Through the Viewfinder

You could say it was love at first sight.  Ever since I first discovered through the viewfinder photography, I have been enthralled with its ghostly charm.  Last summer I was lucky enough to acquire a vintage Argus 75 camera.  It has a beautiful stereoscopic style - think of the View Master.  I still need some practice taking through the viewfinder photos, but I did get some pretty nice ones over the last few days that I'd like to share.

This photo shows the window of the camera.  It can be difficult to get the camera you're shooting with lined up so that the image is a nice clean square.  I wore out my battery twice practicing before I could do it with any consistency.

This is a shot of my husband's wonderful vintage tin car.  I love, love, love this little toy.

A couple of cheesy vintage ornaments are much improved when photographed this way.

This shot reminds me of The Airborne Toxic Event album cover.

This is one self-portrait I can live with.  You can see that the camera wasn't perfectly lined up by the blue on the left hand side of the frame.

I hope you enjoyed this little peek at my photos!

Vintage Goodness... Mary Maxim Sweaters

via THE CANADIAN DESIGN RESOURCE

Anyone who has ever discussed knitting with me knows that I do not knit sweaters.  I thrive on the completionist high I get from finishing a project, and I refuse to tackle anything that will take me longer than a week or two.  However, if you've ever gone thrifting with me, you know that I obsessively buy  vintage knitting patterns, no matter what type of garment they are for.  While I was going through my vintage knitting pattern collection on Friday, I came across three graph knitting patterns for hunting/fishing themed sweater jackets.

I have a soft spot for the "Grizzly" pattern because the model looks a lot like my dad did in the mid-sixties.  His nickname back then was "Clark" for Clark Gable, something he enjoyed talking about well into his eighties.

This one is interesting.  I like the graphics on the pattern leaflet better than the actual sweater, though.

Here is the pattern for the sweater in the opening photo of this post.  It's called "Angler's Pride", and is apparently still quite sought after.  I really like the way it looks made up.  The little bubbles put it over the top.

Here is a shot of the graph pattern itself.  I think this is a really effective way to do patterns with lots of colour work.

If anyone has photos of these sweaters made up (especially the Grizzly pattern), please give me a shout.  I'd love to see them!

I Heart Elliot Smith

I recently had the urge to dig out my old XO album by Elliot Smith.  What a sad and beautiful genius.

I found this gorgeous performance of Waltz #2 (XO) on youtube.  Such a lovely song.

How I got my sbl Blythe's head open, or so I guess I don't have to worry about resale values anymore

I'll just admit it: I have really bad taste in Blythes.

Well, there is my AE, the only Blythe I've ever bought who has actually increased (gasp!) in value since her purchase.  I do think she is quite cute, but honestly, her hair is a god awful nightmare.  Otherwise, the ones I really like are dark haired sbl's who only get cheaper and cheaper with time.  My very first Blythe was an RRe.  I thought she was just the prettiest thing, and I named her Nouvelle.  But I've always wanted to customize the dolls to photograph them, which is why I started collecting in the first place.  Actually, I kind of hate the clutter of playing with dolls - the clothes, the props, the accoutrements... I'm just a tomboy, I guess.

Anyway, sbl's are cheap (and therefore not a bad choice for novice customizers), but have the hardest head molds to open. Often you are required to actually saw their heads right open to even get started.  But I had heard  that you could open an sbl head without a saw by prying the face off.  When I tried this, it did not work  DID! NOT! WORK!  I had read or watched some tutorial that just didn't make it clear enough what to do.  My poor Nouvelle sat headless (I had sort of put her hair atop her head because it was just too creepy to look at a decapitated Blythe with a huge shiny bald dome - the hair really did help me feel less like a total weirdo serial killer type) for months and months.  Then I happened upon this wonderful you tube video that showed the right way to take an sbl face plate off.  Woo-hoo!



And here's Nouvelle!

Eek.  Some plastic broken there!  That piece snapped when I pulled the scalp off.  There was no hope for it.  The rest of it is stuck in place on the back of the face plate.  Hopefully the scalp will go back in alright.

Here you can see the gouges from the failed attempt at opening Nouvelle's head way back when.  I really am usually a very careful and patient person, I swear! ;)

I also got the eye mechanism out thanks to a fantastic (as always) tutorial at Puchi Collective.  Awesome.

So, there you go.   I hope I have more to show you soon!

Stripped Piano

A couple of weeks ago I noticed that a beautiful old piano had been left out by the garbage bins at one of the thrift stores I visit from time to time.  I guess they must have assumed that it would be a tough sell and considering how many pianos show up on freecycle, maybe they were right.  I went back today with my camera for a few pictures and found all ivory keys completely gone.  Old pianos are one of the few relatively abundant sources of legal - and often free - antique ivory.  Obviously someone had seen the opportunity here and taken what they could.

The inside of the piano had gorgeous lettering and graphics from the company.  B. Shoninger was apparently one of the first major piano manufacturers, opening in 1850.  This piano had the serial number 5356, making it a very early model.  According to this website, the company had made over 25000 pianos by the 1950's.

It's sad to see a wonderful, antique instrument left forsaken in a grungy parking lot.  Honestly if I had a bigger house, I would have at least a piano or two.  We had one growing up and I learned all about music from plunking away at those old keys and deciphering my grandmother's ancient sheet music.  Ah well, everything must come and go, I suppose.  Maybe I'll have to get a storage unit and start a piano rescue.  Imagine that!

Fixing a hole?

Rainy October Night, originally uploaded by bossbob50.

And it really doesn't matter if I'm wrong/ I'm right/ where I belong I'm right/ where I belong

They Say it's Your Birthday

Hello, hello!  I'm back again, after a long hiatus.  It is indeed my birthday (yay!) and I'm looking forward to a fantastic new year.

But first I want to look back at a great little nature walk I took with my family in Winnipeg's Assiniboine forest.  Assiniboine forest is a park/preserve of the natural woodland in this area, right in the city.  I love it there.  We went in the middle of November, which is usually frigid here but was unseasonably warm this year (thank-you, El Nino!).  The leaves had mostly fallen but the moss was still green and "flowering" - it was a beautiful day.

Lovely, isn't it?  It's amazing to think that the whole city was once a natural boreal forest!  We've seen all sorts of wildlife at the forest, including deer, beavers, many birds, and of course, insects.  It makes me sad to see nature increasingly marginalized, even though I do appreciate the comforts of modern life (especially in the -20C weather we are now experiencing!).  I am very happy that there is this tiny portion of the past can be preserved, and that I can share it with my son.