Drained

It's been one of those weeks that is constantly busy and completely draining, thus the sparse posting. I'll be back tomorrow. I promise. In the meantime, I realized that I never finished posting some of the old photos from my film camera days that I really liked. Here are a couple you haven't seen.

I took this photo with a film point and shoot at the beach at my friend Tina's cottage in the Caseville area. I spent many memorable weekends in that cottage with Tina and her very generous family and I have lots of photos of that beach. This one I've actually painted in watercolor as well.

This next photo is one of many I took in the little field near our old high rise apartment on the very busy 28th Street in Grand Rapids. Late summer mornings when there was dew on the grasses the dragonflies, spiders, and butterflies were easier to photograph. I love this one.

In case you missed my old posts on developing your eye for good photos, check out these links to my old blog:

Developing Your Eye, vol. 1

Developing Your Eye, vol. 2

Developing Your Eye, vol. 3

You'll see more of my old photos (some good, some bad, some ugly) and learn how I've grown over the years (and maybe how you can as well).

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The Art of Alphonse Mucha

My 2011 calendar features the art of Alphonse Mucha, a Moravian (then part of Austria, present day Czech Republic) artist who painted in the Art Nouveau style in the late 19th and early 20th century. Here is the panel for January.

La Poesie (Poetry), 1898

Even if you've never heard his name, it's likely you've seen some of his artwork. He usually painted beautiful women in flowing dresses with flowing tresses and adorned the perimeter of his works with images drawn from nature: irises, laurel, lilies, birds, grapevines, poppies, etc. His work often included circular motifs, fans, Celtic knots, and geometric designs remeniscent of ancient Greek pottery. The colors he chose were warm and vibrant, his models sumptuous and sexy.

Mucha did a lot of commercial work on commission, including theatre posters (most famously those starring the lovely actress Sarah Bernhardt); advertisements for biscuits, laundry detergent, perfume, champagne, chocolate, and other products; and . . . calendars!

Last year I bought a book called Alphonse Mucha Masterworks that is overflowing with his beautiful artwork and some history and stories behind his commissions. Mucha died in July 1939 after being captured by the Gestapo and coming down with pneumonia during interrogation. He was released but never fully recovered. He died when my house was being built.

At the end of 2011 I plan to keep some of the calendar prints and use them in the decor of my sunroom, a little tribute to an iconic artist who apparently shared my love of flowers and plants and who portrayed beautiful, sensual women (many of whom would today be considered overweight!) in gentle and sometimes powerful ways.

I encourage you to do a Google image search for "Alphonse Mucha" and feast your eyes on his lovely work.

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Sprucing Things Up

One thing I love about the removal of Christmas decorations is the clean slate I have to work with. I imagine many people just put all their "normal" stuff back in the same places it occupied pre-Christmas. But I like to think of January as the beginning of the redecorating season (if, in fact, that season has a beginning or an end). So where I once had blue in the dining room I now have fresh green:

Everything I used I already had in the house. Here's a basic rundown:

Top shelf: secondhand Crate & Barrel candle sitting on an old candle holder from Pier One, big 4-color charger from Pier One many years ago, square bowl I made years ago at Naked Plates in the Breton Village Mall in East Grand Rapids.

Middle shelf: secondhand candle holder from Volunteers of America store flanked by two trivets from Grandma's house.

Bottom shelf: little green vase that I think I got for a few bucks at Schuler Books in Lansing flanked by green books I had in the house.

On the sidebar: a geranium from my mother-in-law two years ago, bowl from a local potter filled with fresh pears, boat-shaped bowl from my mother for my birthday this year filled with fresh navel oranges, then Zach's humidor topped with a Balsam-scented candle which was a Christmas gift from my sister. (It smells great, Alison.).

I love finding new ways to use old stuff and ways to incorporate gifts into decor. I love the look of fresh fruit and by putting it in plain sight I'm more likely to eat it. Just look at these tasty things . . .

