Acornucopia Project

2011 Fall Harvest Festival

2011-10-31T11:26:00.000-07:00

Dan and I visited Underwood Family Farms in Moorpark for the Fall Harvest Festival. The weather was very nice this year. This year they had a pumpkin house. The pumpkins were placed on shelves in the frame of the house. We went by it again later and some one had removed some of the pumpkins in the middle of the walls to make windows.

It didn't seem like there were many animals out this time. Perhaps the weather was too warm for some of them, like the Scottish cattle. The goats were out though, catching some rays.

There were more varieties sunflowers this year. They seemed bigger and more colorful than last year.

This scarecrow seems to be enjoying them.

Of course, there were lots of pumpkins to be seen. More photos of the Fall Festival can be seen on my Flickr page.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art

2011-10-27T15:02:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday Dan and I went to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to see the California Design, 1930 - 1965: "Living in a Modern Way" and Tim Burton exhibits.

Here I am in the Urban Light outdoor sculpture in front of the museum. Urban Light was created by Chris Burden using 202 restored cast iron antique street lights.

This is the entrance to the California Design, 1930 - 1965: "Living in a Modern Way" exhibit. There were examples of furniture, ceramics, fashion, textiles, and, graphic designs from the 1930s to 1965.

This is Concrete, Metal, and Stone Mosaic by Margaret Bruton.

This is Rib Chair by Arthur Espenet Carpenter. It looked like it would fit well in the Tim Burton exhibit.

The Tim Burton exhibit was extensive, covering his work from the early 1970s to the present. There were sketches, paintings, sculptures as well as videos, storyboards, costumes, and models from his films. I especially liked the black light room with eerie glowing images on the walls and a miniature carousel with freaky little creatures.

Photos were not allowed in the exhibit but here is the Tim Burton book and playing cards I got from the exhibit shop. Also pictured is the book for the California Design exhibit it and some reproductions of vintage Los Angeles post cards.

Here is a closer look at the Tim Burton playing cards. The illustrations are from The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories that appears to be a dark book of children's poems.

There are a few more photos of the California Design exhibit on my Flickr page.

A Taste of History

2011-10-23T16:11:00.001-07:00

Another art show Dan and I saw recently was A Taste of History: The Story of Citrus Labels at the Santa Paula Art Museum. The exhibit had citrus crates and labels as well as vintage citrus packing items.

Here is part of a packing station with the tissue paper that was used to wrap the citrus fruit. The barrel in the back was for the powder used to make the crate label paste.

Here is vintage citrus crate on rollers used in the citrus fruit packing process.

This vintage citrus crate has its original label attached.

Some of the vintage crate labels for the different type of citrus fruit.

Old conveyer belt from the citrus fruit packing process.

These photos were taken by Dan but you can see the ones I took on my Flickr page.

Year of the Rabbit

2011-10-16T11:39:00.000-07:00

It's already the middle of October and I haven't posted all year!

It's been a busy year with all kinds of things that had to be fixed. For the house it's been the roof, water heater, and furnace (so far). The vucanizer for my rubber stamp business broke so a new one had to be ordered. To top that off both Dan and I needed root canals done.

Fortunately, we were able to do a few fun things. We recently visited the Japanese American National Museum. The exhibit I particularly wanted to see was Year of the Rabbit: Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo. It was an excellent exhibit that showed original art work by Stan Sakai as well as the actual comic books, toys based on the characters, and works by other artists featuring Usagi Yojimbo.

The other exhibit was the ongoing exhibit Common Ground : The Heart of the Community. The exhibit covered Japanese American history from the early days of immigration to the present. There was a large collection of vintage documents, photographs, and objects including a section of one of barracks from an internment camp.

The last stop was the museum store. I got The Art of Usagi Yojimbo book that has a lot of the works from the exhibit. The Year of the Rabbit exhibit closes on October 30, 2011 and the store clerk informed me that Stan Sakai would be there on the 30th to sign books.

They don't allow taking photographs in the exhibits but this was set up where you could.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T16:49:00.000-08:00

Dan and I were so busy this Holiday season that we were not able to get away for a vacation. We did go to Monkey House Toys to check out the Mr. Toast art show. The store is in an older section of Los Angeles where there is not much parking available. There were some construction trucks right out front so it was a little tricky to get there. The store is very small but has an eclectic array of toys including lots of monkeys! I purchased a Mr. Toast book, some Mr. Toast pin back buttons, and a couple of the 2010 Dunnys.

Cool Yule

2010-12-24T16:38:00.001-08:00

December has been a very busy month. Our roof leaked during the rainstorms and the floor in one of the closets got soaked. Now everything that was in the closet is in the living room. It looks very festive next to the Christmas tree. We are finally done with the preparations for Christmas day and are trying to relax a little before the big day. We will probably watch Christmas Story and then try to get to sleep early as we have a lot of driving tomorrow.

The above photo is from two years ago and is of one of my favorite ornaments.

Have a Cool Yule!

The Holiday Season is Upon Us!

2010-12-09T16:04:00.000-08:00

It's that time of year. I put up the tree and a few decorations but still have many things that need to be done. What I want for Christmas is time!

The photo is from an antique store I passed in Morro Bay. Dan and I went there just after Thanksgiving for a quick vistit. There are more photos from our trip on my Flicker page.

Halloween Project Completed

2010-10-29T18:42:00.000-07:00

Here are my completed Pumpkin Head vinyl figures. It took me a while as I had not painted in years. It was hard getting the brush strokes just right so I did a lot of re-touching.

I've named them Patrick and Jill. Here they are in a pumkin patch. I made the backgroung out of construction paper decorated with crayon. The tiny "pumpkins" are putka pods (also called pumpkin pods.) I found them at the Fall Harvest Festival in Moorpark.

Have a safe and Happy Halloween and don't forget to visit my Flicker page for more photos of the pumpkin heads and the 2010 Fall Harvest Festival.

