Autograph Book

I went to 5 or 6 different yard sales on the way home from knitting group this morning. AMAZINGLY, I only bought stuff at three of them, though I totally made out like a bandit, especially at one! I've been looking for some very specific things, which I might start showing you after a bit, and I did not let myself look at any clothes (er, except I did buy a Cheshire Cat t-shirt and a pretty wrap skirt, and I coveted a couple of fur coats but didn't buy them). I could yammer on about the other things I got, but I'll save that for later. Today I want to tell you about the autograph book.


An autograph book is a little book of blank pages in which a person collects the autographs of friends and acquaintances, although they often also contain little notes, poems, rhymes, jokes, or even drawings.

I like how she added "Sunday" before School-day Memories, and wrote the name of her teacher, "Brother Wilcox" instead of the more typical year she graduated from that class. It's also got her address, which you can bet I will be scoping out soon, if possible.

This is the autograph book of Annie Lillian Lambert. I know her middle name, even though it isn't in the autograph book, because I also bought her 5-year diary, which was sporadically filled out for 1943 up until July 16th, with three entries in 1944. (The diary, the autograph book, and a really cute 1930's children's book I got for $1 all together.) In the diary, she mostly wrote about the parties she went to with friends, receiving letters from various boys, who drove her home or who she sat next to on rides around town (and what a "swell guy" the beau of the moment was), and the occasional prayer meeting at church or test at school.

The first handful of pages appear to be filled in by visiting preachers, maybe at revivals or just from gentlemen who came to preach at her church. I know sometimes "back in the day," nearby towns used to swap preachers for a Sunday. After that, the rest of the pages (and there are many!) are written in by Sunday School friends. There are also quite a few from people she met at a church camp called Pinecrest (written "Pine Crest" in the book) Camp in Palmer Lake, Colorado. A Google search pulled up The Historic Pinecrest, a lovely place to get married, with a chapel, an event center, and a lodge. Only the chapel looks like it might be remotely "historic," but I couldn't find anything more about it. Either it's a different place altogether, or it's undergone a lot of remodeling since 1945.


"May 28, 1944

Dear Annie,

Cows like punkins
Pigs like squash
I like you
I do by gosh!

A friend
Ruth Rupe"

There are several Rupes in the book; I assume they're siblings and/or cousins around Annie's age.


"June 11, 1944
Grand Junction, Colo.

Dear Annie,

Annie is your name.
Grand Jct. is your station,
Flearting (sic) with the boys
is your chief accupation (sic).

Sgt. George Gray
&
Bertha Whitesel
&
Flora Rupe"

I wonder where she met these folks! I'll bet she was very excited to spend time with a Sergeant! And who are Bertha and Flora, and why did they feel the need to sign the same page but in lead pencil as opposed to the blue pencil George signed with? Just friends being silly after the fact, or were they really there and just used a different pencil?


"Aug. 16, 1945

Dear Ann,

When you are kissing your sweetheart,
Out by the gate,
Remember, love's blind
but the neighbors ain't.

Your friend at Youth Camp,
Carlene Alexander"

From the 1944 diary entries, I'm assuming she's at least in high school from all the talk about "driving around" and "he drove me home!" Was she really that big a flirt and that boy-crazy? Or am I just getting a small part of the story--the things she thought were important and wanted to write about and the things her friends wanted to remember and tease her about.

Many of the preachers and some of the friends or acquaintances wrote well-wishes and exhorted her (one even used that word, exhort!) to live a life for God, that she would be a blessing to others, that the Lord would bless her, that God needs her talents, and so on. Reverend C.E. Myers from Osborn, Missouri, at a revival in Grand Junction on May 6, 1944, wrote Rom. 11:33 on his page. The verse is, "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!" John H. Kane of Anderson, Indiana, (camper, preacher, or friend?) recommended Annie memorize 1 Cor. 10:13, as "It will help you much." That verse is, "No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it."

Lila Mae (with whom Annie spent many days and nights, according to the diary) wrote "In your fruitcake of friends, remember me as the nut!" after her little note, but she wrote it upside down and added in the corner, "Ha! ha! I made you turn upside down." There's also some sort of code on the edge of her page. I'm sure they were very close friends with lots of inside jokes.

