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):

Outdoor Wednesday: Lighting Up

Outdoor Wednesday is hosted by Susan at A Southern Daydreamer. To see many, many more outdoor photos or to post some of your own, please visit her blog.

I'm not sure if it's the recession or what, but the Christmas decorations around our neighborhood seem to be a little sparse this year. A depressing sort of Grinchy-ness has set in. In our apartment building, we're the only ones in our "tier" with lights on the balcony. But at least they make us easy to pick out. (Click on photos to enlarge. Sorry these are a little blurry - they were taken with the camera in M's phone.)


However, one holiday lighting tradition is being upheld. One of the buildings nearby has done this every Christmas for at least the past twenty years. The lights that make up the tree extend over about eight or nine storeys, which means that a lot of residents have to agree to get involved. And here in condo canyon, that kind of dedication is a real demonstration of neighborliness!

Shadow Shot Sunday (#82)

This is my first time participating in Shadow Shot Sunday, a weekly photo meme over at Hey Harriet. I've just recently gotten interested in playing with light and dark in my photographs, and haven't done much about it yet. But I'm eager to see what others have done, and maybe get some inspiration.

This little critter visited our balcony back in October. He was obviously lost - we don't have any grass or corn crops growing out there! In the photo it looks like he's missing a leg, doesn't it? Well, the other one was there - just didn't show up in the shot for some reason. I took this with my Canon PowerShot A710IS digital camera. I'm constantly being amazed at what I can do with this little camera - for this one, I wasn't even using the macro setting, just the built-in telephoto feature. Still got a pretty good close-up of the visitor and his shadow. (Click on photo 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!