Lady Edith's Hats #1: Ready To Travel In Style

I had asked for help with a name for this lovely lady bust back when I first found her.
I think I've finally decided on Lady Edith.

Today, she sports a vintage hat I found at a thrift store, a pretty Vera Neumann scarf and some shades - to shield her fair skin from the sun.

I think she's ready to go, don't you?
(I plan to have her do some more "modeling" for me in the future.)

An Apple Pie

I have never made a strawberry-rhubarb pie like the one on the cover of this vintage copy of  "Farm Journal's Complete Pie Cookbook", but it surely does look good!
I think it would be a simply scrumptious springtime treat, and if you want to bake one and bring it over, I wouldn't slam the door in your face, LOL!

The pies in this book are some of the very best (I've written about this before..), as can be attested to by the fact that our Mother's Lemon Meringue Pie (on page 124) from this book would get the highest bids time and again at our 4-H Pie Socials that were held back in the day at Gold Oak School in Placerville.
 Farm Journal's "Best-Ever Lemon Meringue Pie" is, indeed"Superb", as Mother wrote in ink next to the recipe. She swore by Farm Journal's 5 Star Recipes.
But the last pie that I actually made was an apple pie.
Honestly, it was because I had apples in the refrigerator that simply had to be used.
I made the "Old-Fashioned Apple Pie" on page 51 of the book, with the changes for the "Crumb Apple Pie"  variation on the following page.
Unbaked:

And baked - a gratuitous close-up:

You can't beat a nice slice, right?

I mean ... just, YUM, that's all I have to say.
(Wish I had some right now - this was a while back, I just found these photos and realized I had never written this post as I intended to do!)

California Looks Good to Me - Roses in Midwinter

Good morning, Tina here.

Years ago, I gave Heidi a present. It was a beautiful postcard that had been framed.

It showed some gorgeous Victorian homes with a rose hedge.

I loved that postcard, and ever after looked for one to keep for my own.

I looked in antique stores, at postcard shows, on the internet at postcard dealer sites, on ebay.

I found roses and old homes abounding on postcards, just not "the one". But I never gave up.

Two days ago I looked at my email and there it was, for sale on ebay with a Buy It Now tag, for a whopping $2.49!

My very own "California looks good to me. Roses in Midwinter." postcard. It was mailed in Pasadena to New York in 1910. And it's mine, all mine. I am going to frame it and no longer will I need to envy Heidi her lovely postcard.

What's Penny Wearing? #136 Simple And Pretty Boho Style

I found this pretty dress at a thrift store:

Penny rather liked it - it was just her kind of style:

I took it down the shop and put it on my other dress form.

Yep, it sold - I KNEW somebody else would like it - and want it!
(Sorry, Penny.)

Vintage California: A Couple Of Special Finds

Vintage finds make me smile.
Getting good deals on them makes me pretty happy, too!
And these two finds featuring my home state are special ones for me.
A vintage, unused linen tea towel from KayDee Handprints with California landmarks including Disneyland!

You can see everything they included on the towel in the photo below.
 I'm happy to say that I do believe I have visited every place or area depicted on this towel, and many of them are surely some of my favorite places:

 After all, I was born and raised here, and I've had a LOT of years to visit locations all over our beautiful state!
The Golden Gate Bridge, Mt. Shasta, the Giant Redwoods, San Francisco, Lake Tahoe - and there's even a gold panner for the Gold Country Girls!

I also found a neat postcard booklet recently that was mailed from Los Angeles to Lodi in 1946:

"The Land Of Oranges" - we've got Santa Fe's  Super Chief "traveling thru the orange groves" and Main Street in Riverside...

A palm tree and more orange groves:

It says here that the Los Angeles County Fair is the "Most Beautiful Fair In America".

I wouldn't know, because I haven't been to all of the fairs in America, in fact, I've only been to a handful, but the picture on the postcard sure is pretty!

Loungechair Road Trip No. 15: Pacific House on Highway 50

Good morning Tina here.

It is a beautiful day, and we are going to lounge and at the same time go up Highway 50 and pay a visit to Pacific House.

