Lounge Chair Road Trip No. 10: South on Highway 49 to Angel's Camp

Good morning, Tina here. I'm longing (lounging?) to be there:

Where? The lovely little gold rush town of Angels Camp. Let's put our feet up and take off on our road trip. It is going to take about an hour and a half to get there from Kelsey.

I am sharing a bunch of post cards from various years which show this delightful town, filled with old houses and buildings, and with the highway still running right through town.

This is a great town to park a bit and walk in. There is a great shop that sells wonderful sandwiches, if you get hungry. You can go see a movie, hit some thrift shops, or antique stores.

You can climb a hill above a park and look at the Victorian architecture.

There is a rest stop right in the center of town so that you can "rest" and get a drink of water.

Nestled here in a little valley, with a creek running through and gingerbread dripping from the eaves of many homes, is a very well preserved piece of the mother lode.

If you are lucky you can go during the fair and watch frogs jump to win a prize for their owners.

Once in a while they even get some snow.

A flooded creek moved some buildings around over a hundred years ago on the south side of town.

One of my favorite old homes which is right on the highway and very close to the creek just barely avoided the flood that year.

Luckily the lovely home survived and still stands with its gorgeous trim.

Thank you for joining me on this Angel's Camp visit.

Christmas Finds

Today's finds are all Christmas items. I'll start with these three vintage stockings, below.
The two on the right are older, and still have their original "Made In Japan" labels on the back:

Here's a little assortment - some ornaments, a canister, a snowman candle, and a couple of blue-eyed Santas:

Isn't this one a cutie!

A vintage box of red transparent Shiny Brite ornaments.
I've never found one before that says "K & W Glass Works" on the box - that's unusual:

This is such a lovely cross-stitched piece!
"I'll Be Home For Christmas":

A copy of "Home" Magazine from the Los Angeles Times:

Vintage paper coasters:

And a few nice, unused Christmas cards:

I've found other things, too, but I took them into the shop so quickly that I forgot to take photos!

Patterns From The Past: Simplicity 9277 And 9177, Separates And A Blouse

Today I have two patterns for you, as seen in the picture below from Simplicity Fashion News.
Jill Twiddy (left) models a blouse sewn from pattern number 9177  and the tunic and pants from pattern number 9277, and Shelley Hack (right) is modeling the skirt and tank from pattern 9277:

And here is the front of pattern 9277:

And the back:

And here's the blouse pattern that Jill is wearing:

And those are your fashions for today, circa 1971.

My Illustrated Childhood Essay On Disneyland: "My Favorite Day"

I found this little essay I wrote and illustrated in school when I was little, and I had to share it with you!
I wish it was dated, but it's not.
Let's suffice it to say that it was a long time ago.
Apparently, we were asked to write about our favorite day.
Does it surprise anyone that "My Favorite Day" was at Disneyland?
I thought not.

Tina, I'm sorry I got you wet!
Honestly, I believe I have a vague memory of that.....
I must say, those "queens" should probably have been (Disney) Princesses, in actuality - oh, and I am a much better speller now, just so you know - but I was little, and nobody's perfect.
(It wouldn't fit entirely on the scanner bed, but I think you get the general idea.)

Little Projects

I have taken some photos of an assortment of little projects I've been working on.
I had this gorgeous crewel stitchery packed away and I had forgotten all about it.
I love it and I was happy to rediscover it!
I just happened to have the correct size of embroidery hoop on hand to frame it with.
I like how it turned out:

And that gave me the idea to frame this smaller one, too:

This piece of vintage sheet music, below, is one of my all-time favorites. I love the artwork on the cover, the colors - and the flowers on her dress remind me of my vintage Ransburg canisters.
I seldom frame the original, so I had a color copy made - and then, luckily, it fit perfectly into this blue frame I found at a thrift store.
I was going to sell it, but I like the way it looks so much, I'm not sure I want to part with it:

This cute little Mary Engelbreit teapot lamp was found at a thrift store. The light bulb socket had some issues and I thought I might have to replace it altogether.
 But I managed to fix it up (at no cost), instead.

