Thompson Family-Life

For the love of puppets. And Muppets.

I found these plush Muppet dolls at a thrift a few weeks ago. I just couldn't pass them up. Rather, the Muppets-loving-70's-80's-child that I am couldn't pass them up. They were in perfectly faded colors. I of course immediately washed them once I got home. Plush anything from the thrift is always a bit scary. But they didn't smell to begin with so I think we're safe.

I wasn't sure if the boys would be into them and they were so cheap I could always re-donate them, but they got pretty excited when they saw them. They've never really been into Sesame Street (sadly) but did see the new Muppet Movie and loved it. I really want to watch some of the old Muppet Show episdodes with them. That has been on our to-do list for a while. (note to self: buy the DVD asap!)

Not long after I found the dolls, I thrifted this book. It doesn't get much better than Sesame Street Muppets, don't you think?

We also watched the amazing documentary Being Elmo last month on recommendation from one of Ethan's work friends. Admittedly, we've never been fans of Elmo, but I guarantee you, once you see this film you might change your mind. It's such an incredibly beautiful and inspiring story. A must see.

And speaking of puppets, did you know it's National Day of Puppetry this Saturday? Well it is! I have to brag because we have the amazing Center for Puppetry Arts here in Atlanta. We've been seeing puppet shows there even before we had kids (they have shows for adults as well!) We've actually been puppet fans ever since our first trip to Prague, Czech Republic many, many years ago. They have a rich puppet history there. We have a little marionette collection of our own that we've accumulated over the years and have seen some incredible puppet shows (more like grand performances!) around the world including places like Prague and Salzburg, Austria (at the Salzburg Marionette Theater).

Our Center for Puppetry Arts serves as the American headquarters for UNIMA-USA, the American branch of the international puppetry organization Union International de la Marionnette, the oldest theater organization in the world.

If you're ever in Atlanta, I highly recommend this center. Your kids will LOVE it (and so will you). They have an incredible museum that features long-term exhibitions centered around none other than puppet genius himself, Jim Henson. For me, it never gets old seeing actual puppets from some of my favs like Labyrinth and Fraggle Rock. Many puppets that Jim performed and created including Ernie, Rowlf the Dog, the La Choy Dragon, Dr. Teeth, The Swedish Chef are on display.

(puppet from Labyrinth, photo source)

Gotta love those Fraggles.

They have all kinds of performances you can see and classes you can take. Such an inspiring place.

Are your kids (or you) into puppets? Be sure to check around your city to see if anyone's having a special event for National Day of Puppetry this Saturday. You might be surprised what's happening in your own town!

Illustrated: Busy People & How They Do Their Work, 1968, Continued

A continuation of this book. Today we have Doris Doctor, Zeke Zookeeper, Perry Postman, Carlo Clown & Irma Installer. Enjoy!

Illustrated: Busy People & How They Do Their Work

I found this book on my thrifting trip last week. It was originally printed in 1968 and illustrated by Joe Kaufman. It's awesome! It's a pretty large book and the illustrations are fantastic. This is definitely the best vintage kid's book I've found in a while. I could see scanning some of these pages and enlarging into prints for the wall (... of which I did here. I love using vintage illustrations for wall art!) Having a playroom for the boys is definitely on our wish list for our next home and I think having a big collection of these illustrations hanging together would look so great for a playroom.

This book is so big and I'll be sharing about 60% of it, so I'm going to split it up into a few posts. First up, out of the very "Busy People" Joe teaches us about is Fred Fireman, Peter Policeman and Trudy Teacher...

I'll share more tomorrow! Do any of you have this book?

Vintage Dutch Comic: Tina & Spanish Artist Purita Campos

I was perusing one of my favorite vintage shops a while ago, Ismoyo's Vintage Playground, and the second I laid eyes on some '70's vintage comics (called Tina) she had in her shop, I was in love! I was immediately drawn to the illustration style (definitely putting these in my tattoo inspiration folder!). She attached some original comic covers to some large magnets (about 8"x10") and I knew I needed them for my studio. I have yet to frame them but I've been wanting to share them with you.

