Category Archives: flashback

Sep5

Show & Tell #8

Posted on Friday, September 5, 2008 by Dianne

This is my Barbie case from 1968 or so (I may have gotten it between 1968-1970)

Here are the ‘girls’ and guy(!) that were inside: one Barbie, three Francies, 2 Stacies and one Skipper. I believe Skipper was one of that last Mattel dolls I got. GI Joe is missing his hands. Not sure why he is in there, maybe my younger brother put him in there.

And here are some of the clothes. I thought I had more than this, but maybe they weren’t put away and got tossed. Remember, all these things are probably at least 40 years old!

I plan to clean them up a bit before I put them away today. I’ll pretend I’m 9 again. I need to think this way sometimes, don’t you?

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So I am a bit bummed as one of my favorite places to go online looks like it dissolved today. Tribe.net no longer has a web address. One of my friends there joined Facebook to find me. I have meet some awesome people there, some I know are friends for life. My good friends also have Flickr and Facebook accounts.

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And to save the best for last….look what Lee for Lake Stitcher sent me in the mail yesterday, a day I needed a bit of sunshine:

It’s a covered Altoid’s tin filled with chamomile tea because she knows my tummy acts up once in a while. I so appreciate the thoughtfulness from a fellow Pennsylvanian. She told me to keep my chin up in this interesting time of our life when parents and hormonal changes can bring you down. Thanks again Lee!

Have a great weekend!

Aug31

All in a row

Posted on Sunday, August 31, 2008 by Dianne

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All in a row, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

I recently purchased about 11 pounds of ephemera from an ebay seller. Don’t worry, I am not saving it all, but going through it and scanning photos and other ephemera for my art projects. Feel free to go take a look on Flickr if you would like to have some vintage goodies to work with.
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Good luck to the people in the New Orleans region. It sounds like they are better prepared this time. Thinking about my old friends A&M.

Aug30

Photo Hunt- Beautiful

Posted on Saturday, August 30, 2008 by Dianne

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Great grandmother, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Beautiful can mean something pleasing to the eye or better yet, to the heart. I always loved this photo of my maternal grandmother, the little baby here. Both Ruth, my mom-mom and her mother Caroline lived to be in their 90s. The little girl, Ethel Grace, died from pneumonia at age 7. My great grandmom had 6 children and another daughter Edna, who also lived to be in her 90s. I love how my great grandmom looked so pleased to have these little girls as she had trouble conceiving when she was first married. They are beautiful to me.

And the winner of my 4th Anniversary Blog giveaway is….drumroll…

RO!!!! from A Hint of Home blog! Ro’s a new visitor, which is nice. Congrats! I need your snail mail address-send to diadsieatcomcastdotnet. Thanks. : )

Aug13

Snap, crackle and pop!

Posted on Wednesday, August 13, 2008 by Dianne

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I did hear some of the above noises today at the chiropractor! My neck cracked really well. He pressed on my spine and that was uncomfortable. Then I laid on a table that vibrated mostly my butt area for a few minutes. I told he I had a chair massager pad that I should use more. Our insurance won’t cover these visits, so I have to figure out what to do (they take the same credit plan as the dentist, but I’m kinda saving that for extreme bills from them). I guess I can go a few times a month. I’m going tomorrow too. I think my neck feels a bit looser.
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I won a big box of ephemera from eBay to scan and use in my art projects. What fun it is to look through old photos and cards! It can be sad too as the photos are unmarked. I am not saving all of them. I bought the lot mostly for the really old photos. I have seen just one on sale for $4 and I got 11 pounds of goods for around $10. I love this hobby! There is so much history involved-the clothing, the cars, the scenery and towns.

Here’s ‘sort of’ any oldie I found in my craft desk. It’s me at my Communion/Confirmation back in about 1983 with my grandmom Ruth and my mom Jeanne.

