Vintage Christmas Monday ~ Italian Village

It's Vintage Christmas Monday again at Anything Goes Here. You can also check out Joan's beautiful vintage tree from her reminder post.

I took these photos last week in the attic. This box has been sitting on top of a pile of Christmas boxes for at least 8 years, probably much longer. You can see how dusty it is. You never know what you may find in old boxes in the attic. It could be anything from old photos to old undergarments.

Lucked out with this box. It looks like the whole set is here.

Even this little guy in the corner.

A tiny Santa for a tiny village.

They have a lot of detail for being such little buildings.

Ready to check in?

Not Your Grandma's Turkey

My brother shows off the latest in fireproof fashions.

Maizy looks on as Tom takes the plunge...

in hot oil.

Now just kick back for 45 minutes...

and wa-la!

Hammy got a little jealous, he wanted to be the star of the show!

Potato Love

Our hosts.

We had 20 people in all but my photos of the other two tables didn't turn out. I'm sure they are all disappointed I didn't get to share photos of them chowing down!

The big game, featuring my other brother, his boys and my son.

A sweet ending to a fun day!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

REDnesday ~ Thanksgiving Wishes

Don't you just love this Rednesday button Sue at It's a Very Cherry World put together for Thanksgiving! It's so beautiful. It ties in perfectly with the vintage thanksgiving postcards I'm sharing. You can click on the photos to enlarge them.

This is the beautiful red card I was so excited about yesterday. Actually, I was excited about all the vintage postcards I found in the attic yesterday. If you missed it you can read about it in my previous post below. Reading it now I'm a little embarrassed, but I was absolutely giddy!

Can you read this postmark?

The date on the postmark is exactly 100 year ago yesterday, the day I found it by accident in the attic. It gave me the chills when I realized it. A hundred years have gone by but the sentiments could pass for today..."All are well and having fine weather."

I love the typography on this one.

Did you know I used to be a typesetter, back before PC's? I still had a computer but it was the size of a whole desk and held 4 font discs that spun around from character to character exposing special paper that had to be developed in a dark room. It's still is in my dad's printing shop. Some day someone will look at it and say, "Wow, an antique computer! It was also before spell check so proofreading was one of my other jobs. So now you know why it makes me crazy when I find typos like in my post yesterday! I was too excited to notice them.

This guy's busting out, no way he's gonna be dinner!

No red here but it was the last of the Thanksgiving cards.They are obviously so into each other they don't even see cupid stealing their turkey! Do you think cupid planned it that way?

These last 3 cards only had the year, 1913, written on the back.

This is the stocking that had me rummaging around in the attic in the first place yesterday. The one posted by Jane at Mamie Jane's reminded me of it and I wanted to pull it out and see why.

The overall shape is similar, especially the hat, even though they are decorated differently. This one was made by a friend of my mom's in the mid to late 60's. You can see Jane's childhood stocking here. It was made by her mother in 1960.

I'll leave you with my Thanksgiving porch flag. This guy's trying to camouflage himself with a fall wreath. We don't eat the decor so I guess he's safe.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!

Dawn

OMG! OMG! Vintage postcards in my attic!

Oh my gosh friends I am in such a tizzy here I don't even know what I'm doing. I accidentally posted this twice with just the title because I was so excited I hit enter after the title and it posted! So I erased it then did the exact same thing again. Third times a charm, let me catch my breath and tell you what has transpired in the last couple of hours since I posted about my award.

I usually don't post more than once a day but I just have to get this up today. I had been by Mamie Jane's, (see previous post for her link) and she had a very cute vintage Santa stocking. I told her I had a similar one and would look for it to share. I went up to the attic to go through some Christmas boxes and saw some boxes my MIL had moved around last time she was up there. One had a lot of old photographs but I spotted the corner of a postcard sticking out in the bottom so I had to check it out. There were several postcards loose in with the photos and on the very bottom I found this little box.

The pretty paper intrigued me so I opened it up...and nearly fainted.

