Reading something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue
My sister’s work sent her to Europe for a couple of months, and she sent home a whole bunch of stuff afterwards — you should see our fridge, which now contains packages of Leonidas chocolates, Cadbury creme eggs, fruit pudding, and traditional Czech spa wafers (yummmmm)!
She was based in Prague, which has a long tradition of marionette theater, and so my sister got me — what else? — a Harry Potter marionette for my collection!
Continue reading “My sister went to Prague and got me this…”
As you may have seen in the past couple of years, I have been collecting book-related toys and thingamajigs. A couple of months ago, my brother brought home a wonderful Mini Hotch Potch doll to add to my growing collection!
The Hotch Potch doll is inspired by The Comical Hotch Potch, or The Alphabet turn’d Posture-Master, a hand-colored print created by English publisher Carrington Bowles in London in 1782.
I have a growing collection of bookish toys — I love toys based on books and book characters! I always tell myself I’m hypothetically saving it for future kids I may (or may not) have, but (not so) deep down, I know I’m really collecting them all for myself!!
I’m glad I took advantage of the holiday and went bargain hunting today — because I got two new toys for my collection: a classic Winnie the Pooh bear by Gund (which from the previous post you can probably tell I’m a big fan of), and a Madeline doll — both for ridiculously low prices!
The last two weeks have been particularly stressful, and I’ve gone on a bookish rampage (*guilty)* that doesn’t seem to show signs of letting up — not with the Manila International Book Fair coming up in a couple of weeks.
I was trawling at one of my favorite branches of a bargain bookstore today and found a Nutcracker finger puppet set! Now you know I collect all sorts of bookish miscellany – book gadgets, bookmarks, bookish toys, and practically anything book-related – so when I saw this battered box on the shelf, I couldn’t resist getting it for my collection. It was pretty cheap, too, at only P65, an awesome deal for four adorable finger puppets! Just in time, too, as September marks the start of the Christmas season here in the Philippines.
Last Sunday, I was pushing the shopping cart to the checkout counter of the supermarket when my brother intercepts me and leads me to the toy section, where he points to a stack of boxes at the end of one row. He knows I collect book-related memorabilia (mostly toys) and spotted a great bargain for me: The Balancing Cat in the Hat for the super low price of P50 (a little over USD 1)!
I was already gleeful from my successful book-shopping expedition, and this discovery was a perfect ending to that day. We couldn’t wait to get home and try it out.
