Christmas Collection Sneak Peek

Gerald and Joan is excited to announce that our first collection of Christmas cards and postcards will debut later this week! While some of us are nostalgic all year long, most of us feel nostalgic at Christmastime. Whether we're baking cookie recipes that have been in our families for generations, singing carols and hymns that have been enjoyed for centuries or trimming our trees with ornaments that belonged to our parents and grandparents, Christmas is a time for treasuring memories, carrying on traditions and enjoying every moment of the season surrounded by our family and friends.

As nostalgia, tradition and heritage are all integral to our design process, it probably doesn't come as a surprise that our Christmas collection evokes those feelings. The collection features five snowy images from Gerald and Joan's personal archives. They are 1940s slides of Joan's childhood home in Gates Mills, Ohio, that I scanned and edited myself. The cards are printed on 110# bright white cover stock to highlight the breathtaking scenes, and they are accented with a dusting of extra fine white glitter and crystal "snow." To continue the sparkling theme, they are accompanied by metallic silver envelopes.

Like Gerald and Joan itself, this collection was a labor of love for us. It takes a little bit of our history and shares it with the world. Though simple, it accomplishes the founding principle of Gerald and Joan -- it preserves a little piece of history through our design work. It also makes us very proud.

Family and friends, look for your very own card from the collection in the mail this holiday season, as we plan to send out a Santa-sized sack of them! If you would like to support our work and send some of your very own, both the cards and postcards will be available for purchase through the blog on Friday. While we're partial for handwritten Christmas messages, they can also be personalized for easy mailing. :)

We would love to help you send out some vintage-inspired Christmas cheer this December!

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Family Stories: Julie Faye's Birthday

My mother might be celebrating a birthday this weekend, although I've been forbidden to bake a cake...and what is a birthday without cake?!? In lieu of cake, here are some sweet photos of a young Julie Faye that I found while recently digging through family slides....As you can see, my family could have easily starred in a 1960s television sitcom...

Look at those presents -- very 1962! The little girl beside my mother in these photos is her cousin Cheri. Aren't their dresses adorable? I still dream about that couch. It stayed in our family until the late '80s. It definitely had a good run!

Every little girl's birthday wish - a pink doll cake! That's Joan standing next to my mother. Joan's sister Betty and Cheri (Betty's daughter) are also pictured.

Coordinating with Cheri! I don't think this is a birthday photo, but it was too fun not to include.

As you can see, they liked driveway photos!

More candle blowing...

There are birthday streamers wrapped around the tablecloth and on the table. Very fun. And yes, in case you're wondering, some of these slides are backwards...I'm still getting the hang of nighttime slide scanning! It's too dark in my studio now that the time has changed!

Posing with birthday gifts. I bet that parasol came from somewhere in the Orient. My great-grandmother made several trips there during her lifetime. I have those slides as well!

This shot was too precious not to include. As you can tell from the turkey and turkey plates, it's from Thanksgiving.

Those pheasants on the table live at my house these days, and that is my dining room table! My mom still has the wooden bird, leather chairs, turkey dishes and emerald glass server. She is definitely her mother's daughter -- very sentimental and doesn't part with anything unless it is handed off to my sister and me. I consider that trait one of the best ones to have -- plus it means the treasures in your home are one-of-a-kind, environmentally friendly and good on the wallet. You can't beat that.

Happy Birthday to my wonderful mom! :)

Family Stories: Laura Stump Dumm

 

Laura Dumm, right, and her daughter Myrtle Robb in the late 1960s.

My great-great grandmother Laura A. Stump was born in 1881 in Ohio. She married my great-great grandfather Jacob Beecher Dumm in 1899, and they welcomed my great grandmother Elsie Belle Dumm the following year. Two years later, they had Myrtle, who was known as Mickey Dumm. In 1906, the girls were joined by Forest Dumm, and in 1909 Clarence Vernon Dumm, who was nicknamed Jake after his father. Sadly, I don't have any photos of the boys.

Laura and Beecher Dumm

My grandmother, Joan, loved her grandmother, just as I loved Joan. Their bond was incredibly strong, despite the distance that separated them after Joan's moves to Alaska and California. Although Laura died in 1971, Joan was determined to keep her grandmother in her life. She often shared stories of Laura's strong Christian faith and love of her family with us, and she kept many of Laura's writings for us to treasure and enjoy.

Laura Dumm at her piano. This photograph was displayed in Joan's home for as long as I can remember. It is now in my home.

A sweet card sent from Laura to her great-granddaughter Julie, my mother.

Here are a few of Laura's poems and writings. Many of them were published in her church's bulletins.

My Heart Sings

It was a beautiful morning and my soul was full of joy. Just a few rose-tinted clouds hung motionless on the Eastern horizon and the great, golden ball of sun peeped through the window right in my eyes. A new day was dawning, giving us another chance…another opportunity to let our light shine through in newness of life in our Christ Jesus.

Sunrise is the time to start the new day with prayer that God will guide us through the coming day….that He will help and sustain us…keep and direct us. There is invigoration and freshness in the early morning hours…to many of us it means just going back to the office, factory or to the field…to the housewife it means starting in again on the unnumbered duties of the home and our children.

How fortunate are we are who able to get up and go to work again. Just a glimpse at the sunrise and a morning prayer will put Hope in your heart and a song on your lips.

-Laura Dumm, 1970

When Father Prays 

When father prays he doesn’t use The words the preacher does. There’s different things for different days But mostly it’s for us.

When father prayers the house is still His voice is slow and deep. We shut our eyes, the clock ticks loud So quiet we must keep.

He prays that we might be good boys And later on good men. And then we squirm and think we won’t Have any quarrels again.

You’d never think to look at Dad He once had tempers too, I guess if father needs to pray We youngsters surely do.

Sometimes the prayer gets very long And hard to understand, And then I wiggle up quite close And let him hold my hand.

I can’t remember all of it I’m little yet you see. But one thing I cannot forget My father prays for me.

In addition to these sweet poems, I also have one of her silver dollars that was given to me by Joan when I graduated from high school in 2002. She had originally given the dollar to Joan, telling her that as long as she had the dollar, she would never be broke. I always loved that story, as it showed her sense of humor, as well as the deep love she had for my grandma.

I am proud to share her name.

Collections: Our Fall Mantle

During the five and a half years we lived in our mid-century cottage, we didn't have a mantle to decorate, so the built-in bookcase in our living room filled that role. We didn't mind at the time, but now that we have a fireplace and mantle, we are thoroughly enjoying it. The fireplace is the focal point of our living room, but even if it wasn't, I think it would still feel like the heart of our home. For that reason, we have filled the mantle with objects of meaning -- my favorite painting that belonged to Joan, vintage books (some found, some inherited), Elsie's vintage glass trinkets, Lucy's candlesticks, a Bauer carafe we found at a Santa Monica flea market and a bird that my dad gave us a few Christmases ago. The leaf garland was handmade by me in 2009, and the ghosts were store bought and assembled by Jonathan and I back in 2006.

What is on your mantle this fall?

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