Trixie Belden Illustrations

Since I’m so excited about the Trixie Belden Series, I thought I’d post some of the cool Dust Jacket Book covers and illustrations I have found online.

 

 

If you want to learn more about Trixie Belden and her fab boys and girls club and their super fun retro adventrues , you can check it out here -

Trixie Belden. Com

Trixie Belden Info

 

Vintage YA Fiction – Trixie Belden

 

I have just discovered some new young adult vintage fiction series. Trixie Belden was written around the same time as Nancy Drew but for same reason did not make that transition into my generation unlike Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys.  I was lucky enough to pickup two paper backs from the 50’s for a dollar each, they are #4 The Mysterious Visitor and #5 The Mystery Off Glen Road. Like all other YA mysteries the plots are really simple and of course has very little violence. In #4 ,which I just finished, the villain is an imposter who is trying to swindle on of Trixie’s friends and a revolver or real danger is present only in the last 3 pages.

The most charming thing about the series is how well the era is captured in the dialogues and the writing. Trixie is 14 years old and lives in Sleepyside, NY which is a suburb of Manhattan. She lives on a farm with her three brothers and parents. She also has a neighbor Honey Wheeler and her adopted brother Jim Frayne. Jim, Honey, Trixie  and her brothers Brian and Mart make up the Bob-Whites which is their secret society.  Trixie also rides the bus along with her friends because they all live far from the village , which is where the poorer people live.  She struggles with math woes and hates to write “themes” which I gather are essays or term papers. They all also have to dress for dinner and dressing in jeans is referred to as dressing “sloppy.” In fact one of the character’s mom won’t let her wear jeans at all. Trixie also calls her mother “Mom’s” and the book definitely reinforces the idea that women who cook, clean etc are virtuous. In fact, Trixie, for being a tomboy even makes comments like “Mom’s just goes in the kitchen and walks out with something delicious.” Also, her chores are babysitting, while her brothers get to groom horses.

Its charming to be transported back to a post WW II suburb in NY.

I’ll post more as I read more.

The Anti Cosmopolitan

 

 

Now that Sex and the City has officially driven a certain group of women into harried frenzy, I was thinking about one of the major points of the show -Drinking.

The women are all fabulous, so of course they go to fab bars and drink fab drinks and one of the drinks which became synonymous with the show and all things girly was The Cosmopolitan. In my opinion, the Cosmo isn’t usually very good because most bartenders tend to make it cloyingly sweet, but I’m sure it suits a lot of people’s palates. More info on the origins of the Cosmo and its supposed evolution from a Gimlet can be found here.

I was discussing going to see the movie with some friends the other day and someone mentioned that not drinking Cosmos at a little pre party would be borderline blasphemous. Although, I didn’t say anything at the moment, I think I disagree. Carrie Bradshaw, who is supposed to be the one to popularize Cosmo actually doesn’t tend to drink Cosmos throughout the show. In the last few seasons her drink of choice is usually Scotch on the rocks. Its funny  though that Scotch on the rocks never became a popular drink for women. I guess I just love Scotch and I think Scotch is much more fab than a cosmo, probably because I come from a long line of Scotch drinkers and also married a Scotch lover, but still there is nothing  more fab than ordering a Scotch on the rocks, while wearing a sparkly dress. Maybe Carrie Bradshaw learned that later in life as well.

But thats just my opinion, Here’s me raising my glass to good liquor in any form! Cheers!

 

 

photos: google images

Summertime Living

 

 

 

 

This is one of those list posts becasue I am in a list making mood.

Things I want to do this summer in no particular order:

Go to the Beach

Volunteer, I have been so focussed on my self lately that it might be good to do something for someone else

Graduate

Go out for ice cream, especially Locopops

Go Camping

Possibly pull of that trip to NYC

Make lots of yummy burgers

Go see Sex and The City, X Files and Indiana Jones

Shop and eat fresh, organic veggies at least once a week from the Durham Farmer’s Market

Spend an afternoon wading in the Eno

Make mojitos

Read more

Take Odissi lessons. You can learn more about this dance form here

Find a job

Buy a new swimsuit and some fun summer dresses (I  think all my summer lists have this one).

Ride my bike

Do yoga a few times a week

Eat one completely vegetarian meal a day

 Scrapbook some photos

Frame my wedding and India photos

*****photos:google images****

Right Now!

 

Something weird is happening to me, I’m sure this happens to every sane woman, where she goes completely bonkers, but I really thought all that was just a cliche and it would never happen to me! I have never really been a baby person. I actually don’t even know that many kids!  I am an only child and youngest out of all close cousins in my extended family.  My neice and nephews are all far away, so I only see them once every few years and really its super easy being a cool aunt! But I wasn’t anti-kids either, I knew that someday I wanted to have a child, just because well…thats what you do have a child, be a mom, usual stuff. But I definitely did not expect to be hit with the maternal urge this hard! I swear to God, this week I’ve felt like a walking cliche, everytime I walk by a kid, my hormones go into overdrive and start screaming in my year, that “I must have a little, tiny creature that cries and poops a lot now!, I mean RIGHT NOW.” Its quite ridiculous!

How do I deal with this? I’m not at all sure, I’m ready to have kids yet, maybe in a year or two but I how do I make my body shut up?????

If I figure it out I’ll keep ya posted! Till then, I’m off looking at baby clothes or something completely irrational like that!