Vintage Christmas Gift Tags

I had a great luck looking for vintage Christmas stuff the other week.  In the bottom of a wreath box I found these tags.  I don't know what the copyright laws are on stuff this old, so I'm not going to say you could go to my Flickr page and download these for personal use.

Instead I'll just talk about these adorable tags...

and the wonderful colors - I love how much pink use to be a part of Christmas,

and the awesome fonts,

and the way Santa never stood on two feet until at least 1980 -had you noticed? I think he wobbled from too much eggnog before the whole salmonella scare came along,


and how lovely it is to find these tiny treasures from the past.

How Grandma Almost/Might Have Killed Santa

My grandmother is getting dementia. She remembers a lot of things and can tell stories about her childhood and even some stories from ours, but she forgets names (she had forgotten my mom), and names of things (hallways are alleys), and what she ate yesterday.  She thought the last time I'd been to see her was when my youngest was a toddler, but that isn't the case.  We just saw her this summer.  A visit during which she fell and broke her hip.   And I just nodded, because letting her think I've avoided her for three years somehow seemed better than bring up that horrible day.

So the visit went pleasant enough - until we brought up Christmas.  And I joked at my girls that if they were naughty Santa would bring them coal in their stocking.  And then laughed and said "Isn't that right, Grandmother".  I expected her to have my back.  Boy was I wrong.  She said, "I don't remember that,but I do remember one year when money was real tight and we bought one ride on toy for all three boys to share and told them that Santa didn't have much money"  (insert record scratch sound effect now!)  Woah!! My head was reeling and inside I'm screaming, "Grandmother! My kids! They are sitting right here.  They believe!! They believe!!"    I smile at my grandmother and then looked deliberately at my daughter sitting by me as if to say 'follow my eyes - see her'  and I stroked her hair...or maybe I smacked her head repeatedly trying to get my Grandmother so see her and stop,  but she went on....  "And the little boy up the road saw their present and said, "Boy are you lucky. Santa didn't even stop at my house""    And I quickly changed the subject, hoping my child wouldn't catch on to what she had said.  The youngest, buried in her DSi, seemed to be spared the trauma of having dreams of Santa killed by Grandma.

I turned the subject to school.   And Grandmother asked the girls if they liked school and they said, "Yes! We do!" and Grandmother said, "Well that's good I never did."  And I was all like, what the heck is all this truth telling? We don't tell children the truth! We tell them we loved school and there is a Santa Claus.  You lie to children - that's the rules!  That's what we do.

"Happy Thanksgiving" and "How Kentucky Rocks"

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  With my girls away with their father, I spent my day with my best friend's family.  We've been friends since our freshman year of college in 1991 and are cut from the same cloth - frayed piece of cloth it is.  So on Thanksgiving with our bellies full of the finest Southern fare, we drove to her house to give her pooch a potty break.   We are out in the yard and she is walking her pup around on a leash.  All of a sudden her foot slips sideways in the wet grass.  She was going down - but, realizing she might land on the dog and possibly kill it she started the long slow stagger-fall.  We all have seen it happen.  It is like watching a long slow train wreck.  When she does finally hit ground she looses her grip on the leash and the puppy bolts.   I, being the ever dutiful friend, yelled, "I've got her!!" and took off after the puppy who'd ran up on the porch, but alas I'm vertically challenged and the steps were made  for the Jolly Green Giant and I didn't make the step and flopped onto the porch.   My friend and I, both still where we fell, laughed hysterically.  To make matters worse there were about 8 people standing outside the neighbor's house on a smoke break to witness this.   We are sure they thought we were drunk.  I even cautiously searched "Drunk Women Rolling In Yard On Thanksgiving" on YouTube, to make sure no one had videoed the spectacle.

I spent the rest of the evening learning to play Rook.  I researched it and it seems Rook came about because religious folks wanted to play cards, but felt a normal poker deck was of the devil, so Parker Brothers redesigned the cards and Rook was born.  It is played heavily in Kentucky and Rook Tournaments play with 'Kentucky Rook" rules.  I was telling an elderly family member about this and said, "I didn't realize that Rook was kind of a Kentucky game."  She said, "So is Chess."  My eyebrows went up in surprise.  "Yes," she said, "Chess originated in Kentucky."  So...take that Fifteenth Century Europe.

