Vintage Thingie Thursday: Vintage Ponies & Giveaway Announced

Welcome everyone to Vintage Thingies Thursday. If you have a love for vintage things, well....you have come to the right place. We have a "dog-gone" good time each and every week!!!
If you are new to this party, please take the time to read and follow the instructions for participating in Vintage Thingies Thursday, click HERE. I try and keep things fairly simple, so  please make sure you follow the instructions. Please only ONE link per week.  

Lastly, if you link in, your post needs to include:

1. the LINK back to my blog and or the button for Vintage Thingie Thursday. I have been visiting lately and when I click on a link, there is no mention of Vintage Thingie Thursday or my blog. 

2. make sure your post has something to do with something vintage. All advertisements will be deleted. If you'd like to advertise on my blog, email me, we can work that out. No more free advertising by linking in.  Shame on those who do this, nothing is free in life.

Starting this month, if you fail to either have the button on your blog, or in your blog post and/or have not linked back to my blog in your post. I will delete your link. 

It is not fair to those who follow the rules to allow others not to do so. I am not being ugly, but rules are rules.....in all aspects of life. So if you find your link removed, check your post, you need to see why that happened. Hopefully, I won't have to do that. 

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First, I'd like to thank you for all the comments on my post last week, my mom was thrilled that so many said so many nice things. She tends to worry over aging, but to me, she looks just as beautiful as always. Your comments really made her day....no matter I decided to show her on "vintage day" :)

Today, I have a couple of vintage ponies. These are from the 60's. I remember a lot of my friends had horses, and loved to collect them. I myself never did have a horse of my own, but I did have a few ponies that I loved. I had a couple of smaller ones too that I used to keep in a little shelf, but who knows what happened to those.

I think they are cute.....and I have them on a curio shelf in my "bear" room. Why? Well, because they go with bears....right?

Here is the mark on the one that has the bridle attached.

And this unusual mark is for the other one. Who knows where these came from originally. I certainly can not remember.

Finally, it is the last of March and time to announce the giveaway for this month. I took all the participants in Vintage Thingie Thursday, and all the comments I received from these post. And drew out of a hat (bowl) haha

The winner this month is :  

Anna, from Cottage 6 Studio. Congratulations!!

Anna, you have won this gift set, which includes a super cute apron, a tart pan, mini grater, and the recipe for Chocolate Raspberry Tart with Chocolate Cream. I really hope you like this little surprise!! Send me a email with your address and I will get this out to you soon.

Next week, we start a new month, and a new giveaway. Keep playing along, you just might be next!!

Happy Vintage Thingie Thursday!!!

One Fine Blessing: Cards for Seniors: April Birthdays

March is indeed going out like a lion, and we are very close to the first of April. How in the world did that happen?

I'd like to share with you a couple of Birthday request for April. I will email those who signed up at onefineblessing (at) yahoo (dot) com. But I am hoping there are a few who maybe did not know what to do, so this will make it easier.

The first one, is a request I found while blog hopping. Blackberry Creek home and arts had this request for Birthday cards to be sent to Edna, who has cerebral palsy. Please stop off and visit her post. She shows this lovely lady, and all her cards from last year. I know we can top last years card count. BUT YOU HAVE TO HURRY, her Birthday is April 2 which is fast approaching. I am mailing mine out today. Please take a moment and if you find it in your heart, drop one in the mail too. Such a small gesture, which has a large impact.

Mail cards to:

Ms Edna Quick
P.O. Box 94
Lumber Bridge, NC 28357

There is also a second birthday for a senior this month as well.

Helen will be turning 93 on April 27th. She is recovering from breast cancer surgery but is doing really well. At the present time, she is in a rehab facility until she is well enough to be on her own again. We certainly need to send well wished and encouraging words her way. If you'd like to include a dollar in her Birthday card, that would be great.

Mail cards to Helen at:

Helen Gulickson
c/o Mary Jo Mrdutt - (this is Helen's daughter)
1474 Center Street
Boyceville, WI 54725

I'd like to thank so many ahead of time, because I know many will love this idea and send a card. Remember, if you want to add someone you know to the list, please email me at the above email address for this project.

Together, we can be a blessing to one person at a time.

Drastic Measures!!

I think I am going to have to resort to drastic measures around here....the laundry situation is way out of control.

Do you think anyone walks by and sees that maybe, just maybe they could help with this a little???

