Behind the Curtain

Flickr Favs: April

1. Lenci Lady In Yellow, 2. Untitled, 3. Amphibious, 4. Thank-you notes don't need to be fancy. #mail #thankyou, 5. "Vroeger was het anders" opnames School TV, 6. cocktail time, 7. incoming Apr 12 10, 8. Blindfolded Bride, 9. incoming Apr 12 20, 10. 04.11.12 | dinner scenes, 11. In the wine cellar, 12. Helmut's House

Flickr Favs: November

1. History is playing one of its little tricks, 2. wazz mead, 3. William Haines & Joan Crawford, 4. Deco haberdashery, 5. Wer Kommt a, 6. Quaintways Tea Shoppe Folkingham Lincolnshire, highly recommended !, 7. King George VI Pillar Box, 8. Wer Kommt m, 9. 1942 ... brains, beauty and bravery!

Texture/Textile

Unknown original source, via Hooked Heart

I don't know why I've suddenly become obsessed, but I can't stop searching for and staring at antique textiles. Let us take a gander together...

Embroidery detail ca. 1600s, from the V&A

Wedding ensemble, Paquin 1910, Metropolitan Museum

Evening dress ca. 1865, The Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Image from QuiteRightSlick on Etsy

I'm planning on doing some embroidery for holiday gifts this year, but nothing on the scale of these. Ho hum, just some simple tea towels, but it is still lovely to look at the inspirations above. I'll show you some of the tea towel embroidery ideas I have next week.

 

Flickr Favs: September

1. Chocolate cake with a raspberry-elderflower cream, 2. Vintage / People / Photography, 3. outgoing Aug 11 22, 4. my swedish breakfast, 5. DWE_110721_7279, 6. making hexagons...., 7. [Toni Frissell, sitting, holding camera on her lap, with several children standing around her, somewhere in Europe] (LOC), 8. 1947 ... 'Going and Coming' detail- study, 9. Untitled, 10. newWAFAzine, 11. Dining Room, 12. agenda plm p1

National Postal Museum

The main gallery showing the evolution of mail delivery in the entrance to the National Postage Museum.

Most of my time in during my D.C. trip was spent hanging out with the family and just relaxing. I've been there a few times already, so I don't really do the whole monument tourist parade when I go anymore. The one thing I always try to do is stop by the F.D.R. memorial, because I just love walking through that space. (Did you know that his monument is considered a National Park? If you have a National Part Passport, you can get it stamped for that location in the gift shop. Super fun.)

I couldn't resist taking a picture of this old-timey truck with the war propaganda poster.

The one thing I embarrassed that I haven't done yet, even though I've been in the city so many times, is visit the National Postal Museum. I was at the will of my mom, as she had the car, and she wasn't exactly enthused that I wanted to visit this museum. I convinced her though and in the end she said she was "happily surprised & had a lot of fun."

My mother's fear, apparently, was that the information in the museum was going to be dense. I have to say that her fear was completely unfounded. The way they presented all the material was awesome. I especially liked one installation that allowed you to see the people behind the letters. (See image above.) There was a wall with pictures of individuals or families. When you push the photo panel, there is a copy of a letter that lights-up and the "person" begins to read it in their native tongue. They represented several ethnicities. It was a simple, effective way to get across the breadth of letters to all the population of the US.

Part of the V-Mail exhibit at the National Postal Museum

There was also a special exhibition about V-Mail, which was really interesting. Although I've done research about this WWII mail alternative, I never saw one in real life. I also had no idea that the reproduction V-Mail that was presented to the recipient was so tiny that most people needed a magnifier to read it!

Above is the negative strip of several V-Mail letters (to the left) with a reproduction of one letter. This was the best way to continue to have morale raising letters to the soldiers while still having enough space for shipping necessary supplies (food, ammo). The entire exhibit was really well curated. I may have shed a bit of a tear while reading / listening to some of the WWII letters.

If you find yourself in D.C. this summer, stop by the National Postal Museum and have a look around. It is right next to Union Station and it is free admission. There is even a microbrewery attached to the museum, so you can stop for a special pint of brew after your visit. Speaking of the museum's proximity to Union Station, one part of the museum I really enjoyed was the train car in the main gallery. There is a special "lad" there called Owney, who I am especially smitten with. I'll be doing a little post on this mail car pup next week!

Special Invitation

I have to admit I'm not one to go crazy about Valentine's Day. It's just not my thing. That being said, my weakness for ephemera leads me to some wacky things, the wackiest being old Valentine greetings. My my, can these get weird.

The awesome Carolee of Good Mail Day, recently went through boxes of family items and found oodles of Valentine cards. Lucky for us, she scanned them in so that we could print them out and even edit them ourselves. The two above and the ones below are all from her collection, which you can check out here.

Don't forget about our Valentine's Talk happening tomorrow at 2pm at Greer (1657 North Wells St.). For those of you who are letter lovers, but can't make it tomorrow, perhaps you will find this blog post from Bonjour! about social letter writing and this news article "13 Things Your Mail Carrier Won't Tell You" interesting bits of inspiration and information. Both of these links were found via Good Mail Day's Tumblr, which you really should be reading. Do any of you have some good letter writing and mail related blogs you enjoy reading?

Letters & Eye Candy

A reminder for those in the Chicago area, don't forgot about our letter writing social tomorrow at the Chicago Underground Library. Blizzard aftermath be damned, we're getting tother and writing letters! This social is free to all those interested in the art of letters, come and go as you please between 1 and 5pm. There will be free stationery, typewriters to clack away on, and both Donovan & I to answer any epistle questions you have.

For those of you unable to make it, let me sooth your soul with some lovely eye candy. Here are some photos that are my current Flickr favs. If there was a poster of the "Walk around the house" one, I'd buy it in a heartbeat!

1. Sorority Sisters.jpg, 2. a post about having confidence, 3. Untitled, 4. What's in my bag Feb/Mar 2010, 5. hands collection, 6. 1918 Arts & Crafts Bungalow, 7. so beautiful, 8. Untitled, 9. The Bunny Hug--For Wyld Hare

Happy weekend!

Flickr Favs

1. clavier, 2. ROMANCE DURING WORLD WAR TWO 1942, 3. Untitled, 4. greek train ticket, 5. Snowing Everywhere, But Doggy Doesn't Care--Vintage American Girl Magazine, 6. Untitled, 7. Victory day Paris 1945, 8. outgoing Nov 10 11, 9. Acquaintance Card

Lets Pretend

...That it is summer. Goodness knows I can use some warm weather!

For those in Chicago not pleased with the wishy-washy cold weather we've had lately, join us inside at the Renegade Holiday Fair this weekend!

We'll be in gym one over by the food vendors in booth 76! Come by and say hello.

Gramophones

Oh dear, I have Victrolas on the brain!* How about we look at some pictures of these lovely machines?

1. Victrola, 2. Record Matrix Room, Berliner Gramophone Company, Montreal, QC, 1910, 3. Untitled, 4. RCA Victrola, 5. Gramophone (1911), 6. The Great Pretender, 7. Edison Victrola, 8. Woman with early Victor Victrola, model XVI - c.1908, 9. Victrola records

Vintage Vivant gave me a heads up about a documetary being made about modern-day phonograph collectors and creators by Bison Grass Films. Amelia has more info about it on her blog and the film company has a donation program similar to Kickstarter to fund the making of the film. Go check it out!

 

*Fun fact: Phonographs and gramophones are the same thing. They were terms created by rival companies, with "phonograph" being used by Edison and his machine and "gram-o-phone" used by Victor Talking Machine Company. Victrola is specifically the "talking machine" with the horn coming out of the cabinet.