Kind of creepy, naughty vintage Santas

We have a collection of vintage Christmas stuff that is out on display year round in the entrance way of our house. Lots of old fancy Christmas balls, some felt and celluloid Santas, pinecone elves and bottlebrush trees.
These 4 Santas sit on top of an old cabinet with some other Christmas items, peering down at you as you walk by. They always look like they are up to something naughty or creepy.

This side glancing Santa is looking to see if anyone is watching him do his evil deeds. 

Why is his face so red? Did someone catch him being naughty?

He knows if you've been naughty or nice, but what has he been up to?

This guy looks a little drunk. Or judgement. Why is he laughing at me?!

Oh no! You've caught Santa being naughty!

Check out my Christmas present - J.R. Bauman Collaps-a-Form

My Dad surprised me today with my Christmas present, a vintage J.R. Bauman 'Collaps-A-Form' dress form.

We had spotted a similar dress form in a local antique shop last week. It was newish and they were trying to pass it off as being old, plus they wanted too much for it. But today he stopped in at a local antique dealer's house, and ended up buying me this fab old dress form from the guy.

It has the heavy cast iron base on little wooden wheels, a step pedal raises and lowers the gal. You can push in her shoulders - for getting dresses on and off easily - and you pop the shoulder back out by pushing down the wooden knob on the top. I won't be doing that very much though because I'm afraid of damaging the fabric.
Stamped 'Model 1952', I don't know if that's the year that it was made or truly just a model number. The patent number is from 1942.

She's aged but in great condition with only 2 small tears in the fabric. The name 'Shapiro' is written in pencil on the front of the form.
I'm not sure if I'll put her to work at Dandelion Vintage, I don't want her to get messed up. Maybe I'll just use her on special items.

 

 

 

 

Christmas in The Woods, 2013

Christmas in our house, 2013

My Mom's antique Canoe Baby stroller and antique doll with a possessed Shirley Temple doll along for the ride (she has yellow eyes)

 

And her other antique canoe stroller.

This Christmas tree is always so hard to photograph. It never looks as good in photos as it does in person. That's a bear standing behind the tree. And yes, a John Wayne clock on the wall above it.

My Nan passed away this year and these are some of her Snow Babies that she had given to me, I worked them into our Christmas display at the base of the tree.

 

 

 

 

The Annual Christmas Dog Torture - Merry Christmas!

This year we had a 9 week old puppy to wrangle into the Christmas card photos. Turns out, he was the good dog and Harlow was the wiggley, stubborn one. Here are some outtakes.

And the official Christmas card . . .

Christmas Tree, oh Christmas tree . . .

Here is our little Christmas tree. I ordered it online 5-6 years ago, made by Ditz, it has a teddy bear standing behind it (hard to see in my dark photos) My Dad decorates the tree every year with antique ornaments and beaded garland.

Here's the teddy bear

Little Vintage Christmas Display

Watching our old home movies, I was reminded that my Mom used to set up Christmas decorations in our antique dry sink. So I decided to decorate it myself this year.
First out to the yard to cut some pine and Holly branches, then some fiberfil for snow. The Mr. & Mrs. Claus and the round chenille Santa in the front were made by my Mom about 25 years ago. All of the other decorations are vintage and from my Mom's Christmas collection.

And here is a random puppy fanny passing by -

Home movie snap shots Part 2

Here are some more screen grabs from the old homes movies that I had transfered to DVD.

Grandpop playing an old trumpet out in the yard. He was on his lunchbreak from the farm. Around 1961

This is my Dad's first car, in 1961. That's grandpop driving the car, with chains on the wheels, in the snow.



My Dad at graduation. He was in the first class to graduate from the brand new Deptford High School.

Class of 1961.

My parent's at their wedding shower, 1966

The wedding, 1966.
With my Mom's parents

Left - with my Dad's parents.

Right - My Mom with her mom and her grandmother

 

Our bassett puppy Rebel. 1967.

Below is me with my Dad and then with my Mom. About 1977. They used to collect antique bottles, which can see in the background.

Below is me (and one of my first of many, many attempts to grow out my bangs) and our Newfoundland puppy Bear. 1979.

The Annual 'Christmas Dog Torture'

It's that time of year again - time to force my squirmy pups to sit together long enough to get a photo of them for our Christmas card.  This is quite a hard task, because bulldogs are super silly, squirmy and stubborn. Plus my dad has a short temper when it comes to trying to get them to sit still. One of us tries to pose them, while the other does the photos, then we switch. The car-shaped antique baby stroller is my Mom's Christmas present this year. The doll is one of hers.

 Here, two spoiled and demanding super models try to shrug off the photo shoot.

Boris pulls a Diva act and storms off the photo shoot, is search of a bush to pee on.

Below, Boris storms off set again, approaching the photographer with his thoughts of how the photos should be done, and a request for some goodies.

"We're getting grumpy"

and finally, out of about 20 shots, we get one that passes as good enough for the card!