what's a dime really worth?

My brother Chris drilled these tiny .014 inch holes into a dime with a sensitive drill press he restored. The hole that doesn't go all the way through shows the post-1964 construction of a pure copper inner layer sandwiched between two layers of cupronickel, a 75% copper and 25% nickel alloy. While dimes are mostly copper but look so silver, pennies are 97.5% zinc and only 2.5% copper! It's interesting when you consider how the intrinsic value of the metals can be higher or lower than the face value of coins and how both are fluctuating constantly. This and other factors like scarcity and demand contribute to the numismatic value of coins. Whereas most dimes are worth ten cents, this one is much more interesting and valuable to me!

amazing lace

I found Caroli Esguerra's amazing crafts at Copper World in Calumet, Michigan.  Her family-run company The Rose Lady preserves real leaves with a special process to keep the delicate veins visible. Each one is unique and beautiful, dipped in copper, silver or gold, taking a week to complete. The elegant shapes of aspen, birch, oak, cottonwood, sugar maple, silver maple, Japanese maple, and eucalyptus are made into ornaments, earrings and more.

http://www.theroselady.com/cat-18-1-14/shop-by-leaf.htm

 http://www.calumetcopper.com/

and two terrific tins

pretty prints on paper boxes

marvels of motion

This tiny doll shoe kind of reminds me of

this odd little pewter head which kind of reminds me of

the semi-creepy logo of a really cool company, Optical Toys in Vermont. 

http://www.opticaltoys.com/

If you are in need of a thaumatrope, a zoetrope or a phenakistascope, Andy Voda has these and all sorts of interesting optical toys available, both reproductions and his own creations. Forerunners to the movies, these paper games are wonderful studies in motion and animation. I especially love the fun flip books:

 Cockatoo flying, Eadweard Muybridge

 

 Boys leapfrogging, Eadweard Muybridge 

Lightstorms, Jan Karel Lameer 

 Kinetoscopic record of a sneeze, Thomas Edison

Gestation animation, Karl Baden

 Bactrian camel galloping, Eadweard Muybridge

duck feet

 funny little slippers, also available in frog, flamingo, dinosaur and penguin

www.sillykilili.com

monkey & donkey

 lil knit finger puppet friends

salivarial synergies

YumEarth makes the earth's best lollipops. Their ingredients are as they say "short and sweet." Razzmatazz Berry is the best in the bag for me, it makes my salivary glands shoot out saliva from under my tongue in a glorious rush of refreshing fruit ecstacy every time I have one. All the other flavors are extremely enjoyable as well: Pomegranate Pucker, Perfectly Peach, Very Very Cherry, Mango Tango, Strawberry Smash, Googly Grape, and Wet-Face Watermelon.

Chili Mango Mambo and Chili Lime Lambada are both wildly yummy, not too hot, just a perfect tang with a spicy twist for your tongue. I'd love to see (taste) more chili flavors added to this candy company's line of luscious lollipops.

spurious scents

like non-alcoholic beer, kinda funny product!

four eyes

fleas are fun

PA (pronounced pee-ay by natives) is the land of cool stuff, the mother lode of unusual and fun finds.  During nice weather type in a zip code for Lancaster or Berks county on auctionzip.com and you will get a very long list of auctions to choose from.  If you don't like waiting to make bids and prefer to hunt for special treasures, here are a few amazing flea markets
http://www.renningers.net
http://stoudts.com
http://madhatterantiquemall.com
http://www.shuppsgrove.com
https://www.jakesfleamarket.com
 where you might find

a beautiful old tin

a funky old bottle

a wooden stick of butter

 

half inch utensils

 

cast iron carnival fish

a 5/8 stamp

a CPR mannequin mask

 

a pop-up paper bird greeting

 

a metal bird bank

and adorable handcrafted birds made of felt, cardboard and clothespins, perfect to clip on a curtain rod.

cheep cheep beep beep

all creatures great and small

 along with a few wooden friends

middle of the mug rack

a unique scale of animals who lived in harmony in our coffee grinder drawer

children's books 93

This children's book is in German, so I can only guess from the pictures and title what it is about. In Gasthaüs Für Sonne (Guesthouse to the Sun), written by Erich Heinemann and illustrated by Fritz Baümgarten, a little elf man makes a tasty brew and plays the violin to the delight of all the animals in the area.  He decides to build a guesthouse and everyone pitches in to help. It is a great success, and they have wonderful parties with lots of good food and drink throughout the year. There may be a lot more to the story, but there is plenty of enjoyment in the beautifully detailed paintings.