Vintage Photo Friday

Gotta love that granny of mine for all her fun photos I keep discovering! (As always, click on the photos for a closer peek.) The first two were probably somewhere around 1918-1920 (my guess) and the last was probably earlier, maybe 1910-1915 (again, my best guess).

Check out her outfit -- I'm thinking somebody could've easily inspired my beloved Anthropologie all on her own...



I would've loved to have been invited to this picnic! Don't they look like a swell group of girls?



This picture made me laugh simply because of the caption handwritten at the top (you might not be able to read it because of the flash from my camera). It's labeled "Atlantic Ocean". Oh, that granny of mine and her funny little sense of humor! This was more than likely taken at a good ol' watering hole smack dab in the country in Oklahoma.

Vintage Photo Friday

I love it when I find photos that have been labeled. It sure helps out in the guessing game as far as details are concerned!

These photos are just more proof of my grandmother's impish ways. Remember, my dear granny never ever wore anything but dresses and skirts throughout my childhood and early adulthood, so these little pictures are such funny treasures to me. My grandmother had a couple of brothers, but, from what I can gather, she was surrounded mostly by her two sisters, so I'm sure dressing up as boys probably tickled them pink. Be sure to click on the photos to see them up close and read the labels clearly -- there are some clever little captions written on them. My guess is that since these were apparently taken in 1922, my grandmother was somewhere around the age of 18 or so in these. She was born sometime between 1903 and 1906, and I'll have to do a bit of research to know exactly when it was. I think the photos were taken in their small town out on the prairie, just a little ways north of where I live now. It also makes me wonder who had the camera, since they obviously had access to one to have taken so many many funny little pictures and not just the more serious family portraits.

Vintage Photo Friday

How 'bout that? A bathing beauty for my vintage photo offering. My grandma, cute as could be, in a darling swimsuit. Don'tcha wish they still made swimsuits like that? I think I've mentioned this before, but the entire time I knew my grandma, she only wore skirts and dresses. Pants, never. A swimsuit? Never. So it has been fun for me to dig through all of her earlier photos of her life long before I was ever a twinkle in anyone's eye and find so many pictures of her in pants, clamdiggers, and swimsuits! Oh, the scandal!

Really this photo is quite appropriate for the fact that I made a similar little purchase yesterday and will anxiously be watching for a package to appear on my doorstep soon. I've already blogged about my love for retro-styled swimsuits -- last year I purchased two swimsuits from the Esther Williams line, and they are my favorite items of clothing I own. I've been watching these two pieces for months, knowing that the only way I would possibly own them is if they went on sale, and voila! They finally did. So I guess it wasn't exactly a spontaneous purchase, but a very-well-thought-out-over-several-months-of-drooling-over-my-keyboard purchase. Here's hoping both pieces fit and look just as cute on little ol' me as they do in the pictures online. I'm hoping they would make my little grandma proud if she were here to see me...




It's a gamble. Either those ruffles (swoon) are going to look absolutely adorable and make me feel like a retro bathing beauty, or those ruffles are going to make the junk in the trunk appear, ahem, wider. I'm crossing my fingers for that first option...

Is it Friday yet? It is?

Naughty.

That was the word of the day, in case you were wondering. Or maybe the secret word, that only my four-year-old knew, and I apparently wasn't supposed to find out, like on Pee-wee's Playhouse.



(image via www.flickr.com)

Now I'm really dating myself. Well, dating myself and outing myself as a weirdo, since I used to love watching Pee-wee's Playhouse. Especially that episode where they showed all the funny things you can do with a pair of giant underwear.

I digress. (And I'll try not to act surprised when I notice my readership numbers go down later this evening.)

Anyway, the word of the day was "naughty". My son just could not pull it together. It started off with him full-out peeing his pants (and shoes, holy gross) in the living room. Or should I say, peeing a huge puddle on the floor. (Thank God for wood flooring.) Which, of course, I didn't discover until I laid out my beautiful quilt top on the floor to measure it so I could buy fabric to add borders. Thankfully the quilt corner is the only part that barely touched the pee, but still. What in the world?! He is not a potty accident-prone kid. Today he "just forgot". Nice.

