Harlequin Romance Magazines

I am Ismoyo and i admit. I enjoy reading Harlequin romance novels from time to time. Especially during these cold wintermonths.
Just recently i came across a box of Vintage Harlequin Magazines. I knew about the small paperback books, but never before knew there were magazines too.
What is an added bonus are the wonderful (cover) illustrations accompanying the short stories and full length novel inside.

PS if you share my love for romantic stories, there are some of these wonderful Harlequin Magazines from the 70's available in my shop! (and more to come)

Flower Power Hippie Kids

I feel so lucky to have come across these adorable prints by W.M. Otto to add to my collection!

I love how similar they are, but all different at the same time.

What was even more wonderful is that i found an almost double set of these! Yes, i had three of them twice! Two have already been scooped up from my shop, but there still is one left.

This one is still available in my shop SOLD!. If you like it, get it, because it's the last one that i will put up for sale!

These four will stay here with us. Since there is already so much art in the living and work space of our apartment, i put these four underneath each other on the door of the coat closet in the small entry hallway of our apartment. That is why the lighting in the pictures is a bit off, since there is no direct light. But it is just off from the kitchen where it is sunny almost all the time, so still a lovely little area. Plus, i can see the coat closet from where i'm sitting behind my desk.
I can look at these lovelies all day!

You and Me against the world

I don't want this blog to become a depressing place to visit. I hope this new month will bring some more good news than bad. But i do want to give a quick update on what happened last week before i move on to more fun things (crafts and vintage adventures!)
About my sprained hip due to getting hit by a car, i am getting better. It has been a week ago today and i haven't been outside yet. Yes, i am a bit of a homebody, but this is crazy even for me. I am finally starting to "walk" again, even though it's still with a walking cane. I can definitely see and feel progress in recovery!
I am still feeling blessed that i came out of it like i did. Thank you for all your support!

And thank you for all the love and support in regards to our worries with the CIS. The worries are still there, but we are working on getting this straight. I still cannot truly believe they don't believe us. But no time for all that, i'm getting more paperwork together and we've already received some affidavit letters from friends testifying our love is true. And more letters are on their way. I cannot think of what a worse case scenario would entail. I just cannot let my thoughts go there. This must be solved. It must.

Just before the accident i found this adorable 1970 Fran Mar print. Isn't it fitting with what we're going through right now? I loved it before, and i love it even more now. It hangs on the wall next to my desk, and every time i look at it, i think, we can do this!

Vintage art for my collection

Found this lovely set to add to my vintage big eyed kids art collection. I am looking for the perfect frames to put them in. They have a bit of wear on the edges which would be covered by a frame, but i haven't found any that fit yet (4"x5"). Let alone pretty frames that fit..

I could of course do some sort of passe partout and put them in bigger frames, but that won't solve the hiding of the edges. So for now they are still here on my desk and not yet hung on the wall with the other pieces.

Both are signed Huisel. Don't know anything about this artist, but i have seen pieces before with fruits, florals and animals. All done in black and white. Will do some more research, maybe i'll find out some more.

Best thriftscores are always in the back

It's been awhile since i found a treasure to add to my collection of 60's and 70's big eyed art.

One of the joys of thrift shopping is that you never know when or where you might find that perfect piece.
Like all the way in the back of a tiny thrift store, behind a bunch of dusty, uninteresting paintings.
There she was. Sweet big eyed Indian girl.

It's a big piece (18x22"), but that didn't keep me from taking her with me. It may sound strange, but in the store she looked a bit sad. And the moment i brought her in to the house it felt like she started to look a bit happier.

It's one of those pieces that when you end up with it in your home it feels like it was supposed to be there all along. You instantly can't remember how the wall looked like without it there.

I had to take the frame off to be able to see the signature on it, it looks like the title plus initials of the creator. "Hasler Twin B.I.". Does that mean she is part of a two piece series?

