vintage vacation souvenirs

(Please join Suzanne at Colorado Lady blog for more Vintage Thingie Thursday fun!)

Happy Vintage Thingie Thursday!

Feeling a little poorly over here ... sniffle sniffle ACHOO ... so I'm arriving pretty late to Vintage Thingie Thursday. Sorry! I've been laying down, reading "The Hunger Games" and enjoying it! And also wondering if there was anything I could pull together easily to share this Thursday???


I grabbed a few things that were close at hand ... some stuff my family must have picked up on road trip vacations before I was born (but then I seem to remember Paul Bunyon, so I guess I was there too). A little barrel from The Trees of Mystery, bear and squirrel salt and pepper shakers (actually I don't know where they got these???, but they go so well with a National Park theme that I'm throwing them in hahahhaha) and some fun vintage postcards from their travels.

Find a seat and grab some popcorn

(Please visit Sue at It's A Very Cherry World for more Rednesday fun!)

Anyone remember this?! All the giggles and good times of going to the theater in your own home (what a concept hahhahhahaha) ... dad would get out the screen and set up the projector and mom would make a BIG bowl of popcorn and we'd all settle in to watch cartoons and short films.

vintage E-Z Pop TV commercial from the 50's

My mom would always make popcorn the old fashioned way,
but I do remember her bringing home Jiffy Pop when it first came out.

This Rednesday, I thought I'd share these 8 mm films that belonged to my brother ... Woody Woodpecker in "Well Oiled", Woody Woodpecker in "Termites from Mars", "Oswald the Rabbit" and "Ten Fathoms Deep" - I looked this last one up, wondering what it could be and found the following snippets here:

"Ten Fathoms Deep" (Castle Films) is still a compelling bit of footage that only hinted at future possibilities which the former French naval officer spent a lifetime achieving - the safest and most practical manner that allows man to explore and research the deep oceans of the world.

It's from 1952 and about Jacques Cousteau, how fun is that?!

It also said:

" ... among his considerable accomplishments, designed and built the first scuba diver regulator (aqua lung) in the 1950s, as well as the first underwater camera housing apparatus more than 50 years ago which, at the time, could hold only 13 minutes of film."

the lovers, the dreamers and me

who said that every wish would be heard
and answered when wished on the morning star?



somebody thought of that and someone believed it
look what it's done so far

I guess I'm a mega softie, just a sentimental smooosh ball ... one of my favorite songs is The Rainbow Connection! Kermit and Miss Piggy and Walter were on GMA this morning and sang TRC - I can't get enough of it. it always reduces me to tears.



have you been half asleep and have you heard voices?
I've heard them calling my name ...

one year

Saturday was one year since my father passed away.

What a thing grief is! Ever since January, which was the one year anniversary of when this all began with my father's fall and his breaking his hip and then his decline - I have been replaying and reliving, the sad, the traumatic, the painful events. As if it's on a loop in my brain.

SOB!

Not being a newcomer to this world of grief, I have been counting down and longing for the arrival of March 10th, knowing that somehow miraculously, things do weigh less heavily, less frequently, after the first year mark.

I made plans to do something that would bring me joy on the day and also something in remembrance of my dad.


The hubs and I went down south to Santa Ana and took in GLITTER FEST for the first time. So much fun to get to see lovely creations and artists I've seen online. Can't wait until it's time for the next one in the Fall.

Cards from a few of the wonderful artists in attendance.

I got some darling - as if I need more, geeeeeeezzzz - Easter ornaments for my feather tree.

(by Sue Smith of The Fox & The Hare)

(by Robin Kelso)

I apologize to the wonderful artisans who made these for the miserable photos - it's always easier to grab the stupid phone, rather than hunt down the camera and here are the results. WAH!

And we ran into my crafty friend Susan too! Hi Susan!

And then we drove over to Costa Mesa to have lunch at the Taco Asylum. We're vegetarian and I had seen online that they had a wild mushroom taco and a curried paneer taco - nom nom nom YUMMERS! Tasty! Now they weren't in tortilla's - they were on naan bread, like pita. Actually I'm not sure that anything on the menu is what you typically think of as a taco, but they sure are good if you're in Costa Mesa.

Then on Saturday evening, we met my sister-in-law and my two nieces for dinner, to share the one year anniversary and think of the father, father-in-law, grandfather, we all miss so much.

