finger thumb

big vintage book post

I've been sort of collecting up all my good recent book finds to do one big post about. I've been to garage sales, V.V's, a notable large high school rummage sale, and all of them usually provide me with a lovely book or six. So if you are not interested in awesome old kids books, crazy vintage knitting patterns and beautifully illustrated end papers, today's post is not for you. But I know a lot of you by now, and I'm thinking there are at least a couple of you who are going to find this right up your alley.  First, a lovely bunch of Little Golden Books. I was especially pleased to find the copy of "Mr. Bell's Fixit Shop" as one of you dear readers recommended it to me, and I've been on the look out for it ever since. I love it when I actually find something second-hand that I was looking for. That's the best. 

And then, a lovely trio of Richard Scarry books. You know what Richard Scarry fan I am. I was especially stoked to get the "Best Story Book Ever". It has such a great variety of stuff in it. We had a doctor's appointment, the Little Dude and I, and this was the only book we had to bring. It got us through the whole hour long wait quite easily. 

I actually had the "About Animals" book when I was little, I remember the cover quite well. Though now that I look at it as an adult, I feel like the illustrations are a little weird. Don't get me wrong, I still love the quality of them. I just think its... odd that the animals dressed as people are going to the zoo to look at animals who are not like people. You know what I mean. There is an odd sort of post modern quality about it that just always make me go "hunh".

"The Bunny Book" though, is just plain adorable.

Seriously, would you look at that! 

And its nice that Scarry acknowledges the paradox of clothed rabbits versus plain rabbit-rabbits here. That's helpful. 

I think that this might be one of my favourite Richard Scarry illustrations of all time. So lovely.

Picked this one up at a garage sale for the kitsch factor, assuming it would be of the slightly racist cowboys and indians genre, but it may actually be a reasonably good book. I haven't read it yet, so the jury is still out. 

Beautiful end papers though, I will say that. 

These 'Annuals', anthologies of stories and such, used to be extremely popular. I don't think anyone makes them anymore, but I find then from time to time. This one is in good condition, but more importantly...

...has awesome artwork.

Giant snakes and guns! Whew. 

I always like to pick up this kind of very specific cookbook. There is something so mid-century about a cook book devoted to the subject of meat. 

Also, the illustration captions are fantastic. 

I was pretty excited to pick this up for a dollar at a garage sale. 

Its got lots of great pictures, including these crazy squirrels...

and this terrifying wolverine. Its funny, I ran into one of my neighbors just after I picked this up. She's originally from Britain (though she's lived here for ages), and she said in her inimitable British way. "Oh that looks lovely. One does get rawther tired of all his birds." For some reason, it just killed me and I'm always going to think of that when I look at this book now. How tired I am of Audubon's birds.

Then of course, I've been picking up knitting patterns and such here there and everywhere. This lovely bunch are all from the high school rummage sale.

And this pile, as you can tell by the stickers, is from the Value Village. There is a lot I like about the V.V. but one thing I hate is these wretched stickers. They don't come off AT ALL. They tear, and then they rip the paper underneath and if by some miracle you can get them off (in many little pieces) they leave a sticky residue that makes the patterns stick to each other and rip some more. They are THE WORST!

I don't often bother with knitting patterns from the 80's (not quite vintage enough for me, plus, I was alive then, so they don't have the exotic waft of yesteryear that I'm so drawn to). But I had to pick this one up, just for the awesomeness of that cover model. She's workin' the hell out of that double breasted cable knit jacket! So much attitude.

And this is one of the patterns in that little Beehive for Kid's booklet. I'm totally making that little squirrel sweater for The Baby next fall. I'm thinking a nice beige/fawn colour with dark brown squirrels. It'd look so sweet on him. Plus also, squirrels!

And I want to make that boys pullover in a size big enough for me, and in different colours. Grey and yellow maybe. So cute. 

How awesome are these? Halters are indeed Tops (just like lamb chops apparently). I love how they show alternate styling/wardrobe options. Knitted halters; going from the Boardwalk to the Boardroom. Ah, seventies optimism, how I love you.

