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Do you like paper dolls? I loved them as a kid, as well as any kind of cut-out craft like “build your own town/diorama” books like that. My daughters seem to have inherited that gene (the gene for wanting to cut and assemble stuff). I recently found this odd vintage set on Ebay:

OK, so it’s a set based on the 1968 movie version of “Finian’s Rainbow”, which starred Fred Astaire as Finian and Petula Clark as Sharon. It also starred one of my movie favorites, Tommy Steele as Og, the leprechaun. Yes, there’s a leprechaun in it. Needless to say, this is one weird movie. It’s got a very fun musical score, and a very bizarre story line. But in 1968, you could get paper dolls based on it! And wow, only 29¢. What a deal!

I wouldn’t cut such a lovely thing up, but I WOULD scan it and print it onto card stock so my girl could cut it up!

I particularly like how the characters each have outfits from the movie, and also extra outfits that are just stylin’ sixties garb- vests and scarves, oh yeah!

I miss the times when paper dolls were seen as legitimate entertainment. Well, they still are around here.

I found this fab Bjørn Wiinblad tile at Savers the other day:

He was a Danish artist who cranked out a great amount of decorative ceramics and art. What’s not to love?? He had such a charming style, very distinct. His ceramics are sometimes printed with his line work and sometimes rendered in 3-D:

He also illustrated posters and prints like these:

He lived a good, long life, apparently- born in 1918, he only died in 2006 after creating decades of design. What do you think about his art?

Well, what do you know? It turned into another year! As I was poking around looking at vintage images, I found a bunch of New Year pig images:

Pigs. For New Year. Hmmm.

It appears to have been an all-Europe phenomenon, imported to the US.

I am surprised I never noticed this ‘gluckschwein’ (lucky pig) imagery in conjunction with the New Year before.

By luck, I happen to have a pig book coming out early in this New Year- in a mere 17 days! This is what my little pig guy looks like.

With maybe just a little more luck, it will be discovered and enjoyed by actual kids.
Happy New Year everyone! Oink!

I am adding this new category to my blog merely to have an excuse to post things that I find and love.

I LOVE these.

They are pages from a French ladies magazine, circa 1957, hawking L’Alsacienne Biscuits. The artist is Hervé Morvan.

Seriously, what’s not to love??

As I said, I picked up a few things at the Brimfield show last week, because you can’t go there and NOT find anything, that would be impossible.
For me, anyhow!
Old stuff is aesthetically more interesting than most new stuff.
Again, for me, anyhow!

Some of the things I am a sucker for are vintage children’s books:

This coloring book is from 1934, and was never used. Why is that a little sad?

These are from 1950- I especially love the alphabet one!

These are teeny- about 3″ each. Wee stuff is always extra cute!

A little salute to Belgium and Holland:

That’s a wine label, I think…plus some sweet wooden shoes.

I always manage to find at least a few “new” old fabrics…

New-old stock Easter candy box= LOVE!

Another mysterious love- old, unused stickers, preferably the gummed paper kind, and especially if they’re in their original package!

Also an unused decal from one of our favorite meccas…Santa’s Village in NH!

And a little something more medieval, too:

Rampant unicorns! Huzzah!

That’s most of what I picked up. I guess I am generally an ephemera lover!

… can you smell it? Fall, Autumn, the wind whistling, a few leaves blowing by…and miles of antiques!

September is when one of the three yearly Brimfield shows occurs, and I snuck away for the day with my mom to partake in the hunt. It turns out that I collect pictures just as much as real stuff (no, more), so herewith are some photos of things I thought were cool, and some of the stuff I got while there. Really, I think the fun is just in the poking around, looking through decades past.

‘Twas a brisk fall day, cloudy for the most part, but with sun poking through occasionally.

Every season is Christmas at Brimfield:

These are some mighty fine paper candy containers:

Here’s something you don’t see anymore, not even in Scotland!

I love the naive painting on this set o’ dwarves…

Here’s a good way to get ahead!

Cute horse ride-on…

This set of cut-out house from the turn-of-the-century was SO beautiful:

I wish they still gave out Green Stamps!

Nifty Halloween stuff:

That’s a lotta bling in one place!

Yes! I finally managed to get up to Brimfield for the fall show. If you’re not from these parts, it’s a simply gigantic antique show that sets up 3 times a year. Sprawling. Hundreds and hundreds of dealers. If you’re into vintage, retro, etc. you WILL find something interesting here. I did not come home empty-handed!

I saw this cute guy on patrol in his owner’s booth at the beginning of the day. Sure enough, he was still there when we headed to our car at the end of the day!

First thing I found was this wooden/paper litho target game. LOVE it. Vintage games from this era are a big favorite of mine.

More litho- but this time on tin. What a great little snippet of the 50’s- the turkey in the oven, the Dutch girl on the shelf, the gingham curtains! June Cleaver should be showing up any time now.

I have a big collection of wooden shoes from the WWII era…souvenirs brought home by soldiers after the war. Even though they vary a lot in decoration, I don’t usually find any that are vastly different from ones I already have. But I found a pair at Brimfield:

Here are a few fabrics destined to be made into Recycle Rabbit stuff. Well, at least the 70’s prints will be. I was originally going to hack up the German tablecloth and use it for parts, too- but it’s TOO COOL as is. Guess I’ll use it as a tablecloth!

“I like you America”…haha! Must be from the Bicentennial!

This gingerbread guy is an exact duplicate of one I had as a wee child in the 70’s. He had a tragic “accident” when my friend and I tried to give him a bath in some collected rainwater outside. I remember my mom hanging him on the clothesline to dry, but then he “disappeared”. Well, HE’S BAAAACK!

(with the original tag, no less!)

One more: this painted tray is just the perfect shade of red, and has just the right sense of joie de vivre.

Inspiring? I think so. Mind-numbing quantities of things to look at? Totally.
The next Brimfield show is in the spring!

I’m loving the line quality and colors found on these cute little tray/dishes from Norway.
They are marked “Stavangerflint” on the back.
Graphic happiness!