Vintage Ad Wednesday

Here are some neat-o vintage ads from my latest magazine purchase, this October 1950 Better Homes and Gardens.

 

 

 

 

Below is a beautiful Coca-Cola ad.  I can't wait to get this one scanned.

 

 

 

 

That's all for today.  It's been crazy busy around our house!  Until another time, have a happy vintage day!

Daycare Candy Store

Well, it's not really candy, but the 3-5 year olds love to pretend that it is.

*I wouldn't recommend doing this with kids under the age of 3, and even some 3 year olds still put things in their mouths.  So you have to know your kids well enough to know if they can be trusted with smaller toys.*

 

To start, I found this old Whitman's sampler box that I had saved from Thanksgiving.  It was empty (candy boxes don't stay full around me for very long), cleaned out, and still had it's dividers inside.

We used plastic buttons, uni-fix cubes and round, wooden beads as our "candies".

Here is one of my little ones playing candy store owner.  He is putting together a box of delicious candies for me (I like mints the best).

The kids played with this for hours this week!

And another fun add-on activity is to sit down and watch the Curious George cartoon "Candy Counter" where George watches the candy counter at Mable's Department store.

 

Here George is trying to sort 4 greens and 8 pinks into 2 boxes.

 

 

That's all for today, until another time have a happy play day!

 

Embroidered Towel from Mom

Last week, my folks were in town and my mom brought me this cute little dish towel that she had stitched!  I think it's adorable!

 

 

It lives on the side of my fridge so that I can look at it every day.  My mom knows just what I like!

 

 

It makes me want to get back into the stitching mood again!  I haven't embroidered for SO long because I've been trying to get my quilt finished.  But this fall and winter embroidery must make a come-back!  I don't want to forget how to do it!

 

Until another time, have a happy stitching day!



Vacation Book Stores

While in Fargo, I checked to see if there were any "children's" bookstores in the area.  There wasn't.  But we did go to both the Barnes and Noble in Fargo, and the one in Bismarck.  They were both nice.

We were greeted by an elephant at Barnes and Noble Jr. in Fargo.

 



 

This Jr. part was very nice!  It was different than both Bismarck's and Minot's.  It's story-time stage was much smaller than the others we've seen, but it still looked like a fun place to spend an hour...or five. AND they had Locomotive by Brian Floca on display!  Front-n-center.  All the other stores I've been in have it hiding on the Non-fiction shelf.

 

 

The Fargo Barnes also had this cool Hands on Lego station.  I wished I was eight years old again.

 

 

We stopped at the Bismarck Barnes and Noble on the way home and I purchased the book, "Will You Be My Friend" by Nancy Tafuri.  It's a cute little book about being shy, and making friends.  The Daycare kids love it!

 

 

Here is Bismarck's story time area.  Pretty cute!
 

 

The Barnes and Noble in Bismarck was the first B&N Autumn ever visited.

Here she is when she was just little...climbed into this chair all by herself while I was looking at greeting cards.
 

 

And here she is today.  Her preferred reading material has gotten a bit more difficult, (going from Blues Clues to Harry Potter) and does she ever LOVE to read!!

 

 

And finally, here is the story time area in our own Barnes and Noble in Minot!

 

 

That's all for today!  Until another time...happy reading!



Home From Mini-Vacation

Our mini-vacation was lots of fun.  We enjoyed riding a Ferris wheel in Scheels, and the carousel at the Red River Zoo.  We had a little shopping time, and eating time too at Texas Roadhouse (best service we've had in a long time), Red Lobster (Mmm, cheddar biscuits), and IHOP, which I enjoyed very much (blueberry pancakes!)

 

First up is Ruby the Ferris Wheel.  Ruby was first purchased in 1938, and in 2006 was delivered to the Scheels in Fargo.

 

And here is the carousel at the Red River Zoo.

 

 

I liked that they played "old-time" as you whirled around...songs such as "Let Me Call You Sweetheart".

 

 

I found out I really like Armadillos.  They aren't too cuddly looking, but they sure are cute!

 

 

Here is the beautiful, glass mural at the Red River Zoo.

 

 

 

The Red Pandas were a favorite of many!

 

 

One of my favorite places to shop was Rae Bon Quilt shop.  The staff was super friendly and they had a great selection on 1930s reproduction fabrics!

This is just the sweetest little quilt block!  But I have no idea what it is called!

 

And here are the fat quarters I purchased to add to my stash.  I was SO excited to find all of these wonderful patterns!!  (A couple of the striped ones are Autumn's).

 

 

In the end, I spread out all of our souvenirs and purchases to remember our trip by. 

We were able to stop at one Antique Shop where I picked up a 1950 Better Homes, and Anchor tea towel, and a vintage anniversary card.  I picked up quite a few things for the daycare this trip including a neat-o water table (not shown) that can be used indoors!