And I had to include these three shots from the Bernat knitting book (late sixties I'm thinking) just to illustrate the inequity in modeling from the time period. Beauty standards change a lot, and modeling for a home knitwear instructional guide is probably not the creme de la creme of modeling gigs. But still, in what world is this guy a model?  I'm sure his mother loves him, but seriously, that is a face for radio, as they say. 

And in what world is he married to this woman?

Honestly. Also, there are like, five or six different very attractive ladies featured throughout this book and just this one dude, and frankly he looks like he's suffered from one too many rugby related facial injuries. I'm guessing he was related to one of the photographers or something, and they just pulled him into the shoot in a pinch. Just sayin'.

fabric and geekery

The Value Village had its half price sale this week, and my very kind Mom dropped by my house during the middle of her very busy day and fed my kids lunch so I could whip out to the store and check out the sales. I knew I had 15 minutes to get there, and 15 minutes to get back, so that left me with a scant half hour to ransack the place, minus standing-in-line time. So this could be no leisurely wander through the store, leaving no stone unturned, and no shelf unexamined. Oh no, I was a woman on a mission. And that mission was (hopefully) to get Star Wars sheets. I am getting dangerously low, and I need to make more bibs and stuff, so with the possibility of half-priced vintage sci-fi bed linnens hanging tangibly in the air, I headed into the store with great hope. 

Now, it was noon. On half-price day, so I tried not to get my expectations too high as many, many had trod those aisles before me. An early bird I was not. I'd planned my path like this: Household Linnens, Men's Shirts, Toys (not that we need any, but just in case) Baby clothes (ditto) and then a quick look over the housewares for pyrex/mugs/awesomeness and a micro scan of the Jewelry. Oh, and formal dresses, because you never know. 

Toys, Jewelry, and Formal Wear were all a bust, which is fine. Got a few useful but non-photo-worthy items in housewares, (baskets, jars, little glasses for little hands) but as usual, Household Linens and Men's Wear was where I did most of my damage.  Three nice shirts. Love a good plaid, and that peachy coloured one is just the nicest heavy/soft brushed cotton ever. Gonna be so good in a quilt. And there in the middle is a Liberty for Target shirt.  I love Liberty, and its so funny because I actually bought this shirt new from Target when their Liberty line came out. But I got an XS and have plans to alter/wear it, and one day cut it up for quilting. But now I have two, and let me tell you, this one was way cheaper than the other. 

Then I found these nice sheets. I love how well they look together. Could be nice as a summer dress with one for trim. 

Couple of nice heavy weight cotton pillowcases, both stripey and orange. 

And another one of those lovely Irish Linnen tea towels. With a very groovy Saint Fiacre on it. 

I can see why this one never got used. It is really awesome. 

I might just hang it on the wall in my kitchen. It'd work with the nice orange-y wood '70's vibe that's already going on there. 

But all this was nothing compared to what you'll see next. Wait for it....

Oh My Gosh TRANSFORMERS! (it's not quite Star Wars, but really, almost the next best thing. Aside from Doctor Who. I'd kill to get my hands on some Doctor Who sheets). I have such fond Transformer memories from my childhood, most of them via my brother of course, who the actual Transformers in our house belonged to, but I can remember playing with them with him, and his excitement at saving up his money to buy Optimus Prime. 

Though my fond memories did fail me when it came to most of their names. The Little Dude was very 'insestred' in this, naturally. And quized me mercilessly about "what dat guy called? Dat Racecar guy? What his NAME!" etc. At which point I had to tell him I didn't know, and he told me that it was ok, "but we'll hafta look it on the computer." Yes, yes we will. (if you are reading this Uncle Lemur Boy, leave the names in the comments wouldya? It'll save me some time, and I know you can recite them all like it was yesterday)

Aw Yeah, 1987. Now that's what I'm talkin' 'bout. I'm going to show L.D. this picture tomorrow and it is going to blow. his. mind. 
Sadly, there is a fair amount of paint splatter on this old sheet. Honestly. These people must have been Barbarians to use their Transformer sheets as a drop cloth. Sheesh. I shake my head at their ignorance. But still, there is a lot that is useable, and bibs and blankies will be made, I promise you.