I am guessing that when it covers the computer, and we can't find it, than maybe someone will notice and think something should be done......just sayin'

Five Minute Friday: Waking up........

Today I'm linking up to Lisa-Jo aka the gypsy mama, who chooses a topic every Friday and writes for five minutes.

Only five minutes

And the rule is that whatever you write about in that five minutes is what you posts. No editing your thoughts. Today, her topic choice is "Waking up......."

Ready. Set. Go......

Interesting, the topic "waking up" certainly can cover a wide array of things, but when I read these words, only a couple of things came to mind....a little heavy, but well, that is how I seem to roll these days.

Waking up certainly means to me to take in account of what matters in my everyday life. I sorta feel like that has happened over the last couple of weeks. I tend to live my life with my head in the sand and pretend things are all well with me, my family and my "friends". I think it is time for a wake up call so to speak.

I have spent so many timeless hours and energy on doing things and planning things and worrying over things that involve lots of people in my life. I try and be there, help when I can and look forward to planning special things for the people who mean a lot to me. Funny, when you pop up out of the sand once in a while, you sorta see that what was once appreciated, has sorta turned into expected and all of a sudden, at least for me, the appeal has vanished. What a wake up call.

It is not in all cases that I feel this way, but I clearly see who exactly I matter to in this world. I have awakened to the fact that I am not as important to many as I felt I was. Not hard to see when there is never time for returned phone calls, visits or just a quick check in to say Hi. I actually have one "friend" who has not dialed my number in almost a year. Yep, a wake up from the reality that I clearly do not matter that much to some. Relatives...well, we will just leave that alone. It is hard to think about this when it goes against my nature to ignore and just say "Oh well" It is not easy when your feelings get hurt or you feel unimportant. But then again, nothing that matters is really ever easy.

Now, once awake.....what to do now, or what to feel????? Opps....that was a quick 5 minutes....now to hit publish.

Vintage Thingie Thursday: Vintage This and That

Welcome everyone to Vintage Thingies Thursday. If you have a love for vintage things, well....you have come to the right place. We have a "dog-gone" good time each and every week!!!
If you are new to this party, please take the time to read and follow the instructions for participating in Vintage Thingies Thursday, click HERE. I try and keep things fairly simple, so  please make sure you follow the instructions. Please only ONE link per week.  

Lastly, if you link in, your post needs to include:

1. the LINK back to my blog and or the button for Vintage Thingie Thursday. I have been visiting lately and when I click on a link, there is no mention of Vintage Thingie Thursday or my blog. 

2. make sure your post has something to do with something vintage. All advertisements will be deleted. If you'd like to advertise on my blog, email me, we can work that out. No more free advertising by linking in.  Shame on those who do this, nothing is free in life.

Starting this month, if you fail to either have the button on your blog, or in your blog post and/or have not linked back to my blog in your post. I will delete your link. 

It is not fair to those who follow the rules to allow others not to do so. I am not being ugly, but rules are rules.....in all aspects of life. So if you find your link removed, check your post, you need to see why that happened. Hopefully, I won't have to do that. 

This week, is just a mix and match type of post. I had several photos saved on my computer and decided to include some of them in one post. So, don't be too confused if these don't seem to be related in similarity!

This is the top shelf in my sewing room. Here my aloe vera  plant has been happy to hang out all winter long. It is planted in a  vintage tin tray-type pot. This will be going outside soon, the weather is just nice enough now that we should be clear of any freezing weather.

I also have lots of buttons, many of them vintage and housed in vintage jars.  I really love my buttons!!

A few weeks ago, I received a package of scraps in the mail from Mandi and the New Orleans Modern quilting guild for my begging quilt project....that is still underway! Anyway, this vintage scrap was in the package and well, I simply could not cut it. I am going to frame this in a little frame and put it in my sewing room. I was just enchanted with this scrap, it is so, so sweet.

Monday was my birthday, and my mom's gift was wrapped in this adorable packaging. The flowers are made from old patterns as well as the inside. There is a sweet tag and a little spool of thread. I have this hanging in my sewing room too!! It is so cute.

Lastly, this is a real couple of vintage thingies!! This is my wisteria tree that blooms all down the fence in front of my house. This year it was simply beautiful. It is over 20 years old, and well on its way to vintage if you ask me!!! That is my mom.....who well, sorry mom, is sorta vintage too!!! But let me clarify....a very young vintage lady....not a thingie!!!

