vintage — Page 22

A Flowery Find

March 7, 2014 at 8:30 am by Claudia

I’m celebrating.

Why? The temperature is going to go above freezing today. Not by much, but hey, this winter’s grip has been so strong that I’ll gladly celebrate a little warm-up. And what do we all long for right now? Spring. Flowers. Gardens. Warm breezes. Green grass.

The smell of spring in the air.

I don’t have any fresh flowers on hand, but I did come home with something flowery from Heidi’s shop. I saw it there the other day when I was helping her get ready for the sale. I couldn’t stop thinking about it and later in the day, I sent her a text that said: I want it.

This is often how I make these kind of decisions. If I can’t get it out of my head, if I know I may never see anything like it again, if I know I’ll kick myself if someone else buys it and, of course, if I can afford it, then it’s a done deal.

Here it is after I first brought it in the door:

flowerscreen1

It’s a vintage Fireplace Screen, made to cover up the opening of a fireplace. It’s made of wood and is quite heavy. It also has a little stand in the back which doesn’t work very well, but since I don’t have a fireplace, who cares?

Oh, here’s the other question I ask myself: Do I have a place to put it? We are short on space in this little cottage, so that question must be asked.

The answer? Yes. Although I admit, at first I thought the answer to that question was No. There certainly wasn’t room downstairs, where we’ve pretty much used up all available wall space.

Oh, but wait….I recently decluttered my studio space, remember? I moved Mabel and a bookcase into the bedroom which opened up the space rather nicely. And the colors used in this pretty screen are sort of made for the studio. Aha! I do have a place for it.

So I trotted the screen up the stairs and into its new home. I’ve tried it in two places and I’m not sure which one is best. What do you think?

Here?

flowerscreen7

Or here?

flowerscreen6

I must confess that I’m undecided. But I do know that I am absolutely crazy about this piece. It practically screamed my name.

I’m looking forward to the days when the studio is once more flooded with light. Taking photos of that space has been a pain in the tush lately.

What do you think? Where should it go?

Update on Mom: She is about the same. The nurse told me she has spoken a couple of words, but that’s all. But she responds to their questions with a nod or a shake of the head. She’s on a specific antibiotic now, geared toward her infection. We have to wait and see if she can fight this off.

My brother-in-law, Meredith’s husband, lost his brother, who had been suffering from Parkinson’s Disease for many years, just last week. And now his mother, who was in the Emergency Room at the same time as my Mom, is failing.

Too much. Too much pain and sadness. Too much all at once.

So I’m focusing on the little things; the temperature outside, the flowery screen inside, the sound of Scoutie snoring, a cup of good coffee, good friends and life, which is precious indeed.

Happy Friday.

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Oh So Tired

February 18, 2014 at 8:30 am by Claudia

stairs

I’m tired. I’m about as tired as I ever remember being. When I trudge up these stairs at the end of the day I am ready to sink into that new bed of ours and stay there for a week.

This bout of weather, the storms, the sheer amount of snow we have on the ground and on the roof, has been out-of-the-ordinary and almost impossible to deal with on my own. I feel like all I have been doing is shoveling, chipping away at the ice, digging to free downspouts, salting and then doing the same thing the next day. And the next.

I’ll be honest. I’ve cried on the phone to Don more than a couple of times. He is frustrated because he can’t help. I seem to be able to say only one thing, “I wish you were here.”

Anyway, it’s snowing. Again. Yes, on top of everything already on the ground, we’re getting more today. To be perfectly honest, the thought of staying here for several more winters is losing its appeal. I hate to focus on age, but I’m getting too old for this. But then again, I think everyone around here, regardless of age, feels tired and sore and achy and sick to death of winter.

With mounds of snow everywhere, this property feels like a walled compound.

In Antarctica.

wallpocketwithscissors

My newest wall pocket has been moved up to the sewing table where it is holding my scissors and invisible markers. The question now is do I actually hang it on the wall or leave it sitting on the table? The jury is still out on that one.

I finished Sycamore Row by John Grisham. Finally. It’s a good book, but the pace is too slow and I figured out the plot twist at the end long before it actually happened. That’s not good. But I finished it, as I vowed to do, and I’m on to the next book.

I’ve been watching the Olympics like everyone else; not all the time, but here and there. I find I enjoy watching events in real time during the day much more than the primetime coverage, which seems to be carefully crafted to hype certain events and ‘rivalries.’ Why oh why does NBC need to keep doing that? Just show us the competition. Ah, well. I suppose it’s the nature of primetime programming, but I try to avoid it.

