A Very Special Treehouse

Wow, I was surprised to see this site. I had never thought of how the average tree house might not accommodate children with special needs. The Forever Young Treehouses organization specializes on building such structures for children and adults with special needs who struggle everyday with activities that require fun and play. I was impressed with the projects. They have done projects for various organizations and camps. I really liked the Mt. Airy Forest house the most (it's the first image from the top above). I liked the organic design. All their houses are nice too.

Forever Young Treehouses
http://www.treehouses.org/

Flickr - julie wilson world

julie wilson world has interesting sets here. She has ephemera items that I've not seen before. There are pictures of Coney Island and other towns. Some photos of toys & wax packs. Pictures of signs (nice set) & luggage labels. There are family stuff, artwork and more.

julie wilson world's set
http://www.flickr.com/photos/juliewilsonworld/sets/

More American Ephemera

There are several digital advertising collection from Duke University Libraries. They are fun. The categories are:

* Broadsides (1840 - 1921)
* Nicole Di Bona Peterson Collection of Advertising Cookbooks (1878 - 1929)
* Advertising Ephemera (1853 - 1921)
* J. Walter Thompson Company "House Ads" (1889 - 1925)
* Ellis Collection of Kodakiana (1886 - 1923)
* Lever Brothers' Lux Soap (Flakes) (1916 - 1925)
* R. C. Maxwell Company (1909 - 1929)
* Pond's (1882 - 1925)
* Early Advertising Publications (1870 - 1925)
* Scrapbooks
* Tobacco Advertising (1872 - 1918)

Advertising In America 1850-1920
http://library.duke.edu/digitalcollections/eaa/browse

Light Up A Zippo

Old and and vintage of cool zippos. For those who don't know what a zippo is, a zippo is a cigarette lighter. In this particular page you'll see food brand zippos from the 1950. However, there are other type of zippos shown here. Vietnam Zippos, Windy Varga Girl, Harley Davidson, and Military. One of the best part is that you get to see photos of the first Zippos which were made in 1933. Another category is the new (truthfully, they don't look "new" to me) Character Graphics Zippos. These are from the 1950's and on.

If you click on the Gallery Index, you'll see a more specific categories, like beers and autos. I felt though that the one with the Gerbers baby image was sort of freaky. A baby on a zippo? I bet that today that zippo will never make it to the market. I did really liked the fridge zippo. It's pretty cool.

Zippos Gallery
http://zippogallery.com/Foodbrands.htm

The History Of A Potato With Face

That is one fascinating history of Mr. Potato Head. In a really a short nutshell, it was invented by George Lerner. After the WWII he sold the toy to a cereal company, that was gonna use the toy as a cereal surprise toy. Mr. Lerner felt that the toy was destined to a bigger future. In 1951 he met with Henry and Merrill Hassenfeld, who were a family textile manufactures in Rhode Island. They also made pencils boxes that came with the fabrics which proved to be popular.

They liked the concept of Mr Potato Head, and purchased him from the cereal company. They presented him to the world in april 30, 1952. The Hassenfiled became what is now know as the Hasbro toy company.

Mr. Potato Head History
http://mrpotatohead.net/1950/1950.htm

Got A Passport?

There are photos of passports from all around the world. I never realized this before, but most of them are pretty much same except for the symbols and the colors. Some are interesting, and some are so dull. However, not all passports are current. I may be wrong, but most of them actually don't appear to be current/ It would have been nice to see the dates these passports were issued though. But that doesn't spoil the fun looking at all those symbols.

* Note: There is some profanity.

World Passports
http://www.worldpassports.org/

Professor Wei Jingxian: A Hair Needle Artist!

I am not into items made of hair. It gives me the creep. But whenI saw these portraits, I was amazed. The president portraits above were made of hair, by the well known, Professor Wei Jingxian, who has been using various needle work to create more than 100 portraits of ancient and modern celebrities! In 1985, he even gave Princess Diana a portrait of her self. Read and see more of his amazing artwork and background on his website.

Hair Embroidery
http://www.wjxart.com/

Via
Hairwork Society
http://www.hairworksociety.org/index.html

Chicago Postcard Museum

The Chicago Postcard Museum was established in 2007. It's goal is to become largest online archive of Chicago postcards (they still have a long way to go, but I'd love to see the them grow. They also have a blog). Even though the museum owns each postcard, their digital postcards are offered free to the public (it tells you how to do that under the "condition download policy" category). The museum has collection of rare, antique, vintage and contemporary postcards. All about Chicago.

Their mission statement is:"The mission of the Chicago Postcard Museum is to serve as the world's resource for Chicago postcard images and visual history on the Internet and to provide to the general public an archive for research and enjoyment."

Chicago Postcard Museum
http://www.chicagopostcardmuseum.org/default.htm

Make sure to visit this page from the same site. I shortened it. , since it was too long.

Lobby & Exhibit Directory
http://tinyurl.com/5agmxt

My Aloha Shirt (not really)

Wow, the Hawaiian shirt has a quite interesting background. You could teach a class about it.

Coffee Times: The Aloha Shirt
http://www.coffeetimes.com/aloha.htm

The site below is more textual and has more specific details. There are excellent links too. The last link in that site has expired though. It was supposed to show the world's largest aloha shirt at the www.guinnessworldrecords.com. I went there directly, and couldn't find it there either. But you can see a picture of this shirt at the Hilo Hattie store. That shirt is sure huge! You probably could fit it on a baby elephant or something. Now, try to visualize that, a one of a kinde elephant baby in a hawaiian shirt roaming all over the safari. Just goofing ;-)

Aloha Shirt History
http://www.alohashirtsofhawaii.com/alohashirthistory.htm

Hilo Hattie: The Store of Hawaii
http://www.hilohattie.com/acb/stores/3/StoreLocations.htm