A "Frozen" Party

Last weekend, the special little girl in the photo below had a "Frozen" themed birthday party:

Everything reflected the theme:

There was even a game of "Pin The Carrot Nose On Olaf"!

One of the birthday girl's grandmothers brought these pretty and delicious cookies....
To heck with building a snowman, we don't have any snow, anyway.
Do You Wanna Eat A Snowflake?
(I do, and I did.)

The true highlight of the event was the surprise arrival of Elsa and Anna!

They played their roles perfectly, and they painted all of the girls nails, sang songs, taught a few little dance moves, posed for "photo ops", sat down for storytime.....

See - little girls enthralled during story time, a telling of the basic plot line of the film - entertaining and fun.
In fact, I enjoyed it as much as the girls - if not more!

 The Guest Princesses were also there for the cutting of the birthday cake - I'm so sorry I wasn't able to get a good picture of that.
Not ALL of her gifts were "Frozen" themed, but a lot of them were:

I was fascinated by them all, so I had to lay them out and take pictures!

A very lucky little girl, don't you agree?

I wouldn't mind 'helping" to play with some of these.
There was no time for that on party day.
I gave her the shirt on the right, below, and a cute pair of matching snowflake pants

Two happy little girls are seen in my last photo.

The birthday girl, who turned five, is wearing her Elsa "Frozen" dress, it even had music when you pressed a little button on it!
SO cute, and this fabulous party was definitely a HIT!
(Just like the movie - which I happen to love, as well - by the way.)

Patterns From The Past: For Spring - Simplicity 9890, A Two-Piece Dress

"For Spring: The New Two-Piece Things", we have, on the first day of spring, the lovely Shelley Hack modeling this two-piece dress, made from Simplicity pattern number 9890:

Young Contemporary Fashion, from Simplicity, (circa 1972) a "two-piece dress".
 (Also known in some circles as "a jacket and a skirt"):

I must admit, I like the version Shelley is wearing up top the best, with the black collar and cuffs added to that pretty floral fabric against a black background.
 Very pretty!

And the back of the pattern again:

What are YOU wearing to celebrate the arrival of spring?

A Few Finds With a French Theme

Just a few finds today,with a French - or, more specifically, Parisian theme.
I found a lovely scarf, perhaps purchased in Paris as a souvenir, with the Eiffel Tower and other French landmarks prominently featured:

I got this large and beautiful book, below "Parisian Interiors", "By The Editors of Elle Deco" which had an original price of fifty dollars when new.
This gorgeous book has 275 pages and was published in 2008, an updated version of the original "Insider's Paris", published in 2003 and authored by Jean Demachy and Francois Baudot.
I paid twenty-five cents for mine:

 I photocopied an old piece of sheet music from 1918 and it fit into this vintage frame perfectly:

The frame is from the 1930's, and I purchased it at an estate sale with a photo of a distinguished gentleman inside.
 I had actually tried in vain to sell it with the vintage photograph intact because the frame is such an unusual size that I didn't know what would ever work as a replacement. It sat in the shop for a good long while.
It seems nobody wanted my frame with the unknown gentleman inside.
Luckily for me, the sheet music back at that time was made in a smaller format to conserve paper for the war efforts, and when I copied it I was tickled to find that it was a perfect fit.
Now, with the Eiffel Tower and also a Black Americana theme (by the way, the words to this particular song are most certainly NOT politically correct), maybe I will be able to sell it now.
And I have just one more find to share - this vintage copy of "Hugo's French Simplified", also with the Eiffel tower on the cover:

 That's it for today, and my French-themed thrift finds.
(Say those last four words five times real fast - you may find it's easier to start learning French!)

Old Miner in Coloma

Good morning Tina here.

Just sharing a photo by my friend Craig Koski.  You can find more of his photos at Gold Country Artist's Gallery on Main Street in Placerville.

A Vintage Hallmark Card For St. Patrick's Day

"May the luck o' the Irish be with ye".......

