beloved books

My husband's family is really good at saving everything. His great-grandparents, who lived through the Great Depression, were very thrifty and took good care of the things they had. Years ago when they cleaned out the family home, they found its original bill of sale from the 1920s, as well as the Sears Roebuck Catalog out of which his great-grandparents had ordered their ready-to-assemble "catalog house." His great-grandfather built the house himself in Fort Wayne, Indiana, with the help of some Amish people who lived in the area. My mother-in-law still has all the paperwork for the house, which is astonishing to me since I sometimes can't even find my receipts from last week!

We've inherited a number of great things from his family, including a 1970s air popper that came in its original box and works perfectly, as well as those vintage valentines. She's also been sending along some amazing cameras for my husband (with original instruction manuals, still in their boxes, etc, etc), and yesterday I also received some well-worn, well-loved copies of Alice in Wonderland and Little Women. Both are inscribed to June O'Brien, my mother-in-law's mother, in beautiful script dated 1934.

The Lewis Carroll book is illustrated, of course, and the endpapers feature the Tenniel drawings printed in red ink. I especially like that Little Women appears to be the movie tie-in edition, since it comes with black and white photographs from the 1933 film. So funny! I enjoy leafing through them, and it will be a pleasure to read the books again with the knowledge that my husband's grandmother (and likely great-grandmother) clearly once loved and valued the same books.

i am loved

I keep saying this, but unexpected surprises might be my most favorite kind.

In addition to the washi tape, my friend Linda also sent me some other Valentine-y presents in the mail. I've been saving them up to share because I love them so much! I received a SWAK rubber stamp, pretty salt water taffy in the only flavors I happen to eat, sweet vintage buttons still on their cards, and best of all, a wall hanging she embroidered and framed especially for me.

The wall hanging is actually a delayed Christmas present, but one well worth waiting for. As I've mentioned before, "The Owl and the Pussycat" has special significance to us since it was one of the two poems read at our wedding. I already have a copy of Sonnet 116 from an old book framed for my curio wall and had been looking for something similar for the other poem--and now here it is! 

Linda took an illustration of the poem and embroidered it onto cloth, ingeniously filling in the large spaces with watercolor marker. I love the end result, which looks appropriately like a real children's book illustration. Both the animals are so sweet and dreamy and serene on their moonlit journey, and I can't wait to find a good place to hang this. 

It's always wonderful when someone makes something with you in mind, but when someone chooses something as personal as this, it renders me practically speechless. It's wonderful to have dear friends. Especially when they're both thoughtful and crafty.

cozy yarn wreaths

Unveiling a few more of the presents I made this year...

My friend Linda and I have a newish tradition in which we exchange mostly handmade things for Christmas. I'd been wanting to try making those yarn wreaths that have been making the rounds in the crafting blogosphere, so this seemed like a good time to do it!

I used a small flat styrofoam wreath that I wrapped in cotton batting and white baby alpaca yarn, then adorned it with little flowers I made from felt and from a recycled sweater. I painted a bit of glitter to the bird and hot glued everything down and tied a fat yellow bow with vintage velveteen ribbon at the top. It turned out very sweet and it was pretty easy to figure out and assemble. (It was so fun to do that I also made a second one for our old neighbor!) I quite like the way the alpaca looks in this project, since the fuzzy softness adds to the cozy appeal.

I also made Linda, who is a newlywed, a slightly imperfect house ornament featuring their last name and the year. It's all hand-stitched and embellished with sequins and a gingham ribbon.

I think next year I'm going to have to try to get presents out a little earlier so that I can post them a little earlier. Are people sick of looking at Christmas things yet? I'm rather glad the hustle and bustle is over, but I'm still enjoying going over photographs and memories. But just a couple more post-holiday-themed entries, promise!

Photo #1 courtesy of Linda S.

vintage Christmas bookmarks + free download

I can't seem to wrap my brain around blogging in a timely manner...I have photographs and projects stored up, but it's been so busy this holiday season that it's been hard to sit down at the computer for any length of time!

