vintage children's book: shaun & the cart-horse

this week's vintage children's book is 'shaun & the cart-horse' written and illustrated by charles keeping, published in 1966 by oxford university press.

growing up reading this book i always loved the intense color, and controlled messiness of the illustrations. in the art classes i attended after school we did a lot of wax resist and water color washes so being familiar with the process gave me an added appreciation for charles keeping's illustrations and i was fascinated by the london street scenes.

the story follows shaun, who lived in london with his grandpa. next door there lived a cart pony called queen who was shaun's best friend. uncle charley peel owned queen and often let shaun ride to market with them.

one day shaun sees a stranger leading queen out of the stable yard. shaun rushed inside to ask grandpa what was happening and grandpa told shaun that uncle charley peel was selling queen because he'd been unwell and had no money as he was unable to go to market.

shaun is unhappy about queen being sold, until he comes up with an idea. he waited until grandpa fell asleep and then snuck out to the market. shaun knew the costers loved queen and would be sad she was being sold, too.

he tells peter the ice cream man, the old clothes lady, mrs corby.

then he tells the fish monger, mr codling, and old bean, the coffee seller.

they're all upset, and decide to give one day's earnings to buy queen back for uncle charley peel. shaun is certain he can find queen and runs off to find her. he sees many horses, but none are queen and just as he begins to head home, he sees his friend, scrappy tailor, the rag and bone man. scrappy hasn't seen queen but he tells shaun to go to nicky knacker's yard, as thats where all the old horses go.

shaun finds the man who led queen away, and shaun tells him the costers all want to buy queen back. the man tells shaun to go away, they wouldn't want that old horse back and he can make a much better profit from her! but grandpa and scrappy arrive and the horse dealer agrees to sell her back to them.

the next day they all have a procession back to a very happy uncle charley peel.

what's playing today: be thankful

happy thanksgiving americans!

pilgrim's place: 'my place & yours: my collection'

once again i'm joining in for 'my place & yours'. how could i resist this week's theme of 'my collection'! i love having collections of things. i blame my unfulfilled childhood dreams of being a librarian or a curator. i have my own little wunderkammer here in my lounge room, filled with trinkets and toys and objects that make me smile. sure its a pain to dust, but its the only way i can justify having quite so many useless things!

a consistent presence in these shelves and pigeon holes are apples. since the moment i laid eyes on a dick bruna apple illustration at the age of 1, the simple apple has won my heart. i don't mind if its green, but honestly i'd prefer it to be red (unless i have to eat it, in which case the greener and tarter the better!) i really like my apples to be plastic (again, unless i have to eat them) or at least japanese or scandinavian. they seem to have a good hold on the basic apple design. maybe because its such a simple, graphic fruit? none of those frou-frou pineapples for the japanese and scandinavians! i really, really like it if my apple is some form of container: jug, mug, box, canister etc. now, that's satisfaction: apple storage!

in the picture you'll see an apple desktop trashcan, an apple bottle, an apple bento box, an apple suitcase (not quite full of japanese candy!! nom nom nom) an apple mug in an apple bowl, an apple patch, apple hair bobbles, an apple box, and a fisher price happy apple that makes the sweetest chimes. not pictured above are the BIG apples that hold my son's toys in the lounge room. unfortunately thats as close as he'll peacefully get to fruit.

thanks to an ambiguous bible translation from ancient greek, apples have had a bad wrap as being the sinful forbidden fruit. how could a beautiful simple little apple be responsible for all that drama? but maybe its their simple beauty that is precisely their problem, maybe my insatiable lust for anything apple will be my down fall? probably not. but if it is, i'll happily be the world's first crazy apple lady.

made by pilgrim: patchwork mini pillow

part of my planning for our california trip is making some special things for my son. traveling for little people is incredibly exciting, but when you get tired and you're in yet another unfamiliar bed it can be just plain no fun at all.

this week i made a little patchwork pillow case out of all those cute bits of fabric i've been coveting. this was my first go at patchwork and its in no way perfect, but it has a certain homely charm that i'm pretty sure a three year old won't have a problem with (though he is a virgo)! the pillow is big enough for a small head to sleep on, but compact enough to take on the plane. i also made a point of choosing busy patterned fabric so we can play pillowcase eye-spy if boredom sets in.

i have a bunch of 'making' planned for the weekend, including some gocco print christmas cards, and a dolly's skirt and shoes. what about you? exciting weekends ahead?

hot & not: november 18th

wow, am i ever late getting this post up. where is the time going lately? its like time has given up on 2009 and is just racing ahead to 2010. any ideas on what we're supposed to call the 2010's yet? i'm going with the tenties.

i'm joining in the what's hot and what's not started over at loobylu. if you would like to do one too, just write up your own hot/not list and link back at loobylu.com using the widget.

hot

✽ the weather. yes, it's literally been hot. i've had hammock time, and summer evening drinks in the garden!

