Vintage Easter Postcards from Pennsylvania

Here are more Postcards courtesy of my Pennsylvania cousins.  Very few of these are postmarked-- only one so far.  Perhaps people handed these around on Sunday at Easter services, or at an Easter dinner.  These are from family, just like the others.

This embossed card with a cross and Easter lilies is not dated.  Printed in Germany.

This embossed card features bunnies and lilies.  No date or manufacturer info.

A Joyful Easter is another embossed card, printed in Germany.  Lovely birds and flowers.

Easter joy be with you-- thinner paper and delicate embossing on this Dogwood decorated card.  Printed in Germany.

A Joyful Easter-- lilies wreathed around a cross.  Embossed card from Tucks.  Raphael Tuck and Sons, Easter Post Cards series no. 703.  Art publishers to their majesties the King and Queen.

This embossed postcard reads, 'To wish you a Happy Easter.'  Dogwoods decorate a hillside with a church in the distance.  

This one, featuring bunnies in a car hauling a garden egg, is embossed and metallic.  "May thine be a happy Easter.'  Printed in Germany.

'Easter Greetings' is also embossed with a wreath of pink and white lilies on a brown ground.  

With loving wishes for a happy Easter.  A nice verse with bells and blossoms decorate this embossed card.  Dated Easter 1910.

To Wish you a Happy Easter features a gift with chicks popping through the wrapping.  It's embossed and made by Raphael Tuck and Sons, Easter Post Cards series 300, printed in Saxony by appointment.  Art publishers to their majesties the King and Queen.

A Joyful Easter shows lilies overlaid with a cross, with an inset of a water scene.  It's also embossed, printed in America, dated Easter 1910.

This soft watercolor 'Best Easter Wishes' features a new sunrise among clear roads and lovely flowers.  A verse is partially visible, "The earth awakes at Eastertime, The bells peal forth a happy chime, May every flower of opening Spring, To you and yours much gladness bring."  This card is postmarked April 1919.  

Another verse adorns this baby chick among dogwood blossoms.  'Best Easter Wishes-- Gladness and singing birds and budding trees.  The Season's peace and joy, I wish you these.'  

The Christian Symbol of Christ dominates this embossed 'Easter Greetings' postcard.  Dated April 11, 1909, it features a wreath of lillies around the center of the cross.  

Vintage Valentines, St. Patricks and Thanksgiving Postcards-- the peripheral holidays.

Loving Greetings to my Valentine is postmarked 1908.  Tucks Post Card-- Raphael Tuck and Sons "Valentine Post Card Series No. 19 "Love Missives.  Art published to their majesties the King and Queen.  Printed in Saxony by Appointment.  Lightly embossed, the words are only embossed.  

My Heart is all for you... dated 1910.  

This card, 'Affections Offering' is lightly embossed.  The forest scene with a basket of forget-me-not flowers and birds is framed by a heart.  Raphael Tuck and Sons 'Valentine Post Card Series no. 10 Love Missives'.  No date.

'Loving Greetings' isn't blatantly a valentines card, but the hearts give it away.  Date is missing with stamp.  No other details.  Fresh and breezy card is lightly embossed.  

This embossed card was printed by the International Art Pub. Co, New York, Berlin, printed in Germany.  Postmarked 1909.

This embossed St. Patricks day card, complete with lucky shamrock and horse shoe.  Gold leafing adorns all of the gold areas.  

This embossed Thanksgiving card shows the American tradition of turkey dinners...  Postmarked 1910.  

An acorn peeled away reveals a turkey in harvest season on a homestead.  The outer ground features foods of nature.  This embossed card wishes 'A Joyful Thanksgiving to you.'  Postmarked 1911.

This scene shows colorful leaves changing color for the fall season.  'When the Leaves Begin to Turn' is postmarked December 1909.

This embossed card features a turkey holding the knife used to carve it!

Vintage New Year's Postcards from Pennsylvania

Most of these New Year's cards feature babies-- the new year coming in.   All are from the 1910's and were sent to Carrie Bloss Lynde in Sheffield, Pennsylvania.

This card is the exception-- it's all about having a prosperous New Year!  Embossed card is postmarked Jan 1909.  Printed in Germany.

