on to new partying

The new year is here and the celebrating is done for the holidays... but at our house the partying continues with A.'s birthday. She will be 17. I wish I could have stayed eternally age 17.

I love this image above. It speaks to me somehow. I enjoy vintage images-- and black and white is special in photos like it was in television. I think kids now miss out a lot on using imagination. They don't need to. They don't have time to.

Watch an old movie or TV show on DVD and see how your brain turns the images into color without even trying.... that's why we were so good at using imagination. We also played outside EVERY day-- it was not an event, it was life. Playing outside meant using your imagination. The things we did and played with rarely used batteries, and never used electricity. It was all powered by imagination, an endless power supply!!

What have I finished?

• sorted more books(fiction and non-fiction) and magazines to send other places to live
• moved the TV to a new location within the family room-- it seems to be a hit with everyone
• reorganizing the pantry, and finding I am shopping even more carefully than ever before

What do I need to do?

• find the top of my desk, it is suffocating under paperwork
• use the ham bone for a batch of homemade bean soup-- I never know how to make just a small pot of soup
• make some apple crisp to use up the apples before they go bad

What do I want to do?

• paint my lamps in my bedroom to be gloss black, the lampshades will be perfect
• have lunch with a friend I have not seen in 10 years or more, it may be soon if we can mesh schedules
• hang a big mirror in a spot I have been plotting out

Flash Back-simple memories

Now that Summer is getting closer to its end and changing looks, grass grows more slowly and the crickets and cicadas are being extra noisy especially at night, I find myself being reminiscent of times when I was a young girl.

--getting on the bus the first day back to school, deciding where to sit
--new stiff shoes, maybe with a (grown-up feeling) 1/2 inch heel
--the smell of a new box of crayons
--weekend slumber parties with friends, playing board games until way past a normal bedtime
--doodling in spiral notebooks using lots of different colored pens or markers, while listening to the radio
--flowered cotton pajamas, sweet smelling from the laundry line
--playing outside using imagination for hours, without a care in the world
-- lying on the floor next to the sleeping cat in the patch of sun shining through the window, wondering how she makes that purr sound

Memories are such a strong therapy when grown-up-ness gets too hard.

times and other things...they are a changin'

I enjoy a good vintage ad.
Don't you?
Let's look at this one here, shall we?
Let's take a closer look. This looks like an attractive enough woman in the year 1963.
Agree?

Let's take an even closer look. Apparently standards in body image or clothing sizes --or maybe simply just vocabulary--have changed in that many years. Their catalog says "fashions for larger women".

Really?

Did they accidentally use the wrong models' photo shoot for this cover?

Ok.

Let's go in for some details here. Maybe I am just a little confused. Little. Maybe I should say slight.... er, maybe tiny. Oh crap. Let's get on with it.

38-60.

Are they talking about their tablecloth measurements for their dining room table? They certainly aren't talking about these models.

Ok stop, to be fair, the hourglass silhouette that girdles and bullet bras gave these women may have a disillusioning effect on the over-all look of a dress. But still--I think this represents models with 38 as the high end measurement category.

False representation? Cause to starve yourself to compete?

You decide.

Also, does anyone ever still use the vocabulary word= hose? My grandma did. Vocabulary certainly changes over time and through eras of society.

Sorry, the time has expired (a few decades or so) to send for your free style booklet.

" for STOUT Women" !!!

Flash Back- Baby Boomer play and safety features

(Sorry= this collage sheet is sold out) What did kids do for fun back in the Baby Boomer days? Back before every play activity required being plugged in? Lots of things!... and most of them required some very high tech stuff= actually talking face to face (no texting) and a little imagination (no video game program to drag you along for the mind numbing ride), and come to think of it--activity/movement was also part of our daily play (no sitting on the sofa all day, Mom wouldn't allow that. And we didn't want to anyway. We would have thought of that as punishment)!

We played jump rope, hop scotch,ring around the rosie, red rover and tag. We played cowboys and Indians. We played cops and robbers and used toy guns. And by the way, none of us acquired records as hardened criminals. At least no one I knew, so maybe I speak for myself here on that point.

