A Fun Easter Swap!

What Mr. Postman delivered...
Mail Call is ever so much more fun since I became a blogger!  There are so many swaps and exchanges going on...that if you are not careful...you may find yourself caught up in the excitement!    Like that's a bad thing?  I recently signed up for an Easter Swap at It's a Very Cherry World.  Thank you, Sue, for matching me up with Jenny at Jenny's Heart...she is totally delightful!

From Jenny's Heart...

Jenny's package was bursting with sweet treats nestled in sunny yellow Easter grass!

So excited to see this adorable scene on a ribbon spool!

Sweet flower chick and embellished note book...with an "S" for Shirley!

Love, love, love it!

A detail from the back of the book...the cutest vintage images!

Thank you so much, Jenny, for making this swap such a rewarding experience...I hope we can be partners again some time.  And thank you again, Sue, for hosting this...it definitely put some sunny springtime in my day...what a spirit lifter!

Where in Disneyland is this?

I'm adding a silly new feature to the end of my blog posts.  Disneyland is filled with the most intricate details...things you may never notice.  On a recent trip I went searching for things I never noticed before.  Can you guess where this is?

First Day of Spring!

Spring at last?
Judging from the snow on the ground this morning it must be the first day of spring.  We've had more snow this past weekend than we had all winter long.  What's up with that?  To cheer myself up I want to share some of my Easter projects and a collection of my favorite rabbits.  The little house is new.  I made two...one for me and one for a friend.   I made the cute little chenille characters to "live" in the house.  My poor chick looks a little bedraggled...a very bad kitty stole her and left her in a snow drift!  How she managed that is a question for the ages. =D

Bunny Collection...

I've been collecting these Easter bunnies for several years now.

My favorite designers are Dee Foust and Nicole Sayre.

My 2012 bunny...

Dee Foust

Mother and Child...this is a music box!

Nicole Sayre...the following are also hers.

Strawberry Sisters Bunnies...

A Cute Pair...

My favorite...Bunny in a Teapot!

Bunny in an Egg Cart.

Spring Shadow Box...

I decided to make this a Spring Birds theme so I could leave it up in my office until summer!

The frame is a 12" square ATC frame from "7 Gypsies."

Banner detail...

Beautiful Birds...

I found so many beautiful bird images...some are from Graphics Fairy

I hope your first day of spring is a beautiful one.  The sun is out now and I'm sure the snow will be gone by lunchtime.   

When I was your age...Marley, Vivienne & Mckinley!

 

Preschool Princesses:  Vivienne (top), Mckinley (middle)  Marley (bottom)

The Preschool Years!
The preschool years can be tough...I mean, who really can remember that far back?  Fortunately I do have some memories of my life as a small girl.  When I am older and cannot remember what I had for breakfast, I will probably be able to recall even more!

Little Shirley...

Here I am at McKinley's age.

Mike and Shirley

I am not sure how old I am here...3 or 4.

Mike was 18 months younger.

Our little family lived upstairs in this pretty house.

It is still there on 100 East in American Fork, Utah.

When I was 3 or 4, we moved from Alpine to American Fork.  We lived just a few houses north of Main Street on First East, the main road north to Alpine.  It was a very nice house and we rented the upstairs apartment.  I thought it was a scary house, though.  Every night I could hear the noises from the neighbors' television coming up through the floor.  It sounded shaky and the voices were grumbly.  One night I woke up to see an owl perched on the window sill...inside my room!

My Wheels...

I had a little tricycle similar to this one.  If my mom and dad knew how much trouble I could get into...maybe they would have had second thoughts about giving me one.  Oh, the freedom of the open road...a ticket to ride!  Once I figured out that there was a great big world just around the corner...I set off to explore it.   We lived near Main Street...so that's where I would go.

That's my corner...just past the Phillips 66 sign!

I never crossed the highway...There was a traffic light on that corner, but I couldn't remember if red was "Stop" or "Go" so I stayed on the north side of Main.

