blog #358 >> Wish List

All day I've been fighting the temptation to drag the Christmas decorations out of the basement. For some reason, the Christmas spirit came to me early this year. Perhaps it was the tree top angel I found that was the exact replica of my grandma's. Or maybe it's all the Christmas shopping I've been up to. Whatever it is, even I realize it's taboo to get into "Christmas Mode" before Thanksgiving. But I just can't help it! Today I compromised by digging out my Firestone Christmas albums, and starting my Christmas cards. And like a little kid looking through the Sear's Toy Catalog, I even made a Christmas wish list.

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Light-Up Knitting Needles #8 – $12.99
Fabric Depot, Jo-Ann's or Michael's
Let's say you're knitting a sweater at night, and the power goes out. What do you do? Now with light-up knitting needles, you can keep on knitting! There's no need for bulky overhead lights. You've got the power of the sun at your very finger tips! Plus, they'd make a really great wand for a Halloween costume. Also, I realized that I own three pair of #9 knitting needles, and I only have one #8. If I had two on the other hand, I'd be set, since they work best in pairs.

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Aluminum Water Bottle – $13.93
Target
There are not a lot of times I need a water bottle. But I'm tired of having to make a special trip up to the store to buy plastic water bottles for those few times I need one. And I'm also tired of tying up glass mason jars in tea towels and taking them with me on my bike. I really need something I can fill up and take with me on day hikes in summer or on short bike rides. Plus, I think once I had one, I'd find even more uses for it.

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Rubber Mud Boots – $29.00
Walmart
I've needed a pair of these for a very long time. They would be especially handy for tromping around down by the river.

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Ed Emberley's Make a World Calendar – $24.00
Felt Cafe Japan
Ed Emberley! My hero of illustration. I spent so many hours looking though this book as a kid. And now it's a calendar too! What will they think of next?

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Pie Bird – $2.99
Chef Central
I've read that cooking these pretty little birds into your pies are suppose to vent the steam out, so your pies don't overflow. This is appealing since the bottom of my oven is coated with burnt sticky pie juice, that stinks up the house whenever I use my oven. And even if it doesn't work, it's still cute. Just like "Sing a Song of Sixpence."

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Silicon Bake Sheet – $10
Target
Another kitchen item that my oven will thank you for. I use a LOT of parchment while cooking, and parchment is expensive. Not only would one of these save me money, but it would also be very beneficial for all kinds of cookies.

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Tea Time Earrings – $8.00
Etsy – Dirt Road South
I have to confess, I'm very envious of Trina's teacup earrings, but I think I like these even better! And they'd be perfect for tea parties in general.

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Vintage Dress with Cream Jacket – $35.00
Etsy – Woolly Mammoth Designs
Alright, I admit that this dress needs to be ironed, but besides that it's perfect! And it's just my size.

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50s Atomic Print Dress – $14.00
Etsy – Sunday In Savannah
Another lovely little dress, I kinda went crazy on vintage Etsy last night... and I broke down and bought this one this morning. It was such a good deal, it can be my Christmas dress.

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Vintage Almond Tea Bow Tie Dress – $36.00
Etsy – Carton Company
I discovered a new favorite Etsy store tonight Carton Company. I found several different things all from this same store without even realizing it until later. I love most everything else they have up too.

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Vintage Foggy Grey Secretary Dress – $28.00
Etsy – Carton Company
This will be for my future career as a librarian.

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Vintage Charcoal Crocheted Cloche – $18.00
Etsy – Carton Company
Amy! If you make me this hat for Christmas, I will embroider all future doll faces for FREE!

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Vintage 1950's Woven Dressing Gown – $12.00
Etsy – Fuzzy Lizzie
It's way better than a Snuggie, it's a dressing gown. Now I can be warm at night AND stylish! Samantha Stevens would be proud.

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Vintage Swim Cap – $25.00
Etsy – Beach By Gones
Now that I've finished altering my grandma's bathing suit, what I really need is a swim cap. It is true that I do my level best to avoid swimming at all costs, since I pretty much sink like a rock. But for those few times it's unavoidable, I can keep my hair from getting all chlorine-y. And I'm sure the guy who has the clean out the pool filter would thank me for it. I could also be certain of whether or not I looked ridiculous in it. Plus, it would divert everyone's attention away from me in my bathing suit, to my head.

