Winklepedia, Chapter 3

This installment of the Winklepedia comes courtesy of a cupboard that got filled with drywall detritus when they pulled down the ceiling. When I cleaned it up, I switched out a bunch of Kathie Winkle dishes into the "everyday" cupboard and put some others away in the sparkling clean "overflow" cupboard. This is the "greens and golds" batch.

Today's tour starts with "Renaissance".

A favourite (perhaps because it's rare to me - I only have one!), "Romany".

I think I posted the platter for this pattern earlier, but I love this one. Makes me feel like spring. "Capri".

This is "Michelle". I have a bunch of these because a friend called me on her cell from Value Village to ask how many of the 14 or 15 plates, bowls and sandwich plates I would take. I took 'em all!

Again, I only have a couple of these - one large plate, one saucer. It's sooooo seventies. Looks like my mom's wallpaper from that time. Called "Olympus".

Ok, this is officially from the "black and brown" group but I'm posting it here anyway, because it got photographed in this batch. I like the pattern but these plates are in poor shape. Someone had a crappy dishwasher or crappy detergent or? There are dark marks on the backs of these plates as if they rubbed on something. Still shiny though. "October".

I think this was the first Kathie Winkle plate I ever got. My husband bought it for me at a thrift shop in Toronto. It wasn't until years later that I noticed the signature and looked up Kathie Winkle on the internet. That was the start of a ... ok, I was going to say "quest" but it's more of a mad obsession, although lately I have been more tempered in my approach. (Ha! that only means I haven't found any lately. I still start every thrift shop visit in the dishes section. And I watch period movies closely during any dinner shots. And I'm documenting my stash...)
I give you, "Viscount".

And this is the same "Viscount" pattern but I am posting it because it is a different shape of sugar bowl from all the others I have.  The lid got broken at a mad party we had. The breaker took the lid to "fix it" and it never returned :(  so I found an ok replacement at St. Vincent de Paul. I hope some day to find a better fitting one - also it should have a flatter button-like knob. In the meantime it keeps the dust out.

Until next time...

Elephant

Well, the Drummond Report was delivered today. That's the one that is supposed to get Ontario out of fiscal difficulty. And despite probably a few good ideas (that I haven't seen yet) he didn't even go near the one many of us have been hoping for: eliminating the division of our Public Education system into Public and "Separate" (read: Catholic i.e. religious). (I actually searched the document for the word "Separate" and didn't get a single incidence.)

To his credit, Drummond went for (full disclosure: us) teachers big time (increase class sizes, make the lazy bastards work longer) but he didn't have the b*lls guts to suggest elimination of the parallel publicly funded Separate School System. This duplication of service and competition between two publicly funded entities providing the same service in the same locations is LUDICROUS! Every other province has done away with it. The UN says we shouldn't have it. Yet it remains the elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about. Does anyone fund religiously based schools in this day and age? Besides maybe the Taliban?

In our city we are dealing with fallout from this situation right now. We are faced with the closure of a city public high school due to "declining enrollment" while our city Separate (again, read: Catholic i.e. religious) schools are overcrowded (10+portables at one, a recent multi-million dollar addition to ease overcrowding at the other).

Ok. I'm going to stop ranting about this now before I get really steamed. Let's just say, I need to revisit my happy post from last week. The one with the BEER!


*(Decided to change the title of this post - too sexist before - presuming that testicles are required for making tough decisions. Ha!)

Reno Update and Nooking

It's been a while since I've updated on our renovation. Much has happened. First the drywall was installed,

And mudded,

And sanded (much less dust than I expected!)

 

And finally, PERFECT. This looks like a blank picture to you, but to me it is a lovely smooth new wall, ready for wallpaper. 

Speaking of wallpaper, they gave up on removing the rest and will now wallpaper right over it. Here it is sized and ready to go. (Can you see the strawberries peeking through?)

We are just waiting for the wallpaper to arrive. It's called "Bird On A Wire"(duh).

Meanwhile, I have set up a little nook in the kitchen just for fun. It might be my favourite room in the house right now. Doesn't it look cozy? The perfect spot to curl up with a book. 

As long as you don't look up from your book to see the hockey table jammed in with you!

Birthday Boys Part 2

Second birthday party: Mr. Li. He decided on an old-fashioned party with several kids and PIN THE TALE ON THE DONKEY! He found an old donkey still hanging on the back of a door from way back when the kids were wee. So we posted it on the (nice white blank) kitchen wall. We also put the air hockey table in the kitchen.  In lieu of gifts he requested donations to Spread the Net in support of my school's fundraising cause and his generous guests purchased 20 mosquito nets! The kids also made posters for my school to encourage us in our last few weeks of fundraising.

Pin the tails and mosquitos on the (unfortunate) donkey.

Air hokey with the traditional mallard duck at centre ice.

Raised over $200 for mosquito nets - that's 20 nets for 20 families.

Happy Birthday Mr. Li!

Birthday Boys Part 1

Since the boys share a birthday (yep, they are twins), they usually have their birthday celebrations on separate days. Mr. T chose to take a few friends and his brother, Mr. Li, to Toronto for the day. So here is the photostory of Mr. T's birthday tour....

DS tournament in the van driving to T.O.

Still happy driver... but will it last?

Pee break and coffee for the grown-ups...

Followed by lunch - hot dogs...

...and Jamaican patties. Yum!

 
And then a very chilly walk to the museum with a brief visit to the statues at the library on College St.

Ready to explore the ROM

Hello to the Buddha...

Polar bear attack...

And a bus ride back to the car.

 Happy Birthday, Mr. T!