And speaking of adorable little geeks, here's what I found L.D. and his Daddy bonding over at bedtime the other day. Apparently three and eleven/twelfths is just the right age to bust out the Star Wars (Where Science Meets Imagination) and start indoctrinating them. 

I cannot tell you how much L.D. enjoyed paging through this book with his Daddy. They just went through pointing at pictures and Hubs telling him about what was there to be seen (space ships, explosions, robots, the harsh climates of inhospitable planets and their theoretical indigenous creatures...) you know, the basics.

It was a lovely moment. But of course, the real fun started the moment the book was closed and the lights turned off. And then, little mister chatterbox started going a mile a minute about all the wonders he'd just seen, and had a hundred questions and suggestions for potential story lines. "And then, and then there could be a HUNDRED Darth Vaders and they could all go for a ride in a big, big truck together and then when they all got out they could get in a space ship and go somewhere and then....."

Twenty minutes of non-stop chatter later, this was looking less and less like a good idea. But finally, he agreed to keep enjoying his thoughts, but not out loud, just in his head, and off he went to have pleasant dreams about a galaxy far, far away....

in the stacks

Its no surprise to anyone who knows me, and most of you who read this blog with any regularity, that I love libraries. LOVE them. They are really such a happy place to me, full of potential, information, entertainment, ideas and best of all....free books! I remember fondly almost every library I've had the pleasure of using, and think happily of both the neighborhood libraries of my leisure time and the big, serious research libraries of my university years. And I remember learning the word 'stacks' as it applied to defining the high, close together shelves of research libraries where most of the books are stored. Its just the perfect word, like a stack of pancakes, implying excess and decadence and abundance. But only better, because of all the books. 

On what seems to be an unrelated note, I just cannot keep this house tidy. I've never been neatest person in the world. Just ask my mother about my teenage years with the stuff-everything-under-the-bed-and-act-like-I've-cleaned-the-room trick. I've improved since then of course, but there are still days around here when I am sorely tempted to ball up all the little clothes and toys and various child-detritus and just tuck it away under an unsuspecting piece of furniture. But I know now what I knew but did not understand as a teenager. That is, you can shove it out of sight as much as you like but someone is going to have to deal with it eventually. And unfortunately, that person is usually the mom. And now that I'm the mom, I know that I'm not solving a problem by putting the mess where I can't see it, but just delaying it. And it will still be my problem in the end.

So my point is, I spend a lot of time around here tidying up. And of course, (this is the frustrating part) there are often one or two little people who literally walk along right behind you undoing all your hard work. And I cannot tell you how annoying that is. They'll be occupied at the other end of a room with trains and teddies and I'll quickly tackle a pile of little cars and board books at the opposite side of the room and get them all sorted and tucked away, and as if on cue, little hands will suddenly find that corner of the room that I've tidied to be the best and most interesting place to play and explore. And they will go to work immediately at the task of destroying the results of my labour. Books returned to the floor. Cars dumped out of boxes etc. Its enough to make you loose your mind. And I know, I know, they're meant to be played with. Believe me, I don't keep some sterile toy showroom atmosphere around here. But just once in awhile it'd be nice to see the floor. 

Anyhow, the other day, after I'd spent half an hour bustling around the house returning things to their proper place, I went to the kitchen and started dinner. I do like to tidy before Hubs gets home. I know that makes me sound like a Stepford wife, but really, its more for me than for him. I like the feeling that I've accomplished something during the day. And I like to sit down to the dinner table and see a bit of visual calm in the form of an un-toy-strewn floor. So I'm just getting dinner on when I head the stomping clatter of books hitting the floor and look up to see the Little Dude, struggling into the kitchen his arms full of board books. "Oh no you don't." I said as soon as I saw him, seeing only my hard work undone. "You go put those right back on the shelf mister, I JUST cleaned those up!" "But I just want to be near you Mum," he says, puppy dog eyes on full winsomeness setting. "OK, but how about one book at a time?" I suggested. "But I need them all," he pleads, "they're my favourite!" Sigh. I can't argue that can I? And I know just how he feels. So the compromise was that we'd get a little table to put them all, so that they wouldn't pose a safety threat to me as I dodge back and forth from the sink to the stove in the kitchen in dinner prep mode. L.D. seemed very pleased with this idea, and made it his own by dragging a little chair over too. "Look Mum!" he said with great glee, "its like my own little library!"

