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
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I’ll finish up with some favorite odds and ends.

Red and yellow with flowers
Small red and yellow ornament with flowers

This one looks (to me) like a round grenade.
grenade
grenade bottom

Red with blue dots

Gold with pink dots

Flowers
flowers

Tree
Tree

Silver, Red, and Green
Silver Red and Green

Unsilvered lantern with pink and mica

This one is stamped West Germany.

Blue-green lantern
lantern

Pink and white with mica

Candles
candles

Silver striped lantern

I really love these last two.

Plaid with red and blue
red and blue plaid

Plaid with red and white
red and white plaid

And even more… My Collections: Vintage Christmas ornaments–Flocked and painted words and images

Posted on January 18, 2010
Filed Under christmas, collections, nostalgia | 2 Comments

I found this one at an antique shop in Montreal.
Merry Xmas green

I have a larger one very similar to this but in worse condition.
Merry Christmas

Joyous Christmas
joyous

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.

Red bell with white glittery stripes

small red and white bell

This one looks a little older.
old bell ornament

It has a clapper inside it, so it rings.
clapper on bell

clear bell 40s

white and red bell

Little green bell

red white blue silver bell

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

7. Probably 30s

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.