Lisa Occhipinti

I love to see old books used again. Every so often I come across clever projects made with old books & always wish I'd thought of that. The best ideas are simple, but convey a love of books. Lisa Occhipinti creates serene, thoughtful & comforting objects; which preserve & honor the original volumes.
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Russell & Lillian Hoban

Russell & Lillian Hoban wrote & illustrated The Little Brute Family. I love this simple story, which tells of the impact a 'little wandering lost good feeling' has on this family of brutes. I have what would be called 'a reading copy' !

The companion story The Stone Doll of Sister Brute is not in my collection - pity! These two books are few & far between, & I cannot find a hardback copy online for less than $49.99.

Russell & Lillian Hoban are best known for their Frances series, written about a tempermental badger child. Inspiration for this character was drawn from the couple's own four children.

The Hobans also wrote & illustrated Emmet Otter's Jugband Christmas, which later became a Jim Henson television special.

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Beautiful color on a foggy day ~

Look! Click on individual pictures for larger view.




























I was casting about in my fog-surrounded home this morning, looking for something colorful. The most wonderful book jumped off the bookshelf; colorful & timely too; inspiration for my doll project! Each figure wears a colorful layered folk-costume. The costumes pictured are tremendously varied in pattern & style.

I can provide no information about this book other than its publication date of 1965. Although over half of the book is text, it is Russian. A quick check on my magic computer tells me that Russian is one of the world's most widely spoken languages, used in numerous countries including Chechnya, Ukraine, Serbia, Bulgaria, Uzbekistan, Kazakstan and Mongolia. Hmm (thoughtful absorption).

All of these potteries are dated & labeled, but alas they remain a mystery to me. And that's ok.

Maud & Miska Petersham

Maud & Miska Petersham were an illustrating husband & wife team who are most famous for writing & illustrating The Rooster Crows, which won the 1946 Caldecott Medal. Their first book was called Miki (published 1929), about their son.

Over their career they illustrated nearly one hundred books, some for other authors, some written by themselves. Like the D'Aulaires, they frequently used stone lithography to illustrate their books.

My collection includes a few titles from their Story Book Series, which

encompasses twenty-five books published between 1933 and 1939 explaining different subjects such as coal, corn, cotton, food, gold, houses, iron & steel, oil, rayon, rice, ships, silk, sugar, things we wear, things we use, trains, transportation, wheat, wheels, and wool.

(from The Story Book of Wool)

links:

Illustration Station - Twentieth Century Illustrators of Young People's Literature

de Grummond Collection - Maud & Miska Petersham Papers

Northwestern Digital Archives - Maud & Miska Petersham Illustrations 1930 - 1958

New Homes Guide, Winter - Spring 1963

Cover Home -

'A detailed study of 72 plans you can buy...'

(however, there are detailed schematics included with dimensions for each room)

Dozens of great modern home plans.

Might this interest my bi-coastal friends?

Vintage Cooking: The Congressional Cookbook 1965

copyright 1965.

Forward by Mrs. Lyndon B. Johnson

'At the turn of the century, when this book was in its infancy, it might have contained a basic recipe on how to can and preserve orchard fruits and garden vegetables (family requirement about 125 quarts per person!). Today the housewife hurries through instant coffee and minute rice. Neither the drudgery of yesterday not the frozen efficiency of today is, in my opinion, "the way to a man's heart." But if you leaf through these pages, and try a few not-too-complicated but unusual and delectable recipes you will have found the right road. '

Knitting Bookshelf: No Idle Hands by Anne L. Macdonald

No Idle Hands is the best book I've read on any type of needlework history; it's a page-turner! It is also one of a few select books which has a permanent spot on my knitting bookshelf. It contains 512 pages of engaging, humorous, & detailed knitting history. Used copies are available at Amazon for as little as $5.

No Idle Hands - The Social History of American Knitting

by Anne L. Macdonald

Originally published in 1990, No Idle Hands is now available as an abridged audiobook available from

Knitting Out Loud - An Audiobook Publishing Company

From Knitting Out Loud:

'Drawn from diaries, letters and personal reminiscences, No Idle Hands tells an intimate and sometimes hair-raising story of hand knitting in America from Colonial times onward. Women knit through the hardships of covered wagon travel across the West. They knit to save their husbands and sons from freezing to death on battlefields. Shell-shocked men knit to save their sanity in hospitals during both world wars. No Idle Hands documents the importance knitting has had in American life.'

Vintage Magazine: House Beautiful, June 1969

I've decided to resurrect an unfortunate but short-lived trend; indoor / outdoor carpeting. Envision it on a grey, rainy day with all of the patio furniture put away. The interference with the landscape was extreme. Plus, the 'carpet' was squishy & soggy. If God had intended the ground to be turquoise, etc.

Don't they look plastic?

Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire

Leif the Lucky (1941)

I think I've gotten just as much pleasure from children's literature as I have from adult reading. As my children have gotten older I've decided to keep quite a bit of what we collected when they were young. I get some kind of satisfaction from collecting and reading through a series of good books. Not series like Nancy Drew (formulaic & predictable), but series written on topic the author was passionate or at least enthusiastic about. Many of my favorite children's authors wrote a group or series of stories on a theme; one example I mentioned in an earlier post; Sybil Deutscher & Opal Wheeler's biographies about the composers.

My very favorite books of this type were written by Ingri & Edgar Parin D'Aulaire. Among their many wonderful books are a group of picture book biographies written about early American heroes. The text is very simple, but filled with authentic details; as many as one thousand hours spent researching their subject in museums, libraries, & universities might be compressed into one book. In addition, the authors took extended camping trips to see & feel the locations where their subjects lived & worked.

The illustrations are, in my opinion the great distinguishing feature of these books, the primary reason they are still so popular today. The books have been reprinted, but in order to enjoy the spectacular depth & richness of color, obtaining an original copy is worthwhile. The D'Aulaire's employed the lithographic process of early craftsmen who without cameras worked carefully by hand. The process requires that each picture be completely drawn (no erasing is possible) on a large stone, with separate drawings made for each color. Their large, colorful illustrations were designed to appeal especially to children.

The Star Spangled Banner (1942)

Woodland Pincushion

Such a busy week! & 100+ degrees. Unseasonably warm.

I've just finished reading Nature Noir: A Park Ranger's Patrol in the Sierra.

Slated to be drowned by a dam, the California state park patrolled

by the author of this haunting memoir is a "condemned landscape"

of gorgeous river canyons hemmed in by exurban sprawl

and peopled by eccentric gold miners, squatting families,

drug dealers and miscellaneous drunken, gun-waving rowdies, a place

where "turkey vultures floated... savoring the hot air for the

inevitable attrition of heat, drought and violence."

It's set in the area where I live. Recommended.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm pretty knowledeable about park rangering because I've read all but one of the 14 Anna Pidgeon mysteries by Nevada Barr; each is set in a different National Park.

Opal Wheeler & Sybil Deutscher

I am going to part with some of my book collections. I still love them, so I'll create a virtual collection after the style of REFERENCE LIBRARY.

Opal Wheeler was born in 1898 & developed an interest in music at a very early age. She composed music to go with Mother Goose rhymes when she was only six.

She studied music at the Universities of Wisconsin & Washington, as well as Columbia University. She further studied music in Italy and France. Later she taught music to children.

She saw a need for composers' biographies written for children, and joined with Sybil Deutscher to write 20 biographies over a period of ten years, beginning in the late 1930s. Other books she wrote included an artist's series, music anthologies, a biography of Hans Christian Anderson, and even an adaptation of Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore.

Musicial children will enjoy playing the tunes discussed by the author, which are included in each book.

These books have regained popularity with home schooling families; I discovered today there are now companion study guides for Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, Handel, Hayden, Mozart, Schubert, & Schumann. The books themselves have been reprinted in softcover editions.

The only thing I could not discover was a photograph of the author.

Frohe Geburtstag to me.

Someone who loves me gave me this. It couldn't be a nicer gift, & this book will make the cut as I labor to reduce the tonnage that is our book collection. (I really wanted to use the word tonnage; please forgive if it's incorrectly applied).

We have too many books! It's time to get rid of a considerable portion of them. ( deliberately choosing the vague term considerable...)

This morning while visiting Lost Button Studio, I came across this article with several helpful links on how to thin out my library. Despite confusing & oxymoronic phrases like 'limit book clutter' I skimmed these links & bookmarked them for later reference.

I hope I can do this! With so many people in our family almost every book is special to somebody.

Library Windfall

I really scored in the 'New Non-Fiction' section today. I was going to wait in the car while my daughter went inside - - I am not really seeking out more reading material. I don't go to the library as much as I used to for that reason. However; my daughter asked me to go with, so I did & here is what I found.

some nice techniques, new to me.

ditto.

This has some very nice crocheted clothing - need I say more?

British knitwear design + knitting history = good times.

May have more to say on these, won't know for a bit.

How to Build Modern Furniture - thrifted

Tiny Ami Deal.

My 12 yr. old son & I hammered out a deal. His part; buy the book & yarn (he had very specific ideas @ color, eye placement, & accessories). My part; supply the eyes, the felted wool, & create 5 little amigurumi creatures (duck, bunny, cat, turtle & dog...)

I get to keep the book.

Quasi Book Review; Homespun & Handknit

Here's an old book that has stayed in print. Each glove, mitten, hat or sock pattern is contributed by a different knitter. The patterns are not on the cutting edge style-wise, rather more in the classic, practical category. These two hat patterns are among my favorites & I've made them repeatedly. Especially the Birds & Bees cap is an all-time favorite which I've made four times in different color combinations.

Northern Lights Bohus Cap

Birds & Bees Cap