Shirley Temple and Christmas...A Look Back!

The Hallmark Channel posted this picture this morning to honor the loss of Shirley Temple. It's as cute as cute can be and got me wondering, just how many Christmas movies Shirley Temple did make? I did a quick search and out of 52 movies, I found these 4 that were entirely Christmas themed or had scenes that began or ended at Christmas. 

 Here are the storylines as described on IMDB:


Heidi - "Eight-year-old Heidi is orphaned and her selfish maternal Aunt Dete takes her to the mountains to live with Adolph Kramer, her grumpy, old, outcast, survivalist paternal grandfather. Heidi brings her grandfather back into mountain society through her angelic ways, sheer love, and adorable personality. When Aunt Dete steals Heidi away to be the companion of a rich man's invalid daughter, the grandfather is enraged and sets out to get her back. Back in Frankfurt, loved and adored by everyone she touches except the villainous housekeeper, Fraulein Rottenmeier, she thrives but is inwardly very sad and lonely. No matter what anyone tells her, Heidi, with faith, hope, and the stubbornness she inherited from her grandfather, knows that some day she will be reunited with the him and the beloved people of the mountain's little village."

Bright Eyes - "When a maid is accidentally hit by a car and killed, her young orphaned daughter is forced to live with the snooty couple she used to work for. A custody battle soon ensues between an aviator who adores the little girl and the couple's crotchety Uncle Ned."

Stowaway - "Chin-Ching gets lost in Shanghai and is befriended by American playboy Tommy Randall. She falls asleep in his car which winds up on a ship headed for America. Susan Parker, also on the ship, marries Randall to give Chin-Ching a family."

I'll Be Seeing You - "Mary Marshall, serving a six year term for accidental manslaughter, is given a Christmas furlough from prison to visit her closest relatives, her uncle and his family in a small Midwestern town. On the train she meets Zach Morgan, a troubled army sergeant on leave for the holidays from a military hospital. Although his physical wounds have healed, he is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and is subject to panic attacks. The pair are attracted to one another and in the warm atmosphere of the Christmas season friendship blossoms into romance, but Mary is reluctant to tell him of her past and that she must shortly return to prison to serve the remainder of her sentence." 

Seeing these photos, definitely brings back memories of watching Shirley Temple movies as a kid. Being a kid in the 70's, meant very few channels and lots of black and white movies on the weekends. I personally recall seeing 3 of these 4 movies. Especially Heidi. I'm not sure how many times I watched that one, but probably a handful! To think that she retired from film making at the age of 22 is astonishing and has yet to be duplicated. Hat's off to Shirley!! 

New Shabby Chic, Vintage Feeling Line at Michaels

When I turned the aisle, there it was, the cutest, prettiest, pinkest little line of season decor I'd seen in awhile. I don't have pink, in my home, other then my daughter's room, but I still admire it from afar. It's that shabby chic side of me that comes out once in awhile, wishing I lived in a floral paradise. So let me live in a hypothetical world and say, if I had a cute little cottage all to myself, this is what it would look like inside. 

 

My St. Paddy's Day 2013

Well Hello Strangers...I thought I'd stop by and share my St. Patrick's Day with you. Because so many things were going on this year and so many variables, I decided to cancel our big dinner and just cook for the family. I did try a new recipe and I'll share that here in a moment, but with not much to say I'll share my day with photos. 


I woke up to find a pretty shamrock plant and a Green Mickey Mouse card from my bestie... Luckily he's around to help me keep this thing alive, because we all know I might be Irish, but I do not have a Green Thumb. And a Green Mickey card...who would of thought? 

In addition to wearing green, I thought it would be a good day to wear my Pink and Brown Polka Dot Ireland hat that's signed by Gaelic Storm. It's not something I wear on a daily basis, so St. Patrick's Day is always a good excuse. 

 

With a beader in the house, I always have something new to wear. This time it was a copy piece from a bracelet I had seen on Etsy. This was the original piece sold online ... 

And this was the piece he made for me..

On one of my thrift store trips, I happened to find two gifts for my daughter in one shot. A book with Irish Authors and an Irish owl. Now my daughter is an owl fanatic, but an IRISH owl. What's the likely hood that I would find an Irish owl at the thrift store. I did some research yesterday and this owl is from a line called Happy Owlidays, Lil' Whoots from 1998. They made several holiday themed owls.

Here are two new decorations  I picked up last year on Clearance. I love both of them. Since I've been sick all week, I haven't made it out to do any clearance shopping, so I doubt I'll find anything at this point. 

My vintage find for this year were these two ceramic pieces. When I went to my favorite store "Oh, So Charming" this month, I remembered seeing them last year and knew that if they were still there calling my name after 2 years, I had to buy them. They look a little rough on the bottom, because they had some super old lace that was glued to the bottom and it was falling off and brown. So I've detached it and plan on replacing it once I find the perfect cream lace. 

Dinner was good, but instead of sitting down to this....

I had dinner for one....

But, in that little dish was Colcannon (Mashed potatoes and cooked cabbage mashed together). I'd not made it at home before, but highly recommend the dish. It really is very good if you enjoy cabbage.

