Memories You Can Hold In The Palms Of Your Hands!

"Over the weekend, I picked up sweaters for "Memory Mitten" orders from persons who had recently lost loved ones...I walked away from each meeting with the "chills." After listening to each of their heartfelt stories, I felt completely overcome with God's hands on my work!"

(Kathleen King, Gladstone, Michigan)

I have never met Kathleen personally but I learned of her labors of love through my son Paul who with his family has known Kathleen for many years. I was so stirred by her inspiring work that I wanted to share it with all of you!

This is Kathleen's story, in her own words:

"One day while at work, I overheard a co-worker talking about how her mother-in-law was busy making mittens out of old sweaters. My mother and I had just talked about what she should do with a box of my father's sweaters...he had passed away five years earlier and I had suggested she donate them to St. Vincent de Paul...winter was coming and someone in need could use them.

I was in an instant panic! Hopefully my mother still had the sweaters and had not followed my advice! I called her right away and, to my relief, she still had them!

Over the next month, I went on an emotional, heartfelt mitten-making journey. Everyone was coming to my house for Christmas and I was going to give them each a memorable gift of mittens made from our loving father's sweaters. The thought brought tears to my eyes. It would be a gift that I would put my heart into.

On Christmas day after a huge holiday feast and lots of goodies, we sat relaxing by the beautifully lit Christmas tree, music playing in the background and a feeling of contentment of being together. It was the perfect time to retrieve the basket full of wrapped gifts.

They slowly opened their gifts and, although I was tearful, I was also very excited! Tears, laughter, and awe were just some of the emotions I saw around the room. My mom put her mittens on and cupped her face with them—tears in her eyes, yet joy, too. I will never forget that look!

The making of Memory Mittens for my family sparked a passion in me to create custom mittens for others. If I could bring joy to someone else by creating Memory Mittens out of their loved one's sweaters, as I did for my family, what could be better?

I take creating these mittens very seriously. People are entrusting me with a prized possession from someone they have dearly loved. Each pair of mittens is made with tender love and care in hopes of giving them a heart and hand-warming keepsake."

(Please take time to visit Kathleen's Memory Mittens website! You can also click HERE to see more of her completed mittens!)

UPDATE 11/4/09:

Kathleen's website is currently under reconstruction but will be ready for viewing soon. In the meantime, you can contact her directly at email: memorymittens@gmail.com.

Pink Parlor Gown for PINK SATURDAY!

I wouldn't want to have to wear all the petticoats, corset, and undergarments required for such a lovely old-fashioned parlor gown as the one pictured but isn't it lovely and luxurious looking! Fashions over time have changed again and again but this gorgeous gown certainly has captured a special place in my vintage heart! Don't you just love it!

Thanks to Bev at How Sweet the Sound for offering Pink Saturdays to all who wish to participate. She's doing a great job of coordinating and sharing. You can see other Pink Saturday participants HERE! Thanks for stopping by!

But, before you go, please take a minute to visit my new CHARMING VINTAGE RECIPES blog where you will find FREE 50'S FAMILY RECIPES! Please stop by! I'd love to have you join me as a FOLLOWER!

Halloween Happiness!

Have a happy vintage Halloween weekend! Watch for black cats, ghosties, and smiling pumpkins as you go along your way trick-or-treating or thrifty finding! Whatever you do...have fun! Enjoy!

And...for more treats than tricks...visit my CHARMING VINTAGE RECIPES blog where you will find FREE 50'S FAMILY RECIPES! Please stop by! I'd love to have you join me as a FOLLOWER!

It's Pumpkin Time on Wordless Wednesday!

Happy Halloween Cat, A 1930's Find!

I've been so busy creating my new recipe blog CHARMING VINTAGE RECIPES that I haven't posted some of my recent thrifty vintage finds. So today, I want to get started sharing with you an interesting discovery I made a couple of weeks ago when I found a beautiful 1930's scrapbook in an antique mall in Ohio.

I became instantly enraptured with the wonderful works of art snipped and saved by a young woman many years earlier. Some of you will remember the gorgeous greeting card scrapbook from the 1930's that I purchased last spring...well this scrapbook came from the same antique mall. I could hardly believe my eyes when I found a name on one of the pages and realized this book had been created by the same young lady! This was a "had-to-have" vintage item.

And, once we returned home and I had a chance to look through the entire collection of art illustrations, I knew I'd want to show you each and every page...which I will be doing as time goes on! I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I do!

This picture of the Halloween Cat named "Patty Cat" seemed like the perfect page to start with! Isn't she beautiful!

Beautiful Bits of Blue!

This is my second visit to Smiling Sally's Blue Monday and I'm just as excited as can be! Thank you Sally for sharing this great blogging activity for all to join!

To learn more about Blue Monday and how to join, click HERE!

Thanks for stopping by! But, before you go, please take a minute to visit my new CHARMING VINTAGE RECIPES blog where you will find FREE 50'S FAMILY RECIPES! I'd love to have you join me as a FOLLOWER!

Roses and Bluebirds for PINK SATURDAY!