I thought I'd share a project I made a few weeks ago for a A Very Vintage Christmas Bookmark swap, whose guidelines were simply that the bookmarks needed to be made with a vintage holiday theme. I printed old-timey Christmas images onto card stock and paired them with quotes from traditional carols. They were then laminated and embellished with vintage paper lace I acquired from the flea market, which was really easy to affix using a Scotch adhesive dot roller.

I have made other kinds of bookmarks, but I find these paper ones such a quick and satisfying project to do--and it's so nice to spoil your partner a little bit by sending four instead of the required one. I have fancy metal bookmarks and fabric ones and  leather ones, but it's really the paper ones that I use the most.

If you'd like to make your own set for stocking stuffers or to mark a favorite passage in a book you're giving as a gift, feel free to download your own set of Vintage Christmas Bookmarks. A reminder to print them for your personal use only, not for commercial purposes, please!

little house christmas stockings

There are many books I re-read every year during the holiday season, but none that embodies the spirit of Christmas to me more than the Little House series. I mention Laura Ingalls Wilder all the time here on the blog, but if only you knew how often I think of her...especially during the cold winter months! I learned so much from Laura as a child, and I feel I learn from her still.

This is my favorite Christmas passage, from On the Banks of Plum Creek:

(Then) Ma told them something else about Santa Claus. He was everywhere, and besides that, he was all the time. Whenever anyone was unselfish, that was Santa Claus.

Christmas Eve was the time when everyone was unselfish. On that one night, Santa Claus was everywhere, because everybody, all together, stopped being selfish and wanted other people to be happy. And in the morning, you saw what that had done.

"If everybody wanted everybody else to be happy, all the time, then would it be Christmas all the time?" Laura asked, and Ma said, "Yes, Laura."

Isn't that just the loveliest way of thinking about the holiday season? It makes my little heart grow three sizes bigger whenever I read it, I swear it does.
As such, the Little House Christmas swap I hosted recently meant a great deal to me. It was a chance to put together some of the things I see in everyday life that remind me of Laura and of the true spirit of Christmas and to share it with a partner, and I've been so happy to work on it these past few months. I actually had two partners for this swap, one that was randomly assigned and one with my friend Naomi for obvious reasons.

Every month this fall, we've gone back to various flea markets and antique malls, and I've been especially vigilant because I was searching for Little House items. I was thrilled to find vintage cross-stitched gingham aprons, vintage handkerchiefs (which were of course tucked into the apron pockets), a small heart-shaped tin pan along with a card with Ma's heart-shaped cakes recipe, and even an old crock of bear grease! Just what Pa used to use to slick down his hair when he was courting Ma. I love the old paper label on that container, which is mercifully empty now, but would still be very nice for holding little bits and bobs.

Naomi is a teacher, so I thought she'd appreciate a copy of McGuffey's First Reader, which Laura might've used as a teacher--this volume was originally published in 1867, and this particular copy is dated 1920, as well as an old autograph album. The album is dated 1952, but it's filled with great handwritten messages, and is especially appropriate because the owner was a girl named...Mary!

I also made a few things that were Laura-related, including small gift tags collaged with quotes from the books (stamped with Christmas horses, little houses, and a bright-burning candle), Little House postcards, fashionable calling cards that could double as swap cards, and small paper and tin ornaments (made with vintage book pages, a miniature sleigh bell, vintage lace and buttons, a flat peppermint candy, and striped bakers twine).

No Christmas is complete without Christmas candy, of course, so there was also a big peppermint candy cane, thin striped ribbon candy (I was *so* pleased with myself for finding those!), little "Victorian" chocolates, and old-fashioned caramels. Plus a shiny penny in the toe, just because the Ingalls always seemed to manage that somehow. I wrapped everything up in red and white striped tissue paper (like the kind Ma used so her packages would look extra festive) and plain brown waxy tissue with colored string (just how the presents were wrapped when the Boasts paid them a surprise Christmas Eve visit) and packaged them in embroidered stockings I made from wool-blend felt and vintage lace, one of which is adorned with a heart and the other with a little house in the big woods.

