"Sunshine ABC", an early cloth book for baby.

I bought this cloth book for baby when I was in my first year at art school, that was many years ago. The book came out at Christmas and was meant as a gift book. The back cover illustration is the only Christmas image in this little cloth book.

I'm not sure if the illustrations are chromolithographs or not but the colours are so rich.

I have just added five Christmas items in my Etsy shop, this little Snowlady is one of them. Go to my Etsy shop to buy her and any of the other items that take your fancy.

The New Hallowe'en Candy Container Ornaments Are Finished.

I didn't get the candy container ornaments posted yesterday did I? We went to the hospital again to visit Mum and the baby. Our lawn mower died so we went shopping for a new lawn mower after leaving the hospital. One thing after another seemed to get in the way.

Well, it has taken a while to cast, clean up, paint and accessorize the candy container ornaments but they are finally done. I am more than pleased with them if I may say so myself.

But now (a brief pause)

I can say (another brief pause to build the anticipation and eventual joy)

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, please welcome the new, the wonderful, the marvelous - "HALLOWE'EN CANDY CONTAINER ORNAMENTS!"

I think this might be one of my favourites, Timothy, a pattypan squash, has a squirting flower. SOLD

Johnny and I were talking about unfortunate costume choices and he recounted the time he decided to go as an apple on the end of a string, that old game that no one seems to know the name of. He couldn't go anywhere. He hung there feeling somewhat nervous that he may become part of the games. He holds a working rattle.

Pierre, a Rouge Vif D'etampes pumpkin, came to the "J-O-L-ity Fair Costume Ball" dressed as a Persian scribe.

We have fireworks at Hallowe'en in Victoria, unfortunately firecrackers were banned years ago. They were dangerous but so much fun. This is a string of handmade firecrackers (fake!) that are tied together exactly the way the real firecrackers are tied together. AVAILABLE

Morty has his rattle ready to wake up his fellow mushrooms. SOLD

All ready to get that bag filled with treats. SOLD

Black Cat carries a wonderful rattle that he won at the J-0-L-ity Fair. SOLD

Harv, as he is known to his friends and Harvest Moon on formal invitations, has an armload of fireworks gathered on his travels around the world. AVAILABLE

Whooly is just about ready to go out and trick or treat. SOLD

This little acorn guy has his parade lantern ready to light the way for his fellow treat gatherers. SOLD

"Caws-mo" has decided to wear a fake mustache so that no one will recognize him. He had to have some help to tie it on. He also decorated his hat with a blackberry, a piece of fern and some fleece that he found in the field. SOLD

Baby Phoenix

Things are a little topsy-turvy around here, so here is a very quick update. We are now grand parents!

Baby Phoenix Lara Bentham arrived yesterday morning. There is nothing like a baby to change the direction of whatever is going on. I was going to post the new candy container ornaments yesterday and that became unimportant. I will do that tomorrow, hopefully.

Here is another sneak peek.

Baby Shower Update

I thought that you would like to see the decorations for the baby shower. These flowers I had originally made for our oldest son's wedding party that we had for him and his lovely Swiss wife Sabine (pronounced Sah-BEE-nay). They came over a few days after the wedding and wanted a big party as soon as they were here so that they could get it all of that over with and then just relax. I had put so time in making them out of crepe paper I couldn't throw them out.

This small round table was in the centre of the room. You can see one of the guest tables with two of the arrangements on it and the gift table in the back.

This is a close-up of the vintage felt stork and a baby crib vase filled with pastel candy marshmallow peanuts. The candy colours were perfect and the taste less than perfect. Think sugary marshmallow with artificial flavourings. Once you tasted one though they were a little addictive. People remembered having them as kids.

These vases were on the head table. I used the candies as recyclable confetti on the tables. Any that weren't eaten were tossed. A little greener than plastic confetti.

This is the gift table before any gifts were on it.

Here is a close-up. That is a token gift from my wife and I because the main gift (with many more to come) had not arrived yet. I used the green bucket to make the table look asthetically pleasing without gifts and later to hold gifts that were a little unstable standing up.

The gifts are starting to arrive.

A cake from the Dutch Bakery. It was very sweet, not to my taste, but it did look wonderful.

I had finished an hour early so I went for a walk and came across a garage sale. Two little old ladies had all kinds of stuff. Most of it was common garage sale stuff. I bought this Art Nouveau bisquit jar for $2.00! It has a silver lid and handle. When I got home I immediately put it the mantel.

This 15" oval platter was 50 cents. Amazing prices and an amazing day. I also had a birthday party to go to in the evening. Bed looked great that night.

Three New Items In My Etsy Store.

I have added these three items to my Etsy store today.

POP-UP BUNNY PULL TOY.

This Pull toy has a rabbit in the watering can that pops his head up as it is pulled along the floor.

JUST ARRIVED PULL TOY.

Three chicks pull an ornate shoe with a baby in it.

BABY BUNNY PULL TOY.
A baby bunny gently swings in his bassinette from the stem of a tulip.