Glory be, the sun is shining. It’s been a ‘gray’ situation around here for a number of days, so this is most welcome. Just the kind of day to recycle! (Kidding.)
Actually, I do have to recycle today, but you know I like doing that kind of thing. It’s very satisfying to sort things and toss them into large dumpsters.
Don and I are still trying to figure out which one of us will be traveling. He might come here. I might go there. We’ll see. I’m doing much better – still coughing, but not nearly as much as I was.
I found two more egg cups (I know there are more, but I took a couple out of the rotation for a bit and now I don’t know where I put them.)
On the left, a vintage Hankscraft double egg cup, which I love because it reminds me of Art Deco, and on the right, a pretty little egg cup in beautiful spring colors. Both of them were sent to me by Judy, a reader of this blog. The blue and green egg cup normally sits on a table in the den and holds a yarn needle that I use from time to time.
I went to a local antique shop and ended up buying some ironstone butterpats. Why, you ask? I’m not quite sure. I don’t collect ironstone, but butterpats have long intrigued me. They’re sort of the perfect collectible if you are short on space – in the same vein as egg cups and miniature pottery. They’re old and have lots of crazing.
This is the clearest of the Grindley markings. Some are very faint.
Also discovered yesterday – a small Wallace Nutting. I was taken by its size and the lovely autumn scene, hand tinted by one of Nutting’s staff artists.
Isn’t it sweet?
Written on the back:
Dec 22 – 193? It’s either a five or a seven.
I’m not sure where I’m going to hang it. It should be part of the wall of Nuttings that is gradually taking shape here in the office. There are three Nuttings there at the moment. The other is downstairs, hanging on the big white cabinet in the living room.
The collecting gene is strong in me.
Don told me that all the musicals on Broadway are singing something from Oklahoma! tonight during their curtain calls. Today is the 75th Anniversary of the day that groundbreaking musical opened on Broadway – March 31, 1943. I love that musical. I coached the National Tour several years back. It’s extraordinary.
The cast is singing The Surrey with the Fringe on Top. What a lovely tribute. The American Musical wouldn’t be in the form it is without Oklahoma! It changed the shape of American Musical Theater.
Happy Saturday.
Awww, Oklahoma. Our son was Curly in his junior high school production! NYC is the best at Eastertime—in case you decide to go, say “Hi” for me.
I will!
Oklahoma is one of my daughters’ favorites. But we’ve never seen the live version, just the movie. When my oldest was in diapers and toddling, she would stand up and bounce to the Farmer and Cowmen Dhould Be Friends. She loved that song! They are seeing Guys and Dolls at the local theater tonight. Younger daughter was in her high school’s production when she was a senior. She played a variety of roles. She was in musical theater since she was very young. She never got a starring roles (her largest and one of her favorite was the Evil Queen in Snow White) because, frankly, she never auditioned well, but after a few days of rehearsal, the director always gave her more lines, more roles because the director always noticed how much enthusiasm she had, and how she was always the first to memorize the entire script and the songs….in Les Misérables, she had five roles… I’m sure she will sing along to all the songs tonight!
I played Sarah Brown in Guys and Dolls years ago. But since I was always more of a character actor, I felt completely uncomfortable in the role!
Love the egg cups ! I have a few butter pats but keep telling myself I’m downsizing collections not adding to them. Still if I get rid of collections I’ve outgrown then maybe?? Oklahoma is an awesome musical, how wonderful to be celebrated tonight!!
I did that with my Fiesta, but that was many years ago. Hmmmm.
I would like to stroll down that path in the Nutting painting. What gorgeous color!! I can hear the birds when I look at it. So pretty.
What fun for all of the Broadway musicals to be honoring Oklahoma! My daughter was in a HS production. I would bet that over the years a great majority of high schools put on that production. Great music.
We are finishing cleaning, cooking, etc today getting ready for tomorrow’s Easter dinner. We lived in Chicago when I was little ~ until I was 6. I still remember on Easter Saturdays walking to church with my Grandmother. We carried a basket with our Easter ham and some other elements of the dinner and the Priest blessed it. We waited in a long line. Every year I remember that! Don’t remember ever doing that after we moved from Chicago. Might have been a Polish Catholic tradition in the city.
I hope that wherever you and Don land this weekend, it will be a wonderful time. Just being together ensures that! Have a great Saturday.
The Nuttings are all so pretty – very New England-y!
Claudia, I love your collections. You say you have three Nutting painting…I always heard if you have three of anything, it’s a collection. :):) Love that. I love the light in your painting. I think that is a great tribute …all of Broadway singing an Oklahoma song. Blessings, xoxo, Susie
I have 4! Now I have 5 with this newest one, so it’s definitely a collection! Thanks, Susie!
