This vintage animal puzzle was last summer’s bounty for wandering into one of my favorite shops, Maison Bergogne, in Narrowsburg, NY. I wasn’t exactly drawn in by the box, so I’m not quite sure why I removed the lid. Needless to say, I was pleased that my curiosity got the better of me. I should know that if something is in Juliette and Anie’s shop, it will likely be special in one way or another. And that taking the time to explore yields many aesthetic rewards. My favorite cards in the puzzle are the ones that have been repaired with a needle and thread. *See the rat and the fox.

Oh, and keep in mind that sometime in early summer, Juliette, along with biz partner Laura Silverman, plan to open bar/cafe Fish & Bicycle.

Sometimes the smallest things grab your attention. When going through the mountain of paper at my mother’s house I came across this tiny folded piece of paper. It was an orphaned set of instructions to a long-ago lost Architector Set #12. The copyright says 1944. I searched online for any reference I could find but came up empty-handed.

Update: I did discover, thanks to Paul (see link in comments), who found a set on ebay, that the Architector Sets were designed by professional architects to encourage young people to pursue that field of study.

How about this for a work ID? A far cry from the crap plastic things hanging off one’s neck these days. My best guess is that my stepfather worked at Nash-Kelvinator Corporation sometime between 1937 and 1954. Kelvinator is now a brand owned by Electrolux, with many iterations of the company in between its founding and now. If you didn’t look closely enough, those lines behind his photo are a height chart. Oh, beauty really is in the details!

Box of plastic gloves found in my mother’s attic. They were most likely my step-father’s. Pretty sure they pre-date my mother. Each glove is affixed to a sheet of what looks like butcher paper. Strange and graphic. Subtle variations in color and shape, not to mention the odd hand shape, add to their intrigue. I may frame them all together. And…Sensi-Touch appears to still be going strong when it comes to the manufacturing of surgical gloves.

Just a short burst of office supply nirvana. I am reliably predictable in my affinity for this sort of ephemera. From, once again, the gimlet-eyed folks over at Present & Correct.