✽ friends getting top secret awesome opportunities just for being so great and talented. you know who you are, and you know i will sleep on your couch and visit you in your foreign land. well done you!!

✽ vintage red gingham stacking mugs! wheeee! imagine having your wholesome hot beverage out of those?

✽ little sparrow. i can hardly believe such an awesome place exists so close to home! great stuff to buy, and lovely people, and an opportunity to share my stuff too. its super.

✽ impromptu ice cream sundaes for good boys. take a scoop of plain vanilla ice cream, add a dash of jelly crystals and a spoonful of colorful cupcake sprinkles and you get one very happy chappy!

✽ my amazing bag from peta pledger. its such a great bag! i can fit so many stuffs in it and the fabric is way, way cool. now everyone go and buy something from peta, cos she is HOT!

✽ passports arriving in the mail. now my peeps are legit and i can take them on holidays!

✽ getting lots of nice comments on my what i wore and christmas posts. thanks guys!

not

✽ lactose intolerance = no ice cream sundaes for me

✽ lustily tucking into my beef in oyster sauce and chomping down on the inside of my mouth.

✽ not having any friends with a pool. come on peeps! get your acts together. you don't expect moi to take a dip in the public baths do you!?

✽ postage from canada. tooooooooooo sloooooooooooooooow

creative christmas: recipe reminiscing

is it too soon to mention the 'christmas' word? i'm sorry i can't help myself. i love christmas. its been on my brain for the last two months and i can't hold it in anymore! i've been busy busy busy making ornaments, and planning all the food i can eat make, and whipping up a few top secret present projects for certain small family members. i'm super annoyed at myself though, i made up a bunch of very sweet little felt gingerbread ornaments (available for you to buy at little sparrow - pop in and see all the beautiful other toys and treasures if you're in melbourne!) but forgot to take a proper picture before they went off to be sold! here is a low quality peek at my creations...

run, run, as fast as you can! you can buy me at little sparrow, north caulfield, for a limited time only!

christmas time when i was growing up entailed a lot of 'making'. my mum and grandma rowie would get together to make the christmas pudding months in advance. closer to christmas we'd have a little production line set up to make delicious gifts for teachers and friends. i remember still being in junior primary school and helping my mum construct a very elaborate chocolate truffle topiary tree for my teacher!! it was in a little terra cotta pot, with some cristmas ribbon tied around, and i was so proud i'd produced something straight out of the pages of 1991 gourmet magazine! haha

one christmas my mum sewed me an advent calendar of pockets. each day i woke up to find a sliver of paper in a different pocket with mysterious instructions: look in the microwave... or look behind the tv. and there would be a shiny new packet of hairclips, or a handmade voucher for 'late night supper at spats cafe'!

food played a huge part in our family all year. i still have my mum's recipe books, and my grandma rowie's... and even my great grandmother's! a lot of it i'll never cook (chilled tounge in aspic, anyone?), but each time i search through for some half-remembered dish it's like i'm back at my grandma rowie's kitchen table, with my mum copying out recipes from the woman's weekly and something delicious baking in the oven.

recipe lift out book from the australian women's weekly 1967

its amazing just how much personality can be found in a scrap book of cut-out recipes, label-backs, and scrawled notes on envelopes. recently i found a scrap of paper with a menu plan for my mum's christmas lunch, from probably 10 years ago. it was so moving, and just reminded me of what a super hostess my mum was. my grandma rowie's recipe book is as conflicted as she was - half filled with rich, french cuisine and dessert recipes and the other half with dieters recipes!

recipe lift out from the australian women's weekly, 1971

this year, as i do my own christmas planning, i get to revisit with my mum and grandma rowie. i wish it was in person, but they will be with me in spirit as i make rowie's hard sauce and christmas cake, and toast to the season with my mum's favourite cocktail, a pimm's and dry ginger ale. the traditions they created are what makes christmas for me. now that i have my own family the thought of passing on the silly and the meaningful things we used to do together, as well as inventing my own new "traditions" makes me hear sleigh bells from about october 1st! just 16 more sleeps til i can have that fresh pine smell in my house!

are you a christmas lover too? what christmas traditions does your family have?

what i wore: diner date

so i finally worked up the courage to jump on the 'what i wore' bandwagon, yay! deep breath. just don't tease me about my wonky tooth or my freckles, ok? anyway, the reason i finally got the courage to do one of these posts is because the other week i got all cuted up to go out on a weekday date with my boy. aww! we flinted about town and giggled and had a lovely sunny day together before settling down for an afternoon refreshment at melbourne's kitschiest establishment: the soda rock diner. i'm guessing this is australia's revenge for those outback steakhouses in america. check out the fine fare we dined on:

mmm-mmmm! can't you just hear the star spangled banner playing in the distance? just an aside, does the smell of 'root beer' remind anyone else of those lick-n-stick sticker books from childhood? mmm delicious adhesive.