For this swap, it was important to keep true to the spirit of the Ingalls family, so all of the items had to be handmade or relatively inexpensive, but this turned out to be a very easy to do. The stockings were so fun to put together, because it was not only the perfect mix of vintage shopping and hand-crafting, but because it was also hugely sentimental undertaking as well. Naomi in particular is so well-versed in children's literature, and I just knew that every single thing I made or chose was something she would understand the reason behind and appreciate. I really think I got just as much joy out of making this as I hope she did in receiving it.

vintage holiday cupcake toppers: tutorial + free download

For those of you hosting holiday parties (or who need one-of-a-kind hostess gifts!), why not dress up your baked treats with cupcake toppers? I've made a few sets this year and it's a very quick, rewarding craft...and it's so much less expensive to make your own than to purchase them. Since the two previous cupcake topper swaps I'd hosted this year got such a great response, I decided to start a Dress that Cupcake! group.

Our first swap was a holiday themed lucky parcel. My partner HoneyBunny is a really creative cook (she shared a delicious recipe for clam-stuffed shrimp with me recently that is now one of our favorites) so I was looking forward to making something for her. Since she is a fan of vintage, I thought it would be nice to make toppers that looked very old-fashioned using images from vintage Christmas cards.

I really like how they turned out, since the crinkly tissue paper adds to the impression that you might have just found them in a box in the attic somewhere. Except they're much less dusty and iffy for your dessert table.

If you'd like to make your own, I've posted a simple tutorial below and uploaded a copy of the cupcake topper images as a pdf here. Just be sure to use them for good (your own personal use) not evil (commercial use), please!

Vintage Holiday Cupcake Toppers Tutorial

Materials & Tools:

1 sheet of vintage holiday images
scissors
tape
1 sheet of tissue paper in a coordinating color
glue stick
blank cardstock ovals

Directions:

1. To make the cupcake toppers, print out a copy of the vintage holiday images onto cardstock and cut around them.

2. Center a toothpick with approximately a third of the stick on the back of the each topper and firmly tape it in place. Smooth out air bubbles with your fingers and make sure it's fastened tightly.

3. Fold tissue paper a few times and cut into long 1/4 inch strips.

4. Flip your toppers over and working from the back, accordion-pleat the tissue strips around the edge of the cardstock. Carefully tape them down every inch or so, and snip off the excess tissue when you reach the end.

5. Cut cardstock ovals of approximately the same size as the vintage images. Using a good glue stick, cover the plain ovals with paste and place onto the back of each topper. Firmly press into place with your fingers, taking care to smooth around and above the toothpick.

Voila! Easy peasy craft with very pretty results.

I packaged the toppers up in a glassine bag and also made a little cake banner using the "Wishing you the sweetest holiday" greeting along with two short bamboo skewers. Since it was a lucky parcel, I also included a batch of candy buttons I made using a Bake it Pretty mold, some snowflake cupcake wrappers, a set of "Baked With Love By..." labels, and a few little trinkets and candies for additional decor. I put then everything into a recycled plastic container that I decorated with striped paper and cupcake-themed deco tape. I hope HoneyBunny enjoys her package...and that you'll enjoy making these toppers, too!

holiday handicraft + free downloads

A few months ago, I picked up an amazing out-of-print book called Holiday Handicraft at a flea market here in Los Angeles. It's written by a woman named Nina R. Jordan, who seems to have written numerous craft books for children. I love the warm, comfortable way speaks to her audience, and how true these ideas still are today:

Ready-made cards for the holidays are printed so thousands are just alike. But when you make a card for somebody, you know that no one can ever make one exactly like it, no matter how hard he tries. The same applies for any gift you make.

I also enjoy the charming advice she gives about special crayon colors:

Probably everyone who reads this page has a set of crayons or water colors, or both. But did you know that crayons are also made in the colors of silver, gold, and copper? And that there are 10¢ pans of watercolors in silver and gold? The gold, silver, and copper crayons are not commonly sold in stores but they may be bought for 5¢ each by writing to the American Crayon Company, Sandusky, Ohio.