Vintage Christmas family Movie 1960-1962

I know, I'm in the Christmas Spirit a bit early this year, but had to share this adorable video I found on Youtube. At around 5:00 they give you a 'tour' of the room and how it is decorated and how the tree is decorated. It also zooms in on the dolls faces. I love it!! It is so sweet and just gives you tons of warm fuzzies. I found some great vintage Christmas items this year I can't wait to decorate with them.


For those with Spotify,  here is a Vintage Christmas Music playlist to get you in the mood!

Not so Retro Music

As much as I love old/vintage/retro things, I'm just not someone to music from past decades.  It just isn't my thing.  So how does someone who love vintage stuff satisfy their vintage craving musically?  Well there are a few modern artists who fit the bill...

Caro Emerald - She has a beautiful smooth, sultry voice. Her songs are upbeat with what I consider a little Calypso feel.  Songs like "The Lipstick on His Collar" would fit right in a old Sean Connery/James Bond movie. The video for "That Man" is too cute, puts me in mind of the opening of Monsters Inc.  This is my favorite though, "On a Night Like This" -



Of course you also have the Rockabilly/Psychobilly groups. I am partial to The Creepshow's "In the Garden" and Hillbilly Moon Explosion's "My Love For Evermore".  I think the guy singing on "My Love For Evermore" sounds like what Michael Madsen would sound like if he sang and the video fits with a Tarintino feel.  

My very favorite artist of the moment is Imelda May.  I love "Mayhem", "Psycho","Johnny's Got A Boom" Boom, which was on the soundtrack for Wild Target.  Currently I am stuck on her song "Road Runner".  The video is too cute!


Is it wrong that I used leftover pink hairspray from Halloween and sprayed an Imelda May style stripe in the front of my 6 year old's hair?  And put it in an Imelda May loopy swoop?  And sent her out in public like that?

What do you do when you find something too precious to purchase?

You take a photo and blog about!
How cute is this? I love coming across stuff like this at thrift stores. Although I don't want these doily plastic fruits on my dining table, I love the idea that some sweet old lady painstakingly made these to brighten her home.

Now, I am trying type this entry via iPhone and I'm not sure where the photos will go in the post , but I figured while I'm here I'll post a couple more photos from, this, my favorite thrift shop.  The little lady that manages this runs a very tight ship. A place for everything and everything in its place.

Even the walnut mice refrigerator magnets have a home here.

Happy Birthday Louis Daguerre!

I love Google's homage to Louis Daguerre this morning!!  This is one of my favorite Google doodles I've seen.   Louis was one of those lovely combinations of scientist and artist through which new mediums are born.  When the first permanent photograph was produced in 1826 by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, Louis worked with Niepce to further develop this process until Niepce's death in 1833.  Louis went on to perfect his process and the Daguerreotype was produced in 1839 and portrait photograph is born! 

Daguerreotypes were mounted, for safe keeping, in little cases, but not every case you find contains a daguerreotype- some are ambrotype and tintypes.   Here are some case images from my mother's collection.  I'm not sure any are daguerreotypes, but they are still beautiful little case prints.





 


Ambrotypes came into use in the 1850's and it was an easier process and replaced Daguerreotypes. Ambrotypes are like negatives on glass with black emulsion painted to make the negative areas black.

This little guy is out of his case, so it is easy to see, from the side this is a glass image. 



In this one you can see the black backing has separated from the image.

Although looking straight on the image is easily seen.

Although this image doesn't show it, these ladies have the same thing happening.


Although I'm not positive, this seems to be another Ambrotype with some sort of damage that is making he negative 'drop' and the positive peel.

This image is housed in a "Genuine Union Case" which was made of a composite material made from sawdust.


 Of course with people interested in anachronism (like Steampunkers) you can find artists online producing modern Daguerreotypes.  Here are some examples:

Shiny Photos - Jonathan Danforth
Cased Image - Alan Bekhuis
Contemporary Daguerreotype Flickr Group

And  Alternative Photography who I subscribe to on Facebook. 

Thanks to men like Daguerre and Neipce we can preserve a tiny moment in time to have forever. So maybe Daguerre was more than Artist and Scientist.  Maybe he was also Magician. 

Move to the Head of the Class

I love browsing thrift stores.  As you've read, I collect - and even use vintage cameras and lenses, but I really love vintage and antique items.  I've had an antique doll collection since I was a kid and I also collect Little Golden Books and Tell-a-Tell books.    What really draws me to a lot of vintage items are the colors and styles of illustration that are specific to that time.   Something as simple as an old box with a  really neat font makes me smile.


