This will be a longish post!
News: Don’s car will cost about $1000 to repair. Frankly, we didn’t need this right now. But then again, who does? It’s never the right time. We had it towed to the mechanic yesterday and it turns out the mechanism that controls the all-wheel drive broke. The car is almost 18 years old, so… Anyway, though we could get by with just one car – we have in the past – it’s easier and more convenient for us to keep his Honda Pilot, which drives beautifully (except for the other day) and is very roomy. It’s the perfect SUV for him, especially when he’s carrying his equipment for gigs. Also, we often have to drive out of town for work and leaving someone behind with no car is not a good idea. I’m not sure when we’ll get it back. Thursday or Friday, I suspect.
Given the circumstances, it’s fortunate that Don finally booked an acting job for two episodes of a series! Yes, after more than 6 years (2 of them in lockdown and several months of the actor’s strike) of no work, he got a call from his agent. I am so happy for him! He needs the work, yes. But more importantly, he needs to feel like he still has a career. The character is a Mummer (remember the Mummer’s Parade in Philadelphia?) so Don played his banjo during the self-tape audition. He shoots both scenes/episodes in one day – a week from today.
I guess we know where that paycheck is going.
Okay. I finished a puzzle:
This is a vintage map of Canada based on the 1946 Census. I have always been fascinated by maps, so working on this was a true pleasure. Three of my grandparents were born in Canada, as well as my mom, so I have a special fondness for that country. And for Michigan and the Great Lakes, which also figure prominently. It’s by Cavallini.
Drum roll: The Final Day of the Egg Cup Tour!
This beauty – a Holland mold that was hand painted by someone. These molds were made specifically for clients who wanted to paint the mold themselves – much like we see in certain shops today. I think this particular painter did a bang up job of it. It’s a large egg cup, at least 6 inches high. I think this was a gift from a reader.
The grand finale:
My prized collection of 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs egg cups. Originally very inexpensive, sometimes even free in a cereal box, they became rare and quite expensive for many years. My friend Nels searched high and low for his before the days of eBay, and he paid several hundred dollars per cup. By the time I started to collect, they were still out of my range, but as eBay gained traction, the prices dropped. They’re still somewhat pricey for egg cups -$30 – $70 a piece depending on the rarity. Much better, however, than $200 or more per cup, which was what I was seeing in the early days of collecting.
It took me 17 years to complete the set. I found Doc first, then Dopey and Bashful. And that is where it stayed for several years until I found another. I eventually posted about my collection in an egg cup collectors group on Facebook and a woman from Orillia, Ontario contacted me. (Mom and Grandma were born in Orillia.) She had a set available, but I was only interested in three of them. We negotiated the price. She was still under the impression they were going for the prices of several years ago and I had to update her on that. And Sneezy, Happy, and Snow White arrived at the cottage. The set became complete when I found Sleepy. For some reason, there are two Sleepys out there – one that was on the exact same mold as Sneezy, which made no sense, and another that was the actual Sleepy. That’s the one I found, though I still think I’d like to find the imposter Sleepy some day. It took me 17 years to find the correct Sleepy.
There are a few egg cups I didn’t include because they’re rather plain. I might have missed a few others as well. If I notice that, I’ll post them. I did find out some other information about one of my cups.
Remember this cup that I found in a the Paris Flea Market? It’s open on both ends – the only one like that I own. A woman from France posted her collection on the Egg Cup Collectors page and I noticed a cup very like this one. I did a bit more research and discovered that they are called diabolo egg cups – I’ve yet to figure out why the ‘devil’ enters into the name – and I think they are more prevalent in Europe. Back to this woman’s collection – it’s full of egg cups with that unique kind of French transferware design that I love. Oh my heavens. I am entranced! Remember that big bowl I purchased in Paris with a red flowery transferware design? Same kind of thing. Every cup is in red or blue or gray in that delicate oh-so-French decoration. If she gives me permission, I’ll post a copy of one her photos on this blog so you can see what I’m talking about.
I see a new group of egg cups in my future.
Okay. Grocery shopping, the library, mailing a package at the post office, and the bank are on the agenda on what will be a rainy day.