Have a great week everyone, looks like spring is finally here....enjoy it!!! Here is wishing you a very happy Vintage Thingie Thursday.

I thought the giveaway would be announced this week, but gosh, we have one more week of March....NEXT week I will announce the winner!!! Then, we will start over for April.....no foolin'!

Design Wall Monday: National Quilting Day - Making Ends Meet

In celebration of National Quilting Day on Saturday, I joined in with Judy at Patchwork Times in making this quilt, "Making Ends Meet", she posted the tutorial for online in honor of this great day. I actually thought I'd be finished with my top by today, but...well....sometimes things just don't go as planned.

This pattern used 5 different fabrics, but I decided to take the scrappy way with this one, and used a lot of my re-purposed mens shirts that I have taken apart and saved for a quilt. I used the pinks, reds, blues, greens and creams. I omitted the yellow fabrics after I had taken this photo.

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It took longer to cute the pieces for this quilt, as you can imagine, the shirts were not all perfectly in lengths, so that added a bit of time to the process. Along with that, if you notice that blue seam ripper on my machine, I used that a lot too.....just sayin.

Here are some of the blocks in progress on my design wall.

So today....this is what is on my design wall.....I still have lots of work to do, but I have made progress over the weekend.

And here is the middle of the top now finally on the design wall on Sunday night. I still have to make the six borders and sew the whole top together. It definitely is a scrappy quilt, the photos don't really show the pinks too well, but they look a little brighter than the photo shows.

I will use the borders Judy suggested in her quilt. I will have to make the large scrappy border too, but I think that really sets the whole quilt in a positive way. I can't decide how I like how this really busy top turned out. I saw someone's quilt who was doing this challenge too and it was done in blues and turquoise colors and I fell in love with that quilt, it was beautiful. So I have had a bit of trouble getting that one out of my mind.......but this scrappy gem is growing on me.......and the best thing of all........no cost involved here....I used what I had on hand. Re-purposed fabrics sorta like the days of yesterday.

You can visit Judy and  see more great projects and see what is on great quilter's design walls across the globe. It is inspiring to say the least.

Five Minute Friday: " On waiting............."

Today I'm linking up to Lisa-Jo aka the gypsy mama, who chooses a topic every Friday and writes for five minutes.

Only five minutes

And the rule is that whatever you write about in that five minutes is what you posts. No editing your thoughts. Today, her topic choice is "On waiting......."

Ready. Set. Go......

If one word could some up what I think most people rely on in life, it would be waiting. In my own life, I know that is true to the very core. I wonder why that is?

Every where you look, it seems someone is waiting for something or a confirmation about something before moving forward. In thinking about this for only a couple of seconds, in my own life this is true too. I have heard myself say countless of times, "when I lose weight", "when I feel better", "when we have more money",
"waiting on vacation, to enjoy life and rest", "when, when, when....wait, wait, wait".......and in all honesty, the when never happens, but the wait has become a crutch to actually stop an action. True.

Think about it, I know several people, and I have to include myself in this one who have literally "waited" most of their lives for better times, better jobs, better everything to come and it just does not. The reason is not that it was not attainable, or deserved, but the simple act of staying in the waiting mode left them in limbo and nothing ever changed or became different.

I think it is time to stop waiting and start doing. If only a small step in the direction you are wanting to go. I guess I am speaking to myself here the most. There are appropriate times for being patient and waiting on something to change or be different, but if you are feeling like that is all you ever do, is wait.....well.... Think about it......the waiting needs to be over, it should be time  to "do" something to set your life in motion once again. "Hear that self?"

Wow....that was a quick 5 minutes this week! Have a great weekend....do something.....don't wait on it!!!

Vintage Thingie Thursday: Vintage Kitchen Goods

Welcome everyone to Vintage Thingies Thursday. If you have a love for vintage things, well....you have come to the right place. We have a "dog-gone" good time each and every week!!!
If you are new to this party, please take the time to read and follow the instructions for participating in Vintage Thingies Thursday, click HERE. I try and keep things fairly simple, so  please make sure you follow the instructions. Please only ONE link per week.  

Lastly, if you link in, your post needs to include:

1. the LINK back to my blog and or the button for Vintage Thingie Thursday. I have been visiting lately and when I click on a link, there is no mention of Vintage Thingie Thursday or my blog. 

