Christmas Finds, Much To My Delight!

It's so much fun to discover vintage treasures, and I have gotten lucky lately, and have managed to find some wonderful Christmas items.
Angels are one of my favorite collections, and the ones in these two first photos on my post made me very happy!
This little candle-hugger is from Fitz And Floyd, and so is the candle holder holding the candle she's hugging!

I could NOT believe my eyes when I spied this lovely trio, below!

(Because I am OBSESSED with these colorful painted angels. Whenever I find any to add to my collection, I believe my heart skips a beat.)
I also found this cutie-pie snowman bell, and the little angel alongside him:

A vintage red reindeer Dream Pet, his little red-flocked reindeer friend, and a dear little elf:

Let's all dance and sing while Santa plays the accordion!
Found him at the Vets Thrift - he's a music box:

I added vintage bottle brush trees to the lamp posts after buying this adorable pair at the flea market:

And here's another pretty angel!

Santa and some reindeer, along with vintage wrapping paper as a background:

And a papier mache box in red and green, which doesn't necessarily have to be just for Christmas, of course:

I think I paid fifty-cents for a plastic bag containing all of these special angel ornaments......

   ....  along with these birds:

(I couldn't add that bag to my basket quickly enough!)
Four more Santa mugs are always welcome in this house, especially with smiles as sweet as these:

Colorful vintage tags:

Whew!
I think that's it for today, only because I need to get this post up, and work on other things!

Lovely California Christmas Postcards Sending Greetings!

Good morning, Tina here.


As a California girl who has lived in the Northern California Sierra foothills for close to sixty years, I have always celebrated Christmas while enjoying the winter weather here. It can be warm and clear, perfect for a game of football on the lawn; rainy and blustery, best viewed from the fireside next to the sparkling Christmas tree; snowy and sharp, an expansion of white to rush through on a sled; foggy and mysterious, hiding views of our river below off and on with wisps of creeping misty coolness; or crisp and frosted, iced puddles calling to children's boots everywhere.


California vintage Christmas postcards usually celebrate our weather from the Southern California point of view, which is warm and citrus scented, colorfully flowered, and with a backdrop of lightly frosted mountains. Sounds good to me!

When winds are howling 'round your doors and frost is creaking through the floors,
just pack your grip, for nature stores a wealth for you on other shores;
Her sunny smiles await you here with all the Golden West holds dear.

The wide, warm west sends greeting, for the best of Christmas Cheer,
May the coming year be one of gold, like the orange pictured here.

Old King Cole is a cranky old soul, because he can't live out here,
for we're warmed with sunshine - don't need any coal, for Christmas or Happy New Year.

Snow capped mountains and orange grove. When I was a very little girl we lived in one of those orange groves with mountain views.

Palm trees and poinsettias. This postcard below reminds me of Santa Monica and the cliffs above the Pacific Ocean.

Date and fan palms on Palisade Drive. We painted our home a beautiful mellow green which was called Palisades Park, I love green houses and it seemed such a perfect California color choice!

Poinsettias at Christmas. The bracts which form the "flowers" only turn red when the days are short. I have a poinsettia which lives in the dining room in winter. It doesn't get a lot of light in there and will show us a bit of red by Christmas most years.

Private garden in what mansion? I will take that for my Christmas present!

Some California sunshine from 'neath her skies of blue. How I would love to stick my nose into those orange blossoms!

Our garden in midwinter. In our Kelsey winter garden we do get a rose to bloom once in a while. My son has a single blossom on his little pear tree, a little bit of nature's Christmas decorating.

California Christmas Greetings from Gold Country. Merry Christmas to all!

December, By Jerry Pinkney From" The Year Around Book"

Well, here we are eleven days into December already, and I'm finally remembering to share this wonderful illustration by Jerry Pinkney!

 Ring that bell, Santa!
Because I am totally digging that cool, colorful Christmas living room you have entered, here.
I love everything about it.
In fact, aside from the fact that ours is a "non-working" fireplace, I'd love to attempt to re-create that scene!
(From "The Year Around Book", by Helen Jill Fletcher, published in 1965.)

