Thursday, November 4, 2010

Nostalgic Christmas Toys

I was thinking of Christmas as a child, remembering all the toys we had when we were little and how different things are today. Technology is the new toy today. I have such good childhood memories of how excited I was for Santa to get there and I could barely go to sleep! I decided to look up some of these old toys we used to have when we were children and I remembered one in particular that was my absolute favorite, Showboat Theatre. Love, love, loved that! My favorite Wizard of Oz characters came with it and I used to sit for hours playing with it. Well, I came across this website that has a huge list of old time toys and as I scrolled down, I found my Showboat!! Oh my gosh! I was so excited when I saw they had pictures of all  the toys! There it was! So I thought I would post some of these pictures of the ones I had or my brothers and cousins had that we all used to play with when we were kids. Here goes:

My favorite

I lost this outside playing on the porch and found it melted the next day in the middle of the road!

My cousin and  i played this all the time!


Record players were a big thing back then!

I had completely forgotten about this one until I saw the picture!

This has been around a long time!



I had one of these and today you would never see one in my house!

My girlfriends and I played jacks all the time on the porch! Such fun!



This was another favorite we all used to play with.

My youngest brother loved the train sets!





This was my cousin's game. We enjoyed racing the marbles to the finish!


These were so much fun!

Red Ryder BB Gun.

This was something my brothers liked.





This was a cool toy. I enjoyed looking at the pictures.

 Hope you enjoyed looking at the old toys from yesteryear! Do you remember any special toys from your childhood? You can find these and many more at: http://www.timewarptoys.com/gallery.htm
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Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Getting things done!

GreetingSpring.comWell, in the last few days, I scrubbed my carpets, downstairs, steps, and hallway only, cleaned the furniture in the living room with my new Bissell, and steam cleaned my dining room and kitchen floors. I was truly amazed at how dirty the water was when emptying the bucket in the scrubber! Disgusting! I feel better now knowing they are clean. Now I'm just waiting for the next time my cat decides to vomit on my clean carpet!!
I know it will happen sooner or later, but I have my little Bissell machine for small cleanups. All this cleaning drives me crazy! So much work to be done for the holidays! When I start with the decorating I just clean as I go. I could dust and two days later, the dust is back! It takes me almost two weeks to decorate. This is why I'll be starting soon. I can only do a little every day since I work evenings....cleaning....doctor's office's!! But it always gets done! I'm like the energizer bunny. I just keep on going!!
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Monday, November 1, 2010

More of Did You Know?

Well, I turned on my television this morning and on one of the music channels...Sounds of the Seasons...they are now playing Christmas music until at least New Year's Day. Those big holidays are just around the corner. As I was watching the music channel, I wrote down some of the info they were displaying while playing the tunes. Here goes:

1. In Russia the gift giver is Grandfather Frost.
2. Americans chow down on 22 million turkeys at Christmas compared to 45 million at Thanksgiving!
3. The Charles Dickens 1843 story Christmas Carol, has been filmed over 200 times. I love the Scrooge story!
4. The world's largest gingerbread man was baked in Olso, Norway in 2009. It weighed 1,435 lb. Now that's a big man!!
5. Christmas tree angels were introduced in the 1850's.
6. Say it in writing! About 1.5 billion Christmas cards are sent a year in the United States.
7. During WW11, crowds gathered in Times Square to celebrate the holidays with a moment of silence followed by chimes.
8. Jingle Bells was published by James Pierpont in 1857.
9. New York city, Boston, Hartford put up the first community Christmas trees in 1912.
10. There are about 15,000 Christmas tree growers in the United States.

I thought this was interesting and wanted to share it with you.

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Merry Christmas Cats

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Ho Ho Ho and Jingle all the way!! I laughed when I saw these adorable little cats! I hope they make you smile today too!!
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Time to get serious!

 String Of Lights   Well, today is Halloween. For me tomorrow is the start of the race for the holidays. I've decided it's time to get serious about the house cleaning in preparation for the three big holidays that are ahead. I went out and bought a Bissell scrubber to clean my carpets and furniture. I have three pets and it really needs done! I will probably be shocked when I see what comes out of the carpet! So I have a busy day ahead of me. I'll turn on my television Monday morning and I think they will be playing Christmas music on the Sounds of the Seasons channel. They usually do right after Halloween. So now it's time for me to get serious about cleaning my house!! Busy, busy, busy!






