The El Dorado Roses attend a Luncheon

Good morning, Tina here. 

Last Sunday I, along with seven other El Dorado Rose Association members, attended the 16th Annual Fall Luncheon held in support of the Mother Teresa Maternity Home, at the Gurnell Hall at St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Placerville, California.

It was a beautiful, almost too warm, clear day.

The attendees were met at the door by a very welcoming hostess who served a choice of ice water, coffee, mimosas or champagne. There were also some little fruit tarts. What a nice start as we waited for the doors to open!

Claudia and Suzanne met up with me at the door, dressed in their finest Rose clothing. We always include hats and gloves in our outfits. This day our hats all featured birds, since our table's theme was "Going to the Birds".

A few of us had decorated the table on Friday and Saturday and as we gathered there we had a few additions, including the ostrich feathers.

I walked around before the luncheon started, checking out some of the many tables (There were 29!) and their themes. Above is "Cat in the Hat".

One of my favorites, above, with noose napkin rings, gold pan "plates", bags of gold, and mason jar wine glasses, is "Old Hangtown".

Another favorite, since the Gold Country Girls' mom collected the Autumn Leaf design, was "Harvest Blessings".

Another "Cat in the Hat". Colorful and fun. I wonder where they found that hat!?

"No Place Like Home". Their tin man was amazing.

I didn't get the theme name of the table above, but I bet it had something to do with Hawaii or travel.

"Tea in the Afternoon".

The young granddaughter of a friend of mine from the Shakespeare Club (who was the luncheon chairman) planned and executed this table "Stick It!"  The placecards were hand stamped with gymnasts, and decorating the table were actual silhouettes of McKenna in gymnastic poses. The lucky ladies sitting there each had a "gold" metal to wear, made of candy coins.

This yummy looking table was called "Candy Land" and it had bowls of candy all over!

"Enchanted Garden" complete with fairies and moss trees and even twinkling lights.

"Froggy Goes a Luncheon" by a mother and daughter team, who just happened to be our next door neighbors for a while when we lived on Woodland Drive in 1969.

"Just Clowning Around".

"Autumn is Here", this is the table where the priests sat. Best behavior please!

"Let's Take a Road Trip", Very clever, and if I had to guess, it might be where our retired sheriff, who also helped serve the wine, dressed in a tux, sat.

I didn't get the name of the table, above, but it included a beautiful ceramic nativity set and this wonderful crocheted tablecloth.

These rather surprised and grumpy looking goldfish were in one of three bowls on the table entitled "Under the Sea"

Back at our table, where we Roses were part of the decorations with our hats we each designed ourselves, the only direction we were given was that they were to have birds on them.

I neglected to get a good shot of the plates, which were each decoupaged with a lovely bird illustration from an old book.  We also each decorated a miniature bird house.

Dianna and Sharon check out a photo.

My place at the table.

Claudia and Kathy (hidden by feather) are served ice water by Mary Kay, whose hat was decorated with an actual bird's nest.

Carol made little edible bird's nests out of Chinese noodles, and filled them with Jelly Belly "eggs".

We had fun trying to photograph ourselves and show the tops of our hats at the same time. Easier said than done! This is Kathy in my favorite hat of the day.

Sharon had lovebirds on her hat! She specifically said this is the only time she would ever wear it.

I just love this shot of Suzanne, above.

We had a great time, and enjoyed supporting the young mothers, some of whom were there with their little ones, one little girl in a polka dot dress wandered a bit, visiting and gracing us with her delightful smile.

More Of My Recent Finds

Let's start off (brightly!) with this latch-hook butterfly pillow cover, shall we?
Beneath it is an orange rug that I found, as well:

An orange vase, and a cute little cream pitcher from the 70's:

A small, original framed painting:

And I found this "Autumn Leaves" sheet music, appropriately enough.  I  think I may have a copy of the song, but not with Roger Williams on the front, I don't think?
 It was only a dime, so it didn't really matter to me if I already had it:

Two enameled copper pins - pretty little speckled flying geese:

Another small original painting. This one was not framed - but it is now:

I found three of these Hazel Atlas Clover black depression glass plates.
I was pretty tickled when I found these!

I keep finding more of these souvenir plates.
Marine World, Africa U.S.A., complete with tiger:

And Montana, Land Of Shining Mountains:

And I found a cute little handmade patchwork calico pillow, too:

And that concludes today's installment of thrift finds.

What's Penny Wearing? #112 A Weird Halloween Costume

Yes, I know it's weird.

But, I decided I wanted to try and outfit Penny for Halloween using only inexpensive thrift store finds.
And this is what I came up with:

A mask, a wig, and a dress:

I had to have some sort of a mask that I could get to stay on her.
After all, she's a wee bit like the Headless Horseman in that she has no head.
So it had to be something that would stay propped up.
And the wig just sort of "tops it all off", as it were.

