And this cute little girl in pigtails sure seems to like it! (Thanks to Cat at The Vintage Housewife for kindly letting me use this image.)
An old linen calendar in pristine condition. It was rolled up tightly and stuck way in the back in the cupboard above the refrigerator. I imagine it has been there since 1964. That might sound weird to you, but please understand that we do not use this cupboard! Only stuff we nearly NEVER use is stored inside. I have too many decorative things sitting on top of the fridge in the way, and I need a ladder to see all the way into it! 
Previously, I had only used a step stool, and never got high enough up to see this sitting in the very back! This calendar will be accurate again for the year 2013. It's so pretty that I decided to hang it up anyway. The only problem with it is, it's not something I could sell because it has our last name printed on in the center! Apparently, you could send away for it and get it personalized. I suppose I could make something out of it - a bag or a pillow, maybe? But I'm not sure I want to cut it up.
A lot of them were still in their little original envelopes - and my husband even remembers who nearly everybody was from their first names signed on the backs.
Presenting beautiful Barbie in her "Movie Date" dress. I thought the orange clutch was a nice addition:
The photo of the dress below is from Barbie Fashion Vol.1, 1959-1967 by Sarah Sink Eames - a fabulous book to have if you are a Barbie collector.
Watch for upcoming posts featuring more pieces from Barbie's wardrobe (or, more precisely, from inside this carrying case!)
I am starting with a stained glass panel I purchased at a garage sale. It is of a lovely blue iris.
These lavender beauties grow on the west side of our home. Once there was a large "digger" pine tree shading them. They like a lot of sun, so when it was cut down they took advantage of the extra light and have bloomed well ever since.
Our "Gold Country" Dad loved iris. I think it was the ease in growing, and the mostly deer proof leaves that he liked the most, but I also think he just loved them because they were beautiful and colorful.
Daddy planted them all down the driveway, on the east side. One particular golden iris was a cutting from the garden of a lady who lived on Sacramento Hill in Placerville in an old home. He had delivered some furniture to her, and it wasn't easy, the house was only reached by many steep steps. He was proud of that iris, I remember him telling me it was worth $20 when she first bought the flower.
This is another patch on the west side of our house. Iris like to have well drained soil, so with our clay soil, it helps to have rock outcroppings around to break it up and help the water drain away.
Oh, the colors are so striking. May is a lot more fun with iris around.
The stripes on the bottom three petals, which are called falls, stand out like a zebra's coat. The three rising or upright petals are called standards.
This patch of iris is on the east side of the house. On either side of a large patch of deer brush, we have planted iris. This is the north side patch.
Here you can see the beard which is yellow. The beard goes down the middle of each fall.
The white iris is such a pure form of white it seems to glow in the dark.
This is the patch on the south side of the deer brush. It was a lot better looking about a week ago before we had a large wind and hail storm. I knew I should have taken my pictures earlier!
The blue iris is a most fascinating shade.
Iris grow from thick underground stems called rhizomes. They are planted just under the soil with some parts above the soil. You should separate them every three to five years. They will bloom better that way. The rhizomes do not like to be close to manure, so if you fertilize, make sure it is not touching them.
After heavy winds, the stalks sometimes fall to the ground. It is interesting to see how the flowers still try to keep their heads up in the direction of the sky. We usually only pick the fallen flower stalks, but that is still enough to have enormous bouquets.
The bearded iris have very sturdy sword shaped semi-evergreen leaves. Deer do not seem to care for them. They might take a taste when they are fresh and new, but that is it.
There are many flowers on each stalk, so after they are picked, they keep blooming for quite a while in the bouquets. They have an interesting scent, which I personally don't care for, but it isn't offensive, just not a favorite.
This last picture shows one of my favorite colors, a lovely brown, which is growing near my garage door. 
Right now it is storing useful crafty type supplies for me.
But in my quest to search the store for it, look what else I found! The matching pencil holder! It was in an odd spot, too - not with the box it matched, not anywhere near it.
The yellow platter in the next photo is one of my more recent acquisitions. I love the small yellow dinner plates, too. And I rounded up some of my yellow creamers for this photo. You remember my creamers, don't you? I will devote another post to them one of these days:
Black and green creamers on parade here. ( Two of those small creamers on the left are dark green.) See that stack of bowls? I bought those in Jackson, California at Dandelion Days years ago. They are one of my favorite sets. We use them every day. I happen to have a lone butter pat that matches that striped individual creamer I use as a toothpick holder. You might not even want to get me started on the butter pats. I went a little crazy on them, like I did the creamers.
