Vintage Photo Friday: Painted Backdrops

Here is another little subset of my vintage photo collection! These are all photos taken in front of painted backdrops. I plan on putting these all into a small vintage photo album. I think they look cool all together.

A mama and her little baby. Look at her beautiful hair and flawless makeup? And that little hooded sweater is darling. I love her expression too, a little hint of a smile. Precious.

 Look at that snazzy butterfly pocket! 

My only tinted one like this. I want to know that the deal is with her outfit, why is she dressed so masculinely and look at the waist on those pants!

Aren't these two sweet? That palm tree in back makes me think that maybe they are on vacation. ANd look at that part! I wonder if it is shaved in. Travis has been getting that done lately and I LOVE it!

This one isn't the same, but it is similar. So many patterns! And I'm into her flowered hat. I wonder if I could pull one like it off?

 I know I've shared this photo before, it is one of my absolute favorites! Those uniforms! The mustaches! That guy in the middle's expression!

Last but not least, the vendor I bought this from had a few of these and I wish I had gotten them all. I love the "Always Thinking of You" sign. I guess you could get a photo like this and give it to your sweetheart. Isn't he cute? I really like his striped shirt. 

Vintage Photo Friday: Birthday Parties!

This Friday I thought I would show you my vintage photos from birthday parties. I don't come across them very often for some reason, so I only have three. I'm on the lookout for more! I like seeing the decorations and old party graphics!

I like this little guy blowing up a ballon in what seems to be the aftermath of a birthday party. See his parents (I'm assuming) in the reflection? I love the party stuff strewn about the table, and I wish I could make out the detail on those napkins!

Do you see the little paper basket party favor in the bottom left? And what is that on his hat, a pilot maybe? This one seems really sweet to me, it looks like she is going to let him cut the cake after he blew out the candles.

And last but not least, this gem! I'm now sure my favorite part! That amazing cake, the little hats, the strange focal point of the photo, those little boys' faces... I can just hear the mother wanting them all to look perfect with their little hats before they take a good group photo. 

So there is my tiny collection of vintage party photos. I hope I can find some more this year!

Vintage Photo Friday: Displaying My Collection

I've been making it a point to get all the photos I've collected over the past few years together in one place. I keep finding little stashes of them around the house but I THINK I've found them all. Recently I've been working on getting them all into the blank scrapbooks I've been collecting just for that purpose. Here are most of them, unsorted.

I started by sorting them into loose categories. It gave me such a dorky thrill to lay them all out! This isn't even half of them. It is my favorite collection by far.

My collection started with just dog photos, but it has expanded to include many other things.

After a few hours I had them like this. The cetegories are dogs, cats/other animals, vacation/awkward swimsuits, weird, favorites, and "other."

Yesterday I finally got around to putting some of them in this book. The cats were VERY into "helping" me with this task.

II bought this scrapbook at an estate sales a few years ago. It is the biggest, unused one I have found. 

It just had the dedication in the front, and "Christmas 1945" written on one page. I wonder why "Mother" never used it. I'm using it for my vintage dog photos, since it is pretty big. Hopefully I'll be able to get all my photos in there.
At first I planned on using only vintage photo corners to get the photos in, but I almost never come across them so I decided to just get modern ones. They are acid free and will help keep the photos in good shape anyway.

Thanks for holding those photos down Scampi.

And yes Murray, I did need some help flattening the pages out! So sweet.

I worked on this for about two hours while watching the last two episodes of series two of Call the Midwife. Have you seen it yet? It is SO GOOD! The 1950's styling is incredible and the storytelling is excellent! I cry during pretty much every episode. I can't wait for series three to come out on Netflix!

I finally got the cats OFF my work space by putting this manilla envelope out on the table. Cats are so weird. But it worked! They took turns sitting on it.

I ran out of photo corners (I had one box of 250 and somehow thought that would be enough) so I'll have to get more and finish another day.

So that is how I display my photo collection! It makes them so much easier to look through and enjoy. 

Vintage Photo Friday: Dog Favorites!

For a while now I've been stashing the vintage photos I buy all over the house in little piles. Today I tried to get them all together and sort them into categories so I can put them into the vintage albums I've been stock piling. When I laid them all out I almost couldn't believe how many I have. I filled my whole kitchen table and wasn't even half done! Here is a small selection: 

The first thing I did was separate out some of the best ones to add to my shadowbox wall. I finally bought some new frames and the wall is almost full! So here are some of my favorites from my dog photo collection: 

 I have quite a few photos of dogs on military bases, but this one is the best! He is loving that soda pop!

 A photo with puppies is like hitting a jackpot for me! I love all these little guys lined up in the wagon. I feel like I know what that little girl is thinking. She just can't believe her luck! 8 puppies!

