Letterpress

Some of you have been asking me, "What is letterpress?" Well, it's just the old fashioned way of printing—like the Gutenburg Press. CLICK HERE to watch a short introductory video.

Arbuckle Wilderness

We visited Arbuckle Wilderness yesterday, in Oklahoma (about an hour and a half away from home.) It was fantastic. It's a drive-through open range where several different animals roam. They aren't fed during the day by park rangers because the public gets to feed them. So here goes, fasten your seat belts, and don't get out of the car. There's some pretty wild animals on the loose. . . .

Texas long horn

Llama, which I have nicknamed Poodle Llama.

5 bucks for three cups of feed, totally worth it. Yum, Pepsi.

A camel takes thing into his own hands . . . er, mouth.

The camels go from car to car and
stick their head inside looking for food.

Jamie and her Dad ahead of us. I'm not sure what many of the animals are. The park didn't post much information—bummer. Don't worry about the horns, the animals seemed pretty aware of them so no one got scratches on their cars.

Larissa and Dayne . . . is that a Yak?

Bison

Much of the time we had to pour the feed into the animal's mouths because the cups are so small.

Tiny, beautiful, and white, this creature was too afraid to eat out of the cups. The antlers are fuzzy.

If I remember right, this cow is from India and is known for its long ears—biggest ears in the cow family.

Here he is up close. He had just eaten Adam's feed cup, all in one bite.

"Ayechawawa!" Adam screams, "Dive bombing Ostrich!" We stopped feeding them pretty fast. They're violent eaters! Adam's sister tried to roll up the window yelling "don't squish his head". (Meanwhile her son was getting his leg drooled on by another animal. Gross.)

The range was divided up by cow guards to keep the animals spaced out. They waited at the gates ready to be fed.

Adam's sister Heidi.

Incoming from the sky!

These are my favorite. We were out of food by the time we reached them. Look at those horns! Amazing. I really must find out what these animals are.

Adam, his Dad, Travis, and Tyler feeding the turtles. They come up to you just like all the other animals.

I really need to do some research on these. I have no idea what breed we're talking about here. (Corny photos call for corny captions. Sorry.)

Auction

Now that Adam is finally done with school, we've been getting out and about on the weekends and it's great. We recently attended our very first auction—and then promptly attended two more the next week because it was so fun!

Here's Adam holding our number. This auction sells antiques that are freighted in from England. We're hoping to find some bedroom and office furniture here.

The next day (Why is Adam wearing the same shirt? Is it his lucky bidding shirt?) we went to an estate auction. Even the property went up for bid. It sold at $150,000 for 3.5 acres. I don't have to tell you what a deal that is.

The man who previously owned the property had a warehouse built on it. It looks like he was making part of it into a home. How cool is that?


This time we bid on a book-press. Just like the letter-press I recently bought, this antique will be getting used. It basically smashes the book so that while the glue is drying the book doesn't get warped and the binding drys nice and tight. It sure beats pulling all my heavy things off my shelves to use for weight.



You should try going to an auction sometime, it's like a silent fight over someone elses junk that really gets your heart pounding.

Unbelievable

Adam and I found a huge antique warehouse close to home—it even has a tea room. So we checked it out yesterday. I am finding out I like antiquing! (Yes, I know, it always takes me a while to get on the wagon.) I found this bell which I wanted because it reminds me of home. (Don't worry, I won't get into the habit of posting every good find :)

And then, as I was making a B-line for some dishes, I nearly stepped on THIS!!! Adam stopped me (THANK YOU) and pointed it out. It's a letterpress!

WHAT!? A letterpress? Are you kidding? Nope. It's a small one and in good shape. No rust and missing a few parts but that's normal. The owner of the booth saw us looking at it so I started asking questions. He was surprised I actually wanted to use the press. He had no idea what he really had. He even took $50 bucks off to help me "make up my mind."

Now, between you and me I was going to buy it no matter what. He was only asking $150 for it. These things go for up to $800 depending on condition and shipping. So, I GOT A SWEET LETTERPRESS FOR $100 dollars! YES I AM SHOUTING BECAUSE I AM EXCITED!

Here is an example of a 2 color letterpress print. (This is from a wedding announcement I pulled from a stack of samples.)




I won't be able to use ink while we're in this apartment because the room needs to be extremely well ventilated, but I will be experimenting with a blind deboss for now, and it will be lovely.

And I was counting my blessings when I found a bell I liked....

Huge!

Yesterday Adam, his mom and I went to Canton to shop a HUGE monthly Flea Market. I've never been to anything like it before. (If we'd worn the right kind of shoes, we could have spent the ENTIRE day there. As it was, our feet were dead after 7 hours.) There are a lot of great finds and fun things to look at. I learned to be patient. Some people overprice their goods, while others are content to shout out "Five bucks and it's yours."

Adam's mom found a large cake plate for $12.

Pretty glassware. Could have spent a lot of money here . . .

I found these two mirrors—which I'll be painting white—for $15. I also found more dessert plates to add to my collection.


Mom, (or anyone else) when you come to visit, you have to come during the days that this is going on! You'll love it, love it! (The Saturday before the first Monday of every month.) There's a lot of vintage jewelry, old embroidered tablecloths, tons of dishware etc. Happy, happy, joy, joy.

Fun on the Fourth

We visited the Dallas World Aquarium today. It's amazing—but not the aquarium part. I loved the atrium. Much of it is open and multi-layered with waterfalls and pools. It's quite beautiful, complex and GREEN. I really enjoyed myself and I'm sure Adam had a good time too.

Bamboo! I love bamboo. When I grow up I'm going to have some.

The entrance was fun, windy with big birds
to look at, mist, and bamboo ceilings. Niiiiice.

Jellyfish, Clown-fish, Small Crock, and a pic of the atrium.

No one we know here, I just thought this photo was cool.

Adam in the Shark Tunnel.

Most of the Monkeys we saw had a baby with them.
These were out in the open, not behind glass.

Sea Dragon, Plant (no idea what kind), Shark, Stork? (again, not behind glass)

Flamingo—this one's for you Ferrin.

Most of the animals were surprisingly active.
They seemed . . . happy.
If you come to visit, we'll all go!

The end.

Weblos

You guessed it. We've been drafted. We're the new Den Leaders for the Weblo Scouts, age 10. (Weblos stands for: We Be Loyal Scouts—cool huh?) Our first meeting was last night. We're going to have to be on our game, those boys can run circles around us—thank goodness there are only five of them. We had a good time and there's more to come . . . as soon as I catch my breath!