sometimetimes you just need to carry a gnome

Mister and I went to his work party last week which was a White Elephant. It was quite late in the evening before that part of the party began and it became a smidge chaotic. The very first person opened up his gift and it was a bottle of Bailey's and a pound of SLO Roasted Coffee which coincidentally I had on my list. BOTH items. I made Jeff steal it which worked out dandy as the guy ended up with Jeff's gift of some techie gadgets. The fourth person opened up the gnome and I think I bawked. My neighbor on my right who is slow becoming a friend of sorts said she brought the gnome. I really wanted the gnome. I then was handed my package which I could tell was a book, and the gnome guy had stood up to do something and so with an actual shove from the mister I stole the gnome. I could tell it was an okay thing to do since he reads the author of the book he got. His neighbor however who was not participating i n the swap was miffed I took the gnome.

She ended up being gifted one of the gifts I brought which I think is a pretty good stand in for a gnome...a ceramic bunny head.

I don't think the guy who got our finger paints appreciated them. Ah...the spirit of the white elephant. I think the young adults out there could use a little tutorial and how to gift a white elephant.

The gnome is authentically vintage and from Europe. I forgot to photograph the stamp on the bottom. It needed to be in a garden and well, we don't have one at the tiny casa and so on Sunday I put on my raincoat and walking boots, grabbed the gnome and hiked on over to the homestead where it could hang out with the pink flamingos. Yup that was me. A girl traipsing about the neighborhood with a gnome under her arm.

We baked up cookies and did some decorating and then watched a really sweet movie. Such a lovely rainy day it was.

do you ever wonder why?

Do you ever wonder why you do the things you do? Why you like the things you like? Why you own the things you own? I think about things such as these all the time. Perpetually. I'm always analyzing the whys of me. And I have come to figure out that I am a creature of comfort. Perhaps we all are really.

I look to my Pinterest boards often when I feel like I am in flux and when it comes down to it, I'm the me I have always been. Backtracking a smidge for ya, I keep thinking how when I moved into the new tiny casa, I wanted to embrace the white walls and clean things up a bit and I tried, I really did but as I have written before it all went to pieces when I reached for the froot-loopy colored towels eschewing the whites and greys. I wanted to have a grown-up looking apartment, after all I...we a-go-gos are officially IN our forties (gasp!) and I kept feeling the pull of the internet and its treasure chest of trends. Many of those trendy trends are quite pretty and while I still look for and collect ideas, I find that the clothing, styles, home items and such that I do like, are not liked because they are trendy but because they have meaning to me.

For example, wooden fruit crates and pallety bits of goodness. Sure they are trendy but I also grew up in a home full of beat up wood and the like. My mother stored her teacups in vintage pepsi and coke crates. That mix of pretty floral china with the splintery honey colored wood had IMPACT. My mother also had the greenest thumb east of the Tujunga wash. Our living room was a jungle of plant cuttings curling out of anything and everything from classic macrame plant hangers to vintage cookie jars to antique porcelain doll bodies. My favorite table full of plants was actually an enormous wooden spool much like this. So I think it is safe to say I come by it honestly though the mister often shakes his head when I come home with yet another beat up wooden box of sorts.

My favorite drinking vessels are jars. Jars are super trendy right now but I think they have good reason to be. I use jars because they remind me of home (we drank from peanut butter jars back then) and because the last of my favorite goldfish glasses is precariously on the edge of extinction. Jars are great...they have lids. I use them to drink out of, to store things and as the occasional cocktail shaker. Lest you think I am a jar snob, I'll have you know my favorites come from mr. a-go-go's almond butter. They are so much easier to clean and they are recycled!

What's with the return of the vinyl album? Don't get me wrong, I'm a girl who loves her vinyl but Im noticing more and more there appears ot be a new wave of vinyl hitting the homes of those much, much younger than I. Here in the tiny casa we have a wonky school-bus-yellow record rack that was picked up at a favorite thrift for two smackeroos! While most of our records are still in boxes (with a good many simply gone...donated? warped? sold?) we stuffed the bottom of the rack with a few favorites (more Queen and Sparks than I know what to do with) and topped the top with a school issued player that was gifted to us by the dapper boy a-go-go who is now a certified city boy (ahem...adult) living up in the bay area (I feel old). There is something that takes me back to my kooky highschool bedroom whenever I hear the scritchy-scratchy quality of a vinyl record rotating under the needle (cds were just making their debut when I was graduating highschool and man, I fought it, heels dug in and all).

