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Collectors place high value on antique displays

It’s difficult to escape holiday shopping, whether you’re buying gifts, stocking up for dinner parties or just taking advantage of a sale. And stores make sure to entice you with flashy, tempting displays. Even if you’re not a fan of the commercialization of the holidays, store displays can be works of art. But collectors of antique advertising have known this for a long time. Window displays often have the most interesting images, the cleverest ideas and the latest technical effects. Look at this automaton, which sold for $1,560 at Potter & Potter Auctions. It originally stood ...

Waiting for snow

I’ve been waiting for snow. I am not a winter sport enthusiast or anything like that, but I do enjoy walking in the snow with my dog. She loves snow. If it’s snowing when we go out she tries to catch the snowflakes in her mouth as they flutter and fall. She can barely contain herself and pulls at the leash to get into the yard to play in it. Watching her roll around in the freshly fallen snow reminds me of my favorite picture books about snow, so I thought I would share some with you. A book my dog would love is called “Snow! Snow! Snow!” by Lee Harper. One night a cold wind ...

Steeping saffron in tiny teapots

There’s nothing like a hot drink on a cold day! How about a classic hot chocolate? Spiced apple cider? Maybe a warm cup of freshly steeped saffron? That last one might sound odd to us, but it’s a popular drink across many cultures and has been for hundreds of years. Saffron, a spice made from the stigma of a type of crocus, has been prized for its flavor, color, fragrance and purported health benefits since antiquity. As a drink, it can be steeped as an herbal tea (or, as some tea purists insist, tisane or herbal infusion) on its own or with other spices or herbs; or it can be ...

Gift prepping at the library

Are you wondering about gift ideas for the holiday season? Here are some great ways the library can inspire you to prepare your next thoughtful gift for those you care about. You can start by checking out our Memory Lab! In the Memory Lab, you can digitize old photos, VHS tapes, cassette tapes, and more including new offerings like microcassettes and 8mm film. We’ll train you on how to use the equipment and software and provide support as needed. If you think it sounds too technical, think again. We’ve had patrons with very little computer savvy be able to complete their projects ...

Crewel embroidery keeps coming back in style

Some antique arts fade in popularity but are never truly lost. Embroidery is one of them. There are surviving examples of embroidered fabric that date back thousands of years. There is even evidence that Cro-Magnons practiced embroidery! By comparison, the embroidery of 17th and 18th-century Europe and Colonial America seems much more modern. This was the heyday of the craft. It had grown increasingly accessible to amateurs and was established as an important part of women’s education. Queen Mary II, who co-ruled England with her husband William III from 1689 to 1694, was known for ...

Gratitude and thankfulness

According to the American Heart Association, “expressing gratitude can improve sleep, mood and immunity, can decrease depression, anxiety, chronic pain and disease.” Consistently combining gratitude observation with the performance of acts of thankfulness can help raise your positivity, too. If you want to begin or up your gratitude practice, the New Ulm Public Library has books to help guide and inspire your plan. Here is a list of books—with descriptions from the publishers—to get you started. Gratitude by Oliver Sacks. “Gratitude is Sacks’ meditation on why life ...