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Sheer Black Vintage Dress – $25.00
Etsy – Woolly Mammoth Designs
Lovely little black dress, which is in definite need of a slip. Luckily, I've got lots.

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Earthy Vintage Button Down Dress – $23.00
Etsy – Vintage Candy Land
This dress would go beautifully with this hat...

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Fuzzy Vintage Hat – $22.00
Etsy – Behind the Picket Fence
I'm still not sure about it being fuzzy. Is that a good thing? I like fuzzy hats, but I'm not so sure about wearing them. My hair is so fuzzy as is. Do I really need something fuzzy on top of that? I'm also unsure about buying hats online. What if it doesn't fit or looks ridiculous when I wear it? Well, nothing ventured nothing gained I suppose.

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Vintage Button Style Flower Earrings – $7.00
Etsy – Mrs. P's Brain
These would be perfect, if only they weren't clip-on's. Whenever I try to wear clip-on earrings, I last about an hour. My ears hurt so bad I think the earrings are going to clip them off. I suppose I just need to think about how much my shoes are pinching my feet instead. I wonder if I could convert these into regular earrings somehow...

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Blue Wool Hat – $10.00
Etsy – Carolina Roses
Last hat. I LOVE this hat. If could be sure of it's fitting, I'd order it in a heartbeat.

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And of course, what would Christmas be without Jell-O!

Large Sunburst Jello Mold – $11.00
Etsy – Copper Clad Treasures
This is actually an outrageous price for a Jell-O mold. It's my rule never to pay more than $2 for one. But it is a cool design, and I bet you can find one like it at Goodwill for a lot less any day of the week.

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Vintage Retro 5 piece Jello Mold Set with Hangers – $8.00
Etsy – Our Attic
A very cool set of fruit shaped Jell-O molds. I would love to see a whole fruit basket filled with these... mmmm... Jell-O!

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1931 Greater Jell-O Recipe Booklet – $3.00
Etsy – Seasons of Me
Since I can never have too many Jell-O recipes, I think this dainty little cookbook would be the perfect source for some new recipes to experiment with.

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Truth be told. I can never have enough socks. I have a whole drawer full of just socks. And if my socks get worn out with holes. I can't throw them away, I just keep on darning them, until they fall apart at the seams. And finally, they get turned into sock puppets. I love socks. Especially these socks.

Sockdreams

Liza Polka Dot Knee Socks – $16.00




Doris Crochet Trouser Sock – $9.00


Sock It To Me Birds on a Wire – $7.00

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Firestone Christmas Volume 1 – $1.99
Goodwill
I just realized that I'm missing Firestone Vol. 1! I have all the rest, with Vol. 1 my collection will be complete!

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Decemberists – Hazards of Love – $14.70
Oh yeah, and I'd like this one too.

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My Book House Vol. 1 - In the Nursery – $?


It's the only one I don't have now, and it's been truly impossible to find. Once I found one at Attic Journals that they had gutted and turned into a journal. I about cried. I just whispered to myself, "They really need to check the prices of these online BEFORE they rip them up!" I suppose I feel the same way about "book art pieces" as a vegetarian would about taxidermy. What's the point of it if it has no life? They just sort of become a hallow shell.
Books deserve a better ending.

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And if you are a millionaire and you don't know what to get me, I would suggest this:
The Encyclopaedia Britannica Eleventh Edition ...and I'm not even going to type how much that one costs online. It's considered the finest edition of the Encyclopaedia, and it was the first American edition. Its articles were written by some of the best-known scholars of its time. And even though you can find nearly everything on Wikipedia now, I think there's something comforting in knowing where your information is coming from. Real encyclopedias just seem more reliable, solid and stable. But until I can discover a secret copy for really cheap, I can always read it online with Google books.



Alright, I apparently came up with more things than I thought I would. And now I'm feeling a bit selfish. Time to go Christmas shopping again! What does everyone else want for Christmas?
Cheers!
T

blog #357 >> I must learn French

Actually, there are a lot of languages I'd like to learn.
Image from Agence Eureka.
T

blog #356 >> Brought to you by the letter "T"

T

blog #355 >> New Bedroom Set

Today I learned that it's really hard to take a picture of a gigantic mirror, in a small room.

blog #354 >> Stuff

A random collection of stuff:



Design* Sponge: Croqueted Hanging Baskets, see instructions here



Black Apple: Strange (but very cute) Furry Baby (a.k.a. Stump Baby)


Black Mirror Designs: Bustled Skirt with Ruffles




Agence Eureka: Cornebuse et Cie


Creative Neesh: Robot Alphabet




The Big Picture: Martian Landscapes, see also google.com/mars


Super Punch: Imperial Guard Snuggie

Enjoy!
T

blog #353 >> Book of the Week: The Last Lion by William Manchester

I know my "Book of the Week" hasn't exactly been weekly, but here it is.

