Birthday Books (Five Months Later)

I never had a chance back in October to write about my birthday, because I was too busy at that time, but I was perusing some photos, and I decided better late than never, so here goes:
First of all, my friend Robbi had given me these dear little birthday blocks in their original package, but I had to take them out so I could display them, along with the cute little celebrating kitty-cat ornaments:

My husband always asks me what I want - and this was one of the things I mentioned, so he got me a copy of the vintage Peter Max book, "Love":

And then my sister Tina got me this one, "Peace", and now my collection of four is complete!
 ("God" and "Thought" complete the set.)

 These little books are fabulous, and I'm delighted to have them all, now.
Peter Max is one of my all-time favorite artists.
Here's just one example of the pages inside:

And Lori gave me this Little Golden Book, "I Can Fly" with illustrations by the fabulous Mary Blair - another long-time favorite of mine.
She had found a great selection of vintage  Little Golden Books one day when we were at a thrift store together, and she remembered that I was incredibly envious of this particular one, an "A" edition.

 The illustrations are an absolute delight:

 So, although my birthday was months ago - and of course I said thank you at the time, thank you again, all of you - these are all true treasures to me!

June From "The Year Around Book", And Happy Father's Day!

I nearly forgot that I had planned to share the pages from my vintage "The Year Around Book" with you each month.
Here is the page for June:

What a sweet image to celebrate Father's Day!
"We love our Daddy and we show him how much".
Happy Father's Day to all of the dads we know, and here's hoping that you have a wonderful day filled with love.

(Illustration by Jerry Pinkney from "The Year Around Book", seen below, written by Helen Jill Fletcher.)

Welcoming May With A Page From A New (Old) Book

I found a (new to me) vintage book a couple of weeks ago, and I've decided that I will share each month's page (or pages) with you, similar to my "Mr. Jolly's Sidewalk Market" and Zodiac calendar monthly series of posts I've shared in the past.
We'll begin today with May and continue through April of next year.
Without further ado, "May" I present:
 Happy children dancing around the Maypole....

From "The Year Around Book", published in 1965 by McGraw-Hill, Inc., written by Helen Jill Fletcher and featuring the wonderful and colorful artwork of illustrator Jerry Pinkney.

I found it at a thrift store and it was more than I am normally willing to pay for a "thrifted" book! They had looked it up, of course , and yes - they do sell for more online than what I paid.
The illustrations "had me at hello", as the famous movie line goes, and they are precisely what convinced me to bring it home.
(Not too happy about Craig Watson's name on the cover, but what can you do? Hopefully he'd be happy to know someone else is enjoying his book all these years later.)

A Single Illustration By John Alcorn, Simply Because I Love Them

I've written before about my love for the artwork of John Alcorn (see this post). I found another of his illustrations in a Seventeen Magazine (1967) recently and just snapped a photo of it:

His unique style completely captivates me.
Just wanted to share it.

I Framed It: A Valentine Cover From 1927

I love the artwork by Hazel Frazee on the cover of "Child Life The Children's Own Magazine" from February of 1927:

I got lucky, and I managed to find a pink frame at a thrift store that actually worked very well for this print.

Which cake will you take?
The one on the left - or the one on the right - from this sweet little baker boy?
Which ever one you choose, I'm sure it will be right on "target".
So cute!

Time For The Sagittarius Calendar

It's November 23rd, and time to turn over a new calendar page on my old calendar!
I love this one!

And, as always, I had to find colorful things to clip on up above it:

Close-up on the array of items I chose this time:

And the calendar itself:

From my vintage 1970 Zodiac calendar, printed by Determined Productions, with artwork by the talented team of Bruce and Ann Butte, and mine, all mine for the past 45 years.
Have I already told you that I LOVE it?
Oh, yes, I believe that I have.

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 Fat Cat Books

First of all, let me begin by saying that I have been working on collecting these fabulous vintage coloring books for a good long while  - WAY before the current adult coloring book craze or phase!
(I don't imagine you remember the posts I wrote back in 2008 and 2010 about the vintage Betty Schaffner book I've had since the late 1960's? If not, you may enjoy going back to read the first one and the second one.)

