Georgia and I took a morning jaunt to the Goodwill because I was in dire need of some tchotchkes and this is the type of trip Alex cannot tolerate. He has very little interest in tag sales, flea markets, consignment shops, antique shops, art galleries...yeah. We are complete opposites. I hate to admit that I have tended to give up on those types of things that I like doing because he can be such a bear about it that we usually just do something else. I am happy to say Georgia is a tad more amenable to her mother's curiosities. Also, we haven't opened the boxes with the artwork in them yet and the house is feeling bare--despite those boxes and piles of junk I keep telling you about.
Now, I am the first to say, I don't like clutter. I don't like a lot of junk. But while I am exhaling that little gem I am usually inhaling the beauty of other people's homes and design ideas and I just have to say, I have a hankering for the cozy, the nostalgic, the old. Things with history. Things that last. Things that tell a story. Things that make you feel all homey and mushy like you are swimming in a big warm bath of apple cider. Er...or something.
This is going to make VERY little sense, but something about the music they were playing on the radio (on my new fave staysh) on the way out to the store put me in the mood for some finds. Lover, You Should Have Come Over, by Jeff Buckley always puts me in a contemplative reflective nostalgic (yes, all those things) mood and they also played this David Grey song, My Oh My, that has been catching my ear, which is funny because I am not sure how I feel about Mr. Grey, but I especially like when he emphatically almost talks the line, "You know I used to be so definite."
Anyhow, that's neither here nor there. I guess I am just coming to terms with the fact that I am on my own (with the company of the little imp) most days all of a sudden now. And I will be the first to admit that I think Alex and I had developed a bit of a co-dependent marrieds thing. So I am embracing this new "freedom" in which I can do and go and shop and gather and decorate and listen and spend my time more or less the way I want. Providing, of course, I have cooperation from Miss Georgy-pants.
So. After a bunch of gobbledy-gook I bring you my finds.
First a paper cut of a mother and child. It's framed and encircled in some saying about gifts, but I think I am going to take the actual cutting out and place it on a different background, paint the frame and hang it up in one of the kid's rooms.
I really love children's book illustrations from the late 19th and early-mid 20th century. My friend, Mike, who is an amazing artist and has his own mural company and I have been "in discussions" about his painting a mural for Georgia's room. Since he lives in Boston and is not able to come down for the length of time it would take to do a mural in Baltimore he is instead going to work on a set of panels for her room. We don't have definite sketches yet, but we've been talking about doing paintings that are derivative of Golden books from the 1940s/50s (without giving too much away, i.e. here).
As much as I love children's book illustrations I don't really have anything that supports that supposed love. A few books here and there and you may occasionally find me cruising websites just looking at artwork, but I never buy anything. I am not really much of a collector of anything. Collections kind of stress me out. I feel they are too definitive and I can't help but feel pigeonholed and contrived the minute I start "collecting". It's just another one of my little things.
Anyhow, I found this Kate Greenaway print with the strangely alluring and cryptic poem Higgledy, Piggledy (A double dactyl! See? That degree in poetry didn't go completely to waste!) from 1895. The print:
The poem:
Higgledy, Piggledy! see how they run!
Hopperty, Popperty, what is the fun?
Has the Sun, or the Moon, tumbled into the Sea?
What is the matter, now tell unto me.
Higgledy, Piggledy, how can I tell?
Hopperty, Popperty, hark to the bell!
Big ones, and little ones, scamper away,
For nobody knows, what will happen to-day!
See? Weird poem, eh? What will happen today?
Anyhow, it's framed rather nicely in a gold frame so I think I will hang it (again in one of the kids' rooms) as is. Come to think of it, just about everything I got is for one or the other of the kids' rooms.
Then, the lamp! Oh, how I love this lamp! I didn't realize JUST how much I loved it until I brought it home and discovered all it's little secrets. For instance, it's stamped on the bottom October 1976 (when I would have been 1-2 months old); there is a light inside the pumpkin that illuminates it (and hello? Pumpkins? I love pumpkins!); it reminds me of my childhood because either I, or my aunt, or my cousin, or my grandmother, or a friend? I dunno...but SOMEONE had a lamp very much like this and I love it now as much as I did then. And lastly, that little guy? He twirls around while one of my favorite nursery rhymes of childhood tinkles along!
The lamp (I need to clean it up and get a shade still):
I also got a little wooden shelf to hang on the wall to house some of my doodads, but I don't have a picture of it.
And last but not least. I found this sort of bag with these folded up posters in it. From what I could see it looked like the posters were sort of country scene illustrations for kids. I thought, "Well, I DID want to get something stimulating to hang either in Georgia's room (while we await the mural) or in the playroom." (Not to mention the other upcoming muffin will be needing some color on his/her walls as well!)
It wasn't convenient to really pull all the posters out of the bag as they were kind of big and unmanageable, but I could see I liked the theme, if you will. It was sort of farm-y and Vermont-y and I liked the colors. And as much as I am allowing myself to live in this new place in my new life? You can take the girl out of Vermont, but you can't take the Vermont out of the girl! Alex and I still talk about one day having a house there (although we'll probably stick to southern Vermont, truth be told).
Anyhow, for $5 I said "Throw it in the cart!"
It wasn't until I got home that I realized it was 3 large posters that fit together to form a sort of mural of their own. It was hard to get a picture of them since they are not yet hanging up and the thing is like, 4'x10' or something crazy like that. Anyhow...I am not sure where it will go just yet, but I love the thought of pointing out the horses and cows and pigs and sheep and dogs and cats and barns and farm houses and chickens and tractors and mountains and farmers and whatever all else is in there and telling the kids all about Vermont and New Hampshire for that matter where half their grandparents live and "going there" once in awhile when we can't go there for real.
See?
And all that for about thirty bucks. By the time we got home Georgia was napping hard enough to stay asleep when I carried her in the house and now I have spent the majority of my "doing stuff while the baby naps" time writing this ridonkulously long post. Them's the breaks!
