Autumn's Arrival

The crisp air certainly heralds today's arrival of Autumn.

This week, the rich hues of the season

became evident in my home's decor as well.

My seasonal doll is attired in her favorite back to school dress

and she carries her lunchbox as well as an apple for the teacher.

Silk sunflowers and an embroidered wall hanging

welcome you in with some of Fall's favorite colors.

I'll share more on the wall hanging in a future post.

Colorful leaves swirl across a field of blue on the quilt

that is displayed on the stairway banister.

Muted colors fill the dining room.

The arrangement is simply three long sunflower stems

tied into a spray arrangement and embellished

with berries, leaves and ribbon.

I used two complementary ribbons -- 

ribbon stenciled with Autumn leaves and a muted plaid.

A white pumpkin is wrapped with the same ribbons.

Rustic natural elements surround the candle

 that is centered in a crystal pedestal bowl.

An angel carrying a pumpkin

 is featured on a side chair's pillow. 

This small heart pillow was purchased from a Christmas store. 

The color never fit in with my Christmas decor

but it seems at home with my Autumn color palette.

Bows and leaves add a bit of festivity to a display of candles.

Although the stores have been promoting Halloween, 

I'll wait a few more weeks 

before displaying that holiday's spirit.

Until next time, live and love well.

This forum reveals random thoughts and reflections on topics of interest and events impacting the life of the founder of Doll in the Looking Glass.  Our boutique specializes in custom designed dolls that look like your child. We also design toddler and baby dolls that look real using vinyl doll components manufactured in Midland, Michigan USA by Apple Valley Doll Works.  The goal of Doll in the Looking Glass is to delight our customers with our creations.  We would love to create a special doll for you!

Looking Up!

The weather Saturday morning was a cool 37 degrees.

But the sky was blue and the wind was calm.

Perfect weather for the annual RE/MAX Balloon Festival.

A wave of balloons launched filling the sky with color.

I was surprised to see some of the passenger baskets

 were triangular shaped.  I had not noticed this before.

The balloons in the next

three photos feature this shape of basket.

A favorite is the Sugar Bear balloon.

 The next two shots capture the plume of the burner flames warming the air to keep the balloon inflated. 

All of these photos were shot with a simple

point and shoot camera.

The balloons were directly overhead

providing great photo opportunities.

We enjoyed viewing the balloons from the parting lot

of our local home improvement store.

This was the 22nd year this festival has been held in Midland.

This event is the kick-off for

the United Way campaign in our community.

I particularly like the way the clouds frame this balloon.

A big THANK YOU to the corporate sponsor

for this annual event -- RE/MAX!

Until next time, live and love well.

This week I'll be sharing this post with

You're Gonna Love It Tuesday at Kathe with an E
Share Your Cup Thursday at Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson

This forum reveals random thoughts and reflections on topics of interest and events impacting the life of the founder of Doll in the Looking Glass.  Our boutique specializes in custom designed dolls that look like your child. We also design toddler and baby dolls that look real using vinyl doll components manufactured in Midland, Michigan USA by Apple Valley Doll Works.  The goal of Doll in the Looking Glass is to delight our customers with our creations.  We would love to create a special doll for you!

A Day to Rally

Today I'd like to share some images to mark Rally Day.

Antique Postcard from my Personal Collection
Copyright 1911 The Curtis Publishing Company
Copyright 1912 FM Braselmann

Are you familiar with Rally Day?

Before I started collecting Rally Day postcards,

I never heard of a Rally Day event.

Let me give you some clues:
It has nothing to do with auto racing...
Not even close to an event related to football...
Art festival?  No.
It is not a collegiate award ceremony.

These are all good guesses.

All these things come up on page 1

 if you do a Google search for Rally Day.

Antique Postcard from my Personal Collection
Form 2, The Westminster Press
Philadelphia, PA

Rally Day is a festival

that originated at the turn of the last century.

