Christmas is past

This is what it looked like a few weeks back, before I decorated the hutch with vintage Christmas stuff. My kitty was inspecting the area for me. This is also what it looked like again last night, after all the vintage Christmas was packed away for another year.
How 'bout a look around at what it was like for the holiday here when all the vintage nostalgia was in full force.

So much of this stuff takes me back to the days of visiting Grandma and Grandpa's house. I have great memories of those times.... visual reminders and certain scents-- like ham baking in the oven, or fruitcake in a tin, can make me feel like a kid in their house like it was yesterday.

Some of these items will be sold off and new (or old) things will come in to replace them. The circle of collections and thrifting.

We had a good Christmas together as a family. Good food, good memories made, the warmth of a crackling fire in the fireplace and the promise of what our faith brings us.

I love the photo above and am thinking I will offer it for sale as a print. Don't you love those old Christmas bulbs?

We did end up having a real tree once again this year, vs. an artificial one, after a lapse of several years. Boy did I miss a real tree. Love the scent! Our tradition each year was to go to a tree farm the second weekend of December and cut one as a family outing. I miss that tradition, but the tree farms all became more pricey than our budget would easily allow, so sadly there have been no recent trips to the tree farm. This year we headed to the big box home store to buy a tree that was probably cut back in Sept. or something crazy like that. Anyway, we could afford it as it was cheap enough, with the help of our rebate coupon we were redeeming from a previous purchase for a much needed home repair- (adventures in home ownership, as we like to refer to it)-and it really was a cute, tiny tree, after all.... even if it had been cut months ago and struggled to hold its needles.

On top of the table by the window it looked like a tall proud tree from outside. We did fool the neighbors, until they came inside and our secret was revealed. Look closer and you will see one of our traditions...

We always put my stuffed animal squirrel from my childhood tucked in among the branches.
Some of you may know of a movie that has a squirrel in the Christmas tree!!

We ended up having to take down the tree early as it was very dry and we did not want to burn down the house. You know, since it was probably cut back in Sept. or something and all the drinks we gave it were not enough to refresh it for long. We would ordinarily leave it up until Epiphany. Since I had to take the tree down I disassembled the rest of the decor while I was on a roll. On to the new year!!

777 posts and What's on the corner cupboard?

It's amazing to think about...my last post was number 777. Can you believe it? I can't! I wonder how many of them were interesting and attention keeping? I hope a few, anyway.

Soon it will be time to clear off my red corner cupboard shelves and put my vintage Christmas thingies out for display. Why not take a peek at what has been collecting dust, errr...I mean...displayed there lately? These things all just happened, more than being consciously planned. Does that ever happen at your house?

The old book Freddy and the Fire Engine is from the 1920's and is a favorite find. I love the colors of the graphics, the feel of the old pages... and the fact that my own brother is a brave firefighter.

I have a weird thing for old Fisher Price toys. I like the 1960's best, but also enjoy the 1970's. The Fisher Price radio is one that someone was throwing away because their kids out grew it (many decades ago). It still plays music.

All 3 of my kids seem to accumulate small bouncy balls (in my day we called them super balls)and although the cat thinks it's fun to have them randomly scattered throughout the house, I don't. They ended up being corralled nicely into a glass candy shop jar.

The 2 old Boy Scout books were also being thrown away by some person who thinks that any book still not on the top 10 best seller's list is much too old to bother with...so of course it now lives happily in my house among the other tattered adopted books. Since N. is now a Cub Scout he enjoys a look at what was being done in scouting even before his Daddy was born, and that's reeeeally olllld!

The red tin was my Mom's and she always had it in the kitchen filled with all those Betty Crocker points things that you tear off boxes and labels. I don't think she ever really sent them in to redeem for anything. I think it had something to do with the fact that you could buy most of those offered items somewhere locally in the store and not pay the shipping fee.

The vintage music sheets are only taped up to the back of the shelves, so they can be changed when I feel like exerting the effort at some point. I have loved the look for a while now and credit my friend, Sharon, for the idea. Thanks Sharon!

I will do a little photo shoot of all 3 shelves once it is dressed for Christmas. Stay tuned!

non melting snowmen, snowflakes and vintage Valentines

I usually have my snowmen packed away by February 1st. They always stay up after the truly Christmas items have been packed but I usually don't mix them with Valentine's decor.
This year I must admit I have had a harder time letting go of them. They are finally going to be retired tomorrow to return next year.

We have had one of the snowiest Winters in a long long time. I love the snow and I love Winter. I just don't love the bitter cold that seems to be still hanging on. I am tired of the single digit temperatures and below zero wind chills that are commonplace on the daily news report.

Tomorrow it is supposed to raise above the freezing mark on the thermometer. I almost forgot what that feels like, to be able to walk outside without your eyelashes feeling like they will freeze and snap off and not needing to have every bit of skin covered that you possibly can cover.

I must admit I am going to be slower about taking down my paper snowflakes from all the windows. They just look so pretty with the world outside every window all draped in white.

