Lift your spirits!

See what I did with that title? I bet I got your attention with this first photo. It's all pretty random, I know! That pic is a little summary of what I've been reading/getting into lately. I realize now how funny it is to have the "Stress Relief" oil on that book. So, first off, let's talk about the most noticeable thing here: Of All the Gin Joints. This book was another one of those library finds where I just walked into the library and was led to a shelf. Try this some time. With no plan whatsoever, just walk into a library and see where you go. I think I have a library angel because I keep getting led to good stuff!

This book is the most entertaining thing I've read in a while. It's a collection of stories from the boozy old days of Hollywood. The real old days; we're starting with the silent pictures here. I'm about halfway through the book, but I'm willing to vouch for it. You won't even believe the stuff you read. Just, wow. You get a whole new perspective of what was going on with these movie stars. Some of it is hilarious, some of it is sad in the way where you truly see alcoholism as an illness, and some of it (most of it really) makes me glad I didn't have to be around these people. But you won't want to put it down! There are some fairly unflattering illustrations, like this one:

Joan's story is about as crazy as you'd expect. And there are drink recipes to go with each story too. Like this one, with a page worth reading if you're able:

Intrigued to read the book yet? ;)

So, on to a different kind of "stress relief" and a much healthier one at that!

I ordered this blend on Amazon after realizing it included a lot of the stress relief oils I was planning to get anyway. There are other blends out there but this one actually smells good, mostly like oranges. There's one out there that's supposed to work as well as an anti-anxiety medication: Nexon Botanics Anxiety Relief. But I just wanted a general calming mix that wouldn't knock my nose out. So the one I chose has Ylang Ylang, Geranium, Lemongrass, Tangerine, and Blood Orange oils in it.

I got a second bottle, which again included a mix of oils I was wanting to get anyway. I wanted a mix to make me smell like Christmas cookies. This is headed in the right direction for sure. It's very spicy. I might end up adding some vanilla in with it. I ended up scoring this half off since probably most people aren't thinking about Christmas now. I think this could work as a fine, spicy autumn mix too.

So you can see in the little illustration there that this one includes Orange, Ginger, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, and Cardamom. Mmmm.... it smells so good you guys. I know scent is subjective, but this works for me! I like spicy scents. So I actually mixed a little of this with the other one last night and they went together great.

I tried a trick I read about where you take some really hot water and put it in a glass bowl. Then you add a drop or two of the oil to the water. This is like an old school diffuser. Oh, does this ever work! Forget air fresheners, this filled the room. I put it on my dresser, closed the door and walked out. I forgot about it for an hour, came back and woo! Yeah, that fills a room.

So in other essential oil news, a shout-out to Alison who kindly passed the author of this book on to me:

As you can see, I have several bookmarks in it. There is so much to learn here. So many techniques and oil descriptions. I think basically every malady, mental or physical is in here. It's really great. That's where I read about the anti-anxiety stuff. I think oils are more potent and powerful than I realized.

And lastly, this was probably the part of the first photo where you went "Huh?" So I was at Dollar Tree today looking for some stuff to add in with these oil recipes and found what I think was probably a pretty good deal on 16oz of Pink Himalayan Salt.

I picked this up because I read that you need to mix some Himalayan salt in with oil and water sprays. Because, you know how oil and water don't mix. I guess this helps them to mix. I picked up some distilled water at Walgreens today too, because I also read that water in oil mixes must be distilled. So I'll be working on some little oil/water/salt sprays and smelling like orange and spice!

Have you guys tried eating Pink Himalayan Salt? I just tried it today and liked it. It's more flavorful than regular salt, in a way that's hard to describe.

OK, so that's a little of what I've been into the past several weeks. If you want to talk boozy celebrities, books, oils, or salt in the comments, that would be fun. :)

A posing crow, essential oils, and palmistry

Happy Spring everyone! The Spring Equinox is here and it's starting to actually feel that way. We're getting near 50° and that's a big deal after this winter. I took a few photos recently that also feel like a big deal to me. They're a big deal because I haven't taken a lot of crow photos. Crows generally fly away by the time I've gone in to get my camera. But this one was ready to do some modeling! It not only waited for me to go inside and get my camera but gave me a whole bunch of different poses to photograph.

Don't you wonder where the crow's feet are? It's amazing to watch the balancing act of a bird that chooses to cling to the very top of a tall tree on a windy day. But this bird was balanced.

"Caw!"