Last, but no least is the Irish Lemon Pudding I made. Being a Lemon lover, it just looked like something I had to try. It's not a traditional milky pudding like we serve in the US, it's more of a cake, custard mix. After having a couple pieces apiece, with fresh whip cream, my daughter and I had similar reviews. "It's different..Hard to describe...I'm not sure if I like it or don't like it..." Literally, we both just couldn't say it was something we liked or didn't like, but agreed it's probably not something we'll put in our cookbook as a favorite.

If you'd like the recipe, be sure to link to The Baker Upstairs for the recipe. I did follow her suggestion and double the recipe and bake it in a 9" springform pan. 

Overall, I won't complain. I'm very blessed and remind myself that life can throw you curve balls and just go with the flow...St. Patrick's will be here next year and the year after. I've had plenty of Green memories and will be blessed with many more. In the meantime..I'm thinking of all of you!!

Happy PROM Day!

After several months of being MIA, I'm back and trying to get my creative MOJO flowing again. To kick things off, I'm diving in head first. Tomorrow is my daughter prom and tonight I'm trying to finish a few "homemade" details. That includes an embellished pair of shoes, 1 cocktail ring and one wrist corsage. 


My daughters dress is going to be vintage pink, with creamy, white lace. Pearls are usually her number one choice for jewelry, but she decided early on, she wanted something different. Before going shopping, we dove into my jewelry box and found the perfect pink rhinestone pieces. Only thing missing...ONE RING! So after a quick trip to Joanne's, we came home with a bag of ring bases (3.99) and a 3 inch strip of pink chiffon ribbon (.41 cents). We raided Bryon's beads and I found the strip of off white chiffon ribbon, I used for her belt at Homecoming. With those 4 things and some glue, I whipped this out. 

Next are her shoes. Months ago, I found an awesome pair of Vintage Pink,  Rhinestone, Clip On Earrings. I knew immediately they needed to go on her Prom shoes. Back then she wanted heels. Today she came back down to reality and realized flats are still her SAFE choice. We found these basic glitter slip on shoes and added the earrings as an accent. I tried clipping them on and that hurt to much, I tried sewing them onto the shoe and that proved to be a bit difficult to knot off. Currently I have them attached with glue and a clamp and hope that they will dry sufficiently over night. Once they are dry, I think I'm going to go back and put a simple thread knot for back up. 

My last piece is a wrist corsage for one of Ciara's friends. She's going with a big group of friends, so they exchanged names so they could buy each other a corsage. Ciara and her friend, decided to make their own, rather then buy regular flowers. Ciara picked out a beaded bracelet, a black flower pin and a teal rhinestone pendant. We started brainstorming and once I attached the pin to the bracelet, my creative juices were flowing, so I kept going. This is what I came up with and I love the Black and Teal together.

Here dress is still a work in progress. I told her to think of it as a Project Runway competition. It might be down to the last minute, when she puts it on, but miracles will happen!

Christmas Ads You'll Never See Again...

These just makes me laugh...

Oh Please, can I have a new 

Hoover for Christmas....

Christmas inJuly: Day 2 Vintage Market

Today I spent a fabulous morning at the Paris Outdoor Market, walking booth to booth to find new and vintage treasures. I immediately called a few friends and let them know what a fabulous place it was. I found countless items for my daughters room and a few goodies for myself as well. My Christmas find of the day, was these Reproduction XL Vintage Christmas Cards. These cards are about 8-10 inches tall and will look fabulous framed this coming Christmas.

When doing a search tonight for more Vintage Christmas ideas, I found the most amazing wreaths. Georgia Peachez is making the most beautiful wreaths out of vintage ornaments she buys at the thrift stores. Here is my favorite from her blog, but check out her blog for more amazing wreaths. She has several for sale in her Etsy store. 

Here are some shopping hints from My Vintage Christmas Decorations when looking to purchase Vintage Christmas Decorations. 

Now is the best time to shop for Vintage Christmas Decorations.  After December and after July are the best times to go shopping for bargains. You want to be able to shop cheaply and get the most for your money. The greatest bargains can be found in January and in August, just after Christmas and just after Christmas In July.  You might find more items available prior to these times, but the prices will probably be higher.

The best sources for Vintage Christmas Decorations are – wholesale dealers, online stores, eBay, Amazon, garage sales, bargain stores, and specialty stores.

If you are a collector, some of the best bargains are found in a bulk sale on eBay or Amazon. If you can, examine the photo closely. Sometimes you will find a real treasure in among the other things. Often you may find something of real value to you tucked away with other less-valuable items. For something to be of value to you, it doesn’t necessarily mean that it has to be worth a lot of money. Simply that it is something you really want. Something you have been searching for. Something that has great appeal to you. Something that you can imagine in your home, on display at Christmas.

If you like to touch and feel before you buy, never under-estimate the low-cost bargain stores – the Two Dollar Shop, The Reject Shop, and the Red Dot Store.  Sometimes the low cost ornaments are perfect for a rustic theme.

The best way to plan your buying is to plan ahead.  Don’t leave it to the last minute and then panic about not being able to find what you want. Wait until after Christmas and take advantage of the bargains. Shop for next Christmas.

This is why I love the hunt...Ideas like this!!

When you see this....

Do you think of this????  

Projects like this are exactly why I enjoy the hunt of turning the ordinary, into extraordinary. At Mod Vintage Life she has turned these trashed silver trays, into a spice rack. They can also be used in a bedroom or bathroom for perfume bottles and who know what else others can come up with. If you want a step, but step tutorial, check our her website. She's done a great job!  

I'm excited...can you tell?