I think I love Ice Dancing the most. And short track speed skating, which is thrilling. Yesterday’s Ice Dancing final was simply superb with every team skating so skillfully and beautifully. I could watch it again and again. The American gold medal winners skated to music from Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov, one of my favorite pieces. I’ve listened to it since I was a young girl. I have it on CD and I’m going to play it on this snowy day – the perfect piece to take me to another place, another world. The perfect escape.

Thank you for your comments yesterday. On a day when I was so tired that I wanted to cry, your lovely words brought a big smile to my face. Thank you, thank you.

Happy Tuesday.

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Unable to Resist

February 9, 2014 at 9:40 am by Claudia

I succumbed.

Weak of will, the image kept popping into my head. Then I’d scroll back at look at the original post and the picture of this one particular item. I’d stop thinking about it. Then, unbidden, it would pop into my head again.

Yesterday morning, missing my husband, the prospect of a lonely day stretching out in front of me, I decided I needed to get out of the house. Ice Station Zebra/MHC was losing its appeal. I put on makeup (rare) and headed out in the car. And I ended up at my favorite little shop, where I said hello and chatted a bit with Jean and then disappeared up the stairs where my hands grabbed this:

blueseltzer1

There was a couple standing near it and I moved in stealthily, shot my arm out and snatched it out from under them. I’m feeling a bit dramatic, but I think the reality is they were just standing there looking at all sorts of things, not necessarily my seltzer bottle.

These vivid aqua-y seltzer bottles are not easy to find and I’ve wanted one for a long time. Jean has a lot of lovely clear glass seltzer bottles as well and, who knows, I may get one of them someday. But this one? It needed to be in my cottage. The words etched in the glass are:

S&H.
Home Beverage Dist.
Woodbourne, NY

blueseltzer2

A thing of beauty.

I can’t help it. Aqua-almost-anything tempts me. And aqua glass, as in ball jars, mason jars, and seltzer bottles? Forget it. I’m gone.

Then I found another temptation. I’d seen it on my last two visits. Do you remember the darling house wall pocket Judy sent to me?

judywallpocket

Adorable. It’s one of my favorite things. Cottages. Birds. Happiness.

This was tucked away in a corner of the shop. And when I checked yesterday, it was still there.

newwallpocket

Same sort of house, different birds – with one dive bombing the birdbath. Or feeder?

Another item on Claudia’s Can’t Resist List: Adorable cottage-y wall pockets. With birds.

wallpockets

Here they are together. I’m thinking the larger one would look lovely on a wall near my sewing machine. It could hold scissors and other tools.

That’s it. I can’t buy anything else. But to finish this Favorite Shop theme, here’s my Shawnee Miniature in its new home on the shelf.

miniinplace

I couldn’t display it until the old mattress had been taken out of the den.

In other news:

• I succumbed again, and this time it wasn’t a positive experience. On the way home from taking Don to the train station, I stopped at the grocery store to do some shopping and I grabbed a copy of Country Living. I knew better, but I guess I felt I needed some comfort and something to read with pretty pictures.

Mistake. I read it in ten minutes. Truly. And it’s so thin! There’s really nothing to it anymore. I got mad at myself for buying it. Lesson learned.

• Earlier this week, I shared our chromolithograph of the Aquitania with you. Much to my delight, I received this comment from Janet:

I have been reading your blog for quite a while but have never commented.
I sailed on the Aquitania from Southampton to Halifax on January 21, 1948.
Train travel from Halifax to Toronto. The grand sum of the ocean crossing for my
mother and I was 87 pounds. I crossed the Atlantic twice more. Once to return
to England on the Queen Mary and then back to the U.S. on the S.S. United States.
I was nearly two for the first crossing and eleven for the final trip to the U.S.

Isn’t that wonderful? Janet traveled on the Aquitania! Thank you for letting me share this with everyone, Janet.

• Finally, thank you for all your wonderful comments on yesterday’s post. I treasure them. And I stand in awe of those of you who have been happily married for thirty, forty and fifty years. You are a testament to the power of love and to the commitment and dedication and hard but unbelievably-worth-it work it takes to build a marriage that is strong and loving. Bless you.

Happy Sunday.

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A Flowery Find

Oh So Tired

Unable to Resist

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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