Project for Halloween

2010-09-28T18:35:00.000-07:00

September is almost over and it is time to start thinking about Halloween. I purchased a couple of Pumpkin Head vinyl toys by Rose Art. They are called Color Blanks and come with markers and stickers for customizing. You can also use acrylic paint which is what I plan to use.

While working on some designs for my pumpkin heads I was inspired by some old-time Halloween decorations. Here are some sketches I made based on some of those decorations.

I just need to pick some designs and start painting!

Ventura Harbor

2010-08-18T16:24:00.000-07:00

We recently visited the Ventura Harbor. Dan wanted to test his new Flip video camera. Unfortunately there were some issues with the batteries so he didn't get much footage. Still we had a good time walking around and looking at the sights.

We stopped at the The Robert J. Lagomarsino Visitor Center at Channel Islands National Park. There are exhibits on the Channel Islands wildlife as well as some raised relief models of the islands. They also have a small tide pool exhibit with various fish and sea creatures. Here are some anemones and a halibut.

Some of the sea creatures are faux, like the limpets and the sea urchins. I'm not sure about the mussels but the lobster is real.

There is also an observation tower at the visitor center. It's usually windy up there but the view is great.

We walked around looking at the various boats in the harbor. There were mostly sailboats with some fishing boats mixed in.

Here are some different types of boats that we saw.

We stopped by the Ventura Harbor Village Carousel. There are various arcade games, a candy counter, and of course the carousel. Here are some of the carousel animals.

Off to one side of the carousel is Ziggi the Clown. He looked so sad I had to go talk to him. I also put fifty cents in the machine. It was kind of loud in the arcade so I could barely hear what he said - something about picking out something special for me.

The egg that popped out contained Happy Bunny stickers. I'm not sure if I should be glad it was kind of cool or disturbed that it was a Happy Bunny product.

The arcade also had a penny smasher so I got some of those for my collection.

Comic Con

2010-07-23T20:12:00.000-07:00

Once again it's Comic Con International time and Dan and I couldn't be there.

These are the first day covers I made for the Marvel Comics Superhero stamps that came out in July of 2007 at a special event at the San Diego Comic Con. They made stamps for ten Marvel comic book heroes. I was only able to make four designs. They were created from sketches I made inspired from Champions character sheets and various comic advertisements. The sketches were imported into Adobe Photoshop were I added color.

Each hero had a "head shot" and comic book cover postage stamps. I had to make envelopes for Spider Man And the Hulk.

The Thing's comic book was the Fantastic Four so I included the whole team.

I included Walf with my favorite, The Thing. This is the fifth appearance of Walf on a first day cover.

The fourth appearance of Walf is on an envelope made by my friend Keith (along with envelopes for the other nine heroes!) Keith also chose to portray Walf with the Thing. His envelopes were all drawn by hand and colored with water colors. I received his envelopes before I had even sent mine out for the cancellations! Unfortunately the Post Office chose to use the plain cancellations on his envelopes.

Odd Toys From Europe

2010-07-14T20:00:00.000-07:00

These are some toys that were sent to us by Dan's sister who is currently teaching in England.

This is a set of Barbabapa characters from France. They are from a children's book by
Annette Tison and Talus Taylor. There is also a series of short children's cartoons that can be seen on YouTube . They are a family of shape-shifting creatures.

Here they are out of the box. The ones in this set are:

Barbapapa - The father of the group. He's the big pink one.
Barbamama - The mother of the group. She is the black female holding a baby bottle.
Barbotine - One of the daughters. She is the small orange female holding a turtle.
Barbalala - Another daughter. She is the small green female holding panpipes.
Barbidur - One ofthe sons. He is the red one who has shape-shifted into a little devil.

There is another set that has Barbapapa shape-shifting into a heart and his other four children.

This is a MiroStars 3 Player Pack. It is a blind box assortment of plastic soccer figures. This box also contains instruction sheet on how to make squads with the figures (they have player stats on the bottom of their bases) and three tiny bags of jelly beans.

The ones we got were:

Bridge from Manchester City
Brown from Manchester United
Eduardo from Arsenal (he is one of the 8 players who are only available in the three player packs.)

These guys look like they are from a Jib Jab greeting card.

Photo Studio In-A-Box

2010-07-11T16:00:00.000-07:00

Once again I've been a slacker and neglected my blog. I have been doing things -really! Dan and I took a quick trip to San Diego in early June. We bought new computers to replace our old ones (it was time to say goodbye to Windows XP.) We have been transferring the data from the old computers to the new ones while getting used to Windows 7. I've been working on the art room and recently got a "Photo Studio In-A-Box". It is a portable light box that folds into its own carrying case. It came with small tripod, two small lamps and a reversible background. Very useful for taking photos of small items for ebay.

In this photo, taken in my fabulous art room, I am preparing to take a photo of one of my collectible figures.

Here is my Ugly Doll Ice Bat Action Figure. They are bind boxed and come in 6 different glow in the dark colors. Mine is regular glow in the dark and is 3 inches tall. See how nice and even the lighting is!

This is something we found at Mitsuwa Marketplace in Torrance on our way to San Diego. I don't know Japanese but after poking around the Internet I found they are from a children's book called Dzukan Dwarfs. We decided to get two of them.

They come with a background card that has information about the character in Japanese. If you look closely there is another of these creatures in the window and some others between the refrigerator and the cabinets. This one is about 1 and 1/2 inches tall (including the stand.)

This one is flying high. I wish there was a translation for these, they are very mysterious.

Status Report

2010-05-06T19:31:00.000-07:00

Wow! I let two months slip by without a new post.

Earlier this year my sisters and I were helping our parents to move out of their house so it could be sold. They haven't been able to sell it so they have taken off the market and will rent it out until the prices get better. Before they rent it they were advised by people they know to make some changes to appeal to renters. They were told to take down all of the wallpaper, the wood paneling, and paint the walls in a neutral color.

