Happy New Year!

"You have everything needed for the extravagant journey that is your life" (Carlos Castaneda).  It's a new year - 365 days of possibilities.  I will be here blogging regularly, and I look forward to sharing with you. 

I found this link today, totally by chance, and thought you might enjoy it too:  52 Fun Things for 2015.  Most of these little adventures are free.  I love the emphasis on creativity, nature, and kindness. 

Wishing you much happiness in 2015!

Goodbye 2014 - Welcome 2015 Sale at Birdhouse Books

Hi vintage friends!  Just a short note to let you know that I am running a huge sale at my eBay store through midnight on Sunday, January 4.  This is a real "clear the shelves" sale with everything marked 25% - 50% off.  You'll find vintage children's books, vintage Christmas cards and ornaments, vintage Valentines, Roadside Americana postcards, cookbooks, and more.  I hope you'll stop by and shop!   Just click here to visit:  Birdhouse Books.

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!  Looking forward to chatting life, books, all things vintage, and Downton Abbey here in the New Year!

Book Review: Reindeer Dust - Kate Dwyer and Joanne Lew-Vriethoff

Reindeer Dust is a picture book for children written by Kate Dwyer and illustrated by Joanne Lew-Vriethoff.  This Christmas story is about Santa's reindeer, who are tired from work one year.   A smart little boy named William comes up with a recipe for reindeer dust to attract and feed the reindeer.

The book includes a poem for children to read on Christmas Eve, and a recipe for reindeer dust.  (It contains brown sugar, oats, and bran.)

The story is told in rhyme, and it would make a fun read aloud for preschool age children.   The illustrations are charming with a retro inspired flare and an appealing color palette of seafoam green with pastels and red.

I think this book (and the reindeer dust activity!) would make a fun annual tradition.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review: Fiddler on the Roof (50th Anniversary Reissue)

Fiddler on the Roof was reissued in book format (Crown Publishers) in 2014 in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Broadway play.  The play, based on Sholem Aleichem's stories, has a book by Joseph Stein, music by Jerry Bock, and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick.

Fiddler on the Roof tells the story of Tevye and his family, living in Anatevka, Russia, in 1905.  Tevye delivers milk in the village.  He has a sharp-tongued wife, Golde, and five daughters.  The three oldest daughters are young women who are interested in romance and matrimony, although they have ambivalent feelings about matchmaking.  This is seen in the song "Matchmaker, Matchmaker."  The town matchmaker suggests that Tevye's oldest daughter, Tzeitel, should marry the village butcher, Lazar.  Tzeitel has other ideas about this match, since she is in love with a tailor that she has known since childhood, Motel.  

After Tzeitel finds her match, her sister Hodel falls in love with a young man who is political named Perchik, a tutor to the girls in the family.  Then sister Chava falls in love with Fyedka, a young man who is not Jewish.  Each romance takes the family further from the tradition they grew up with.

As the play moves on, there is more political unrest, and Jews are being forced to leave their homes and villages.  As Tevye's family prepares to move, a fiddler plays a song.  Life with family and love and traditions will go on, but it will be different.

I grew up in a family that loved musicals - both movies and plays.  I have heard the soundtrack to this play many times and enjoyed the 1971 movie starring Chaim Topol, but I had never read the play.  I really enjoyed reading the lyrics to the songs I grew up listening to and reading the story with its humor, warmth, and gravity.

I heartily recommend this play to anyone who loves theater.  I am sure that I will enjoy rereading it again in the future.

I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for an honest review.