January 2025: Allow Yourself to Go Forward. Life and some Vintage too...

LIFE SITUATION 

STEP 1 

STEP 2

STEP 3

STEP 4

Compare your progress between Step 3 and Step 4. That is the only comparison that you need in life.

Tri-fold Valentine's Card. c. 1940s. Sweet stuff.

Valentine Card. c. 1950s. Find out what was racy then (but not now).

Mechanical Valentine Card. c. 1940s. Her eye glasses move up and down.

Visit me at: Gracious Cottage on Etsy

"The Complete Unknown" has a thought that I like. Advice from Johnny Cash to Bob Dylan. Track some dirt on the carpet.

The Colors of Autumn. Pretty Yellows. Vintage and some Life too!

New thrift store in town. They have a good selection of linens and good prices too. My favorite vintage category happens to be linens so I have been buying some since they opened. I have noticed that now after a few months more people are browsing the linen section and that their prices have increased. Thrift stores have a minimum price and that 'tag' has increased. Demand (for one thing) drives the market even though they get everything donated. Just observe.

The pillow sham comes from there. Beautiful colors and easy wash. It disguises my neck TV pillow. I like to spruce up my rooms without remodeling but by rotating, swapping out accessories, changing things around that I myself can do without tools or a handyman. I know that in some rooms, it just seems that there is one place and one place only for an item. Mix it up and move that energy around. See how you feel the next morning when you first walk into that 'updated room.'

Another thrift store find at a different thrift store. This store remodeled during Covid and got better. Super good prices. This turkey flag is very cute, over my gate next to the garage, so everybody who walks by gets to enjoy it. I try to enjoy life without being perfect. You can see my trash dispenser back there but so be it. Years ago this would not have been permissible in my life.

Yellow. Again years ago it was my favorite color, and I still favor it. This candle wax cottage and the two angels below came from the same thrift store as the flag. Who says you can't do yellows for Christmas? Or at least do a yellow section. The angels are wood, hand painted and very charming. I noticed I am hanging on to these and not listing anywhere for sale.

I am still trying to figure out why I don't get any comments --  ever.
 

The quote this post comes from Abraham Maslow. "The Law of the Instrument."

If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.

Welcome 2025! I am always happy to see a new beginning. Vintage remains my theme song and some life too.

Happy New Year dear followers and visitors!

 Visit Gracious Cottage on Etsy January 1, 2025

Vintage rhinestone pin brooch. 1950s - 1960s.

I saw in Essence Nov/Dec 2024 that brooches are back. Especially the big bold ones. My note:  Grouping of small ones can also give a bigger effect.

Tilly was featured on our Christmas card 2024.

Thank you 2024. You brought a lot of good into my life. A lot of improvement.

The Blog quote for this month comes from the Brahma Kumari's...

Law of Karma:

Is the ultimate justice and it is not a punishment, but a liberation.

Chef Salad -- Vintage Bowls. Hot Temps & Yogi Berra.

We have had hot temps on the southern coast of California. Temperatures hovering around 100. Not all beaches are cool.

This has prompted the making of a Chef Salad more than one night. I couldn't make/eat without proper Googling. Might as well add a blog posting.

Historian's take on it: The salad started in the 1940s by a chef at the Ritz Carlton in NYC.  Popular as a lunch salad; it soon expanded to a full dinner salad at homes across America. Branded the complete meal salad. Cooks found a way to "clean out" their refrigerators. Typically, lettuce with ham, turkey, veggies, hard cooked eggs and a creamy dressing. Creativity abound. 

The Chef Salad was popular through the 1970s.

Vintage bowls, large, were used as an individual serving bowl. Pictured are three from that era (Germany or USA). The size not the decor were of importance.

Food Quote: You better cut the pizza in four pieces because I'm not hungry enough to eat six. 

Yogi Berra

 

Inspiration Tablecape: Victoria Magazine and Gracious Cottage. Bob Dylan still true today!

 
May/June 2022. pg. 64

Gracious Cottage Foyer corner

Create from what is in your cupboards

Vintage, of course.

Bob Dylan: The Times They are A-Changin'