So there you were, expecting a real wowser of a snowstorm that would have kept the schools closed on Monday and led to a glorious day of sledding and snowball fights–but all it did was rain. What to do with your Sunday afternoon?
I loved these Venus Paradise pencil sets. Each set came with a raft of colored pencils and a bunch of pictures to color by number–always with a wonderful result, if you didn’t make careless mistakes. The pictures we got back then were complicated and it took a couple of hours to color one in. But it was worth it!
I don’t think these are available anymore, and I wonder if kids today would have the patience to enjoy them. After all, it’s not electronic. And no mayhem. Just really nice pictures of ducks flying over the cattails in a marsh, or a scenic covered bridge on a sunny day in the fall–stuff like that. All you needed was a pencil sharpener, and a bit of peace and quiet. There are still some similar toys around, but once you fell in love with Venus Paradise, nothing else would do.
I’ve still got some of the pencils, but the pictures are, alas, long gone.
I remember seeing these and, I think, my sister used to buy them. It was a better, simpler time, when coloring in a picture of a Leopard could be enjoyed without all of the computerized gizmos of our day. I work with computers and networks daily, but I’d be thrilled to go back to the simpler world of the past.
I see you can still get Venus Paradise sets on ebay. Maybe I’ll ask for one for next Christmas; they’re not terribly pricey.
It looks like there are people selling the blank, color by number sheets too. I claim dibs on the gorilla. 🙂
I don’t have enough pencils left to make a full set, and a blue gorilla just wouldn’t look right.
You must have had a blast then you were a kid. I never had anything that fancy that I remember. I used to take large cardboard boxes and make houses out of them, complete with window curtains made from Gramma’s sewing scraps, and furniture of anything I could find that resembled furniture.
Maybe your folks missed the paint-by-number fad.
Yeah, they probably did. They seemed to expect me to invent my own amusements. One of the few things they did buy was a tricycle and
a very pretty doll one Christmas.
Wow looks nice!