I have to admit thay I am pleased with the popularity of decorating with vintage cameras. I have a hankering for those objects of art and can't seem to not pick them up when I come across them. While I do love a square format brownie or duaflex, my heart really sings when I find a chunky instamatic or the like from the 1970s. To me, that basic no nonsense camera shape is what a camera should look like. I was obsessed with our family camera as a kiddo and my mother had to hide it from me otherwise I would snap picture after picture of nothing more than my cat Popper in a doll's dress in my toy highchair. We also had a large Polaroid Land Camera that was used as a bookend for my mother's Reader's Digest Condensed Book collection. I loved opening it up to reveal the accordion action of the lens blooming outward. We never had film for it and I had no idea wjat is was at the time but I loved it, I did. I did not love picking up the rainbow of Reader's Digest Condensed Books as they toppled over everywhich way; me having absconded with their anchor.

Speaking of Reader's Digest Condensed Books, I love the look of old books, anything with printed patterns spread across the cover. I blame my mother's books, I do. Decorating with old books, whether or not I have read or plan to read the pages inside is another trend that I inherited from my mother. Even as a young girl, I would sneak away any pretty book to create a stack or display or perhaps staircase for my slinky to walk down.

Let's see...what else makes my heart sing and can be considered trendy? Hmmm...how about my slip collection? I use vintage slips as curtains in the dining area. They are pretty when the light filters in through the lacey-ness and are happy on display. I began wearing slips as outer clothing my senior year in high school. I never wore them as dresses, at least not then but I did wear them as skirts paired with funky patterned tights and combat boots, topped off with my favorite army sweater pilfered from my friend Heather who pilfered it from her dad. I had a sweet collection in all sorts of colors and at some point I stopped wearing them and then gave some away. I still have a few from back then and have been slowly adding more vintage finds to the mix. I may not be donning them with funky patterned tights and combat boots anymore (which reminds me, I think I need to find a pair of combat boots) but who knows, maybe someday I will and until then, they will hang in the windows as pretty pieces of lace and memories of my past.

Lastly, I think I make up the bed so much because lets face it, vintage linens are happy. I also tend to lean towards schlumping about in pajama bottoms and t-shirts so making the bed pretty has taken the place of making myself pretty. That's not to say I have given up all hope when it comes to myself but I do have to say I threw in the towel a few pounds ago and until I find a way to afford made-for-me basics I will play with pillowcases and hand-stitched duvet covers as I listen to my old lady eighties tunes and watch my favorite Doris Day flicks.

In your home, what are your favorite trends?

on boys and love and the power of ourselves

Back in my other life I worked as a children's bookseller. I was good. Very good. I knew my books and loved being around them. In the young adult section we had quite a few books for girls that dealt with feelings and emotions. Actually, we carried a lot of titles published to ideally 'help' girls and young women muddle through the muck that is junior high, high school, body image, and bullying. We had one title for boys. One.

I remember thinking that if only we raised our boys to be comfortable with their emotions, to be comfortable enough to be sad or to cry or to simply be sensitive or even themselves we might not need all the books we had for girls. I was in my mid-twenties and boy, was I naive.

Yet.

I  do believe that if we could redefine what true masculinity is to allow our boys and young men to be firmly safe in their skin, to know without a doubt that they are boy enough, man enough no matter how "sensitive" they may be they would be stronger. We would all be stronger. Humans tend to be afraid of what they do not know or what they perceive goes against what is socially acceptable as defined by their peers and family; as influenced by television and films, and now our vast network of social media sites. All those influences tell us that a masculine man is strong, physically strong...ripped is the word we use today, handsome in a Hollywood way, a vocal and loyal sports fan...he sets cars on fire, chest bumps other fans, destroys property and picks fights with whomever is in their way all in the name of sports. Speaking of fights, a true man is an ass kicker, has a hot wife and drives an expensive car. A true man does not garden or use a crockpot, does not enjoy grocery shopping or brewing the perfect cup of tea. No, a true man only cooks exotic foods in his sparse and steel kitchen and drinks alcohol. A lot of alcohol.

