Costumes In Columbia

These pictures were from the California Admission Day parade last month. I forgot to post them then, so how about I do so just to show you the costumes - or rather, some of the "period attire" that we who work in the town, along with the volunteer docents, wear?

They all look so nice, don't they?

The couple below were guests of the City Hotel recently. They simply love to come and visit the town and dress up in their vintage clothing:

They looked so great that I just had to snap a picture!

A Vintage Postcard Halloween

Good morning. Tina here. I have always loved the vintage Halloween postcards, and I guess I should have started collecting them long ago, because some of the examples below are listed for $200 and up on ebay! But we can enjoy their scary sentiments for free today.

Do the old soft-shoe with an owl and a pumpkin and have a great Halloween!

Another "Haunted" Disney LP

I found the 1979 version of this Disneyland Records LP "Thrilling, Chilling Sounds of the Haunted House" ( NOT to be confused with the Haunted Mansion, mind you) at a thrift shop:

I already had a couple of copies of the 1964 edition with THIS cover on the LP, below:

I like using them as a backdrop for Halloween decorations.
When I have time to put my Halloween decorations OUT, that is.

Loving This Vintage Desk Lamp

I apologize for my poor photos, but I found this at a thrift store and I think it's pretty great-looking:

 It has no markings, and I know nothing about it:

 I don't even know if the bulb can be replaced when it burns out!

I do know that I want to find a place to use it. It even has an extra outlet under the stainless steel shades.
Nice looking and useful - just the type of find I love to bring home!

Different Kinds Of Finds

I have an odd assortment of finds to show today. A lady at a thrift store the other day actually looked at my stuff I was buying and said "You have an odd bunch of stuff there." I wasn't offended or anything, but I said back to her "Well, I'm an odd person." I really meant "unusual" rather than "odd", but whatever. Apples and oranges - you know.
Or rather, as shown below, a banana and some assorted vegetables:

Here's a cute little daisy desk set:

I love picking up pretty linens for a song - and I also like mixing and matching them in combinations other people might think odd - like the placemats and napkins you see below:

This set of six pretty glass tumblers with an etched design still had the original $36.00 price tag on them, and they were in a little wrought iron caddy to boot:

I only paid $2.00 for the lot, and they cleaned up very nicely:
( I put another set of glasses in the caddy/carrier and put them in the shop last week):

Found a sweet floral pattern box. I can definitely use this - I NEED boxes that hold patterns!

 I find a lot of vintage stitchery kits. Here are just two examples; I simply don't have pictures of the others to show you...yet:

And I close with more vegetables, on this vintage curtain valance that I am planning to use on one of my windows:

That's it for today, folks.
(No,  this is NOT the stuff the lady was talking about.
And yes, I LIKE being unusual - who wants to be like everybody else?)

Happy Anniversary!

These pretty vintage greeting cards are helping me today to wish a very happy anniversary my Gold Country Girl sister Tina and her husband Rich.

Happy 33rd  Anniversary, you two!
 Love, Heidi

Bedrooms From Seventeen Magazine - The 60's

I LOVE perusing every single detail of these vintage bedroom layouts from Seventeen Magazine, and in every photo I see things that I would love to come across ( in a thrift store one day?), whether it be furniture or decorative accessories, linens, wall decor, artwork, lamps, desk accessories, organizers -  almost anything!

I hoped you might enjoy checking these rooms out, too!

 I don't even have the time today to go through every picture and tell you all of the things I am crazy about....

....but if you read this blog with any regularity, you may already have a good idea on your own of what items strike MY fancy.

I think you KNOW I love color!

 Vintage coolness.

 So, feel free to chime in with your comments....

And tell me what  ( if there is anything) YOU love!?
(P. S. That's a Vera Neumann scarf on the wall in the picture above!)

Haunted House or Treasured Old Family Home?

Good morning, Tina here. It is October on the Georgetown Divide, and I thought maybe something spooky was in order, so I am going to share some photos of an old home which sits in a lovely spot in Garden Valley.

This was the homestead of a well known pioneer family of El Dorado County, and is tucked away on a half-mile long road, sitting there with a hopeful firmness, a stay-ability if you will, planning to sit for at least another century or two.

I went with a good friend to visit the owner, and she told us some of the history of the home as we poked around outside, sticking our noses into old pump houses and storage sheds, including this sturdy old one made of local stone,

Then she took us into the small two story home. You could feel the history and the age, but I don't think there were any ghosts. If there were, they were just going about their daily business, they didn't bother with us.

The tiny living room was a problem, with a leaky ceiling (which meant that the room above was also damp!) There was barely room for the wood stove, a loveseat, and a baby grand piano.

The long sunny kitchen with laundry room at the back was cozy and warm, just the place to house the purring recently-become-a-mama kitty and her tiny litter. I could sense a lingering odor of apple pie and perhaps biscuits and gravy.  Listen and you can hear the screen door in the back slam as the children run in for lunch.

In the center hall the stairs went steeply up and this dark area seemed the most likely to be haunted. Carefully climbing, we found upstairs two long thin rooms with lots of cobwebs and windows with old glass that has flowed downward with the years.

The windows were fascinating. Gazing out, I imagined several scenarios.  The wife, having just gotten the baby to sleep, watching as her husband comes back from working with the cattle on the hillside above the house.

A young son, sick with measles perhaps, peers longingly out the window watching his siblings leaving for school in the wagon.

 

An old woman packs up her belongings for a trip to her daughter's home, perhaps her last journey, and the last goodbye to the old homestead.

The somewhat mysterious photo above was something stuffed into the window frame, old fabric I think, and an old skull of some small animal.

Ancient house, how many stories do you have to tell us? Will you again house a lively family and watch a couple grow old together?  Since I visited, I believe the owner and her husband have moved to more comfortable lodgings.

Spirits definitely reside here, and I hope whoever finds this place to be home in the future benefits by the many years of luck collected in the horseshoe above the door.

Halloween Candy At The Columbia Candy Kitchen

I went in to the Columbia Candy Kitchen again yesterday, and snapped a couple of photos of their displays.
Looks good to me....

 Chocolate ghost/jack-o-lantern pops; nope, not exactly scary! Scary good, maybe:

This last one is a bit blurry - but you get the idea chocolate pumpkin face pops:

I'll take one of each!
:)

A Viking Find

I found a lovely vintage piece of green glassware - I'm pretty sure it's Viking glass - at a rummage sale in Columbia State Historic Park a couple of weeks ago.
It was inexpensive, and I snapped it up quickly!

  I think it's gorgeous, but the main reason I wanted it was because it goes so well with the piece in the photo below:

That one was here in the house when we moved in, and belonged to my in-laws. The two actually seem to be slightly different shades of green, which I don't believe is apparent in the photos.
They now they sit happily (if glass can be happy - I like to think that it can) side by side and I must say, they do look smashing together!
(Oh - perhaps I shouldn't use the word "smashing" when referring to lovely vintage art glass.
I'm just sayin'......)