But of course we also survived lead paint on our cribs, so that says a lot, and just imagine, that was coupled in with the slats most likely being spaced inappropriately, yet we survived babyhood somehow. Oh, and what about no helmets while tooling around on a banana seat bike or... how babies started traveling around town and the country with no such invention as a baby car seat--even in the family convertible, for gosh sakes!!

(find this vintage print ad HERE)

(find this vintage print ad HERE)

...or when we were a little older-- the station wagon, hanging out the back window. That was great, the wind in your hair. The "way back" is what we called the rear facing back seat in the station wagon. We always fought over that seat. Do you remember singing along to the old jingle, "See the USA in your Chevrolet"? Dinah Shore sang that one. Heck, the adults didn't even wear seat belts, it wasn't a law yet. Do not get me wrong, I think baby car seats and seat belts are very important. You young 'uns have to realize that life and knowledge and technology was different back then. People wanted to be safe, of course, but there were not all the same safety research experiments done and laws that are put into place to protect people, like in the 21st century. I am no car expert but it seems to me our family car was built like a tank. Was yours, back in to 1960's and 1970's? You Boomers know what I mean. What did you do with your time as a child, if you were born before cablevision and the internet?

thoughts of my day revealed

It is snowing again today in northern-most Ohio. I love it. I am happy when it snows. I love winter. As long as it is cold there might as well be snow. Snow makes everything look bright and clean. I can do without the melting dirty slushy snowy left-over part of winter, though. Give me everlasting white pretty snow!! Please.

My favorite weather spans from any month it starts to snow {which around here can be anytime after late October} until any month it stops snowing {which around here is usually around late March but has been known to happen as late as early May!} I know I am in the minority in my love of cold and snowy days.
I don't ever get cabin fever...although I don't stay inside "the cabin" ever...I go out in the snow! 'Cuz I love snow!
I don't get cold outside. It has to be below 20 degrees for me to wear a coat. People who know me and see me wear a coat say, "It must officially be cold, Amy's finally wearing a coat."
I never wear a coat/hat/gloves unless A) I am going sledding or building a snowman or B) if it is below 20 degrees. Honest. To just go away anywhere in the car or run errands I don't wear a coat, just a sweatshirt or a couple layers of long sleeve shirts.
It would be heaven to me if I lived somewhere that never went above 70 degrees.

Here's my definition of hot weather, at least here in Ohio: 1. humidity, 2. gross soggy clothes, 3. mosquito bites. YUK. YUK. Super YUK!

I was hoping to drive to my favorite recycling scrap art store today. Ran short on time after all my other tasks. To drive there in the snow would have taken longer than the usual 20 minutes or so and they would have been ready to close up shop 10 minutes after my estimated time of arrival. That's no fun! I need to lose all track of time when I am in there digging around, not keep track of time. Hello!, that's the whole point of getting lost in there, thinking up things to make with unusual stuff, while escaping the outside world.
They have more arts/crafts/sewing stuff there than I could ever list. You can fill a plastic bag slightly smaller than a grocery sack for $5. Yipee! I limit the purchase to just 1 bag and I try to stick with a rule that I take at least 1 bag of stuff to donate to help the cause, the "only bring home same/less than you take out" philosophy.
PS- my mom mobile is just slightly newer than these in the above illustration.

When I did finally arrive home, deciding the rest of my running around out on the snow/ice covered streets would wait until another day, I was met with something that I hate when it goes on and on and on. Barking dogs. My barking dogs. I hate barking dogs, especially when they are mine. Barking for a purpose is ok I guess. Barking just to bark is so annoying to my ears I find I want to crawl out of my skin!! UGH! The dogs were put in their kennels. Ahhh. No more barking! I can stay calmly inside my skin. *deep breath*

PS- don't call anyone to report me. They had shelter and water and food. They bark endlessly year round despite the weather and temperature, just to try to "separate me from my skin"...and sanity!

A night ahead will look almost like this when my dear husband comes home from a long day of working way too hard for his adoring family. He doesn't usually have a suit and dress shoes on to lounge in the chair, though. He is more likely found in a pair of sweats and flannel shirt and socks. Oh, and we only get the Sunday paper. He finds lots of other things to read during the week. He is a sitcom junkie too. He says laughing at silly shows helps him wind down from a day of work.

