The Flying Flurrarellis!!

Here they are, the star attraction of Colonel Grimalkin's All Kitten Circus: The Five Fantastic Flying Fluffarellis!

The troupe is led by Nino Fluffarelli (that's him above, photographed all by himself, because he's so important). The others are Giacomo Fluffarelli, Luisa Fluffarelli, Lilliane Fluffarelli, and cousin Bartolomei Purrington (his mom was a Fluffarelli).

In spite of years of high-wire hijinks, all the members of the troupe are in MINT condition, (although the balls they're posing with have a teensy bit of paint loss). Nino is very big on personal safety. 

Soon to appear at a kitten circus near you! 

Like a flame in the sky...

Here's the song

Tile me a story

In my opinion the entire world, or at least the parts of it that are indoors, should be tiled.  But only in pretty, artistic tiles.  Or, even better, pretty artistic ANTIQUE tiles.

Now, how wonderful and life-affirming and what and what would that be??

Swinging London

In necktie form!!

 Originally from Clover, the late and lamented Strawbridge and Clothier's version of K-Mart.

Here kitty kitty...

 From the estate of an architect who collected Orientalia including, but not limited to, nip-head figurines.

(Nip-head is alley cat slang for the cat who's a little too fond of catnip, aka 'tea-weed' aka 'C to the Nth power .')

 A complete and total charmer, perfect for holding mail or napkins.

Not a nip-head.

Our darling girl Shlamoo, who went missing some time Wednesday afternoon and only surfaced this morning.  We found her chillin' in the Amazonian forest next door (see post from July 2010 for an explanation of that).

She enjoys nip responsibly. 

Is this your type?

Of typewriter?

Found at a yard sale held way out in the boonies two Saturdays ago.

That is significant because I have, over time, become so jaded about yard sales, because EVERY.  SINGLE.  ONE. in this area is comprised almost wholly of used kids' clothes, toys and baby items purchased two years ago from Walmart, and home decor items purchased three years ago from the dollar store.

But out where the buffalo roam, you can still find stuff.  Like this:

And also like this:

A photo from Christmas 1916.

Forever amber

When I ask you have you ever seen a piece of amber this big?

(It's OK to say 'Never.'  We're not judgmental here at Full Service Bohemian.)


Well, dig: it's authentic Baltic amber which I got from an authentic Baltic person, a lovely lady who's a dear friend of a dear friend of mine.  She arrived in this country from Lithuania about 20 years ago or so, complete with her late mother's fantastic trove of amber.

The piece, which is about the size of a smallish potato, is redolent with warmth, charm and happy memories of holidays in Druskininkai. 

Take flyte!

Specifically, Branchell Color-Flyte in super high octane lime green!!

Who wears the pants here?

Specifically, the circa-1970 flare leg pants.

Something a tiny bit less outrageous

Something new wave and remotely punk-ish

soaking up the sunshine

The boy and I had a whirlwind-ish Fourth of July weekend.  Saturday... um, I forgot what we did Saturday.  

Sunday we went to Longwood Gardens, which is a lovely 200-acre garden with 11,000 varieties of green stuff.  It's 35 miles outside of Philly.  If you're in the area, you should go.

We were walking in the meadow area, and the above tiny little bird came skittering out from the grass.  He wasn't the least bit afraid of us.  I had some bread in my tote bag (yes, I carry bread around.  sometimes)  and gave him a snack.

Monday we went to a barbecue at the home of one of the boy's work buddies.  I'm always a little uncomfortable when I'm new to a group of people who all know one another.  Happily, they went out of their way to make me comfortable, by almost completely ignoring me for 3 hours.

We got home in time for the fireworks show(s) you can see from my front porch.  This being the city, with a large male population that likes to explode things, one can view three distinct fireworks shows without leaving home. 

Boy had Tuesday off, so we went to Batsto Village in the Pine Barrens to soak up some more nature.  Wanna see some?

Wanna see some more?

Those are red-bellied turtles.  We also got a good gander of some hummingbirds at a hummingbird feeder.  If I see one hummingbird a year, that's a lot, but there were three or four buzzing back and forth to the feeder. 

 Wanna see one?

Now you has jazz!

Some epic Mid-Century Modern

So it works!

Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, dig this if you can:

Earlier this week I was at an auction, and one of the things they had were tons of inspirational books.

Now, I'm all about inspiration, having had horrible money and other problems circa 1999-2006, and I'm still dealing with certain ramifications thereof.

So I bought all the books.  I started reading one on Wednesday where the author wrote about what the Old Testament folks understood about the practice of blessing.  She went on to say that we should understand its value today, and bless people, things, situations, yada.

Pursuant to going out thrifting yesterday, I blessed the day and my undertakings, the people I saw, etc. etc. etc.

First stop, Salvation Army.  Here's what I found:

circa 1910 sterling silver meshed purse.

and then this, an early 1920's deco beaded purse from France.

And last, but not least, a heavily beaded purse from the 1960's.

What they cost together was less than what two Big Macs would run you.