I visited Briggs Drugs and the Bakery.

One day...I was riding west on Main Street.  It was way past my naptime and I would get very cranky when I got tired.  I got off my little trike and took a nap on the sidewalk in front of the drugstore.  A very nice homeless man (Mom called him a dirty hobo) carried me into the store and somehow called my mother...he did ask for $5 ransom...but I don't recall if he got it or not.

At Harrington School, the nice secretary gave me a candy bar and called my mother.

I visited City Hall...I don't recall if I spoke to His Honor the Mayor.

I remember a nice policeman, though. =D

It was definitely a safer and simpler world back in the late 1950's.  I'm sure my mother didn't mean to get so caught up in her soap operas.  She would have gotten in a lot of trouble today for not watching me better.  I think that after the hobo incident I no longer had wheels and freedom!

A Few of My Favorite Things...

Mickey Mouse Club!

Even though it was in black and white...my memories are in Technicolor!

I loved the opening music and the trumpet fanfare and especially the part where they tossed Mickey up in the air.  After the Mouseketeers came on...I lost interest.  Jimmy, the leader, was terrifying to look at.  He had too many teeth!  By the way...I was also scared of Liberace...and his teeth!

Miracle Whip...

...and Wonder Bread! 

My favorite snack was slices of bread spread with Miracle Whip.

I ate this while watching...

...The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.

I didn't understand most of it...but I liked his friend Maynard...he later became Gilligan!

A Few More Memories...

I have a few more little memories of that time and that house...especially my mother telling me that I couldn't play in the irrigation water on the lawn of the Presbyterian Church next door.  She told me that I would catch "polio." She also wouldn't let me play in the snow on the lawn...because it was full of nuclear fall-out.  When I saw "yellow snow" I thought it was radioactive!  She didn't have to make up excuses...just say "NO!" 

I know you are pretty young right now...and maybe you won't understand all I've written today...but hopefully someday you will!  Have fun being little girls!  I sure did!

Love,

Grandma Shirley

Spring Front Door...Finally!

It's About Time...
Today I finally got around to taking the winter garlands off the front door.  It's finally time for spring!  I like the bird theme...I'm thinking that if I get lazy, it'll do until late summer.  And...knowing me...the odds are that it will be there at least until August. =D

Ivy and Pink Morning Glory Garlands

My Thumper Easter Wreath.

Little Blue Birds of Happiness and birds nests.

Shakers full of bird seed...in case they get hungy.

Such cute little birds.  They were from Tai Pan Trading Co...the coolest store around.

Full view.  The wreath on the left will replace Thumper after Easter.

Thanks for letting me share...if it weren't for this blog I might never get anything done in a timely manner.  Now the sun is coming back out...rats!  I could have had better light.  Oh, well, at least Spring looks like she might be hanging around for a bit.

Old Negatives!

Old negatives yield new treasures...
A few years ago we came across a crumbling envelope of old negatives.  Some were so old and bleached out that we could hardly make out the subject matter.  But one of the negatives was for the picture below...Grandpa Mel, his baby daughter Jane and little Tad...my father.

It is one of my very favorite pictures.  We had copies made and an enlargement for my dad for Father's Day.  A few days ago...I was digging in boxes, looking for my school pictures, when I found that same old envelope.  I couldn't tell who was in most of the pictures...there were a lot of "glamour shots" of teenage girls at a camp (Yellowstone, I think).  But one of the last negatives of the pile yielded a real treasure...

...Grandma Zetta and her children, taken the same day as the photo above.  This was just a few years after the Lost Plane adventures.  And she is wearing an apron...of course!  I was so grateful to find that old negative...just think, no one has seen this picture since the Depression!

I feel so blessed and happy today...almost like I was able to see Grandma Zetta again.

I miss her and Grandpa so very much.

When I was your age...Mailey and Alena!

Kindergarten Cousins...

