social media — Page 3

“New” Additions & A Little Rant About Social Media

March 10, 2019 at 11:32 am by Claudia

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that Don and I visited Milne Antiques yesterday and purchased the pew and the hanging cabinet. This was not without a lot of thought for our budget and for our space – I asked Rebekah to measure the pew before we made the decision and had a pretty good idea where I was going to put it. Don had the same idea, so we were in agreement.

I say all this because I wrote a slightly funny and dramatic IG post (I am a writer and an actress, after all) about how I’d been thinking about those two pieces and that we are on a budget and where will we put them??? (That’s the dramatic part.) I did the same kind of post with the vintage dollhouse and the egg cup cubby. 99% of readers get it and love it. But, I got a comment from one person that urged me to think about why I buy things when I don’t have the money or the space.

Excuse me?

I never said anything about not having the money. I used the word “budget.” Obviously if we didn’t have the money, we wouldn’t make the purchase. And equally obviously, if we didn’t have the space we wouldn’t buy it.

We paid with cash, I might add.

It ticked me off and I responded, but then I thought the better choice was to just delete the comment and not get into something with this person who I don’t know and who doesn’t know me or my husband. Just as I sometimes have to do on the blog.

What is it with people who feel they can ‘tsk tsk’ you on social media? This rarely happens to me, thank goodness, but I know it happens a lot to those who have a large presence online, whether on a blog or on IG. People make comments that they would never express to your face. Anyway, it was misinformed and rude.

Just need to vent a bit on this one. We rarely eat out. We rarely go to the movies at a movie theater. We rarely go to Broadway shows because they’re too expensive. (And we work on Broadway!) Except for our trip to Europe and our journey across America the summer before, both of which happened in the past year and a half, we’ve never taken a vacation together the entire time we’ve been a couple. We’ve only traveled for work. That would be 24 going on 25 years. We don’t get new cars. We drive them until we can no longer drive them.

Our home is everything to us: two nomads who moved from place to place during their adult years, moving from one job in the arts to another. That’s the nature of our work. To finally have a nest to feather that is ours and not another rental, a nest that we’ve created together, is something we never take for granted. There’s not a day that goes by where we don’t thank God for our little cottage. Not one. We’re in our 14th year of living here. We love it. So I won’t apologize for finding more things to feather this nest or for thinking, as everyone does when faced with fitting something new into a room, about where I’m going to put it and what might be moved to accommodate that. (Or for making sure we have the money to pay for it.) It’s part of my creativity. I express myself that way. And Don and I always make those decisions together.

End of rant. Sorry, but not sorry, because I had to put in words. Writing puts things in perspective.

So, let me show you what we’ve done. The photos aren’t the best, partly because it was late in the day yesterday when I took them, and partly because it’s snowing/raining outside today and it’s quite gloomy out there.

The vintage dollhouse got moved to the den. This is where I originally envisioned it and I love it here.

I think it stands out more here. You can see it from the living room. It’s folk art and putting it on top of the cabinet highlights that fact.

Then we moved the blue bench that was next to the big white wardrobe cupboard in the living room. Since we’d measured the space, we knew the pew would fit there.

We’re going to move the white cupboard closer to the door, but that’s a big job so it will have to wait a few days. I want some space between the cabinet and the pew so we can see the carving on that side. Don likes that it delineates the den and the living room.

I may even pull it out from the wall a bit. The reason the two sides are different is because it was clearly attached to another pew at one point. The pew came from a church in Kingston, which is north of us and was, at one time, the capital of New York State.

I’ve always wanted a pew, but they’re usually quite long and we don’t have the space for that. Plus, the weather here is too harsh, so I would never put it outside. This is perfect. And seeing how it sits directly opposite our antique Hymns board, it seems like a match made in heaven. (Yes, I know…groan!)

I’m not sure if the McCoy bird dish will stay there, but I wanted something bright there. I like it so far.

We haven’t decided where to hang the cabinet. It’s large and deep and it needs the perfect space. But I came up with this combination, which I rather like. I like having the option to have it sitting on something and the contrast between the painted wood and the maple of the cabinet makes me smile. Plus, this corner in the office was unfinished. We hadn’t done anything with it. Now it looks much more interesting and intentional.

So there you have it. Changes at the cottage. But pieces that will appreciate in value. Assets, as Don says. And pieces that bring warmth to our house, that are part of our story.

As you know, everything here has a story. And everything, except for the snow and sleet on the ground right now, makes us happy.

Happy Sunday.

Limiting

November 11, 2018 at 10:17 am by Claudia

I forgot to share this paperweight I found in Paris – it’s from the Musée d’Orsay. Monet and waterlilies. I love it.

