Monday Memories

Last nite I was feeling a bit down. I cleaned house all day and when I was dusting, I started looking at pics of my dad I have around my house. It's hard to believe he's been gone almost 2 years. I miss him so much each day. After my husband went to bed, it was quiet and I started thinking back when I was a little girl. Many memories came flooding my mind and my birth year of 1957.

Several years ago, I was privilidged enough to have given to me an old Life Magazine Book with all the magazines from July and August of 1957 bound in a book. I was born in July so I was so thrilled when I saw it. I opened the book last nite and gazed through it.

It's one of those books where you really need to sit down and look at the articles because I had no clue what most were. Last nite, I was just in the mood to look at the advertisements and smile and think about how simple life was back then.

I had to snap a few pics of some of the ads in the book. Where in the world can you get a 5 piece bedroom suite now in the price range of $149 to $399? With $399 being the top of the price range, I wondered what in the world that one looked like! I really laughed when I looked closely because my brother had the exact bed but in black (not white) and a double size. Matter of fact, the bed is till in our farm house.

How about the cereal ad? Post cereals - sugar rice krinkles? I wonder if you could hear snap/crackle/pop on those when you poured the milk on!

Gleem Toothpaste with GL-70? GL-70 sounds like car oil to me! Can't imagine that being appealing enough to brush my teeth with it!

Who can forget Sea and Ski sun lotion? Remember the Coppertone girl and how much controversy was on her not having a top on? In this ad, you can pick up a pair of toddler pants for a mere 50 cents! No top, just the pants!

And last but certainly not least to me was the all time classic 1957 Chevy! My mom and dad bought one right before I was born. I got to come home from the hospital in a brand new car! This was the first new car my mom and dad owned. When these cars were built, they didn't sell as well has GM had hoped. This was the first automobile to have tubeless tires. It scared away alot of buyers. Funny .. now we ask "what's a tube?" When asking most people to name a classic car, the '57 Chevy is the most popular response. Brand new, this car cost around $1500. My mom and dad bought one, a black and white one like in this photo, and paid cash for it. Doesn't seem like much to pay $1500 cash for a new vehicle, but their income was $50 a week. My dad loved that car and drove it for years. I'd give anything to have it. Those are the coolest cars to me!

Well, we've come to the end of Monday Memories for today. Hope you all enjoyed joining me for a trip down Memory Lane. Seems like yesterday we were there .. then again, it seems like another lifetime ago.

Anyway .. it was a fun way to end the day of feeling down. A stroll down memory lane is always good for me.

Summer Table

Last week I found an estate sale by accident. Headed out to lunch, was going to my favorite tamale place and EERCHHHH .. hit the brakes! There it was .. the sign that always catches my eye .. Estate Sale! So, having no self control, I turn. This was a particularly a good sale .. lots of antiques. I found a very old suitcase for a friend of mine who does photography. She's always looking for props. I bought some really cool old jars. Glass canning with the lids. I bought three of them .. got them for $2 apiece. They were outside and filled with nasty old scummy water. I poured out the water and then bargained my price. First she wanted $5 each .. but once she smelled them she laughed and agreed to my $2. I had never seen old jars like these. After some research on the internet I found they were from the 1930's.

Last year I bought really cool table cloth at an estate sale. I had put it up and knew at one time I would find a use for it. It's really bright colors and as you all know .. I'm a pink girl. When I brought the jars home, the wheels in my head turned so I decided to make a table arrangement .. like a country picnic. I had the picnic basket tucked away in my pantry so I bought some flowers and the bread, cheese and grapes to complete the arrangement. I loved the flowers. They have bluebonnets in them which is the state flower for Texas.

I placed them all on the table to see how it would look. In the past I've drug out a table cloth, ironed it then decided not to use it so I ironed for nothing. I've lived with this arrangement for a couple of days so I'll be keeping it for a few months so now I have to iron the table cloth. I couldn't believe how well all the colors went together!

I just love Estate Sales. You read about them on the internet. They always post the really cool pics of the expensive furniture, dishes, designer clothes, jewelr, but it's the odd things I find that I am attracted to. Reading about them on the internet gives you no clue as to what you will really find there. It's just way too much fun to me. It's like opening a big box wrapped so beautifully .. you never know what's inside.

Funny thing .. I never made it to the tamale factory.

Work, Work, Work

Well, I log on today to see it's almost been a whole month since I posted. I've broken my New Year's Resolution. I had vowed to be more attentative to my blog and post more often with ideas, tips etc. And as each day goes by I've done nothing but gotten worse! Shamey Shamey on me!

Now it's time for excuses! I've been so busy working! Looking back over the last couple of months, I'm averaging about 70 hours a week working. How draining. Looks like this will continue through the month of May. I get so tired .. and when that alarm goes off .. it's taking everything I have to get out of bed. Especially when you are working 7 days a week .. after awhile, they all just run together. You don't even realize what day it is. I keep thinking about what my dad always said "Better get it while you can". So I'm doing just that. With budget cuts in our school district, this may all slow down this summer .. so I'm grabbing it all now .. as long as I can still stand.

Even though I'm working .. my mind is still racing about thoughts for my blog. New ideas of where to go etc. Now if I can just find the time to implement them!

Oh .. phone is ringing .. never a dull moment here!