50% off Thriftin'

Goodwill had a 50% off sale, and here's what I hauled in.

Wine glasses in two of my favourite colours and two vintage glasses

"Veterans Club 1973" tumbler

I love the gold

Bowling glass. There is faint writing on the other side that says "OK Koffee Klub at Northgate Bowl"

And of course I went overboard on buying cheap vintage books

The Tragedy of Doctor Faustus, Christopher Marlowe, 1964. I love this story about a scholar who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for infinite knowledge. 

This book has some amazing illustrations inside

illustration in Doctor Faustus

Another neat illustration in Doctor Faustus

Dracula's Guest, Bram Stoker, 1974. This is a book of "nine tales of horror and suspense - fashioned from the macabre imagination that created 'Dracula'". I actually didn't know that Stoker wrote short stories so I look forward to getting into this one. This will go nicely with the rest of my vampire collection. 

Pond Life: A Guide to Common Plants and Animals of North American Ponds and Lakes, George K. Reid, Ph.D., 1967

Each page is full of the greatest illustrations

Seriously, every page is a work of art. Gorgeous!

Experiments in Laboratory Chemistry, 1959

Front page of Experiments in Laboratory Cemistry

Ok, so admittedly, I have no idea what this book is talking about, but it as some very excellent diagrams. Although I don't understand them, I love vintage science books. 

Creative Dramatics: An Art for Children, Geraldine Brain Siks, 1958. Ah, drama, something more in my field of knowledge. I love, love, love the cover of this. Very 50s.

The Hot-Blooded Dinosaurs, Adrian J. Desmond, 1976. Great font on the word "Dinosaurs".

Roar

I really enjoy how the illustrations and the type are all a dark brown instead of the traditional black.

Stories from Hans Christian Andersen. Annoyingly, there's no date on this, but on the front page there is a child's inscription dated 1971. Since going to Copenhagen in the spring, I've grown more appreciative of the works of Hans Christian Andersen, so thought I'd pick this one up. His stories are actually pretty macabre.

Illustration from "The Little Mermaid"

This is the best; Andersen telling his tales to the wee ones!

Tacky Souvenirs

Whenever I go on a trip, I have a mission to get the tackiest souvenir that I can find which best represents the city. 

Here is my collection thus far.

"Flower Pots" from Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick
"Coliseum" from Rome, Italy
"Little Mermaid" from Copenhagen, Denmark
"Light House" from Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia
"Olympic Stadium Snow Globe" from Montreal, Quebec

"Sand Map" from Isle of Wight, England (Isle of Wight has naturally colourful sand, and I got to pour the sand into this myself)

"Statue of Liberty", New York City, New York
"Big Ben / Eye of London", London, England
"Windmill", Amsterdam, Holland
"Eiffel Tower", Paris, France
"Skyline" Chicago, Illinois
"Fishing Boat", Halifax, Nova Scotia
"Beer Stein", Berlin, Germany

"CN Tower", Toronto, Ontario (see first picture for full shot of it)
"Sheep Snowglobe", Wales, United Kingdom
"Leprechaun", Dublin, Ireland
"Landscape", Quebec City, Quebec

Interestingly, I've been to Niagara Falls quite a few times, and each time I go I pick up a tacky souvenir, but I've lost every one of them! I also lost the castanets I got from Spain when I was about 13, which really was the start of this collection. Bit of a shame, but it gives me a good excuse to go back one day!

The Book Nook

This is my favourite spot in our apartment. It's the book nook. I collect retro paperbacks and I'm quite a bookworm, so this part of my home is my pride and joy. Here's a closer look...

Eastern European typewriter circa the 40s, I believe. That picture is of my mom in the 70s - it's brilliant, I love it.

Keyboard cat!

The mini James Bond section

The little penguin in the bottom corner is a figurine Stuart made when he was a little boy of the evil penguin from Wallace and Gromit "The Wrong Trousers". Best episode.

That's little flamingo jar is where we hold tickets for upcoming concerts. Those ones are for Elbow at the end of September.

The books that defy gravity.

This is a picture from last year when Stuart grew a dirty mustache for "Movember". I think we both look pretty gangsta here. You clearly don't want to mess with us.