Stay safe.
Happy Wednesday.
Well, I am glad that Don’s car can be repaired and that he got an acting job. Good timing!
That is a beautiful puzzle! Good job, Claudia!
Brilliant news about Don’s acting job, let’s hope it leads to further work! I do like the Snow White set and I remember the joy you had when you were able to finally complete the set.
I have seen the diabolo style of egg cups previously. Maybe they get their name because they are like the diabolo spinning tops, similar to a yo-yo and used in circus acts. Still don’t know why named after the devil!
Happy Wednesday
That might be the reason behind the name. Thanks for that explanation, Dee Dee!
Stay safe.
congratulations on the acting job, don!!! very, very happy for you and claudia!!! when the time is right, i hope you will let us know how we can see don’s work (please and thanks).
sorry about the big bill, but glad the car can be fixed.
lovely puzzle with some history. just like the egg cups. glad you have them. i can understand why you might start collecting the transferware egg cups … beautiful.
hope you get some sun and warmth. we had a bit of rain earlier this week; grateful. today the sun is shining and it’s still chilly; am good with that, too.
had some more unintended time on the deck with earl (sweet but … eeek!). saw four deer eating some dried ears of corn left for them near the base of my parents’ swamp oak tree this morning (beautiful).
grocery/supply trips on schedule for this afternoon to prepare for Easter. friday looks to be the quiet day of the week and i think i will finish “war and peace” then … only 58 pages left (but i will enjoy this book for a very long time).
happy, safe days to you, don and everyone else.
and again, congratulations to don … what wonderful news that makes me so happy for him and you!!!
xo,
kathy
Thank you so much, Kathy!
Stay safe.
Excellent news about the acting job (now if the character would just become reoccuring….). At least the car trouble didn’t result in a crash of some kind, so that’s a back handed blessing.
Love the hand painted egg cup – my mother-in-law did that kind of thing for a while and I think there was an elf whose hat held the eg around here somewhere, must look. I don’t recall her doing such exquisite detailing as the wing and eye on your duck.
Cheers,
Ceci
Thanks so much, Ceci.
Stay safe.
I am jumping for JOY that Don has an acting job!! I am HAPPY because I know the two of you are HAPPY. You can’t keep a good and a talented man down!
Wishing the best,
Kaye
Aw, thanks so much, Kaye.
You’re so kind.
Stay safe.
Congrats to Don on the acting job! It’s fortunate that it happened just when the car needs repair.
I love the duck egg cup. She looks happy. I think it’s a girl because of the eyelashes.
It’s been rainy in Michigan too, and it really feels like spring.
Take care
I think you’re right – she’s a girl.
Stay safe, Marilyn.
Those egg cups are sweet. The Dutch do good work, lol. The French one is just too beautiful.
We had a black old Honda crv, it looked like a box. I loved it. It was very roomy. We put about $1,000 dollars into it our beat up old Honda civic and new tires on it a couple years ago. It’ll be worth it for you to spend the money.
So glad Don has this job!! I will be looking for a small job again. My alzheimers man is too poorly for me. I had a little cry with John’s wife this morning. I just want to say my goodbyes to him in the next couple weeks. I grew to love him dearly.
It’s sunny today again, the snow will melt. We need a proper good runoff from the mountains this year, so I hope for very moderate temperatures so our river fills.
I am avoiding my housework. Better go. And wake my sleeping blythe doll Arielle. She was so tired that I made a cozy bed for her last night.
Take care!
We had a 2001 CR-V in black and we used it for 22 years. It went back and forth across the country three times. It was a great car but it did finally fall apart. We sure got our money’s worth.
Stay safe, Irene.
Congratulations to Don!! That’s wonderful news and I hope it leads to more and more work! He’s so talented.
Also, thank you for the egg cup tour. Always a treat!
You’re most welcome, Jenny.
Stay safe.
That’s great news about Don! I’m so happy for him (and you). I hope he gets more acting jobs soon. Thanks for sharing the egg cups with us. I think I like the Snow White set the best.
So do I!
Thanks, Carol.
