Oodles and Oodles of Christmas Charm

I love the blog Oodles and Oodles. Here is a photo of a retro alpine village from a recent post. If this was in my house growing up, I would have begged my mom not to take it down after Christmas was over. Check out Oodles and Oodles (linked on the right).

Electric Company Theme - Dig

Remember this? I remember later episodes and reruns.

Song of the Week #22 Phoenix "1901"

Just found out about this band. Fresh, clean guitars. Love it.

The Girl Can't Help It

Duncan and yours truly went to the Holly Berry Bazaar at St. Luke's Anglican Church over on Coxwell Avenue this morning. We had a lot of fun shopping and even sat down in their café for a drink and a muffin. Nice people were everywhere.

This is one of the most charming egg cups I've ever seen. I can't believe no one had grabbed it before I discovered it. It was .50.

Hand painted in England

This crafty mouse in a stocking decoration cost a quarter.
I just realized that the box was upside-down! Duncan discovered this amazing crayon organizer. I think it was $1.00.
Don't ask me why a Graham Greene novel is sandwiched between retro cookbooks. I discovered Greene when I was in university. I'm intrigued by the Catholic subtext in all of his novels.
I love this sixties Canadian Fish Cook Book. I suspect the cook book is Canadian, rather than the types of fish.

This book is amusing. I thought it would be filled with seventies granola yoghurt smoothie recipes. Instead, it featured...

The sandwich that helped kill Elvis Presley.

And an entire chapter devoted to cakes. Not that there's anything wrong with that!
Speaking of cooking, I bought an egg slicer. Duncan destroyed our last one when he was two. I also bought this pastry masher. I don't think they're actually called pastry mashers.

A bevy of vintage book beauties

Detail from the book of British wildflowers.

Detail from the book of cacti. In my dream home library, I'd have a little cubby for these tiny nature books.

Gorgeous birds

How could you not pick up a book with these illustrations?
This book of art cards had a tissue cover on it. I remember being a kid and making book covers out of parcel paper and decorating them. Did anyone else do this?
I think I'll leave the cards inside the book. They've survived this long.
Books and a bunny puzzle for the wee boy. Most books were .50. The newer trade books were a buck, but the money went to the church, so I'm not about to quibble.
Duncan chose these London picture books because, "That's where Daddy comes from." He also wanted the book of the Holy Land. Interesting choice and well timed for Christmas.
A pile of books for my class. I love the feeding frenzy when I bring them in. "Oooh, can I read that?"
Choose Your Own Adventure books were all the rage when I was a child of the early eighties. Space Vampire is so Ed Wood.

Something Good is Going to Happen

Picture taken from a post on Grain Edit featuring the photography of Tom Palumbo. Visit http://grainedit.com/ This blog profiles examples artists in the world of graphic design.

I've come off an exhausting two week period of report card writing, marking, late-night planning, and generally feeling dissatisfied with the state of my grinding daily routine. I love my job, but I find the work week very tiring: the morning rush, feeling like I'm never doing enough with my class even though I'm doing as much as I can, gulping lunch down and leaving work feeling like I forgot to do something important, not having enough time with my family... Does this sound familiar? Sometimes what I want more than anything else is to move to some big country house and spend my days with my family in the garden and looking after hens.

The last time I was truly happy about the state of my little universe was last Christmas holiday. I stumbled upon this world of arts and crafty bloggers and I had time to indulge in some of the projects featured. These blogs have brought me so much contentment. I love looking at hand-crafted items and pretty things. To this end, I'll start linking some of my favourite crafty blogs over to the right. Occasionally, I'll give a shout out to some to draw attention to blogs I think vintage/thrift bloggers would enjoy.

Cheers,

Erin

P.S. Life really is too short.

Our Sister In Thrift

I just read the most recent post from Kelly (aka Grunge Queen). She had her apartment and love life featured in yesterday's Toronto Star. It's a hilarious feature story. I'm going to run out and see if my local convenience store still has a copy. Here's the link for your enjoyment. Nice going Kelly. Work those boys and work the thrift! P.S. Is it just me, or does Kelly resemble a young Karen Kain?

http://www.yourhome.ca/homes/article/727121