Then we had to run some errands. Our first stop started with a nice little tantrum (which ended rather quickly, thank you). The second stop he sat in many different time out spots and corners. The third stop he lost his privilege of having a sucker. The fourth stop he lost his privilege of TV for the day. The most irritating part of all of this disobedience was his reactions after I would threaten the pieces out of him. He would either make kissing sounds at me, blow kisses at me, or wink at me, in an attempt, I would guess, to shut me up! Grrrrr. After his naptime, he proudly looked at me and said, "Hey Mama! You didn't see me get out of bed and find my toys!". Apparently he hasn't quite yet mastered the art of sneaking behind my back and not outright confessing things. That's good, I guess. When I went to check his bed, I found his nightlight. In three pieces. So he lost his privilege of having a light on in his room tonight. We'll see how much fun that is for us tonight. Throw in a whole lot of him not listening, me having to repeat myself over and over, and lots of talking back and disrespectful attitudes toward Mama, and you have our day.

I must add that I have a small inkling of why the behavior was especially naughty today. This week was a big week for us. On Monday, I caved in to peer pressure, and we joined the cousins on a trip to our local water park.




Public water park = not exactly high on my list of fun things to do, but I know that my boy was overjoyed to be there, and we had a grand time with the cousins. And then last night our little caravan drove up to another small city/big town almost an hour away and spent several hours at a Kiddie Park full of tiny amusement park rides.




Heaven for any little kid, I tell ya'. Complete with cotton candy, pop, popcorn, staying up super late, and squealing his heart out on all of the (25-cent) rides. So I am sure that the reality of today (boring errands, etc.) was a big ol' letdown for him after such a fun and exciting week of new adventures.

But there were some funny spots today, too. In the quilt shop, after having his life threatened away for the umpteenth time, he was sweet as pie and had the two sales ladies completely suckered with his politeness. "Scyooooooze me, wadies. Fank you for wetting me pway wif the toys. Welcome a meet ya'!" (his form of "nice to meet you"). Oh yeah, like melted buttah, straight outta his cute little mouth, followed by his trademark dimples and little eyelashes batting at them. I, for one, was not swayed by his smooth-talking. I'm sure they thought I was the Wicked Witch of the West. Ha.

During his solitary confinement, er, I mean, naptime, there was some very lovely singing coming from his room, with lyrics including, "I wuuuuuuuuuuuuv you, Mama, sooooooooooo much", "Don't be mad, don't be sad, I wike to rhyme", "God wants you be happy wif me", and "You my favowite Mama, please wet me out", among others. Ah yes, laughter makes everything better.

Although it was one of those days where nothing seemed to end up the way I planned, I did have a fun little surprise of a purchase -- Holly Hobbie fabric! Surprise! I bought myself more fabric that I don't need! Hooray!

We'll just call it therapy, okay?

But seriously, there was no way I was going to leave it in there for someone else to pounce on. I'm sure that years down the road, er, I mean soon, of course, I will make a cute little quilt for myself, er, I mean for someone else, of course, out of it.

And before I forget, my offering for today's Vintage Photo Friday (click on it to see it in better detail):




Quite a honey of a little picture, don'tcha think? That little feisty grandmother of mine (again, on my dad's side) left me quite a few little picture surprises. I love the fur coat (which, ahem, didn't apparently stick around long enough to be passed down to me), the Beech-Nut sign, and the obvious friendship between her and "Thelma", whoever that was. I'm thinking they could've passed for a Thelma and Louise back in the day, no problemo. This picture was most likely taken sometime in the 1920's.

Vintage Photo Friday

Talk about hittin' the motherload. Today I was digging through the big box of photos I got from my parents' house -- the photos from my dad's side of the family. An only child, he passed away four years ago, but thankfully some of these pictures had been written on by his mother, so I have a decent idea who everyone is in most of them. I found a stockpile of early photos from my grandmother's childhood and from her parents' lives as well, several dating back to the later 1800's. And in that pile I found eight handwritten pages written by my great-grandfather regarding "The End of the Dalton Gang at Coffeyville, Kansas, October 5, 1892".

Seriously?! How cool is that? A personal tale about an up-close and dangerous experience with the infamous outlaws, Grat, Bob and Emmett Dalton and Bill and Jess Powers in good ol' Indian Territory. Get this -- when I looked at the article on Wikipedia about the Dalton Gang, that exact day was written about on the website. It's a little bit hard to read the writing on these pages, but from what I skimmed already I found out my grandfather was about 14 years old when the big shootout happened and was in a nearby town, but I guess he became interested in it as an adult and found a "full blood Indian" who was there to share the tale with him and then he wrote it all down.

So be on the lookout for a post from me in the near future when I type out the contents of the letter. He even signed his name at the end of the letter with his address and his Cherokee roll number and card number. Now that's the real Wild, Wild West, for ya'!

Anyway, on to the vintage photos for today. In the spirit of James Orville Stewart (my great-grandfather), here are some photos of him and his family. The majority of the photos were taken in Indian Territory. As always, click on them for a closer look...