i wore:

green cardigan - thrifted

blue tee shirt (under cardigan) - american apparel

polka dot scarf - thrifted

toadstool fabric covered button brooch - etsy seller fluffington

toadstool & toad skirt - vintage from frocks & slacks st kilda

red tights - the sock shop

red button shoes - rubi shoes

red apple hair bobbles - kinky gerlinki chapel street

vintage children's book: pirouettes

today's vintage children's book is another one of mine, reclaimed from a library and loved within an inch of its life. up until recently it was hanging together by threads: now its completely fallen apart (which i admit made it easier to scan.) i think i might have to put on my book doctor hat this afternoon and get to work with some tape to preserve it for just another 20+ years. if cats have nine lives, books must have about 15 in some homes. i have a lot of inherited cookbooks that are possibly up to their 18th life!

pirouettes is a book of nonsense poems, adapted from the original text by raymond lichette, illustrated by colette de gaillarbois. published by chambers in 1974. please click the images below to see a larger version - its really worth it!

the whale

john is a purple young whale

and a friend of the small golden fish

each evening he reads the a fairy tale

while they eat onions out of a dish

the brave owl

arthur owl is never afriad

he's the bravest bird

that ever was made

he wears plastic beads

with a watch on a chain

and his toes always tingle if there's going to be rain

the angry dragon

under the stove where it is hot

lives a stripey dragon.

his nose is in a funny knot

his whiskers are undone.

prickly peacock wings

seem to stick straight out,

when great aunt jasmine said hello

he answered me with a shout.

she said 'my goodness me!'

and 'dragons are such a bore!'

the dragon said nothing

but he gave an awful roar.

penguins

the penguins at the south pole

like to listen to rock and roll.

every night they meet their friends

and dance until the music ends.

sometimes they start to feel the heat

and then there comes a special treat.

cooler than jumping into a stream

a cone of pink

fish-flavoured ice-cream.

grunge the lion

grunge is the smallest lion

you've ever seen,

his hair is yellow

and his eyes are green.

with a pussycat smile

and curls in his hair,

he sometimes yawns fiercely

and gives you a scare.

the hedgehog

the gardener is angry

the gardener is cross,

for a hedgehog steals his flowers

and puts them in his sauce.

roses and violets

delphiniums as well,

when the hedgehog is cooking

there's a beautiful flowery smell.

the hedgehog is happy

eating lilac-pansy roast,

and every night for supper

there's rose petals on toast.

vintage graphis: '71 fiat poppy field ad

hello lovlies! i am back! i've been knocked about by a bit of a virus this week, but never fear: i prevailed. normal programming has resumed.

amazing animation: carmen d'avino

take some time today to watch these clips and really enjoy the colors, and patterns. the clips really speak for themselves, but if you want to learn more about carmen d'avino click le link!

peter max: strobelightedflashingkaleidoscopiclightshows

peter max. even if you don't know the name you'll likely recognize his far out psychedelic posters. i have a book of his posters which is everything you are after in seizure inducing design. its really very, very, groovy. here is a portion of the foreword, i've tried copy it exactly, but there is a point where you lose count of how many !!!!!! are being used... (and yes, i realize that i am guilty of over exclamating, but people, please!!! this is one of the few posts not about me)

ZAAAAAAAAP!!!!!!!!! it's 1965! the year the earth turned... on. BANG! flower power. love, peace, strobelightedflashingkaleidoscopiclightshowsACIDDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!! music. great music. the beatles, stones, airplane, joplin, and ... this man is wild..... COUNTRY JOE McDonald and the FISH. Sgt. Pepper... GREAT THINGS FROM ROCK... ROCK IS RAISED TO A HIGH ART... ROCK... comes out of the cultural cave!!!!!! how to advertise this new rock... this new music. how do you advertise something new and different... the... POSTER! the fillmore and avalon use the poster... a new type of poster... a... psychedelic poster...... aposterwithwordsalljumbledtogetherlikethis. 1967. fantastic vibrations and cosmiclightandx-rays bombarding the earth. sound exploding on the west coast. and on the east coast, a young man in a room 15 by 15 in new york. SLEEPING ON THE FLOOR I TELL YOU, SLEEPING ON THE FLOOR, SHAAAAAAAAAAAAZAM! Zap! PETER MAX!

- don pierce, 1970

the book doesn't explain who don pierce is, and my googling turned up a variety of don pierces, so i'm going to assume it was written by the part cyborg X-men supervillan (though more likely he was a musician or something at least partially based in reality). but enough semantics. ladies and gentlemen, don your protective eyewear and enjoy the work of peter max.

where you can get your own peter max poster book!