Beauty of type

I have published this photo by error, before putting together the rest of the post...
Oh well, so it will stay.

This pic comes from one of my favs - poppytalk.com
The talented blog editor came to own a considerable set of those marvels and made actual imprints from it.

Valiant effort, although, in my opinion, the physical appearance of the type pieces, the sublime relief and amazing coloration is hard to match in print... Undeniably, setting the whole page, spacing properly and generating the print must have been super fun.

I too own a considerable
collection of those pieces.
I have only 3 wooden pieces,
about 2" high ---->

Here's how they shine proudly
occupying a spot on the fireplace mantle.



Interesting is the proliferation of wooden pieces.
I thought that they were all made of metal - like the top corner bit in the page that poppytalk was setting.
Perhaps small type used for setting regular copy was metal-made, so it woulnd't wear fast, but the less frequently used, large sizes could be made from wood.
Beautiful artifact of times gone by...

The rest of my "type collection" consists of a couple of photographs of drawers full of various sizes and style of also wooden display fonts (large sizes). I will post it later.

All That Jazz My Take

Hiya everyone,

The fabulous dj Soucial had sent me another segment of his great Jazz mix.
If you think that the rest of your life will be great - interesting, vigorous, colourful, exciting, here is a Sound Therapy for you:

All That Jazz My Take

It is still gray and blah... but look at those pansies at the front of TrueLoaf Bakery:

Baneberry - deadly fruit

Baneberry contains cardiogenic toxins than can have an immediate sedative effect on human cardiac muscle.

Actaea, commonly called baneberry

The roots of Actaea were used medicinally by Native Americans for menstrual cramping and menopausal discomfort.

Area 8. Operation Emery

  18 December 1970. 
The Baneberry 10-kilotonne-of-TNT (42 TJ) nuclear bomb was detonated 900 feet below the surface. It's energy blew the soil off, causing a fissure near ground zero. A plume of fire and dust was released, raining deadly radioactive fallout on workers in different locations.  6.7 million Curies of radioactive material, including 80 kCi of ¹³¹I was released.

Map of radioactive fallout, effect of nuclear testing
in the 50-70-ies.  

One hell of a way to boil water...

 

It is all a very sad Colour Therapy.

Shabby chic - the Course Syllabus

Somethng ROSY*
trouvais.com

This passion is almost as deep as the one that bound Frost with Nixon.
I am about to make a serious personal disclosure:
I know - it's women's porn - but it is irresistible.
Especially when the radio propaganda and the grimy grayness outside is trying to convince us that  world is in shambles and we head for the poorhouse because of what Greece and now Cyprus is doing to the world of international finance.

For about a year I visit those gorgeous, fun, nostalgic, entertaining blogs devoted to staging, photography, home decorating, vintage and antique decorating, textiles, patterns, silly but sometimes seriously marketable stuff.

It is a Colour Therapy of sort in white, rosy, and rustic.

The blogs are mostly edited by women, many sell their products at Etsy, some own Antique dealership operations, some are professional photographers and others just enthusiasts of Fine Living in a certain vintage/rustic style.
There's got to be a fair load of nostalgia. In reality the danger of kitsch that nostalgia tends to evoke or demand is there. That very danger and the balance make styling sooo much fun...

While scouting over German, Polish, UK and above all - the Scandinavian blogs, I did some detective work to sort out what gets on IN. There are certain characteristic of the style, including:

• combing and mixing vintage or rustic looking objects with art in modern or older architecture
• using textiles that suggest artfulness or craft
• creating atmospheric scenarios within populated space
• promoting found objects, originality, art and style

Here are the "obligatory" accessories that are must-have among blog-loving hive.
See if you have it, if you really speak the lingo, if you belong.
Judging by my research some of the essential props of the Shabby Chic, Rustic, Vintage etc are:

http://theoldpaintedcottage.blogspot.ca

Tureen - une soupière, a soup vase, preferably white.
I don't know why, this is an absolute pre-requisite,
they ALL have it and broadcast it very adamantly;
During my times it was used only during great occasions and it was always present at organized vacations - in resort, when several people dined at the same time.

Manneqins
http://miss-elvin.blogspot.ca/

Mannequin - this too, you do not belong if you don't have one, I was a bit nervous because the item did not strike me as a common item, but probably, like a secret masonic sign - you either have it, or you just don't make it. 
 like here  

 Other MUST-Haves follow:

Old Armoires
http://lantlif.blogspot.ca/

Old books with gilded spines
http://theswenglishhome.blogspot.ca/

Rustic wood
http://madeinpersbo.blogspot.ca/

White dinnerware
http://g-style-g-style.blogspot.ca/

Cafe au lait bowl
http://lillablanka.blogspot.ca/

Reclaimed chandelier
http://lillablanka.blogspot.ca/

Angels, folk art
http://storaochsmadrommar.blogspot.ca/

Old cupboards with white dinnerware
http://madamepetite.blogspot.se

Strategically positioned B&W photography
http://franciskasvakreverden.blogspot.ca/

Oh, in Swedish interior decor lore, there is one more item that is distinctly and firmly required:
Antique, painted Portrait of the Ancestor, 
an important proof of noble protoplast tissue...

