“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It Goes On.”
Robert Frost
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label books. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 8, 2018

The Cat Days of August


This is me many years ago. One thing has been pretty consistent through my life though, cats. Love them, they've owned me for most of my life! This poor kitty let me squeeze on it until the photo was over. I really don't remember any cats scratching me when I was little, maybe that's just selective memory. I was about five years old in this photo, I still remember bits and pieces of that time in my life.
 My Great Aunt made this cute little card for me when I was little. She was the 
'Martha Stewart' in our family!

 Guy loves this little camp chair!

Dot is the great Lioness atop her mountain surveying her back yard!
Of course, she has to have a nice cushion to rest on!!

It's been hard to blog this summer, the world has gone mad and every day in our country brings some new terrible thing. Children taken from their parents, perhaps never to be returned. Russians are our new allies, and the UK and Canada are our adversaries?? Up is Down and Down is Up. The sky is not blue it's red. Which is true in California, the red sky of fires consuming everything in their paths. I see it on the news and from folks I follow on Instagram, photos of the hills flaming red into the sky, and sometimes the sky has turned black from smoke.

I tend to turn inwards at these times and have been working on my shop trying to list and sell as much as possible before everyone runs out of extra cash to spend on such frivolous things. The strange thing is, I seem to be selling more than ever. Maybe people are trying to sooth that inner longing for something nostalgic and safe perhaps?  Anyway here are a few photos of a few things I've picked up, some are in my shop already. Most of these are from an estate sale of a ladies home, I found out that she was a teacher and she saved just about everything. Her name was Vivian, and even though I've never met her, I feel a great fondness for her delightful spirit.


 In this cute old board game from the 1930's, I found a handmade paper doll set. I'm guessing the paper dolls were made by Vivian and tucked away in the box under some paper and then were forgotten. As you see, some were never cut out.


Here's a set of children's puzzles still in the wrapper, from the 1950's. 
Cute as can be and the colors and condition are wonderful!



 We had lots of rain this summer and our flowers and the butterflies are very happy. 



Our weather has been a roller-coaster this year, hot humid, then cold, then raining every day and now hot and dry. The perfect days here are getting few and far between, high temps over 90 degrees used to be rare and now we're up to about 3 weeks! Every year we seem to add a few more hot days to the record. So on those rare warm but dry summer days, when a cool breeze wafts through the air, I get outside to enjoy it. One of those perfect days was a couple of weeks ago and I headed to our Arboretum and here is what I saw....

 The flowers are always beautiful at the Arb and this year they have a 
new art exhibit featuring Origami animals made from metal. 
The cranes below where in several features and I really loved the horses!



 The lilies were dazzling!


 The Dahlia's were divine!

 Stacked crane tower!




 The wildflower praire garden is a newer feature.




I purchased several boxes of items at the estate sale, I hadn't been to one all year! It took me days to sort through all of it, and it will take me another year to get it all listed in my shop!
I have to say though, some things have already sold! The pink angel trays sold right away.



 I think I'm going to fill the old tin with Christmas cookie cutters
 and put it up for sale in my shop.


The Littlest Angel book is so cute, I found several other really old books there.   They even sold the letters she had written to her boyfriend, husband when he was away during World War II. I'm not sure how the story goes, I haven't had time to even look through them. I'll let you know if I find out anything really interesting.

Here are some Christmas items I've already staged and have in my shop, or will have ready soon. The Elves are ornaments to hang on the tree.  The train light set is listed and I was so surprised that the lights actually worked!




Finally I'm closing out with this cute book illustration. It's from the book entitled
 "Doings of Little Bear", written by Frances Margaret Fox and illustrated by Warner Carr, 
1915, from Rand McNally Publishing. 

I hope that you are all feeling well these days, I know that some of you have also taken the summer away from blogging. Maybe in the Autumn with cooler weather we'll all be refreshed and ready to go again.  I just have to say that I still adore my friends here in blogland! And all of you in Canada and the UK, you are still our friends and allies, please know that the majority of the people here in the states feel the same as I do. Please don't give up on us. We are going through a rough patch, but things will get better.

Now don't mind me, but I'm going to round up my cat companions and head out side to commune with nature. Watching the butterflies does my soul a world of good and after all it's the Cat Days of August....

πŸ˜ΈπŸƒπŸ¦‹~ Diane


Monday, March 26, 2018

Winter Holds Us Close

Spring is here or should I say near?  It still feels and looks like winter around our place.  We are not alone, many areas are still in winter's icy grip!  Winter holds us close and does not want to let go! The remedy of course, is to dwell on all things Spring and stop looking out the window until all the now ugly, dirty, ice and snow melts away!

Don't be sad, look at these cute and pretty vintage things instead. If you'd like something cute of your very own, please visit the links attached to the images, all items are for sale in my Etsy shop.

Golden Egg Book

I have my original copy of the Golden Egg Book from when I was a child, it is so cute! This is an even rarer copy with the yellow cover that I picked up at an estate sale.   A little bunny finds an egg and is very curious to find out what the heck is inside. Adorable illustrations!


Spring Tulips, Rosina June Floral Teacup & Saucer

The tea cup above has tiny yellow and pink tulips and lots of gold gilding! Fill with tea and honey, it's just the thing to drive away those early spring chills! Also works wonderfully for holding Easter candy, flowers or a votive candle!








Baby Lamb Lamp

This Vintage Lamb Lamp will add fun to your cottage decor.  I would love to keep him, but alas, I am trying to downsize! Working condition, but does not come with a lamp shade. 