Last weekend my sisters, significant others, and myself had a work party to do some of the tasks. I thought the removal of the wood paneling would be the hard part. However the guys were able to take it down with no problems. The wallpaper was another matter. It took all day to remove the wallpaper from the entry hallway, kitchen and dinning area. And that was with help from the guys when they had finished with the paneling. I hate wallpaper.

On Wednesday I went over to help my parents with some painting. They had already started with that and had painted one bedroom. I helped them finish another bedroom, painted the hallway and started on another bedroom. I didn't mind the painting since I got to use the long handled roller so I could paint up to the ceiling!

Dan and I have also been working on our place. We took all of the stuff that was in the work/art room and set up some shelves, the Expedit series, from Ikea. Dan did most of the assembly but I helped, too! We just need to bolt them to the walls and then I can put all of the stuff back in order.

Here are some pictures:

Looking through the doorway into the room.

This is the medium sized Expedit shelf unit with the desk attached.

The smaller Expedit shelf unit next to a desk acquired at a garage sale and chair donated by my parents.

The largest Expedit shelf unit next to the medium size. The large is about 6 feet tall.

An older bookcase that we already had.

File drawers that my Dad gave me. Don't have much that will fit under the low window.

February!

2010-02-01T20:16:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-24T20:28:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-11T19:43:00.001-08:00

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

2009-12-04T12:14:00.000-08:00

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 wonderful 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

2009-11-22T20:38:00.000-08:00

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 on 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!

2009-10-30T21:43:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-14T20:17:00.000-07:00

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.

Baseball Super Freaks

2009-09-04T20:17:00.000-07:00

Here are some trading stickers from my childhood that I thought were long gone. These are from the 1973 Baseball Super Freaks by Don Russ. There were 44 stickers in the series but I only have 40 of them. They bring back memories of summertime when we used to get these and Slurpees (in DC comic book heroes collector cups) from the local 7-Eleven store.

So, who do you think "Henry the Horrible" was based on?

Champions!

2009-08-30T20:46:00.000-07:00

A young relative of mine recently posted a picture of their Champions Online character on Facebook. The game has changed a lot since my friends and I played Champions back in the early 1980s. It’s probably easier to set up a character and keep track of all of its super powers and other attributes. The characters and backgrounds look pretty cool, too.

Dan and I found some of the old character sheets that we used back then. We would create our characters by looking up the various super hero powers, skills and disadvantages in the game book. The sheets were filled in with all of our character’s information and we hoped they’d never get lost as we seldom made copies. The sheets also had rudimentary figures sketches that we would customize with character’s costumes.

Here are some of the characters that were created by me and some of my friends that played back then.

“Pixie” was my character. She was an alien that could fly, but only when she was tiny. She also had bracelets that shot energy beams.

Rick was inspired by Greek mythology when he created “Polyphemus”. This was the big, strong guy.

Wheatie Man was by Brian and I have no idea what he was thinking about when he created this. It’s been years since I’ve seen Brian so I can’t ask him.

The last one was by Jennifer, another friend I lost track of. She didn’t write down her character’s name and I don’t remember what it was. He looked like a smaller version of the Thing and had martial art skills. I don’t recall her being into comic books so maybe she borrowed a few for ideas.

DC Comics Superhero First Day Covers Part 2

2009-07-26T11:05:00.000-07:00

Here are the other DC Comics Superhero First Day Covers I made. These four had special commemorative postmarks. The Batman postmark is the coolest and the Flash postmark is amusing but I really like the name of the post office that canceled the Superman envelope. The Wonder Woman envelope was a bit of a disappointment as they used the regular postal cancel over the commemorative postmark.

DC Comics Superhero First Day Covers

2009-07-24T20:40:00.000-07:00

Well it's Comic Con time again. Dan and I were not able to get down to San Diego so we went to see the Zap! Pow! Bam! The Superhero: The Golden Age of Comic Books, 1938 - 1950 at the Skirball Cultural Center. It has a very long name but was a fun and interesting show. Dan posted a review of the show on his blog and I posted some pictures on my Flickr page.

Here are some first day covers I made for the DC Comics Superhero stamps that came out in July of 2006 at a special event at the San Diego Comic Con. They made stamps for ten DC comic book heroes. I only made covers for seven of the heroes. I included Walf with my favorite, Plastic Man. This is the third appearance of Walf on a first day cover.

I will post the other heroes soon.

Distractions

2009-05-15T19:29:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of my desk. Some things have changed since this post from August.

The First photo shows the shelves on my desk. There isn't a separate photo for the very top as the photos I took didn't come out very well. Some of my dolls are displayed on the very top including my "Clueless" dolls from the T.V. show. There are also some of the McDonald's Madame Alexander dolls depicting characters from the Wizard of Oz to the right. You can see the Wizard and one of the Lullaby League dolls at a table and chair set from Re-ment. The Totoro is a paper toy that I downloaded from Cubeecraft.

The second photo shows part of my Re-ment collection - The "My Sweet Recipe" series and the "Donuts to Go" series. Also shown are some small vending machine toys.

The third photo shows toys mixed in with office supplies. Actually, a few of the toys are also office supplies. The cat is a marker pen, the alligator head is a staple puller, and the Felix tin contains paper clips, binder clips, and push pins.

The last photo shows an array of vinyl toys, wind-up toys, and small action figures.

Note: This post was edited because it had been brought to my attention that I hat not listed information about the first photo.

More Walf Illustrations

2009-04-24T19:00:00.000-07:00

Here are some other Illustrations of Walf that I did. The Walf story was done in 1992 but never made it to an actual comic book. It was based on a story that my roommate told me when I joked about getting a hamster ball for Walf. I'm sure he made the whole story up to dissuade me from getting one...

