A few more vintage finds in my Etsy shop

I've been continuing to list vintage items in my Etsy shop, A New Hampshire Attic, and thought I would share just a few more with my readers today.  The "Vintage Christmas" section is the largest section in my shop, with 78 items as of  this writing, and of course many Christmas items have previously sold.  Enjoy the tour of a few vintage treasures!

The card at top is a used card, from the 1940s, but isn't it lovely?

This unusual card is unused.  I believe it's from the 1920s.

Love the shades of green in this one.

I believe these kittens are a Marjorie Cooper design.  No one does kittens quite like she did!

The little scenes in this card are amazing.  I think they really deserve their own post.  I'll maybe do one in July.

These digest size Ideals magazines were a popular gift.

They even came with their own mailing envelopes.

Love this train card!

A December 1946 New Hampshire Troubadour magazine

 Well, I guess that was more than a "few" items, wasn't it?  I'm starting to think about my Christmas in July posts, so this has been a good springboard for me.  Hope you all have enjoyed it, too!

When Rudolph Day feels like Rudolph Week

I have been busy the past couple of weeks ordering Christmas gifts from Shutterfly utilizing various free offers.  I know that at least one family member reads my Christmas blog, so I guess I'd better not say just what the gifts are.

It's been fun this week watching the gift orders come in.  There is just one left to arrive so I know that won't be here until next week.  But this week has felt so Christmasy as the gifts have rolled in that I thought it would make a perfect post for Rudolph Day.  I've done nothing celebratory today, but my week has felt that way anyhow!

Last year I made the above ornament from a free Shutterfly offer and gave it to my daughter and hubby for Christmas.  I could never have imagined it would turn out so well.  Even though the boys (at left) are not in the photo as much as I wished they would be, it still came out so nice and tells an entire story.  The recipients loved it and my daughter took these photos of it hanging on their tree.

Below you see the back side of the ornament.  These can be personalized in a multitude of ways.

If you have ever considered a photo ornament and have wondered how well it would turn out, I can assure you that these ornaments are high quality and beautiful.  They make wonderful family gifts!

A fun gift for Mr. T from the Nevada grands

This year our Nevada grandkids wanted to make their Grampa a new fingerprint art T-shirt.  The one in the photo above was their gift to him quite a few years ago.  It features handprint trees with dozens of multicolored "autumn leaves" made from fingerprints.  I don't have a photo of the back of this shirt (that I know of, anyway) but it features a moose made from a child's footprint and 2 handprints (for the moose's head and antlers). 

The kids have observed that Grampa wears this shirt A LOT.  Wherever he goes -- stores, banks, even airports -- people comment on his shirt and most guess that it was made by grandchildren.  Some have even said they want one just like it!

So this year the kids decided they would like to make him another shirt with a different theme.  My daughter asked me for ideas and I suggested possibly a logging theme, since that is what Mr. T does for work.  Before long, she was emailing to ask me if I could send a picture of a CAT 559, the type of loader that he operates.

Then at Christmas time, this masterpiece arrived:

 The evergreen tree to the left of the Cat loader is made of grandchildren's hand prints.  Their mom did an amazing job of painting the CAT 559.  The snow on the ground is made from fingerprints, and the falling snow is paint dabbed on with Q-tips.

And here is the back:

 More snow fingerprints on the ground and tree branches.  The snowman is a print of a 3-year-old's foot!  The kids' mom painted the snowshoes.

What a unique gift!  Grampa is sure to get lots of comments on this one, as well!

A special new mailbox card

Anyone who's read either of my blogs in December knows how much I enjoy Christmas cards depicting mailboxes.  You can read a whole post about it here, in fact: Mailboxes Et Cetera, and see a bunch of the vintage mailbox cards that I find endlessly fascinating. 