Stay safe.
My husband is like that: Whenever we have some insurmountable expense (or so it seems), he manages to pull a rabbit out of a hat. Look at the symmetry here: Don’s car goes bum but then, after no work for so long, here’s a job for him; so, a win-win. (Can’t wait to find out what series he’ll be featured in; really-really happy for Don and the work [I’ve seen him act in stuff on TV; he’s good!!])
Just glad you have things worked out on the car; my husband and I are the same; we can’t one of us be gone to a job more than an hour away from home (sometimes, depending on traffic, more than an hour away) and leave the other of us stranded back at the house without a vehicle; is just not wise (like, I’ve got a dog with a kidney problem; I need to get him to a vet in a hurry if this or that happens with him; one time I had a dog [a puppy, my sweet little boy] who nearly died, as in what could have been instant death and almost was, from a bee sting).
Now, my husband did have to utilize Lyft recently when he lost his car keys, and I couldn’t drive at night with my eyes to go pick him up in another city, but it is NOT cheap, although good to have in a pinch. Regardless, having ‘wheels’ give us choices and independence. They’re mechanical; they break down; we fix them. We humans are organic; we break down as the body ages; we go to the doctor, we get a treatment; we (try) to fix us!!
Your readers love Don! We want the best for him as do you! Over all the years, you’ve made Don very real and special to us (because you love him!!); I think he’s QUITE the guy. That he acts, sings, writes and plays instruments; wow; and, on top of everything, he’s such an incredible partner for the wife-for-life he clearly adores.
By the way, my husband says that a Pilot is one great vehicle to have (he’s impressed with them and he knows a lot about cars), even an older one, so you and Don have made a good decision after weighing cost vs benefit. It’ll all turn out okay! (A window closes; a door opens. [I’ve heard this so many ways; vice versa, etc. But the meaning is clear! Faith and hope.])
Hope you can get back quickly from errands in the rain today.
Once when we still had Scout, Don had our only car and she suffered what I thought was a stroke – it turned out to be vestibular disease. I was absolutely panicked. Our vet was about 4 miles from our house. I had to call my friend Heidi and she dropped everything to come get us. I know what you mean. Have to have two cars.
I’ll pass on your husband’s thoughts on the Pilot to Don. He bought it from our mechanics and each of them own a Pilot as well!
Thanks so much, Vicki.
Stay safe.
Oh my goodness, I got so carried away ‘talking’ about cars that I almost forgot an EGG CUP comment, Claudia! You know how I love me some of your egg cups each year(!!).
If you had only these, your COLLECTION would still be PERFECTION: “My prized collection of 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs egg cups.”
Oh, do I remember the cool things we once could score with a box of cereal from the store! Or in a box of Cracker Jack. (Late 50s, throughout 1960s for me.) Can’t imagine what it would be in the 30s to get the freebie-in-the-box egg cup (or a piece of Depression glass [maybe that was a flour sack and not a box {I should refresh my memory and look it up!}]).
I love the history you provided about your multi-year search of collecting the full set of eight Snow White cups. What an endeavor. Also, how fun to find new info: Diabolo (sounds so forbidding!).
Thanks for another interesting, wonderful post today, Claudia; like all your posts (that Canada puzzle looks like a darned difficult one to me!).
I know! The name “diabolo” sounds a bit too devilish for an egg cup!
xoxo
Claudia, that’s great news about Don’s acting job! Would have been nice to spend money on something a little more fun and exciting, but it’s so important to have our cars in good condition… I’m dealing with that now, new tires today and brakes yesterday. I enjoyed seeing your puzzle of Canada…I love the Banff area. Nice finale to the egg cup parade…enjoyed them all! Enjoy your day!
We love Banff, too. We’ve spent some time there over the years.
Thanks, Barrie.
Stay safe.
Congrats to Don on getting an acting job. He, and you, must be extremely pleased. But sorry about the car. At least it’s the “car’s fault”…meaning that when I had a big car bill, it was because a person stole my catalytic converter, so that’s not exactly the car’s fault, it’s the person’s fault.
Looking forward to an extension of the egg cup tour if you buy more!