The Walf Tarot card was made for a mini comic series called Kardz, made and published by my friend Keith O'Brien back in the early 90s. The series was based on tarot cards with an anthropomorphic theme. Various animals were used in the different suits and many artists sent in their artwork. At the end of the series a special custom deck was made with selected cards and a limited number were printed for those who were interested. Walf didn't make it to the deck but another illustration of mine was chosen instead.

Walf Mini Comic

2009-04-24T18:43:00.000-07:00

This is a story Dan and I did back in 1989 about Walf, a hamster that belonged to a roommate of ours. The story was based on some facts but mostly embellished. It was for a mini comic called Acorn Comics which was self-published. Rick Schmitz also contributed a story and the back cover illustration. The comic was somewhat primitive looking and was published for fun.

Weekend Excursion

2009-03-23T15:37:00.000-07:00

Dan and I took a short trip to points south this past Saturday.

First stop was the Los Angeles Zoo. It was a rather cold and gloomy day so not to many of the animals were out where they could be seen. A number were enticed out by food placed around their exhibits, but others were hiding out by heat lamps or in their sleeping boxes.

Our next stop was Burbank for lunch. We had hoped to have lunch at the Bob's Big Boy (the oldest remaining Bob's Big Boy in America) but the place was packed and we could not find parking nearby. We spotted Papoo's Hot Dog Show across the street and decided to try that instead. Dan tried the Red Dog which was a hot dog covered in barbecue sauce and I tried the Kraut Dog. Both were good but we really liked the sweet potato fries we ordered on the side which were served with barbecue sauce and ranch dressing.

On the way home we stopped at the Somis Nut House for some of their delicious peanut butter and other goodies.

Be sure to check my Flickr photostream for more pictures.

Happy Birthday Barbie!

2009-03-09T09:00:00.001-07:00

Today is the 50th Anniversary of the Barbie doll. Barbie Doll debuted on March 9th, 1959 at the American International Toy fair in New York city. She has changed in appearance many times over the past 50 years but will always be my favorite doll.

I got my first Barbie doll in the spring of 1968. She was a second hand doll purchased at a church bazaar. Although the doll was an older model, with straight-legs and a ponytail hair style, she provided many years of fun. In the early 1970s I received a few newer dolls to add to my little family of Barbie dolls. Unfortunately, I no longer have my original dolls due to some strange whim in my late teens that led me to give them all away.

In the mid 1990s Mattel started creating vintage reproductions of the older Barbie dolls. I purchased a few of them as well as newer dolls to add to my collection so the fun continues!

The photo above is of my Solo in the Spotlight vintage reproduction doll. I altered the photo using Adobe Photoshop. There are a few more photos of some of my vintage reproduction dolls on Flicker.

Random Record Album Cover Project

2009-02-27T13:10:00.000-08:00

One of my friends tagged me for this random challenge on Facebook.

Here are the directions:

1 - Go to "wikipedia." Hit “random”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to "Random quotations"
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote on the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 - Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.

5 - Post it to FB with this text (starting with "Here are the directions") in the caption and TAG the friends you want to join in. You can remove your tag if you don't want to do it, or don't want to have this show up in your photos.

My "band", Bodza, is a village in Slovakia. The "title" is from a quote by Nora Ephron. The photo is "Pelicans on pilings of a Saint Petersburg pier". I used a photo from the Commons on Flickr because I felt uncomfortable using someone's personal photo.

Adobe Photoshop was used to create the finished image. I also included the following statement when I posted it on Facebook just to make sure:

To avoid violating copyright laws, I hereby state that the flickr image I used in this challenge was acquired from the State Archives of Florida photostream in the The Commons http://flickr.com/commons.

Happy Pancake Day!

2009-02-24T08:53:00.001-08:00

I hope everyone has a delicious Pancake Day!

This is a web banner I made for Dan to use on his school's web site. It was designed using Adobe Illustrator.

Happy Valentine's Day!

2009-02-14T10:32:00.001-08:00

Hope everyone has a good Valentine's day!

Check out my Flickr page for more Valentine's day pictures.

DC Comics Valentine Cards: Cat Woman and the Mystery Hero

2009-02-06T20:16:00.000-08:00

Here are some Valentine cards from 1982. Cat Woman was given to me by a friend just for fun. She gave cards out to others with the usual heroes but had the mystery hero left over. She gave that one to me and I have been trying to figure out who he is.

I don't know who he is, do you?

Update - My sister informed me that his name is El Dorado. She got the information from a friend who noted that El Dorado was from the Super Friends show and never in a comic book. Here is a link with more information about him.

Love Badge

2009-02-01T19:46:00.001-08:00

I designed this as a "Flair" design for Facebook. Flair is an application on Facebook where you can choose virtual buttons/badges to display on your profile or send to Facebook friends. You can also design Flair to get more points (to get more badges!) It's all just for fun.

I was in a groovy mood when I designed this. It reminds me of that Good & Fruity commercial from the early 70s. Now I can't get it out of my head.

Year of the Ox

2009-01-26T08:03:00.001-08:00

Wishing everyone a happy and prosperous Year of the Ox!

A better image of this can be seen on my Flickr account.

Where Do You Want To Eat?

2009-01-24T14:15:00.000-08:00

Here are some more postcards from our collection. The first one is for a chain of restaurants in Oregon although I'm not sure if any of them are still there. We never ate at any of them but I would have loved to see the wonderful Googie style one in the top left.

The second postcard is for the Marine Room Restaurant in La Jolla, CA. This might be a newer postcard as the back states:

High Tide - Spindrift Lounge 1949
Marine Room Restaurant

High tide indeed! If the waves were really that high I doubt the place would be open.

Update: I have been corrected about the waves on the Spindrift Lounge postcard. ChimayBleue saw my post on Flickr and gave me this information.

