I LOVE Summer Fruit

I really do; I love it SO much. Nearly every morning, my breakfast consists of a nice bowl of berries mixed with nonfat yogurt. It might be boysenberries:
Or blueberries:

Or strawberries:
Or - occasionally - it might be cherries:

If I don't have any of the above (and believe me, I do my best to make sure I DO), then I might cut up a nectarine or a peach instead, and have that with my yogurt:
And grapes? Oh, don't even get me started on the grapes. I don't like them with my yogurt, but I DO eat them virtually every single day - year-round, if possible.
Yep, I'm a fruit-lovin' girl.

Hippie Blouses

I wasn't really exactly a hippie ( well, perhaps I was in SOME ways) back in the 70's, but I guess I did sort-of dress like one. I wore blouses/tops like these pretty much exclusively for quite a while. Like this green one with the lovely embroidered bodice you see below. This one must have gotten the worst of it (or the most wear?) because it's too stained to wear anymore - which is why I'm only showing you the top! I suppose someone clever could remove that bodice and make a new blouse out of it:

This one was a real favorite, as well. Made out of rayon, which may very well be my favorite fabric to wear, it's in pretty good shape except for the cross-stitch embroidered embellishments. I found it in a box at my storage unit, where it had been packed away for years, and discovered that it still fits - and I still like it! I just cleaned up the loose threads on the cross-stitching, and now I'll be getting some more wear out of it, after all these years:
I love this one, too - it was also packed away since who-even-knows-when. It's a little shorter than I like - not sure I'll be wearing it. We'll see:

I always gazed longingly at these ads in the backs of Seventeen Magazines back in the late 60's and early 70's:

I'm not sure I ever ordered one from the magazine, but I did find similar ones at shops, and even when I had to lay them away, I'd get them paid for eventually and make them mine. I think you get the general idea of the styles I loved:

Sorry these next two photos are so bad - my photography skills have improved a BIT since I took these! This one was muslin with the bright flower- embroidered details:
And this pale green one was that light sort of gauze-like cotton, with more of the embroidery I love, of course. I sold both of them at the shop:

Yes, I am older now - but I still love these styles.

Guess I always will.

The Past is Present in Placerville #1: Nick Fox House

Good morning. This is Tina, and today I am starting a new series showing Placerville homes and places which are still around. I didn't want everyone to think that we have torn down all the great old places!
I am starting with an old photograph I purchased recently, which was taken in 1919. The actual size is only 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches. Written in pencil is "House on Placerville Road, August 17, 1919". We now know this beautiful old mansion as the "Nick Fox House"
This home was built around 1895 by Mr. Fox, a Placerville saloon owner. Looks like he did well for himself! He also served as mayor when he was in his 90s. His wife Mrs. Fox was the 4th of July parade Grand Marshall in 1896. As you can see there was a lot of countryside around the home where she could raise her horses.

This is a photo I took of my Thomas Kinkade Victorian Christmas II print from 1992. It was second in a series which he did of well known Placerville homes. His Placerville images remain my favorites of his art work.

A few years ago this home was featured in the HGTV TV series "If Walls Could Talk". It was a great way to visit inside and meet the lucky owners.

On July 10th I went garage sale-ing with my friend Cindy for her birthday. Our first sale was held in the front yard of the Nick Fox House. I parked in the parking lot of what was once the carriage house, and is now a child care center. This photo was taken from the parking lot.

About 30 years ago (or more) parents of a childhood friend owned this home, and we were lucky enough to be able to visit and play there. I remember a wonderful little nook off of the stairwell where you could tuck in and read or just sit and wonder at all the people who once lived here. The fireplace contained many great old crystals and stones collected on the property.

I took this photo from the sale itself. Notice the wonderful old rock wall with the stones topping it which contain crystals. I imagine they were probably gathered from the property when the home was built. Also in the center are cattails. There is a semi-bog in front of the home. The wonderful countryside that was to the right is now filled with homes and apartments. Oh well... time marches on.

In the late 1980s I attended a tour of Placerville homes and was able to visit the Fox house again. The lady who owned it at the time had a marvelous rose garden on the left of the home. When they bloomed you could smell the garden all the way to Coloma Street.

