Holiday Items - Christmas

It's that time of the year again! Well ... I guess depending on when you happen to be looking at this page it's that time of the year ... yep, Christmas. There are some folks who prepare for Christmas all year long, and there are others who hurriedly put up their decorations the week before December 25th.  Which are you?

A traditional style Christmas wreath.

Me, I'm up and down. Some year's I have my stuff up in early November, and others, not until the beginning of December, but I almost never wait for the week before Christmas ... I have a nice Christmas village with about 40 buildings in it, and it takes time to haul all the stuff up from the basement and then decide how to arrange it. Then I have to start taking them out of the boxes and putting the lighting in it and it can take 3 or 4 days just to get the village set up to my liking. Yeah, I guess I'm a little fussy about it.

On the other hand, the Christmas tree takes about 3-5 minutes. I've got one of those pencil-type trees - about 6' tall, but super skinny, and fits in a small flat box -  a little bit like this one but mine has decorations instead of poinsettias. Up and down in under 5 minutes.

When we're home during the holidays, the main floor of our home is done up as much as it can be, removing dishes and replacing them with holiday dishes, and open shelves contain decorative items like Hallmark's singing snowmen (I have about 5 of these so far), or figures like the Christmas penguins.

Clocks and Timekeeping

I suppose everyone has heard the old saying "it's about time" ... usually it means you've been tired of waiting for something or someone to show up, and when they finally do, you might say "it's about time".
 

A vintage "time'n temp" travel alarm by Westclox.

In my case, however, what it means is exactly what it says ... this page is really about time. Or at least, it's about the devices used to tell time - mostly clocks of various types. Clocks aren't just about the casings we see or their designs, the way the clock movements work can be quite different in clocks.

Movements run from wind-up, to motion, to electric, modern battery, solar and even water. Yeah, water!  A while ago while in Florida I needed an alarm clock for our guest room and didn't want to spent a lot of money buying a new one.

In a second hand shop I found this funky, modern-looking blue clock, but when I picked it up, the housing was full of water. Turning it over, I read the information on the bottom of the clock (the manufacturer's information). To power the clock and keep it running you simply filled it with water. I'd never seen one that ran on water, and it was only priced at $5 USD, so ... because I was so intrigued by it, I decided to take a chance and buy it.

True to it's word, the clock has been running along just fine with it's casing full of water. Since we only spend winter months in Florida, I fill it up to the top before we leave in April, and it's usually still running fine with plenty of water when we arrive back in Florida in late December.

Onto the images.

Miscellaneous Items - Page 1

Vintage Binoculars

These miscellaneous items aren't in any particular order, nor added in any special groupings.

Although they include some things we use in everyday life (like the binoculars, or the shoehorn) there are also some odd items, and some vintage items we no longer see used everyday, like the gramophone music box.

I do try to keep most of the .png pages categorized so that similar items are grouped on a page, but with the miscellaneous pages, the items are somewhat scattered, so you may have to look through all the miscellaneous pages, or use the site's search option to locate a particular item.

Miscellaneous Items - Page 2

Blue #4 Shotgun Shell.

Another page of mostly miscellaneous items the my visitors might find useful in their image projects or games.

I always find it pretty hard to categorize "miscellaneous stuff"  ... I like to be somewhat organized, but even at home we have what we the "junk drawer".

It's a bunch of "stuff" I don't quite know what to do with. 

The miscellaneous section in my site always reminds me a little of that drawer ... someone might find the stuff useful for something but I don't know where to put it.

And I just know I'm not the only one out there with that "junk drawer".

Clocks Page 2

More clocks for download. Please be sure to check the terms of service for use of these images.

Time is a wonderful thing ... when you have it, but it can be a bit of a nuisance when you're short of time, or rushed and in a hurry. It's also one of the things you can't really control - all those idioms usually end up being sort of true, don't they - sayings like "time waits for no man" (or woman), or "time marches forward" help establish the fact that time "doesn't stand still".

A large modern black iron wall clock.

Statues and Figures - Page 2

A concrete angel statue with open wings, holding a book.

It's probably pretty obvious that the angel statuary came from a grave yard ... while the place isn't somewhere we like to visit very often, I do tend to frequent them a little more than other people.

The statues are often very detailed and beautifully done, and even some of the carved marble or granite  monuments can be beautiful when the sun hits them.

The other statues aren't really "statues" in technical terms. Smaller pieces like those are referred to as figurines, or statuettes, while the bigger-than-life-sized angels are true statues.

Statues and Figures - Page 3

White Swan Statue

Have you ever seen a 6' tall concrete swan? No ... well, me neither until I ran across the on this page in Florida.

The city where this is located is noted for the number of and varieties of swans (real ones) in and around it's city. Many swan statues can be found there, most of them quite large.

That's another thing about "statues" ... a statue is usually supposed to be life-sized, or close to it ... or, a very large representation of a smaller thing (like a person, or in this case a swan), but smaller sculptures are usually referred to as statuettes.

Yeah, maybe you didn't exactly need to know that, but I thought it worth sharing :)

Books, Paper, Money Page 4 - Books and Papers

Papers and Cards

Here is mostly just newspapers, but a few sets of playing cards, and some notepads to download.

A stacked pile of printed newspapers.

Statues and Figures

Bride and Groom Cake Topper.

Outdoor statues, indoor figurines, decor items and even graphics in the form of figures can be found in this section.

Some are garden decor, but some are probably advertising related, like the gigantic 9 foot tall figure of the stallion. I found that one outside of an Antiques Mall in Florida ... very unusual statue, and one that is very detailed and beautifully done. This isn't something you'd see every day.

Other figures are human (Mr. Peanut is just a guy in a cosume), and some are 3D renderings, others are things we might see every day in the homes of friends and family.

Books, Paper, Money Page 2 - Money and Coins

Keep in mind, the paper money here is not suitable for printing, so ... no trying any funny stuff with it. It's meant for use within other imagery, like a collage, or to illustrate an article, or in a game as an object. Most are older forms of currency anyways, so other than image use, it would be pretty pointless to try anything else.

Older Canadian $5 Bill