Toledo* the paper cutter is back in action. The darn thing wasn’t cutting straight and was making me crazy.

But thanks to a patient engineering brain (my kind neighbor Don) and a magic box of bolts (from my tool-collecting neighbor Chuck) it is now aligned, calibrated, and back to its true cutting form. Yay!

This means you’ll see finished photo accordion books soon!

*A bit of back story. Toledo was named for the small town where I found him - Toledo, Washington. He had spent 20 years in a barn on a tree farm, and before that who knows how long in Toledo High School’s printing classroom. He was refurbished by some kind people in the Budweiser hydroplane shop (in case you’re wondering how he came to be Budweiser red) and weighs in at 500 pounds or so.

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I love this photo of my grammy I recently received from a cousin. She is grave rubbing - tracking down family information the good old fashioned way. (pre-internet!)

You go grammy.

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I love this little filmstrip of my great grandmother.

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My mom dug out this funny little wedding book of hers last summer right before Steven and I got married. It was a promotional book for Frederick & Nelson department store with all sorts of (now hilariously outdated) advice about trousseaus, proper invitation etiquette, preparing for your first home, etc.

But at the very back of the book is a gem. It’s called The Bride’s Gift Record, and it’s where my parents recorded all the wedding gifts they received in 1966.

As it turns out, there were some extra pages. So naturally, we used them! Not only was it incredibly helpful to track our gift information all in one place, but it also has turned into this great little heirloom.

And yes, there are a few pages left for another generation.

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A great - and I mean GREAT - flea market find via the new Ruby Press blog. This little “framed” photo is the size of a playing card!

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 Yesterday my uncle found this crumpled up real estate section of the newspaper from 1953. It was stashed under a corner of the Little House - the little family cottage where my husband and I currently live.

Was it for insulation? Who knows. But check out these prices…

A view house for $12,650! A week’s stay at a hotel for $7! A down payment for $495! Oh, why weren’t we born 60 years earlier.

But as my 90-year old grandmother kindly reminded us, that was a lot of money back then.

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I am cracking up at these photos and seriously wondering when sweats were invented.

I’ve been working today on Janda’s next book and noticed a great little trend in these photos of her grandfather: he seems to enjoy exercising in work clothes! Or at the very least posing for pictures in them.

Check these out…this is Larry.

And I’m thinking maybe it’s a generational thing because we have this great photo of my own grandfather doing the same thing!

Or maybe sweats just weren’t invented yet?
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Liz and I are finishing up a book of her mom’s memoirs (her christmas gift!) and I just had to share these two family photos. They didn’t make the book but we absolutely love them.

One of the hardest parts of putting a book together is the task of curating photos that best support the story. Alas, these did not make the cut…but they’re too good not to share!

What is it about them? They convey such nostalgia, emotion, eras…

Pretty great, yes?
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