Two sweet little girls in their Easter finery...Alena on the left, and Mailey on the right.   Kindergarten!  The word means "garden of children" in German.  And there couldn't be two prettier flowers.  I couldn't wait to turn five and go to school with the older kids on my street.  You are just starting out on an exciting adventure in the Great Big World.  There is so much to see and so much to learn.  What was kindergarten like when I was your age?  Let's find out.

Kindergarten!...

I couldn't find my kindergarten pictures, but I remember wearing a little red cardigan sweater on picture day.  The picture on the left was taken when I was five years old.  The little boy is my brother Mike, and the little girl is Patti.

The Old Alpine School and Gymnasium

This was my school in Alpine, Utah.  Alpine was a very small town when I was a little girl...maybe 500 or so people.  But it was nestled against the mountains and was very pretty with lots of little farms and orchards. My daddy also went to this school.  He lived in Fort Canyon and when he started kindergarten he rode a horse to school!  No school bus for little Tad!

A Kindergarten Day...

The Pledge of Allegience

My teacher was Miss Greenwood.  She also taught first grade.  Our school had only four classrooms so they split the younger kids. Kindergarten came in the morning and first grade in the afternoon.  When the bell rang, we lined up in front of the flag pole and followed our teacher inside.  The first thing we did was say the prayer and recite the Pledge of Allegience.  Even then we were taught to respect our flag.

We learned to count and do our ABCs.  There wasn't any pre-school then, so most of us learned these things in kindergarten.  See the funny wooden shoe?  That was how we learned to tie our shoelaces.  Kindergarten was much simpler then.  After our lesson we played with toys...the playhouse in the corner was the most popular thing for both the girls and the boys.  After the toys were put away...

...we all gathered around our teacher sitting in a circle on the floor while she read us a story.  My favorite was Peter Pan.  At some point we could hear the clank of bottles.  One of the lunch ladies would come in bringing the milk for snack time.

Nice cold bottles of milk!

In those days, school milk came in little bottles with a straw.  I have always loved milk...in school, I could never seem to get enough of it...sometimes I would drink 3 containers with my lunch.  Our snack was usually graham crackers.  After snack time came...

...Nap Time!

We spread out our mats and lay down for a little rest.  This was the hardest part of the day for me.  I was a wiggly worm!  I don't know how long we were supposed to lay there, but it seemed like hours!  I just couldn't hold still that long.  Miss Greenwood would watch for the least wiggly child...and that child would be chosen to be the "Wake-up Fairy."  The wake-up fairy was given a magic wand and he or she would touch each child on the head with the wand and say "wake-up."  I dearly wanted to be the wake-up fairy...but since I was so wiggly I only got to do it once!

Recess!

Merry-go-round!

Out in the school yard we had a merry-go-round.  We held on tight and spun around and around until we were dizzy!  Our old school yard was paved in asphalt which was crumbly and full of gravel.  If I ever took a tumble off the merry-go-round I would spend some time in the school nurse's office having gravel picked out of my scraped knees.  Another fun...but dangerous...playground item was...

..."Tricky Bars"

Also known as a Jungle Gym...we spent many recesses hanging upside down on the highest bars.  We wore dresses to school in those days...so we had to hold onto our skirts with one hand or...be sure to wear clean underwear!  I had a pair of...

...culottes that I wore on "Tricky Bars" days.  No one was going to sing "I see London, I see France..." when I hung upside down.   There were swings....of course...and a weedy old tennis court, used mostly for rollerskating.  There was no padding under anything...you played at your own risk.

This was Kindergarten 1960...
When school was over, I would walk home with my friends or just dawdle along by myself.  Sometimes I would stop by Grandma Zetta's house to see if she had any cookies.  Sometimes she did, but most of the time she would shoo me out the door and tell me to "get on home!"  I was never in any hurry to "get on home."  There were too many things to explore on the way!  I hope you are having fun in your kindergarten classes.  I am so proud of my two smart girls...Alena and Mailey!

Love,

Grandma Shirley

My Favorite Little Golden Book

I learned to read from this book!