It fills me with joy to know that he loves libraries too. 

Because who wouldn't want their own little library, with a carrel reserved just for them and all their favourites within easy reach. Sounds perfect to me. 

book sale score

The local library book sale was on this Saturday. I love the book sale. It combines two of my greatest loves: books and things that are cheap. We (the Little Dude and I) got a ton of great stuff, both fun and practical, but I'm just going to share the vintage gems with you. 

This is hands down my favourite purchase of the day. Even though it is a subject I have only minimal interest in, and is a book I will quiet likely never read. Yes, you guessed it. I bought this book for the cover. Because isn't it GORGE! Its such great quilt inspiration.

And this one actually might get read. The Burgess Books are always great; a charming mixture of nature facts wrapped up in a narrative about anthropomorphized animals. Its a win-win as far as I'm concerned. 

Plus also, this one has beautiful colour plates in it.

See? Such loveliness. 

And I never forget to look in the 'Other Languages' box at the library sale. Because look at this loveliness.

Aren't these colours great! Also, the text is pretty fun too.

I love it when animals have a picnic. 

This puppy is rather old, but has no publisher info inside, so I don't know how old in fact. I'd have to do more research. Its printed on the super thick paper that makes a lovely 'whoosh' sound when you flip the pages. And you can feel the depth of the print. 

The colour plates are absolutely beautiful.

And there are a number of these tonal two-colour prints as well at lots and lots of simple one-colour/black printed images as well.

I think this one is my favourite. Just look at that wicked black and white checked skirt and hat with a red cape that the fairy godmother is wearing! This image so beats the daylights out of the Disney version. Not to go on another Disney rant, bu I swear, we are so over-exposed to their version of all these stories that we almost forget what variety of the imagination can look like. 

Oh, and just a last little link here (before I go and get reunited with my lovely, newly serviced Sewing Machine. How I've missed her!) that goes well with this old book-lovin' post. Its an amazing blog called Bookshelf Porn. I've pinned the heck out of it on Pinterest already, so if you are following me there, some of the images will be familiar to you. Either way, enjoy!

ach..

I had such big plans to blog. I had pictures chosen and we had an exciting new making/food adventure that I was already to share with you, and then... the Baby decided not to go to sleep. UNTIL 10:00! I have no idea what that was about, but it was about 10:18 before he decided to lay down and sleep. Decided. I'm telling you, that kid, in the words of that pop psych guy on that Simpson's episode "he does... what he feels like." Its not as though he finally fall asleep as I rocked or nursed him. Nope, after a good long cry and a walk around the house and some quiet sitting, I finally set him in his crib, he looked up at me, and then turned around and lay down. And then I got the heck out of dodge before he changed his mind. 

Anyhow, you should go and read these excerpts from Emma Thompson's journal that she kept during the shooting of Sense and Sensibility. One of my top ten favourite movies of all time. Reading her journal made me feel like I was there when they were shooting it. Sigh. I can dream can't I. Also, it made me laugh my head off. I will never read "Squirrel Nutkin" the same way again. 

The Pioneer Woman Cooks.. with lots of sugar and butter.

Got this new cookbook out of the library recently, and have been pouring over it ever since. I read a review of it on Gluten Free Girl that was so great that I just had to try it for myself. Its The Pioneer Woman Cooks.This is one of those cookbooks that you'd enjoy even if you never cooked a thing out of it. Its the work of a blogger named Ree Drummond, so its a cookbook with a narrative, which is something I especially enjoy. I got all excited about trying new and exotic (to me) things like Chicken Fried Steak. You seen, the blog this book comes from is The Pioneer Woman, and she's sort of an urbanite who married a cattle rancher so its pretty down home style cooking. I was especially obsessed with the aforementioned Chicken Fried Steak (which does not involve chicken, but is a steak that you bread and fry as you would chicken, hence the name). I've made it twice now, and the jury is still out on it. I think I'm not doing it right, as all her recipes serve, about 12 (rancher husband and, like four kids, none of whom are toddlers anymore, so there are big appetites I'm thinking) so I had to quarter the recipe, and I think I've screwed up the proportions on the spices. The texture is great (crunchy on the outside, tender on the inside) but they don't have any kick. But I'm going to try again, as I'm pretty sure its me, and not the recipe.