Portrait of an Ancestor
http://princessgreeneye.blogspot.ca/
(could be unframed but definitely better in some
gilded frame)

 

http://minlillaveranda.blogspot.ca/

Hmmm, when you look closely it almost appears that the two portraits below are of a same man, he just turned the other way for the second sitting...

That's the beauty of a trend, a fashion - it makes us look so much alike...

Butterfly collections
http://g-style-g-style.blogspot.ca/

This lady, who posted just a drawn facsimile of the "mandatory butterfly collection" must be congratulated for her sense of good taste.





Oh no, I almost forgot, most IMPORTANTLY:

• CATS - the more you have, the more seasoned your position...
• lots of things with French writing...
• Something French, like Eiffel Tower
• and something rosy...
  

* Note: The amount of rosiness in your styling is a variant that will determine whether you are an American stylist of Norther European. The Scandinavians dispense with the rosy, but the English don't. The Americans love it...



I have tried to see if I "measure up, my realization was powerful - I think that with age, before I knew it I have started to speak the lingo and I even do own a white Tureen!
I speak PROSE!

The Sweater - Merin Cadell

Girls, do you remember The Sweater?

This is the piece of authentic Canadian poetry, and music, and a video.
By now this precious sweather is a truly vintage, it smells musty but hasn't dated a bit, it will be good-as-new for another.... years.
The last piece changes around the recitative by the immortal Meryn Caddell.

Watch and enjoy this incredibly intrinsically cool music vid.
This is Colour Therapy AGAIN!


Ever since it went on the air eons ago, so long ago that we still had a TV and even watched it (mostly kids shows...) I knew - this piece of performance has to be saved and preferably placed in a bottle and sent to space as the incredible intrinsic piece of human expression.

Many eons later, the boys were already shaving and the tv was no more, it took me a while to restore this item. So now - it's here, immortalized with the rest of my bits of memorabilia. I will post the lyrics soon, got it saved on another machine.
M.Cadell went on to teach song lyrics and libretto writing at the University of British Columbia.
She continues to live as a man.
I stay in Ottawa and continue to live as a sweater.

Avid collector

Recently some items were auctioned that I feel I have a serious interest in:

♥ Marie Antoinette’s green silk slippers

Auctioned in 2012 on the anniversary of her execution on 16 October 1793, the slippers hint at the extravagant spending habits of the queen nicknamed ‘Madame Deficit’ during her lifetime.
Sold for about €50,000.

Must have...

Dying for Love

Yep, I do love Opera, the music, the voice, fantastic theatre that comes with it but by far I love the most the grand opera Divas.
For all my blog's accidental or intentional readers:
things improved sooo much since Joan Sutherland and Marily Horne performed it...


For those possums who have never heard the Flower Duet: do you remember the movie Shawshank Redemption?
Yes, this is the divine music played via the prison's loudspeakers 'til all "bad boys" stalled in the yard to a complete silence.

Elina Garanča, Latvian mezzosoprano and Anna Netrebko, soprano.

RELENTLESSLY Grateful

Yep, it seems that some people can be simply Relentlessly Grateful.
As we often now express the attitudes of entitlement, some people still remain grateful for the most basics gifts of life and freedom.

It is Mr. Gilbert Van Landschoot who stands out as the eternally grateful - upon his father's wish he commemorates the liberation of his part of Belgium by the Canadian and Polish soldiers.
In fact, he is so immersed in his mission of immortalizing the events of the time that he has initiated and build a whole museum devoted to the preservation of artifacts and memories of these men.

Colour therapy

It's so dark outside, really no signs of sprint any time soon..
We all need now: Colour 
Designed by graphic, interior and furniture designer, Kevin Boyd of Durban,
South Africa for the Colour Cafe in Durban.
Published by Elle Decor.
Found on Poppytalk.

Thanks, these people know how to kolor

Gregory Colbert - photography

The usual song: I love old magz, they are wonderful when they are great and new. But those that were great, when they get older - oh boy oh boy, thy turn sublime...

One high-end interior design mag that captured my attention then had an amazing photograph on the cover. I still keep it, stashed somewhere in the depths, but never forgotten... The scene was almost difficult to read at first, but I loved everything about it - who wouldn't.
I forgot to search who the cover photographer was.

Today, April Fools, my ignorance is forgiven.

Gregory Colbert

You must see his work because he is absolutely Wow, oh WowWow:  https://gregorycolbert.com/