This beautiful piece of art above is painted by my good friend, and fellow high school and college art class member Jonni Hill. She trained with George and Carol Mathis and her work is wonderful!

I have always enjoyed seeing this lovely rock-covered building. My mom had a friend who lived on the hill across the highway in a cabin made of rock which overlooked Pacific House. She has passed away and the house burned down.

The postcard above is the same as the one above it however, this one has a description included.

A great postcard showing the inside long ago.

The photo above I was able to get from the internet and unfortunately I didn't put down the photographer's name, and I am so sorry, I would love to give credit.

Above and below are two older postcards I have purchased fairly recently. The lobby, and a lovely rock fountain.

Now we get to the present, the poor place needs a new roof and sits sadly decaying.

Below are remains from the great old two story building that once sat here. I have an old postcard but it is not on my computer so I can't show you right now.

A piece of history crying out for help.

But here I sit in my lounge chair and I am not much help.

Enjoy the great spring day.

More Vintage Maidenform Ads - You Know - "I Dreamed ...This and That"..

I've got a few more vintage Maidenform advertisements for you today.
( I've shared some others in previous posts - can't seem to get my links to work today! If you are interested in seeing the others, you will find them by entering "Maidenform" in this blog's search box.)
First up we have this woman who is surely ready for action (just like Ben-Hur") and says "I dreamed I drove them wild in my Maidenform bra", back in 1961:

And the sweet ingenue in the ad below from 1962 muses, "I dreamed I was the center of attraction in my Maidenform bra", :

This next gal doesn't seem to mind putting it all out there - "I dreamed I swayed the jury...":

 At the office, next - "I dreamed I went to work in my Maidenform bra" - no problem with that, as long as you remember to put something on over it:

The lovely lady among the ruins in the next one says, "I dreamed I was a classic beauty in my Maidenform bra":

 "I dreamed I had a stylish carriage ..." - and a pretty fancy hat - and by the way, don't I look rather like My Fair Lady headed for Ascot?

"I dreamed I was wild in the west .." - um, yes, ma'am - you surely would have been considered a wild woman if you were out and about in your unmentionables back in the stagecoach days!

"I dreamed I had the world on a string" - probably from the late 1960's:

I don't know about you, but I really get a kick out of these old advertisements.
Fun, huh?

"Holiday Fair" Finds From 1970

I found these vintage pieces at a thrift store in Placerville. They are marked "Holiday Fair N.Y.C. 1970 Japan".
They are such cute - and brightly painted - gals; one is a pencil holder:

And the other two are bookends:

They were in pretty decent condition, actually.
BUT - oh, my gosh - thrift store people!
Please do NOT put tons of sticky cellophane tape all over cool vintage hand-painted pieces!
Aaarrghhh!

By the time I (very carefully and slowly) pulled all of that stupid tape off of them, they didn't look nearly as good!
Naturally, the paint came off with the tape.
I absolutely wanted to scream.
(Actually, I think maybe I DID scream a little - you can ask Lori; she was there.)
Most of the areas you see where the paint is missing resulted from that darned tape being removed.

They're still cute, and I  do understand that they wanted to keep the pair together.
But I think a better way to go might be to take some plastic wrap and wrap it around the items, and then apply tape over that.
I realize the thrift store employees and volunteers aren't going to bother to go to that much trouble.
They have no idea that here are people like me out there who treasure these types of finds and would really love it if they could be better cared-for while they are in the pricing process.
Oh, well - at least they weren't outrageously priced - they weren't even in the "special vintage" section of the store.
I actually kind of felt like going back with the pair of bookends and the tape I had pulled off  of them (that had all of this brightly colored paint on it) and ask for some of my money back, though.
But I couldn't  do it - and I probably wouldn't have, anyway.

Patterns From The Past: Dresses From Simplicity 8137

Today we have Simplicity pattern number 8137, seen here in three different colors and variations on the cover of simplicity Fashion News, from April of 1969:

And here is the pattern front, also shown in three different colors and style variations:

I think all of them look very nice, myself!

Which style do you like best?

They seem like sweet and simple dresses for springtime to me.