I wonder what the author would have thought of the vast array of materials and options available to modern crafters now. But the thing that is most fun, of course, is that many of these crafts are just as great now as they were then. I thought it would be nice to share some of the pages, which would be great little holiday projects to make at home, especially with kids. The author's illustrations are really sweet and most of the projects are self-explanatory due to her drawings. (I think I'm safe copyright-wise on this since the book was published in 1928, which means it should be in the public domain. Nevertheless, please copy these images for your own personal use only.)

I'll post more images for the holidays when I get the chance. Enjoy!

red riding hood ornament

Last year, I made a lot ornaments as gifts. I'd hoped to participate in some Christmas ornament swaps this year, but many of the ones I saw I was sort of leery about joining or the timing just wasn't quite right. I did join one swap from another blog, though, and I hosted one on Swap-Bot as well, in which you were to make a lovely fairy tale ornament for your partner.

Though the swap was sender's choice, I always try to tailor to my partner's tastes if I can, so I was pleased to see that one of weeatcrayons' favorite stories was Little Red Riding Hood. There's something about that story about a girl walking in the lonely woods and danger in disguise that's always been so appealing to me--and of course, the drama of the scarlet cloak can't be beaten!

I decided to sew a little Red Riding Hood out of wool felt, and used a vintage button and lace to accessorize. I cut everything freehand (I know it would be so much easier if I spent time on a pattern first, but sometimes I just think more intuitively with scissors) so it took a little while to figure out how to make the cloak nice and flowing, but I think it turned out all right. I had plans to weave the little basket with fabric strips as well, but working on that small a scale it was impossible, so I just created some detail work with embroidery instead. The little flowers inside her basket are also vintage, acquired from Dozing Dormouse's Etsy sale a few months back. I just clipped the flowers down and made a tiny bouquet with floral tape. Everything was hand-stitched, which took longer, but when things are this small I think it's just easier.

I thought it'd also be fun to make a second companion ornament, so I used shrink film and a vintage illustration to make another storybook page. I glued silvery tinsel around the edges (my first time using E-6000--it's kind of evil, no?) and tied a pretty ribbon at the top. I quite like the way the sun looks shining through it, so I think it should look pretty good on a lit tree as well. Hooray--the first ornaments of the season are complete!

urban barn holiday faire

Yesterday we took a trip out to Escondido, California, which is about 90 minutes away from Los Angeles near San Diego. We went to the Holiday Vendor Faire at Urban Barn, which is a shabby chic-ish home goods store I'd read about on a blog somewhere.  There were pretty filmy dresses and jewelry and holiday decorations and paper ephemera everywhere, with additional vendors set up outside.

We came away with a replacement present for those matryoshka dolls (!), a tinkly vintage holiday pin for me ($2), and a carded set of buttons ($1) for a special project I have in mind. I wish there had been more vendors (both the place and the fair were on the smaller side), especially since we went a little out of our way to attend, but I think Urban Barn is relatively new so perhaps they'll grow in time.

I do so like shopping at flea and antique markets. If I could, I'd always buy gifts that had previously belonged to someone else!

little house postcards

During my frenzy of paper-crafting this week, I've made quite a few postcards. My favorites include ones made with vintage Little House book papers, the pretty "Post Card" stamp that came from overseas, and cardstock that reminds me of faded wallpaper (unblemished by a blacking mark, mind you) and rose-covered calico.

The Garth Williams illustrations are just beautiful of course, and a testament to how warmth and humor can be portrayed even in shaded black and white. Paired with Laura Ingalls Wilder's luminous prose, it's no cinch that these would probably be appealing to another fan. I'm saving them up for future correspondence, but they would definitely only go to someone else who truly loves Laura as much as I do.