Notice the lace on the inside. What a sweet touch. It probably held a special gift at one time. Now it holds 3 pieces of flint(?) and vintage postcards! I was trembling as I ran back down here to the office to go through them one by one. If you haven't noticed from my blog banner I've developed a love of vintage postcards. It started a few months ago when Debbi from CGT Designs sent me to a postcard site to look for art for my banner. That first night I spent hours going through all the amazing old cards. In fact I stayed up till one in the morning and my arm was so sore all the way to my elbow that I could hardly move it the next day. Who knew clicking the mouse took your whole arm? Back to the postcards...

This is graphics heaven! And the family history, oh my! There are probably around 100 cards here. They range from 1908 to 1924 from what I can read on the postmarks. Most were sent to hubby's great grandmother from her sister. A few were sent by other relatives and a few were from her to hubby's great grandfather.

The top pile up by the keyboard is Thanksgiving cards I'll post for REDnesday tomorrow. While waiting for these photos to load I was looking through them and realized one with a bright red background that had caught my eye was postmarked 1909.... Nov. 24 1909! That's 100 years ago today! I'm so excited now my tummy's queasy! I will feature it tomorrow as it is the perfect Red Thanksgiving greeting.

The two were maild at the same time by mother and daughter.

The daughter, hubby's grandmother who this home was built for, wrote, "Dear Papa, may I come and see you....

our house is drying out."

Several rivers run through our county and I have heard stories of major floods before steps were taken to protect the town better. Even so we've had several local areas flood in recent years. I was so touched by her sentiment I nearly cried. I think the post mark is 1910, it's a little blurry. I believe she was born in 1902 so she would have been about 8.

Then I read this one by the mother and I did cry. It says, "I have not heard from you for some time. Did you get my letter all right? Please let me know quickly..." I had seen another similar one where she said basically the same thing. These are postmarked so I assume he got these and held on to them. I also know "Pop" lived here in this house when his grand daughter, my MIL was a young girl. I think she told me he lived into the 50's so he obviously made it back okay. I can't help but wonder why he was away so long and what kept him from writing.

I am really so excited about finding these, I just don't even know how to express it. You can be sure I'll be sharing them on future posts. And I'll get back to the Santa stockings too! If Jane hadn't posted her Santa Stocking I may not have found them for a long time, if ever. Now I've got to get off this computer and get on with my day! I just couldn't help myself though, I had to share them right away, my heart was pounding so!

Talk About Some Bling!

Carol from Old Glory Cottage recently presented me with the 5-Diamonds Award. I was a little surprised as I've seen some very sparkly blogs out there and mine doesn't have a lot of bling. I think Karen must be referring to the glare of the flash in my photos! I'm learning though! I am actually thrilled because every girl love diamonds, even vintage country girls. I know of several very sparkly blogs but had to search far and wide to find someone who might want to play along. I always look for award and tag free labels so if I missed yours I apologize. Even if you can't pass it on right now please grab it for your sparkly blog!

The "rules" are pretty standard. Pass the award along to 10 bloggers whose blogs sparkle. Link up to them and let them know you're giving them the gift of diamonds! I'm having trouble pasting into blogger so for the official rules you can visit Carol here.

Here are some blogs that I've found that put the spark in sparkle!

The first one that came to mind is Country Wings in Phoenix. Everything sparkles on Sherry's blog!

I discovered this blog just today. It's called Glam and Glittery Thoughts. Julie has a very sparkly style with lots of fabulous graphics from the 20's!

Leigh from Bloggeritaville doesn't have a lot of sparkly gadgets on her blog but her sparkly personality shines through! Put her together with the sparkle of the sun on the sand and surf and this blog really shines!

Jane at Mamie Jane's is one talented crafter. Her blog sparkles with silver, glitter and glue ~ what ever she comes up with takes on a special shine.

A Petite Cottage sparkles as much as Ana's beautiful eyes! She has a romantic vintage style that is just breathtaking. Scroll through her November posts and you will see cut glass ornaments, vintage broaches and dandelion puffs under glass!

