Vintage Find ~ 1800' s Letterpress

 

A late 1800's or early 1900's Baltimore cast iron tabletop letterpress. Looks like it's already been 'jerry-rigged' but the self inking disc turns a little with each stroke of the handle for printing.

The printing press is for 2.5" by 4" paper size. Needs some work, but in the meantime as just a stand alone desk top piece looks like art to me! What a find!

Vintage Find ~ Smith Corona Typewriters

Two wonderful typewriters! The Smith Corona with the green keys is from the 1950's. The metal maroon Corona with the black keys I believe is circa 1941. They both have all keys, no missing parts and work! How super lucky! 

Love 'em! Great treasures!
 

Vintage Find ~ Cameras

Two cool vintage cameras! The Graflex Speed Graphic folding camera (with a wooden tripod, all manuals and case!) has a Kodak lens and a Flash Bulb attachment. Believe it's circa 1940's. Shutters work and appears to be in working order, just need some film!

The Voightlander  Braunshweig is an old antique German folding camera and possibly from the 1920's or 1930's. 

 

The Bell & Howell Automaster is a 16mm movie camera which is from the 1940's. Just so cool looking!  

All are great pieces of art and wonderful just to display!

Custom-made Mini Book Presses

I have a larger book press but was wanting something for smaller scale books. After mentioning my dilemma to my sweetie he handmade these custom mini book presses just for me! What a sweetheart!

 

Miniature Bookcase

Had fun working on this project building a miniature bookcase. It measures : 7"W x 11"H x 3"D . Made the cute little specimen boxes and mini books too! 

Tutorials and specs for all of these can be found over at Nik the Booksmith on YouTube. As her name implies she also shares tutorials on bookbinding as well as eco printing, paper marbling and more!

Traditional Ukrainian Christmas Foods

A few of the traditional Ukrainian foods I enjoy making over the Christmas holiday.

Khrustyky are Ukrainian fried cookies dusted with powdered sugar.

Holopchi are cabbage rolls stuffed with ground beef, rice, buckwheat groats, onions and butter seasoned with salt and pepper with stewed tomatoes on top.

Borscht made with beets, cabbage, onions, carrots, celery, tomatoes and beef stew meat. Season with dill, bay leaves and vinegar. Salt and pepper to taste.

Babka bread was not only a holiday tradition but a staple growing up.

          

          Then there's the

'Lazy Cabbage Casserole'

Layered like a lasagna and bit less

labor intensive not having to stuff

the cabbage rolls.

 

On The Menu

What's for dinner?

How about a Stacked Burrito ?

Maybe a Deluxe Cheeseburger ?

Perhaps a Blue Plate Special Meatloaf!

Can't beat good 'ole home cooking!

Cooking is just another form of creating for me!
 

As Good As The Deli?

Yummmm... Not Bad!

Grilled Reuben and 

Grilled Ham and Cheese on Rye
 

Who Knew?! 

 Deli is a short form for the German word delicatessen, which basically means 'delicious things to eat' or 'delicacies' Originally used to refer to the food itself, it began to be used to describe the stores selling the food.

... according to Google!

In These Woods

 

Early Blooms

 The Flowering Cherry Tree in our front yard is blooming early this year.  I believe it is Prunus sargentii, commonly known as Sargent's cherry or North Japanese hill cherry. A species of cherry
native to Japan.

 It produces a mass of large, pretty pink flowers in spring which are complimented by lovely reddish-bronze new foliage that turns a glossy green before bursting into vibrant shades of yellows, reds, oranges and maroons in early autumn.

Our ‘Temple Bells’ (Pieris Japonica) is also blooming early this year. It is a slow-growing evergreen shrub with tiered branches and leathery deep green foliage that emerges apricot.  The dense drooping clusters of fragrant flower buds emerge in
summer and persist through winter before finally blooming pure white in the spring. 

It is native to eastern China, Taiwan,
and Japan, where it grows in mountain thickets.
 

Sparrows Nest

I believe this is a sparrows nest. I decided to consult our National Geo Birds of North America field guide and discovered there are several pages of different kinds of sparrows...almost 30 different types listed! Oh my gosh!

Although I enjoy observing birds...I'm not an official bird watcher or even a backyard bird aficionado. I can't completely attest to the fact that these are sparrows...but I think so? Either way, always a joy to see and hear the little chirps.

 

Handmade Leather Bound Journals

 A few handmade leather bound journals I made. I  bound the signature pages using pamphlet stitches. They measured 4 x 6 inches and 5 x 7 inches. I used a variety of papers from vintage lined papers and an assortment of handmade papers.

 

The leather journal on the right was bound using a criss-cross binding and I used heavier deckled edge handmade papers in a natural color. It measured about 4 x 6 inches.

On the left is a mini leather bound book measuring 2 inches. 

One below measures 4" x 5".

Lion's Paw Sea Shell Book

Another Coptic Bound Book. The one on the left  I used two Lion's Paw Sea Shells to create the covers of the book and bound with handmade papers to create the book and it measures 6 inches in size.

In contrast to the
size of the Lion's Paw I bound the Sunset Scallop Sea shells on the right using the same coptic stitch method but this one measures only two
inches. Certainly makes an adorable little journal!