This one was sometime around the turn of the century, I'm guessing. He was the 4th one in from the left.


This one, I am guessing, was sometime in the 1910's or early 1920's. James and his family -- his wife, Maud (or Maude, I'm not sure if it was with or without an "e" at the end), and my grandmother and children. My grandmother is the one on the left.


I'm not sure who all is in the picture here, but again, this was probably in the 1910's or 1920's, more than likely above the family farm. Seems like there were lots of family pictures taken at this particular rock outcropping. My grandmother is at the top, and I believe James is the man sitting down in the very front. Or else it's just a whole bunch of people I don't know. Haha.


My best guess for this one would be the 1940's or 1950's. I like how James looks in these two. And who doesn't love photobooths? Er, at least I'm assuming this was from a photobooth...


This one's probably a turn of the century one again, a picture of James on his farm. And I have no idea which one is James.


One more family picture up in the rocks -- my grandmother is on the left. She seems to be on the left a lot. Maybe that's where they always made her stand?

Vintage Photo Friday

Happy Vintage Photo Friday, everyone!

(As always, click on photos to get a closer look.)




Today is a two-fer day -- two vintage photos for the low, low price (free) of one!
(I know I'm a dork, and I'm totally fine with that.)

The first photo says on the back that it was taken May 30, 1940, which means my dad (the little chap in the dapper duds) would have been about 3&1/2 years old. His dad (my grandfather) is on the left, and then to his right are his grandmother (my great-grandmother), his aunt (my great-aunt Pauline), and his mother (my grandmother). I just love the look of all of their outfits, especially my dad's. I would love to dress my son just like that!

The first photo has no date on the back, but I suspect it was taken in either 1939 or 1940 sometime, when my dad would have been 3 or 4 years old. How cute is he in that little car? Those cars nowadays go for a pretty penny. Sure wish someone would've saved that one. :)

Vintage Photo Friday

Since we finally enjoyed a drama-free week here in Wonderland, I am hopefully back to my old tricks...

Here is today's vintage offering:


(As always, click on the photo for a closer look.)

Here are my grandparents on my dad's side, June 1949 (hooray for dated pictures!), probably either off the coast of Florida or glorious Cuba. I still can't believe my grandparents were so fortunate to get to vacation in Cuba. I remember my grandmother telling me how beautiful it was, and, of course, from what Hollywood has told me about Cuba, I would love to see all the beautiful old cars next to all the colorful buildings.

I am 32 years old today, and all the way back in 1949, my grandparents (remember these are not my great-grandparents but my grandparents) they would've already been in their 40's, I believe. Possibly even mid-40's, at that point. Crazy, huh? I have no idea if my dad (their only child) would've been on this trip or not. If so, he would've been about 13 years old. I don't know a ton about my grandfather since he died right before I was born, but I think he was a pretty quiet man, and I know that he worked on the railroad or for the railroad most of his life.

I love this photo for it's simplicity -- the non-emotion on their faces, their stance in the water, and the swimsuit on my grandmother.

Happy Vintage Photo Friday, everyone!

Vintage Photo....Saturday.

Once again, a day late and a dollar short, but better late than never.



I finally got some boxes of photos from my mom's house, which means I will have plenty to offer up over the next year at least. The boxes are all from my dad's side of the family, and since he nor my grandparents are around anymore to answer my questions regarding who is in all of these photos, it's up to my best guess on some of them. We did sit down with my grandmother one afternoon a year or so before she passed and got several of them written on with dates and names, but there are still scads of unknowns in those boxes.

My grandmother on my dad's side was born in the early 1900's (I can't remember for sure, but it was sometime around 1904, maybe?). Yep, most of my friend's grandparents are in their 70's and 80's right now -- my grandmother would have been something like 105 this year. She passed away in January of 1999, and if I remember right, she was 95 or so.

Anyway, this picture is of her. I have no idea on the year -- my guess would be sometime in the late 1930's or early 1940's. My dad was an only child, and I'm suspecting he was already in the picture when this photo was taken, but she and my grandfather loved traveling around the US (and Cuba, it was one of their favorite places) and went on trips with and without my dad. My guess is that this would have been taken in Florida or even possibly Cuba.

Cute and spunky, just like my grandmother.

Vintage Photo Friday

Oops. Looked like I missed the last two weeks. I need to go get all those boxes of pictures from my mom's house. Then I'll be set for life on old pictures...

Until then, I found this funny little photo via flickr. A vintage photo with an Italian greyhound! We have three of these crazy dogs, and the one sitting in this woman's lap looks pretty similar to ol' Romeo, cancer survivor/insomnia sufferer/ADD dog extraordinaire.