I know who I am getting a bod like. This has a few spots on it. And my mom is the height of my grandmom now-I am taller than her! I think my grandmom was about 80 here and mom is almost 78 now.
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Thanks to Jennifer for mentioning the Absecon Lighthouse. Think we’ll go there. Sounds great. I love gift shops too. ; )

Aug8

Show & Tell #4

Posted on Friday, August 8, 2008 by Dianne

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I wanted to say that it’s been nice to meet many new bloggers through Kelli’s Show & Tell. I have been so impressed by all the terrific blogs I’ve seen over the last few weeks. There are many interesting people out there and you are all special. Nice to meet you!

Today, here is my late Grandmom Ruth’s little Martha Washington cabinet that I have in my family room with mostly my cross stitch and crochet supplies tucked inside it’s little drawers and bin like sides.

I know, there’s so much on top of it! Carol from A Garden of Stitches made me the little ‘Stick it Here’ pincushion and Barbara from Mainly Stitching made the pillow top pin cushion. I made the framed pieces you see-the Big Bee, Little Bee on top of the cabinet and the little stitching girl on the wall. I have some cute thread spool garland draped around the walled piece. I am dying to get some new window treatments there. The little cabinet sat in the hallway in mom’s house (my grandmom lived with us, it was her house too) and it was rather neglected and lost it’s pretty shine. I actually saw a similar one at Chadds Fords Day and it was polished and preserved nicely.

Here’s what’s on top closer up:

I found the little stitching girl at a flea market-it’s a pin cushion too. My dear late friend Charlotte gave me the book leaning against the wall there. I should show you the gorgeous box there too with copies of vintage sewing items that my friend Barb from Colorado gave me. It’s really neat.

Aug1

Show n’Tell Week #3

Posted on Friday, August 1, 2008 by Dianne

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Today I’m sharing my baby book. Unfortunately, it’s been through lots of neglect and it shows.

Pretty ugly isn’t it? We moved a few times after I was born and then a few years back, mom found it is a box in her basement. I would never put photos or keepsakes in the basement, especially in a cardboard box. In fact, toss all your cardboard. Stores like Big Lots sell the see thru ‘sweater boxes’ for about $3 each. That’s what I mainly use now.

So here is the card from the hospital bassinet:

That looks pretty good for being almost 49 years old.

This is the same hospital I had my breast biopsy at last year.

This is the first inside two pages:

That’s my hospital photo and my birth announcement.

Three months after my arrival, mom found out she was expecting again, so my book got tucked away. Years later, I actually added photos to this myself.

With my own son, I took tons of photos and wrote in his book all the time. His baby book is in a bookcase in my bedroom for safe keeping.

Have a great weekend!

Jul25

Show n’ Tell week #2

Posted on Friday, July 25, 2008 by Dianne

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Today, I’m sharing some of my Titanic lady porcelain dolls and a few other pieces from that collection-they have their own shelf in our family room. If they could talk, they would say ‘dust me’ and I will now that I saw what was on them. They are too pretty to let this happen! Dust and me do not get along-better wait until I get back from the eye doctor! (I may add a few more shots too, it’s pretty late now).
There’s Rose-from the movie Titanic, as portrayed by Kate Winslet in her modern striped outfit and big hat. I have one or two other outfits, but stopped buying them as they were getting pricey. I do have a photo of Kate up there too, it’s suppose to be signed by her (eBay purchase). Not sure if it’s the real deal.
The fine lady in black was modeled after one of the passengers, if I remember correctly. For the life of me, I forget her name! I also have two models of the grand ship, one of which I assembled; and the children’s book ‘Voyage of the Great Titanic’. There’s a little mannequin with a turn of the century type outfit and a cute purse that looked nice up there. It’s to the right of the computer desk here.

So what’s funny to me is that sometimes I’m taking a quiz on the Titanic and it may ask how many smoke stacks it had. I forget to look up to double check that there were 4 and not 3, and I usually answer three!

Brian and I were married on April 14th, the day the ship struck the iceberg. I remember my mom’s friend Jim saying that he hoped our marriage stayed ‘afloat’, or something to that effect. Very funny! It’s been over 24 yrs.

I do have a few other Titanic things that I’ll share in another post or two.