I, myself, hate sitcoms that have laugh tracks (or canned laughter, as some people call it). Have you ever really listened to a laugh track? It is crazy dumb sounding. Remember when shows like I love Lucy were filmed in front of a LIVE audience? The people in the TV studio inserted the REAL laughter at the right times. After live audiences were a thing of the past they decided they needed to have laugh tracks since the home viewing audience might not be suave enough to know where to insert their own laughter without prompting. UGH! Go ahead and close your eyes while watching a sitcom sometime and see what I mean about it sounding crazy dumb. Almost as bad a barking dogs making you want to climb out of your skin, but not quite as bad. *insert laughter here*

Oh, and the toys scattered on the floor are true to our home scene. Always.

I do enjoy sitting by the fire which burns at our house from about October through April (see above reference to snow-month-spans in northern-most Ohio). I however do not wear a dress and high heels to lounge. My jammies would be more like it. Any chance I get. Usually right after dinner. N. would not be wearing shorts in front of the fire either. But he would be found among a pile of Legos on a regular basis. Have you ever stepped on a small stray Lego with shoeless feet? Go borrow some Legos if you have to and try that one for a treat. *insert sarcasm laugh track here*

PS- don't you love to look at old illustrations and compare your present day life to the life-style that once was?

Flash back- the family car

Image is found here.

Do families have the time or money to fill the tank and just go out for a Sunday drive anymore. I love those memories. *sigh* Simple activities from days long gone by.

Saved from a 1960s Look magazine, you know, the kind with the very big pages? Great colors!

candy ribbons

Image is found here.

I am still here. Just busy with life's things that happen

.. you know "the things"...

Lately, just trying to keep up has been like when you're a kid and you run beside the spinning merry go round and try to desperately jump solidly on. If you just kind of jump on you have to hold on for dear life so you won't fall off. Sometimes you get dragged along for the ride until you finally get a good hold

and succeeded to climb on for the ride.

Here's to not getting dragged along for the holiday hubbub ride!!

PS= I had some holiday cheer the day I found ribbon candy in the store again this year. Actually my eagle eye boy N. spied it.

Wanted? and Wanted...

FIRST-THE WANTED?

I have these 2 pink adorable Pyrex bowls and have had them displayed rather than using them. I don't bake, you see. I know, I know...I could use them for other purposes as well. I have chosen to just use them for display with my other pink thrifty things on my hutch. It was time to change the display {and besides it was wayyy past time to dust!} so I have moved these into a box. I wonder if anyone out there would like to buy them and have them at their home? As you can see, the larger of the 2 is more faded and has some less than perfect areas. Must have been used more by the owner before me than was the smaller sized bowl which is brighter and in better condition.
Let me know if you have any interest.
Update: they have been sold and have found a new home!

NEXT-THE WANTED
Now on to the next photo below... every year about this time I become nostalgic to the point of frantically surfing the internet to find a few of these elves that I can actually afford. 

My mom had a set of them -maybe 6 or 8 when the set was new- from the 1950's. They were made in Japan by Napco or Napcoware and are called spaghetti trim figurines. I grew up in the 1960's and 70's seeing these decorate our home every Christmas time. I loved to unwrap them from their newspaper cocoon one by one out of the big carton box and try to guess or be surprised by which one it would be based on the shape inside the paper. Then I would spend the next few weeks rearranging them {probably to the point of my mom wanting to tie my hands behind my back!}.
I have found them but not in my price range and when they are in my price range I do not win the bid. Amazing how nostalgia can drive up prices of dime-store Japan stuff that seemed cheesy when new long ago. Just sayin'. I search and search. So I have also put the word out on my blog several times over the past few years to see if anyone has any they would like to sell, one piece or a whole set.
Let me know.
Do you ever long to replace something you grew up with? Tell me what it is...maybe I have it sitting unloved in a box and it would be happier at your place.
Stranger things have happened!!

Flashback- board game and vintage play!

