Happy Mother’s Day!
May 8th, 2011 § 1 Comment
Happy Mother’s Day to my mom, my sisters, my mother-in-law, my sister-in-law, Peter’s GiGis, and all my mother friends! I hope you’re all treated like the queens you are on this special day <3 <3
I also want to say "Thank You" to my Peters for making me a Mommy. Thank you, thank you, thank you for making my life better than I ever imagined. I love you to the moon and back, a million times. xoxo
My Dark Secret
May 5th, 2011 § 4 Comments
First of all: Happy Cinco de Mayo! I hope some Mexican food and a margarita are on your agenda today. I was in Starbucks this morning and a man asked the barista “What’s today’s date?” The barista chirped, “It’s Cinco de Mayo!” and in an irritated tone the man snapped, “No, what is the date?” Um, yeah. Not his finest moment, I’m sure. Kudos to the barista for not laughing in his face when she answered, “It’s May 5th.”
Anyway, I thought I’d share one of my deepest, darkest secrets today. Here it goes: I’m a history nerd.
Yes, hello, my name is Amy and I’m a history nerd.
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I’m interested in all kinds of history, but I get especially nutty over Biblical history.
For my 30th birthday, I fled the country and spent 3 weeks working on an archaelogical dig in Israel. Each day, rather than finding proof of Saint Peter’s house in the sand, I found camels’ teeth, multiple mouthfuls of camels’ teeth… but those teeth were hundreds, if not a thousand, years old! Cool, right?! (Uh, right?)
Here’s a picture of me on my birthday, riding, you guessed it, a camel through the banana plantation on the grounds of the kibbutz I was staying at:
(Riding the camel was great fun until it came time to dismount. That was one of the most painful experiences of my life. I think even more painful than my natural childbirth experience.) I have many more pictures of my trip, but unfortunately, they’re all hardcopy. One of these days I’ll scan and share them. It was an awesome experience.
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Two weeks ago, after digging a hole in our yard to transplant a maple tree (which Peter insists is an apple tree), my husband came into the house to tell me that he found a bunch of pottery shards. My heart started pounding, my mind started whirling, and I broke into a sweat, imagining that our house was sitting atop a 17th century village. Visions of grids danced in my head while I wracked my brain thinking about how best to excavate the yard. But, sadly, the “pottery,” turned out to be broken china from the early-mid 20th century. It was still cool, but not as cool as living atop an old village. Le sigh.
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As early as the fourth grade, I was into old things. After a field trip to Old Sturbridge Village, I became so infatuated with the olden days that I wrote to the Village asking if I could work there in the summer. There was nothing I wanted more than to churn butter in 100 degree weather while wearing a bonnet and a calico dress.
That could have been me on the right side!
My application was rejected, but my dream never died.
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I spent most of my adult life working at a publishing company that archived primary source material (original books, photos, newspapers, sheet music, diaries, etc.) on microfilm. Supposedly, we had the 10th largest library in the world in our vault. To keep up with technology, we began to digitize the microfilm, which allowed the primary sources to be fully searchable online. For most of my time at the company I was enthralled, not exactly with my job, but with the material I was working with.
Hello, my name is Amy, and I love primary sources.
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I love antiques and artifacts of all sorts, but I tend to gravitate towards old books. One of my most favorite possessions is an old book titled “The Importance of Living,” which I found at a used book sale in Vermont. I started flipping through the pages and found underlined passages, pieces of fabric, news clippings from the 1940s, dried flowers, and even a feather, pressed between the yellowed pages. I couldn’t help but wonder who saved those items and why he or she saved them. I did find a name written in the book, Gertrude Miriam Potwin, but Google turned up nothing on her! Just for fun, here are some pictures of another person’s treasures, possibly Gertrude’s, saved in the pages of a book for me to find decades later:
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So, there you have it. I feel kind of liberated now that my secret has been shared! From this day forward, I shall wear my bonnets and calico dresses with pride!
My husband will be thrilled.
Pretty Things Tuesday: On Wednesday
May 4th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
(Better late than never!)
Hello! How are you today? We’re doing pretty well, despite fighting off another sore throat. Honestly, I kind of can’t wait for preschool to be over in a month. The germs produced and shared by those 14 adorable kids in that little classroom nearly incapacitated me this year. Clearly, I need to build up my immune system. But who cares about that.
Today is about pretty things, and I’m excited to show you my first Craigslist purchase:
A new made-in-America Ethan Allen coffee table! Can you believe it’s the first time I’ve used Craigslist?!? I’m so 2003!
As much as I love pretty things and home decor, I rarely (ok, never) buy large items for my home. Before I married, I was a vagabond, moving from apartment to apartment every few years and making do with whatever beat up hand-me-down furniture I could get my hands on from friends and family. Sure, I purchased pillows and other decorations to make the place of the moment look cute and homey, but I never bit the bullet and invested in good furniture.
In those days, I thought of money in terms of how many bottles of wine or how many trips it could buy. $1500 for a new couch? That could buy 100 bottles of wine or round trip tickets to visit my best friends in Vegas and Seattle! I also figured: why spend money on stuff that may not fit in my next apartment? For years my mattress was on a futon frame. It didn’t bother me–I liked, and still do like, the platform bed look! (Although, we have moved on up to a real bed frame, minus a headboard. It’s on the list of things to get.)
I was hesitant to invest time or money in decorating the house we’re in now because we thought we’d move from here to our “forever home” in 4 or 5 years. Well, as I mentioned in an earlier post, it appears that we’re on a 10 year plan here. With that reality staring me in the face, I decided that now is the time to put on my big girl panties and make this house a permanent home. The days of rolling stone youth, flowing wine, and frivolous trips are over, so there should be money in the budget for real furniture.
I’m not in a huge rush to buy things. The coffee table was first on the list because our old coffee table was just disgusting. It had a rattan top that had become encrusted with old food and play-doh. Since we do all of our entertaining in our living room, I was at the point where I was embarrassed to serve appetizers on it!
Anyway, I plan on buying as many items as possible (console table, end table, dining room furniture, etc.) from second-hand sources like Craigslist, antique stores, and yard/estate sales for 3 reasons:
1. Financial benefit- Second-hand items are less expensive than new items. I bought the coffee table for less than half of the retail price. There are a few small scratches and marks on it, but nothing really noticeable. I negotiated a little bit and got $20 knocked off the asking price. Honestly, the asking price was totally reasonable, but I thought it wouldn’t hurt to haggle a little bit. (And I can use that 20 bucks to buy a bottle of wine! Just kidding.)
2. Environmental benefit - Why buy new things (most likely manufactured in a foreign country using questionable materials) that will just end up in a landfill someday, when there are plenty of previously loved, quality things in good condition? Save trees and create less pollution by buying second-hand.
3. Uniqueness benefit – I’m going for a beachy-cottagey look here and luckily that style lends itself well to second-hand shopping. I love Pottery Barn, West Elm, and Restoration Hardware as much as the next person, and I’m sure I’ll buy some things from a name brand at some point, but I don’t want my house to look like a catalog picture. I’m excited to go on the hunt for unique, great quality items that I truly love.
I’m indebted to The Nesting Place newsletter for inspiring me to go on the second-hand special hunt!
Have a good night!