This week I have another pretty pink "box top" from my vintage greeting card box collection to share with you. Not only is this one pink but it also has those vintage roses and bluebirds we all cherish! Pink paradise!

Thanks to Bev at How Sweet the Sound for offering Pink Saturdays to all who wish to participate. She's doing a great job of coordinating and sharing. You can see other Pink Saturday participants HERE! Thanks for stopping by!

But, before you go, please take a minute to visit my new CHARMING VINTAGE RECIPES blog where you will find FREE 50'S FAMILY RECIPES! Please stop by! I'd love to have you join me as a FOLLOWER!

Music To Their Ears!

A Halloween Witch And Her Amazing Cat!

Here's the Halloween witch right before leaving home for a fun evening of trick or treating! But kitty-cat had to stay home as I had a large paper bag to carry around the neighborhood!

This sweet kitty came in a surprise package all the way from California from my dear grandmother, Amanda. Before she moved to California, she had promised me a cat since I'd wanted one so badly. My parents looked at grandmother and shook their heads, " No, no, we can't have a cat at our house." It was not to be...

So here came this wonderful surprise package in the mail and right before Halloween! Can you just imagine the thrill of opening it to find this sweet cat inside! A joyful occasion it was indeed! It was the best Halloween ever!

What was your best Halloween ever?

How Do I Love This? Let Me Count The Ways!

I received this sweet surprise gift in the mail on Saturday from my dear friend Christine of Change of Heart! Christine makes beautiful bookmarks, cards, and even wedding invitations! All of her creations are gifts of love for those around her.

So I was deeply touched and honored to receive this wonderful little bookmark (it has a pocket on the back!) along with another lovely autumn colored handmade card I had admired on her blog! Color me joyful and fortunate to have such a sweet friend as Christine who gives only for the joy of giving. Thank you, dear! I love my gifts made by your hand!

Please take a look at all of Christine's beautiful heartfelt creative work! You'll love it!

Blogging the Blues!

This is my first visit to Smiling Sally's Blue Monday and I'm just as excited as can be! I'm looking forward to meeting and greeting other friends of Sally's. Thank you Sally for sharing this great blogging activity for all to join!

To learn more about Blue Monday and how to join, click HERE!

Thanks for stopping by! But, before you go, please take a minute to visit my new CHARMING VINTAGE RECIPES blog where you will find FREE 50'S FAMILY RECIPES! I'd love to have you join me as a FOLLOWER!

Glorious Sunday Blessings to All!

The Enchanting Perfection of Pink!

This week I have more pink "box tops" from my vintage greeting card box collection to share with you. These beautiful boxes have some of my favorite vintage graphics but are becoming harder and harder to find. So, if you see some while on your thrifty flea market adventures, grab them while you can! They are such a lovely tribute to times past!

Thanks to Bev at How Sweet the Sound for offering Pink Saturdays to all who wish to participate. She's doing a great job of coordinating and sharing. You can see other Pink Saturday participants HERE! Thanks for stopping by!

But, before you go, please take a minute to visit my new CHARMING VINTAGE RECIPES blog where you will find FREE 50'S FAMILY RECIPES! Please stop by! I'd love to have you join me as a FOLLOWER!

All Tuckered Out and Tucked In!

A sweet old page from a sweet old music singing book from one of my vintage children's books collections! Hope you enjoy this piece! I'm off to grade papers and then maybe out to one of our favorite flea markets. Never enough hours in the day. Know what I mean?

Peace to all and have a wonderful day!

Book Winners Announced!

Congratulations to the winners of my BLOGOVERSARY GIVEAWAY!

The three winners of my first book The Wishing Years are:

1) Stefanie at Rose Petals and Rust!

2) Linda at Country Pickins!

3) Cassie at Angelandspot!

Thanks so much to all who participated and shared the fun of my first Blogoversary! I appreciate all your support during the past year and look forward to many more visits, posts, and fun!

Blessings to all!

Coralie

Guests Raved About Her Dinner!

Does anyone remember the product Spry shortening for cooking? One of my old-time cookbooks has some interesting information in it about this product used in so many 40's and 50's recipes for everything from pie crust to chicken to chocolate cake.

Please visit my 50's FREE RECIPE blog to read the entire article on Spry! It's sure to inform and/or bring back some very sweet memories! Click HERE to read and enjoy!

(And be sure to join as a follower for FREE 50's RECIPES! Many more to come!)

Sunday Wishes of Love and Friendship!

For these glad hours

Of work and play,

For food and rest

At close of day,

We thank Thee,

Heavenly Father.

(Anonymous)

Wishing all my wonderful followers and friends a blessed day and week to come! Enjoy!

Boxes of Beauty for Pink Saturday!

These beautiful pink "pictures" are actually box tops from my vintage greeting card box collection! I love these old-fashioned graphics!

Thanks to Bev at How Sweet the Sound for offering Pink Saturdays to all who wish to participate. She's doing a great job of coordinating and sharing. You can see other Pink Saturday participants HERE! Thanks for stopping by!

But, before you go, please take a minute to visit my new FREE 50'S FAMILY RECIPE blog and sign on as a FOLLOWER! I have many many more recipes in store for you! Love to have you join me!