There are several references to the colors of the pages, usually in rhyme (these are only a couple): "I'll be polite and write on white/ And save the yellow for your fellow." (Lila Mae) "I'll write on yellow 'cause it is mellow" (Myron Hogen/Hagen?) In the book there are white, yellow, pink, and blue pages. I think this must be typical for autograph books because of the rhymes, which the folks who signed must have memorized and written often in various autograph books. One person named Lowell Ely (maybe? water smudged it) wrote around in a spiral, "Some people write up some write down Just to be different I will write around." Bertha Whitesel (who may or may not have known Sgt. George Gray!) added to the end of her cute poem, "Yours till the Mississippi wears rubber pants to keep its bottom dry." I also saw "Yours til the butter flies," and, "Yours till the popcorn balls."

I'm sure this is WAY MORE information than any of you really wanted or certainly needed, but I just love this whole thing! I understand the thrill of being a historian or an archeologist, now. You only have so much to work with, but by putting pieces together, matching up handwriting, finding out information on places, dates, and names, and using a little imagination, you can put together a picture of someone's life decades or even centuries in the past!

Did any of you ever have an autograph book? What are some memorable things you've seen in autograph books or yearbooks? What sorts of things did you used to write?

Some Lists

Things I Am Not Allowed To Buy At Yard Sales This Summer
-yarn
-fabric
-sewing patterns
-buttons (unless they're really really cute and/or vintage. they don't take up much room, okay?)
-books. at all. period. (unless it's Pride and Prejudice, because somehow I've got a little bit of a collection going of different editions) (or unless they're classics that I've specifically been looking for)
-another typewriter, no matter how cute it is or how cheap. the one I have is enough.
-knitting needles
-clothes. at all. period. even though I have an 18 inch high stack of clothes to give to Goodwill.
-shoes, unless they are the perfect gold sandals I've been looking for since last summer
-did I mention that I'm not allowed to buy books? remind me, if you see me at a yard sale. I literally have NO ROOM for any more. I don't have enough room for the ones I do have.

Things I Do Need To Buy At Yard Sales This Summer
-frame for a queen bed (guest room)
-nightstand (guest room)
-lamp (guest room)
-curtain rods (various rooms)
-sliding glass door doggie door insert thing
-the perfect gold sandals I've been looking for since last summer

Things I Might Buy At Yard Sales This Summer, Depending On Price, Quality, Etc.
-a bike, depending on how close my summer job ends up being to the house, since I might ride there
-things for my classroom (assuming I get a job for this fall) like posters, maybe a couple of fake plants, perhaps a desk if the school doesn't have a good one, file cabinets, and so on
-Gunne Sax dresses, since I seem to have good luck finding gorgeous ones in good condition for cheap
-violin sheet music, perhaps. (I really need to call and get a teacher.)

What do YOU want to find at yard sales this summer? Is there anything YOU'RE not allowed to buy?

Jan. 6 Poem With Photographs

Handwarmers

1



2



3



for a fellow teacher's daughters.
(My first commission.)

Snips and slivers and
shavings of
white fluff-dust
tickling my nose--
all for pom-poms on a hat.




Sock shopping,
dollar bin digging;
I love Michael's.



Finally come home
to a fluffy, fuzzy fox face;
Frantic, frenetic hopping,
happy, high-spirited yips.

San Diego 2009 - Part 2

We left off on Tuesday evening at Croce's Jazz Bar, and now resume our tale Wednesday morning.



Pretty flowers outside yet another thrift store.

After that, we went to Hillcrest, off of University Avenue (oddly enough, it's near the college) for another "famous" thrift store (or at least it got good reviews online). We parked just outside "Wear it Again, Sam," a vintage clothing store. (That's not the one we were looking for, but it was a fortuitous parking place, since we got to check it out!) I stepped inside and I swear, it was like I Love Lucy all around, from the men's shirts to the purses and hats to the bathing suits to the dresses. Sooooo much prettiness and cuteness! Unfortunately everything was overpriced, even the things that were in bad condition, i.e. had rips or runs or broken zippers. *Sigh* But very fun to look.