"Just look at my bendy neck!" Did you know a crow could do a 180° with it's neck? I didn't. I guess no one is going to sneak up on a crow! This looks almost Photoshopped or unnatural in some way.

I was at the library a few nights ago and actually ran into a crow book. I didn't end up checking it out, because it was written in a pretty boring way. This is saying something, because I really like crows! So the interest was there. I actually put it back on the shelf, then picked it up again, paged through it and said to myself "Nope, still boring". It was written like the driest scientific manual ever. But someday I would like to read more about crows (in a different style of writing) because there is so much to know. They're some of the smartest creatures out there!

So I didn't end up with the crow book, but I did end up checking out some other books. I think some of you might be interested in these two. The first is about essential oils. That's my groovy skull scarf in the background. It ended up going with the kind of sketchy style of the book cover.

I've only just skimmed this book so far, but it appears to be good for the stage I'm at with essential oils. That stage being that I have a few oils and a few recipes and a handful of questions. This book looks like it will offer some explanations I'm looking for. I posted a pic of the contents here, in case any of you were wondering if this is a book for you.

From the parts I've skimmed, this is a pretty hip and up-to-date book. I could tell it was written recently. There are also some cute illustrations in it. This is a favorite:

He just cracks me up, pointing at his beard like "Check this out".

Another book I brought home was this one about Palmistry. As I paged through it today, I felt like I'd seen it before. This would have been years and years ago. It just seemed familiar. So far it's been pretty flattering in what it said about my hand. :)

The back, to give you more of an idea of what's in here:

The chapters:

The health part was surprising to me. I expected this book to mostly be about personality traits. But according to the health section, various bumps and lines on a hand could signal health problems. I dared to look at that page and I'm doing fine health-wise, according to my hand. :)

I'd be happy to discuss the subjects of either of these books if you guys have an interest. Anyone have a favorite essential oil recipe or use? Or maybe a little palm reading advice or thoughts about that?

P.S. ~ Besides March 20 being the spring equinox, there will also be a full super moon. So it is astrologically a big night! We haven't had a spring equinox and super moon together in 19 years.

Antique beer steins you won't believe

I saw a totally unexpected display at The Milwaukee Art Museum last weekend. It's not surprising to see sculptural beer steins in a Milwaukee museum, but the subject matter was a surprise. I bet a lot of you are coveting this right now:

Isn't this skull stein amazingly well crafted? It looks like a real skull. It dates from 1900 and has some interesting history, which I learned from a gallery label. I just learned that "label" is the word used for descriptive signs in a gallery.  So, according to the label, skull steins were a common gift for a college graduate! The skull is shown on a book. The Latin on the book reads "Let us rejoice while we are young".

This inscription is the beginning of a hymn "On the shortness of life" which according to the label, is commonly sung at European graduation ceremonies. Is that true? I'm asking anyone living in Europe, who might know. The skull stein was a bit of a joke for the graduate. I think in a "Drink up! Life is short!" sort of way.

Check out the back of the skull, 1/2 Ltr. mark, and bone handle:

Some people might find that skull creepy, but in my view the creepiest stein went by the name of the "Happy Radish".

Yikes! I don't know how happy it is, but it sure looks menacing. I can almost hear an evil little laugh coming out of this. Can you imagine having this happy radish on display where you live? At night, especially! The happy radish was also made in 1900. As the label next to it reminds the viewer "Salted, thinly sliced radishes were a common beer hall snack". So that's it, this is the look of a radish with revenge on its mind!

See? Looking at the radish and the skull side by side, isn't the radish scarier?

This next one is creepy too, but only because of the lighting. I'm sure it would look noble, maybe even kindly if it was sitting in a nice setting, in the sunlight. This is "Father John" and he was also created in 1900.

OK, looking at him again, there is one creepy detail that no amount of good lighting could disguise. You'd have to pop the top off his cranium to drink your beer!

This "Elf" stein, also made in 1900, is nearing cuteness.

There were a few animal steins too. I thought this owl was pretty cool. It reminds me of those fake owls people put out in their yards.

It's not titled "Owl Stein" but is instead titled "2036". Anyone have an idea of what that's about? Maybe it was the 2,036th owl stein someone made? This one was made in 1897. I looked at a Latin to English translation page and learned that Bibite = Drink. I figured the word was Latin after learning that the words under the skull were in Latin.

There was a pig that was just not doing it for me. Just meh. It's called the "Singing Pig Stein" and dates from 1900. Not sure if it looks like it is singing. Maybe.

And a funny pug, which I'm on the fence with. Part of me is thinking "cute!" and part of me isn't sure about those eyes. I'm sure pug people would be into it.