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Organize to Get Your Holiday Cards Out On Time

Christmas cards with angels, scandinavian “nis...Image via Wikipedia   Here's an interesting article I found at EzineArticles.com.

Some of you may have taken our advice in July and already snapped up Christmas cards on sale, but if you skipped over that article while sipping lemonade, don't worry. We're here to tell that you a little planning now will keep you from freaking out once December rolls around. We're not saying that you need to actually mail the cards now, but taking a few steps to get yourself ready will definitely save you some time, and a headache, later.


Sarah on "making traditions work for us"

"My husband and I both have large families, so I always groan a little when I realize that Christmas is coming. Between all of the parties and gifts, we've decided that trying to get out cards is impossible. The problem is, my husband and I love creating our card and sharing it with family, so we decided that doing away with the tradition isn't going to happen. Instead, we're starting our own new tradition and sending out New Year's cards instead. After the holidays, January can be quiet, so it's a perfect time to sit down and do our cards. We're finding that people pay more attention to them after the holidays because they actually have the time to look at them."
Alicia on "card craziness"

"I am a sucker for anything festive and so is my husband, so we take our cards very seriously. Each year, we try to outdo ourselves from the previous year. We do a different theme each year, so the year we moved to California we superimposed our faces on the bodies of Malibu Beach Barbies (my husband's head was superimposed on Ken's body). Everyone got a kick out of it and it was a fun way for us to mark the year's transition. I'm not telling what we're doing this year - you'll have to wait and see!"

Three ways to Get Organized in October:
1. Select Cards or Photo.
Unless you have a tiny infant, you're not going to change much between now and December. If you're creating a photo picture, take your photo now and have it ready. You can even order the cards this week and have them ready to go in early December.

2. Get that Address List in Top Shape.
Now is the time to gather those scraps of paper with new address labels and put them all together in one spot. It's ok if you're not putting them in an Excel spreadsheet, but just be sure that all of the addresses are together in one place.

3. Address the Envelopes.
Don't stamp them, since postage rates can change, but it's ok to go ahead and address the envelopes to the people on your list. Not only will you be ready to pop them in the mail before most people have even started thinking about Christmas, but you might even have legible handwriting since you won't be rushing!

Buttoned Up is dedicated to helping stretched & stressed women get organized. Co-founders Alicia Rockmore & Sarah Welch team up with a group of Gurus to give you tips & products for all your messy, stressed needs & introduce "imperfect organization." Visit http://getbuttonedup.com/to see which Guru matches your style & get info on Everyday Life, Life Essentials & Life Events

Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Alicia_Rockmore

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Friday, October 29, 2010

Christmas Elf Origins

Queen's Christmas tree at Windsor Castle 1848,...Image via WikipediaThe modern Christmas elf appeared as early as 1856 when Louisa May Alcott completed, but never published a book entitled "Christmas Elves". The elves can also be seen in engravings from 1873 in Godey's Lady's Book, showing them surrounding Santa while at work. I tried to find an image of this book, but could not. There were a lot of other images of her books, but not this particular one. I am always worried about copyright also. You get a lot of "images may be subject to copyright".  Additional recognition was given in Edward Eggleston's 1876 work "The House of Santa Claus, a Christmas Fairy Show for Sunday Schools".


The image of the elves in the workshop was popularised by Godey's Lady's Book, with a front cover illustration for its 1873 Christmas Issue showing Santa surrounded by toys and elves with the caption "Here we have an idea of the preparations that are made to supply the young folks with toys at Christmas time". During this time Godey's was immensely influential to the birth of Christmas traditions, having shown the first widely circulated picture of a modern Christmas tree on the front cover of its 1850 Christmas issue.

 St. Nicholas as an elf:

In Clement Clarke Moore's 1823 poem A Visit from St. Nicholas (more commonly known today as Twas the Night Before Christmas), Santa Claus himself is described in line 45 as "He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf".


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