what are the odds??!

you already know that we had a FABULOUS time in north carolina. even the famous "back of doooooooom" was fairly well-behaved! there were, however, a couple of teensy tiny disappointments i must report:

1. knitting monkees is harder than you think. as it turns out, i had to knit the first 10-12 rows of mine 3 different times! i am now on attempt #4...which seems like it will actually work. i will take a photo when the piece of monkee anatomy in question is large enough to be observed with an ordinary (non-microscopic) camera.

2. western north carolina is NOT a frozen dessert mecca. in fact, during the entire trip i had only ONE ice cream and one gelato...and neither were particularly tasty! (remember: this is ME--perfectly content with a weight watchers ice cream sandwich--saying that!!!)

3. there were no cool flea markets, thrift shops, or antique stores to be found anywhere. i dunno if it was too early in the season, or we just didn't stumble upon them, or there genuinely just aren't any where we were...but whatever the reason, the result was the same: i did not come home with *anything* cool or vintage.

as i said, these were disappointments of the very smallest and most ignorable kind, which i would not even have mentioned were it not for the following

amazing circumstance

which i shall now relate to you: the other day, back in lambertville, whilst killing a bit of time, i wandered into a used bookshop to say hello to a friend of mine. while we were chatting, i noticed, on a very low and out-of-the-way shelf, a small and somewhat tattered box of old postcards. now, i've been in this shop 9,230,677 times. at least. and i never noticed that box. but i am assured that it has been there--untouched, unsold and unregarded--since the carter administration. most of the cards were......well, you know how i looooove and revere vintage paper of all descriptions, and you also know that i can find something to ADORE where other people see only trash that ought to have been discarded eons ago, right? so when *I* say, "most of the cards were total rubbish" you will get an idea of how very lackluster they must've been! in fact, i would probably have stopped almost immediately, just out of hygenic concerns. but i was there...and i was waiting for someone...so i stubbornly carried on.

...and i found...

THESE:

L to R from top: chimney rock from a distance, green river gorge, the broad river near bat cave, chimney rock and the lake lure inn

yes, darlings, as a matter of fact those *ARE* vintage linen postcards (the postmarked ones--both addressed to the same recipient--are from 1936) from north carolina. and not JUST ANYWHERE in north carolina...they're from WESTERN north carolina! and not JUST ANYWHERE in western north carolina...they're from chimey rock, lake lure, and bat cave!!!

seriously: what ARE the odds??!

that musta been some party...

...because i don't remember ANY of it!

darlings, i have a shocking confession to make: even though my parents and i spent several days at the 1964 new york world's fair, i spent most of my time either drinking or sleeping it off. yes, friends, i am not ashamed to admit that, at the time, i was... (as so many of us have been at some point in our lives) ...an infant! :)

but i was there. and, as you know, i am a person who collects (some would say, "amasses in ridiculous volume") vintage pieces of paper. mostly i stick to postcards, though i have been known to foray into souvenir booklets if they are cool enough. so occasionally, if i stumble upon something connected with the 1964 fair, and if it's being sold at a reasonable price i snap it up. (& right there you have two VERY big ifs...b/c a lot of ppl collect world's fair stuff...and the prices reflect that!)

this is the favorite of my modest collection, the official world's fair story book (it says so, right on the cover! it has a little official badge & everything!) as you can see, it's called "a visit to the new york world's fair" and within it a pair of unrealistically (even by 1964 standards) wholesome and doe-eyed children take in the attractions of the festival. i got it at a garage sale. i think i paid twenty-five cents. ok, it might've been *fifty* cents. but it was worth splurging on, because it turned out to be a "two-fer"...look what was inside:

yep, a souvenir booklet from one of the exhibits! sinclair oil's, "dinoland" was apparently quite a draw, what with the massive animatronic beasties that move and roar and everything! (remember, at this point, disneyland is less than a decade old...and disneyWORLD is almost a decade away) the booklet is quite charming with very detailed illustrations of each of the dinos displayed, a bit of text describing them, and a subtle plug for sinclair oil at the end.

the other day my mom gave me this, which she found in a box in her basement. its's a little fold out booklet describing "the triumph of man" display sponsored by the travelers insurance company. it's got photos of each of the thirteen dioramas (diorami? dioramae?) and a bit about how each was selected as being pivotal. it's also got a red vinyl 45-record which apparently contains the complete narration and music from the display. thanks, mom!

...anybody got a record player...??!

une autre carte postale

there is nothing particularly french about this entry...but i'm running out of ways to say, "here is another postcard" in my title, so i thought i would be vaguely continental. plus, i am still intermittently thinking of paris je t'aime; which, as you know, i really, really enjoyed & highly recommend!

anyway, here IS another postcard:

this is from my friend david, a lucky so-and-so who has just sailed to england on the QM2, and who knows that i have an particular love of cruise-line and airline postcards. this one is extra-special, actually, because it was postmarked, mid-voyage, by cunard! (i didn't realize they even still DID THAT!)

also, you can see in the top photo that david has helpfully pointed out the location of his cabin! luckily, it's on the starboard side--if he'd been to port, i guess he'd've had to wait and buy a card on the return trip! (lol) :)

it's been a while...