Old Post Cards

2009-01-13T19:30:00.000-08:00

Oh no! It's been a month since I posted anything and the Christmas lights are still up.

I've been working on a design for a new blog header but haven't been happy with any of my attempts. It will be done one of these days.

Here are some old postcards from my collection. The first card was purchased last summer from a coin shop in Granada Hills (next to a good Persian restaurant!) It was mailed to a Mrs. Benjamin of Los Angeles back in August of 1929. The second card was purchased with a lot of other postcards back in the 1980s. I'm not sure how old it is but the printing looks similar to the other card so it's probably from around the same time.

Festive Mr. Bali Hai and Monkey

2008-12-13T16:09:00.001-08:00

I uploaded some photos of our decorations on my Flicker account. Just click the photo to see them.

Christmas Tree 2008

2008-12-12T16:44:00.000-08:00

Here is our Christmas tree with the decorations. We also took a time exposure picture with the lights out to show the tree lights.

This Year's Tree Topper

2008-12-06T20:08:00.000-08:00

This tree spire will be topping our tree this year. We found it at an antique store in Carpenteria just after Christmas last year. It is similar to the spire my family had when I was a kid. I will post pictures after we have decorated our tree.

Twelve Days of Christmas First Day Cover

2008-12-05T15:30:00.000-08:00

Here is a FDC I got at a Stamp Show in Santa Barbara several years ago. This was an interesting stamp series from The United Kingdom issued in 1977. It has an insert with information on the 12 Days of Christmas, the artist who designed the stamps, and the artist who designed the FDC.

It's That Time of Year

2008-12-01T15:13:00.000-08:00

Time to get out the Christmas items and start decorating. Ours are still up in the rafters in the garage but here is a decoration my parents just gave me (they got it at a church craft sale). I'll post some pictures when we have the decorations up.

Flip-A-Nut

2008-11-29T15:02:00.000-08:00

Here is an amusing retro game we found several years ago. It was purchased at Toyland in Santa Claus Lane before they closed.

The object of the game is to flip all of the nuts into the basket in five tries. The best score I got was four out of five so that makes me a real Chipmunk!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-26T20:02:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!

Walf First Day Cover

2008-11-24T20:15:00.000-08:00

Here is a First Day Cover that was made by Keith O'Brien. Keith got me interested in FDCs and has generously sent me others that he made. He also designed a number of postal cancels that were used for special events in Arizona.

This was the second appearance of Walf on a First Day Cover.

Acorn Salt & Pepper Set

2008-11-20T17:05:00.001-08:00

This is a salt and pepper set we found in an antique store in Baywood Park (near San Luis Obispo.) The acorn shakers are about 2" tall and the leaf is 6.5" long. I don't know how old it is but I couldn't resist it because of the acorns.

There are a few other acorn and squirrel related items from my collection on Flicker.

The Wonderful Acorn Shirt

2008-11-12T20:27:00.000-08:00

Here is the wonderful shirt with the acorn logo I recently received from friends. Note the cool logo in the second picture. It is from the Oakhurst Dairy in Maine. They also sent this nifty hamster keychain.

Thanks again Keith and Carrie for the cool gifts!

Flea Market Find

2008-11-07T20:08:00.001-08:00

Vintage Squirrel Cookie Jar
Originally uploaded by deeneedee

Dan and I were in Carpenteria last weekend, walking along the main street looking at window displays in the antique stores. Some of them had elaborate seasonal displays. We didn't plan on buying anything but one of the stores was hosting a small flea market. We spotted this cute cookie jar just as the vendors were packing up. I couldn't resist since I collect squirrels and acorns, and the vendor offered us a price reduction! The cookie jar is about 10.5" tall (including the squirrel.)

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T08:00:00.001-07:00

I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween!

Halloween Fun

2008-10-30T20:55:00.001-07:00

We didn't put up many Halloween decorations this year so I took some pictures of my Halloween themed Re-ment items. I posted them on Flickr.

Build-O-Bama Paper Toy

2008-10-27T14:33:00.000-07:00

I made one and you can, too!

See the Build-O-Bama blog a for details.

Fall Harvest Festival

2008-10-20T18:53:00.001-07:00

This Saturday we went to the Underwood Family Farms Fall Harvest Festival in Moorpark. The festival is held on weekends from the end of September through the end of October. Pumpkins were available in a variety of sizes and colors in the pumpkin patches as well as beautiful sunflowers in an array of colors. They had a variety of animals, including goats, cattle and miniature horses. There were pony rides for the children as well as a horse drawn wagon and tractor pulled wagons. Of course, there were games, crafts, delicious food and produce.

You can see more photos on Flickr.

Christopher Columbus!

2008-10-13T08:05:00.001-07:00

We got this blind box toy from Little Tokyo back in 2005. He was figure #3 from a series of historical figures made by a company called Furta. The figure came with a stand and an information sheet in Japanese. Other figures in the series included:

#1 Natsume Soseki (Japanese novelist)
#2 Archimedes (Greek mathematician)
#3 Galileo Galilei (Italian astronomer)
#5 Ludwig Van Beethoven (German composer)
#6 Bust of Vincent Van Gogh (Dutch artist)
#7 mystery figure in silhouette (he might be holding a test tube)

The box states in English "There is no royal road to learning" and "The fist term". Perhaps this was the first series of these figures. It would be interesting to see what other historical figures were chosen to be commemorated in vinyl.

There are more photos of Columbus and his box on my Flicker account.

Terra Cotta Warriors

2008-09-28T14:10:00.000-07:00

On Saturday we went with some friends to see the Terra Cotta Warriors exhibit at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana. There were a number of terra cotta figures and interesting artifacts including architectural tiles, weapons and jade pendants. Some of my favorites were a very nice bronze heron sculpture and a suit of armor made out of limestone.