(Image via flickr user Moni Cam)

Many people haven't ever seen an Italian greyhound, let alone heard of 'em. They're actually one of the oldest breeds in existence, dating back to the time of the Pharoahs in Egypt. Tricky little dogs, but man, do I love those crazies...

Vintage Photo Friday

I should be cleaning toilets right about now. And scaling Mt. Everest -- the Mt. Everest of laundry, that is. And sewing superhero capes, remember?

But here I am, posting my vintage photo, all for the love of you peeps out in BlogLand.

I'm just nice that way. And humble, too. Oh yes, very humble.


I am quickly running out of vintage photos from my guest room, so I will have to hit my mom up soon for the boxes and boxes of photos in her closets, photos from both her side and my dad's. We could go on with this weekly post for years and years to come, probably until I, myself, am considered vintage, haha.

This is a portrait of my mom's grandmother on her mom's side -- you previously saw her in one of the "shopping downtown" vintage photos, the one with her and her daughter (my grandmother) shopping. I never met this great-grandmother, but one thing I especially love about this photo is that brooch she is wearing. I remember seeing that brooch at my grandmother's house once upon a blue moon. It brings back the memories of spending hours and hours digging through each of my grandmother's jewelry boxes, oohing and ahhing over the scads of costume jewelry they had. Of course, now that I am grown up, it kills me that most of it probably got sold in estate sales, etc. Such is life. Oh, and don't you just love the vintage photos that have been altered with color? I imagine it was somebody's profession to actually do that for a living back then, touching up black and white or sepia toned photos with color by hand. That would have been the job for me. Well, that or singing and playing piano in a swanky nightclub with a big band. Oh yeah.

And the little bunny ornament hanging on the frame? I got that sometime last year (or the year before, I can't exactly remember) from Marmee Craft on Etsy. That website is pure evil -- Etsy totally sucks me in and magically draws the cash right outta my wallet. I am completely defenseless when it comes to Etsy.

Vintage Photo Friday

(Click on the picture for a closer look.)

This awesome canvas was created especially for my son's nursery. It is a photo of my dad when he was a little tyke. A little background info on when I had this canvas made: my dad passed away the week my son was born (down in Guatemala) -- it was all a bunch of craziness, really -- we had another baby referral actually, and days after my dad passed away, and right before my birthday, we got the call that the baby we were waiting for had been reclaimed by his birthmother. Whether or not that actually happened, who knows, but regardless, it was HORRIBLE timing, especially after the loss of 3 close family members within a month and a half. I expected my dad to live forever and ever (or at least for another 20 years or so), but right after the passing of both of my grandparents (within weeks of each other, and no, I am not kidding), my extremely-healthy-rarely-ever-sick-dad went to the doctor and found out he had Stage 4 kidney cancer and passed away less than a month later. 2005 was truly a bunch of craziness. But we did decide to name our son after him and I was able to tell him this before he passed away (even if he passed away having seen the pictures of the first baby and not the one we actually brought home). So to honor my dad (and since it went along with the vintage cowboy theme of the nursery) I picked this photo to have displayed in my son's room.

Pretty cute, eh? Apparently back in the day, there were traveling photographers who would go door to door and take pony pictures of little kids. So if you've seen similar pictures out there, that's how they all came to be and why they are such a popular picture from that era. I'm guessing this photo was from sometime around 1940-1941.

I loooove this picture.

Vintage Photo Friday

(click on the image for a closer look)

See the handsome chap on the left? Off to the side by himself, a la James Dean? That's my grandfather on my mom's side. He was a sailor. Lived the sailor's life, so to speak, fathering five little girls with my grandmother, while also enjoying a few dolls in other ports as well. Hmm. Anyway, I never met him as he passed away long before I came along. My grandmother remarried when I was three or four years old, and her husband became my grandfather, and a wonderful one he was.

Although I never met this fellow, I do love this picture. And I'm sure he would have had many an interesting tale to tell me.

Vintage Photo Friday

It's everyone's favorite day -- Vintage Photo Friday!


(like always, you can click on the photo to see it in better detail)

This is another favorite photo of mine -- a picture of my mother's mother (we called her "Mimi"). I love so many things about this photo -- the cute position she's scrunched up in, the ruffles on her dress (and bloomers?), the adorable shoes (I can't tell exactly, but it looks like they lace up somehow), and her face, mainly because this is one of the pictures where it is most pronounced that she and I look alike, as her facial features are very similar to mine when I was about the same age.