Even when I do start taking them down it will still take about 2 days to carefully remove the tiny pieces of tape rolls on the backs and store them safely away for the 17th year. And OF COURSE I have added more this year, as I always do.

So, snowflakes and Valentines are living side by side in my Ohio house this year!

Snowflakes go with Valentine's like Milk Glass goes with Valentines.

Two of my favorite things: snowflakes and vintage Valentines!!

cozy in a storm of snow...

 I couldn't let this holiday season past pass by without showing what our house looked like inside. So here we go....

Yep! I did cut all those paper snowflakes! I have been cutting them and saving them for 16 years. This is not all of them. They are all over the house! On every window and lots of other places. The paper snowflakes will stay up until Valentine's day, like they do each winter.

Last year was the first year that I started hanging from the beams the other snowflakes- plastic, glass, wood, resin- that are collected each year during the after Christmas sales when you can get a really fancy flake 90% clearance!! I never spend more than $1 each. They are suspended from fish line. It is so fun at night when we have candles burning and the fireplace is roaring and there are no lights turned on. It is like a blizzard in the house and the flakes glimmer in the candle/fire light!

I took these photos at night so the flakes would show up nicer against the night darkness outside the windows.

The tarnished silver glittered star and filigree metal snowflake hang from the chains for the light/fan over the table.

When the girls were little we would make felt mittens on yarn each year as an arts and crafts project. They now hang in the archway with lots of icicles and their actual mittens they wore as babies.

My hutch is currently filled with milk glass, mostly inherited or cheaply thrifted.. Milk glass is so versatile, great year 'round and for any holiday too. I even used it in my Halloween decorating.

The milk glass lamp was a curb side find. I had the electrical stuff checked out so it would be safe, then added a vintage shade and it was all okey dokey!!
The 2 story doll house up on top was bought for a few bucks. It is really big. A super find. The people selling it thought it was "dumb". I haven't decided how I want to paint it so it is plain wood still.

This is one of my pieces that was found in someone's trash!! Can you believe it? This pretty lace edge rectangular piece. No!, I did not dig through spoiled food or scooped cat litter. It was in a open box at the curb with some other glassware type things, almost like the thrower-outer was feeling a pang of guilt and hoped someone would come and adopt some of it.  I can accept the rocking bottom flaw. Unconditional milk glass love!! I once brought home a freebie that was badly broken on one side. I put it up on a shelf with the good side facing out. I have gotten more compliments on THAT piece and it is only about 2/3 whole!!!

I put a lot of my favorite flakes on the cupboard each year.


Vintage games and other vintage found items are on my corner cupboard...the display changes.... it is crowded with the remembrances of Christmases gone by.... Santa gifts from before the days of video games .... you know, when games used imagination and manual power instead of computers/tv's and electricity to have fun.

I love the little knee hugger elves. My Grandma had them and it makes me think of her. That's her recipe box there in the picture!!

I love these old blocks I found when N. was born. The red book with the hockey player on the cover is one that belonged to my Grandpa and I was given from my Uncle J's house last summer. Thanks Uncle J!
Old books can be VERY fun just for their covers.
I made the little altered art card.

More thrifted milk glass.

And the doll house I painted many years ago that was bought for CHEAP! The kids have so much fun with it!! They decorated it themselves this year.

chairs are fun

Recently I visited my cousin while he was house sitting while my Uncle (his Dad) was out of state. We shared lots of stories about growing up.

I told him about a little red chair I remembered. At our Grandma "Bubbles" house (down the street from my Uncle's house) I used to sit in a little chair-- as a small girl wearing my fancy cute dresses and crinoline slips and patent leather shoes and curled blonde hair.
( It is now naturally curly strangely enough. Maybe an effect of all those torturous years of sleeping in sponge curlers or rolled socks!).

Grandma had a room at the front of the house with lots of windows and, I think, shelves under the windows. Not sure about the configuration of the shelves, but I know that was where she kept her scrap book albums.

Yep and double yep!==Grandma was a woman before her time with the scrapbooking. She would save all the hand written letters I wrote to her- terrible grade school misspellings and all- and every drawn and colored art creation and coloring book page signed and dedicated especially to her that I had ever tossed her way! No need to wonder... I come from a long line of savers!
I remember feeling really proud as I looked at the way she had immortalized my efforts at being a good granddaughter. Incidentally, I have that scrapbook stuff from Grandma's house even now. The stuff I would look at while siting in the little chair at every visit.

Here's where the story gets even better==
I told this story to my cousin and he listened to my ramblings (much like my blog ramblings!). He finally had the chance to get a word in edgewise and seized the opportunity.

"That was probably my Dad's little red chair from when he was a little boy. He told me he used to sit in it to listen to the radio!!
[or listen to radio as it was back then, just as we now say watch TV as opposed to saying watching the TV]
He still has it. It is here in the house. "

I was shocked. Then he said, before I started my rantings again, "Would you like to see it?"

Well, would I like to breath some air is just about the same question in my opinion!!!!!!
I was sooooo excited as he went to the closet and pulled it out. I had to take a picture of it. Had to!!
I only wish there were a photo somewhere of Uncle J. as a little boy sitting in this little red chair listening to radio!!!!!!