 

 

That's all for today, until another time, have a happy vintage day!

 

Tommy The Turtle Park

One of our favorite stops in Bottineau is the Tommy the Turtle Park.

 

We love its trees and shady nooks.

 

 

We love it's sunny playground.

 

 

And of course we love Tommy the Turtle!

 

 

I wonder what the history of this Turtle is?

Roadsideamerica.com states that Tommy was built in 1978 and is 30 feet tall, 34 feet long and marks the gateway to the Turtle Mountains in ND.  You can check out Roadside America's site HERE.  It's pretty cool.

 

And my most favorite part of this park is this tree.  Every year in July it blooms the most wonderful smelling flowers and every year I come to visit and practically inhale them.  I think they are Lilacs but am not certain. 

They bring back a memory to me that I can't quit place.  I think maybe it's a memory of a small bar of soap I once had from Avon?

 

 

Whatever kind of tree it is, I'd like to plant one in my yard.  It is fast becoming my favorite kind of tree. 

 

That's all for today, until another time, have a happy, sunny day!

 

 

Miss Ida Vedquam's Church and Gravestone

Some of you might remember my strange quest to find information about a woman named Ida Vedquam.  If you don't remember or would like a refresher, click HERE for my previous blog.

 

Independence Day weekend found us in the Bottineau area and on the highway that passed near Mouse River Lutheran Church.  I knew this to be Ida's church; the church she grew up in, played organ for, sang in the choir and her final resting place. 

 

A thought just came to mind (bear with me here).  We don't find that in our society very often anymore.  By "that" I mean having one church family...one church building for our whole lives and beyond.  I no longer attend my childhood church, nor the church I was married in, nor the church in which my child was baptized.  Until now, I never really thought much of it.  Many of our pioneer families build these little rural churches and that church was their church for the rest of their lives. How often does that happen anymore?  Not often I would suspect.

 

So, we turned the car onto the gravel road, drove the one mile south, and paid Ida a little visit.

Such a beautiful church with it's stained glass windows, covered by strong metal mesh-like screening. (I suppose that's a commentary on the world we live in now-a-days...full of vandalism and theft.  Or maybe they just don't want birds bonking into the windows).  Whatever the purpose, the screens detract a little bit from the beauty of the windows, but I'm sure they are still beautiful from the inside and maybe even at night from the outside.  That is, if the church were ever open for something like a late-night Christmas Eve service, full of singing people and warm light from the inside.  I think that would be a pretty sight to see from the gravel road.

We found the cemetery to be well kept and freshly mowed.

We found a couple of Vedquam family stones and this one above is Ida's family stone, located in the southern, front part of the cemetery.  She is buried alongside her parents.

We brushed the grass from each of the Vedquam's flat stones and could then see the names and dates.  I thought it was nice that her family was buried near the lilac hedges that grew tall and thick. Lilacs are hardy and can endure the cold winters and hot summers of North Dakota, much like these faithful pioneers.  And lilacs seem to be everywhere you look, both in small town yards and on country farms.  Ida probably lived with lilacs both on the farm and town.

A picture of the church from the south part of the cemetery. 

 

The very top of the steeple there stands a weather vane with the year 1905 on the arrow.  I found that to be really interesting.  I regret not looking for a cornerstone on the church, but we had to get going on our way.

 

It was a beautiful, calm day, and a nice little visit to Ida's grave.  Maybe someday we'll be able to see the inside of the church.

 

Until another day, have a happy, sunshiny day. 

Sewing, Stitching, and Quilting at The Pioneer Museum

For my stitching and vintage loving friends out there I thought I would post a few pictures of quilts and embroidery items that we saw during our tour of the Kenmare Pioneer Museum.

 

There were many vintage quilts displayed throughout the museum.  Here are a few.



A beautiful Signature Quilt.

Another Signature quilt.  Folks could pay 25 cents to have their name embroidered on a block.  Proceeds were given to the Red Cross.

Crazy Quilt (and some books I didn't look at!  I wonder what they are.)

Dresden quilt.  Every flower was the same which tells me that only these fabrics were used.  Maybe they were feed sacks, or a little girl's dresses.

This beautiful quilt is a Log Cabin quilt (I think).  So pretty!

This quilt was probably my favorite and I wish I knew what the pattern is called. 

Here are some pretty French knots.  Wow, I'll bet this took a few hours!

And here are some examples of beautiful handy work.

 

 

 

Colorful doilies.  I especially like the one with the grape bunches and leaves.

 

 

Some adorable embroidered quilt squares.

 

 

And here are some fun notions.

 

 

And some fun, fashionable patterns!

 

 

 

And I'll leave you today with a whole wall of patterns to drool over.  Aren't they wonderful!?

 

That's all for today, until another time, have a happy, vintage, stitching day!