The most interesting part of the exhibit was a terra cotta warrior standing very still on a pedestal in the lobby. Visitors were amazed when he suddenly, but slowly, moved. Although he never spoke he amused people by giving slow high-fives, waving to children or walking slowly through the exhibit hall. The warrior was a performance artist from Taiwan, Jarry Cheng, who added an element of surprise to the experience. Here is a link to a YouTube video (not mine) as an example.

The last day of the exhibit is October 16, 2008 so you still have a chance to see it.

Lego Fun

2008-09-14T20:28:00.001-07:00

One of the fun places we went this summer was the Lego Store in the Glendale Galleria. We have a small collection of Lego bits and pieces that had been accumulated during the 80s and 90s. It was interesting to see the variety colors and shapes that are available now. We had fun filling some plastic containers at the Pick-a-Brick wall. When we got home we spread out our new purchases and started combining them with our older bricks and just played around. It was therapeutic. I took some photos before we put everything away. You can see them on my Flickr photostream.

Happy Hampton Beach

2008-09-06T20:07:00.001-07:00

Happy Hampton Beach
Originally uploaded by deeneedee

This is a souvenir postcard booklet of Hampton Beach that Dan won on eBay. He used to live in Hampton as a child and remembers visiting Hampton Beach. The image will take you to my photostream on Flickr for more pictures.

Re-ment Scale

2008-09-04T19:26:00.000-07:00

I was requested to show images of my Re-ment items with some sort of reference for scale. I have read that Re-ment is about 1:6 to 1:8 scale. There is a difference between the two blenders in the first picture. The one on the left is from 2004 and the other one is from 2007. I've also included a picture of the more current blender with it's life size counterpart (which we so conveniently had on hand!) The Re-ment blender is 1.5 inches tall and the real blender is 15.75 inches tall.

Re-ment

2008-08-31T15:21:00.001-07:00

Re-ment Blender from 2004
Originally uploaded by deeneedee

I got my first taste of Re-ment back in 2005 when I purchased a set from a grocery store in Little Tokyo. The detail of the miniature items was really amazing. I didn’t get into collecting them at the time because the sets were imported from Japan and were not widely available. This May I saw some sets for sale at the Vinyl Toy Network show and my interest was renewed. Re-ment now has a website in English that gives the locations of stores were their items can be purchased. So now I have been able to add to my collection. Good thing they are so small!

The image shows the first Re-ment set that I purchased, click on it to see more photos on my Flicker photostream.

August

2008-08-29T21:02:00.000-07:00

Oh my! August is almost over and I haven’t posted for quite some time. Dan and I were busy with various projects and trips. One of the projects was organizing the garage and putting up shelves. We also got a new desk for my computer, Yay!

We took various trips to L.A. and San Diego. I have been uploading pictures on my Flickr account so check them out! And have a fun (and safe) holiday weekend.

San Diego

2008-07-30T16:16:00.001-07:00

Orangutan and Siamang
Originally uploaded by deeneedee

Last week Dan and I took a trip to San Diego. We didn’t make it to The Comic Con because they had sold out of memberships. So instead we just visited the usual places, like the San Diego Zoo.

The first exhibit we went to is Absolutely Apes. It’s best to see them first because the apes are usually near the viewing windows. The day we went the orangutans and siamangs were out. They are very interesting to watch especially since they watch us to see what interesting things we might do.

The next stop was the Monkey Trails exhibit. They have a variety of different monkeys that sometimes share exhibits with other animals such as pygmy hippos or dukirs. After the monkeys we checked to see if the gorillas and bonobos were out. The gorillas were hiding in hard to see spots in the exhibit but some of the bonobos were out.

When we were done viewing the primates we checked out some of the other animals. On this zoo visit we stayed longer than we usually do and got to other parts of the zoo that we don’t often see. We took a lot of pictures. I’ve uploaded some on Flickr so check them out.

Pasadena Part II: Norton Simon Museum

2008-05-12T20:14:00.000-07:00

After the the Vinyl Toy Network show, we went to the Norton Simon Museum to see the Marcel Duchamp Redux exhibition.

I took a few pictures out front of the Barbara Hepworth sculpture Four Square (Walk Through) and some of the Rodin sculptures. Dan helped by making the sculpture of Saint John the Baptist suitable for family viewing.

We went to the Duchamp exhibit first. It was smaller than I expected but they had some good pieces on display. They had a set of four "rotoreliefs" that were best viewed in person. These were motor driven turntables that rotated an image to give the impression of a form in movement. I had seen the still images in books (such as the fish in a pond) but it was good to see them in motion. I also enjoyed Boite-en-Valise which was a collection of some of his works (including The Bride Stripped Bare By Her Bachelors, Even/The Large Glass) in miniature.

Next we went through the 19th century gallery because Mike prefers the older works of art. We also saw the Mallol Miniatures exhibit. It was interesting to see these smaller pieces after seeing his much larger sculptures in the garden.

We stopped in the museum store to see if they had a book on the Duchamp exhibit. There were books on Duchamp and DADA but nothing specific for the show. I got a post card of Duchamp as Rrose Selavy and some cool goldfish magnets. On the way out I got one last shot of Rodin’s Monument to Balzac.

Vinyl Toy Network Show, Pasadena

2008-05-11T18:35:00.001-07:00

Last weekend Dan, Mike, and I went to the Vinyl Toy Network show at the Pasadena Convention Center. It was very interesting and there were a lot of unusual vinyl toys there.

The first stop was the Mr. Toast table. I found out about this show from the blog a sampler of things. I met the creator, Dan Goodsell and purchased a Mr. Toast plush toy, a key chain, and Imaginary World Comics #2.

Next I found someone who was selling the Spider Baby Boom figures and purchased a couple. I got Daisyboom and Biingaboom (now Softyboom has some siblings!)