Best fleamarket find ever

Sharing my best flea market find ever and i could use some help, so i have a question for you.
Last weekend i visited an amazing local flea market and found this pretty lady.

I knew i had to bring her home, because the moment i saw her, i saw all the homes i will live in the rest of my life, and in every one of those houses, she was on the wall! My heart was jumping up and down.

She is terrific in her groovy sixties way, but she is also kind of a mystery to me.

Who created her? I am curious, i am in awe, i want to know, i want to google the illustrator, find more work.
The piece has been signed, i don't know the reason but it's actually signed upside down, the problem is that i can't seem to figure out what the signature spells out.

Does anyone know who the artist of this piece is? Or can you figure out what the signature says? Help!

Inspiration on my walls

The walls of our NY apartment have lovely decorative molding on them. They don't allow for easily placing of cabinets, but they do create interesting wall panels which are perfect to group and/or contain certain inspirational decorations. Like the pretty paper i put up in one of the panels in the living room area.
Or this inspirational collage i have on the wall next to my sewing machine. It started out small, just a couple of pretty images and it grows and grows over time. Until the whole square area is filled. Since it expands, i will do a follow up post on this in a while. Even now that i'm posting this the wall collage already has some new pieces added that are not in this photo.

I like to add some 3-Dimensional features, like the commemorative I♥NY coin made out of a penny and the little white bear what used to be part of a small nightlight.

This is the square in the livingroom that features my collection of late 60's/early 70's prints and paintings. Most of them used to be above the fireplace in my Amsterdam apartment, others came recently. Like the big painting in the middle, the new Queen amongst my paintings.

I was really excited when i got the large Idylle girl on the bottom right. I already had her in the small version, but this large one is perfect. And numbered on the back! I love my Idylle boys and girls.

Hanging all paintings was done by eyeing it and feeling out the right overall composition. Like the Idylle kids being grouped, i do try to keep the ones by the same maker together. Like keeping brothers and sisters close. Gallarda are the girls on the top left, Altarriba are the three gorgeous ones underneath the Queen (signed by Sherle), I. Vernet on the bottom left and then there are some other single pieces like the one that is one of my favorites, the J. Moerman piece.

There are some more prints and paintings here and there throughout the apartment, and there's another dedicated area of paintings in the house, it's in the hallway when you enter the apartment. They're all from the same era, also boys and girls but in a slightly different style, so they have their own area. I might show those another time, but lighting is bad in the hallway so i got to see if i can make a decent photo of it.

Thrift score!

I discovered this lovely thiftshop in a neighbourhood close to where i live! It's wonderful, exactly how a thriftshop should be. Filled with treasures, kind people and affordable prices (something you don't see in NY often).

The very first thing i saw when i walked inside was this small but uber cute wooden print. It's straight from the seventies, 1978 to be exact by Paula Cutes.

Next i discovered these pretty painted ducks (signed N.J. Bouvia) in between a pile of empty frames. I don't normally buy art with animals on it and now two at once? What to do with it? Lightbulb moment. Our kitchen is in desperate need of some decoration. Great spot for a collection of 70's cute animal art!

I not only love the front, i also really like the character of the backside.

And all the way in the back of the store i discovered this original unopened vintage sheet! I love!

Happy thrifting days.

Vintage Crochet and a Queen

I found this amazing Phildar hobby book on a market where my mom took me when i was in the Netherlands. There was this lady selling a lot of great vintage craft magazines and i bought a couple but wished i could take them all. Don't be greedy, leave some for someone else. That, plus the fact i couldn't bring all of them and bring all back with me to NY with everything i still had in storage. Okay, i admit, if i could have, i would have taken them all...

Look at how relaxed this lady looks. Just finished crocheting her new table cloths, poured fresh squeezed orange juice, watered the plants, placed some decorative shells on the table and made herself comfortable petting her dear cat. Probably waiting for some amazing guests to appear any time soon.
Not only this photo is like this, all project photos in this print are so wonderfully propped!