...since i showed you a postcard...too long, in fact! so here's a recent paris one from my friend deborah:


awesome, isn't it? it's a teeny tiny cut-out-and-assemble sainte-chapelle! (before you ask: no, i'm not going to cut out and assemble it; but yeah, i thought about it.) that deborah, she knows me too well!

and now, some knitting news:

• the new abc show pushing daisies had a pretty funny knitting sub-plot last night


• this is a very cool site where you can find lots and lots of u.s. charities to whom you can donate pretty much anything you'd like to knit; here is another good one


• if you time your knitting speed and report it to the vicious chicken, you could win the entire state of delaware!* (complete details here)

*(ok, technically speaking, this is not true; but there is a prize. and it'll be a good one, too. as soon as VC figures out what it is! besides, if you won the entire state of delaware...c'mon...ya know you don't have that much closet space!)

it came from the attic (of doooooooom!)

in addition to enough cardboard boxes to supply elementary school children everywhere with dioramas in perpetuity AND the world's third foremost collection of cobwebs; last week, up in the attic, i found this:


it was in with my grandmother's sewing machine & accoutrements. the machine itself is a 1970's sears kenmore no-frills model that i use...well, once in a blue moon b/c i'm crappy at sewing (yes, even on paper!) and it's heavy as lead. the rest of the supplies were pretty standard: thread, replacement needles, extra bobbin thingies, and a button-hole-making attachment that i am never, ever, going to figure out, much less use. (count this as fair notice, darlings: should the future of the free world itself depend upon *me* successfully making buttonholes, we are OUT OF LUCK!) (...on the other hand...i have some o' that self-adhesive velcro stuff...)

the "pearl re-stringing outfit" is sitting on my desk now, with some of my other treasures-- postcards, of course, both new & vintage; a little notecard that jen made; a gluestick that has a cowboy hat & boots on it (from my friend beshka, in texas); some adorable red felt cherries--for reasons that utterly mystify lovely husband jeff. i've tried to explain why i love it...and things like it...and i always fail. "look at the graphics...and that cool font!" i say, with an excitement that lhj would reserve for money found on the street; "isn't it cool that they sold a set of two: one for pearls and one for heavy beads?!" when i get to the part about mom-mom having used one string, and saved the other...for several decades, apparently...i come closest to gaining his understanding, but really that's cheating a bit, because sweet as that fact is, if i had found this in your attic, i'd be just as excited!

but then, perhaps the loveliest thing about lovely husband jeff is: he doesn't have to get it...to get it! he just smiles, and says, "that's cool, hon!" :)

my goodness, my guinness!

my amazing friend deborah spent a couple of weeks in ireland recently, and whilst there managed to send me fifteen (yes, 15!) postcards! of course, seven of them were guinness-related (i guess she thought they'd be unconscionably lonely to be sent off on their own!) which brings the total down to a more normal eight. :) and o'course d being d, all had written on them a fascinating tidbit of irish lore, or a funny story from the trip, or something that made me laugh out loud! i *think* this is my favorite (hard to choose, but i SO love the expression on the toucan's face; you just knooooooow that pint is not gonna last long!):

in related news, a big giant (somewhat expensive) box arrived from century photo this week, containing enough archival-safe pages to hold the entire overflow of postcards that are not yet in albums--WOOHOO! ...now all i need is a free day...or two...or six...to put 'em all away...

(time for a slightly tangential rant: how is it still possible that 99% of the photo albums being sold in the year 2007 are still full of the kind of plastic pages that not only AREN'T photo/postcard safe, they can be actively *hurting* your precious pics??! oh yeah, and recently in borders i saw they have a whole section of very fancy (very expensive) albums being touted as "memory books" which have those diabolical magnetic pages!!!!!) (ok, i'm better now.)

last--but certainly not least--tracy has been making her own postcards and sending one per day to her son who's off at college. how cool is that?!

...if it's made out of paper, i probably want it...

a little random postcard love for ya today. this is my favorite of the vintage cards i bought in california. at the moment, it's probably my favorite postcard, period. wellllll...except for the texas ones from besh...oh yeah and that edward gorey one...and the amazing irish guiness ones (especially the toucan!) that deborah sent...

...ok, let's start over...

here is a scan of my absolute favorite, hand-tinted, pristine, vintage, bathing-beauty-bedecked, california postcard:

nice, innit?!

you collect WHAT???!!

funeral home fans.

("did she say, 'funeral home fans'?...i think so, yeah...let's back slowly out of this blog before she notices us!")

that may not be their official name, but i don't know what else to call them. they are hand-held, heavy cardboard fans that usually have artwork on one side and advertising info on the other. mostly, the advertising is for a funeral home, which is where i guess a lot of them were given away. i think the ones i have are mostly from the 40's and 50's. which makes sense: in the years before air-conditioning, if you were going to be at, say, a viewing, for several hours, in your dress clothes (& probably a hat & gloves, in those days) you might well be slightly warm, after a bit. hence the fan. and wouldn't a lovely mountain scene, or a picture of jesus, be comforting to look at, in such sad circumstances??!

i found my first one at a garage sale a few years ago and just fell in love with it. heck, as we know, i like paper, generally, and vintage paper especially! i like old books, and those souvenir pamphlets you get at tourist attractions, and i really REALLY like postcards... (but that's a whole 'nother blog entry!)

anyway, having found one, of course i had to keep looking, and thus a mini-obsession was born. i can go for months without really thinking about them, but if i find myself at a flea market or antique shop--especially one stocking vintage postcards & paper ephemera--i will ask hesitantly, "you don't have any...funeral home fans...do you?" sometimes i get a look from the proprietor. often i get one from my companion. in south pasadena, with my friend barb, i just got a smile. which i didn't think too much about, since barb's a happy kind of gal. a couple of days later, on my birthday, the smile made sense, right after i opened...

...THESE!

well, as you can imagine, i was stunned! i mean, a friend who takes you to see pre-raphaelite paintings and bakes you a cake on your birthday...by jingo, that's a good friend! one who does all that, and remembers that you collect funeral home fans...and finds some for you??! (and somehow--heroically--manages NOT TO REVEAL that fact when you are in an antique store together several days beforehand & they are mentioned...??!!)

wow.

i don't know what i've ever done in life to merit such a friend, but boy am i grateful!!!

thanks, barb!!!