WiseArts

Yay! I finally got a new camera! After much comparing of features and prices, I decided on the Canon EOS Rebel XSi! It weighs in with a whoppin’ 12.2 megapixels! It has a 3in LCD screen! It’s lightweight and quick on the draw! I’m so excited to have so much more resolution to work with. My old camera was only 3.1mp, so this is a big leap for me! I can’t wait to get better acquainted with all its features.

I used to get kinda mad at my husband for “stealing” my old camera, but he can just hang on to it now. haha I’m hoping I’ll have some time to take nice outdoor photos soon.

In other news… my iPod died! It’s a 40gb 4th gen iPod, and it was giving me the “sad iPod” icon and a URL for Apple service. It wouldn’t connect to PC or play any songs. I sure as heck wasn’t going to send it in for service. I found a post somewhere about loose cables inside causing this problem, and that a proper slam could bring the iPod back to life. It couldn’t get any worse, so I bashed it on my desk a few times. Sure enough, it’s back to its old self again! So I saved a couple hundred bucks there by not getting a new iPod. haha More money for new camera lenses!

Here are a few more pages from the Girl Scout Scrapbook!

When I first glanced through this scrapbook I had a tough time understanding it until I realized that the author’s lowercase “t” looks a lot like an “r” with the crossbar only on the right side.

I’m working furiously on a cool dynamic Flash viewer for my scrapbooks that will load up the images and info using XML. It will allow navigation through the books using the “page flip” and hopefully zooming! It might not be done for a little while, but I have big plans!

As for physical preservation of the books, I think I am going to try a de-acidifying spray to stop the breakdown of the pages. I’m going to take apart the books and put each page into a sleeve made of Dura-lar (an archival clear mylar-type material) and then reassemble. Hopefully, this will reinforce the pages and protect from handling damage. Also, in the Family Trip Scrapbook, there is a lot of icky old tape holding in the postcards and things, so I’m going to try to carefully remove it as it causes yellowing (and it doesn’t stick anymore anyway!). I’ll use photo corners or an archival adhesive to reattach the goodies.

I’ve had a busy weekend and haven’t had much time to post here, but I hope to make up for that with a few AMAZING flea market finds from this morning!!

First, let me bore you with a few not-so-amazing finds:

Some glassware for my mom. Hen on nest was $5, milk glass basket was $3.50

Some bulbs, bobbins, and random sewing things for my new sewing machine.
Marked $5, I bargained to $3.

I’ve been looking for a cheap type case for a while, in which I can put little things and/or craft supplies. Who in bloody blazes got the urge to paint a type case blue?? I don’t know, but it allowed for the good price of $4. I’ll strip the outside edges and put on some stain and varnish and I’ll paint the inside white. I think it will look nice. I’ll shine up the handle too. It’ll be great!

Now on to my amazing finds of the day!!

I collect old scrapbooks, and was delighted to see the aqua-colored one for $1!! I didn’t even really look at the contents until I got home! I am so excited about it because I discovered that it follows a family trip around the US in 1959!

It’s filled with postcards, hotel stationery, menus and placemats, and what appears to be the writings of a young lady (I’m no pro at handwriting analysis!) who documents some of the events for us.

There is also some great vintage Disneyland stuff in there, like this brochure for the Sleeping Beauty Castle! It has a sweet fold-out poster in the middle.

Now if this wasn’t enough, I found ANOTHER amazing scrapbook at the same flea market on the same day!!! It has a plywood cover bound with leather lacing. It was marked at $15 and I only had $12 left in my pocket. I asked nicely (trying to contain my PURE JOY) and the seller accepted my offer easily.

This book is filled with amazing photographs of Girl Scout camp in 1937 and 1938!! There are tons of photos of swimming, sailing, cooking in tin cans and all that sort of fun! These are obviously older scouts, and it seems that they are campers themselves, but later in the book they serve as camp staff for younger children. The names of two camps are listed: Camp Alice Chester and Camp Wells. A Google search finds that Camp Alice Chester is still being used and is located in Milwaukee Wisconsin. I can’t seem to find anything about Camp Wells. Anyone have any details?

Here’s the first page of the book! This is the “cast of characters” for the rest of the book. Each of the young women seems to have a nickname, which is used throughout in the photo captions.

Stay tuned for more!! I plan on scanning both of these scrapbooks in their entirety to save them for posterity. The paper in them is typical cheap (acid-filled) paper for scrapbooks of the time, and it is terribly yellowed and getting crumbly. I’m not sure of the best way to proceed in preserving these books, so I’ll do a little research on that. In any event, I will definitely be scanning them to save them in digital form and I’ll share lots more here in upcoming posts!