The oranges coordinate with the citrus fruits in the trivets and bring a pop of color out so that the green doesn't feel flat.

I didn't stop at the dining room, though, because I had to do something with all the blue stuff I previously had on the shelves. So now, where I once had brown I have blue:

January makes me want to redo every room. Lucky for my husband January also means very little fun money (because we just spent a bunch on Christmas) and I still have to work and grocery shop and clean up (I really need to clean up around here). So little money and little time means little changes. Changes the man of the house can handle.

I do have two projects I want to get to yet this month: recover the dining room chairs and make Roman shades for the dining room. Hoping to get these started in the next week or so.

As for my other goals, I've done the first week of the C25K running plan (eight more to go) and I've been eating pretty healthy. I have looked at my quilt and thought about quilting (and then I remembered the mountain of laundry that needs tackling). The dress pattern design and the kitchen garden work won't be started until later in the year. Gotta space these things out. Plus, I don't think you can really work the ground in 8-degree weather and I'm certainly not making a pattern until I've lost the inches!

Do you feel like a home makeover in January? What little things do you do in your house this time of year to keep things interesting?

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Ego Boost

When I went to college I already had an engagement ring on my finger. Zachary proposed the summer after my senior year of high school (at about 2am, on the beach, under the stars, at the summer camp where I worked, where I was later baptized, and where our son later took his first steps—a very special place to us). He was essentially marking his territory before I went off to a fairly large university full of single guys. In the immortal words of my pastor, "At least he didn't pee on her."

It worked. Having an engagement ring in college means that for the most part no one hits on you and almost no one gives you a second glance. You're already taken and there are plenty of other coeds in the sea. (Interestingly, we found that after we were married and he had a ring on his finger, women hit on him more. Catty and conniving little tramps.) Because you get significantly less attention from the other sex, the young engaged woman can feel pretty unattractive and uninteresting at times. So that when you do occasionally turn a head, it makes you feel really good.

This happened once in a while to me during the winter on campus when gloves hid my engagement ring. But it has happened very little since college. In fact, I can't remember it ever happening, so if it did it must have gone unnoticed by me. After all, I rarely make eye contact with men I don't know. Then this morning, thanks to the reflective qualities of the glass doors at Meijer, I caught a guy looking at me as I left the store. In a city filled with slim, gorgeous college students who dress in the latest trends, this is something.

Now, I have to say that I always get lingering looks and compliments and flowers and gifts from my husband, so I'm definitely not starved for love and attention. And my mother and father always compliment me when they see me dressed up or have noticed that I lost weight. And thanks to Facebook I get compliments on occasion from friends who live in other cities and states. But to get a compliment or a look from a total stranger helps confirm that the people who love you aren't just looking past your glaring faults and that you really do look nice. It's just a boost to the ego, which most women could use every once in a while.

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A Tail for Calvin

Q: What do you do when your two-year-old sweetly asks you one morning, "Can I has a tail?"

A: You make that kid a tail.

So much joy from a bit of secondhand faux fur, secondhand elastic, and scrap fabric.

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Living with the Size of Your Life

On billboards all across the greater Lansing area are pictures of people looking suitably impressed with themselves accompanied by the huge headline "Every Spartan Has a Saga." A Spartan, for those of you who do not live in Michigan, is a person who goes to Michigan State University, which can be found about two miles from my house. I started noticing these billboards a few months ago and my immediate reaction was "I very much doubt that." A story? Maybe. A saga? Probably not.

These billboards are indicative of a pernicious trend in American media and culture that makes us think that a normal life is no life at all, that to be true, complete human beings we must be doing something incredible or admirable at all times. You see this in advertising of all sorts. This message is disseminated in TV shows and movies and on the internet (aside: I'm done capitalizing internet no matter what the Chicago Style Manual and my spellcheck say). You can see it in the rampant overuse and misuse of the word "epic" to describe everything from an epic weekend to an epic fail.