Well, I did pretty good to find five to pass this award on to. One of them for each diamond I received! Seriously, these are some pretty fabulous blogs, go check them out!

Sparkly Hugs.
Dawn

Vintage Christmas Monday ~ Pepsi Santa

Today is the first Vintage Christmas Monday hosted by Joan at Anything Goes Here. Please pay her a visit and check out all the cool Vintage Christmas Decor.

I haven't started decorating quite yet so I took these photos up in the attic. I know how you all like to come play in the attic with me.

Now many of you probably prefer a nice cup of coffee, hot chocolate or tea while decking the halls. Out here in California it's still fairly warm so a nice refreshing Pepsi does the trick!

This is one of my favorite decorations I've found in the attic. Hubby's grandfather owned a bar from the 30's into the 60's and much of the advertising merchandise is still around here. We have 5 of these Santas but the rest are all missing the top of the Pepsi bottle. If you look closely you can see this one is held on with tape.

He stands about 18 inches tall I'm guessing, I forgot to measure him. He's made of cardboard with a swing out stand in back. I just love the richness of the colors. We have another huge cardboard Santa I'll try to get to. I saw a corner of him sticking out from behind a lot of other boxes and some furniture. He'll be a project for when I have some help!

I found several boxes of vintage Christmas decor that I hadn't been in yet so I have lots to share over the next several weeks.

When Joan and I exchanged emails about her blog button I mentioned I'd be going up to the attic to see what vintage decorations I could find. She cautioned me to be careful but I doubt she had any idea how apropos her warning was. Hubby's grandparents were petite people. I'm sure they had no problem navigating these steep stairs. I, on the other hand, have to side step my way up and down 'cause my big ole feet don't fit. It's not like I'm a giant basketball player with size 16 shoes, these are 10 1/2, hard to shop for but not unheard of! My heel is flat against the riser here! Imagine carrying tons of storage tubs of decorations, and a tree or three, up and down these stairs. I have to hold the rail with one hand so I usually back down, setting the stuff down on each stair as I go. It takes forever! When I get to the big tree box, I set it down on the landing then send it sliding down like a sled!

If you'd like to see more of the attic you can check out these posts here and here. Merry Vintage Christmas!

Dawn

Special Olympics Bowling ~ Life's Lessons

Focus

Determination

Hope

Camaraderie

Encouragement

Satisfaction

Thrifty Thursday ~ French Doors Times 4

Yard sale season may be slowing down but there are still plenty of good finds out there. As Leigh pointed out a few weeks ago, there are all kinds of other ways to be thrifty too. Please stop by her place and see what's cooking today.

I really hit the jackpot this week at Strawberry Saturday. Imagine walking in to a place that usually has clothes and knick knacks and seeing...French Doors. 1, 2, 3, 4, sets of French Doors! That's 8 doors. Eight old doors. My brain was doing cartwheels!

Heavy, solid doors.

Hinges still attached.

Door knobs.

Double pane windows!

Cheryl told my one set had already been paid for and she was waiting for them to be picked up. The set shown here in front was actually 3 inches taller than the others and didn't have any hardware so I think they may have been used as transoms, not functioning doors. That still left 2 sets with hardware and one that could probably be re-worked into doors. But at what cost???

$40.00 per set!

Remember our old "wash house"?

I posted about it here. Ever since we moved here I've been dreaming about making it into an arts and crafts studio for me and my daughter. I envisioned this being a wall of French doors letting in the light for a nice bright space that would open onto a brick patio by the old outdoor fireplace. Of course the whole building would still be covered in these incredible pink roses.

Insert the sound of glass shattering here.

Not the doors, my broken heart. Hubby couldn't see my vision, at least not as these particular doors were concerned. It's okay, he's being practical. I get it.

On the bright side. The doors are still available. Someone else will get to enjoy the same thrill as I did when they discover them. And I guess sometimes that's what it's all about...the thrill of the hunt!