Very fun to look at your different collection pieces. That picture is beautiful. We’re making a massive Goodwill run today. Since hitting sixty, my rule is for everything I bring into the house, something else has to be donated. Whatever you decide to do regarding getting together, I know you’ll have fun
I, unfortunately, do not have that rule! Or fortunately, at least for me! Thanks, Kay!
love the painting! I used to visit shops and rescue pictures I liked and learned to reframe them. In two that I found, when I took them apart I found they were originals. One was framed so the picture was cropped off and hung sideways. I fixed that with a bigger frame and mat and now it is proper and one of my favorites. Also I like to make sure they are in no acid framing. We lost a lovely watercolor that was framed on top of cardboard box material.
I had my Maxfield Parrish redone and it was a good thing because the cardboard behind it was deteriorating. Thanks, Jan!
Well, those are some interesting tidbits about OKLAHOMA; thanks! I believe I could sing almost every word to every song on that entire cast album (like if I started in right at this moment); huge fave of mine. Thank you to Mom for putting a love of musical theater into me; we listened to that stuff over and over again at home on the old turntable. BRIGADOON and CAROUSEL were the earliest recordings I can remember but, later on, Mom was obsessed with THE KING AND I. (I think I’ve mentioned before that, after her stroke when she was age 88, when we didn’t know if she could speak again, the caregivers at home thought to put on her music in the background, and it prompted her to start softly singing before she could ever actually talk again [that came later; singing first]; I can’t write it without tears in my eyes; such was her love of music, woven into the very fabric of her being, and doesn’t music move us, any of us…what would the world be without it?!)
For me, too, I couldn’t get enough of CAMELOT (the recordings with Julie Andrews). I do LOVE that cast album; part of my childhood. Mother was a fan of Robert Goulet and he’s on it of course.
Oh, that new Nutting! I love that it’s smallish and what a treasure that someone wrote out the date. 1930-anything is wonderful; gosh, it’s 80 years old. Since you’ve schooled us in Nutting, I’m almost positive now that my aunt had one; I would admire it even when I was a kid. It was a soft scene/pastels; a small brook running between tree-lined snow banks. I wish I had it. Most of all, it just reminds me of all the wonderful visits to my aunt’s home. When family went thru her things after she died, I think one of her husband’s cousins took it although I’d asked Mom, who was there, to try to get it. It was a civil, loving, sentimental occasion and if they wanted it, she likely acquiesced, which is okay; been so long, I really can’t remember the details now. Oh well, it just means somebody else is enjoying it and isn’t that the lovely thing about art, books, etc. How these things go on to live other lives with people who wanted them. It’s the beauty of collecting. Like your ironstone china from England. Love, love; thanks for sharing it; meant for a new life with you. Butter pats; a glimpse to another kind of life. Fun!
I grew up in a house where my parents had the original cast albums for several musicals, including South Pacific, Camelot, The King and I and The Music Man. They had Oklahoma on 78s! Anyway, I heard the music all the time, I started doing musicals as an actress when I was 12 and performed in them into my 30s. Then as I got older, I bought the original cast albums for just about musical there was. It’s my first love and will always be special to me. Love the story about your mother, Vicki. Music has such power!
My mom would love hearing this about you! Tell me again, are you soprano, alto…???
Mother first sang in “Carmen” when she was 13, much like your age 12.
I tend to associate The Music Man only with the movie (Robert Preston, Shirley Jones).
It’s wonderful – – and, wow, what a commonality between you – – that you and Don have both practically lifelong been in ‘the biz’ of performing (all aspects) and able to make a living at something you love, which allows you creative expression. You just kept at it and never got deterred; bravo! There are too many jobs out there which kill imagination and original thought. Makes people dull (I’ve been one of them, stuck in boring jobs in subordinate positions, not the decision maker, wishing I would have chosen differently).
Sometimes when young, it’s hard to get the vision of what you should be doing in the world. I knew what I liked and what I had some knowledge about when I was 18 but I couldn’t figure out how to get from Point A to Point Q. I just didn’t know how to dream big enough. And I was in a circumstance where I didn’t have a lot of time to figure it out, like in terms of needing to support myself. I just wish the drive had been stronger/clearer in me to pursue a passion because a lot of people do, and are of course happier for it. I’m not saying that in a self-pitying way; it’s just retrospect.
I often think of this: I had been working for SO many years, nonstop, in a lot of business/industries which didn’t sing to me but, you know, it was a paycheck. I would bring work home with me in my head, always thinking about what had to be done on the job the next day; it could really ruin a Sunday, already thinking about Monday. There seemed to be no room left in my brain for anything other than the employer’s stuff and my everyday life (like errands/tasks/appointments; the ‘to-do’ list).
I can remember when it dawned on me that it had been such & such number of YEARS that I’d finished a book. I had stopped listening to music. I didn’t do anything with my hands, like sew or make something. I didn’t even own plants anymore; not one potted plant in the house. I seemed to not have the attention span/time for any of this. I was too accustomed to watching TV in the late evening and having stories told to me rather than ever inventing one for myself when I’d heretofore loved to write.