This baby sitting on the world is dated 1908!

A Baby Cupid rings in the New Year in this Postmarked 1910 embossed card.  Printed in Germany series 781.

A very Christmas'y card with a winter scene celebrates the New Year December 1911.  J M. New York, printed in Germany.  A cool crackle pattern appears on the image from age.

Kissing the New Year in 1909, embossed.

A frozen winter scene and bell tower, embossed.  New Years series no. 21, copyright E. Nash 1910.

May Happy Returns shows an icy winter scene.. no date.  Light embossing only around the oval.  Series 104.

This badly damaged embossed card features a puti bearing a banner wishing you 'A Happy New Year.'  Bells in the corners proclaim the New Year.  Dated January 1910.

'January 1, Best New Year Wishes' illustrates the coldness of winter, a rare bird and embossed holly berries.  Printed by the International Art Company, New York.

Good luck is implied with this 4-leaf clover 'New Year Greetings' postcard.  Heavily embossed, it was printed by A. S. Meeker and Co copyright 1910.  

A warmly-dressed trumpetess proclaims the new year as the sun rises on a snowy scene.  'To Wish You a Happy New Year!'  Postmarked January 1912, this embossed card was published by L & E.  

Vintage Christmas Postcards from Pennsylvania!

A dear relative gave me access to a bunch of really old Postcards-- I mean from the 1900's and into the 1920's!  They are old and brittle but beautiful!  I had to scan them in and post them!  Most of these were sent to Carrie Bloss Lynde.  I can imagine really fun crafts with cards like this!  These are Christmas themed ones:

Madonna and Child with bird is postmarked 1909.

The year didn't mark on this one, but it's probably around 1910.  Looks like a ship ashore on a snowy coastline in the wreath.  It's embossed.

A joyful Christmas snow scene is embossed, and is postmarked 1910, sent from Missouri.  

Bright Be Thy Christmas is embossed, and has no date.  Printed in Germany by the International Art Publishers, New York, Berlin.

A Merry Xmas is also embossed, and undated.  Printed in Germany.

A Merry Christmas with children and their toys, and lambs in snow.  Embossed.  No date.

This snow scene has irridescent sparkles in the snowy ground and roof tops, all embossed.  Postmarked 1906.

A distant snow-covered church at dusk is the background scene of this card, dated 1908.  

A Happy Christmas with embossing has no date,  Printed in Germany.

The only Santa Claus Post Card is dated 1910.  

Tbis golden bell card is dated January 1910.  

'Best Christmas Wishes' was printed in Germany.  It's a heavily embossed card showing an inset winter scene at dusk.  

'Hearty Christmas Wishes' from mother Christmas?  A lovely woman adorned with holly and ivy and golden bells entreats us.  

Pioneer Replica Women's Clothing

Our girls are participating in a Trek-- a reenactment of Pioneers crossing the plains.  They need pioneer era clothing.  Luckily, I was able to found up and fine tune patterns that work fine for something like this.  They are easy enough to make but look nice.  The bonnet has pattern pieces which are not on this blog.  

Old Dirty Cabinets into New Awesome Closets!

I am so happy about my latest build.  Several weeks ago I was out with a friend in a neighborhood a few miles away when I saw kitchen cabinets in a yard laying around like they had been torn out and discarded.  They were dirty from being out in the rain and had mud all over them.  Wood pieces, venting pipes and pieces of countertop lay discarded around the cabinets.  The homeowner must have been putting a new kitchen into the house.

I stopped to take a closer look and could see that the cabinets were solid wood and very sturdy.  Some still had the cabinet doors still on them.  Other cabinet doors lay around with hinges still attached.  Surprisingly, the cabinets didn't look damaged by being out in the rain.  They just looked dirty.  And I could imagine these cabinets all cleaned up, painted white and residing in bedroom closets and my laundry room...

I knocked on the door and got no answer.  So I left a note on the front door asking if I could have the cabinets.  A few days later I got a response-- I could!  The cabinets were solid wood, so I knew they'd be heavy.  My friend agreed to have her son in law go with us-- he had a large truck which towed an open trailer which should hold everything.  We picked up 5 usable cabinets, all the cabinet doors and lots of large pieces of wood and dragged it to my garage.  It took several days for the wood to dry out and I got to work dreaming and designing.

