And the number one thing brightening our spirits in these cold months?
Posted on February 8, 2010
Filed Under christmas, das kiddo, family | 1 Comment
Rainey, of course!!
He’s still a long, skinny bundle of snuggly cuteness and charm. His head is pretty big for his age, and I think when people see him in his car seat they see his head first and think he’s really big for his age. He is long and he does have a big head, but he’s very light.
He yells a lot, and in addition to a lot of ah-uhing and gooing and hahing he has made a few other consonant sounds–fa and muh come to mind. He’s eating some solid food now, and with that has come a new understanding of the fact that he has a tongue and that when he sticks it out it’s kind of fun. He’s willingly eaten sweet potatoes, peas, carrots, bananas, pears, rice cereal, and baby oatmeal so far.
He pushes himself up pretty high on his arms and can rotate around from that position, though he’s not yet crawling. Now and then he seems to move backward from that position, but not forward (well, Ez said he saw him make forward progress the other morning, in honor of the Super Bowl, I’m guessing). When he really wants to cover a lot of ground, he rolls.
He got a lot of nice toys and gifts for Christmas. Family and friends were very generous with him. He’s been really into playing with his plastic Playskool blocks lately. They come in a pail, and he likes to remove the lid and dump them out, chew on them, etc. etc. He’s also a fan of his car keys, and he still loves the mobile in his crib (thanks Flemings!).
He’s such a bright shiny charming little guy. We love him to pieces.
A slice of January
Posted on February 3, 2010
Filed Under christmas, collections, family, friends, me and my brain | 1 Comment
Most people probably agree that the cold months following Christmas and New Year’s can be a little bit of a letdown. But there are always good little moments. Here are some of mine so far in 2010.
One long weekend I finished up the Santa puzzle my mom gave me for Christmas in 2008. It was a lot of fun… a really good cozy winter activity. I think it looked better put together than it did in the picture on the box.
During our holiday visit to the farm, Ezra’s sister Abby introduced us to Bananagrams. It’s so completely up my alley–a word game, sort of like Scrabble and Boggle put together, but better (well, definitely better than Scrabble anyway). So on that long weekend I mentioned we gave Bananagrams to Amy and Doug for Christmas. Of course, we played several rounds.
Amy’s fabulous creation with the Bananagrams tiles… not a part of the actual game
And, of course, we had to get it for ourselves shortly after that.
I’m still going through my Christmas postcards. I promise to share more about them soon (take that as a “coming attractions” or a warning, as you wish).
And finally… My Collections: Vintage Christmas Ornaments–Miscellaneous
Posted on January 18, 2010
Filed Under christmas, collections, nostalgia | Leave a Comment
I’ll finish up with some favorite odds and ends.
Red and yellow with flowers
This one looks (to me) like a round grenade.
Red with blue dots
Gold with pink dots
Flowers
Tree
Silver, Red, and Green
Unsilvered lantern with pink and mica
This one is stamped West Germany.
Blue-green lantern
Pink and white with mica
Candles
Silver striped lantern
I really love these last two.
Plaid with red and blue
Plaid with red and white
And even more… My Collections: Vintage Christmas ornaments–Flocked and painted words and images
Posted on January 18, 2010
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I found this one at an antique shop in Montreal.
I have a larger one very similar to this but in worse condition.
Joyous Christmas
Silent Night
Merry Christmas
Santa on skis
Merry Christmas w/holly
Red Merry Christmas
Santa and stars
Now Dasher!
My Collections: Vintage Christmas Ornaments–Bells
Posted on January 15, 2010
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I promised the ornaments would keep on coming! I’m wishing now that I’d taken better photos of them. Ah well… maybe next year.
So! Onto the bells! My guess is that these are from the 40s or 50s.
This one looks a little older.
It has a clapper inside it, so it rings.
My Collections: Vintage Christmas Ornaments–Hand-painted leaf and feather shapes
Posted on January 13, 2010
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I am especially drawn to these ornaments, many of which I believe are from the 1930s, though some are probably newer.
1. Probably 30s
2. One side
2. Another side
3. Probably 30s. This is a recent addition to my collection.
4. Probably 30s.
5. 30s or 40s
6.
7. Probably 30s
8.
9. Most likely from the 1930s, this is one of my absolute favorite ornaments.
10. This one looks a bit newer.
11.
12. Probably from the 1930s.
13. I love the translucent red glass of this one.
14.
15.
