2011 Fall Harvest Festival

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.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art

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.

A Taste of History

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.



The photos were taken by Dan.

Year of the Rabbit

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!

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

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!

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.