A Mascot and a Library

Remember a few posts back when I explained how I became the Peacock Fairy? How it all started with a vintage image of an actual Peacock Fairy that I used on my business cards? Well, it's not just on paper anymore - I now officially have a real Peacock Fairy! This was a gift from my parents for my birthday, and she hangs proudly in the center of the beaded valance in my bead room. She surely fits the blue and brown colors in the room.......
..... and I must say she actually does resemble me: blue eyes and fair skin. I couldn't be more pleased!

The other fun finds I am going to share with you today is the start of what is becoming a peacock library. It's odd how the universe sends things your way. I have always loved reading, and especially now that the Fall chill is in the air it's a great time to curl up with a good book! I also love filling up my bookshelves and find that books also serve as neat decor for your home and conversation pieces. However, this first book is a trick - it is actually a faux book to hide your secrets in!

The gals at the Art Center put this cookbook aside for me during one of their garage sales. It was put out by The Junior League of Battle Creek in 1965! Now that I have called Battle Creek my home for 7 years, I am glad to have this little piece of history. I have no idea what peacocks had to do with cooking, but maybe it was a fellow peacock lover who had a say in the title. It is quite fun to flip through the pages and see how times have changed. For example, a quote in the Breads section reads: "Girls who knead are the ones who are needed." Don't get me wrong, being a whiz in the kitchen is a great thing, but it's not the only thing for us anymore!

When I was younger, the Nancy Drew series was one of my favorite collections to read. My Mom and Aunts read them when they were younger too and this one is actually my Mom's. I ran across an entire box of them while in my basement a few weeks ago. This one was published in 1956. I read through my Mom's hardcovers and then moved on to the more updated paperback ones while growing up. My curiosity has the best of me so I simple must read this one to find out what part the peacock plays in the story! I don't remember from that long ago and from how many I read!

Our company holds a book sale every year to raise funds for charity. They ask people to donate what they don't want, and then hold the sale with what they've collected. I found The Pride of the Peacock last year. Here is a quick summary of what it's about:

Exciting novel set in turn-of-the-century England where a young woman grows up in the shadow of the great estate-and privileged way of life-that was once her family's birthright. But a unique inheritance compels Jessica Clavering to marry the owner of a fabled opal mine and leads her to far away Australia. There she will discover the mysteries and evil surrounding the greatest opal ever found. There she must confront the danger that lust for the stone has aroused even in her own husband and there she must find love.

How ironic that at the sale this year (held today) I found another book by the same author!!! Seems she was a fellow peacock lover too??? Here is the summary of what The India Fan is about:

Drusilla Delaney, the daughter of an impoverished minister, becomes fascinated with the wealthy Framling family--especially with the son and daughter, the mysterious Fabian, and the beautiful, impetuous Lavinia. Through them, she finds herself the unlikely heir to an extraordinary bejeweled fan made of peacock feathers. But though priceless and dazzling to behold, the fan bears a curse that promises ill fortune--and even death--to whoever possesses it….Beautiful Drusilla Delaney had always been a sensible girl, the daughter of an impoverished vicar in Victorian England. But then she became infatuated with wealthy Fabian and Lavinia Framling--and inherited an extraordinary fan with a beautiful and fateful curse!

I cannot wait to dive into these books! They all sound interesting to me. And there's nothing like the smell of old books! Which reminds me to mention that my two dogs LOVE to smell old books when you start to read them! I wonder what goes through their head, trying to figure out where each one has been and what has lead it to me!

Happy Fall Reading!