Thank you for doing your egg cup posts, Claudia … something I look forward to every year. I remember when you finally completed the Snow White/Dwarfs set!
Great news for Don. Too bad, though, the $$$ will go to his car. It feels like it’s always something!
We’re having steady rain here in Oregon too. Like you, I need to get out in it and get some errands taken care of.
I hope you finished your errands, Debbie. I’m happy to say we finished ours.
Stay safe.
Terrific news about the acting job for Don. I hope it leads to more jobs very soon. Too bad his car had to break down right before he got the job. But…he’ll be working again!
I do love your Snow White collection….it’s so unique. Another collection you say! Of course. The hunt is always fun. I hope you can publish that photograph of your friend’s collection….sounds cool.
Enjoy your day! ;)
It’s a lovely collection, Donnamae.
Stay safe.
I’m wondering about the person who took the time to paint that duck egg cup and really added detail on the wings. Being able to more easily find what you want and complete collections is one way the internet has improved our lives for sure.
Bad luck about Don’s car. If it otherwise behaves just perfectly, might as well hang on to it. Dean’s Toyota was 22 years old with over 300,000 miles on it when he finally traded it in (we got $500 – wow!) and got his beloved Lexus. I’ve been leasing a Subaru Outback the past 3 years and we’ve decided to purchase it because it only has 11,000 miles and he loves to use it to haul stuff.
Take care,
Kay
Yes, our Honda CR-V was at least 22 years old when we had to say goodbye to it. Among other things, it had made 3 round trips across this country. I loved that car.
Stay safe, Kay!
I think the small end of the double ended egg cup is for the egg in the shell, the other end is for a chopped, seasoned egg, could be like a devilled egg. Betcha the Diabolo comes from Eggs Diavolo. I find that one of the most enjoyable parts of collecting is researching esoteric little bits of information, or making up a plausible facsimile.
Cheers!
Anne
The other end is for soft boiled eggs – at least that’s what all the pocillovists (egg cup collectors) say.
But it would certainly work for most any version of an egg, depending on the size of the cup. Some double egg cups have a very large cup, some, much smaller.
Thanks so much, Anne!
Stay safe.
Exciting, very exciting news about Don’s new acting role. And it came at the right time. Hope it leads to more work. An older car is usually worth fixing because they were made better. We drove a Chevy Malibu station wagon for over 20 years. Then we found another Chevy Malibu that was in excellent condition but a year older than our existing Malibu. We bought it anyway. Finally in 2010 we bought our first brand new car, a Chevy Caravan so fingers crossed it will last a long time. Loved seeing your map of Canada puzzle. 1946 was the year I was born. I wonder if I was included in the census? Hugs, Elaine
I hope you were included in the census, Elaine!
Stay safe.
I am very excited for Don. He should be proud of himself. The puzzle map is a good way to learn geography. I could use a refresher on Canada especially since we have so many Canadian neighbors in the winter.
Have a nice Easter weekend.
I love looking at maps because I learn so much!
Thanks, Kay.
Stay safe.
Oh Claudia, I’m so sorry to hear about the car repairs. Essential but never fun.
But THRILLED to the max for Don and I’m looking forward to more details when you are ready to share them. Good move on playing the banjo in the audition! That’s just the best.
The puzzle is lovely and I’m loving today’s egg cups. They’re lovely, every single one. There’s something fun about a good hunt and the satisfaction of finding just what you hoped for. Hooray!
Have a wonderful rest of the week.
They’ve changed the script to make the instrument a banjo. Same thing happened with Margaritaville – Jimmy loved the ukelele that Don played in his audition so much that it was included in the final script.
Stay safe, Jeanie.
Yikes on the car repair. It never comes at a good time. I’m so happy to hear Don booked some work. I do understand the need to still feel relevant. Sad the money will go to the car but as one of my favorite people use to say, ‘it is what it is’. Love the Canada puzzle. I’ve been to Canada a few times and will be going later this year to Vancouver to visit my daughter and see where she is living now. Can’t wait.
That will be a lovely trip, Linda.
Stay safe.