I measured each bedroom closet and my laundry room.  The master closets were updated; I had just done them a few weeks ago.  But the kids rooms needed some work.  Two of the cabinets were 8 feet tall and skinny enough to put in the center of their closets.  I could put shelves and hanging poles on each side to make really awesome closets!  My laundry room could use two of the upper cabinets.  It was too small to hold any more than that.  The last one could go into my basement for my wood shop.

Using graph paper, I mapped out the rooms and how I'd install them.  That gave me a good idea of what supplies I'd need to buy.  I'd need lots of small pieces of wood, some hardware, and lots of paint.  As I had been drawing out plans, I had come up with a really crazy idea-- I wanted a table with shelves underneath for my laundry room.  None of the cabinets I got would do; I would have to build this one.  I looked up plans on the internet and came up with some ideas of what I wanted and another list of wood and supplies for it.  I cleaned off the cabinets, removed the doors, sanded them and applied a coat of primer over the dark stained wood.  Then multiple coats of white paint.  One day it poured rain all day while I painted.  It seemed like it took forever for the paint to dry.  I was getting antsy to get the cabinets painted and installed!

We had some company over for dinner one night and as they came, they saw the cabinets in the garage.  A woman in the group named Crystal offered to help me with them.  She came and brought her son Gino, a recently returned missionary, to help.  Crystal and Gino really sped up the process!  We cut the wood and built the table with shelves.  Then we painted it with several coats of white paint to match.  For the countertop, we cut up an old door and painted it up with blue and white paint, then covered it with a clear plastic finish.  We spray painted all the hardware silver and set it aside, for when we reattached the cabinet doors.

I went out of town for the weekend, which allowed the cabinets to really dry.  Crystal and Gino came over on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week to help me install them.

To install, we'd take the old metal wire shelves down and fill the holes that they left in the walls.  Then we'd put support boards up where we wanted the shelves to go, leaving a gap in the middle for the tall cabinets to reside.  We'd fill the edges with caulk and let it all dry.  Then we'd paint the room, painting the wood we installed too.  We'd bring up the cabinets, set them in place, attach them to the wall, then add the shelves and closet poles to each side.  A little more caulk to fill any gaps and we'd hug and take pictures!  The cabinets looked great in the closets!

We did the same thing in the laundry room-- removed the shelves, patched the walls, installed wood and painted the walls.  When we tried to put them in, though, one was a bit snug.  We had to climb up on the washer and pound one cabinet in with a hammer to get it into place.  We added shelves and caulked it up.  Lastly, we brought up the table with shelves.  It was a tight squeeze getting it inside and past the washer and dryer, but it fit beautifully and looks great. 

It took hours of my time, 5 days of hard work with Crystal and Gino, and a few hundred dollars to renovate my laundry room and 3 bedroom closets.  I'm happy that I could see potential in those thrown-away mud covered cabinets.  While others didn't want them-- or just couldn't see any value in them-- I knew they were worth saving.  Although it took a lot of hard work (my muscles are really sore) now I have awesome closets that increase the utility of our closets and the value of my home.  And I also have the satisfaction of having rescued valuable cabinets and put them back to work.  It was worth it!

Necklace Holding Mirror

Need a place to hang your necklaces?  Try this idea!  A friend had a similar one that fit her decor wonderfully.  She took a rectangular country-style white mirror and put large hooks in the top and bottom. 

This fit my darker decor.  I found this mirror at World Market in the discount section for about $14.  (Ignore my image taking the picture.. ha ha.)

I did some measurements to get them even on the sides, but also at the point.  They ended up being 2 inches apart, centered along the two sides.  If I need more storage, I can put hooks on the top and hang the shorter necklaces there. 

I predrilled the holes, then screwed in the large cup hooks I bought at Walmart.  I really like how it looks in my room, plus it's really doing the job.  I can try on different necklaces and see the result in one spot.  Nearby I have my earrings and bracelets on different hangers.  Works great!