You are currently browsing the tag archive for the 'holidays' tag.
As all old-house people know, acquiring the house often means inheriting previous owners’ leftovers (or, in some cases, heaps of stuff). My house came with a nifty little collection of vintage gift boxes. I get a kick out of making use of these. And since it’s that time of year again, I thought I’d share some shots.
Here are an old Sears box and a couple with unknown provenance but excellent graphics.
reindeer … ice skating … Santa
mistletoe … angel … snowman
E.J. Korvette—one of the first discount stores. It also says Fifth Avenue; I wonder if this is from a NYC trip or a closer store.
King Size Men’s Shop—I can’t find any reference to this online.
And finally Doris, which I think is still in Ukrainian Village in Chicago, around the corner from where I used to live. I love the store motto: “Conversation clothes.” I fear that my clothes are slightly antisocial.
Well, it seems that the pumpkin on the right won the popularity contest, if being stolen off our front porch equals popularity. The man of the house, who carved that one, called it “upside-down Burl Ives.”
The one on the right didn’t originally look like a squirrel came along and gnawed all the detail out of the top half. It used to be a slavering cyclops. But then, well …
Yes, snow has fallen and the porch isn’t quite done yet. Well, the porch is—the decking and posts and whatzit, sorta—but the stair railings are not. Please accept this in the spirit of full disclosure. I’m thinking by solstice, or Christmas anyway!
Yes, we’ve mixed painted parts with natural wood; the concept is that the wood (ipe decking and cedar sides) will gray out and blend in over time—and will last and last and last without maintenance; I was giddy the other day while shoveling off the steps that we were not going to have any problems with paint peeling off).
I’m thinking the last one should be our holiday card—it’s got the red, the green, the snow—ho!
It’s our anniversary of buying the house (or the mortgage anyway). So please join us in a toast to loving old structures, learning new skills, and doing what we can to preserve the best of the past while looking forward to the strange, new reality.
Above: Old oak door that never got painted—yay!
We slacked on our old-house Halloween duties this year on account of the front-porch rebuild. Did finally get pumpkins for 1.99 each at the local supermarket on Saturday. Did finally carve them on Sunday night. But we didn’t decide on handing out treats or not until the night, tonight.
That’s our three showing off the new ipe deck on the front porch. Luckily the ipe is fireproof cuz I’m leaving them out all night. That guy says the one I carved on the right is a Paul Stanley lantern.
So we did end up tossing out treats from the side porch. I still think the potato gun would’ve been better. He came up with an alternate chute idea. But next year we’ll have our front porch back (I hope).