2. make sure your post has something to do with something vintage. All advertisements will be deleted. If you'd like to advertise on my blog, email me, we can work that out. No more free advertising by linking in.  Shame on those who do this, nothing is free in life.

Starting Today, if you fail to either have the button on your blog, or in your blog post and/or have not linked back to my blog in your post. I will delete your link. 

It is not fair to those who follow the rules to allow others not to do so. I am not being ugly, but rules are rules.....in all aspects of life. So if you find your link removed, check your post, you need to see why that happened. Hopefully, I won't have to do that. 

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We went to Bowie Trade days recently and had a great day. I have a great love for vintage jars and have several in my kitchen. If they have a red lid, well, that is all the better. I spotted this one, and had to have it. I paid $5.00 for it and tried to haggle down the price, but let me say the little old lady who was at the booth was rather proud of all her wares.

I liked this as it said Polish Sausage, and I thought it would be cute in my kitchen with the others jars I have. I inquired with the lady to see if she knew the age of the jar. She said she didn't but she assured me it was old, not that I was doubting that. She said "Honey, there are NO BAR CODES in that label, it is old." This would be the time I took out my five dollar bill and handed it to her!

I noticed there was a piece of paper inside the jar, but I could not read it until I took it out. The lady told me it was there when she bought the jar so she left it there. Evidently, I purchased Thurman's cookie jar and the date is there too. Icing on the cake.

I also have some vintage Peanuts cookie cutters. I love vintage cookie cutters, but I absolutely hate making rolled cookies and using them. I thought these were so cute for a buck.

This is how I felt when I found that note in my new jar......happy to have Thurman's cookie jar!!!  It makes me wonder who Thurman was, and what he was like, and what type of cookies did he keep in this jar.

This cookbook belonged to my mother in law. I really love it. The cookbook is full of great graphics as well as great recipes. I love a good recipe.

Here is a sample of the graphics on some of the pages. Really sweet.

Have a great weekend and the rest of spring break for many of you. See you next week, and I will announce the winner of the Vintage Thingie Giveaway for March. 

I Think I Can.........Finish What I Start

I may not be showing much on the quilting front, but rest assured, I have been busy with lots of fabrics. There really is lots of quilt construction going on, and I have to remind myself to stay focused and not get overwhelmed.

I found the pattern for this quilt top on line. It used 6 charm packs in all, (4 print, 2 solid) Now, I have lots of charm packs, but decided to use up some fabrics that I had planned for another quilt that will never be......sad but true. So in deciding to save my pretty charm packs, I cut all the fabrics for this quilt.

Lesson here....take the time to really think it through when making changes to a pattern. I ended up not paying attention and cut DOUBLE what I needed for this quilt. So guess what happens when you do that?? Make two quilts.

I have these blocks all done, just need to sew the top all together, I have been putting that off, because that is my very least favorite part of construction a quilt. However, I need to get these finished, I need one as a gift.

Someone I know needed a baby quilt, and this is what is on the way to the quilters as I type this. Actually, she should have it by now. I love the colors on this, very cute for a little boy.

Here is the back.....reminds me that "I think I can" get all of this finished. I have two quilts coming back from the quilter soon (I hope) that needs to have the binding put on, one is the quilt for the brown bag quilt contest. So I really need to finish that one!


Have a great weekend......and I almost forgot to mention my Begging Quilt Project......I have not made any more progress on this as of date.....I have got to figure out a way to work on this a little each week.......It is still on my design wall with only three blocks finished......I must do better!!

Five Minute Friday: I feel the most loved when…

Today I'm linking up to Lisa-Jo aka the gypsy mama, who chooses a topic every Friday and writes for five minutes.

Only five minutes

And the rule is that whatever you write about in that five minutes is what you posts. No editing your thoughts. Today, her topic choice is "I feel the most loved when...."

Ready. Set. Go......

Man. This topic had my head spinning. What to say? What to not say? So....forget the thought process, and just say what pops in my head!

I feel the most loved when..... out of the blue, my daughter who does not live at home any more, will send me a text message saying "miss you" or "love you". It is a feeling of being needed and loved like nothing can compare  to. I am so thankful to be important enough, or loved enough for her to let me know she loves me. My son has his own way of letting me know how much he cares. He is the one who seems to always know when to call and just say "what's up". He makes my heart smile by just being himself. He has a heart of gold. And he loves with his whole heart. No mistaken the love from him.