But this year I was blessed with a brand new Christmas card with a mailbox theme ... and how sweet it is!  My daughter in Nevada sent me this card.  The scan does not do it justice.  The background is a lovely soft blue, and sparkly snow is at the base of the scene.  Outgoing mail is tucked in the shiny metallic mailbox, while snow is drifted on its top along with an evergreen swag and a perky red cardinal.  Beneath the box, a wrapped gift nestles amid greenery and two lighted lanterns.  The three-dimensional quality of this card is so much fun!

 Inside the card, the simple but oh-so-meaningful message reads: "No matter how many miles are between us, you're always close at heart this time of year."

 I used the card as part of the Christmas decorations on my hutch.  Love it!

Hope you have enjoyed this look at a truly unusual and lovely Christmas card from a lovely daughter!

A couple of after-Christmas buys

Just a little late posting about them!  I didn't find a lot of good after-Christmas deals this year, nor was I really looking for them.  I found one at Walmart and a few other things at the supermarket.

The gift card holder at top, as you can see, is from Walmart.  I got it when the clearance was 50% off, so it was 74¢!  Can't beat that for how cute this is.  I would have gotten a few more, but we really don't give all that many gift cards, and I have a few other very nice holders bought last year.

Since I love both Mason jars and cars or trucks with Christmas trees, I was instantly drawn to this.  The "zinc lid" looks just like metal and if one pulls on it, out comes a place to tuck the gift card and a line to write the amount the card is worth.  What a cute design, don't you think?

Below is the back view of the gift card holder:

And then I found a couple of Christmas plates at 75% off, I believe, at the supermarket.  These are always handy for presenting gifts of cookies.  The clear dish with the poinsettias, bells and holly has such a vintage look!  It is plastic, not glass and will be wonderful for a couple of special cookie gifts next year (I bought two of these -- they were less than $2 and are made in USA!).

 I also bought two of these red plaid plates with a buffalo checked Christmas tree at the center.  They are a salad plate size and will also be lovely for gifts of cookies or candies.

There are my few after-Christmas buys!  I was actually rather proud of myself for not buying a lot of things (no matter how inexpensive) that I would have to store until I found a specific use for them.

How about you?  Did you find some good deals after Christmas?  Do you have specific plans for using what you purchased?

A sweet handmade ornament

Yesterday I was thrilled when my order arrived from Marjorie at Treasures with a Twist!  Even though this is a Christmas ornament, it felt like a little Valentine gift to me!

Isn't it beautiful?  This ornament is made from a simple wood circle embellished with a beautiful print, tinsel trim and plenty of glitter.

I love not only the beautiful old red truck and the farm, but the tractor and horse in the field and even the large white farmhouse in the distance.  It reminds me of the farm that's in all my Christmas memories:

 It had a pretty red barn and a big white farmhouse, too!

Marjorie has several other designs available and her prices are very reasonable.  This is a lovely, beautifully made ornament,  and I will be ordering from Treasures with a Twist again.  Go on over and visit ... I think you will enjoy browsing through these pretty Christmas crafts.

Making a Christmas cookie cookbook

I've been thinking for awhile that I would like to utilize a free photo book offer from Shutterfly and make a Christmas cookie cookbook with a number of our family favorite recipes.  As you see above, that thought has become a reality.  For the cover photo, I utilized a photo of some of my felt Christmas cookies.  They were so colorful and fun that I thought it would brighten up the cover ... and it did.

Below is the back cover.  I used some colorful photos of various Christmas kitchen gifts, including cookies of course.

In between are 20 pages.  I used 18 of them as recipe pages with a different cookie recipe on each page.  Some of the recipes are from my childhood; others are as new as Christmas 2018.  Below I will share screenshots of a few of them.

On the first page I wrote out some of my Christmas baking memories from childhood.  I actually had written these out years ago for a Christmas memory book, so I just copied and pasted it into a text box on a page in the Shutterfly book.

Then I made a number of recipe pages (of which these are just a few):

On the last page I shared several photos of grandkids baking.  It seemed like an appropriate way to end a book that began with my childhood memories.  Sort of full circle.

And there's a look at my cookie book!  If anyone is interested in the actual nuts and bolts of how I did this, just mention it in the comments and I'll share the details, okay?