schmeckt gut!

I've been on this crazy German kick lately.  I crave German food all the time; I have this strange need to hear German being spoken, so I've been watching movies on Netflix; and I've been using German text in my collage art.   I don't know what is causing it; genetics maybe?   But why now?

A trip to Seigfried's satisfied the Wurst und Spätzle urge.  And, well, ok, the Kuchen.  And on my trip to Sam Weller's I found lots of good books, German and otherwise.

I found all of these great old craft books for 50 cents each.  I can't wait to curl up on the couch and browse through them.  I am hoping they will spark all kinds of new art ideas.

This was my favorite find at the bookstore, two volumes of books by the American writer, Orison Swett Marden.  He wrote about positive thinking and the law of attraction.  What attracted me to this book were the beautiful annotations made by some previous owner.  The books are highlighted throughout with colored pencil line, drawings, bits of text from other sources pasted in.

This must have been an important paragraph.  I wouldn't know; I can't read it.  I actually studied German for four years back in highschool, but that was a very long time ago, and I really wasn't a very good student at that time.  I could never figure out the verb conjugation.  Every now and again, a German word or phrase will pop in my head out of nowhere, like, "Ist das nicht ein Schnitzelbank?  Ja das is ein Schnitzelbank!" 

The author of the book was a follower of the New Thought movement, which dealt with some metaphysical principles.  So I am wondering if some of the drawings might have such significance as well.  There are many triangles, all-seeing eyes, and other such symbols.

Also, tucked into the pages, I found wonderful bits of ephemera, like these small pages from a 1933 calender, with the date on one side and quotes on the other.