I feel the most loved when.....the man I married almost 25 years ago does small things that are so random and out of the blue, but knowing he thought of me while doing it. The most recent prime example would be on a normal run to our local dump, to take off brush and trash he came home with a box of treasures. Homar Laughlin dishes someone had discarded. Knowing my love for all antique dishes,  he felt sure I'd be thrilled with this box. He really surprised me, because he always comments on my habit of collecting dishes and how many I actually have. But when he walked in the house, smiling that knowing smile, that he had a real prize to present to me, was a moment I won't soon forget. For me, I feel the most loved in the simplest of things from the one who knows me best.

I feel the most loved when.....my three precious pups greet me at the door, begging for me to pick them up. They patiently wait with tails wagging, happy and thrilled to see me. There is no comparison as to have one of them lay their head on my shoulder and give a little sigh of contentment. Talk about feeling loved beyond measure. No matter my mood, no matter how I feel, no matter that I am not always at my best, my 3 dogs do not care, the love me no matter what is not right in my world. It is a good feeling.

My family....my pets.....they make my world a sunny place. It is good to feel loved on any measure.

Vintage Thingie Thursday: Vintage Kitchen Gadgets

Welcome everyone to Vintage Thingies Thursday. If you have a love for vintage things, well....you have come to the right place. We have a "dog-gone" good time each and every week!!!
If you are new to this party, please take the time to read and follow the instructions for participating in Vintage Thingies Thursday, click HERE. I try and keep things fairly simple, so  please make sure you follow the instructions. Please only ONE link per week. Lastly, if you link in, LINK back to my blog, so everyone can see all of the vintage goodies being showed that day. If you don't link back here, they won't know who to visit......thanks so much.

I have a love for kitchen gadgets. Some of the ones I have belonged to family members, some of them, I have acquired over the years. Most of them, I do use.

I love these measuring spoons. They remind me of the one's my mom and grandma used when I was small. When I see these at estate sales, I always buy them. They are not that easy to come by around here, even if you think they would be. I also love a vintage cheese grater. I have seen my mom and grandma grate lots of cheese using one exactly like this one. No food processor for them.

This my friends, is a real vintage thingie. Can you guess what it is used for??? I am sure you know by the photograph exactly what this is.......but can you guess it's use??

 My grandma, mom and aunt all had these and they were used for chopping nuts. Talk about fancy.

In fact, I don't think I ever saw my grandma use anything other than this can for chopping. This is her "nut chopper" from her kitchen. I also have my aunt's as well. And...yes....I do use it.

Just look at the top of the can.

See, this is how this complex gadget works......nuts on a plate or pan, and whack away.

See, it works rather well. How's that for a vintage thingie!! I really do treasure this old can. I can still see my grandma's hands holding that very can and chopping pecans for a pecan pie. Great memories.

Have a great week!!!

Start Spending: Good Advice

Someone special sent me this the other day, very good. Thought I'd pass it on!!

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Imagine that you had won the following prize in a contest: Each morning your bank would deposit $86,400.00 in your private account for your use.

However, this prize has rules, just as any game has certain rules.

The first set of rules would be:

Everything that you didn't spend during each day would be taken away from you.

You may not simply transfer money into some other account. You may only spend it.

Each morning upon awakening, the bank opens your account with another $86,400.00 for that day.

The second set of rules:

The bank can end the game without warning; at any time it can say, it’s over, the game is over! It can close the account and you will not receive a new one.

What would you personally do?

You would buy anything and everything you wanted right? Not only for yourself, but for all people you love, right? Even for people you don't know, because you couldn't possibly spend it all on yourself, right? You would try to spend every cent, and use it all, right?


ACTUALLY This GAME is REALITY!

Each of us is in possession of such a magical bank. We just can't seem to see it.

The MAGICAL BANK is TIME!

Each morning we awaken to receive 86,400 seconds as a gift of life, and when we go to sleep at night, any remaining time is NOT credited to us.

What we haven't lived up that day is forever lost.

Yesterday is forever gone.

Each morning the account is refilled, but the bank can dissolve your account at any time....WITHOUT WARNING.

SO, what will YOU do with your 86,400 seconds?

Those seconds are worth so much more than the same amount in dollars.


Think about that, and always think of this:

Enjoy every second of your life, because time races by so much quicker than you think.

So take care of yourself, be happy, love deeply and enjoy life!

Here's wishing you a wonderful and beautiful day.

Start spending.