We also got some Sketbots, Sheep Dream Stars Dream (Zodiac sheep), Zipit and Muny zipper pulls, a Mint Chocolate Chip Buff Monster (in a very cool package), a weird Liberty Meadows cow keychain, and a very cool Dumb Dummies chase figure.

Mike bought a very cool Rement Donuts To Go set for me. It was the Coconut & Healthy Donuts set. It was really nice of him to do that (but he should have got the Homer as Mr. Sparkle tee shirt for himself instead.)

After overloading on vinyl toys, we decided to get some lunch at the Fair Oaks Pharmacy . They serve delicious hot dogs and deli sandwiches at their old time soda fountain.

Happy Hollow Zoo

2008-05-05T15:59:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from last summer’s trip to Happy Hollow. They have a small zoo but it has some interesting animals. The day was overcast so some of the animals were hiding. We didn’t see the jaguar but we did see a wallaby, some zebu, meerkats, guinea pigs, some capybaras, lemurs, and some goats. I wonder if they will add some new animals when they renovate the park.

Happy Hollow

2008-05-02T21:26:00.000-07:00

These pictures are from Happy Hollow Park and Zoo in San Jose, CA. Dan and I took a short trip there last summer. Happy Hollow was a place I used to visit when I was a child. The park has been there since 1961 and I wanted to see it again before someone got the idea to close it. It was good that we saw it when we did. The park and zoo will be closed in July for some major renovations and won't be open until fall of 2009.

The one part of Happy Hollow that I remembered the most was Danny the Dragon. How could anyone forget something so cool! I had vague recollections of the Small Carousel and the Mini Putt Putts. I didn't remember King Neptune's Carousel or the Granny Bugs.

We will have to make a trip there after it opens again to see the changes.

The Magic Castle

2008-03-16T11:30:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Dan and I were invited to visit the Magic Castle by friends. None of us had been there before so we were not sure what to expect. The Magic Castle is a private club and you need to be a member or get guest card from a member. They also have a strict dress code.

We arrived about a half an hour before our dinner reservations so we would have some time to look around. The Magic Castle is in a large Victorian house and is decorated with antiques and magic memorabilia. There is a piano playing ghost who takes requests. Other haunted elements are portraits with eyes that seem to watch you and a table in one of the bars that mysteriously rotates when you set your drink down.

Dinner was served in the elegantly decorated dinning room. The meals were good and filling (especially the Chicken Marsala and the Crème Brulee!) Some people had birthday celebrations there and a cake was brought out by a wizard.

After dinner we went to see some of the magic shows. The First was the main show in the “Palace of Mystery”. The show featured two magicians and a ventriloquist. The second show was in the “Parlour of Prestidigitation” (I just love that name!) The show featured the magician that our friends knew. The shows were very entertaining and the performers excellent.

The last stop on the way out was the gift shop. Dan and I purchased some souvenirs to commemorate our visit. We all enjoyed our first experience at the Magic Castle.

Happy Birthday George!

2008-02-22T08:00:00.001-08:00

This place card is from my mom. I’m not sure where she got it and I don’t remember having any Washington’s Birthday parties. Did anyone ever have any parties like that? Maybe I should go out and get a cherry pie!

Getty Center

2008-02-17T18:40:00.001-08:00

On Saturday we visited the Getty Center. It was a nice day so we spent a lot of time in the garden and looking at the various sculptures that are exhibited outdoors.
The first sculpture, Spiny Top, Curly Bottom is by Alexander Calder. The second image shows a pair of sculptures, also by Calder, titled The Jousters. The third image is Two by Robert Adams. Next is Three Squares Gyratory by George Rickey. This is a kinetic sculpture so each photo you take shows a slightly different view. The last image is of Gandydancer’s Dream by Mark di Suvero.

Vintage Valentines

2008-02-13T18:54:00.000-08:00

Oops! It's been a while since I last posted anything. I was helping Dan with some projects.

Here are some valentines from the 70's. They were given to me by relatives. I like the way they were designed so that when they are folded they make their own envelope.

Popsicles

2008-01-30T20:06:00.000-08:00

This is something I made in Illustrator a while back. I was just playing around with various tools and effects, just for fun. Perhaps I will use this for a greeting card.

Shoe Fence

2008-01-23T18:51:00.000-08:00

There is a fence near where we live that has acquired a lot of shoes. First there was just one workers boot. Then more appeared – a child’s shoe, athletic shoes, and even high heeled shoes. Then we noticed that someone had added brightly decorated footwear. It’s fun to go by the fence and see if any new shoes have been added but it also raises questions:

Where did all of these shoes come from?
Who is putting these shoes on the fence?
Is it an art exhibit/work in progress?
How long before every post on the fence has a shoe?

Origami: "$2 Pantsuit"

2008-01-16T18:11:00.000-08:00

This is from a Page-A-Day origami calendar. It's actually a two day project and the idea is to use dollar bills. I'm too cheap so I used joss paper instead. The joss paper used here is the Ten Thousand Heaven Bank Note which is very close in size to a dollar bill. Joss paper is traditionally burned at Chinese ancestor worship ceremonies or funerals. I would like to make more shirts using patterned origami paper.

What'll I Color?

2008-01-09T17:09:00.000-08:00

This is a small coloring book I acquired in the early 1980s. It is rather cheaply made and is only 2.5 inches by 3.5 inches. The pictures although cute are generic clip art. I like the elf juggling acorns but why did they include the cowboy boots? They should have had a picture of a monkey or maybe a duck.

San Diego Wild Animal Park

2008-01-02T22:24:00.000-08:00

On Sunday Dan and I went to the San Diego Wild Animal Park and took lots of pictures. First, we took the Journey into Africa tour that replaces the Wgasa Bush Line Railway. The tour is shorter and only covers the African section but it is still a good way to see some of the larger herds. The cheetahs were out this time (first picture) and we got to see one of the baby giraffes (second picture).

