February!

It's February already? January just flew by. I've been trying to get things organized at home so I can have a more efficient work space. In the mean time here are some Valentines from the early 1970s for your viewing pleasure.

Holiday Decorations

It's Christmas Eve. The holiday baking is done and the presents are wrapped. We never got a tree so we don't really have much in the way of decorations. We hung a few ornaments on the chandelier that we acquired between last Christmas and this Christmas:

• The Barbie ornament was found at a garage sale.
• The Mach 5 and View Master ornament set are from the 2008 Hallmark collection so they were on sale.
• The two small retro ornaments were in a gift basket that Dan won at a school raffle.
• The Chimpanzee was purchased at a store in Escondido that was next to the motel we stayed at.

The items in the other photos were found at a garage sale by Dan's sister. They are called Snow Stick. You are supposed to wet them with a sponge and stick them to your windows. I decided not to try these on our windows. There are two different sets. One religious and one assorted Christmas designs. The Holy Family had been used so were not there but there were shepherds, angels, and the Magi. The other set had bells, holly, a candy cane, and the scary jack-in-the-box. Maybe I will try them next year.

Nutrcracker Suite

Here is one of the 45 rpm classical music boxed sets that my dad gave to me. The sets are from the 50s and vary in the number of records in them. My example, The Nutcracker Suite, has three made of clear red vinyl. The Beethoven's Ninth Symphony set had eight records while the Mikado is a two volume set with a total of eleven records.

The artwork on the box sets vary as well. Some like the Nutcracker set have very creative illustrations. Others are rather bland with just the name of the composer, the piece, orchestra, conductor, and some of the performers. The sets also came with inserts that have a some information on the composer and piece being performed.

My Dad collected these record sets when he was in the service. He liked them because they are compact and he moved around a lot. He also has a 45 rpm record players with the auto changer that I will probably take as well even though it needs some work. These records are fun to listen to but it's a bother to keep changing the records with the player I have now.

December Again

Well it's December again and I'm not ready. I've been trying to organize things and making a bigger mess. We haven't got a tree or started to decorate yet.

Actually, I just put up a festive fireplace screen I got from my parents. My parents are going to be moving soon. They are moving from a four bedroom house to a two bedroom apartment. My sisters and I have been helping them go through the things they have accumulated through the years. That means I've been adding to my accumulation of stuff. So far I've taken the rocking chair they got the year I was born, my mom's cookbooks and cookie cutters, my dad's collection of 45s in boxed sets, lots of books, and some of my old artwork from school. I also got some art supplies, dad's artwork, and an unfinished painting of his that he thinks I should finish (oh! the pressure!)

I've posted a photo of a lovely pin I got from my parents back in 1975 for our first Christmas in that house. The pin is two inches tall by 1 and 1/4 of an inch wide.

DesignerCon and the Pasadena Museum of California Art

Dan and I took a little time off and went to Pasadena on Saturday. The first stop was DesignerCon at the Pasadena Convention Center. DesignerCon (aka DCon) started out as the Vinyl Toy Network Show. The name was changed to cover all aspects of design including plush/fabric design, apparel, print media along with vinyl.


The show was much larger than the show in May of 2008 so there were more vendor and artist booths to see. We purchased a Domo Kun figure, Some Spider Booms as well as a couple of Do-It -Yourself Quees that I will eventually customize. We also purchased a set of small prints from Hyperactive Monkey and an original water color painting of Mr. Toast from Dan Godsell.

Here I am picking out some Spider Boom blind boxes.


Our last stop was the Custom Yoka Show, an exhibit of customized Yoka figurues. It was hard to see all of the designs as it was crowded and everyone was trying to take photos of the figures. Dan managed to take some photos before we left to get some lunch. Here are photos of one of my favorites that was painted to look like Edvard Munch's The Scream and Dan's favorite of the Pancake Yoka.

After Lunch we went to the Pasadena Museum of California Art to see the Wayne Thiebaud: 70 Years of Painting exhibit. Thiebaud is one of my favorite artists so it was great to see so many of his paintings in person. Many of the paintings are quite large so I spent a a good while just looking and getting drawn into them. Naturally I bought the book of the exhibit!

There was also an exhibit of color block prints by Frances Gearhart which was excellent. It featured illustrations from a children's book, Let's Play, as well as many wonderful landscapes. The bookstore didn't have a book for the exhibit yet but will have one soon. I'll have to pick one up the next time we visit.

Happy Halloween!

Here is an old photo of my sisters and I. We had just moved from an apartment in San Francisco to a brand new house in a new neighborhood in San Jose. This was our first time Trick or Treating.

I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween. Don't eat too much candy and don't forget to visit my Flickr pages for pictures of the 2009 Fall harvest festival.

Sugoi Life

Sugoi Life is a store in the Northridge Mall that Dan and I visit. According to the Sugoi Life website Sugoi means fantastic. Sugoi Life has the largest selection of Re-Ment products that I have seen as well as a large selection of vinyl toys and Anime related items. They also carry t-shirts, bags, stationery items, house wares, and snacks. The store has some odd photo booths in the front but I decided to have my picture with Domo Kun instead.


Here is a picture of my current Re-Ment display that I took before I change it. These are from the Fairy Tale Tableware series which has a lot of very creative sets. There is also one Mega House set in there as well (can you guess which one it is?) There are more pictures of this on my Flickr photostream.