"The Fat Cat" series of books written by Karen Whyte and illustrated by Donna Sloan - which I find absolutely delightful, by the way - are from the 1970's.
I have only been able to find copies that have some pages inside which were colored back in the day by the  original owners.
We'll start off with "Fat Cat's Cookbook":

And we have three of the pages from inside, starting with a charming barnyard scene:

Bees and butterflies:

Exotic birds:

Here is "The Fat Cat Coloring and Limerick Book":

And a partially colored page from inside of that one:

And, last of all today, is this one - "Fat Cat's Craft And Coloring Book":

This one has some of the pages colored either completely or partially, as well:

Most of the colored ones inside the books that I own were done very neatly, which I appreciate very much!

I plan to finish the ones that weren't completed:

I think it will be fun!

I think the designs and artwork in these books is simply sensational.
I love them.
(These books were published by Troubador Press.)

Let's Welcome October With Mr. Jolly, Shall We?

Since it's the first day of October, I decided to share this page from Mr. Jolly's Sidewalk Market (by Laura Jean Allen), even though in this two-page layout, Mr Jolly Says "Oh, dear! It's Halloween again!".
No, it isn't Halloween yet - but as far as I'm concerned, Halloween starts on the 1st and ends on the 31st, so it's at least the Halloween season.
Kids in costumes walk along the street while the women wonder what they should fix for dinner tonight and breakfast in the morning.
After all, we should plan these things so that we will know what we need to buy from Mr. Jolly!

Witches and goblins are out and about, as the Jack O' Lantern tries to scare that sweet little kitty cat:

And, just for fun, I wanted to show you this illustration, below, which was done by the same artist, Laura Jean Allen - more witches!

It's from this cookbook dated 1955

You can see her name here on the title page:

And here are two more great illustrations from the cookbook:

I like her style; it's quite unique:

So, Happy Halloween (season) to you all!
Let's enjoy our October, shall we?
(I am just hoping for cooler, more autumnal weather.
It doesn't feel like fall to me when it's still very warm.
 It'll get here, I know it will.....)

Finally, A Salmagundi Of My Own

The other day I made a quick run to one of my local thrift stores.
I almost talked myself out of going, but it had been a little while since I'd hit that particular one, so I went.
As often happens to me, when I started looking around the first thing I found was something that I believe was placed there for me alone to discover.

I have wanted one of these vintage Whitman's Chocolates Salmagundi tins for at least 35 years.
 Tina has a couple of them, and I have always admired them:

Here are a couple of vintage 1920's advertisements for the Whitman's tins:

 Salmagundi , "A Medley Of Good Things".

The Salmagundi tin features the artwork of Alphonse Mucha, one of my favorite artists.
 In fact, every single year, I purchase one of the Alphonse Mucha

 calendars from Pomegranate Press to hang above my desk.
The lovely image below just happens to be featured for September:

The one pictured below is "Zodiac",  and very similar to the one on the lid of my candy tin - it was used on a  "La Plume" calendar in 1897.
I don't imagine Mr. Mucha would have ever thought that his artwork would still be gracing calendar pages 118 years later.
Ah, but it is - and deservedly so:

The price on my vintage tin was $1.99 - but I had a full stamped card worth $5.00 off that I was able to use on my purchases that day, so, basically it was free.
Perfect.
 Finally, a tin of my own, and at the best price ever.
Just sitting there at the thrift store waiting for me.
They didn't know that it should have probably been in their "special" area instead of out on the floor with everything else.
The people there did not think it was special - but I do.

Oddly enough, I discovered later that same day that there is an Alphonse Mucha
exhibit at the Carnegie Arts Center in Turlock, California!
 Turlock is only about 55 miles from here, and you can bet that I am going to do my very best to make it down there to see that exhibit!
As a matter of fact, I'm pretty excited about it.

First Day For Libra

Today is the day to change my calendar again.
Here's the gorgeous image for Libra:

If you happen to be a first-time visitor, this is from my 1970 Zodiac calendar from Determined Productions, with artwork by Bruce and Ann Butte.
I have had this calendar for 45 years.

Below, you can see what I came up with this "month" to decorate the hanger that holds my calendar:

And the entire Libra  Zodiac calendar page:

One more shot of this beauty:

Oh, I love this gypsy fortune-telling woman!
I want her necklace.
The colors on this page are fantastic.
Bruce and Ann Butte: Thank you for being such talented artists!