Television, film and more importantly video games portray masculinity as aggressive. Aggressive, masculine men are powerful. Powerful men have the world at their fingertips. Powerful men are revered. Powerful men are not bullied. Powerful men do the bullying. And hey, it's okay because that is how it works...according to our media.

But this is wrong. So very wrong.

The most wonderful and astounding thing about people is that we are so very different in our abilities. We learn from each other, we lean on each other, we help, we buoy, and we make the world stronger. We also refuse to learn, we stand alone, we scoff, we bully,  and we make the world a sadder place. The power we have within ourselves to hurt frightens me.  The power within ourselves to help and heal is astounding. So astounding. A person who feels alone might carry a smile from a stranger for days and feel less so.  We are all on this planet together. We all have hearts that beat. We are humankind. It shouldn't be difficult to care. It shouldn't be difficult to love. Yet for some reason it is.

To cast judgment, to scoff, to ridicule a person because of who they are is a manifestation of  self-loathing or fear. I'm not speaking of dislike. Dislike happens and if all you do is think you would rather not associate with that person than you are not doing anything wrong. But, if you choose to entangle yourself in a hate-mongering campaign simply because said person drives a car you don't like, is not as tall as you or maybe taller, grows their own food, reads the bible, doesn't read the bible, makes minimum wage, has a stock portfolio or some other thing that you deem unacceptable then you need some reflection, you need to figure out how to like yourself, you need to be called out, you need to be stopped, you need to be loved.

Life is hard. Really hard. Life is especially difficult for our young men working on their ideal self on who they are. How can anyone be their true selves when their talents or desires are ridiculed? Life is also hard for our young women trying to make their way as well. I know I am leaning to the love, love, love mantra and I know that all of our children are important (girls as well as boys) but I want to really focus and put out there that our boys need our love and support no matter where their interests lie. Boys need to learn that to be manly, to be truly masculine is to be yourself. To have confidence in your abilities, to be proud of your quirks or your intellect. Stand up for yourself, stand up for others.

True men love.

paperbag art

I just realized I never posted about the art of the month that went with the november bed. I also realized that I did not take pics along the way so I will simply talk you through it.

I used one paper bag from Trader Joe's and cut out the bottom and along one side to open it up. I then cut the large sheet into three pieces of varying widths. 

Next, I used a straight edge to create a series of slits along the length of each strip of paper. Some of the slits traveled the entire length while others did not. I had no specific plan and just cut away.

I keep all my paper scraps in two vintage suitcases and so I dug one of the cases out of the lcoset and rifled through it for some paper scraps in happy colors. Those scraps were cut itno strips about an inch or so wide and piled together into a smile.

I then hunkered down on the living room floor and began weaving my scraps in and out of the slits I cut into the paper bags. Again, with no plan other than to make something. Once I finished, I flipped over each panel and got kooky with the masking tape and taped all my paper strips into place. 

A few loops of tape on the back and a couple of happy washi pieces at the outside corners and ta-da! Easy peasy paperbag art for the november bed! 

the december bed

 

a wee bit of fancy

I wore a dress today. A dress for errand running and holiday shopping. I may have slipped it on over my head because I wanted to feel a bit fancy but I may have slipped it over my head because all of my jeans have preschool paint on them. I'll let you decide. I also added mascara AND eyeliner and red lipstick (of course).

And yes, I wore leggings with my dress which is not at all fancy but the dress was vintage and the leggings hd owls on them...does that count? 

It's been a busy week at the school and so my works in progress are works in progress-to-be. I have three for the 'do coming up soon (crossing fingers) and if I can find my list I'll try to get a diy up here as well. Until then have a happy happy weekend and slap on a wee bit o' fancy.