We had lunch at Pizza Fusion, and everything there is eco-friendly, biodegradable, free-range, and organic. Our waitress was covered in tattoos and was kind of a friendly, dippy hippie sort of person. Here is the bathroom sink:



(I took a picture of the nifty bathroom sinks at Quarter Kitchen, too, but they turned out bad so I didn't post them. I'm weird, I know.) I'm pretty sure it was made from bamboo, and at the bottom of the mirror, it says "This person is helping to change the world." Awww.

We hit Buffalo Exchange after that, and if we weren't so tired and footsore at that point, we could've spent a lot longer inside. I tried on a ton of stuff but everything either didn't fit, or was ugly on me. All except a cute black pencil skirt, yay! I'd been wanting one for teaching this fall.

If you've met my mom, this will come as little surprise to you: we went and got her nose pierced that afternoon. :D We punched "tattoo" into the GPS to find a place and drove just a little ways, went in and met a hairy, tattoo'd dude, and were told to come back in half an hour. After having a coffee and pastry at a cute French place, we returned to Swell Tattoo Co.





:D Didn't hurt, didn't bleed, she didn't even tear up.

After that, we went home, exhausted.

Thursday was our last day in San Diego. We hit Ikea in the morning, wheeeeeee! I love love love that store! I'd never been in one before, but everything in it was just like our house is decorated. I wanted to buy all of it! And so cheap, too! Eventually, when (if) we have money, we might be ordering some smaller things from the website.



Brittany, this is for you and your Ikea food pictures! We split a chicken wrap and an order of French fries. I had apple juice and Mom had some sort of sparkling peach stuff. Yum!

After lunch, we drove to the Natural History Museum for the Body Worlds exhibit. It was very cool and I'm very glad we went! It was like walking through a giant science lesson, but in a good way. I went back and forth between, "Oh my gosh, these are real people. Ew. Dang." and "Wow, this is so awsome! Look at that heart cross section/those blood vessels/that embryo/those muscles!" If you have a chance to go, I recommend it.



Lovely avenue between the science building and the museum proper. Don't know what was down it, but it was sure a photo opportunity!

Thursday after work, Lori drove us an hour and a half-ish back to Jenna's apartment. We watched What Happens in Vegas, which was better than I'd thought it would be: hilarious and cute. Lori then drove home since she had work the next morning, and Mom and I slept on the hideaway in the spare room, and the couch in the living room, respectively.

The whole trip, Mom and I had been dying for El Pollo Loco. (Oh my gosh, that website just made me so hungry for it! It's soooo good!) It had been years since either of us had had it, since there aren't any in Colorado. So on the way to the airport (Jen came back on her lunch break to take us), we drove through and got combo meals. Deciding it would be too messy to eat them in the car, and thinking it was only a half hour, anyway, we waited til we got to the airport. After checking our bag and getting our tickets, we started toward... well, a freaking huge line. And at the end of that line was the security checkpoint, past which you cannot take food. So yes, we scarfed down as much as we could, since we had to get in that line and we couldn't be late for our flight.



(Good grief, I really needed to cut my bangs that whole time we were there, they looked like crud!) (And I like Mr. "I'm not paying attention to the silly tourists taking pictures of their chicken" behind me.) Here I am with our carry-on junk on a cart, eating grilled chicken, tortillas, beans, and rice, as fast as possible without getting sick.

And then, finally, we were on the plane home. After the stress of the huge airport, both of us just read and dozed a little. However, I had to take one more picture.



I think our carry-on bags are so indicative of our personalities. Heather's is handmade, vintage-looking, pink, and comfy. Donna's is patent-leather, zebra striped, and accented with lipstick-red and silver chains.

Good trip.

San Diego 2009 - Part 1

The trip immortalized forever in a wholllle lot of pictures! Oddly enough, a lot of them are of food, but I'll only show you a couple of those. (We did a lot of eating. It was great.) I took about 80 pictures and whittled them down to 21.