What was much more successful was this steak sandwich. Excuse the not very good photo. Meat is really hard to make look good if your lighting is not optimal. And I'd just finished making this and the kids were all antsy and it was the usual pre-dinner craziness, and I was dying to eat this, so I just went 'snap' and then tucked in. So, so tasty. I served it on cibatta buns with romaine hearts and a balsamic dressing for dipping them in (which is my favourite lazy salad of late). 

We also really enjoyed the Chocolate Sheet Cake, and tonight I made Iny's Prune Cake with Buttermilk Icing which tastes so much better than it sounds. Because you know, its hard to get excited about prunes.
Though I must say, the whole dessert section of her book should be called 'a cup of sugar and a stick of butter'. Not that I'm complaining. She has this whole schtick about how she's been hiding from her husband the fact that its a PRUNE Cake, but seriously, the caramel glaze that you put on the top... prune, schmune, I'd eat my own foot if it had that glaze on it. Health food this is not. I have to steel myself to put the full amount of sugar in it that is required, as I don't usually like to go that crazy on the sugar. And I might scale it back next time. But for the purposes of reporting to you on the actual recipes, I followed it to the letter. And I must say, it was delicious. And you know who else liked it?    It is such a pleasure to see him eat something with gusto. Ever since he was sick a couple of weeks ago his appetite is much diminished, and he has become much pickier about things. So many of the things that he used to love (egg on toast with cheese, dutch cheese with cumin, broccoli, green beans, sweet potato fries, cantaloupe the list goes on and on) have been declared no longer edible by him. He's all about the carbs these days. Bread and cereal and bread and crackers and pasta and bread, bread, bread are all that he wants. He'll still eat bananas and avocados and most fruits, but is hardly interested in any vegetables (though he went to town on the carrots tonight at dinner) and protein as usual is ignored or declared inedible. Though tonight he ate meat pie with very little complaint so go figure. Anyhow, its just really, really nice not to have to put the energy into trying to get him to eat something (without appearing to try, I'm telling you its such a mind bending pain in the butt) that I practically want to make cake every night. And at least there are prunes in there. Prunes have more antioxidants that blueberries you know! Also, three eggs in there, so he'll be getting some protein. And I made it with part whole wheat flour, you know, for the extra nutrition. But I'm pretty sure the reason he ate it was for the cup of sugar. Tasty, tasty, sugar....

And now for no reason at all, here's a picture of the Baby. He's been waking up way to early from his afternoon nap, so the other day after a hug and a backrub I put him back in the crib with a stack of books. He happily flipped through them and then eventually fell asleep again. I just love how he's clutching that little knitted duck his Great Grandma made for his big brother once upon a time. So sweet.

nipper

We have a new favourite book around here.