This image from the El Dorado County Historical Museum shows the rock wall very well and also a little bridge over the boggy area. When I drive by this home at night on my own way home, I always can see into one of the downstairs rooms and there is a very large screen TV, so large you can almost see the image on it. What a contrast from 1895 to 2010. This image was printed in the book "Placerville Reflections" by Elizabeth Fairchild and Jon McCabe.

Well, that is it for today. Take a drive around your town and enjoy the buildings which have survived from the past.

(P.S. Sister Heidi chiming in with an additional photo of this lovely home that I took in 1970 - I asked Tina if I could add it onto her post. It needed to be here, yes?)

Whatcha Got Grillin'?

What do YOU like to grill?

Steak?

Or maybe hamburgers...

and hot dogs?

Fresh-caught fish?
Or perhaps some shish-kebab?

Or maybe your favorite is one of my favorites?
Like salmon - yum!

Or chicken?

Or maybe ribs?

What do you like best?
(Most of these images are from Better Homes And Gardens, either books or magazines, old and new. Except the salmon - that was our dinner.)

Summer Fun: Vintage Bathing Suit Ads

Just for fun, some bathing suit advertisements through the years:
First up: Jantzen, 1939
And Jantzen again, from 1945 this time:
Cole of California, 1961:
J.C. Penney ad from 1970, they were just "Penney's" back then:
And one more from 1970, from Label 4 Jrs:
Ready to go swimming yet??

The Mazola Salad Bowl, Circa 1939

I actually first posted about this recipe booklet two years ago, but I only showed you a few of the salads within at that time, so I decided I would share some more of them today.
Salad Plate, with stuffed tomatoes. Yes, I think I'd like this one:

Vitamin Vegetable Salad - that sounds pretty good, too (the name makes me think of Vitameatavegamin!)

What a cute idea on this plate - Cranberry Heart Salad, obviously adaptable for different shapes and flavors of gelatin:
This is pretty, too - but they kind of lost me with the artichoke leaves. I only eat them warm, not chilled.
I can tell you for a fact that I would not prepare this Tomato Jelly Ring - but if someone else did, I would certainly be willing to give it a try! Another attractive presentation:
Hopefully, you can click on the above pages to enlarge and read the recipes if you are interested.

While not all of the selections in the booklet (and there are many!) would be to my taste, I surely do appreciate the artful arrangement of various salad ingredients on a plate or in a bowl.
It certainly never hurts to make your food look nice - and salads DO sound so appealing when the weather is hot, don't you agree?

Happy Birthday Disneyland!!

I just HAD to wish my Happiest Place a happy 55th birthday today!!
To do so, I am sharing a couple of my books. First, "Donald Duck In Disneyland", a Little Golden Book published the same year Disneyland opened , 1955:
And then here is one more: "Walt Disney's Disneyland", a Whitman Giant Tell-A-Tale Book, which wasn't published until 1964. It was too big for my scanner - sorry for the not-so-great picture of the cover!
And a few pages from inside:



Disneyland, Disneyland, how I love you!!
Wish I was there to celebrate the day.
But then, I ALWAYS wish I was there!

Thrifted Books

I have found so many books at the thrift stores and yard sales lately that it seemed they warranted their very own post! Vintage cookbooks:
Vintage craft and Christmas books:
More cookbooks and a great bird book:
Newer cookbooks - I already had a hardbound copy of Mrs. Fields, I think , but it was either a dime or a quarter or free, and that middle one is a fabulous Hallmark Christmas book. I have been lucky to find a few of those. I would have wanted to buy them new at the Hallmark store when they came out, (but I didn't), and I'd certainly rather pay a dollar or two than twenty! And the Weight Watchers book just happened to be one I didn't already have, as well:
This one was a more unusual find - at the Waste Management Store. Do you remember Ronald Searle's artwork? He did a LOT of caricatures for TV Guide covers back in the day.
I have also found his illustrations in the vintage Holiday Magazines that were here in the house.
Quirky, and they appeal to me. Another book for the old library-that-doesn't-exist-in-our-home-but-REALLY-should!!