Wishes and Dreams!

This beautiful vintage wishing well card comes with a wish for your happiness today and every day! We all have wishes and dreams though they may be near or far but, just the same, they inspire our lives in wonderful ways! Whether it be peace, excitement, or inspiration you are dreaming of, I hope your wishes come true! Enjoy your day!

FREE RECIPE Blog Featured in RETROLAND!

My new 50's FREE RECIPE blog is featured today on RETROLAND a very cool blog devoted to all things retro! The article displays one of the free recipes and is entitled "Just Like Mother Used To Make." What a great way to wake up this morning, discovering this news!

FREE RECIPES: If you haven't visited my new FREE 50'S RECIPES blog, please click HERE! I'll be adding many many more recipes daily!

WANTED: FOLLOWERS! (I love my followers!)

Sheltie Bonnie Celebrates a Birthday!

This is a picture of a family friend, Staci, and me, Bonnie Lass, the sheltie my mom and dad rescued nine years ago. My mom was just looking for pictures of me and she doesn't have very many...and you know why? It's because I do not like cameras! They make weird sounds and click and flash lights in my face and I do not like them! I also do not like cell phones...same problem.

But anyway, here's a picture of me that's a few years old. I still look pretty much the same, just a little older and a little wiser but not any quieter. That's for sure! I love to bark and I do it as often as possible! I bark at clicks, flashes, shadows, my mother walking across the room, DVD discs, telephones, the mailman, a knock at the door, the timer on the oven (my mom actually likes this one because I help her out by reminding her it's time to take the food out before it burns)!

Yesterday was my birthday! And one thing I do love is riding in the car. So my mom and dad took me and my sister Carrie-dog antique shopping in Ohio! We bought lots of stuff, had treats, and then came home tired and happy! We had a great time! (Two days ago I was only 10 years old. Now I'm 11! How's that for exciting!)

On the Go in Milwaukee, Wisconsin!

Remember those street photographers who took pictures of window shoppers? Coming from a very small town, this was quite an amazing incident for our little family (Mom, Dad, little sister Connie, and me...oh, and Josephine) as we walked along completely unaware we were being photographed. After all these years, I still find this picture so interesting. I can even remember what I was thinking and it was one of those things that sticks with you through the years.

See the woman in the striped blouse? Her mother knew my older sister who lived in Chicago where we had been visiting. Her name was Josephine. Well, Josephine needed to get home to the same town we all lived in so my parents agreed to give her a ride even though we were hundreds of miles from home and were on our way to visit my grandmother in Milwaukee.

Well, Josephine liked to talk. A lot! Chatter, chatter, chatter...and then she said the unthinkable. She told me my little sister was cute but I wasn't. Now a girl that age does not need to hear such a thing! So I, of course, felt quite bad about this. However, my grandmother quickly cleared things up by whispering in my ear that Josephine had it all wrong and I was just as pretty as can be. But by now, I just dreaded having to spend time in the family car with the chatterer for hours to come. And that's what I was thinking.

Girls this age need so many confidence boosters! Even today, girls often feel insecure about so many things. It's so important to remember that being at that "awkward age" is about as painful as it gets for a young girl. Maybe that's why I love teaching Women's Studies to young women and letting them know how strong, capable, and beautiful they all are! Does my soul good!

(If you happen to see Josephine walking down the street, tell her I said, "Thank you." Without her input—and my dear grandmother's—I may have had a very different view of life!)

* * *

1) If you haven't signed up for my GIVEAWAY, please click HERE!

2) If you haven't visited my new FREE 50'S RECIPES blog, please click HERE!

Have a wonderful day, everyone!

New Free 50's Recipes Blog! Followers Wanted!

My CHARMS OF DAYS blog is back but with a whole new look and a whole new name! The newly revised blog will now be dedicated to offering FREE RECIPES from the FIFTIES!

Remember all those wonderful Church Ladies who generously shared the recipes so dear to their hearts? Well, I'll be sharing many of their 50's recipes from my own mother's cookbook collections as well as a few favorites handwritten by her long ago!

These recipes will not only make your mouth water! Rich in nostalgia, they are sure to bring back memories of another day when times were simpler and sweeter!

I'm just getting started so have many more recipes to add, but I thought it would be fun for you all to take a look!

I hope you'll join me over at the "new" blog, now called CHARMING VINTAGE RECIPES and become a FOLLOWER again and leave me a comment or two! I'd love to have you with me on this journey!

Blessings to all!

Coralie

Blessings to All on this Beautiful Sunday Morning!

Wishing you all a blessed Sunday and week to come! Peace, dear friends! Enjoy!

Precious Poodle Pups for Pink Saturday!

Here's my entry for Bev's Pink Saturday. Don't you just love these adorable poodles! This is the box top illustration from one of my vintage greeting card boxes. Isn't this just the sweetest 50's card design ever!

I know you're busy visiting all the Pink Saturday blogs today...But before you go, please take a second and sign up for my GIVEAWAY! Everyone is welcome! Good luck!

Seafoam Salad - Another 1957 Recipe!