"The Last Lion," by William Manchester, is arguably the most fascinating book I've ever read, and unarguably (after vol. 2-3) the longest. On first picking up this book from the library, I was shocked by its enormous size. Naturally, I was daunted by its extreme width, especially after I realized that it was only the first volume of a three volume set.* Across its cover, it bares the words "Bedazzling" and "Superb." Those are pretty strong words for a biography of Winston Churchill nearly a thousand pages long. Perhaps I am a bit biased, but I would expect most books of this nature to be very dull. It also seemed strange at the time, that those would be the two words chosen to sum up the entire book. What would posses me to read a book seemingly so long and boring? It was simply the fact that it was written by William Manchester. Had it been written by anyone else, I wouldn't have touched it.

The first book I read by him was "A World Lit Only By Fire," a portrait of an age about "The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance." It was unlike any history book I had ever read. The book was astounding. It was as if the writer were taking you by the hand and saying, "Let's take a trip around Medieval Europe." You got the impression after reading it that he had actually visited those places and seen those things. He decided to write the book after writing a introduction for a friend who had written a book on Magellan. Once he started researching the topic he found it so fascinating that his introduction was nearly a book on its own, at which point he decided to write a book on Medieval times himself. As an author, he has a love of research and history, which is contagious in his writing. He writes with a sincerity that is unencumbered by prejudice, or political agenda. When he writes about history, he writes the facts in exquisite detail and lets the story unfold and tell itself. It now baffles me how our history books in school could have possibly been that boring when they had such interesting topics.

Author William Manchester, pictured here in about 1979, worked from an office on the north side of Olin Library. The office disappeared with the library addition. (Photo by William Van Saun/Wesleyan University via Associated Press)


While reading "A World Lit Only By Fire" he would reference the research he did for his biography on Winston Churchill, which was where I first heard of it. One day, at last I placed my name on the library hold list. After picking it up, and gathering the courage to start it, I realized it was not a disappointment. It had all the qualities of "A World Lit Only By Fire" only it was much (MUCH) longer and surprisingly better. And after reading it I can't imagine it being any shorter. During "A World Lit Only By Fire" I always felt like he was rushing through his subjects, as if he were running late for a train. It was as if the pages couldn't contain all the words and topics he wanted to cover, so he crammed them together. But in "The Last Lion" he was really able to give the subject the depth it deserved and write everything out in complete detail. He writes as if he was Mr. Winston Churchill's best friend and he can't wait to tell you all about him. And now that I've finished the book, I too feel like I've known Mr. Winston Churchill my whole life. He seems to be the most interesting character I've ever heard of, witty, tenacious, and perhaps a bit of a trouble maker. After having read it, I can see that "Bedazzling" and "Superb" are two very suitable words to sum it up. And even if you don't think you want to read the whole thing, at least pick it up and read parts. As Winston Churchill would say, "If you cannot read all your books, at any rate handle, or as it were, fondle them — peer into them, let them fall open where they will, read from the first sentence that arrests the eye, set them back on the shelves with your own hands, arrange them on your own plan so that you at least know where they are. Let them be your friends; let them at any rate be your acquaintances."

* I didn't actually realize there was a third volume until vol. 1 & 2 came in the mail. I had renewed my library version so many times I was feeling rather guilty about it. In reality the book probably hasn't left the biography room at the central library in years, but you never know. Plus they were dirt cheap on Amazon; it's a much better deal to buy them, than to pay for late fees. Well, after they came I was reading bits and pieces of volume two and realized it ended when Winston Churchill became Prime Minister at the onslaught of World War II, which obviously isn't the end of the story. This made me wonder... Is there there a third volume? After a great deal of poking about online I got the answer. Unfortunately, William Manchester had suffered a stroke while writing the third volume and announced that he would be unable to finish his work. However the third volume is expected to be printed posthumously, next year with the help of Paul Reid. I wonder if I can get on the waiting list now?

T