Recently I was thrifting and found this old board game, "Move to the Head of the Class" and and fell in love with it.  I love the heavy bold lines, the super cute fonts, and the rich colors.

 

I loved the funny out of date trivia and the avatar names like Butch, Bonnie and Susie.
 
 
 I was very excited with my find and then a week later I am reading Freckled Wonder and see she found the same game in her thrifting excursion!!  That, along with a ton of other very cool stuff and then I kinda felt like "I went thrifting and all I got was this lousy game" compared to her trunk of goodies. 

The kids and I tried to play the game.  Try is the operative word.  Seems people back then were way smarter than we are now, because the questions were HARD!   So,  when it was the kids turn I tried the easy category.  It wasn't much better.
 
 
The questions were easy....if you were a child in the 1970's.   What was the name of the Lone Ranger's horse?  What was the name of Roy Rogers horse?  What were the names of President Johnson's dogs? 
 

So, after we realized our tolkens weren't going anywhere near the head of the class anytime soon, we decided to call it a day and licked our wounds.  Perhaps when we are all a little older and wiser we'll crack the game open again.  Even if we can't make it past seat 10 (of 100), we can still smile at the super nostalgic charm this little game has. 

Sweety Tweety

 
Sweet little Tweety was brought in with her brother and sister as feral kittens.  We adopted her brother and her sister was adopted, but Tweety was returned from Petsmart unwanted.  She's very meek and skittish, but blossoms once you gain her trust.   It is sad to see such a beautiful girl be passed over.  I take photos of the cats, in hopes that something about the photo will spark someone's interest and gain them a home.  It is tougher than you think.  The shelter workers that push to get the animals adopted and rescued really have a hard job and I applaud them for all they do.



By the way, if you like the look of  Tweety's photos and want to recreate it, I am using  Nelia's pink action from her Things You Remember blog

Happy Veterans' Day

 {Vintage}+{photography}+{Veterans' Day} = 

Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima   by Joe Rosenthal

V-J Day in Times Square  by Alfred Eisenstaedt

Two iconic photographs representing triumph and jubilation.  I dare say there isn't a US citizen who hasn't seen one or both of these images.  I wanted to post these today - along with a thank you for all  those who have served to keep our country, our home, safe.  

 My Paternal Grandfather and Grandmother.  My Grandfather served in the Army during WWII.  He was in the Battle of the Bulge.  I know two stories from him.  One was that he was in a foxhole with a friend and he left to go to tea and the friend decided to stay.  When he got back his friend was killed.  I don't remember if he was shot or was killed by an explosive.    Another time he was set ahead as a scout and went up to an old house and knocked on the door.  There was a German soldier inside who opened the door and shot at him.  He said it was stupid and he knew better.  Later when he took off his scarf he found a bullet hole in it.  So close!

 

 This is my maternal granfather.  He was a lifetime Navy man.  He retired as a Chief Petty Officer.  I remember, as a child, asking if that was good.  He said he guessed so- it took him long enough to get it!

 He spent some time in Antarctica (above photo) and some photos I've found are from parts of Africa. One photo is easily recognizable as Table Mountian in Cape Town, South Africa. I was lucky enough to find some film and had the photos developed.  Such an amazing look into his travels while in the Navy. I wish he was around to tell me about them. 

 He is seated in the far left in this photo.  Quite a looker if I do say so myself.  Kind of a Neil Diamond look.He loved the ladies and the ladies loved him.  He was a Seabee in the Navy.  He said during Vietnam they worked to clear areas for construction and planes would go overhead spraying chemicals, agent orange, while he was on the dozer.  He died of cancer.  Go figure.

One story I know from him was that he was shot while serving in the Navy, but he received no purple heart.  His commanding officer said, "Don't go over there".  But he went over there- I do believe there was a bar or pub involved - and was shot.  So when he asked if he'd get a purple heart his commanding officer said , "No, because I told you not to go over there".  I wish he were still alive.  I bet he had some great stories for older ears. haha

"I'm An Adventure"

I love, love, love foreign films and watch them when I can.  I adore the French OSS 117 movies for the humor, for Jean Dujardin, and for gorgeous retro style eye-candy that they are. 

OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies(2006) preview:


Cairo, Nest of Spies is set in 1955 and is filmed in rich hues where the blues are almost velvety.  A very funny movie which introduces you to a very old fashion, bigoted, but lovable Secret Agent 117, Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath.

 OSS 117: Lost in Rio (2009)  preview:



In Lost in Rio we meet back up with OSS 117, but this time in 1967 where his backwards views on the world are no longer the norm and he is stumbling in a changing time when women are proving themselves as valuable as men.