 I also wanted to just share a few quick photos of some Christmas items I've found recently.
Like these lovely vintage Shiny Brites:

I just adore beautiful vintage Shiny Brite glass balls, but I have so many ornaments that I simply do not have the space to store them all, so both of these boxes are for sale in our booth at Mountain Treasures in Sonora:

 The next box is a keeper for me, though  - I love the ones with stencils and stripes!
These by Franke:

 And I found this gorgeous felt and sequin wreath!

Because I can never have enough vintage,colorful felt and sequin goodness in my home at Christmas time!

Finally - Tina is back!

This will be very short. Just wanted to let you all know out there in Bloggerland that I have a new (well, new to me - reconditioned) laptop and I can finally blog again. It has been since July so I have lots of ideas in my head for posts. Watch for me again on Wednesdays!

Here is a photo from 1979 at a backyard wedding for dear friends Cindy and Joe (still dear friends and still married!)
Left to right Cathie, Chuk (rest in peace my dear friend), hubby Rich, yours truly (in my patchwork dress I made), and Janet. Molly, Joe and Cindy's dog (long gone over the rainbow bridge) in front of our feet.

"Dream Prettily": The Skipper Dream Room

When Lori came to stay over Thanksgiving, I had put some pretty "new" (thrifted, vintage) sheets on the guest bed.
I love them - but they won't fit on our bed, so the guest room got lucky:

The colors on the sheets made me think of this picture from a vintage Barbie magazine I have:
"If It's Your Own Room, Make It Pretty..." - yes, well - that goes for any other room where somebody will sleep, right?

"Any more ways to dream prettily?"
Skipper had a few ideas - and a room of her own...
"And it's a Dream!"

(I love it, myself.)

I wish I had one of these; it's adorable!

It's ready to travel, just fold it up and tote it anywhere you wish to go and play.
Hey - bring it over here, if you'd like!
I'll play with you!
Colorful and fabulous:

I adore all of the details that the designers at Mattel put into this :

Look at the furniture - and those built-in shelves!

I want pink and red built-in shelves in MY room.

(I've already got plenty of my own books and albums, LOL!)

I borrowed some of the pictures on my post today from the blog "Two Crazy Crafters".
You can

click here to see the post Lindsey wrote    
about her own treasured Skipper Dream Room.
SO cool!

More Of Those Fabulous Crewel Finds

I found this big and fabulous framed crewel, and when I brought it home, I had to move something to make room for it.
I couldn't bear to tuck it away, unseen.

I've also found some smaller ones, recently, too - like this one:

And this one:

Which make an awfully pretty pair!

And I'm not sure if I shared these back when I found them:

They are equally lovely to look at, whether individually or as a pair.
The water pump...

And the milk can and bucket:

Oh, and here is a close-up on the sweet kitty in the top picture:

And, oh - the bright flowers, too!

I found this colorful sunset scene, as well:

And one more cute little floral pair with satin bows:

But this last photo is of some crewel stitchery pictures that I did NOT buy.....

And, believe me, they were difficult to resist!

Pretty Christmas Window Displays In Downtown Sonora

Lori and I went for a walk downtown after dinner on Thanksgiving night.
I thought I'd share the photos I snapped with my phone of some of the pretty shop windows.
This one was my favorite, hands down:

I do not remember which shops most of them were, so I will add names in later on, if I can get back down there and write them down!
This one was so pretty in blue with snowflakes and snowmen:

Here are two more nice one with trees and lights in red and white and plenty of sparkle!

And this one is Antiques, Etc. - now of COURSE I remember that one!

 Close up on those gorgeous ceramic trees that I love so much:

 Sorry this one is dark, The Candy Vault:

How's this next one for "cuteness factor"?
A pretty kitty in the window at Downtown Shoes:

I'll leave you with one last picture:

This kitty (in another window) was NOT ready for his close-up.
He just wanted to sleep, and that was it.