Well Read

Posted on October 2, 2011 by April

I am participating in a ” 31 Days of…” series for the month of October. You see a whole bunch of sweet blogger buddies have been getting together the past few years to do 31 posts about a topic that they have a passion for. This year they have invited all of their readers to post 31 days of their passions. The blogger that first introduced me to this series was The Nester, if you are interested in participating in the 31 Days of…series, please visit her site for more information. I hope you enjoy my series on finding treasures both vintage and of the heart. Let’s hope I can overcome my inconsistent blogging habit and share those 31 posts within the next 31 days!

In yesterdays post you got to see my “new” old camera. Today we’ll talk about the books that were sitting under the camera and a few others. You may remember seeing them in this photo.

My favorite at the moment is the “Holiday Reader”, I picked this colorful book up at an estate sale for a quarter.

The Holiday Reader was used as a Social Studies book for elementary schools in Texas. It covers all the holidays, including Robert E. Lee’s Birthday, which may have something to do with the name of the school that is stamped at the front of the book. It was first checked out November 22, 1966, exactly two years after JFK was assassinated. I only mention that, because along with a stamp indicating the book came from Robert E. Lee Elementary School, it was also approved through Dallas Public Schools. I love old stuff, it’s so easy to tie it all into huge historical events. It makes me wonder about the stories these old items have.

The stories and poems in this book are so old fashioned, definitely something that you wouldn’t find in a text book today. Like this little poem for instance:

Thank You God

Thank you for the world so sweet.

Thank you for the food we eat.

Thank you for the birds that sing.

Thank you, God for everything.

-Mrs. E.R. Leatham

Sweet isn’t it? If you found that in a text book today lawsuits would be filed. But let’s stay on the happy vintage topic shall we?

Along with the Holiday Reader,you will find a copy of “We”, by Charles Lindburg. Apparently, it is “The famous flier’s own story of his life and his transatlantic flight, together with his views on the future of aviation.” The copyright is from 1927, so it’s a pretty old book. I haven’t read it yet, so I can’t tell you what his views of the future of aviation were, but it’s still pretty cool to have in my possession.

But what made me giggle is what I found on the inside cover…

I’ve lost a lot of books who couldn’t find their way home. I just hope they ended up in a happy place where they are enjoyed! Oh, and I have to point out those cute little airplanes on the inside of the cover.

Another of my favorites, is a very old copy of St. Elmo. I loved the picture on the front, it’s so romantic and the wear on the book makes it that much more intriguing.

I have no idea how old this copy is, but it must have been given to Mrs. Little by Billy Gleaves for Easter, at least that’s what I’m assuming.

There was also a little newspaper quote that had been tucked amongst the old pages:

Don’t Be Discouraged

When you think that you are through

And laid upon the shelf.

Then don’t give up the struggle,

Think better of yourself.

No, don’t give up the battle

Because you’re feeling blue.

There’s all your blessing to think of,

Enough to tide your through.

If things look dark and bad today,

Another day is coming;

So, count your blessings one by one,

Ere long you may be humming.

Just turn the cloud, which you can do

And see the silver lining;

For God is surely with us still,

For you the sun is shining.

-Mrs. John A. Harris

The treasures that can be found within other treasures, that’s what keeps me coming back for more. Hopefully, it won’t get me on an episode of “Hoarders” clinging to all of my treasures in my cramped house!

Estate of Mind

Posted on December 10, 2010 by April

With the planning of an “event” that still hasn’t taken place, I haven’t really set aside time to post all of the wonderful things I have planned to talk about. There’s a lot happening at the Yellow Casa, aside from the big event slated to happen soon (I won’t be sharing a date until after the big event, everytime a date is announced something happens and causes us to change the date. Call me supersitous but I’m not willing to postpone that most special festivity again.), we’ve got Christmas time coming up.

I love Christmas, the smells, the sounds, but more importantly, I love “reason for the season”. It’s truly a time to celebrate Christ, and His wonderous love.

Recently the Sweetie and I hit up the local Goodwill and various estate sales. Here’s a glimpse into some of my Goodwill Hunting and Estating adventures.

First up, milk glass bowls.

These beauties are from Anchor Hocking, and according to e-bay and other “reliable” sites, they could be from the late 1940’s to the mid 1970’s. I have a hunch they are the ’70’s variety. But aren’t they cute with their little handles? And at .59 a piece I just couldn’t pass them up. They are perfect for that late night bowl of Lucky Charms , not too little but not too much. However my jeans would say otherwise.

Next we have the cheese dome.

I’ve really been jonesin’ for one of these. It’s small, just perfect for a little pretty, and it only set me back $3. For fall, I put one of my many ceramic gourds inside. Much to my brother’s irritation, he couldn’t understand why I would want such a small “cake plate” and then not put cake in it, but a fake pumpkin. Boys, sometimes they just don’t understand “pretties”.

And some more milk glass.

Have I mentioned how much I love milk glass? Well, I really love milk glass and I seem to be building quite a collection of it. This candy dish was too pretty to pass up. At $5 it seemed a little high to me, but I loved it too much to put it back down. And so, it sits on our coffee table, looking pretty, I even put some Christmas peppermint in it. So Christmas-y!