The next challenge was finding a lampshade the right size.
Harder than you might think, especially since only a used or vintage one from a thrift store would suit me.
 Plus, it had to be pretty small - not easy.
 I finally found one, but the color wasn't right so I needed to cover it, somehow.
 Oh - and it was actually too short, as well:

I was going to cover it with polka-dot ribbon and black ball fringe:

I had already cut the ribbon into lengths:

But I decided that might be a bit much, and then I found another shade I liked better, and changed my mind!

 It absolutely needed the trim to add a bit of length to the shade.
So this is how it wound up looking, in the end:

( I already had the matching clock when I found the lamp base.)

Honestly, I know it still isn't long enough! It needs to hide more of the socket. But this was the best I could do.
I admit - not all of my projects turn out as well as I'd like!
Next, we have this vintage Samsonite Beauty Case that belonged to my mother-in-law:

The bottom of it was a little bit stained, and it didn't look so nice.
So I cut a piece of  pretty vintage floral fabric to fit and glued it down into the bottom:

Now it looks nice again!
I even have the box it originally came in, which tells me on the side that the color name was "Pink Orchid"
I like that:

I bought this large frame at a thrift store on half-price day.
The print inside was kind of cute, but it's not my style.
(Except for the cat - I love that cat.)

The frame was just the right size for this original painting which was also a thrift find.
 (I've shown you this before; I'm just sharing it again to show you what the "project" was).
 I only needed to give it a coat of white paint, which, to me, looked better surrounding this painting than the natural wood:

Last of all, I finally found one of these folding boards for cutting out fabric at a thrift store (cheap), but the blue paper tape along the edges was falling off:

So I just got some cute floral washi tape and put it on instead:

Easy peasy, and it works for me - all I wanted to do was cover up the ugly edges.
Just some little projects that have been keeping me busy.

Three More For The Peter Pauper Press Collection

Here lately, I have managed to find three more books for my collection from Peter Pauper Press at the thrift stores.
First of all we have "Japanese Haiku " from 1956:

 And an example of the pages inside:

 "The ABC Of Canapes"  is from 1953.
 I had this one already, but this is a nicer copy with a dust jacket, so it's a keeper:

 And here's a recipe from inside:

 And last of all is this one: "Peter Pauper's Limerick Book".
This one has no date inside.

 No dust jacket on this one, and the binding isn't in the best shape, either,
 but it was cheap and I didn't have it, so that's okay with me.
Here are a couple of limericks from inside:

 My Peter Pauper Press collection total now stands at twenty-five, and I am always on the hunt for more!

Some Of My Recent Finds

Let's start today with this great vintage "Fairbrook Candies" tin - so perfect for fall!

And next, I have never seen a coat hanger with a sweet little hand-stitched face and head at the top!
I see crochet-covered hangers all the time, but never one with this kind of personality:

This unfinished crewel-stitched piece is a big one
It measures 21 by 26 inches:

I love the gorgeous sunflowers.
It's SO close to being done - I'll try, I promise - I may even have the type of wool yarn I'd need around here someplace:

I nearly jumped for joy when I spotted this little ladybug egg-shaped box in the next photo!
I have a small collection of these, and this one is practically perfect - usually they are chipped.  Most of them look like a decorated Easter egg or a chicken or something like that - but not this cutie; I just love it!

And check out this cool vintage vinyl sewing basket - it's in very good shape.
And I can't decide whether to keep it or sell it!

This sweet little pink pottery girl is ready, willing and able to carry a small bouquet of posies on her back for you:

I love this brightly colored little pitcher, below:

And I found two more cool flower power tile trivets:

Daisies:

A dear little vintage photo album:

That's it - and that's probably quite enough for one day, don't you think?