Happy Holidays!

 

Happy Valentine's Day !

Image credit: Vintage valentine from Sweetly Scrapped

Cat Thursday: Valentine Kitties

Cat Thursday is a weekly meme hosted by The True Book Addict, and celebrating "the wonders and sometime hilarity of cats." You can join the fun by posting a favorite LOL cat pic, famous cat art or even pics of your own beloved cat(s). It's all for the love of cats!

It's been a really long time since I posted any photos for Cat Thursday. (Where've I been?) But as we're getting very close to Valentines Day (or should that be Valentine's Day?), thought I'd share a few vintage cards with images of cats.

I love cats (though I'm allergic, darn it) and I've always loved/collected greeting cards. So what's better than a greeting card with a cat on it, right?

A couple of these are from my personal card stash, and the rest are images I've collected over the years from various sources (internet sites like Graphics Fairy and Free Vintage Digital Stamps are great places to explore).

They're all wishing you a Happy Thursday and a Purrrr-fectly lovely Valentine's Day.

Christmas Cards

I love Christmas cards.  And I have a huge collection of them.  Actually, I love ALL greeting cards.  Always have.  My mother used to save all her greeting cards in a big shoe box and one of my favorite childhood pastimes was going through the box, making up stories to accompany the pictures on the cards.  I especially loved the shaped or die-cut cards - I'd trace around the edges and use the outline to make frames for my drawings.  Hmmmm.  Whatever happened to all that creativity I wonder.  But I digress.

Today, I just thought I'd show you a few cards from my collection.  It's a pretty random selection - some are really old, from the 1920s and earlier.  But most were issued sometime between 1930 and the early '60s.  I used to be able to pick these up for around a nickel each, in thrift shops.  These days, with more and more people collecting, they're usually considerably more expensive - and harder to find.  But I still love hunting for them.

Cat Thursday: Be My Valentine?

He's a few days early, but this kitty is wishing you a purr-fectly lovely Valentine's Day!

Cat Thursday is hosted by Michelle @ The True Book Addict

Blue Monday: Vintage Cards, Part 2

Blue Monday is hosted weekly by Smiling Sally.
To see more offerings, or to participate yourself,
please head on over to her blog.

I've already posted about vintage Scottie Christmas cards (see Vintage Cards, Part 1), so today I thought I'd put up a few photos of some of the Santa and angel cards in my collection. Those earlier cards were mostly from the 1930s, but today I'm getting more into my era - cards from the early 1950s (with one or two from the late '40s). As you can see, cuteness was a definite factor. And apparently, so was blueness!

The background on the second card is actually a dark, midnight blue, even though it looks black here. "Cheerio" was a popular greeting on these cards. Veddy British, wot? Also, notice the man in the moon on that second card.

Santa going down the chimney is always a popular subject, isn't it? This one looks like he might not make it.

Some of them are a little weird, as you can see. Well, abstract art was all the rage.

And some had interesting shapes and little cut-out areas, like this one. Those bells are cut so that they can be turned up or down - looks a little like they're ringing!


And a few angel cards. This last one is very up-to-date with its mention of Jingle Bells on the radio!

VTT and Holidailies: Vintage Cards, Part 1

Vintage Thingies Thursday is hosted by Suzanne at Coloradolady, and as she says, "Thursday is the day to showcase your vintage treasures and to share your special things with everyone." Please visit her blog to find out more about VTT or to participate yourself.

I know, I know. It's almost not Thursday anymore. My only excuse is that all the Christmas-ing has got me forgetting what day of the week it is.

I've always collected greeting cards. I've even got the cards and gift enclosures that were sent to my mother when I was born! OK - I didn't actually collect those; she did. But I've always loved cards. When I was a pre-schooler, one of my favorite games was playing with my mother's collection of old greeting cards and gift tags. She kept them in shoe boxes. And hat boxes. Big hat boxes. So I guess it must be an inherited trait.

My aunt used to save Christmas cards, too. Some of my collection came from her. Some of the ones she particularly liked, she would frame and hang around her various apartments. Like these:



But today, I wanted to show a few of the vintage Scottie cards in my collection. Most of these are even older than I am - the Scottie cards were popular in the 1930s and '40s, I suppose because of the popularity of President Roosevelt and his pet Scottie Fala. Here's a sampling (click on photos to enlarge):

Some Late Grooviness for Saturday

I can see I'm already failing miserably at Holidailies. Didn't post anything on Joysweb yesterday, and I've almost missed today, too. Well, we've been surprised with two absolutely beautiful days in a row, all of a sudden here, and I'm over the cold and the back seems to be working again - so M and I have been out and about quite a lot. Today we did a little Christmas shopping, stocked up on groceries and the inevitable milk/bread/toilet paper/bottled water before the winter storm that might be coming our way tomorrow. Treated ourselves to lunch at the local Olive Garden (artichoke/spinach appetizer - yum!). Then came home and took a long winter's nap! I'm definitely turning into a senior citizen.

So, that's the reason I haven't been posting much these last couple of days. But I thought, from time to time during this Christmas season, I might put up some photos of some of my favorite vintage cards from Christmases past, and I guess this might be a good time to start. So here's one I love - not that old, but it reminds me so much of the cards we used to send and receive back when M and I were first married and starting our own Christmas traditions. And the sentiment is still very, as we used to say, relevant, man!