I ended up talking to her on Twitter about them and she told me a little about the artist behind the illustrations: Purita Campos. She even owns an original illustration by her! Keep a watch out on Ismoyo's blog because she has a blog post all about this artist that she'll be posting soon.

She told me that the comic originated in the Netherlands where she is originally from. So I'm secretly hoping and wishing that I stumble onto some of these comics in thrifts when we go to the Netherlands in July! Here are the three large magnets I purchased:

You can find more of these Tina magnets here.

Ismoyo was so sweet and generous to send me a complete and original Tina comic along with my magnets! What a sweet and thoughtful surprise! Here it is...

How adorable are the fashions? I wish I had a cool comic like this to follow when I was a teen. All we had were Teen Bop and all of those cheesy pop icon mags (oh, and Highlight Magazine). I love that these are centered around girls. I've never been into comics (only because I've never really been exposed to them) but I can see how people become obsessed with the comic world. As I've gotten older, I've been more exposed to the comic culture and I LOVE IT. And check out these awesome ads that were inside...

How cute are these gals with their satchels to hold their Tina Comics!?

Thanks for all of the feedback on my Tattoo Inspiration post! I love hearing all of your stories and advice! I will keep you posted on my tattoo progress.

*Edited to add: a reader left a comment with some new information! You can read more about the illustrator Purita Campos here (you can translate loosely through Google Translation) and a youtube video that is really cool to watch of an exhibition of Purita's work as well as her talking about her work (it's in Spanish but still an interesting watch if you don't understand the language).

And just to be clear, the comic I've featured here is indeed a Dutch translation of Tina, but the artist herself is Spanish. I look forward to searching for more work by Purita online. I'm just smitten with her illustration style!

Thanks to Marta for pointing us in the right direction to learn more about this talented artist.*

Illustrated: Spanish Artist Concha Matamoros

As I mentioned last week, we are going to the Netherlands this summer, so I've been immersing myself in all things Dutch lately. I've always been drawn to vintage Dutch patterns and fabrics as well as children's book illustrations. I've often seen illustrations of children and adults in a similar or exact style as the ones in this book of mine (of which I bought at Atlanta Vintage Books!) donning all kinds of products offered in online Dutch shops - whether it be in the vintage section on Etsy or other independant online shops I've found.

This really sweet face style I've always associated with the Dutch because they always seem to be the ones selling these items. But to my surprise when I was researching this particular illustrator, Concha Matamoros, (I'm assuming female? Help me out Spanish readers?) she is actually based out of Spain not the Netherlands! And of course when I looked closely to find the illustrator's name, it was obvious she wasn't Dutch.

I think the young girls depicted also seem very Dutch, or Scandinavian, or even German with their often very blonde hair and blue eyes. I think that threw me off as well. I see that my book was actually printed in Belgium, so maybe she worked around that area and was influenced by the people? Not sure. I couldn't find out much about her online, sadly.

Aren't these illustrations just beautiful? I just can't get enough of them. There are some pages missing from my book unfortunately, but you get the gist of the story. I also love that the book has been diecut into a unique shape.

Sadly, the cover is a little damaged, but the back is in good condition. SO cute.

Most of the books I've found online illustrated by Matamoros seem to have been printed in the '60's. While doing my research, I found a bunch more items illustrated by her, mostly on a Spanish auction site. How beautiful are these Madonna and Child pieces? I think they are brochures or cards of some kind. I'm am so in love with them.

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How fabulous is this little girl with her mod dress, checkered shoes and little camera!?

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More brochures or cards.

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And more books that look like they family with my book, having a similar diecut and subject matter.

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Do you have, or have you seen any books or other products illustrated by this artist?

You can find more posts from this Illustrated series here.