Yes, a lot of that is tongue-in-cheek, at least for adults (I hope). But there is this underlying message in our culture that says every one of us is super-duper epically special. But if we're all that special, then no one is special, right? If every Spartan has a saga, then doesn't every Spartan merely have a story? And likely a fairly boring story at that?

Just saying something is epic doesn't make it so. Just changing your vocabulary to incorporate as much hyperbole as possible doesn't actually make your life any more interesting. But the big question is, why do so many people feel the need to present their lives as far more interesting and amazing than they are?

I have never felt like I could satisfactorily answer the question "So what's new in your life?" or its close cousin "What are you up to?" (This is a favorite of nosey baristas who feel for some reason that they need to make a fakey "personal" connection with every customer. But that's another rant.) What have I been up to? What I'm always up to. I get up, work, eat, work, maybe do some laundry or cleaning, work, play with and feed my son, sew, maybe read a bit or watch a DVD, spend time with my husband, write, and go to bed. Every day. That's my "saga."

This does not bother me. I'm happy with the size of my life (which, truth be told, is probably the size of most people's lives). I don't feel I'm lacking anything. My life may not be epic. But neither is yours.

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A Little Bit of Sparkle

It seems like everything sparkles during December. Snow, Christmas lights, wrapping paper, cards that shed glitter all over your house for weeks. Normally around here it sparkles in January as well because we get more snow this month generally than in December. But this morning, the day after my 31st birthday, I looked out the window and saw only faint remnants of snow at the end of the driveway where I had shoveled it weeks ago. Everything is brown and the sky is flat gray.

So, to add a little sparkle back into the day, I bring you the first heirloom of 2011.

Please excuse the close-up of my ear and focus on the earring. Grandma Foote had a large collection of jewelry when she died, much of it costume jewelry. I'm not sure if these circa 1950s-1960s clip-on earrings are of the costume variety (my guess is that they are) and I can't find a maker's mark on them anywhere (just the word sterling on the silver). But I love them for a variety of reasons.

First, while they are clip-ons, Grandma never having had her ears pierced, they are actually more of "screw-ons" because they have a sort of vise-like screw on the back. You put it over your ear lobe and screw it on until it is snug. Second, I love the natural motif—stem, leaves, and berries. Third, they're a nice size and weight (too big of earring make my ears itchy, too small have no impact).

Most of all, of course, I like them because they were hers. I wore them on Christmas Eve and to this party with an early 1960s-style dress and I felt pretty fancy. On Christmas Eve I also wore this simple brooch which was hers:

This is probably not very old and I can see it being from the 1990s (I may have even bought this one for her, who knows?) so it's not really an heirloom yet in my mind. But once I pass it down to a niece and she passes it down to a daughter, it will become one. Never forget that the stuff you buy today may one day be special to a descendent you've never met. So buy things that are nice and will last. They may not be worth a lot of money since almost everything today is mass-produced, but they may be worth quite a bit in sentimentality.

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Heirlooms

My beautiful mother in the late 1960s. This photo was
taken by my father, who was the first person from whom
I learned anything about photography. Mom and
Dad have already passed on many family heirlooms
to me and they help me learn the stories behind them.



I've posted a number of times over the past couple years (see my old blog for pre-Autumn 2010) about family heirlooms, those fancy things around my house that have been passed down to me from generations past. In 2011 I plan to post a bit more on items you haven't yet seen (largely because many are in storage). This will give me a chance to see them again, inspect them for damage, and catalog information about them so that when I pass them on someday to my son, my nieces (because, let's face it, some of this stuff will probably be too girly for the boy), and any grandchildren or grandnieces and grandnephews they may produce, I won't have forgotten where the world they came from.

Little is more irksome to me than to have a photo with unidentified people in it or an object with a murky history. It pains me when stories are lost to time and neglect. So I'm going to do my part to try to tell the stories of the important objects in my family.

