Being Erica DVD Winner ... And A Sneak Peek At Next Week
Thanks everyone for your very nice comments regarding my interview with Being Erica's creative duo, Aaron Martin and Jana Sinyor! Be assured that, while the Q&A may have seemed decent in writing, I was probably the most awkward person they ever had interview them. Think Chris Farley:
Oh, I wish I was exaggerating.
Anyhoo - let's talk DVD winner! I used a random number generator to select the commenter / Tweeter and the winner is .... Katharine (comment #7)! Congrats! I'll be in touch soon to get season one headed your way!
Edited to Add: If you didn't win, Staying In is giving away three sets of DVDs (both seasons!), but the contest is only open to Americans. Perhaps try your luck there?
As for the rest of you, to your disappointment, the sneak peak I referred to in my title has nothing to do with Being Erica's holiday special and has everything to do with my mental illness 50s housewife stuff. As mentioned earlier, I'll embark on a short "very special episode" of Jen But Never Jenn - the 50s Housewife Does Christmas. I'll dive into the suggestions given to women at the time regarding holiday gift giving, decorating, food and entertaining. I'm slightly thrilled about a few aspects of that, and here's one of them:
That is a cardboard putz home. Adorable, right? I leaned the penny - an American penny! - against it to show you its size. These little tiny homes were the thing to decorate with at Christmas in the '40s and '50s. Many are sprinkled with mica (sparkles), have cellophane in the windows to act like stain glass and have holes in the back so that you can place a light in them (people put them on Christmas tree lights or created a wee Christmas village with them). Most of these were made in Japan (sort of like how today's cheap goods are all made in China), and some are even stamped with "Made in Occupied Japan" - I guess so people could feel like they were buying American when they were really sort of buying from a former World War II enemy. Patriot Marketing, how fun you are.
When these arrived the other day, I have to admit I went Full Girlie Mode and nearly vomited from all the charm. To my delighted surprise, when Patrick came home and saw them, he didn't respond like I thought he would ("What the hell is all this crap? Jesus fuck, Jen. Please tell me these weren't expensive."). Instead he picked one up and said, "Oh, cute." THEY ARE THAT ADORABLE! It's official: Putz is the new kitten.
So, next week, expect to see more of them (set-up as a village!) along with a few other time-warped Christmas delights!
(the book)
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10 comments:
They remind me of the set we had when we were little: http://www.etsy.com/listing/32105408/alpine-christmas-village-houses-church
Ours were plastic, though. Is that a 70s/80s upgrade? Either way, it's good memories!
I love how much you make fun of yourself, but I very much doubt you were as bad as Chris Farley ! Hahahha
That little house is cute. I've never heard of putz before?
Congrats to the DVD winner! I'll have to find another way to check out the series.
Those little cardboard houses are indeed adorable. :)
I'll edit the post to say this too, but Americans might want to try entering in this contest for the DVDs too! http://stayinginwithvlada.com/2010/12/06/give-the-gift-of-being-erica-giveaway/
I won!?! Wow - thank you!
Really looking forward to your next 50s housewife experiment, too!
We have that village! My mom had a whole set - she recently upgraded, but I begged her to keep the old set because I always loved it so much. We would all set it up together, so it was one of my favourite family Xmas traditions. The problem with those houses is that the little windows and doors would break... One house was in really bad shape, so that was always our 'haunted house' (which my mom always said didn't belong in a christmas village, but we still had a whole back story about it anyways, involving moats and poison berries and monsters...) Man, total Christmas flashback. Thanks Jen!
Paper houses!! I'm thrilled to see one here. I have a huge set (about 20 houses) that belonged to my Grandmother, although my mom had always led me to believe they were WWII vintage and not 1950's. Because I don't have appropriate table space on which to display all of them, we just sort of nestle them into the tree where they look fantastic.
Enjoy your houses. They are, by far, one of my favorite Christmas things.
@juli: we got replacement celo windows from these nice people and I can't recommend them highly enough. My mom had poked out all the windows as a child, and was thrilled to see that I'd been able to restore them. They also do restoration, and might be able to bring your 'Haunted' house back to its full Xmas glory.
we have a little set of houses covered in sparkle and are adorable. they were my grandmothers. i still have the box they came in...although the box is quite sad looking.
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