I also love the fact that this picture fits perfectly into the little square frame, almost as if she is perched inside a little box. It makes me smile.

Vintage Photo Friday

(as always, you can click on the picture to view it close up)

Here is another fun picture of my Great-Grandmother Clyta (my mom's dad's mother). As I mentioned last week, she was a great cook, working in many a restaurant including one of her own (I think she and my great-grandfather owned their own restuarant at some point), and working as a personal chef for a wealthy family in our city. This picture is obviously an early one of her in a restaurant as a waitress. She is the one in the middle.

There are so many things I love about this picture -- their waitress uniforms, the men posing on the other side of the counter, the items for sale on the shelves, and the advertisements on the back wall.

Visit "Paper Dolls for Boys" to see other contributions to Vintage Photo Friday.

A day late and a dollar short

Here is my contribution to Vintage Photo Friday that would have been posted last night had it not been for my over-tired body that I dragged straight to bed the very second I set my foot in the door. Being that I am posting a day late (and a dollar short as the title suggested) I am offering up a two-fer'. What? You don't know what a two-fer' is? Sure you do. 'Round these parts most folks 'em a two-fer' -- 2 for 1! Just consider this my recession post, haha.


(click on the picture to see it bigger)

Anyway, these two photos are similar in the fact that they are both pictures of my family members shopping downtown back in the day, probably in the late 1930's, early 1940's, based on how old my grandmother looks in the picture. The left picture is of my mother's mother on the right shopping with her mom, which would make it a picture of my great-grandmother and my grandmother. I never met my great-grandmother, but she must have been swell if she liked to go shopping - ha! Wasn't my grandmother a cute little lady? She was quite the woman -- married a sailor (enough said), raised five daughters on her own, my mother being the youngest. She passed away almost exactly four years ago, and I still miss her a lot.

The picture on the right is of my great-grandparents on my mom's side, the parents-in-law to my grandmother in the picture on the left -- Great Grandma Clyta (yes, her name was Clyta, bless her heart) and Papa (his name was Ed). Papa died before I was born, but my (Great) Grandma Clyta was around for almost all of my childhood, passing away in the 1990s. I have so many great memories of her -- she was loads of fun, and a fabulous cook to boot. At one time she and Papa owned a restaurant, and later in her career she worked as a personal cook to a very wealthy family.

These pictures make me smile every time I see them. I am blessed to have come from some pretty good stock!

Vintage Photo Friday

Now here is something I can totally get my kicks from -- Vintage Photo Friday! I love vintage photos, and I have several interesting ones in my possession, so this should be fun to do once a week.

First off, I should give you a glimpse into my guest room where several of my vintage family photos reside.


I know, I know. The chair is super cute. I agree. Unfortunately it is not mine, just on loan to me from my wonderful sister-in-law. I'm crossing my fingers that it stays on loan to me for a very very long time because I love it. I was even with her when she bought it, so I feel like it is even more special that way. Anyway, I love my guest room. It's a work in progress, but it is one of the most "Anthropologized" rooms in my house. (I know that isn't a word, but to me it speaks volumes about how I want my rooms to look and feel.) The bedroom set in there actually came via my husband -- while single, he had bought almost a whole household of furniture from an elderly couple in his neighborhood shortly after he built his house and needed to furnish it on a budget. Most of those pieces are long gone now, but I told him the bedroom set will stay for good. It is so cute -- from the 1930s or 1940s (my best guess) -- perfect for this house since it was built sometime in the 1930s. I thought the dresser was an great place to set up my collection of vintage photos, mostly of the women in my family on both sides.

This particular photo is of my grandmother on my dad's side. Yes, grandmother, not great-grandmother. She was born in 1903 (give or take a year or two) in Indian Territory. When I came along she was already in her mid-70s, although that certainly didn't slow her down. She was very active in our lives. My older brother and I went to her house at least once a week, she babysat us quite often for my parents, and she was with us until her mid-90s (I can't remember exactly). My best guess is that this picture was taken sometime in the 1920s. I believe this is her with sisters, although I could be wrong and it could be friends of hers.


My grandmother is the 3rd one from the left. She was quite the firecracker, at least in personality. I never saw her in anything other than dresses, but looking back through her earlier years, I was pleasantly surprised to find a few pictures of her in knickers! I'll have to dig some of those photos out sometime. I love this photo in particular because of the crescent moon. For whatever reason I have a love of vintage moon items and there are a few to be found around my house. In fact, I have a hard time looking at it without the song "Blue Moon" popping into my head.

That was fun! I'll be anxious to do this again next Friday. How about you? Got any vintage photos to share?