In 2011 you can expect to see somehwat regular posts  about antique and vintage quilts, tableware, jewelry, furniture, books, photos, and other objects. A lot of these things don't fit my decorating scheme so they are boxed up or in the backs of cupboards. But some of them live with us, and some are used daily.

As you read these posts, I encourage you to think about your own family heirlooms and to tell us about them in the comments section. Perhaps you'll be inspired to post about some of them on your own blog. But consider making an effort in 2011 to remember the stories of those objects that are important to you simply because they came from someone you love. And don't forget to pass those stories on to the next generation. If you don't tell them, no one will.

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Ten Years Ago . . .

Ten years ago I married my best friend. We had been dating since I was 15, engaged since I was 18, and just a few days before I turned 21, we were married at Messiah Lutheran Church in Bay City, Michigan, by my pastor, Rev. Andreas Teich, and his pastor, Rev. Ed Pedley. The ceremony was attended by immediate family, aunts and uncles, a few close cousins, and friends. It was small and understated. It was during a blizzard. But though the snow flew outside, and though some of the guests were probably cursing us for getting married between Christmas and New Year's, we were very happy to make our vows before God to love, cherish, and care for each other.

I have heard many people say that marriage is hard work, that it takes a conscious effort to make it last. In my own experience thus far, I have not found that to be true. Though we may occasionally disagree or get on each other's nerves now and again, I have never had to work at loving my husband. I married my best friend and he remains my best friend. I am sure that the next ten years will bring with them new challenges as we raise our son, but with our mutual faith as our strong foundation and our loving acts toward one another second nature, I believe that the next ten years will be just as good as the last ten.

A couple of my close friends got married in 2010. Andrew and Tina, I wish you and your spouses, Onyi and Ben, the kind of happiness and companionship Zach and I have had. It hasn't been hard work. It has been pure joy.

And this, folks, is what pure joy looks like (photo editing credit goes to my creatively twisted husband).

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5 Personal Goals for 2011

Some people think it's silly to make New Year's resolutions because they almost never take. I for one do think it's worth looking in the mirror once in awhile and assessing what you see. I'm not talking just about physically (though in my case I do see some room for improvement) but about the intangible things in your life. Are you a procrastinator? Are you a slob? Are you too often unintentional about life? I can answer yes to all of these questions. So, shall I just drift through the next year without working on those personal qualities about myself that annoy me? Or should I try to improve?

Well, I'm not making any New Year's resolutions for 2011, but I am making a few goals for the next year. No, goals and resolutions are not the same thing. I can resolve to stop procrastinating, or I can make one concrete goal to finish something that has been languishing undone because of my procrastination. I can resolve to be healthier, or I can make one concrete goal about exercise.

See the difference? And while I'm at it, I'm going to throw in a couple goals that have nothing to do with self-improvement but that I will just enjoy because of the challenge and the reward. So here are my top five goals for 2011, in no particular order.

1. Finish that quilt! Yes, I really must finish quilting my Robbing Peter to Pay Paul quilt by the time it's warm enough to paint the bedroom and have the windows open. Seriously. I mean, I started it about this time last year.

2. Draft an original dress pattern. I have a great book I got for Christmas that shows how to draft original patterns. My goal is to do so (and make the dress) by the end of the year. But before I can do that I need to . . .

3. Lose 25 pounds. I did it last year from January to April, so I think I can get rid of the next 25 by Easter. Part of my exercise strategy will be to . . .

4. Do C25k. Go from Couch Potato to 5k runner in 9 weeks. I have the running plan. I just have to execute it!

5. Create and tend my new kitchen garden. The areas are mostly cleared out. Just need lumber, seeds, and thawed ground. So I'm thinking I can start working on the hardscaping in March if it's not too cold and snowy. (By that time I should be able to run a 5k too!)

That's enough for yearly goals for now. Of course there are many other things I intend to do during the year (more clothes sewing, making Roman shades for the dining room, start making my own fresh bread, etc.), but these are my priorities as far as health, home, and crafting.

What are you going to do in 2011?

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