The pug stein is dated from 1891, but its title is "2018". I found that kind of spooky, given that it is 2018. I thought it was wild that someone made this stein in 1891, named it "2018", and in the actual 2018, here I am photographing it. I think if someone told the artist who made this in 1891, that someone would be photographing it with a newfangled camera 127 later, they'd think that was as cool as I think it is.

This frog stein is my favorite, along with the skull. It's so glossy! I like frogs, especially frogs with funny body language. He looks like he's saying "You'd like to take a picture of Moi?" This stein was made in 1900.

Another view of the frog, because I like him so much:

If you're curious about the back view:

It spooked me to see that face in the reflection just now, but then I remembered that it's "Father John".

All of these steins have held up so well over the years! As you've probably all guessed, each stein was made in Germany.

Something funny happened while I was photographing these steins. This has probably happened to those of you who take a lot of photos too. I was in this out of the way gallery space, in a dimly lit area, photographing beer steins, when a woman came in, stood next to me, and started taking the same photos I was! She eventually left and a few minutes later a man came over and did the same! Neither of them said a word to me. I should also mention that there were amazing pieces of art nearby that they both completely bypassed.

I have this theory that people want to take a photo of something, but they don't know what might be important in a museum or at a historical site. So when they see someone in full concentration, taking photos of something, they come over and join in. They don't want to miss the possibly "important" gallery piece, etc. Now, I obviously knew what I was going to do with these photos. As soon as I saw that skull, I ran over thinking "blog post!" but I have to wonder what those other people will do with their photos.

Anyway, what do you guys think of these steins? Would you want any of them around as decorations or to drink from? I liked the skull and the frog. Imagine how neat those two would look sitting out at Halloween! 🎃

P.S. ~ If you'd like to read a detailed history of beer steins, I have just the page for you: A Brief History of Beer Steins 

If you read that page, you'll learn some interesting trivia, like the reason beer steins have lids. 

An extra Halloween treat from Cedarburg!

It's time for that Cedarburg blog post! It's appearing about a month later than I expected, but it's been a very busy month for me. That, and I did some research and checked out some books in preparation for this blog post, and that took some time. I figured I'd be happy, so long as I got this up before Christmas. And you guys are up for seeing Halloween stuff year-round, right?

That cute skeleton was my favorite of the metal decorations we saw that day, and we saw many.

But starting with the sights we saw as we arrived in the downtown area, here we are along the creek and winery building.

One noticeable difference with this year's trip was this thick, green stuff on the creek. I guess it's some kind of algae. I've never seen any in this intense of a slime green before.

Luckily, not all of the water had been slimed.

I'm really enjoying looking back at all this fall color. The light is noticeably different from how it looks now. These pictures seem so warm. I actually feel warmer looking at them.

This photo is pleasing to me. I'm not entirely sure why, but it's just a happy little photo.

I think they updated this Cedarburg mural. It looked like a glossy print of some sort. However this was done, it's a lot more vivid than the image that was there before. You'll recognize a couple of these buildings as we go along.

I took notice of an old bank this time, for whatever reason. I don't remember paying much attention to it in the past. I saw that it was old, and much different from modern banks. I once read how architects used to design banks in an impressive way to give the appearance of there being money in the bank. Then people would have more confidence in it. I don't think that's much of a trend anymore, but there was something to it in my opinion.

After checking out a few books about Cedarburg's history, I was glad I took a pic of the bank! Because then I could compare it to how it used to look. Not much has changed, hey? Well, the windows got a little bit of decoration, but not much aside from that! The "Cedarburg State Bank" was built in 1908.

I always have to share this favorite house of mine. I was surprised not to find a picture of it in the Cedarburg history books because it's so outstanding to me.

Now here's another place I was really glad I took a picture of! You might be looking at this and wondering why I decided to photograph it. At least I was wondering that a little. It's not a fancy, Victorian house like some of the others. But something about it just said "Take my picture!" and I can't ignore that.

Well, it turns out there's quite a story attached to this building. According to the book Images of America - Cedarburg "When Cedarburg officials told the owners of Nick Schuh's saloon that he couldn't build a second story, Schuh got creative and raised the entire building."

How funny is that? I'm sure you've also heard stories about people working around the rules, like avoiding taxes based on the number of doors, walls, or windows they had. As you can tell, someone got around to building an actual first story for the building at some point.

