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VINTAGE EYEWEAR
Well, you can go get glasses at the local Lenscrafters, OR you can hunt down some spectacular vintage hand cut frames at your local antique shop and have them fitted with your prescription lenses. Or maybe---do both. I have some very normal, "don'-t-cause trouble" frames, and some "in-your-face" frames I like to wear when I am feeling "con cohones" and have had a drink or two. Better to buy "new old stock", if you are going to invest much in the lenses. It is not good to throw money into old frames in bad shape that will fall off your head or lose an arm and need that proverbial piece of masking tape to keep them together. Unless that is the look you crave--the look of half the boys in my nerdy seventh grade class circa 1965. If so, I have an old briefcase and a pocket pen holder I would like to sell you. I'll throw in the slide rule.
Lawn art and ashtrays
Back when guys stayed home more, listened to the radio and do other things at the same time, they probably labored over homemade lawn art, standing ashtray holders, and door stops. Usually they were made out of plywood, then painted. Look for slightly crackled paint. Many of the best of these were old comic strip characters like Jiggs and Maggie, or the ocasional Disney character. Black cats are plentiful. Also Butlers. You do not have to smoke to appreciate them.
old silhouettes
Many of these come from the 20's and 30's. You can often guess the age of the piece by the dress of the person whose portrait it is. Hung together on a wall, they have a wonderful impact.
Old cookbooks by local groups: i.e. Grange cookbooks, church cookbooks, college cookbooks, etc.
Tacky Souvenirs from old site seeing locales

If I Build It, Will He Come? It's That Time of Year Again!

Every year I build a tree for the holiday season using birch branches. I cannot really remember when I started doing this, except I was looking for something to evoke a feeling of a winter setting-almost as though it had been flash frozen annd then decorated somewhere in the wild. And so, my tree building began.

At some point, howvere, it became clear I had to expedite the process, because the tree was always on the verge of falling apart and coming crashing down on everyone. It was that precarious and, well, building a tree out of branches is just not as stable as using a grown tree to begin with. Here is an early tree built entirely out of, well, almost air. We used to have to wire it to the wall to keep it sturdy.

Here is a blog post from 2009. This was the year that I started by using a display tree I purchased on sale in ABC Carpet and Home in NY, in January when it was marked waaaay down. I also had to create a holder as a base. You can see how it all began in the post.

And then, last year, I actually built addtional branches on to the tree. So here are shots from this year's tree. BTW, it is one of many entered into the Country Living Christmass Tree contest on Pinterest. Please go over and have a look aat all the gorgeous trees decorated by people from all over. One is more beautiful than the next. Mine is pretty funky by comparison, but it works in our house, which is totally funky anyway!

Happiest of Holidays to everyone! Be happy, healthy, and creative in the coming year!

Birds on the branches!

An old hand made ornament from my textile artist days.

And another.

And another. All of these are from the late 70s. That was BEFORE kids and before I was an author and illustrator. I had a lot more time on my hands then!

BTW, you can see a lot of my Amy Flynn Fobots on the mantle! Check out more of her wonderful work here and I blogged about her work at my Glamorous Glasses blog, too.