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Happy May Day y'all. This is how they celebrate in Helsinki…just in case you were wondering.

It's hard to believe it's May. Just last week I was out picking in Pennsylvania and it was actually SNOWING. But I kept at it, in the cold and wind, and brought home some inspiring goods.

Just in time for Mother's Day gift giving, we have vintage letters, bows & arrows (mom's love those), pretty linens, lovely jewelry (courtesy of resident expert Cynthia), mom-idolizing posters and, of course, flowers and charming vessels to put them in. If you are interested in purchasing an already prepared arrangement in one of our re-useable jars, vases or pitchers, please e-mail rebecca@windsorplaceantiques.com

Be sure to contact us by Friday May 8th to pre-order flowers.

One more sweet image to leave you with- from the National Dairy council 1955- mama and her baby giraffe.

While I would never post photos of or boast about my children, I will tell you all about our adorable new puppy, Herschel, a two month old German Shepherd. I went out to Pennsylvania looking for antiques and wound up bringing back something much furrier.

Herschel has swiftly taken over our household and immersed us in canine cuteness. With him in mind, here are some great illustrations and dog-related ephemera that I currently have available.

Various Breeds of Dogs seen on 1930s Tobacco Cards $1 each

1960s- Very Lassie- Collie Flash Card $7

Hand-Colored 1840s Engraving of A "Pale Dogfox" whatever that is? $28

Early Embossed Label $3

Victorian Trade Card with a Cute White Dog $5

The reverse side of the trade card

Three Beautiful Victorian Color Lithographs of Various Dog Breeds, Johnson's Household Book $35 each. It is interesting to note how different the breeds looked over 100 years ago.<br>

I wouldn't want to leave out images of my favorite breed- The German Shepherd Dog. While I love many and most breeds of dog, Shepherds just epitomize, for me, dog-ness. I have some lovely colored prints of Strongheart. Strongheart (1917 – 1929) was a male German Shepherd Dog who became one of the earliest canine film stars. He appeared in several movies, including a 1925 adaptation of White Fang. Some of these pictures were highly successful, and did much to encourage the popularity of the German Shepherd breed.

A popular celebrity in his day, Strongheart paved the way for the much better remembered Rin Tin Tin.

One last image to leave you with…an East German Science Chart of Pavlov's Dog.

Celebrate St. Patrick's Day and the spring awakening with some lovely maps of Ireland. We have a great selection in the shop….as is fitting in our traditionally Irish neighborhood.

In addition to maps of the entire country, we have maps of each county. I found maps of county Cork- where my mother's family hails from.

I found these county maps in this 1901 Encyclopedia and Atlas of Ireland. The book, although in pieces and missing it's cover, back boards and several sections is a veritable treasure trove of Irish history. I also found my mother's family's coat of arms. Please inquire as to availability of prints of your family's coat of arms or county origins.

A few more pretty Irish things of note: A Celtic-themed orange crate label and a lovely green hellebore boutonniere (courtesy of Design Sp*nge)

Detail from a Mexican botanical chart in my collection

My goodness this winter is dragging on. I'm sure I'm not alone in yearning for some warmer weather to soothe my stiff, cranky bones. I opened the NYTimes this morning and saw some lovely green blocks and globs of vegetable matter. They wouldn't normally look so appealing, but…..green looks good to me right now.

The above photos feature a flavor bomb of herbal stir-fry sauce and a vegetable ice cream salad, courtesy of Dirt Candy (an expanding vegetable-inspired East Village restaurant).

Plant matter and flora have been something of an obsession for me lately. The simple green herb illustrations, below, from the 1910s would cut through the gray gloom….perfect for a kitchen (or restaurant).

Lost in my verdant fantasies, I've been pretend redecorating my house with gorgeous floral wall papers. Here are some of my favorites….

a classic William Morris English Arts & Crafts pattern

A beautiful C.F.Voysey-inspired Design Used by Jersey Ice Cream Co. in one of their interior design projects

a decidedly more modern floral seen in the pages of Design Sponge

If you didn't want to paper a whole wall in a floral print, you could try a large botanical chart as a backdrop.

And for those who just want a little bit of flora, I have some fine original prints suitable for framing. The hand-colored English ferns (shown above), date back to the 1860s. The vivid hand-colored lily (shown below) is from Guerin, 1830s (French).

Among my favorite recent acquisitions are these generously-sized German botanical prints (excerpts below) from the 1870s. Hand-colored and exquisitely detailed, they evoke nature and radiate warmth. They could help chase away the winter blues. Matted and ready for 16 x 20 frames, $42 each.

My latest crush is on these late 1950s, early 1960s didactic posters by a little Pennsylvania school supplies publisher Hayes Publishing. Their Health, Good Manners and Safety series of posters were made for teachers to put up in the classroom. They have terrific good (but bad) period illustrations and would look so sharp framed in a group. I have several to choose from in the shop and at my booth at the Brooklyn Flea.

The outfits and hairdos are so perfectly square!

The posters below would be great accessories for a retro kitchen.

And, a sweet one for a little girl's bedroom….

If you are into vintage kids decor, these would look just swell with old flash cards or wooden blocks.

But, if you're taste runs to the slightly less cheery, I also have some great black & white prints from the 1930s. This ones a little darker…

These prints are matted and ready to frame- one is funnier than the next and some include very detailed anatomical illustrations of our sexual apparatus…perhaps not for small children?

I have to stick in this little piece of 1950s ephemera- it's a gem. I know it's kind of random, but I find the double entendre hilarious.

One more classroom image to leave you with- a detail from a French school poster L'Hiver in which children are seen frolicking in the snow…in shorts. I'd love to see what Hayes Publishing would have had to say about that.