On the past two more mornings, I haven’t turned on my phone to check email or scroll through Instagram, but have, instead, sipped coffee while reading a novel. Now, this isn’t breaking news and it may indeed be what many of you do every morning. As a matter of fact, pre-cell phones, that’s exactly what I did every morning. I made coffee, sat down in my chair, and read for a few hours.

This year I went through a period of being unable to concentrate long enough to read any fiction. I read some non-fiction, but very little fiction, which has always been my first love. I found it alarming, though I’ve been through it before. I’m pretty sure it was the result of a couple of things: the ongoing stress I have felt since the election which has made me unable to concentrate for long on anything and the amount of time that I spent on the computer and phone checking twitter and the news and then trying to distract myself with pretty pictures on Instagram.

Fortunately, I got through the worst of that period and came out on the other side and now I’m reading fiction again. I read a big chunk of my current book yesterday afternoon, as well.

But I noticed a couple of things while on our trip. I felt much less eye strain because I wasn’t constantly looking at a backlit screen. And I was much happier when I wasn’t concentrating on either of those devices. (Not to mention the fact that I was much, much happier when I wasn’t concentrating on the news.)

I’m going to make some changes. I’m not going to leave my laptop on all day. I’ll write the blog post, check emails and sign off. Later in the day, I’ll sign on again to respond to comments. I’m also going to try to limit the time I spend on IG. Once in the morning, maybe a quick post or two during the day. The rest of the time? Puttering around the house, doing chores, listening to music, going somewhere that’s visually stimulating, and reading.

Reading has always been of the utmost importance to me. So I must ensure that I allow time for that. My current reading selection is Michael Connelly’s latest. He’s such an excellent writer that I have had no trouble losing myself in the story and that helps.

I love Instagram because I love the photos people share and I’m very visual. But I also don’t want to be one of those people who constantly checks her phone. Life’s too short.

A couple of questions: Have you struggled with limiting screen time? Since I publish a blog post daily and also post on IG, screen time can be problematic. Have you struggled with reading this year? And – finally – what are you reading right now?

That’s a lot of questions, I know, but I think it might be helpful for us to have a dialogue about these things.

Happy Sunday.

Freakish Weather, Basketball & Roseville (All in One Day)

April 5, 2016 at 9:02 am by Claudia

I bet you’re thinking I’ll go on and on about the snow which fell all day long yesterday, or the current temperature of 22° which feels like 11° which means we had a hard freeze last night or the fact that our postman almost slid into my car during the storm as he tried to back up at the top of our drive leading me to run outside and move my car forward and leading gimpy Don to come outside and move some planters and the birdbath so I could move it forward some more leading the postman to shovel out around the rear wheels of his truck, which finally got him safely out of the driveway. Or the funk that both of us were in, especially Don who has been housebound for over a week, as we watched the freakish weather happening outside our cottage.

No, I’ll show you this, instead:

Unexpected beauty in the snow: a single grape hyacinth springing up from beneath the rocks that define one of the planting areas.

Oh, and I’ll scream: Villanova won! That basketball game was incredible, right down to the wire. With 4.7 seconds left in the game, Kris Jenkins shot for 3 points. He made that shot when there was .1 second left; the ball left his hands and was in the air as the buzzer sounded. Basket. Unbelievable.

My throat is little raw from screaming. Villanova hasn’t won since 1985, when I was in graduate school in Philadelphia. They played Georgetown in that game and since every news item in Philly was about Villanova, I watched that game in my apartment in South Philadelphia. So, when I had to choose teams for the friendly competition in my brother-in-law’s family, I chose Villanova – a salute to that time in my life 31 years ago. I still won’t win the competition, as my other 3 teams were out of the running fairly quickly, but I don’t care. Yay, Villanova!

The postman drove up our drive yesterday in order to deliver a box that contained this:

An eBay win. This Roseville pattern is Cosmos, made in the thirties.

It has a little chip inside the upper rim, which is fine by me. I got it for a great price.

I’m trying to collect all of the flower patterns, though some are quite rare and undoubtedly out of my price range.

This particular vase is diminutive at 6 inches high.

See?

As I was waiting to grab some phone time with my Russian neighbor (it ended up having to wait until this morning) I sat up in the office and created an inventory list of all my Roseville pieces. To my surprise, I now have 25. I’m going to do that with my McCoy and egg cups, as well. It’s good to have on hand for all sorts of reasons. I remember what I have, what I paid and what it’s actually worth. Though I’ve been collecting McCoy for so long that I sincerely doubt I’ll remember what I paid for anything – likewise, the egg cups.

It was busy work, but fun busy work.

Today, Don goes back to the doctor. He is definitely getting better, but there’s still some redness and pain, so he needs more antibiotics. I will keep prepping for Anastasia. I have to drive to Hartford on Thursday for a read-through of the musical.

Happy Tuesday.

claudiahillsparks

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