And this is the new Queen in the house. Okay, she is basically a very pretty big eyed girl in a sort of clowns costume, but the painting is so big and has a gold painted frame and she is just too adorable, so we are calling her the new Queen of the house. O no. That would be me. I'm the Queen of the castle. hihi. She is the Queen of all my big eyed vintage art pieces. My collection is starting to grow and i enjoy looking at them every day. Now that Queen has arrived i have to rearrange all my other pieces to go around her. Will make a picture and show soon. There are more there that i haven't shown yet.

We found Queen last weekend in Park Slope. I lured my Love to come along, i wanted to stroll around and check out some stoopsales. Love was not excited. Buy honey, there will also be sales with a lot of old records. Score. He went along. And we did find a bunch of great records and this painting. Glad Love was there to convince me to give her a new home and to carry her all the way back.

Moerman's boys

I have shown my collection of 60's/70's artworks before and promised to make some more close up pictures.
Today's spotlight is on the print on wood (bottom left) done by the artist J. Moerman. It has a small mark on the back from art dealer 'van Hulsen'.
Like most illustrators of my collection i haven't been able to find information about Moerman. Except in my own collection of vintage postcards. Well, not really any background info, but i do have two more illustrations. Both have been printed for the Hendik Pierson Foundation. A foundation helping mothers and children. The back of both cards has been written on, which i like cause it tells the story, a little bit of history. They have been used to send birthday wishes, the postal mark of the one on the left is stamped in 1971, the one on the top right also has a stamp but unfortunately i can't make out what it says.

Retro works of art

Above the fireplace mantle in my living room is where i showcase my collection of late 1960's / early 70's children's paintings and prints.

I'm thrilled whenever i find one in the back of a thrift store, in a box at the second hand market or in my mailbox after winning an online auction.
Could you believe there are such sweet people who send you two additional pieces just because they know you collect them and thus know you will cherish them?
For real. At first i didn't know if the good people made a mistake and sent me them by accident. I emailed to tell them i got two more than what the bid was made for. And what do you know, they did sent them on purpose. They thought i would like to have them in my collection. You're right i do! They had already captured my heart straight away.
Thank you, kind strangers!

Some works in my collection have been signed by the artist, some haven't. But unfortunately i haven't been able to find a lot of information about the ones that have been signed anyway.
These four are all by Idylle. The three are painted on wood, the one next to the Buddha is a paper print in an old plastic frame.
I will make more close up pictures of my collection soon.

Spoiling myself!

Told ya I was making sure I would receive great mail deliveries during my last week as a twenty-some year old!I have a couple of sweet small illustration books by Joan Walsh Anglund. She's a writer/illustrator from back in the days. I adore her cute drawings of kids with themes of love, friendship and spirituality. I found this (small) bargain plate by her with the two kids on the playground. Sweet!
These paintings might be considered kitsch by a lot of people, but hey, they just belong in my interior!
I collect sixties/seventies vintage children's postcards and I found some great ones online. Now they make a welcome addition to my collection!
I got a whole stack of old 'Tina' comic magazines from the early 70's era. I love these magazines because I remember having a subscription when I was little. The illustrations are terrific and I love the showcase of fashion from that time. I will scan some pages and share them here, because they are too great to keep to myself!
Marion magazines. Sewing pattern magazines from the early seventies. Wow. I'm almost jumping up and down with joy! I want to make almost everything out of these mags! They are so so wonderful. My mom saw these yesterday and couldn't put them down anymore. She remembers buying them when me and my brother were still kids and making us clothes from it!
Back then the magazines didn't use real models yet, so the clothes are shown by drawings. Such an enormous source of inspiration! Lovely.

And of course I got spoiled too! My man, who is in NYC right now, had friends of him over here arrange that I received a large bouquet of roses and a bottle of yummy wine! How sweet!
My brother brought a bottle of champagne, yeah! And I got a nice Thai dinner, a Paulo Coelho book, Armani perfume and more.