COLLECTION #105: Happy Thanksgiving from the Copycat Collector

I hope you enjoy my little collection of Thanksgiving treasures! I just want all my readers to know how thankful I am for all of the blessings I have been given, and how much I appreciate you!  Thanks for reading my blog!

Lori C. Mitchell Thanksgiving figures. So cute!

A vintage Thanksgiving postcard I personalized!

COLLECTION #104: A Collection Most Fowl

In honor of Thanksgiving, I thought I should take photos of my turkeys and chickens. [I don't happen to have any turducken in my collection. (If you don't know, don't ask)].

Cute wooden chicken- not vintage but adorable anyway.

Fun Roosters Pecking metal toy- squeeze the blue handle, the roosters take turns pecking at their little feed bowl.

Vintage ceramic rooster... sadly repaired more than once!

Vintage turkey salt & pepper shakers

I hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving, and I will certainly post something festive tomorrow to celebrate the Big Day of Thanks and Feasting!

COLLECTION #103: Vintage Tin Toy Dishes

When most of us Baby Boomers think of Ohio Art, Etch-a-Sketch might come to mind. But the Ohio Art Company made more than Etch-a-Sketch. In fact, Ohio Art is one of the oldest toy companies in the United States, and they are still going strong. They were founded in 1908, and were the largest tin-litho company in the US. They started making tin toy dishes before 1920, and continued making tin toys through the 1980s and later. Some of the wonderful tin litho toys Ohio Art made through the years were sand pails, tops, Chinese Checkers games, drums, globes, wagons, and lunch boxes. (And dozens more!)

This little collection of tin dishes were most certainly all by Ohio Art (It's possible the silver/tin ones were not).  I have only been able to find the Red Riding Hood set in their collectors book, but not all the designs are listed there.  The Red Riding Hood set is from the 1960s, and the other dishes are all from the 1950s. The little strawberry cups, and the silver tin plates were all mine as a child. I love the little 'Three Little Kittens" relief design on the plates!  The cherry trays are also unidentified, but I have had them for many years. I love the rusty, 'modern' design plate with the turkey on it.. maybe I'll use it on Thanksgiving!

COLLECTION #102: Cawston Ostrich Farm

I grew up in South Pasadena, California, which is noted for many things: beautiful Arts & Crafts bungalows, great schools, famous former residents including William Holden, Hillary Swank, Henry Dreyfuss, Joel McCrea, Bobby Fischer....and of course, the home of the world-renowned and famous Cawston Ostrich Farm. You remember the ostrich farm don't you? Where people could ride ostriches, race them, watch them laying enormous eggs, ride in a little wagon pulled by an ostrich? No? Ok, you pretty much have to be a resident of South Pasadena to have heard of the Cawston Ostrich Farm. But back around the turn of the LAST century, the ostrich farm was a pretty famous and fun place. A definite tourist attraction.

I have collected a few small souvenirs of the Ostrich Farm... several postcards, a cute picture folder, and a great framed photo of three little boys riding in the ostrich wagon. These photos were taken by professional photographers, who posed their unwitting visitors in the wagon, and then sold the photos as souvenirs- kinda like Splash Mountain photos at Disneyland today! For those of you who are LDS, the littlest little boy in the front of the wagon is Hugh Nibley, noted LDS historian and professor. (This is not the original photo- It was given to me to scan by his grand niece Carolyn Nibley). The ostrich Beanie Baby looks cute with the collection, doesn't it?

THE WEEKEND COLLECTOR: Me! (Part 2)

I promised I'd come back and post more of my house & where I keep my various collections- here is part two, my upstairs. I don't keep collections everywhere, but I do have two main areas upstairs where I keep things.  The first is our upstairs landing- it's a very large open area at the top of our stairs, and I have 6 bookshelves full of books and goodies.  [Sadly, my Nikon camera died 2 days ago, so I used my iPhone camera to take these photos... they aren't the finest quality, especially indoors, but they will have to do for now!]
I'll start by sharing the photos of each of these shelves & treasures, then go to area #2.

My first shelf is full of children's books of all kinds- old and newer, classics and obscure. It's really hard for me to get rid of anything!

These are mostly classics- including Little Golden Books, Laura Ingells Wilder, etc.

Next is a vintage Ethan Allen set of shelves and desk/ cupboard units. I keep all of my LDS Church books. The left side is mostly modern ones, the right side has a lot of old, historical church books.

This desk belonged to my husband Bruce as a child. I keep it stocked with vintage school supplies and my Dick and Jane readers.

More vintage school readers & work books.

The plaque is a copy of an article about me in Playthings Magazine,  October 2004, featuring my school book collection.

This tall shelf includes school arithmetic, science, readers, music, art, geography, and social studies books.

Children's reference books, history, geography and vintage magazines.

In addition to my schoolbooks and accessories, I have school photos of Bruce's grandfather, and my Mom's high school graduation photo.

Next, we go into my studio. You can see all of the various treasures I have there.

As a toy designer, I have many toy reference books: books about dolls, games, toys, and also books about pop culture, collecting, travel, and reference- plus lots of dolls and toys on display.

I also have a variety of stuffed animals & other critters.

Here are my robots...

.... and my pedal cars and some of my kaleidoscopes.

This shelf has a couple of the toys I've designed, and a photo of me with a Cabbage Patch Kid I designed when I worked at Mattel.

An old Lifesavers display rack holds games, boxes, and a plethora of stuffed dogs and critters.

COLLECTION #101: Old Mormon Missionary Tracts

These old missionary tracts from the 1920s and 1930s were in my Grandfather's possessions when my husband and I acquired my grandparent's home when we were first married. They are fun to look at, and to read, and are important treasures to me. As a former missionary myself, it's fun to see the type of literature the missionaries used to leave behind.... other than the graphics, not much different from the brochures we used in the early '70s. At least one of these belonged to my Uncle Harold, who was a missionary in the 1930s. His name is written inside the cover of the Mr. Durant one, and I plan on presenting it to his sons who are coming to visit us on Sunday.

It's also interesting to see the names and locations of the different Missions in the United States in that era: today there are more missions in California than there were in the entire United States in 1930. We have well over 100 missions in the US today.