Remember this game? If you are of a certain age you will.

I never had this, always wanted to own it, always wanted to play it at my friend's house. She was bored with it because she did own it and the novelty of wanting to own it had worn off for her. Isn't it like that with a lot of toys/games?!

I liked the commercial and thought it would have been like being a movie star to be picked to be in a commercial like that. You can watch the commercial when you click here.

Do you ever think of how modern (I use that term "modern" loosely, as the 1960's are now retro, aren't they?)day toys or other items would translate into life 100 years ago or more? I do, but maybe I am just strange that way.

So here we go with this experiment...

Maybe these pictures would be

behind the door on Mystery Date... interesting mustache, too mustachy for me

a dapper young fellow

a proud man in uniform

a little too old- and a little too whiskery- for me, and what does he do with that stick?

another fine dapper young fellow

a man about town sort of fellow

a sensible, kind-looking sort of fellow, maybe he is a romantic

What do you think? Would you open the door on the vintage board game to your date being

a dream or a dud?

All vintage photo images where found here.

Flash Back- An ad about Christmas toys from Santa

I got this roller skating doll for Christmas from Santa when I was almost 5 . I loved her so much! Wow! I was so excited and spent many happy hours with her. I remember years later the batteries in her back compartment leaked all over and I think my mom got rid of her. That same Christmas I received a toy pay phone (remember pay phones, before there was such an invention as a cell phone?) that was blue and had pretend coins to insert to make different Disney character voices speak to you. I felt so grown up when I played with that one. Do you have a toy from your memories that you think of when the Christmas season is approaching?

Those were the days...

before computers, when learning did not require being plugged in and powered by anything...other than our brains!!

Great for collage, scrapbooking, altered art, tags, book marks, display...

or learning!!

Find 'em here.

Flashback- toys

I still have these two soft stuffed product premium toys. I loved the stuffing almost out of them altogether when I was a little girl. Isn't it funny, I never realized I was missing anything like an Ipod or DS or Wii? Duh! They didn't exist when I was a little girl. And guess what? I was happy with my silly little green friend and long nosed bird. Did you have any premium offer toys?

I used to have these crazy, almost scary lookin', finger puppets of the Monkees. Don't know what ever happened to them.

I found these pictures on ebay a while back and they jogged my memory of pulling the stretchy little leggings over my fingers and making them dance around in their mod boots and sing Cheer up sleepy Jean or Take the last train to Clarksville...

If I remember correctly they also made these in the Beatles characters too. Do you remember some or did I dream it? Did you ever have any of these 1960's puppets?

What did you grow up with that was wayyyyy cooler than and Ipod or Wii?

What's in a name? Find out at the end of the story...

A has been sewing. The torch has been passed. My fabrics and sewing room supplies are finally getting some attention and love after sitting dormant for far too long. I do not have time to do all the projects that swirl in my (creative?) mind. It warms my heart to see her doing what I understand. Sew. She was at my side all the while I was sewing for my own business when she was a tot. Did she pick up the skill by association?

Although I have enough fabric in this house to circle the world, A wanted some specific polka dot fabric and so we went to get more fabric. More. Oh well, it was a good cause. She picked out this multi-colored polka dotty fabric with a brown background. Back when we redid her room (when she packed away all her little girl treasures in an effort to have a more teen looking lair), she wanted this kind of fabric for decor purposes and we could not find it anywhere. Maybe she is a girl who is ahead of the trends.

She also picked this fun fabric for the lining. Lining? I thought she was going to just make a simple tote. Silly me. I told her the lining choice is an example of "inside humor"!! Bad pun, I know. It is hard to tell from the first photo but one of the polka dot colors is the same blue as the lining. She drew it all out on paper and then started measuring and cutting. That's my girl. Who needs a stinkin' store bought pattern anyway?! She made it with gusset sides and bottom and even put interfacing in between the layers for stiffness.

Now she carries it to school instead of a back pack. Last night she also sewed a small drawstring back pack to carry her gym clothes in so she does not have to go all the way back to her locker (at the other end of the building) because her class just before gym is right next to the gym. The fabric for that one is another different kind of polka dots.