I wanted to share my adorable vintage Hallmark card with you today. This little cutie is seventy years old.
(Dated on the back "Copyright 1945 Hall Brothers, Inc.")

"So, here's lots of luck to you",
and Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Found: Vintage Sheet Music

It's pretty unusual, in my experience, to find good vintage and antique sheet music in thrift stores.
 I'm always surprised when I find nice ones, and pleasantly so when they are priced at ten cents apiece.
I've been collecting music for many years, and I have certainly paid much more than that at antique shops and antique fairs!
I found a number of them recently, and was happy to add them to my collection.

The Wedding Of The Sunshine And The Rose:

La Brasiliana Tango:

A Star Fell Out Of Heaven:

Suppose The Rose Were You:

The Song Of A Mother's Heart:

Just A Baby's Prayer At Twilight (For Her Daddy Over There):

 I first heard the song above on Michael Feinstein's album "Over There".
It is a beautiful composition about a little girl praying for her Daddy, who is away helping to fight the war. I honestly got goose bumps just now writing this, as I heard the song and the lyrics in my head. I think I looked for it on iTunes a short while ago, and it wasn't available, unfortunately. I wish you could hear it.......
 Just a couple more pieces of music to share.....
After  The War Is Over:

The Rose Of No Man's Land:

Some of these pieces are nearly one hundred years old, and I'm awfully glad they survived, so that I could find them.

A Little Blast From Hello Kitty's Past

I found this adorable little vintage Sanrio shopping bag I had tucked away many years ago,
 and it was so cute that I just wanted to share it with you today:

As you can see on the copyright date there from Sanrio Co., Ltd., it is from around 1983 or so.
Too cute!

Cake: I Like It

Oh, how I wish I did not like sweets so much!
It's a real problem for me.
Most of these photos (by James Viles) are from the Good Housekeeping Cake-Lover's Cookbook shown below, published in 1967:

Not only does it have beautiful photos of cakes inside, but also some lovely little illustrations by Kinuko Craft:

Cake, cake, and more cake....

I don't bake them very often, although I'd love to.

Yummy looking towers of sweetness:

How about Strawberry Shortcake made this way?

(That last photo is from "McCall's Superb Dessert Cookbook".)
I'm not sure why I do this to myself.
Because now, I kind of want to make a cake.
Yes indeedy, I like cake.
WAY too much for my own good.

The Psychedelic Artichoke

I always check the scarves at thrift shops - you know I have to see if I can pick out any Vera Neumann ones!
But I often find others that are pretty special, as well.
This one had some stains on it, and you know how that goes, right?
You can never be sure whether you will be able to get them out or not.

I had pretty good luck with this colorful example:

I'm calling it The Psychedelic Artichoke:

Oh, what a beauty it is!
Nearly all of the spots came out.
 The ones that didn't are barely noticeable.
 This would look so pretty framed and hanging on a wall!
And it has the sweetest little label, too:

Quite a lovely find.

The Candy Egg

One day, a while back, I walked into one of my favorite local thrift shops, and this little sugar panorama egg was the first thing I spied:

Too cute.
So I wandered around, looking at everything and I came across a vintage book, which just happened to be about a candy egg.

"The World In The Candy Egg", by Alvin Tresselt, with illustrations by the wonderful Roger Duvoisin.

It's an old library copy, and not in the best condition, but I had never seen it before.
First published in 1967.

I love the charming illustrations!

This egg has a scene inside quite different from the little sugar egg I found.

Every creature who peers inside the egg notices something different.

One day the egg was sold.

And wrapped up carefully....
(In this illustration you see more of Mr. Duvoisin's delightful animals, including a goose that looks rather like "Petunia", and a couple of lions that resemble "The Happy Lion" - most assuredly not a coincidence!).

This lucky little girl was the recipient:

I wonder what SHE sees?

I was happy to add both the book and the little egg to my Easter decorations.