Mom and I left here about 9:30 on Friday night and the two-hour flight got into LAX about 10:45--California time. (The trip home was "three hours" long because of the time change.) My cousin, Jennifer, picked us up at the airport since she lives about half an hour away, then we drove straight down to my Aunt Lori's house in San Diego, about another hour and a half. We arrived at Lori's about 1am and promptly crashed into our respective beds. Mom and I had their toy hauler/trailer in the driveway to ourselves, which was super nice.



Here is the view from their huge picture window in the living room. Across the bay you can see the Sea World fireworks go off about 10 every night.



This is how we spent the first half of Saturday. It was amazing. Once we were finally dressed, we went to CostCo, since we'd made great plans of wonderful things to cook and eat that week. After dropping all that off at the house, Mom and I took Lori's car to the beach for a couple hours while Lori and Jen (who can go to the beach whenever they want since they live there) hit another grocery store for a couple more things. We came back and had a yummy dinner: a salad of greens with grilled chicken, fresh raspberries, carmelized walnuts, and raspberry vinagrette. Uncle Jeff was on a boat fishing with friends, and my other cousin, Curtis, was at his cousin's house, so we could have a super-girly dinner.

Sunday we had a "tea party" breakfast with orange-chocolate-chip scones, two kinds of tea, and yogurt-fruit-granola "parfaits" in martini glasses, then the four of us went to the swap meet. Sooooooo much shopping, and all for super cheap! I got a top and a dress for $12, the parasol for $2, a bunch of earrings for $5, a purse and matching wallet (the same exact set I'd been pining for from Icing, but I paid $8 for the set instead of $30!), lots of hair stuff, new sunglasses... I don't know what all else. Jenna also got a big rug for her new apartment for just $40, and Mom got two pair of shoes, a hat... Yeah, there was major shopping.





Snack time! (Jenna and Lori)

That night we had a nice dinner with the whole family, as well as Curtis' really sweet girlfriend, Sarah. We watched Holes, which I hadn't seen in forever. It's still wonderful! :) (Please read the book first if you haven't seen the movie! They're both great, but of course the book is better.) Then Curtis played a new song he'd learned on his 12-string. He has a minor guitar addiction, and by "minor" I mean he has about 6 all over his room.



Jenna got up early Monday morning to head back to Orange County and work, booo. Mom drove Lori to work so we'd have the use of her car all day (and she caught a ride back with Jeff). Then we hit the thrift stores--hard! One called "The Buff" was supposed to be awesome, but was mostly full of cheap-o Halloween costumes and castoff 90's clothes, though I did find some dark turquoise, velvet, high-heeled shoes with rhinestone buckles on them! Up the street was "Thrift Trader," where everything in the store--t-shirts, skirts, movies, CDs, jackets, everything--was either $5.99 or 4 items for $20. We made out good there!



I got this top, as well as a bunch of cute WWF t-shirts and a black cropped jacket that will be good for teaching. Mom got a bunch of CDs.



We then made our second Starbucks stop of the day for a little pick-me-up before heading to AmVets, a huuuuge thrift store the size of a warehouse. (All the proceeds went to support veterans, yay.)



Mom did not get the overalls, I just wanted a picture of her in a thrift store, too. She did get a tablecloth, and I got a couple of dresses and a pair of brown patent-leather peep-toe heels. I've been needing good brown shoes!

Exhausted, we returned to Lori and Jeff's and put our feet up!

The next day we went to the Gaslamp District, which is full of historic buildings such as:



Pretty, huh? Also, gas lamps! Although of course they're electric now. We spent pretty much that whole day in the Horton Plaza Mall, again, shopping til we dropped. (Why I kept wearing high heels, I do not know. Oh right, cuz they're cute. Beauty is pain.) We finally rested our feet at Quarter Kitchen, the restaurant of the Ivy, a fancy-ish hotel. There I met, in person, Jen from Somewhere Knitting! We've been internet friends for around three years now, I think! She lived about two hours south of San Diego, and since she would be moving back east a couple of weeks after and we would likely never get the chance to meet again, we decided to have dinner that night!



It was really great to talk to her face-to-face, and I'm so glad my mom could meet her, too! (They'd been Facebook friends for a while; somehow they remind me of the other.) Jen, thanks again so much for driving all that way to see us!



