Wishes For a Happy Halloween!

Hello there!

Here's wishing you all a terrific (and frightful!) Halloween today, with "A Spooky Song" from the same 1947 volume of Childcraft that I wrote about just the other day:

And this sweet (not scary!) black cat, below, is wishing you all "A Merry Halloween", from the front of this cute Hallmark card:

I think tonight might be the night the scarecrow walks.... don't you?? Happy hauntings!

Trick Or Treating With Betsey Clark, And That Darned Pumpkin-Eater

This adorable Betsey Clark illustration of two friends out trick-or-treating together is from a 1980 calendar.
Too cute!

And this illustration by Billie Parks for  the "Peter, Peter, Pumpkin-Eater" nursery rhyme is from a Childcraft volume, one of a fourteen-volume set published by The Quarrie Corporation back in 1947 (and recently purchased by me from a thrift store - not the set, just two volumes):

One more page - it's that notorious pumpkin-eater again - features artwork by Krystyna Stasiak-Orska.
This book, "Mother Goose Rhymes"  was published by Scott, Foresman and Company twenty years later, in 1967.
I LOVE this one!

Halloween is almost here!
Do YOU have your "pumpkin shells" ready??

The Latest Round Of Finds

One of my favorite finds from the last week or two has to be this vintage Takahashi vase I found to add to my collection:

And I found two of these painted wooden pumpkins, which are just perfect for autumn decorating:

I found a really nice vintage handbag:

And two brooches.
The flower is vintage Avon, and the little compact in the center once held solid perfume, I believe.
 The other is enameled copper, and can also be worn as a pendant:

The vintage tea tin shown in the next picture is from England, and the little leprechaun is marked "Made In Ireland":

I have wanted one of these apple parer, slicer and corer gadgets for years!
I finally found one with the right price for me at a thrift shop:

And I found a couple of great vintage Halloween costume patterns.
(Too late to try and sell them for this year, though):

And this last gentleman is a Christmas decoration
Handmade papier mache, I think he's pretty cool:

 He has a sticker that says "Made by A Junior Achievement Company".
 I just wish I had found the other two that probably belonged with him!
That's it for today!

Halloween Traditions in Vintage Postcards

Good morning, Tina here, with some more vintage postcards. These are about various traditions which were popular "way back when". 

The card above is just about the only one with a man wanting to see the future. Almost all the rest are for women. Heaven knows we women are desperate to find a man! Especially on Halloween...

A bit of planning ahead for this one, above. Make sure you have roasted a goose to get the wishbone and carved a pumpkin and saved the seeds.  Got to work in order to earn your man!

For this one you need walnuts and two beaus. Maybe she should just be happy with what she has and play the field for a while?

This one doesn't explain much, but from checking into the traditions, it appears that the yolk of an egg in water is supposed to tell you your future.

I wonder when the traditions of Halloween stopped including desperation on an "old maid's" part, you never hear anything about trying to figure out who or when you will marry in our day and age.

Above is a card that tells us to pull a root... carrot, turnip, beet???  and somehow we will know our fate. (What do you want to bet it has something with when we will find a man!)

Above and below are cards which use candle flames and smoke to either paint a portrait or spell the name of the lucky man you are going to trap with all this mumbo jumbo. 

Now, getting to the more common traditions. Below are cards using apples and apple peels to find our love.

One of the traditions is to peel an apple, without breaking the peel, and then toss it over your shoulder to see the initial of your future husband.

Another tradition was to sit in a room in front of a mirror, just before midnight. Cut an apple into nine pieces. Sit with your back to the mirror, and in the light of a lit candle, eat eight of the pieces, and throw the ninth over your left shoulder as you ask a question. Then look over your left shoulder into the mirror and you will see the answer to your question (which of course is about who you are going to marry... what else would you want to know?)

Above, seeds, apples, candles, peels, and of course the hoped for wedding ring.

Combined above, the peel toss and the candle to look into the mirror to see the man of your future.

I am not sure what is supposed to happen if you see a jack-o-lantern. You stay an old maid?

Here we have simplified the whole thing, or else she already peeled and ate her apple (they are there in the border after all...) Looks like she is happy with what she sees.

Happy at least for now, she must see that evasive perfect man,

Well, he isn't exactly handsome, but then, either is she!

I think the jack-o-lanterns are getting a kick out of all these gullible women.

Apples and candle... All is Vanity.

Hmmm, stairs added now to this equation. Hope she treads carefully.

Oh oh, she doesn't look very happy with that jack-o-lantern. Look behind!! Cute little boy...

Well, depends on what your idea of "bonny" is.

I hope all these ladies are happy with their futures.

The tricks on her, is she going to marry a mouse? But I guess it's okay, it's a fireman mouse.

This gentleman sent his lady a card hoping his face would appear! How romantic! Forget the mirror, lady, grab him quick!

I guess by now you have gotten the idea. I hope you enjoyed our look into the hopeful future of the past, written in vintage Halloween postcards.

Halloween, Around Here

I just wanted to show you some of our Halloween decorations.
Let's start with my new favorite thing - the creepiest-looking thing I've got:

I just covered another one of my lamps with a mask - and I made the eyes to insert inside.
I think it turned out to be delightfully frightful!
I don't know if you remember this one, below, that I created last year or the year before:

And bin the next photo - "Oooohh - that's a very scary costume you have there, spider girl".......

At least, I THINK it's a costume?
Or do you suppose she is in some serious trouble, there?

 I liked this skeleton guy in the foyer so much last year, I decided that's pretty much going to be his regular spot.
 He's surrounded by masks (vintage and new) - but I do wish I had gotten a string of lights to drape around all of this, as well:

These are the two additional masks I found at a thrift and added after taking the photo:

 A display on the buffet in the dining room - the masks with the wig are placed over a lamp, as well:

Here's a picture of it at night, after I had changed things around a bit:

 I had to include a photo today of my dear black corduroy cat.
I have had this little guy for at least 45 years - I am extremely fond of him.
It kind of looks as though something has him "spooked", don't you agree?

These adorable little Lucy Rigg bears aren't scary at all, only sweet:

It looks like they're surrounded, though:

 What do you think?
Trick - or treat?
I'd much prefer a treat, myself - like perhaps these pretzel rods I made using a cute Wilton chocolate mold I found at thrift store for fifty cents:

Cute, and tasty, too - always a nice combination.