When I took a long period off work (for health but other reasons as well) for the first time in 25 years, I recall succinctly that it took me months to clear out my brain of all this peripheral crap that had nothing to do with me as a person – – purging useless info from my brain cells. Then slowly, space was created in there for some new ideas, plans, problem-solving. It’s like I had to learn how to think all over again, this time for me, not somebody else.
I so understand. Though it was for a shorter period of time, I worked in an office for 7 years and I felt like I was pretending to like my job the whole time I was there (I disliked it intensely.) The only thing that made it palatable was the people I worked with. I really liked them. And I left the office every day and grabbed a bite to eat and then drove to whatever rehearsals I was currently involved in. Those few hours kept me from going insane. But I knew it wasn’t what I was meant to do, and as my thirtieth birthday approached I made the decision to change things. None of that was easy. My dad was an alcoholic at the time and I stayed around to be nearby for my much-younger sisters. I felt I should be there for them. But I had dear friends who told me that I couldn’t and shouldn’t continue to do that. All very hard with a fair amount of guilt, but, ultimately, very easy. I also temped for years as I tried to balance the costs of graduate school and loans and rent, through the time I was applying for teaching jobs. I’ve been there. I think that’s why I never take what my life has become for granted.
I have great admiration for you ‘not settling’. Gumption!
I try not to have too many regrets but I just wish I would have looked into student loans more thoroughly. I just lacked confidence; courage – – about too many things. I did make my travel plans happen when I was single (quite the globetrekker), for the most part, but…
…yes, back to you, you came up the hard way, it took a lot to achieve what you’ve achieved in your professional life and there were clearly sacrifices along the way but, oh, look what you’ve got now, Claudia (and I of course mean everything…the cottage, Don, etc.).
You put such a good perspective on things when I’m trying to sort out my thoughts. Thanks, and thanks for listening.
You’re living a richer life for indeed never taking anything for granted. I love how you love everything you have; how you love your life. It’s inspiring. I’m slowly getting there myself. Feeling contented in the present, forgiving oneself for mistakes along the way, is bliss. Maybe some of it is the wisdom, too, that comes with age (a time of reflection & reconciliation, understanding & acceptance).
xo
I love Broadway Musicals. We have many albums that we enjoy. ” Camelot”, “Shenandoah”, “Finian’s Rainbow” and many more.
Marilyn
Me too! That’s what I did for years and nothing makes me happier than listening to one of those albums.
I am with you on the collecting thing. I was born in Oklahoma so I love the play and the songs. Have a super weekend!
❀.•❤•.✿.•❤ Happy Easter! ❀.•❤•.✿.•❤
((hugs)), Teresa :-)
Yay! Don’s dad was born in Oklahoma as well! Happy Easter, Teresa.
I do believe that Wallace Nutting to be my favorite….think it’s the birch trees…and the path that leads to some secret place. It’s fantastic that the Broadway shows are paying tribute to Oklahoma! Love that musical. Hope you and Don have a great time no matter where you land. It really doesn’t matter as long as you are together! ;)
Yes. We just have to figure out what we’re doing. Neither of us is anxious to do the bus trip thing!
Ironstone butter pats! I hope my mentioning them got you interested again. The square ones are harder to find than the round ones, usually. I do love tiny collections. I figure they can always go with me no matter how small my living quarters get. And aren’t they just beautiful!?!
I suppose your mention of them stayed in the recesses of my mind and when I saw them the other day, I thought, why not? Thank you for that, Laura. I didn’t know that the square pats were harder to find, so I’m lucky this first time!
They are beautiful. Little works of art!
I had no idea they were paying tribute to Oklahoma! in that way on Broadway.
it’s our state song you know. and I cannot hear or sing it without pride and tears in my eyes.
that seems strange to have a state song from a hit musical. but we weren’t even a state until 1907 so maybe not so strange at all! I’ve seen about every type of production of it there is but alas not on Broadway. they used to do a production in Tulsa of it in a wonderful outdoor amphitheater when a wagon and a horse raced down the hill! very thrilling.
such exciting talent in all those young performers. I love the theatre. its heart. its traditions. and its PEOPLE! like you and Don and all of us who love the effort and reality of a live performance.
I was in every dramatic play and musical throughout my school years and loved it. I would have been happy even painting scenery for pete’s sake! but I never thought of it as a dream to pursue. that’s why Vicki’s comment was very poignant for me. it was pretty much spot on. in my own life as well. I don’t spend time thinking about it now because that kind of thing robs your joy. and I live with joy. but if I advised anyone young today starting on their own path . . .
(I can’t remember who first said it) but I’d say “do what you love and the money will follow.”
and “too soon old too late smart!” lol
and loving the little Wallace Nutting painting. such beauty in simplicity. xo
Beautiful words, Tammy. Thank you for sharing them with us. I worked for several years in a mind-numbing office job, so I understand. I was caught in that place until I somehow managed to get the courage to audition for an acting program on the graduate school level. That brought a change, a move to Philadelphia, and then my life got on track.
I love that you were and are such a lover of theater!