This is the most amazing braised beef I've ever had, it just fell apart in your mouth! Tiny carrots, tiny potatoes. The restaurant was so fancy that the portions were leeetle, but we got two appetizer-entree-dessert orders and shared between the three of us; it was just right.



Like I said, Mom has fond memories of Jim Croce and his music from her high school days, so we went to his restaurant and jazz bar to check it out and buy a souvenier. (He died in a plane crash years ago, so it's not really his restaurant, but anyway.) It wasn't quite what we were expecting; there was a very loud band in one corner (good, though!) and the "gift shop" was a locked glass case in the back by the restrooms which contained a few box sets, some DVDs, and some t-shirts. Oh well. Mom got the 30th anniversary box set of two CDs and a DVD of live stuff, and took a picture with the bouncer! Then we took the trolley back to the depot (we'd taken the bus into the District, so we got both experiences--the trolley was a lot faster--in order to not mess with and pay for parking downtown) and drove a couple of miles home!

This is a very long post with a lot lot of pictures, so I'll wrap it up for now. Part 2 coming soon! (Hopefully tomorrow.)

P.S. New banner up top, RSS readers!

8 Things Friday

1. Fairly brief tonight because we're going to see the new X-Men movie in a couple of hours, and I want to get in as much sewing time as possible between now and then.

2. This is what I've been seeing for half of today:



I've been chain-piecing colored squares to white rectangles (and before that, cutting out lots and lots and lots of white rectangles). I have three strips done, and will probably have ten, total. With the plain white strips between the pieced strips, I think this thing will be big enough for a twin bed!

3. Went to Goodwill yesterday, and made several great scores:



Real leather, I think, and for only $5! Lots of great pockets, but not too many, and they're not too hard to get to. Very steampunk-looking, I think (and would go with my sky pirate/adventurer look nicely), nice size, good strap length, and it could even double as a "manly diaper bag" for Matt when the time comes. IF I let him have it.



Vintage aprons! I'm pretty sure the bottom one was hand-crocheted!!! And the top one has light pink chicken scratch embroidery on it, which you can't really see in the photo (and you can hardly see in real life, but which looks very sweet).



The blue and red is a Martha Stewart sheet (from her line at K-Mart, I'm assuming) which will likely become a skirt or dress, and the pastel floral is a knit sheet that will become pjs--I think shorts and a cami, maybe with a short robe if I have enough.



I didn't have brown sandals! But now I do. Love them!

4. Tweenbots. This is adorable. Someone made little cardboard "robots" and then set them going (in a straight line only) somewhere in New York City, with a flag attatched asking passersby to assit them toward their destination, which is printed there as well. Watch the video, it's worth it!

5. Possibly the cutest handmade toy(s) ever.

6. I've begun tagging my posts, which you should be able to see in the sidebar. I don' think I'm quite halfway through, but maybe 1/3. I'll tag each new entry from now on, and just do a bit at a time from the past ones til I'm all caught up.

7. I haven't really written anything since my last post, but I want to! I'm going to! Keep cheering me on/bugging me about it.

8. I did not put a ruffle on my new halter dress. I'd situated the skirt lining so the nice, even hem of the sheet it was cut from was the hem of the skirt, and if I cut off the outer fabric to shorten it and add a ruffle, I would've had to cut off and re-hem the lining, which would've been more work, and anyway, I'm almost out of white thread and wanted it done LAST NIGHT NOW instead of waiting. I can always put a ruffle on it later if I change my mind (and feel like hemming the lining, and buy more white thread).

I love Goodwill

I found some great stuff at Goodwill today!






Love this detail!

Both pair of gloves were marked 49 cents, but rang up as 34 cents! On certain days, certain colors of tags are on sale. Great find! "Real" gloves are hard to come by anymore, and they're not cheap when you can find them.



I got two of these. They were also marked 49 cents and rang up as 34! I'm going to attempt to peel the yucky paper off, trace it, and glue new, nice paper (probably with a design on it) back on. Wish me luck with that!

I saved the best for last!



Aren't they great? They have character! $10! I think I'll wear these a lot this fall and winter.



Huzzah! All the above for less than $13. Successful shopping trip, I say.