It typically occurs after the harvest has been completed 

and is used as a means of rallying students

 -- from cradle roll to senior students -- 

back to Sunday school.

According to the Congressional Library, 

children would receive pins, badges, postcards,

buttons, flags or ribbons

to spark interest in Rally Day 

This is the first Rally Day postcard that I acquired.

Who could resist these charming faces?

Antique Postcard from my Personal Collection
Copyright 1910 by Geo W. Wilmot
The Methodist Book Concern

Carefully note a couple of things from the back of this postcard.
First, look at the postmark
Next, look at the date of the event

What do you think?

Did the card reach the recipient in time for the event? 

Today it seems unthinkable that a piece of mail

postmarked on November 7, 1914 at 5 PM

would be received in advance of an event

held the very next day on November 8, 1914. 

But, depending on location,

 mail would be delivered 3 to 5 times per day.

Yes, you read that right.

So this reminder would have been received just in time ... 

on the evening before the event!

Hope you enjoyed this bit of Rally Day memorabilia!

Until next time, live and love well.

This week I'll be sharing this post with

You're Gonna Love It Tuesday at Kathe with an E
Share Your Cup Thursday at Have a Daily Cup of Mrs. Olson

This forum reveals random thoughts and reflections on topics of interest and events impacting the life of the founder of Doll in the Looking Glass.  Our boutique specializes in custom designed dolls that look like your child. We also design toddler and baby dolls that look real using vinyl doll components manufactured in Midland, Michigan USA by Apple Valley Doll Works.  The goal of Doll in the Looking Glass is to delight our customers with our creations.  We would love to create a special doll for you!

Back to School Scrapbook Pages

Back in June, I was the lucky winner of 

sponsored by Kathe with an E

Since that time, I have been playing with learning the software
and thought it was time to give you an update.

Now that the kiddos are back to school,
there are certain to be lots of exciting events
to be documented with photos.
 And that means everyone will be in overdrive to add
 this wealth of photos to a scrapbook to preserve the memories.

How about some First Day of School photos?
Since I don't have any children or grandchildren,
I used one of my dolls as the model 
for these back to school snapshots.



One of the best features of My Memories software,
is that you have access to pre-made scrapbook pages.
 You just pick a layout, add your own photo and you are done.
Talk about a time saver!

Oh, I didn't mention the best part.
The pre-made pages used in this post were all FREE.
And they have major cute factor!
Of course, you could add extra embellishments
-- like a name or a grade --
if you wanted to personalize the pre-made page. 

Simply subscribe to the My Memories Newsletter

and every week they will send an e-mail featuring
some of the scrapbook kits they have available.
Most do have to be purchased, but as a reward for looking
through their newest kits featured in the Newsletter,

there may be one or two that have a FREE price tag.
The fun is in the hunt for these freebies.

I wanted to make a page to accommodate a larger size photo.  

The next scrapbook page was made totally from scratch.

A large selection of papers and embellishments are included

with My Memories Suite software.

This option is a bit time consuming because you need to

look through the inventory to see what elements

would fit the theme of the page. 
But that time will probably be reduced

once you become familiar with the materials.

If these sample pages have piqued your interest
in this digital scrapbook software,

you can receive a $10 discount
if you purchase through Kathe with an E.

 Follow this link for a promotion code and soon

you will be on your way to creating a variety of scrapbook pages.

Until next time, live and love well.

This week I'll be sharing this post with

You're Gonna Love It Tuesday at Kathe with an E
Show Off Friday at What-About

This forum reveals random thoughts and reflections on topics of interest and events impacting the life of the founder of Doll in the Looking Glass.  Our boutique specializes in custom designed dolls that look like your child. We also design toddler and baby dolls that look real using vinyl doll components manufactured in Midland, Michigan USA by Apple Valley Doll Works.  The goal of Doll in the Looking Glass is to delight our customers with our creations.  We would love to create a special doll for you!