I love how these old buildings had the dates included. I can usually find the dates chiseled in to the tops of the buildings, and at the bottom of churches. I'm assuming that's the same everywhere and not a regional thing? You can see "H. Roth 1888" on this one. And here it is back in the day:

The window design remains the same. Looks like they added some white window frames to the door area.

When H. Roth owned this place, it was his saloon. I also read that he was quite the bugle player in The Civil War.

There used to be a spire type thing on top of that part on the end. The decorative windows with the slash-type design are still there.

It's kind of spooky (in a cool way) to see people in old fashioned dress posing in the very places I've stood or faced. As I think of it now, a photographer once stood in the very place I was standing to take a photo, to get this. Only it was probably over a century ago.

A favorite shop of mine is in an old, brick house. Outside the house, there are tons of outdoor decorations and a neat skeleton display each year. 

I just noticed that skeleton climbing over the fence.

They had tons of neat metal sculptures out in the yard, like this witch.

And this fierce little dog:

This really seems like it could snap at a person!

The Sinclair dinosaur. I guess someone still had part of an old gas pump?

This skeleton was part of an annual display some of you might remember.

It's probably pretty hard to read the sign on this skeleton. It reads:
"Mr. Bones is a literal 'basket case'... Please let him R.I.P. & do not move his weary bones. Thank you!"

Do you think that was an actual issue? And is it just me, or is that pelvis a little outsized for the rest of this skeleton?

Chomp-chomp

Another skeleton eating a leaf. I thought this one was actually kind of scary. Maybe that's because I saw it on the ground. What are those eyes made of?

There were leaf garlands all over the top of the gazebo.

There's a shed at the back of the property. I love going in there.

Here's what the inside of the shed looks like. How about that? A shed with a working chandelier!

It's worth clicking on this note to get a better view of it. These notes were tacked up all over the inside of the shed. I love that last part "And don't worry--They only come in at nite" (yeah, right).

So cute!

Looking out of the shed, there's mom:

What an adorable little bird on the outside of this shed.

I love the area behind the shed and along the creek. It just feels relaxing and positive back there.

How pretty! Can you imagine living in that house back there? Talk about a view!

Have you ever seen a tree like this? It's spectacular! Someone must have put a lot of work into training it like this.

I thought this lantern was so pretty with the light shining through it. It was one of those lucky shots where it was just dark enough everywhere aside from the lantern.

I think that's a string of lights in his mouth. This is probably for outdoor fires?

Rock owls!

Something about these ghost milk jugs is reminding me of my childhood.

An oldie, but a goodie!

The stacked pumpkin decor never gets old for me. Here are two great examples of it:

So my guess is that this is a hot air balloon made of popcorn?

An emoji pumpkin!

This is the kind of thing I've only seen on Pinterest. It looks like someone went to a craft store and got the kind of fancy decals you'd put on a t-shirt or tote bag.

Pretty impressive, hey?

These were quite glamorous too.

This pumpkin looks almost fake, because it's so perfectly shaped!

Who do you think this is? The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man?

I love this!

The mold gives it an extra scare factor.

That building in the distance is Hilgen's Mill. It was built in 1855!

It stands five stories high and the walls are 3ft thick!

I've never been in this building, so I'm not sure what's in it now.

Not much has changed, has it?

Except for this adorable retro gas station that's now next to it. This pagoda style gas station was built in 1926.

This is the Interurban Bridge. In the early half of the 1900s, a train would have been passing where I was standing to take this picture. 

This was one of my views from the bridge:

It was nice of the wind to move this flag just so as I took my picture.

I don't have any information or old photos of this house, unfortunately. The door placement is interesting, isn't it? Maybe part of the house was removed?

A nice, traditional autumn display:

This is the Kuhefuss house. I love all those gingerbread details. It was built in 1849. That's only one year after Wisconsin became a state! It stayed in the family all the way up until 1989, when the last Kuhefuss living in it passed away. It's now a museum, but I've never been inside.

I know I read something about the history of this building, but I can't remember it! It's driving me nuts here. There might be a ghost story involved. If I can remember or find it, I'll add that to the post. At this point, the building holds a coffee roastery.

Isn't that fun what they did with the pumpkins?

This house-turned-store is always a highlight of the trip! Even the yard is covered in stuff to look at. This is the place you might remember had all those witch hats out in the yard years back.

I just noticed this elf butt now! Sometimes I see decorations in stores and wonder what people do with them (assuming these items are bought).

I thought this skull was very pretty with the sun shining through the glass.

Kind of an alien-bug-mummy? I thought these were pretty funny.

I looked up as I entered the store, to see these peering down at me. Yikes.

