Tuesday, February 28, 2012

from the ridiculous to the, um ...

(from google images)
We mere mortals would topple over forward if we tried this, wouldn't we?!

I know I would.


hahhahahhahha ... no doubt you've all heard or witnessed, Angelina Jolie's right leg has taken on a life and celebrity all of it's own!

Looking for these images to entertain you all on this fine Tuesday, I see that I missed all the drama of "the leg" on the Red Carpet, only settling in before the TV in time for the start of the awards.

So I was quite taken aback when her leg made it's sudden, over-reaching, some might say grand standing, pose on the Oscar stage Sunday night, I felt these words escape from my mouth, "what the hoohah is that all about"?!!!

(from google images)

This photo by no means, captures the epic flourish of the reveal, of the leg!


But the best was yet to come ... the imitators, poseurs all, Angie-leg wannabe's!

bwahahhahhahahahhahaaaaaaaaaa



be sure and follow Angie's Leg every move on Twitter ...




Yes, yes, this is all due to having nearly lost my mind,
sitting here for days, working on tax returns!

Happy Tuesday to you!

Sunday, February 26, 2012

a sign of the times

Our neighborhood gas station, Saturday morning, February 25, 2012.
$4.899 a gallon!!!

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Vintage Playbill Rednesday

(Please visit Sue at It's A Very Cherry World for more Rednesday fun!)


My mother adored the Arts and theater in particular. Here are some of her playbills, I believe they're all from the fifties? Aren't the cover illustrations fun?!





A bit of this, a bit of that


First off - DOWNTON ABBEY! How are we all going to make it until they air Season 3?! Anyone else bonkers for this wonderful series? We DVR'd all of Season 2 and all I want to do is watch it all over again, right now! Forget the housework, I want to take up residence on the couch ...

We saw "The Secret World of Arietty" yesterday, so charming!



Remember this post? We sold my parents vintage GE and look at how cute it looks in it's new home! Wasn't that sweet of our buyers to send us this photo and let us know how beloved it is?! We've had the best luck, with the most wonderful people showing up to buy and cherish, the remaining pieces from my parents things.


Wishing everyone a lovely week!

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Tea Time Vintage Thingie Thursday

(Please join Suzanne at Colorado Lady blog for more Vintage Thingie Thursday fun!)

Happy Vintage Thingie Thursday!


This week I'm sharing some vintage china that belonged to my paternal grandmother. We found it in a very beat up box, out in my parents garage. My parents must have packed it up when my grammie passed away and never looked at it again. Sadly, many pieces of the solid purple china at the bottom of this post, were broken into small shards, and unsalvageable.

Anyone recognize this darling tea cup and saucer with Violets?
It doesn't have any markings on the bottom. WAH!

Left: Chugai China (with passion flower?), made in Occupied Japan
Center: No manufacturer's stamp - ornate edge on saucer and footed tea cup
Right: Ohata embossed Moss Rose China, made in Occupied Japan

The remains of this charming set is paper thin, so delicate,
and sadly bears no manufacturer's stamp.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

A Rednesday Valentine for you

(Please visit Sue at It's A Very Cherry World for more Rednesday fun!)


I'm a busy bee over here but I wanted to wish everyone a very Happy Valentines Day this Rednesday! I found this unused darling vintage Hallmark in my mom's things and thought I'd share it today. The wheel turns to reveal a circus parade of darling illustrations.




The greeting inside is:


I'm thinking that's not the most clever of greetings hahahhaha
but the illustrations are darling!

Happy Valentines Day!

Fun weekend

We had so much fun this weekend!

On Saturday the hubby and I went off to see the 2012 Academy Award Nominated Live Action Shorts and the Animated Shorts, which we try to do every year before Oscar time.


And on Sunday we went to the International Antiquarian Book Fair. WOWIE! If you're a book lover, it doesn't get any better than this.


The one thing we knew we wanted to see were the serialized novels of Charles Dickens, being major Dickens nuts. Two vendors had sets of the original serialized titles and we asked one if we could take a peek at his $25,000 set AND he showed it to us.