It's one that I picked up on a whim while at the library. The comics/ graphic arts section is right next to the quilting/ knitting/ handwork section, and this huge red shiny book kind of jumped out at me. And my favourite thing about libraries is that you can take anything you want. You are not spending money so you never have to justify your choices. You never have to say "am I really going to read this?" or "should I wait for the paperback?" nope. If it looks interesting, my motto is, just go ahead and take it home. 
Plus, this monster of a book was put out by Drawn and Quarterly, and I've enjoyed their work in the past. I must admit, I'd never heard of Doug Wright before. But I am now a huge fan. Its funny to see his work for the first time and yet have this feeling of recognition because it has obviously laid the groundwork for so much of what came after it. Before Calvin and Hobbs, before Bart Simpson, before Stewie, there was a little round headed mischief maker named Nipper. And boy, does that kid get into some trouble.
The Little Dude loves the cartoons. Just loves them. He's sit pouring over the book for, well, at least 15 or 20 minutes at a time (that's a long time for a three year old) and the first few days we had it, it kept him happy and occupied for the entire hour of his quiet time. He also loves to have them 'read' to him, and his most common request these days is "tell me a Nipper story". He loves the trouble that Nipper gets into, and he loves how angry or shocked the mom and dad get. Its very funny. And I must say, I like them too.
Of course, I especially relate to the mom, and I can just feel her panic in the one above here, as she frantically dries her hands and races to see what damage Nipper is doing to the living room with his hockey stick. This made both L.D. and I laugh in particular, because he does this too, but with a big yellow yard stick which he loves to run and get when he can't reach a toy under the couch.  (sorry about the picture quality by the way, the book's format is too big for my scanner, so I took these with my camera on a fairly grey day with an impatient little boy at my elbow who was eager to flip the pages. Which explains the blurring)    I also love how Dough Wright was such a good, honest observer of the parent child relationship. He's not afraid to show the parents being angry with their children's behavior, instead of just being bemused. Trust me, it is very annoying to try and keep a boisterous little boy at the table, and it sucks to have to throw away perfectly good food when no one will eat it. 

And the dynamic between little brother and big brother here is so perfectly rendered. 

There are also a lot of great period details in these strips. For example, Hubs wants to make one of these nice little table/highchairs. 

And note the Cowichan sweater on Dad. Probably knit by Mom from a Mary Maxim pattern. 

I love all the textures and details on the clothing. Doug Wright only did a coloured strip for Christmas, the rest were mostly red white and black.  This is one of my favourites, because it is not so much a joke with a punchline as it is a meditation on the differing priorities of childhood. 

This is another favourite of the Little Dude's of course, since it features all those nice trucks and digger toys. And we're having this exact problem right now, where L.D. spends all his time playing with the Baby's new toys. 

I can relate to this. 

And this one made us laugh and laugh at Valentine's Day. Though I go out of my way to stress what a 'mistake' Nipper made in cutting up his Mama's curtains and how no one should ever, ever do this in real life. ahem.

There are a few strips that I skip when I'm reading to him. There are a lot of little kids beating on other little kids, stuff like that. They were written in the fifties after all. And I'm going to go out on a limb here and say there are probably fewer cartoons written nowadays about the inherent humour to be found in beating your kid with a belt. Also, there are a lot of strips that feature b.b. guns quite prominently (which I don't plan in buying for my kid too soon) and also, the generally questionable practices of dressing up as an Indian. Though of course, this strip kills me. The contrast of the look on the mom's face in the first panel and the last panel. Perfect.  Doug Wright did not only draw the Nipper strip, but also did a lot of commercial illustration and magazine covers. 

I absolutely adore all the hats in this picture. 

 I'm so pleased that it jumped off the shelf at me, and that I've spent hours pouring over something this enjoyable with my kid. It sure beats the crap out of Franklin. Anyhow, if you want to know more about Doug Wright, (he's a Montrealer dontcha know) you should get this book.

If we ever return it to the library that is. Maybe you should just buy your own copy.

hats!

Just the other day I was thinking "how is it we don't have a dress up box?" I'm an ex-theatre major for Pete's Sake! These kids should have been born in a dress up box. But somehow, I've just never gotten around to pulling one together. Sure we have some random pieces of clothes around the house, and myriad bits of fabric and blankets that get pulled into service as gowns delivered by fairy godmothers and capes and magic carpets. Which is awesome, because it really gets the old imagination going. But still, I think we need an actual Tickle Trunk. And if you don't know what I mean by Tickle Trunk, you obviously did not grow up in Canada, and now I'll have to send you to this Mr. Dressup video so that you can get schooled. The box where he kept his costumes was called the Tickle Trunk. And he had EVERYTHING in there. Seriously. Don't make me have to explain the Friendly Giant to you too, or maybe we can't be friends any more (unless you are American, and you have a reasonable excuse for not knowing about Mr. D and the F.G. But don't feel bad, because you had Mr. Rogers, who also is awesome. But did he have a tickle trunk? No, he did not)

Anyhow, on my birthday trip to the V.V. Hubs was the smart guy who found this nice assortment of accessories with which to start our very own Tickle Trunk.  To be fair, we already owned the John Deere cap (natch), but the others round out the collection nicely. 