"Of course the cobwebs are part of the decor" 😊

Couldn't you just go nuts in here? There are multiple rooms like this!

I think these little trick-or-treaters are so sweet.

Gollum?

How about this business card holder? It reminds me of those classic, plastic Dracula teeth. And these old looking eyes! For those who really follow my blog closely, doesn't that set of eyes remind you of the optometrist sign from The Streets of Old Milwaukee?

I found that pic from my Streets of Old Milwaukee blog post:

See what I mean? Which of those sets of eyes is scarier? Hmm...

Some cool, vintage-inspired decorations.

I've put this up in the past, but it's going up again. It's just so random and funny. A "charbroiled bat". I guess no one has jumped on buying it, though. It keeps being there year after year for me to photograph.

I tilted my camera down into a container and saw this looking up. I think it's genuinely creepy!

I like the skull lace on that bottom hat.

Quite the dapper cat here. I'm only just now really looking at that black and white haunted house up there. It reminds me a bit of those sugared looking Christmas houses. Oh! I also just noticed something creeping around on the bottom shelf! See the eye and teeth?

How cute is this little pumpkin creature? It looks like her body is a big piece of candy.

A skeleton key.

I think this is pretty darn scary looking, especially when you look up and are surprised by it!

Back onto the streets here... I think this purple house is great. Sometimes people miss the mark when repainting Victorian house details. In my opinion, anyway. But I think this is really fun!

Nice contrast with the yellow flowers.

The Schroeder House:

This seems to be a kind of sister Inn to the Washington Inn.

A superhero pumpkin? Oh! Or maybe a ninja turtle?

This one seems like just a regular turtle.

Cute and classic.

I always love to photograph the caramel apples each year.

Picture this, it's 1905 and instead of candy apples in the window, there are boxes of cereal! That man with the pitcher is giving out samples of Grape Nuts (who knew that existed in 1905?) and something called "Instant Postum" which is listed as a "powdered rice grain beverage" in the Images of America - Cedarburg book.

Not as yummy sounding as these caramel apples, hey?

The book listed the old store as being named the Hentschel & Jochem Store. Now it is called Amy's Candy Kitchen. The old store sounded like a general type store, selling food and medicine.

Here's one more look at the kids lining up for those samples:

Just wow. To think that over 100 years later, I'd be standing next to where that man with the pitcher is, taking photos through a window. By the way, I appreciate how proper the sample man is! You'd never see someone in a suit and tie, pouring samples out of a ceramic pitcher in the grocery store now!

There is a store that sells some of their outdoor goods between two buildings. What's funny is that there are offices (I think a law firm?) in one of the buildings. So while you're out there browsing around, there's someone right next to the window on their computer.

Isn't that a cool space to show outdoor decorations?

Look at this little monster!

On to The Washington House Inn. This place really should be haunted. I say that every time I blog about it, although I'm yet to find any ghost stories about it online. A few other Inns in Cedarburg have ghost stories, though.

Look how much The Washington House hasn't changed since 1886! It started out as one of Cedarburg's first hotels. It had several other purposes before becoming a hotel once again.

Check out the people on the balcony:

And here's a view from a ways away on "Market Day".  Look at all those horses!

This wonderful ironwork surrounds the balcony you just saw the ladies standing on.

This is a bit of the exterior of a shop we just discovered last year.

Isn't that a pretty wreath? I like those natural berry type wreaths. And I also like how it looks next to that painted wood.

This was taken inside the Cedar Creek Winery at the end of the day. I love the way the light is casting through these grape leaves. This picture was my desktop wallpaper for a while.

The sun was setting through the trees on the ride home.

There is so much more information in the two books I referenced, if you'd like to learn more about Cedarburg. I linked to one already, but here it is again:

Images of America - Cedarburg by Lisa Curtis

and

Cedarburg - A History Set in Stone by Ryan Gierach

That one has far less photos, but it is a very detailed history of Cedarburg. If I wasn't so busy and it wasn't around Christmas, I'd read more of it. From what I have read, there's a lot of German and Irish farming and church history in the book, with the occasional crazy story thrown in. Like the one about the townsfolk getting drunk and taking fence posts out of people's yards to fight with in the streets! According to that book, you didn't want your house's fence next to a saloon, because this was a common enough occurrence. Just that bit makes me want to give the book another look when I have the time.

For the most part, the old photos I shared here are from the Images of America book. If you haven't already, I really recommend seeing if your library has any Images of America books to go with your local area. You won't believe what you see!