Lavender, Lace and Lexicon

It's back to school time for children everywhere.  Time to pack up books and pencils and get ready to study the three R's: reading, writing and 'rithmatic.  Don't you just love the alliteration, despite the fact that "writing" and "arithmatic" don't begin with a "r"?

 



I have a little alliteration of my own with this post: the three "L's."  Lavender, lace and lexicon.  I love old books.   I love the changes in fonts and designs over the last 100+ years.  I love the yellowing pages.  I love seeing what people have written in their old books and also imagining who might have owned these books so long ago.

 



Do you know what a McGuffey's Reader is?  Here is a stack of the 4th, 5th and 6th McGuffey readers that are from my grandparent's day.  It is fun to see all of the funny little scribblings that children wrote in pencil in these books.  The bottom book in this stack is Chamber's Etymological Dictionary of the English Language."  I do cherish these old school books.

 



Whenever I'm at a flea market I always check to see if anyone has old books I might like.  The smaller stack on the left are three book from the turn of the century and are very old editions of Milton's Paradise Lost I  & II, a collection of Robert Louis Stevenson's Poems, as well as Stevenson's Kidnapped. 

 





The other day I decided that sitting in a bookshelf concealed by other books was hiding away some past history.  I wanted to enjoy the look, feel and connection to the past that they represent.  Also, I have a very large basket filled with lavender that I've dried from my garden, a lot of lace that needed to find a purpose, and this little school desk that could use some display interest.  So....I tied up a couple of stacks of old books with the lace and lavender and now can enjoy them all.  The idea to do this came from Angie at KNICK OF TIME.  I follow her on her blog as well as pinterest and etsy shops.  She has such fabulous ideas and special touches.

 



I doubt dogs were allowed in the classroom with the children but Miss Paige, one of my Newfoundland dogs, decided she needed to take a break from her studies while I was taking pictures.  Hmmm...sleeping in the classroom!  Is that allowed?  We'll make an exception for Paige.

I'm linking this post to Angie's blog Knick of Time for this week's Knick of Time Tuesday bloghop featuring bloggers creative ideas and projects featuring their vintage style treasure.  If you love creative vintage ideas, you'll want to check out KNICK OF TIME TUESDAY.


 

 

Until next time,

Cheers!

 

Jennifer