In my opinion this movie is even funnier than the first.  It  is filmed in gorgeous technicolor style with a yellow tones and cool split screen scenes.

I have to admit I'm totally smitten with OSS 117- his swarthy French accent and cheesy smile which reminds me of George Hamilton.  Swoon!

As a photography nut, I was excited to see Secret Agent 117 pretending to be a tourist with a sweet rangefinder camera.  As much as I paused and zoomed I couldn't figure out what make it was.  Luckily I stumbled upon this picture online and can now see he was using an Olympus Pen.

I don't have any of those in my camera collection, but I do have a few Yashica rangefinders.  There is also a new Fuji Finepix X100 Digital Rangefinder Style camera now out that I'd love to own, but I digress.  

The movies are funny and very entertaining and I highly recommend them!


Netflix Streaming: OSS 117: Lost in Rio
Netflix Streaming: OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies

Photography App: Hipstamatic

I have several photography apps on my iphone, but my favorite is the Hipstamatic App.  This app allows you do download different 'lenses', 'film', and 'flashes' that, combined, give you a huge variety of looks.   There is also the option to just shake your iphone and get a random film and lens, which is always fun because you never know what you'll get.


Jackson Square New Orleans


St. Louis Cathedral, New Orleans




Johnny Rockets, Newport Aquarium, Kentucky


Just to show that not all images are aged looking.
Johnny Rockets, Newport Aquarium, Kentucky

Holiday World Splashing Safari,  Santa Claus, Indiana

Week in Review

I am sad to see October come to a close.  I love how the onset of autumn brings with it a spooky thrill.  The chilly breeze that wraps around you, playfully tossing your hair, the crunch of fallen leaves that make you feel  you are walking in beautiful red, yellow, orange, and brown confetti, and the way the wind and the leaves together rustle with whispers of ghosts and goblins.

Halloween night in a small town is magical with hundreds of children darting about, their giggles ringing in the air like bells.  I was lucky to be part of such a Halloween.  There were people directing traffic on Main Street to keep the Trick or Treaters safe and the churches combined efforts to put on two big trunk or treats and a free meal of hotdogs, chips, chili, and homemade desserts.  The people talked and laughed and if there were a modern day Normal Rockwell, and he had been there, he would have gone home and painted what he saw  for a modern Saturday Evening Post.

I enjoyed a month long horror movie binge and since I finished off all the streaming Korean horror movies on Netflix, I decided to go retro and delved into Giallo movies - Italian horror from the 70's, which, it turns out, are not for the faint of heart.  

Things you should check out if...

...you didn't get a chance to read Eartha's post about a retro Halloween PSA, then run, don't walk, and read it, watch it, and laugh: Childhood: Proceed with Caution - Ranch Dressing with Eartha Kitsch

....you didn't get to see how Danielle Thompson, from Thompson Family-Life, dolled up her vintage portraits for Halloween: making it up to you
 
 ....you love vintage things, because Jenny Mitchell, of the Freckled Wonder BLOG, has some awesome board games.  Kind of spooky, she found the same "Move to the Head of the Class" game I did last week.  collections: mid century board games 

A Belated Happy Halloween

It is a little late for Halloween, but I wanted to share my spooky vintage find of the year.



I found this doll for a song at a local flea market. I think she was a good buy and I was lucky to grab her when I did because I got 'ooh's and comments from several ladies who saw her.  She's a really large composition doll, who's arms are wonderfully crackled with age.  She was wearing a horrid 80's looking purple dress, which probably contributed to the low price.   I chucked that right away. Luckily I had the little white antique baby dress which fit her perfectly.   When I saw her I knew she'd be perfect for photos.  I have this idea for some old/neglected/urban decay type photos to take using her.





Some little girl in the past painted her nails red




I've collected antique dolls for years, although I haven't bought any in as many. I think she was a 'mama' or a 'crier'.  She has a disc you can feel through the fabric of her back, but it doesn't make any sounds.  I haven't washed her up yet, because of the types of  photos I want to take, but also because there's something really cool? unique? interesting?  about her face.

It is the type of thing that could really creep a person out if you were so turned...



Do you see it? Looks like tear streaks, doesn't it?  lol  Of course I don't believe they are, but if I hear strange noises at night and the pitter pattering of little feet that don't belong to my daughters...this doll is so outta here.  That's all I'm saying.  lol   Just wanted to share my cool creepy little find.