Do you think there is a business in her future??

The funniest part of all of this ties in to me giving A  my Montgomery Ward sewing machine (I have other machines too from my sewing business which ended when she was a pre-schooler). It was my first real grown-up purchase...well after my 10 speed blue bike I bought with babysitting money and the stereo (with ultra modern 8-track player) I bought with my first 20 or so paychecks working about 6 hours a week. I was so proud of it, the store name prominently displayed on a small metal plate on the front. I kept it so clean and shiny that I am sure I did everything short of waxing it like a male waxing a first sports car.

This is how you know you're old= A said, "What the heck is Montgomery Ward anyway?"

Flash Back- 1955 Card Party

This is a republish of a post I did long ago. Hope you enjoy it!!

I grew up around women playing Pinochle once a month.

Of course, my older brothers remember the 1950's card game parties...I didn't come along until much later. But the Pinochle card game gatherings continued on for 40+ years:

beyond the life span of my Mom.

The "gang" that were dear to me growing up were my mom, my future mother-in-law, and my future aunt-in-law.

Back in the 1950-1960's, you would require a necklace to match your dress or skirt and sweater, in order to attend the card party. This necklace is actually my mom's that I put on the scanner to show you. I'm sure she had the matching clip on earrings too. They are gone- who knows where.

Now every good mid-century hostess would wear a pretty apron like one of these to serve the refreshments at the card party. My brothers and I always wondered why Mom bought goodies for the night she was hosting the party that WE NEVER had. We would pray and wish that the ladies would be on a diet and be unable to eat all that Mom had purchased- and thus, leave some for us...the starving, neglected kids. Haha!!

There were some traveling sets of favorite pinochle cards that went from house to house. I found this image that would be typical of the kind they would use in that era. My mom had special bathroom towels that only came out of the linen closet for card club night!!

I always remember not being able to go to sleep on card party nights. My bedroom was the connecting wall to the living room where the ladies would all be "cackling" (as my brothers called it) until late hours. Plus, how can one possibly go to sleep when worrying if there would be pound cake with syrupy strawberries and Dream Whip, or lemon squares or Sarah Lee triple layer cake left over??!!!! Or how about the soda pop? WE never got pop!! Mom never bought it until card club night!!!

B also has the same kind of memories of card club night at his house. His mom (my late mother-in-law) would take the sheets off the sofa and the wing back chair and put out the special reserve card club night throw pillows and have special desserts. He remembers sitting on the stairs peeking through the little window opening into the living room at his house along with his siblings. They would spy to see if their mom had served all the dessert they had seen in the kitchen which was NOT TO TOUCH!! Oh the suffering of little children!

Aren't you glad you didn't have to be the one wearing something like this under

your card club night outfit??????

How about these contraptions of torture?! Comfort...my ---... (rhymes with lass)!!!!!!!

These are actual tally cards from the 1950s. Notice above it says "boobie-me". Did that lady get the "boobie prize" because she wore one of those 1950's bullet bras?????????

The 3 photos above show some more tallies from the 1950's.

brain fun

I found a super fun (and informational too) web site all about life and people and things all through many eras that makes you get lost in the "I'll just click on one more page....Wow!!!...ok I can stop, well maybe just another and then I'll quit..." kind of mind frame. I have it saved in my favorites and then I can go back again after I put a load of my family's white socks in the wash so everyone will quit complaining. [Oh did I say that out loud?]

Speaking of complaining- I keep threatening to buy every member of the family the same size and style of white socks and just give all the current stuff to some mom with more time and patience. How can there be so many different styles of white socks for 5 family members???? Ugh! Sorry to get off subject, so lets get back to it. Here is the link to the site. If I were you I would first go put in a load of towels or jeans so you can look like you're multitasking. Just a suggestion!

http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/athome/index.html

Then I noticed the record player (my kids are fascinated by those dinosaurs of technology) and it made me think about the record player on the piece of ephemera I have. I won't bore you with all the super fun memories filed away in my head about record players at slumber parties and buying 45's with babysitting money...

I'll save that for another day when I have your attention trapped, errr, I mean reeled in, errr I mean attentive....