Then he showed me some boxes of OLD books that have been in the family for 100 years stacked in another of my Uncle's closets but we did not open any of them. It was like looking into King Tut's tomb in my opinion!!! What treasure undiscovered!!! That's another story for another time...

Speaking of chairs...


Some time ago I bought this cute child size vintage chair (or chairs, depending on how you approach it all) in my travels, and now I am trying to decide what to do. I collect old Raggedy Ann dolls and I can picture them sitting in this.
What do you think?
Keep? Sell? Oh the drama of life! Anyone with any thoughts??
Just one more funny thing to share while on the subject of chairs. I was on the way to taking E. to the Rescue Horse Barn where she volunteers and we passed a huge Edison electrical repair truck. Tucked inside and up on top were two stacked wicker chairs (where they had absolutely NO business being!!!!) as if the guys had found them along the road in some one's trash and couldn't leave the opportunity behind. I wonder what their boss would say about this mode of transport? And hey! I thought I was the only one silly enough to drag home chairs!!

Things you can live without knowing

My handmade quilt and redwork embroidery.

More random facts about

this  author:

1. We had 5 living generations of males in my family until my Grandpa died in his late 90's.  * my dad's dad * my dad * my brother * my nephew * my great nephew

2. I liked these TV shows when I was growing up= The Flying Nun, That Girl, Ed Sullivan, The Honeymooners, I Love Lucy, The Carol Burnett Show, Laugh-In, All In The Family.

3. I have tiny little Native American dolls from almost each time throughout my life that we vacationed in northern Michigan .

4. All three of our kids have my hair and eye color.

5. I always let my kids lick the spoon or mixer beaters, I know I am not supposed to, pretty sure no one died recently from it.

6. When I was about 6, I remember my dad telling me never to play with matches and I would be rewarded with a popsicle. I never played with matches. I received many popsicles through my life but I don't know if I ever received THAT popsicle!!

7. I drive a 5 speed stick shift car. Most of my cars have been stick shifts. I prefer them.

8. I enjoy watching classic dance like ballroom, ballet, Rockettes, Latin, tap... I used to be a dancer from age 3 until age 29. I long to dance and sew and not have the thousands of responsibilities that face me each year!

9. Among my family tree branches from long ago I have= a nun,  a priest, a grave digger, nurses, and a circus trapeze performer.

10. I can't stand the smell of the kind of coffee made in my house, but the smell any other place never bothers me. B drinks coffee from morning till night, it never keeps him awake that's for certain. I don't drink coffee, I have never made even one pot of coffee at my home.

Dolly Memories

1968. Posing with my Chatty Cathy doll and my puppy named Scarlet.
My Mom called her Scarlet Autumn Leaves or Scarlet Red Ribbons. As a 5 year old I didn't get the connection of scarlet being like the color red . Also, my puppy was not red!!!!! I thought she was Scarlet like in Gone with the Wind.
But hey!...Don't you love my SCARLET RED SHOES?!

Chatty Cathy.

My Cathy's SCARLET RED SHOES!!

This was my loot brought from the North Pole in 1968.
I always got a new nightie or pj's for Christmas. These slippers were way cool, and I felt like a grown-up...they were like velvet shoes and had big fluffy pom-poms on them on top 
that you can notice in this photo.

See my Charmin' Chatty doll in the background? She's the one wearing the [Harry Potter] glasses. I always thought she was a kind of scary looking doll but she was fun to play with. She had a slot in her side where you could slide tiny little records to make her say different things. Very high tech!! Haha When it all wore out you would only get possessed sounds for a voice when you pulled the cord. Yikes!

I wrote about my "Amy Loves Goodbyes" book here.

Wanna know a secret? The pink kitty is on my nightstand right now!!!

Charim'Chatty.

Finds

 I headed off to the post office and on to a quickie junkin' adventure. I can't explain it, but sometimes I get a gut feeling that I may find something~something really spectacular~on a certain junkin' trip. Today was like junkin' lottery winnings. I got all this and received change back from my $5.00 bill !
Can you believe it??!

First thing to show and tell is this record album (front and back shown partially above. Plopped it on the scanner). I got a little tingle in my tummy when I found this on a shelf mixed in with lots of junk. The record is still in it. And -yes!- we have a record player. I will let you know how the songs sound.

I never can resist a good red and white find. The pink is going to a pink loving friend. I can't get over the gorgeous tatting work on the green and white piece, such detail. I wish I could tat. Empress Alexandra Romanov spent many hours while in exile tatting with her 4 daughters. Do you think it is somewhere in a Russian junk shop?

These 2 dresser scarves will be gifts to someone who will LOVE them, I'm sure of it. Hard to find something done in mostly purple.

We still use that antique machine called a VCR at our house so this was a good find. A good classic movie. Yes, we do also have a DVD player...we aren't totally retro in technology. Close to pathetic however. No digital camera or cable vision at our address.

This is a little picture {about 8x10} that I think may meet with some altered art touches and be put in a crackle painted frame. Watch for it --as I will let you know what I decide.