An Introduction to Wild Flowers

While away the hours waiting for spring flowers by looking through this gorgeous wild flower book! And it makes a great gift too!


Bunny Candy Holder, McCoy, Fanny Farmer

This adorable cheerful yellow Bunny was sold filled with Candy from Fanny Farmer! The candy is long gone! In this example I've added some faux flowers.

Bunnies, 1930s

This is part of a great auction find. Books from the 1930's! The Bunnies book has some darling illustrations and is in really great condition for it's age! Who doesn't like looking at cute bunnies, especially when they aren't' chomping on your garden flowers!


Easter will be here soon and it looks like we might have more snow and rain! Hope wherever you are you have some warmer days ahead.  Don't give up hope, sooner or later spring will arrive!

Happy Easter and Happy Spring to You!
~~ Diane ~~

 

Sunday, September 18, 2016

My Neck of the Woods

Hello! Anyone still out there?
I know, I've been gone for a whole month without any notice... Sometimes things happen to distract us from the blog world and draw us into the real world, sometimes the real world is hard.


While I was away some good things happened and a few bad things too.  That's the way it is, the bitter and the sweet all mixed together.

Let me catch you up to date on what's been going on ....


Some friends, my husband and I, went to the Apostle Islands, Wisconsin and sailed on Lake Superior for several days, and I lived through it ... (a blog post to come).



 After 9 hours of sailing, I felt like the mushroom on the right...


I've spent lots of time on my Etsy shop, working on inventory and social media, like Instagram....


https://www.etsy.com/listing/475390057/daily-dime-bank-buckaroo-cowboy-coin?ref=shop_home_active_17
  
Daily Dime Bank, Buckaroo Cowboy




My sales have been good this summer, keeping me 
busy shipping and restocking my inventory...

 




Vintage Chef Cats Salt Pepper Shakers

Vintage Chef Cats Salt and Pepper Shakers


The garden still requires some work and of course I have to spend time with my two adorable cats. Family visits and little excursions about town seems to have taken up the rest of my time this summer.


Politics this year seems to be even more hateful than most years, but I did think it funny that I found these blue elephants.  I thought they would be a great gift for the conflicted voter, but alas, one has a broken and re-glued trunk, so they will be staying at my house for the time being!



mother goose rhymes
 Mother Goose Rhymes

This 1953 edition of Mother Goose has the most adorable illustrations by Eulalie M. Banks. It's one of those books that I almost don't want to sell because I just love the sweet images!  But it is for sale now in my shop.. Click on the first image of the items to see the full listing and information.



 The image above and below are more from the Mother Goose book...



Locally some major things have happened since I was last here.

As I wrote in a previous post, Prince Rogers Nelson passed away last April.  His home and studio, Paisley Park, is opening for tours this month and next month there will be a tribute concert in St. Paul.

On a very sad note, the 27 year mystery of what happened to the young boy Jacob Wetterling has finally been solved and his family is having a memorial service for him at the end of September. After all these years he will finally be put to rest. If you haven't heard of this, just google his name and you will find the stories, I haven't the heart to go into any more details here.







So that's about it folks. Summer is fast coming to a close and the days are already getting shorter. My garden is winding down for the summer and will soon be covered with falling leaves. I'm hoping I have more time to spend here on the blog as I do enjoy visiting with all of you. If you are on Instagram, follow if you wish, I do tend to get over there more often just because it's so quick and easy.


I must dash away now... see you soon!
~~Diane~~


Wednesday, March 23, 2016

March into Spring!

March, in like a lamb, out like a lion! That saying seems so true as we saw warmer temperatures at the beginning of the month take a dive and now more snow is in the forecast!  You'll really need to cuddle up close to someone to stay warm, just like the bunny and duck below!



The Golden Egg Book was written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Lilian Obligado. Vintage 1962 publication by Golden Press, NY. A Little Golden Book.


I'm sharing some cheerful Spring and Easter images with you today. The books and the basket of chicks are available in my Etsy shop.  Click on the links if you are interested in finding out more about them.




These vintage wind-up Peek-A-Boo Chicks are simply adorable! As with many of the old wind-up toys, they don't work all the time, but they're still very cute!









The Fuzzy Duckling is a Big Golden Book. One morning the fuzzy duckling goes for a walk and meets a variety of animals along the way.  In the photo above he meets up with some lambs. Gorgeous illustrations on every page! Vintage hardcover book measures 12 1/4" x 9 1/4", great images for framing!



My house is finally decorated for Spring and Easter, even though today we are having a snowstorm! But that's the way it is here in Minnesota, and I have to remind myself that just a few years ago we had a huge snowstorm in early May!




I love these large milk chocolate eggs I found at Costco.  My husband could hardly wait until I finally let him have one after I was done taking pictures!  The bowl is vintage, I inherited it from my Mom and it was a gift to her from an Aunt, so it must be over 50 years old. The music box chick is a newer piece.






I hadn't purchased chocolate bunnies for years, but couldn't resist these cuties in their bright packaging.  The tablecloth is a vintage hand embroidered piece, I purchased it from an Etsy shop several years ago.





And finally, one of my new favorites, this is a vintage hand embroidered table-runner. I am in love with this sweet little duck! My husband found this at an estate sale and knew I would like it!


I wish you all a Happy Spring and a Joyous Easter....

Oh, and if you live in a climate like mine
you shouldn't have any trouble finding those hidden Easter Eggs.

Just follow the Bunny tracks in the snow!
~~ Diane ~~