Lakes and lakes and lakes

We live by an ocean now, but my real love is lakes.

Recently, I saw two great I-carried-a-watermelon examples of lakes/summer camps:

Wandawega Lake Resort

In Elkhorn, Wisconsin! I wish we'd known about this place before we moved away from the Upper Midwest. See inspirational photos from the remodeling process here (they'll make you want to whitewash something immediately.)

And this, which is closer to home: www.branding10000lakes.com

It's a project by Nicole Meyer based on the idea, "One Minnesota Lake. One Logo. Everyday."
It'll take her 27 years to get done. I like it.

Grocery pretties

Sometimes -- okay, all the time -- I love food labels a little too much.

IT'S-IT

Cafe Du Monde

Birthday-ing

Today is my birthday, the big two four. I am probably around seven years old in this picture, playing dress up with my cousin Kristen (in the jaunty leopard number) and I think I look appropriately celebratory. This picture also proves my lifelong love of large purses.

roosting

We got our tree yesterday, so that means there will be a Christmas. Whew. That was close.
We usually don't wait so far into December to get a tree, but things just kept getting in the way of our tree-purchasing this year. When we finally went, we picked out this one in record time. We basically leaped out of the truck and declared,"That one! We'll take it!"


I'm particularly excited about our birds-as-tree-topper this year. How appropriately woodland-y.

an overscheduled november

My days between now and Thanksgiving will be, to take a line from Bill Watterson, just packed. In light of that, my posts for the rest of the month may be quite skimpy.

For now though, I thought I'd share a couple of things from the ol' vault - two collages I made a while back from vintage advertising bits. They were part of a larger mass of handmade postcards I sent to Joshua (or rather Joshua's held mail) while he was away on a trip. They seem appropriate for this time right before the holiday onslaught when everyone (possibly including me) seems to be thinking about food.

For Thanksgiving this year I'm pretty eager to try the Nutmeg-Maple Cream Pie from the Smitten Kitchen, probably baked in large shallow tart shell. But I really shouldn't even be thinking about that until I get at least the first half of my to-do list in the can. Sigh.

one lump or two?

I noticed recently that I have enough supplies to hold several concurrent tea parties and not have to do any dishes. This somehow happens, that I collect things without a clear plan until one day I open the cupboard and say to myself, "Self, how did we come to have so many turquoise ceramic gravy boats?"

I seem to have a particular fondness for cream and sugar sets - apparently if it features both a handle and a spout, I'm interested. Standing in the thrift store, I must tell myself that it is a good, sound, practical purchase (like a deviled egg plate or a potato ricer) - as though I have so many appointments for high tea that it would actually matter whether the sugar lumps were served from persimmon fiestaware or chartreuse melmac.

All this, and I still drink my tea straight up out of a large milk glass.














edited to add: after I posted this I opened a cabinet and found another, undocumented, cream & sugar set. Will it never end?

ponies

For the record, this is possibly the cutest beer ever.

the brownie

I have a long-standing and unbridled love of outdated technology, as evidenced by my continued use of fifty year old metal ice trays even though my finger tips stick to them when I pull them out of the freezer.
I realized recently though, with a tinge of sadness, that I used to go to greater, more stubborn lengths to do things the hard way. I bought this Kodak Brownie at an estate sale years ago. The model was discontinued in 1958. They no longer manufacture the 620 film this camera needs, but I found out it is possible to respool currently manufactured 120 film onto an old 620 spool and fit it into the brownie. I diligently searched antique shops and estate sales for a stray 620 spool, eventually buying an entire second camera to cannibalize. I was a photo student at the time and I patiently sat in a pitch black room and fumbled the film from one spool to another, put it in the camera and went out into daylight. Later, when I went to develop the film, I found out that it was unusable. All the photos had overlapped one another in a long continuous line. The 120 film was not marked for the brownie, so there was no clear way to know when it had advanced safely from one shot to another.
I suppose I'll try again though, I'm nothing if not a mule.

a sad day for books

The news from home is not good. Apparently, the city is short on funds so the branch libraries are closing.
I spent a lot of time at the Mt. Royal Branch Library from the time I was old enough to ride a bicycle there. I remember clearly the day it opened, because we were there, 7th graders, gleefully in line to check out books. And as if that weren't enough to bear, I'm reminded of the closure and eventual ignominious end of of my dear R.O. Carlson's Used Book & Record, where I used to sit for what seemed like hours sifting through records piled on the floor, hesitantly expecting the shelves to cave in and bury me in literature. Yes, the old man was creepy, but it was Duluth's Finest Tourist Attraction.