After Christmas Things.........

 

Lee Wards was a craft company that sold mostly by catalog.  I do remember the company as my mom use to buy kits from out of the catalog.  I looked up the company name and two men owned the business. For the sake of history I looked it up on the net.  In a question and answer section the daughter of one of the CEOs told the history of the business.  I guess there were a few retail stores out there but the catalog business was the main source for sales.  The daughter said that any kit that was sold had to have its instructions tested by people who have never crocheted or knited as to prove the directions could be followed and worked with preventing frustration of the crafter. The company was sold to Michaels the present day retailer.

 

 The first kit that my mom bought through the company was this afghan shown at left.  It is still in tact and I keep it upstairs in the store room of those kind of things.  It had to be in the early sixties.  She and my Aunt Mary would buy things at the same time and teach each other through kits like this.  My Aunt Mary has the pastel colors in her kit that included pinks, light green and blue and white.  If you knew my mom you would know that she would pick the kit which had the color name of Fiesta. The afghan was on her couch most all of her life, probably the next 40 years.

  The box at the top of the post was gifted to me from a friend in blogland, Far Side, who found the box in an antique store.  Her shared interest in Christmas decorations of the past made her think of me with my smaller trees. 

Inside the box were all these small shiny balls for decorating a Christmas tree.  Most of them were wrapped in individual papers to protect them.  I don't know if Far Side did this or they were sold this way but it was a really nice surprise. 

To show how small they are, you can see the normal sized shiny bright of yesteryear and the modern smaller set of them purchased a few years back.  The littlest ones are really small.  My old fingers have to work carefully to handle them,  I was also gifted a set of hangers with them that are just the right size.  I didn't know they made them that small. 

 

I didn't have the time to hang them this year but I did dig them out of their box to check them out one more time.  The box has been next to my computer a long time like a prized box of gold.

Once inside I discovered that there were two indent ornaments among the rest.  A few of them are smaller which I believe were maybe from a loose collection at the antique store.

A different view of the indents and all of the others that I have put out.  There are a very lot of them and I didn't want to get them all out of the box. 

I have a smaller tree that they will be perfect for in displaying.  After playing with this one on the poinsettia branch I may rethink how I will use them next year.  A small live plant like a Norfolk Pine would be great for them and I may have to keep my eye out for one in the fall. 

Thanks again to Far Side and Far Guy for the big gift of smallfry ornaments. Check out the Far Side site and visit the wonder dog Chance in action in northern Minnesota. Also you can see a very tall tree covered with 300 or more shiny brite ornaments from days gone by.   Far Side of Fifty 

 AJ our grandson is working on getting more teeth.  He has 8 of them already and I am sure more are coming in as he works his finger in the area. His flannel shirt matches his dad's and I will share that later.

We are oh so cold today again.  We will go nowhere again today.  I will rush to the feeders to give the birds some fresh supply of seed.  They have been shuffling around in the snow to clear the area where the seed is sitting.  I need to shovel walks but even with a full faced stocking cap I don't think I will try it today.  The snow has moved on to the east coast but the arctic cold lingers for a few more days.  The high of 6 degrees F. is not anything to brag about and there are people north of us much colder than that. 

Thanks for stopping by today and keep warm out there.