

I already had the white mat and pink card stock, so I put them all together and came up with this:

(I took the glass out for the picture so I wouldn't have glare.)
I think it turned out really lovely - a framed Mother and Child in unusual colors.
So pretty!

Happy Birthday, Mr. Disney

Walt Disney was born on this date in 1901, so I am writing this post to honor his memory.

This picture (found somewhere on the web?) was taken on the opening day of the Disney Brothers Studio:

You know, I was at Disneyland just three weeks ago today, and I miss it and want to go back already!

I'm just funny that way.
Happy Birthday, Mr Disney - I cannot believe you have been gone so long.
And yet, your wonderful legacy lives on.
And I, for one, am so very happy that it does.

Vintage Plastic Christmas Trees

Good morning. Tina here. It is getting cold in Kelsey, with snow predicted this weekend.

So I guess it is really time to start with the Christmas decorating. 

I don't know if you know this about me, but I am a vintage plastic nut. I love plastic! I have shown you my glow-in-the-dark, mostly plastic, vintage Christmas items before, here http://goldcountrygirls.blogspot.com/2009/12/glow-in-dark-christmas.html

As you will see in that post, I have a few glow-in-the-dark Christmas trees.

This year I am adding some vintage plastic trees. Most of them are about 10 1/2 to 11 inches tall.

You put them together on a center stick, and add the cute little glass ornaments to the tips.

They will make an adorable forest on top of my upright piano.

This tree has all red ornaments. I prefer the many-colored bulbs, but I will take what I find.

It is nice to have the box, to pack it away safely after Christmas.

 Below is a tree without the ornaments, ready to decorate. These trees are made by "Plasco".

Complete with instructions.

I love the little star at the top of the center piece.

This tree has more of a frosted ornament look.

Below are two different trees, called "Crystal Pine" trees.

The ornaments on these are attached already.

I would like to find little tiny tree-toppers for the tops of these.

I am looking forward to the plastic pine forest.

The only thing missing will be the scent of pine needles.

I think I will add some pine-scented candles to the top of the piano to take care of that.

Better get busy!