I bought a lot of photos from this familiy. They had lots of beagles and treated them like one of the family! There are some pictures of this girl hugely pregnant, then this sweet one of her smiling over her litter! Doesn't she look proud? 

And look at those puppy butts! Aren't they sweet? 

I always look through cabinet cards in antique malls but never find ones with dogs. Travis found this one in Louisville and wouldn't let me see it until he bought it! Isn't it perfect? It is one of the best photos in my collection.

I don't know what it is about this photo,but I've always loved it. It might be that huge pipe. And how caught off guard they are. The back says "Pat and Bob Sigmier and Freckles. March 1951"

Do you see the boy's pant leg rolled up for riding the bike? I wonder what the girls said to him to get him off of it so they could post with their little dog.  The back says : "Ain't this cute? 1 and Sammy insisted on getting on the bike. The background is certainly elegant, it looks like the slum district! It was taken at the back of the building, there wasn't any sun in front."

The little spaniels are sweet, but that monkey fur coat it what steals the show in this photo!

I couldn't get this one to scan well, but I love that tiny little dog! Something about how straight he's sitting and his little closed eyes just kills me.

Some of the first vintage dog photos I picked up where a set of about 10 photos of boston terriers. There is one with three tiny puppies in a basket that is hiding around somewhere, but I like these too. This is off topic, but when we were buying photos for a flea market vendor this past weekend he told us he has a customer that buys old photos where the photographer's shadow is in the photo. I think that is such a cool idea! I thought of it again when I saw the shadow on the stairs.

And last but not least this was sent to me by my blog friend Poppy. She posted about it on her blog, I emailed her asking if I could buy it because I LOVE it, and she said she was planning on sending it to me already! Could this photo be any sweeter? The woman's name on the back is too hard to read, it looks like "Bithermik Warna"but I can read the dogs name, Spoofy!! It might be my favorite out of my whole collection!

VIntage Photo Friday

Remember back last August when I said I was going to start sharing some of my extensive vintage photo collection on Fridays? I spent a lot of time scanning in hundreds of my photos, then pow! My 8 year old laptop crashes and I lost them all and was too annoyed to do it again. Well now I'm back at it! I have made myself a goal to get all of my loose photos (upwards of 300) into albums by the end of the month so I'm going to try and scan some of the best to share with you!

Vintage photos are probably  my biggest collecting passion. I love looking through boxes and boxes of other people's memories and choosing some to bring home. My biggest collection is my vintage dog collection, so I'll show you a few recent finds: 

This little girl in the big sun hat and her sweet dog is a photo postcard from the little girls mom to a friend. That dog reminds me of Haley, my first dog. She was a lab/german shepard mix with white paws and a white chest. She was the best dog ever!

 I like how they all look serious in this photo, even the little dog. And check out the sandals on that lady on the left! I'll take them! And her sweater!

 A sweet little guy basking in the sun. 

 I try not to buy blurry photos but I like the action in this one. See the little dog laying in the leaves? And I THINK the guy on the left is a cat, judging by the ears and tail. I wonder if they were trying to bring him into the picture, or sho him away. Also, check out that football helmet and striped shirt!

 Travis found this one for me and I LOVE it! The little spaniel is posed so perfectly in the car window! And the antlers on the house in the back. I wonder if it is some kind of weekend cabin.

And how could I resist this sweet face? 

If you like vintage photos make sure you check out the Queen of Vintage Photo Friday Posts, Lisa over at She Was  a Bird! She always finds the BEST photos and I look forward to her posts every week!

Vintage Photo Friday: Beach Edition!

This Friday I thought I would show you some of my beach photos, not to be confused with my collection of men and awkward bathing suit photos. Haha. 

Butch and Ross, Oceanside, California 1938. Travis and I did this on the California beaches too, of course. 

Look at these two sitting under the Atlantic City boardwalk with that fabulous poodle!

Here are Bryan and Mary Charles in 1956. I love her little bow barrette, and those smart little robes!

Here are Sam and Pearl Lee sitting on their porch at the Beachcomber in Daytona Beach, Florida. See the cat in Pearl's hands? And what a great spot for a beach cottage! See that surf in the back?

I wish there was a note on the back to tell me where this is. Any ideas? I'm pretty sure I bought it for that guy in the front right wearing suspenders and no shirt on the beach!

Those matching swim caps! To bad they aren't all smiling. It might be because their bathing suits look pretty uncomfortable.

Here is Dad and Jim goofing off in front of a great looking beach playground.

And here we have another one of my all time favorites! Another shot from Pearl Lee's Daytona vacation. check out her sandals! And the monkey on her shoulder! The photo by itself is great, but the back makes it: On US #1 South of Daytona at Ella's bar. The monkey stole the show by the way I look He was untieing a ribbon I had my hair tied with. And he has just whipped his tail in my wide open mouth!" It doesn't get any better than that.