My oldest niece was newly engaged the previous weekend and her fiance came along too. So very nice to have some good news this year, after so much sad news, so many passings last year.


We lost my brother 16 years ago, so my darling oldest niece will walk up the aisle with her momma. The moments my brother missed and the moments his dear girls have missed with him, break our hearts, over and over. But life goes on and somehow new moments of joy are made.

Then on Sunday, we went out to breakfast and then took a trip out to the cemetery and sat with dad (and my mother and my uncle too, nearby) for awhile.

So, one year passed. Our hearts look both backward and forward ... we long for Spring and new beginnings.


Happy Monday to you all!

wowie!

Murmuration from Islands & Rivers on Vimeo.

be patient, wait for it ... and be blown away by it!

video found via the charming blog, the small object.

Little Women

(Please join Suzanne at Colorado Lady blog for more Vintage Thingie Thursday fun!)

Happy Vintage Thingie Thursday!

This vintage thingie Thursday I'm sharing a copy of the much beloved "Little Women".

What a treat it was to find this in my mom's things! The front page bears an inscription from my mother's Aunt Lu to my mom, dated 1932. The book itself is from 1881 (so much fun!) but I'm not sure if Aunt Lu gifted my mother her very own copy, or if she purchased a used copy for my mother? (I'm guessing that she passed along her own copy to my mom, as her full name and city where she lived, is written in the upper corner as if she were writing who the book belongs to and then the inscription to my mother is in the middle of the page.)

I started to thumb through the book and was immediately intrigued by the lack of credit given to the illustrator/illustrators. I googled and found the following interesting entry regarding the illustrations here. (I didn't know that Little Women had originally been published as two books.)

Volumes one and two were published in separate volumes for several years, although beginning in 1870 they were available in a set. In 1880 Roberts Brothers published a revised, 586-page single-volume edition with over two hundred new illustrations by Frank T. Merrill, which Alcott enthusiastically praised. The following year, as part of an eight-volume set of Alcott's works, Roberts Brothers issued what is known as the regular edition of Little Women, a smaller, 532-page edition without the Merrill illustrations. Neither Alcott nor Niles appears to have made the revisions that materialize in the 1881 text, although neither seemed to have objected to their being made; Niles commented in an 1883 letter to Alcott that the changes in style seemed to have resulted in additional sales. Among the textual changes, punctuation was modernized, spelling was modified, and instances of slang were deleted or changed. Characters were made more attractive and more fashionable: Laurie is taller, less ethnic (his "long nose" in the first edition becomes a "handsome nose" in the revised text), and more attractive; Marmee becomes a "noble-looking" woman; Meg's violet silk requires twenty-five yards of fabric, rather than twenty; and Professor Bhaer is described as more of a gentleman. The character of Jo in particular is altered so that she becomes less tomboyish, less colloquial, and more conventional.

Throughout the next century, the regular edition would be the version made available to most readers. It was not until the 1980s that the first edition was reprinted and studied. The changes in the novel and its textual history are the subject of ongoing scholarship.

And so this copy turns out to be the 1881 edition, referred to as the "regular edition" - now I'm curious to see the reprint of the first, original edition! Isn't it fascinating that there were "textual" changes?! I wonder how often that happens?

Once upon a windy day

(Please visit Sue at It's A Very Cherry World for more Rednesday fun!)

I thought this title was a fitting choice for this blustery Los Angeles Rednesday, "Once Upon A Windy Day". I found quite a few "dearly loved" childrens books at my parents house - I think almost all of them were my brothers first and then became mine. They're bringing lots of smiles of remembrance.

Here's the beginning pages of this darling story for you, from 1947, written and illustrated by Jane Flory.

how to be alone

Sorry for another video post - I am still so overwhelmed with paperwork and I can't seem to think of anything to say of late here. I think I am just plain pooped out from all of this estate business and fighting to get the estate what is due my father. So many things are new and I've never had to deal with them before in my small little life.

Thank heavens for lovely blogs that lead us to charming gems like the one above - this one really tugs at my heart. Hope you enjoy it. Found via the wonderful Art Tea Life blog.

Happy Monday!

For the love of books

This Is Where We Live from 4th Estate on Vimeo.

Watch on YouTube.


Found via wonderful Jeannine Stein's blog.