Cover one eye

A Snellen chart, an eye chart used by eye care professionals and others to measure visual acuity. Snellen charts are named after the Dutch ophthalmologist Herman Snellen who developed the chart during 1862 (source: wikipedia).
This one is definately vintage, I bought it a few years ago in a great little shop up North.

This year's last skating trip

Last year Corné became a fanatic iceskater (on speedskates), a typical Dutch tradition, especially in the Northern part of the country. As soon as the ice is strong enough to hold him he is off for a trip of about 30 miles. This picture shows the ticket for one of his last trips. It was pinned on to his hat.

Holiday entertainment

What more do you need on holiday but a game of checkers and domino - travel edition. Two vintage plastic pocket games I found last week in the local thriftshop.

Stencil ABC

A set of stencil letters. I bought it while thrifting, but I'm not sure whether it's actually vintage stuff. These items are still on store. Nevertheless, it's quite lovely, don't you think?

Teething in style

My old silver teething ring. I know, it desperately needs to be polished!

Homemade jam

A great jam label for homemade jam. I don't know where I found this one. I'm guessing at Waterloo Square in Amsterdam. There used to be someone who sold vintage printed items.

Wrestling with a crocodile

Lovely boots, though.

Robert Samuel Hanson

At graphichug I discovered Robert Samuel Hanson. I love his graphic illustrations with a twist.

Old-school reading

Vintage reading method. The children had to match the text to the right picture. And for the more 'advanced' reader the backside text was a little more difficult...

European map

Quite old this one, from June 1949, but I'm not really sure if it's a re-print or the original thing. It looks real though!

A few more vintage portraits

From you to me... (part two)

A few years ago I left Edenspiekermann after working there for 11 years. Working there was not only good for me carrierwise, but socially it meant a great deal to me as well. So, as a goodbye gift my colleagues gave me a poezie album. A lot of hard work was put into it, especially by Miranda, who bound all those pieces of kind words, great pictures, drawings, poetry, craftmanship and friendship together and made it into this great album/artwork!
Thanks again ex-colleagues (especially Miranda, Margriet, Jenny and Stijn)!!

From you to me... (part one)

I wasn't planning on posting something that had to do with Valentine's day, but when I woke up this morning and found a big bouquet of flowers (!) on the diningroom table I decided to post something about friends and friendship.
In the Netherlands the little girls used to have a 'poezie album' (roughly translated: poetry album). They let their family and friends write a little rhyme, poem or verse in it and they used to decorate it with small images. The pictures show you my old album.

Still cold

Old chicken

Old advertisement for Kip's Advocaat. A sort of eggnog without milk (that's what I found on the internet). Advocaat is a Dutch taste, a bit of an old ladies afternoon delight.

Dolly

Nice little vintage doll I found at a yardsale.

Dictionnaire, but illustrated

Take a look at this book, it's antique! It was published in 1896. At first glance it looks quite ordinary and rather boring. But it's quite the opposite! The dictionary is illustrated, both colour pictures and black and white. The illustrations look similar to the ones in an old encyclopedia Brittanica. Really lovely, this small French Dictionnaire.

Old and abandoned

Today - at my children's school - I met this old, but still gorgeous fellow. He was left alone on a bench and nobody seems to care much about him. I thought about taking him with me and adopt him, but then it crossed my mind that maybe, just maybe, someone had forgotten all about him and would come back to collect him. If not, I would be happy to give him a nice place to live for the rest of his life.

Buttons everywhere

Corné took this picture and gave it to me to post. He was intrigued by the look of the amount of buttons that form a nice pattern/texture. Of course, the crafty girls amoung us are used to seeing this...

Houston Street

This kind of typography always cheers me up! I just came across this picture which I took on our last trip to New York. That was about 3 years ago, must go back soon!