"Do or Do not. There is no try."

* Happy New Year! Hope you all had a pleasant holiday season. We ate at several different houses and played lots of games (crokinole is fun!)
But now, the eating is over and the resolutions begin. I know, it's silly, nobody ever keeps them, etc. but that won't stop me! I'm going to break it down, concentrate on a few things each month, that way it doesn't seem so BIG.

Here's the plan for Jan:
- do more stitching! I have 37 vintage embroidery patterns just sitting around begging to be used. So I joined my very first stitch-along! Since it's January, the theme is ... resolutions! Since I'd like to eat more fruit and veg, I'm putting this fellow on a tea towel.

from Vogart hot iron transfer set 198

so far I've transferred the pattern and picked my thread. I've been waiting for a sunny day to start stitching, ha ha. 

- eat more fruit and veg! See above :) 

- get off mah butt for at least 20 min, at least 5 times a week. (This unemployment thing is not good for your health.) I even broke out the Wii Fit board, and my segway skills are growing. 

- make some dinners! I'm not the greatest chef (I could live on pizza and cheese dip) but I need to up my game. Today we visited The Whole Beast* courtesy of a gift card, and got some andouille sausage for jambalaya tomorrow. Perfect weather for it!

So there ya go, 4 items for January. I'm doing good on 3 and 4 at least.

* Tomorrow is Epiphany, also Twelfth Night/the last of the 12 days of Christmas, also Three Kings Day. I'm not religious, but after living in Spain and in the Southern US, I couldn't avoid it. It's also the beginning of carnival season, leading up to Mardi Gras. I'm considering making a king cake, since I didn't see any up here last year. 

mmmmmm! it's actually more doughnutty than cakey.

And I have some spare tiny plastic babies! 
It's also the day that I consider proper/timely to take down decorations. I'll miss the pretty white lights in the living room. 

* In other news ... not a whole lot. I'm gradually tidying up/decluttering my studio and making a pile o' goodies for my eventual Etsy store. Still looking for a job, still volunteering once a week, still reading (vintage) lurid pulp and trashy gothic romance novels. 

Later 'gators! 

* The guy behind the counter had this pig tattooed on his forearm - wicked!

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.

Christmas Ideas for 1957

* There's still time to make something special for Christmas!

Most of the craft ideas in BHG 1957 aren't that bad, and therefore not worthy of my mighty scanner. But look how much fun the Westons are having with their crafting!

"For large star, stick two sizes of pencils into half a 4-inch plastic foam ball."

I love Mrs. Weston's skirt - I bet she made it herself. And the stars on the chimney are pretty keen, at least from this distance.

The decorating fun starts with the front door. That is one fabulous door tree! But how many people could re-create that without having an illustrator for a husband ;)
How could you possibly top a door tree like that?

With a tree made from wood triangles, with ornaments resting on the platforms! They say "wood tree," I say "irresistible to cats tree." Hmm, actually that would be cute, with catnip and rubber ball ornaments, little feathered bird toys ...

The "Japanese tree" is made from paper parasols painted gold. This would be great in the tiki rec room :) or out on the lanai. One last look at the fireplace - 

as decorated by poor but glittery cowboys. I can safely say there isn't one thing I like about this decoration.


The BHG Christmas Ideas book is chock full of adorable illustrations.

Glen and I looked just like this when we decorated the house last week!

Here's Marilyn and the Jazzercise ladies working on the Monterey Recreation Centre!

And the Hodgins of 4 years ago (Dexter's in the next room practicing the fiddle) setting out another delicious dinner.


Speaking of dinner ...

It's a smorgasbord!* Ooh, I see meatballs, and an apple salad, and deviled eggs. Oh dear, what's that with the eggs.

"Jellied salmon with deviled eggs, pickled shrimp, herring in sour cream, anchovies, sardines, pickled beets, cucumber pickles." I, uh, I gotta run! I haven't finished my shopping yet!

And I didn't even make it to the ads! They are worthy of an entire post of their own.
Until next time, don't sniff the markers! 

*up here all buffets are smorgasbords, even Chinese food buffets- cracks me up.

Cozy and warm

* Hi and welcome back to my holiday craft extravaganza! Since it's chilly outside, let's cozy up with some fur!

Copyright Harold Mangelsen & Sons, 1972

We're animal lovers so we'll stick with Fantasy Fur!
My first thought upon seeing the cover: "maybe they shouldn't have open flame right above what is no doubt a highly flammable material." Google doesn't give me any info on what the fur is made of except it's "a fascinating material."

Not many clear photos in here, but there are a couple of doozies.

Here we have a snowman (fur over three styrofoam balls), an Angel in the Cloud and a Nativity Scene through the Windows - yeah, in the center of that furry ball is a 1 1/2" tall nativity scene.

Christmas Morning, Deer in the Forest, and another accident-waiting-to-happen candle holder. I think that deer is giving me the evil eye.

yup. Thanks for the nightmares!
There are also instructions for making an angel mobile, Santa's boot, more ornaments sans nativity, and a furry green wreath.

There's a warning in the front of the book:

in a nutshell - don't blame us if your projects look nothing like this! 

Fantasy Fur Christmas was published by Mangelsen's of Omaha, NE, and surprise! they are still around, but now operate as "a retail store, wholesale supplier/manufacturer of Halloween products, and haunted house." Quite a combo, but no more fantasy fur.

Not for them, but next time on this very blog we'll meet Sweet Lil' Stinko :)