My Collections: Vintage Christmas Ornaments–Fruits, Seeds, Flowers, etc.
Posted on January 12, 2010
Filed Under christmas, collections, nostalgia | 4 Comments
Most of these ornaments are much older–probably from the 1930s, possibly 1920s.
Pine cones
I just got another lovely silver pine cone ornament, but I haven’t photographed it yet. I like the lightly frosted pine cones a lot.
Acorn
Grapes, berries, fruits
This next one might be a little newer. Note that the top is not as narrow as some of the others.
I’m not sure about this one. Cluster of berries?
Flowers, baskets of flowers, etc.
The rose
The top on this next one has definitely been replaced.
This one is tiny and would have likely been used on a feather tree.
My Collections: Vintage Christmas Ornaments–The Stripes
Posted on January 11, 2010
Filed Under christmas, collections, me and my brain, nostalgia, photography | 1 Comment
While taking down our Christmas tree this past weekend, I decided to take pictures of my vintage ornaments before putting them away. Over the next several days (weeks?) I’ll be posting pictures and any info I feel like adding about my collection of vintage Christmas ornaments. I won’t post every single ornament, but I’ll include quite a few of them. I also hope to post more about my much bigger collection of vintage Christmas postcards, and I may get into some of my other collections and treasures as well (socks, books, music). But I’m starting off with what gave me the idea–the ornaments.
In general, I collect what I like. I’m not looking for the most valuable items or necessarily for a particular manufacturer or artist. Instead, I’m looking for what appeals to me–and in the case of vintage ornaments, they have to be genuinely old, not reproductions. I think most of my vintage ornaments are from the 1930s-1950s. Perhaps someone with a lot of knowledge in this area will come upon these posts and tell me more about what I’ve got (and also let me know if I have any misinformation).
Just because, I’ll start with the stripes. Some of these are a bit newer–50s and 60s. I’ll share some older ones in future posts. The clear–or unsilvered–ones may be from the 40s. The story goes that during WWII metals were needed for the war effort, so Christmas ornaments produced during this time were made with unsilvered glass.
This next one seems older. The glass is heavier and sort of frosted and it shows a different sort of wear.
This next one also seems older to me. It’s a bit smaller than many, and something about the glass and the way it’s worn makes me think it’s older.
I love the colors of the one below.
And it’s only 9:00AM
Posted on March 17, 2008
Filed Under Blather, christmas, me and my brain, the pusses, this old house | 5 Comments
This morning I drove down to the post office to mail a package and to pick up my postcards. When I arrived home I found the cats in the kitchen batting around the tiniest little mouse you’ve ever seen. Eek. I am not the best for dealing with these things, but I couldn’t just let them bat it around all day. It’s under a box top, under a pile of phone books. Suki has given up but Edie is still going crazy. I know I shouldn’t leave it for Ezra to deal with, but…
The postcards… I’m just starting to look at them. The very first one I pulled out is colorful and in nice condition with a bell, holly (I love holly), and lots of gold. It’s in pretty nice condition, too. The kicker, though, is that it’s addressed to Spring Creek, PA, and it’s written in some other language that I can’t identify. This is gonna be fun.
Happy happy
Posted on March 13, 2008
Filed Under Blather, art, christmas, me and my brain | 4 Comments
I just got a huge lot of Christmas postcards on ebay! I’ve decided that I’ll share any doubles or cards that I otherwise don’t want with Kim, but I think I’m still looking at increasing my collection by probably 60% or more with this one batch of cards. I’m so excited to receive them! They’re going in the mail today, so hopefully I’ll get them by Saturday.
Based on the photos, the lot includes numerous bells and a good deal of gold and silver. That’s right up my alley!
Here are a couple of pictures from the auction page.
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On My Needles
Rhapsody in Tweed cabled pullover for Ezra! using Tahki Donegal Tweed in Forest, from Fall 2004 Interweave Knits. I've just picked this one up again, so it's moving up in the queue!
Sweater with Cable Patterns pullover using Araucania Nature Wool Chunky in Mauve, from Rebecca Magazine Number 28
Heather Pullover using Classic Elite Wings in Larkspur, from Rowan’s A Season’s Tale... This needs the knit doctor. I'm going to have to frog back a little bit and redo the shoulder area. Long story.
Hush Pullover using Jo Sharp DK wool in Wine, from Rowan’s Calmer Collection
More scoop on my knitting endeavors can be found at my home on Ravelry (clicky here).
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- And the number one thing brightening our spirits in these cold months?
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