Almost all of the vendors were as nice as nice can be and happy to share their time and knowledge with puddin - headed people like us - but there were a couple unhappy crabby snooty patootie arrogant, types too. Dried up prune-y personality people. bwahahahhahaha They'd obviously forgotten the joy that books bring to others.

There were wonderful vintage children's books I would have loved to come home with but they were priced in the several hundred dollars to the several thousand dollar range. OUCH!

We might as well have been at a museum, we were so far out of our league but it sure was wonderful to see all those gorgeous first edition books and wonderful illustrations!


Wishing you all a very Happy Valentines Day with your sweeties!

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Hope Chest Vintage Thingie Thursday

(Please join Suzanne at Colorado Lady blog for more Vintage Thingie Thursday fun!)

Happy Vintage Thingie Thursday!


ACK! I'm a later tater to VTT today! Sorry!

I was at a real loss over what to share this week, couldn't think of anything and then I remembered I had taken a few photos of my maternal grandmother's hope chest, up at my dad's house.

My parents weren't the greatest of caretakers (understatement!). It's in very sad shape and I'm afraid under my care, it hasn't done much better, sitting out in the garage, gathering dust.

(My grandmother and grandfather are pictured in the photo in my blog banner - they are the man and woman, on the far left side of the photo. My mom is the little girl in the center.)

So this chest belongs to the young woman on the far left, circa 1900 and something - my grandmother was born in 1899 and my mom in 1921. Somewhere in between those years, my grandmother carefully placed her dreams inside, in preparation of her marriage and new life.

It bears the manufacturer's stamp, "E. R. Co., Forest Park, Illinois" on the inside lid. I was able to find a teeny tiny bit about the company, The Ed Roos Company of Forest Park" on this blog post on Chicago Antiques Guide.

Does anyone know about vintage hope chests?




Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Hummels for Rednesday


(Please visit Sue at It's A Very Cherry World for more Rednesday fun!)



I am sharing some of my mother's Hummel items this Rednesday. People generally think of Goebel and their wonderful plates, figurines and bells when they think of Hummel. So I thought it might be fun to share something different with you.


The charming little childs cup is from Schmid and the fun spoon is from Josef Muller. A lovely German friend of my mom's sent her the book of Sister Berta Hummel's illustrations and "light verse". Here are some of the delightful illustrations enclosed that have smidgens of red for this Rednesday. Hope they bring you smiles like they do me!








Thursday, February 2, 2012

Oh to be stitching!

WAH! I so long to be working on my project from my class at French General but I'm stuck over here, buried under paperwork.

I just found out I have to do two tax returns for my father for 2011 and of course my own - so I have to work on THREE poopie-doo tax returns. PHOOEY!

And I'm working on gathering paperwork for a new attorney I've hired for a non-payment issue my father's estate has. Can you imagine - some slime ball of a human being is trying to get out of paying my father?! WEASEL.

Common courtesy, decency and professionalism do not move this rogue, nuh uh. Polite letters do not budge this scoundrel. Phone calls mean nothing to this villain. Frustratingly, I have had to engage a Litigation Attorney to deal with him.

I am in serious need of some smilies over here so I thought I'd take a break from all the paperwork and post a wee bit of Show and Tell!



When we chose our seats at French General, we found darling take-home gifts of a journal, pencil and a mini pack of MODA French General fabrics.

Charlotte Lyons had brought squares of her new fabric line for us to use as our backing fabric for our hearts and told us to pick one of our choice. I picked her darling pattern that looks like a crazy quilt - you can see it behind the beginnings of my heart in the center.

We were given linen squares from FG for our front pieces and away we went, each creating our own unique heart.

I decided to make yo yo's out of the darling mini pieces of fabric and I had brought some vintage lace that I had found in my grandmother's things - I ended up using just a snippet of it at the bottom of my heart. The other lace was given to me by Kaari - she went around snipping off bits of lace for those who wanted it. So much fun!

I'm nowhere near done - much foo foo-ing, embellishing and fluffing up needs to be done yet but I wanted to share a bit of the day with you and what I've done so far.

Can you believe it's nearly Valentine's Day already?!