And of course, the Sweetie and I can’t seem to leave a yard sale, estate sale, or thrift store without picking up a vintag-y looking book.

This was one of the Sweetie’s finds, he loves books with more than one story in them. So, this fit the bill perfectly for him.

Me and my shaky hands, makes for some pretty fuzzy pictures. This one isn’t as old as some of our other finds, it was last copywrited in 1960. Still a pretty cool book for a buck.

Here’s another fuzzy book. This one was one of my finds.

Alfred Hitchcock’s “Stories for Late at Night”, oooh spoooky! I love the cover of this one. Can you count how many Alfred’s appear?

Aside from estate sale-ing, and Goodwill hunting, we’ve been doing some of this:

Spying on the neighborhood, from the couch. Everything is better when done from your own comfy sofa.

Annie dog especially loves being sneaky about spying on the neighborhood, while lounging on the sofa.

And since the Christmas season is upon us, the Sweetie and I have been decking the halls of our casa.

More to come on Christmas at the yellow casa. We are still working on decking the halls. If we can make time in between our junk shopping hobby this weekend!

My Sleeping Beauties…

Posted on August 22, 2010 by April

It’s a sleepy Sunday today, after church and after lunch everyone just seems to be a bit drowsy. So, we all lay down for a little nap. Even Annie dog…

It should be noted that little dogs do not enjoy their naps being interrupted for photo ops. Shortly after this photo was taken Annie dog gave me a very cold and icy stare and promptly turned her back to me. I am officially being shunned by my dog. But I am sure the shunning will end as soon as I give her a doggie cookie.

Even my sweetie is taking a nap, I have pictures of him dreaming away, but I fear the wrath of sweetie if I post those photos here. I’ll save them for blackmail later.

As for me I am lounging on the sofa watching copious amounts of HGTV, and fighting a bad bout of bronchitis. Believe me, being home all week and watching nearly non-stop HGTV has given me plenty of time to gather inspiration for my little casa. Let’s see if anything comes of it…

While I was sleeping away yesterday morning, the sweetie and Annie Dog went on estate sale-ing adventures. Here are some of the treasures they came home with:

A 1960’s version of Monopoly. Apparently, Monopoly was not a board game in the 60’s, it was Real Estate Trading Game Equipment. But it was only $3 and seems to have come with all of the pieces.

And my personal favorite, a WWII version of The Joy of Cooking. It is copywrited 1943! And was picked up for a $1! Double score!

There are no illustrations included, but the instructions are pretty well explained. The sweetie and I noticed that some of the wording was slightly different from what is used today. For instance, for one recipe, it is suggested that you use one pony of flour. And you wouldn’t use crushed pecans, you would use crushed pecan meat. It’s an interesting find, and makes a great addition to our vintage and antique cookbook collection.

Well, I’m off for now to take a nap and to dream sweet dreams of a house that cleans and remodels itself. Happy Sunday everyone!

The Salt Garden

Posted on August 3, 2010 by April

I know in my last post I was all gung-ho about cleaning my closet and organizing my clothes, shoes, and of course my 185, 467 accessories. But instead, Saturday, I shopped with my mother, which is always fun! Who doesn’t enjoy spending 4 hours at Lowe’s? And I’m being sincere, I really did enjoy my 4 hours exploring the wonders of Lowe’s! Then Sunday rolled around, I woke up ready to tackle my closet and finally put an end to the ever so frustrating drama of finding that certain pair of pants or that perfect shirt. But I took at look at my nightstand and found this:

I started reading “The Salt Garden”, in January over a quick weekend trip the sweetie and I took down to Corpus Christi, Texas. A nice warm weekend at the beach, ended up being a blistering cold weekend spent indoors bundled up and wishing we were back home in our nice dry climate. But it did give me a chance to start a good read. However, the trip wasn’t quite long enough for me to finish it. So, when we got home, I laid it on my night stand by my bed with every intention of finishing it. There it sat, from late January until Sunday when I picked it up and started procrastinating reading. And couldn’t put it down.

It’s one of those books you buy, and think it’ll be a nice light read, but not something you’ll get into. I was mistaken, when I started reading it back in January it started out slow, which is probably why I didn’t pick it up again until this past weekend.

This Christian novel tells the story of two women in a small town that was deeply changed by a shipwreck that occurred some 80 years prior to the present time in the book. Here’s the plot, according to the authors website:

Claire O’Rourke is a San Francisco reporter recently returned to her small hometown of Harper’s Bay for a short visit, but a contrived plot device leaves her back home for good and looking for work at The Tidal Post, a local newspaper. Her path soon intersects with that of Sophia Fleming, a 70-something reclusive author whom Claire has admired since childhood. When a salt-damaged book washes ashore, some long-buried secrets are illuminated through the journal entries of Josephine Vanderook, a passenger on an ill-fated ship.

It’s got mystery, intrigue, romance, adventure, and more importantly, it speaks of the wonders of God. And how His hand is in all that we do, even the things that don’t make sense to us at the time.

If you would like more information about this author or other works by Ms. Martinusen please visit her site.

The comments above are purely mine, and mine alone, I have not been paid to promote the author or any of her works. I enjoyed reading this book, and simply wanted to share the joy!