This one has quickly been adopted as the favourite. And its my favourite too. Its nice to see that we have similar taste. 

Of course, the whole point of these is to aid the imagination, so we are really flexible about the professions that the hat represents. Hubs feels like this is the 'Old Timey Journalist' hat. It just needs a little card in the band that says "PRESS". I suggested that it would also do well for "Out of Work Jazz Musician" but thats a little bleak. We also suggested that he could wear it and be a business man. But of course, he out did us both and in this picture is enacting his role as a "Recycling Guy Tiger". Obviously. The socks on his hands are tiger paws. That, plus the recycling box = clearly.

Another game that is very fun to play with hats is "Caps for Sale".

It helps if you've read this book.

I've probably blogged about it before, but I can't remember for sure. Anyhow, its a well worn family favourite (I just adore the illustrations. The colours! Here's a good link to another blog and some beautiful dresses inspired the palette of this book). about a peddler whose caps get stolen by some naughty monkeys. 

It makes him very angry. But (spoiler alert) he does get the caps back in the end. The Little Dude LOVES playing this game because there is both stamping and hat throwing involved. And I get to be a monkey who says "Tsz, tsz, tsz". Awesome. 

We tried to get the Baby in on this action, but he's much more interested in taking hats off than putting them on. Very hard to get a picture of this kid in a hat.

But still, it was fun trying. 

garage sale

Though I love thrifting and all things second hand, I didn't go to many garage sales this past summer. There's something about the demographic in the mid-sized bedroom town that I live in that just makes for not very exciting garage sales. The houses aren't old enough I think. Too many new-ish subdivisions, not enough I've-lived-here-my-whole-life-as-did-my-parents-before-me homes. Its usually just a lot of VHS tapes, CD racks, uninspiring dishware and recently used baby items. Nothing stellar. But I was on my way home from an appointment on the other side of the highway the other day, and I have to drive through a bit of farm country to get here from there. And I noticed a garage sale sign. It was a grey Saturday, quite cold, not snowing yet, but on the cusp. "Who has a garage sale at the beginning of December?" I thought to myself. People who are moving out of a small country home that they've lived in since the early 60's. Jackpot. 

Now, I'll freely admit that these are not great pictures. And also, you probably won't be that excited about this stuff unless you are a sewer. Did I mention that they lady who was having this garage sale was a sewer? And she was de-stashing big time. 

Ok, so those roles are all 100% wool. Melton wool, like the kind you use to make winter coats. One of them is kind of moth eaten, but I don't care. The potential is amazing. I washed up some swatches (because it was quite dusty) and there was hardly any shrinkage in the cold cycle. The potential is very exciting. Maybe I'll make some really nice blankets. Maybe patchwork, maybe not, who knows. And that yellow bolt - 100% linnen! So great. And then another little bolt of grey men's suiting wool (yum) and a bolt of beige cotton. I know, most people may find it hard to get excited about beige cotton (I roll my eyes at myself a little from time to time) but its such a quilting staple for me, and good quality quilters cotton is usually, 7-9 dollars a meter. So this is such a great find. And then down on the floor in the top picture you can see another bolt of linnen, green this time, and some old school dish towel fabric, and a really nice chunk of some sort of loose open weave fabric that will be great for teaching the boys to embroider on. Its kind of like burlap, only nicer. 

And there was also some actual burlap. Also good for little kid embroidery, craft projects, etc. 

