"Glad" Flowers

A week ago, I went in to work in the morning and my friend Olivia (who also works at the City Hotel front desk) had left these flowers as a surprise for me! A gorgeous, huge bouquet of lovely gladiolus flowers from her garden:

She had come in the evening before, after I had gone home for the night and left them sitting on the front counter so I would see them when I came in first thing the next day. She also left me the sweetest note, and both that and the flowers certainly did put a smile on my face! I had had a rather rough day the day before (she didn't even really know that), and so Tuesday sure did start out on a great note - and then proceeded to be a much better day than Monday had been. It's a week later, and I am still enjoying them - they're sitting in our kitchen window sill.

How totally nice was that? "Glad" flowers, indeed.

What's Penny Wearing? #81 A Fabulous One-Of-A-Kind Costume!

I found this fantastic costume at a thrift store (where else?).

It's handmade, out of a heavy velour-like cotton or a no-wale corduroy type of fabric - hard to describe - and it has this gorgeous dragon made of felt and decorated with sequins:

There's also a separate head piece and more felt decorations on one shoulder.

The fierce, but beautiful, fire-breathing dragon:

What a great costume this would be for someone!

The first thing that came to my mind was that, if you had a Jafar mask (the villain in Aladdin), that might work - but I don't know about the "hat" part. What would YOU be, if you were to wear this costume??

Crewel, Once Again

Today's story is one that keeps happening to me. I showed you this large daisy crewelwork stitchery piece a while back after I purchased it at a thrift store:

And not long after that, I discovered this advertisement for the very same gorgeous thing in one of my vintage magazines:

I guess it only makes sense that this should happen. I mean, I LOVE vintage - and I collect old magazines, so it stands to reason that I might find some of my things in the magazines I buy. But I still get a major kick out of it every single time.

The coupon with which one would have ordered it is seen below:

Mine is framed, and that means I paid less than one-sixth the total price 39 years later - and somebody else had already done all of the work! (From Family Circle Magazine, February 1973).

Lucky Clucks

I walked in to the thrift store near where I work, and spotted these two colorful chickens right away!

A couple of lucky clucks, indeed - they got to come home with me and join the rest of my collection!

Barbie Dress-Up Day #19 In A Gathered Skirt

I found this Barbie at a thrift store, and I bought her mostly because she was wearing three pieces of vintage clothing. Mind you, this kind of find doesn't happen for me very often, and I love vintage Barbie clothes! I wrapped a vintage handkerchief around her for a top/scarf combo, because I can't get to the rest of my Barbie clothes right now.

She came with this "Gathered Skirt":
And also a jacket - like the one you see here as part of the "Resort Set"

The third thing she was wearing was this white under-dress from the "Friday Nite Date" outfit:

It was yellowed with age, and it needs a bit of mending, but I just soaked it with a few other white things in a mild bleach solution, and it came out looking great. I'm happy to have it!

Orange You Glad I Found It?

I am SO very fond of orange. I'm always drawn to orange things, and when I found this great enameled cast iron pan set, I had to grab it!

It's in pretty darned good shape, which was a bonus. Use the top as a cover for the pot, or on it's own as an omelet pan or a small, shallow skillet:

Descoware, made in Belgium.

We gave away an entire set of this to my husband's ex when we moved into this house, because we didn't have room for it. I know. I don't want to talk about it.

Some Highlights of KVMR Celtic Festival 2012 Grass Valley

Good morning, happy Wednesday. Tina here. I just got back Monday from a long weekend trip to Grass Valley to enjoy the KVMR Celtic Festival with my good friend Karen.

It is held at the lovely pine-studded fairgrounds.  Saturday night we were treated to a full moon rise.

This band, Ha'Penny Bridge, is from Chico, California.  All original music, great songs and stories.

It is always fun to see the costumes, a visual feast to go along with the many varieties of food offered for sale.

The band leader, above, met the lead singer, below, as she waited on he and his wife at one of their favorite diners in Chico. Now they have been together seven years.

Everyone was dancing.

Some were much better at it than others!

The children were fascinated by the music and costumes.

Brett, below, is the fiddler for The Elders, an Irish band from Kansas City.

Ian, below, plays several instruments and sings.

We met the members of this band a couple of years ago here at the festival when we volunteered in the Hospitality Room.  I was in the instrument check section, so I got to talk to all the musicians.

The Elders are a great band, wonderful original music and super positive energy. 

They welcomed the vibrant young dancers on stage.

Music was enjoyed by all age groups, babies to great-grandparents.

There were dogs of all sizes.

If you couldn't dance, you could join in by clapping your hands.

This gentleman arrived on crutches and proceeded to dance with great enthusiasm.

I can honestly say a very good time was had by all!

Then And Now #90 Brach's Candy For Autumn

It's all about Brach's fall candy today. We'll start with Candy Corn, as it was back "Then", in an advertisement from 1970:

And as it is "Now:

Secondly today - as you can see in the ad below, back in 1970, they called them Mellowcremes:

And "Now" they call it "Autumn Mix". I'm not sure if they still make the chocolate flavored brown cats, but I remember finding some of those a few year's back. If you see them anywhere, let me know, all right? The Autumn Mix I found has only the two different colors of Candy Corn and the pumpkins:

Sweet autumn yumminess.

Am I Lucky, Or What?

I AM lucky - incredibly so! I actually won another blog giveaway - this time it was from Shara over at "Monkeybox". She was so sweet - and, obviously she must read our blog, because she sent me things that I believe she picked out especially for me. Like this vintage lovely lady candle holder:

I totally love it, and I think she knew I would. And this Peanuts Cookbook, below - are you kidding me?? From Determined Productions, printed in 1969. I collect their books, and I didn't have this one! I think she somehow knew that, too.

And she sent all sorts of other fun little goodies:

And some of the cutest cards EVER:

And I didn't even show you everything!1 Shara - thank you SO much - I'm sorry it took me so long to do a post about this! It was like receiving a very special early birthday surprise box. It really was.