Next we walked through the Heart of Africa section. We saw a number of exotic birds and spent a lot of time watching the flamingos (third picture) and feeding the ducks. The colobus monkeys were out on their island (fourth picture). We also saw the warthog, bat eared foxes, gerenuks, okapi, duikers, and gazelles.

We had lunch by the lagoon and watched the water birds including the shoebill stork, and a family of pelicans (fifth picture). The park was the most crowded that we have ever seen so we only got glimpses of the lions and elephants. Even the condors had a large crowd. Still, it was a fun day at the park.

Cool Culture Trip

2008-01-01T21:09:00.000-08:00

Dan and I took a trip last weekend to Escondido. On the way we stopped at the Orange County Museum of Art to see Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design, and Culture at Midcentury. The exhibit was extensive and included painting, sculpture, furniture, photographs, film, music, architecture, and design. They played music in the Jazz Media Lounge and had film clips like Toot Whistle Plunk and Boom and Gerald McBoing Boing for viewing. I especially enjoyed the paintings by the Abstract Classicists. The second image shows one of my favorites, Black Pillars, by Karl Benjamin.

Culture Trip

2007-12-27T20:33:00.000-08:00

Today Dan and I went to the Pasadena Museum of California Art. They have some interesting exhibitions that are showing until January 6, 2008.

In the Main Gallery was Beyond Ultraman: Seven artists explore the vinyl frontier. This was a collaboration with the Los Angeles Toy, Doll, and Amusements Museum and featured the works of seven contemporary artists. The collection consisted of vinyl and plush toys as well as drawings, paintings, and photographs. There was even a small section on vintage vinyl toys.

In the Side Gallery was California Colors: Benjamin Chambers Brown. There was a lovely collection of California landscapes painted in an impressionist style.

In the Project Room was an installation by Susan Silton titled Inside Out. It was set up like a store with various striped items for sale. It was very colorful!

The Back Gallery had an exhibit on an artist named Jess. The collection consisted mainly of collages with drawings and paintings in various mediums. We didn't spend much time in there as the light was dim so it was hard to read the descriptions of the artworks.

We purchased the books for the Beyond Ultraman and the California Colors exhibits, a LATDA t-shirt, and Spider Baby Boom figure. The figures are in boxes so you don't know which figure is in the box until you open it. The one we got is in the second photo at the top. His name is Softyboom.

Happy Holidays!

2007-12-24T18:00:00.000-08:00

Hope everyone has a good Christmas!

Cookies!

2007-12-23T21:05:00.000-08:00

We made cookies this weekend, sugar and ginger. The sugar cookies have been decorated with red and green sugar sprinkles. Dan got a little artsy with the candle cookies! The ginger cookies have been decorated with brightly colored butter cream frosting and a variety of sprinkles and candies.

Holiday Cookies First Day Covers, Part 2

2007-12-21T14:32:00.000-08:00

Here are two more FDCs I made for the 2005 Holiday Cookies postage stamps. I could have kept making the stars but decided six different designs were enough. This is also the first appearance of Walf on a first day cover.

Holiday Cookies First Day Covers

2007-12-19T20:13:00.000-08:00

Here are some FDCs I made for the 2005 Holiday Cookies postage stamps. They were created with Illustrator. I had fun designing these from memories of the cookies we used to make for Christmas. There are two more stamps in this series that I made FDCs for and I will post those later as well.

Santa Trolls

2007-12-16T09:55:00.000-08:00

These were given to me by Dan in 1991. I don't have many opportunities to wear them but they sure are fun to look at!

The Tree

2007-12-10T19:35:00.000-08:00

This is our tree with most of our ornaments on it. It's been eight years since we last had a tree so it was a lot of fun taking the ornaments out of the storage boxes. We hadn't seen most of them for years. A lot of them were given to us by others over the years. We have some that have been given to us by our parents that are quite old and bring back memories of Christmases past. We have managed to accumulate so many ornaments that we have enough to decorate another tree. Maybe next year we'll get two!

Vintage Tree Topper

2007-12-07T18:32:00.000-08:00

This is a recent eBay purchase. We will get a tree this weekend so we can display the topper and all of the decorations that have been in storage.

Shepherds Christmas Card

2007-12-05T15:49:00.000-08:00

This is card that was sent to my family around 1974 or 1975. It's from an original painting by P. Bassett Chaarir. The inside message is:

Warmest wishes for a Merry Christmasand a Happy New Year.

The card is printed on a textured card stock to simulate brush strokes.

It's December

2007-12-01T20:42:00.000-08:00

Time to start thinking about Christmas.

This is a card I received in 1969 or 1970. Very cute!

Here is the inside of the card. I love the activity (even though I never got around to doing it).

I will be posting more holiday items through December. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving

2007-11-22T20:45:00.000-08:00

We spent Thanksgiving with Dan's mom, who lives in a very nice retirement community. We discovered this koi pond while taking a walk around the grounds. There was a koi food dispenser so the fish were very happy.

First Day Covers

2007-11-04T18:17:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I haven't posted anything since August. Where did the time go?

Going through some boxes I found some of my First Day Covers. The first one dates back to 1996, for the Comic Strip Classics commemorative stamps. I used a rubber stamp of Krazy Kat and colored it with Prismacolor pencils.

The next one was made in 2003 for the Reptiles & Amphibians commemorative stamps. It was decorated it the same way as the Krazy Kat envelope.

A visit to the zoo.

2007-08-01T21:58:00.000-07:00

Earlier today Dan and I visited the Los Angeles Zoo. They have these cool molding machines, Mold-A-Rama, that make neat little plastic sculptures. I got the Three Chimpanzees model. They have twelve other designs so I will go back and try to collect the others. Oh yeah, we saw lots of animals too!

Welcome to Acornucopia Project!

2007-08-01T21:20:00.000-07:00

I will be posting images of various things. Pictures from trips, amusing items that I have accumulated over the years, and some of my own art work.