Christmas Ideas for 1962

* The holiday hilarity continues.

We move on to 1962, same sort of stories, even the same price!*

Let's start with decor, shall we?

"The balls shown here were purchased in a West Germany store."

This is on the inside of the front cover - a credenza! Those hanging ornaments do look nice. According to the text, to make the porcupine baubles on the bottom, "completely cover a plastic foam ball with tissue paper and add some jeweled toothpicks to form the porcupine." Jeweled toothpicks? Like the ones with the shiny paper on the ends? Looks good from here, but I can't imagine that would work upon closer inspection.

"They're easy to do, yet attractive to display."

Gosh, I never would have guessed that this elegant decoration is made with only four items: metal foil paper, small tree balls, wax paper cylinders and rubber cement. Uh, sorry, actually I would have guessed that.

"Designers show modern ways to do old things."

Yowza! "Rich purple spray paint covers this regional pine tree ..." - just imagine how good the living room smells with that in it! 

"For glamour, add electric lights in tree center."

This tree is a chicken wire cone with pieces of 8" tissue paper poked through the holes. It is kinda pretty, but it would take for-ever to put all that tissue paper on it. Then after Christmas you have to take all the paper out? Oh, right, no recycling, just toss it by the curb and it will disappear!

Awww, it's a Pride tree for your table top!

On to crafts. Again, not alot to work with since most ideas were either not bad or had muddy black & white photos. 

Here's a couple of handmade gifts "for the teens." (the underlining is theirs, guess they wanted to emphasize that it's not for kids or adults.) The shirt above is made by adding embroidered tape to a slightly-altered white sweatshirt. It's not so bad, and I bet it's comfortable as all get out.

Another not-bad idea, an embroidered blue workshirt "to be worn with blue jeans." So don't wear it with a prom dress.

Time to eat!

Ladies, sit back down, this time is for the boys. I'm jealous, 'cause their spread sounds mighty tasty. And look at the dreamboat who's serving!

Rowr!

I'll leave you with an easy yet showy decoration to make yourself!

(you'll have to click to get a good view 'cause the image is too wide)

The finished product is pretty, 

but they lose me somewhere between steps 4 and 5. Here's a piece of paper that looks like a spider, add staples and BOOM beautiful paper snowflake star!

Guess I'll be buying all my gifts this year.

Coming up next time, exciting winter crafts from McCall's Needlework & Crafts! You won't want to miss it, trust me.

*I looked it up, and BHG still puts out a Christmas Ideas magazine but it costs a wee bit more now. Since BHG's website is hard to navigate, I browsed the internets to find some clue as to whether the inside is the same in 2011. This year's issue featured the Christmas decor of several bloggers, but I haven't found any clues to craft ideas yet.

Special Kitty

* Earlier this week, Glen returned from the library with special presents - 2 vintage copies of Better Homes and Gardens! I usually prefer the 50s, but I love seeing stuff I remember from when I was a kid. And one magazine in particular made me very happy.

July 1974, 100 Ideas Under $100. Including a pile of plants on a piano! But what's this at the bottom?

ah ha ha ha ha! Critical Cat is critical! Why doesn't he like it? We don't know. Why did the cat deserve a word balloon? We don't know. Did I love this so much I made it my Facebook icon? Yes I did :)

* Today we took a nice little walk down to the Owl Designer Fair at Fernwood Community Centre. And it was awesome! Soooo much cool craftiness packed into one room.
I came home with a tin of delicious Blue Christmas tea from Traveling Sparrow - tastes of (local organic) lavender and Earl Grey, and smells wonderful. I drooled over Urchin Bags, made from recycled seat belts and air bags (maybe Santa will bring me one for Christmas? :) Siempre La Lucha had great cards and tees, including a scare-owl thinking of brains. Love Monkey's felted matroyshka dolls were adorable! And boo I forgot to grab the business card of the woman with the recycled leather and felt purses :( Never mind, found her!

* and now I'm running late - see ya later!

yay!

(note to self: if you hit Enter after you type the title, the blog will post. you don't want to do that.)

* Gettin' in the Halloween mood. I want to make treat boxes again this year, but on a larger scale. I've been perusing a fantastic book my mom-in-law got me - Ghoulish Goodies! It's really cool with great recipes and adorably spooky illustrations. I'd love to try the pumpkin-shaped cookies with melted crushed candy for the eyes so they look like they're glowing!

* Also nabbed this year's BHG Halloween magazine (the magazine is great but their website is a nightmare!) My fave section this year is the "Dead and Breakfast" front yard ideas, and the photos of an antique shop's decorations. Weathered paperbacks stacked with pages facing out? Brilliant! Wrapping flameless candles with yellowed book pages? Spook-a-licious! Hmm, flameless candles were on sale at Costco last week ...

I haven't seen Martha on the newsstands yet. This year she even has her own costumes for sale at Grandin Road - the costumes that she tells you how to make in her magazines and website, but buying them would save time I guess. (Don't look at the other women's costumes there, it's all that unimaginative "sexy fill-in-the-blank" junk)

Well, looks like Target have started the ball rolling and revealed their mascots for this year - green witch, square-headed Frankenstein and mummy, and one-eyed ghost. Dagnabbit, I'll miss the Jones soda this year :(

World Market doesn't have a specific section on their website, but this branch candle holder would fit right in, these mercury glass votive candle holders are great, and I would love this kinda-retro paper pulp moon & owl.

Okay, I'd better spread this stuff out or I'll be bare by Halloween. See ya next time!

cooler outside than inside

* Halloween find o' the week: Blumchen, Purveyors of Life's Little Niceties, a great resource for old-fashioned and vintage Hallowe'en decor.

• reprints of the classic Beistle Co. paperboard cutouts
• super awesome black & white boxes
• repros of vintage postcards
• spooky lantern!

Okay, they also have items for Valentine's and Christmas.

I found them while searching for Dennison crepe paper. One day, I'll post some scans from the Dennison Flower Book.

Also in spooky news, I picked up this year's edition of the BHG Halloween special publication at Publix. Once again they have the best mix of grown-up gothy decor (the linked article is actually a reprint from an earlier BHG magazine, with more photos but less "where to find it" info) and cute kids party ideas (magic show party and retro owl paper decor), and a nice article on vintage collecting.
But Beware to those who try to navigate the BHG website! The magazine lists a link to "halloween tricks" at their site, but it links instead to the general Halloween category. And it appears that none of the articles in the magazine are actually on the website yet. Tsk tsk, how am I supposed to spread the word?

* The a/c seems to be broken at work. Air is blown, but it's humid and warm. I've got the window open for some cool fresh air.
ETA: a/c fixed!