... Merry Christmas - sort of ...

After taking at least 20 pictures of our cat near or under the tree, it turns out that this is the one I like the best - not sure if it's funny or pathetic ... for now, it's all I've got. Will try again tomorrow.

HOLY!!

Remember my friend Barbara of Ephemera that I wrote about here and here? Well, last week she sent me these pictures of her van with the email heading of HOLY!! Just look at the haul of textiles that she picked up last week! Before she offers the quilts, chenilles and bark cloth pieces out for sale she washes and repairs each one - that is a LOT of heavy work; those babies get heavy when they're wet. Plus some need ironing and they all need folding. I sure hope she never challenges me to an arm-wrestling match.

A walk in the park

I love going for walks at this time of year when the leaves are golden and they snap and crackle when you walk through them.

"The woods are full of Fairies;

The Sea is full of fish;

The trees are full of golden leaves;

Let's make an Autumn wish."

~ Anon

Milk Bottle Nostalgia

Our local health food store has started to carry milk and cream in glass bottles. We drink too much milk to be able to always buy our milk this way but it sure feels old-fashioned and homey to use these glass bottles. The cream is delicious with no preservatives of any kind. Sometimes I pour milk from our cardboard container into this milk bottle just so I can get to pour milk from it.

A visit with family & how to 'Follow your Bliss'

Yesterday was family day. My daughter and I picked up my brother across town and headed to my sister's. She lives about an hour's drive from Toronto. Upon our arrival, we got to visit with a couple of my neices and their husbands and young children. We had so much fun with the young ones. The two year old was most exuberant about everything. He is just learning to talk but there was never a question about what he wanted or didn't want; what made him happy or what displeased him.

When my sister made it known that she would start setting supper on the table, he became most excited and repeatedly shouted 'SUPPER!' to everybody in the room. He tried everything on the dinner table and didn't hesitate to grab seconds of things that he liked or to spit out anything that he didn't find agreeable. Upon hearing that there would be a couple of choices for dessert and that one of them was cake, he joyfully made sure everyone in the room got the message. Delighted cries of "CAKE! CAKE! CAKE!" were heard by all. There was no doubt that this news filled him with joy from the tips of his toes to the top of his head.

He was such a delight to behold and a perfect example of someone who is still unabashedly 'following his bliss'. Although I bet if you ask his mother, she would say that he was a handful and that he totally wore her out. And that's understandable; I loved his company for 3 hours but it takes a lot of stamina to be around a whirling ball of energy like this 24/7.

More Guy Things - Vintage Radios and Dinky Toys

Yes, the one on the top left is a faux vintage clock. It's one of those modern ones with the built-in tape players. We had a couple of the dark brown bakelite radios but they didn't show as well in the cupboard so they're gone.



These are all army dinkies, most of which my husband had as a child. He bought a few more recently to fill in the gaps in his collection of these army ones.

I'm not the only collector in our house

Just in case you thought I was the only one with the 'collecting gene' in our household, let me enlighten you. We all love 'stuff'. Sometimes we love the same stuff and sometimes we don't, but we each seem to have the knack for accumulating, amassing, hoarding and finding things that make our hearts sing but which also fill up every possible nook in our home. Today, I'm showing you one of my husband's collections. For today, here are the robots - they do look cute, don't they, all lined up as though on guard, maybe on guard in case real space creatures show up. Stay tuned for some more vintage 'guy' stuff - vintage radios and army Dinky toys.
This group reminds me of our family unit - two adults and two children.
This guy is sitting down on the job.