She is saying "Won't you please come in......
.... you never know what sort of horrors may await inside."

Meet The Swinger

Before YouTube even existed, I remembered this Polaroid TV commercial from 1965.
 I've always remembered the entire jingle; I'm just funny that way.
"It's more than a camera, it's almost alive. It's only nineteen dollars and ninety-five...."

So, when I saw this one sitting on a thrift store shelf (really cheap), I "snapped" it up.
Call me crazy.

No matter that I have no use for it....

I have no FILM for it.....

Whatever.

It's "The Swinger!", for crying out loud.
And I just thought it was cool.
(Oh, and yes, that IS Ali MacGraw in the commercial.)

Patterns From The Past: McCall's And Raggedy Ann....Again

When I found this McCall's pattern, below (dated 1970).....

 It reminded me of  Tina's post back in 2011, where she wrote about the smock tops she made after she gave birth to her son, Josh.
Here again is the adorable photo she posted:

And she mentioned that when she found this Raggedy Ann and Andy pattern (number 2530, below) that Raggedy Ann's dress was made with the very same fabric she had used to make her cute smock top:

The people at McCall's must have been very fond of that fabric, because they also used it in the depictions on the front of not only my pattern at the top of this post, but also the pattern below, which is dated 1971:

It is quite the bright and pretty floral print - no wonder everybody wanted to use it!
"This Is A Raggedy Ann Pattern":

Now, all that's left, as Tina mentioned, is to find some of the vintage fabric in question at a thrift store! Right?
Let us know is you come across any, won't you??
(Oh, and I should perhaps mention that the doll pattern is also from 1970, rather than 1972.)

Celebrating The 75th Anniversary Of Nestle's Toll House Morsels

Nestle is marking their 75th anniversary this year "Celebrating Baking The Very Best".
I haven't found these Halloween morsels yet at my store, but I'll keep an eye out because I like the idea of using them to bake up some Halloween goodies:

 But I absolutely do feel very strongly that their Original and fabulous Semi-Sweet Toll House Morsels are, indeed, "The Very Best". (I have written about Nestle's a number of times here on this blog.):

I am one of those people that ALWAYS has at least one bag of Toll House Morsels in their pantry.
Are YOU one of those people?
I happen to have Milk Chocolate on hand, too:

And some Premier White Morsels of goodness:

Nestle is always coming up with something new!
Usually, I am compelled to try them - being the tried-and-true fan that I am, you see!

These new "Delightfulls" sound pretty good to me - Dark Chocolate Morsels With Mint Filling:

I have a box of Nestle Baking cocoa in my baking pantry, too:

So, last week I decided to make some brownies. I used a package of their "Winter" chocolate and mint morsels for those, along with pecans:

And then I decided to make some good old Nestle's Toll House Cookies this week.
 (I'm sure you already know the recipe, but if you don't, click here.)
 I had a few bags in the cupboard that needed to be used up, so rather than breaking open one of my new bags, I threw in some semi-sweet, some minis, and some milk chocolate morsels. Oh, and walnuts, of course:

I mean, I had to celebrate their anniversary, right?
Didn't I?
I mean, DIDN'T I??
(Help me out here, people.)

Zook Hex Signs

Jacob Zook The Hex Man, Paradise, Pennsylvania:

I have found quite a few of these small Hex signs at thrift stores over the years:

 Each design is the symbol of something specific:

Here is an image of the back of the postcard:

I love the bright and colorful designs on these signs!

We're here and we are hungry! Our Kelsey deer herd

Good morning. Tina here. 

We have been enjoying the last few days here in Kelsey. It rained quite a bit last weekend, and the smoke has cleared out for the most part. You can still smell it in the air just a bit, and when we have been gone from the house and walk back in later the house still smells of it, especially in the kitchen for some reason, but it is so much better! So we have had a chance to be outside more and so we are noticing the deer. 

They are all over. We have does with twin fawns, two does that seem to share one fawn, a doe who has a new fawn and one left over from spring, a few young bucks hanging around (the big guys are out there too, but they are smart and sly, we don't see them as often). 

These does and their little ones are hungry too. They think nothing of coming up to the porch or the deck. They will stick their heads through fences and railings to eat whatever is there. We have water for them up near the top of our driveway, and in the afternoon they settle down under the oak trees everywhere. 

I took the photos below this morning at about 7:00 am after I heard some strange sounds out the front door. A doe and her fawn were getting up close and personal with some of our plants. 

I am sure the deer are very glad the smoke is gone also, and thankful for the rain.
Enjoy the fall!