Our LEGO Era

Last month Davy leveled up from DUPLO to LEGO.

We were getting frustrated by the lack of “regular” 4 & 6 stud bricks in the new starter kit and Nathan found my childhood LEGO in the attic.*

One of the minifigs we found in my collection was this. It was immediately deemed “Link” and he proceeded to act out the many levels of Zelda in dungeon levels he created out of my old school bricks

The more I looked at this little guy I wondered if they ever made him in green.

After some detective work I found they did!

This series was called The Forestmen and there were several sets in the Castle series.

Ebay would have you believe these are super expensive, but a few years ago I learned about buying used LEGO pieces at Brick Owl (or Bricklink).

When you find the set or minifigure you want you can break down the inventory to see the individual pieces.

The shipping is usually $5-$6 and pieces range from a few cents to a few dollars. So I usually put together my own little bundle for less than a modern LEGO set.

Enter Link!

See the resemblance?

(He also has a little bow, but it didn’t make it into the photo.)

It’s all in the details. 🥰

* The plural of LEGO is LEGO which is something I learned watching The Toys That Made Us on Netflix.

New Studio Treasures

We went to an estate sale last weekend and did a little domestic treasure hunting.

I came away with a silver teapot, a medium format camera, and a vintage video camera.

I’m certain the video camera is in working condition. It was $10.

Photos taken at night when I shelved these beauties away from curious fingers.

The colander is staying in the kitchen where it’s casting some beautiful shadows.

Typographic Ornaments

I’ve fallen down the rabbit hole of typographic ornaments today.

Here are a few from the public domain I found through Wiki Commons.

Ornament from The History of Addison's Flat Gold Fields (1923) by Dan Moloney, a pamphlet on the gold-rush settlement on the West Coast of New Zealand, printed by the Westport News.

Ornament tipogràfic de Batiste Moscatell, ó, La mona de Pascua (1862)

Ornament from the magazine Serões (1901)

Ornament from ''Le Masque,'' a Belgian magazine of art and literature (1910)

Ornament from the magazine Serões (1901)

Stilfrid and Brunswik Stilfrid and Brunswik (1879)

Horto (1910)

Bookmarking Compositor via University of Birmingham to browse through another day.

Papaya Leaves

We neglected the compost this year and a massive papaya plant has emerged. Since they won’t survive the winter I’m collecting as many as possible for art materials.

This is actually one of the smaller leaves.

I’m having trouble finding a book large enough to press them in. Maybe a I can try some large boards and a weight? I want to preserve as many as possible.