We have gone to a few Titanic exhibits-in Atlantic City and Orlando, Florida. I am interested in that time period, as my Grandmom Ruth was a little girl back in 1912. I was interested in the Titanic before the movie-honest. We have a National Geographic video about it too. The exhibits were interesting and sad at the same time. Each had an ice wall that represented what the water felt like in the Atlantic in April-deathly cold! The Florida exhibit had a replica of the Grand Staircase-gorgeous. And here’s the bigger version of my doll’s outfit!

It was such a waste of everything-people’s hard work building it, but of course mostly that of innocent passengers who had no lifeboat to safety.

Jul18

I’m playing show n’ tell

Posted on Friday, July 18, 2008 by Dianne

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I’ve been reading Kelli’s blog and decided to play along. She mentioned some little ceramic salt and pepper shakers with flowers on top, and I have the same ones. Mine are yellow and I think hers are white.
Here is the bank my Grandfather Alan gave to my mom when I was born:

Teddy bank

I think he’s a panda and about 10″ tall or so and has real gold paint for trim. I guess they didn’t have pink bear banks. My grandfather died only a few months after I was born, so this holds special meaning to me. It’s getting ‘really old’ and the paint is wearing off in a few spots. I don’t handle it that often and he was on a shelf in my bedroom buried behind eye drops and hand lotion. He is empty at the present time-rats!

It’s really a scorcher today. I did go out early to the post office and mail off birthday gifts. Thank goodness I did that as it went from 84 to 89 in 45 minutes. Stopped to get something for my gum to numb it if needed, but the Sensodyne is working well-so far. It was throbbing a bit last night. I don’t want to use the gum stimulator and rinse anymore, but a gentle mouth wash. And I’m waiting on a call from the eye doctor. I’ve been using these drops for a week and don’t know when to stop using them.

Jul18

Goodbye Spectrum

Posted on Friday, July 18, 2008 by Dianne

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So it’s really true-the Spectrum is getting torn down next year. Vet’s Stadium was torn down a few years back:

Not that I went to either place that much, but they are/were such landmarks of Philadelphia, anything new doesn’t really hold any memories for me-yet. And they won’t be the same kind of memories. I saw the Phillies play at the Vet for the first time-it was so awesome to see the grandeur of the place when you climb the stairs and take a gander at the playing field for the first time.

At the Spectrum, I saw the Flyers ice hockey team play, went to concerts-John Denver, Dan Fogelberg, Linda Ronstadt, Heart, Jackson Browne and went to a few Disney on Ice shows with a little Sean. Good memories. I’ll never hear John or Dan again and I doubt I’ll see the other performers again.

The fight scenes for ‘Rocky’ were suppose to be at the Spectrum, but were actually filmed in LA. There was a Rocky statue outside the Spectrum for a few years before it was moved to near the Phila. Art museum.

Posted: Tuesday, 15 July 2008 10:16AM

Spectrum Will Be Torn Down For A Mall

by KYW’s Mike DeNardo and Greg Orlandini

The Spectrum, for decades the South Philadelphia home to the Sixers and Flyers and the site of hundreds of memorable concerts and other events, will close next spring and be demolished.

Arena owner Comcast-Spectacor has plans to replace it with a complex of retail space, bars, restaurants, and a hotel (see related story). The 42-year-old arena, slated to shut down next spring, had been used for Flyers and 76ers games until the adjacent Wachovia Center was built and opened in 1996. It was the site of the Flyers’ Stanley Cup championship victories in 1974 and 1975, site of the Flyers’ victory over the Russian team in 1976, and the Sixers’ home when they won the NBA championship in 1983.

The Spectrum, built in 1967, is currently home to the Phantoms, Philadelphia’s minor league hockey team; the Soul, an Arena Football League team; and the Kixx, an indoor soccer team.

Over the years, some of the most notable music performers included Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, the Jackson Five, the Grateful Dead, and Kiss. (A web site called “Remember the Spectrum” has been set up by the building’s owners.)

PS-Brian and Sean are going to a Phillies game next weekend at the new Citizen’s Bank place-that should be awesome! It cost a bunch to go too!