If you're a serious collector with means and purpose, by the way, there are original works by Mr. Williams available at Every Picture Tells a Story, a wonderful shop in Santa Monica that sells lots of artwork based on children's literature. A couple of the original Stuart Little drawings are even available! I  confess I try not to look at what's available too often, because it just makes me want to cry. The Rosemary Wells ones in particular fill me with terrible yearning, as Morris' Disappearing Bag is one of my favorite Christmas stories. I mean, the rabbits look like dumplings! How can you not love them? It's all just too, too much for me to bear.

akin to anne

There are little gremlins at work, because I was "randomly" partnered up with my new bosom friend Naomi for two more children's lit swaps by the supposedly impartial Swap-Bot computer. And this is after we'd already plotted to do a 1:1 Christmas swap together--hmm! Curiouser and curiouser.

At any rate, one of the swaps was something I created for lovers of Anne Shirley. Everyone was to send a gift to her partner inspired by Anne of Green Gables, meaning something that might have actually belonged to Anne. I printed out a autumnal poem written by L.M. Montgomery--did you know she wrote poems? I didn't, but somehow I'm not surprised--with pretty graphics that I mounted in a vintage frame, along with a be-ribboned bookmark featuring a vintage image and one of my favorite Anne quotes. I also sent a pretty pearl necklace similar to the strand that Matthew Cuthbert gave Anne for the thrilling concert at White Sands.

As Anne says, "Kindred spirits are not so scarce as I used to think. It's splendid to find out there are so many of them in the world," and I'm very glad I got to send these particular presents to someone who has become such a dear friend from afar.

Through this group, I'm actually learning quite a bit about my rather egocentric view on the world. I'd always assumed that books by L.M. Montgomery and Laura Ingalls Wilder were beloved the world over (I know Anne is especially popular in Japan, for example), but as it turns out they aren't quite as well known as I'd thought in some other countries. One of the things I hope we'll accomplish with The Hundred Acre Wood group is that our members will find new books to love, in addition to sharing their own favorites with others. I know my "to-read" list has grown since the group's inception, and I hope that this is true for everyone else as well.

A cool Halloween package arrived a few days ago, painted black and covered in spooky spider webs, as well as chock-full of fun items. I really enjoy receiving things that other people make or give me a little glimpse into my partner's life, so this one was really fun to open.

I especially liked the photographs that ICNTECHINICOLOR sent that she took in negative mode of the Sheldon Church in Beaufort, South Carolina. Apparently it's been destroyed twice, once by the British during the Revolutionary War and then again by the Union Army during the Civil War. The church is still used for weddings and other special events, and I'm sure when it's not in spooky-camera-mode it's very beautiful!

There was a tissue pack, a paper pad, a glittery dark wand, a card, a little packet of stamped mini envelopes, a papery pendant, and more, all individually wrapped in black and orange tissue paper.

I also really liked the vintage-image postcard and and ATC she included--my very first time seeing an artist trading card in person, actually! Everything was really fun, though, and I'm lucky to have had such a creative and generous partner.

parcels of postal goodness

Departing this week: two parcels of postal goodness, filled with fun mail-themed goodies. 

According to the swap guidelines, only one item could be store-bought, so it challenged participants to be a little creative and resourceful about finding things to send. I'd actually ordered copies of the U.S. philatelic catalog awhile ago, thinking they might be fun to include if my partners were overseas, but as it turned out they're both here in the States, so I'll just save those for another time.

The packages include:

* packet of hand-stamped postal images

* fold and seal aerogramme

* V-Mail stationery sheet  inspired by stationery used to communicate with soldiers during WWII

* Secret Decoder Cipher Wheels

* vintage Cathay Airways airmail envelopes and stationery

* Griffin and Sabine postcards

* personalized address labels

* sheet of fun facts about mail from USPS

* hand-stamped "write your own story" tags

If you're a mail lover and you haven't checked out the Letter Writers Alliance, by the way, you should! The blog is full of wonderful news and information about the art of letter writing, and they offer many amazing downloads like the ones above. You can even become a member and correspond with other like-minded lovers of the written word.

I wrapped up the packages in vintage papers, one with illustrations from Mother Goose, since one of my partner likes children's storybook illustrations, and wrapped the other with maps since that particular partner likes to travel. Pretty fun stuff! I hope they'll both be able to use the items I sent, and I can't wait to receive my own.