The garage sale lady was not only a sewer, but also did a ton of crafting. There was every kind of craft supply under the sun. Bins of styrofoam shapes, santa doll heads, fake flowers and dyed feathers. You name it, she had it. But it tended to be of the cheap and tatty variety (I'm not a big styrofoam or Christmas craft fan) so I passed on most of it. But I did get that giant pile of embroidery hoops (I'm always misplacing embroidery hoops) And that nice teak-ish tray. And the ravioli maker (don't know when I'll use that, but whatever). But one of the best purchases I made was a big plastic bag full of birds. You know, the little fake bird that people use in flower arrangements and wreaths occasionally. Anyhow, the Little Dude LOVES them. HOURS of fun. Literally. I just gave him the bag and let him pull them all out and we talk about them, and play with them and they ride around in tractors and diggers. Oh the fun is endless. He piles them all up on the table and says "look at all my lovely birds!"

We also used them to decorate a bit. Here's our Christmas-y mantelpiece.

I got hubs to cut me some nice pieces of the birch that got felled last year, and we collected some pinecones and then used all the red birds out of the bird bag to give it a bit of colour. 

All in all it was a very successful garage sale trip. Oh, and I also got a lot of old books, a bunch of old Martha Stewart mags, a fun casserole dish that I forgot to take a picture of and some random ribbon and such. And all that for twenty bucks! Best garage sale ever. 

And speaking of Christmas, L.D. has discovered the Grinch. Or has he originally mistakenly called him, "The Gronch" He saw a guy dressed up as him in a Christmas parade the other day, and could not stop asking about 'dat green guy' so I went to the library and got out the Grinch who Stole Christmas for him, and we've read it every day so far. 

cupcakes and mystery fabric

Dudes I am so tired these days. There's something up with my neck, super sore and constantly giving me a headache, and the Little Dude has been getting up at night lately  (and I have no idea why, he's usually a good sleeper) so I'm just too tired to be very creative tonight, aka, downloading and editing photos. So here's just a few bits and pieces. 

First of all, if you want to laugh, check out this personalized apology video at the ob tampon site. Type in your name and they sing you a very funny, sappy song. Found via Denvan. 

Also, I made cupcakes today. Not muffins, honest to goodness cupcakes. With, like a pound of butter. They were so freakin' good. I got the recipe from Two Bite Cupcakes, by Viola Goren, which I got out of the library the other day. I just intended to browse through it like food porn (ie: fun to look at, but no one really does that stuff) but then got all inspired by the recipes and yesterday, put a pound of butter out to thaw so that today I'd HAVE to make cupcakes. I used her Vanilla Cupcake recipe, but got all fancy and added cardamom, coriander, cinnamon, cloves and ginger, so they had this lovely subtle spiciness to them. Also her motto is "enjoy the deliciousness but avoid the guilt" because they are supposed to be mini cupcakes. But I didn't have mini pans, so I made full sized cupcakes. (And I don't feel guilty at all) The Little Dude referred to them as "upcakes". He quickly corrected himself, but really, it was so darn cute. Also, I learned a new way to make icing, and I'm kind of blown away by it. I've always just mixed together butter and sugar, with maybe some cream cheese in there, but this book had a recipe for Swiss Meringue Buttercream that did not freak me out with details about thermometers or anything like that. So I just went for it, and MAN is it ever good. And oddly light. There's way less butter in it, and a bunch of egg whites so its quite nice and fluffy. All in all, I'm quite pleased. I got nearly two dozen cupcakes out of the batch and ten bucks says they don't last out the week. The Little Dude LOVED them, though he was only allowed two today (much to his chagrin. He was sure he'd get another one when Daddy came home from work) but I feel better about it than giving him Oreos or something like that. At leas there's no preservatives in these, or weird MSG related chemical. Just good ole' butter n' sugar. 

Oh, and are there any fabric hounds/Harry Potter fans who can tell me what this fabric is? Sorry about the bad photograph of my TV screen, I'm old school that way.

I really want to know what fabric her dress is made out of, and where I can get some. Its from the scene where Child Lily and Child Snape hang out by the pond in the last Harry Potter movie. I have a feeling its a Liberty print, but haven't been able to confirm that. Sorry about the crummy images, but I looked all over the internet for better and couldn't find any stills from that scene. Just a bunch of really intense Snape fan videos. The creative use of other film footage that involves redheaded girls and awkward long haired boys in possible period costume is quite amazing. I can't pick just one, so go to youtube and search Snape and Lily and you'll find tons. Ah internet, what can't you be used for?