Collecting! I get an email about estate sales in my area and my mouth starts watering. Window shopping via my phone. I mean I saw a quilt the other day for $21 bid that I squealed. I see vintage work cabinet drawers that I would die for. But ... I don't collect, buy, purchase, lust after anything anymore. My house is full. I am giving stuff away that I love. But it IS HARD TO LET GO.
And speaking of lusting after ... little silver spoons popped up the other day. I have a few of them that individuals have gifted me over the years. It is so hard not to want these Indian Spoons,
I tell the kids every year (and I told David), please just get me some feathers to go with my collection. I have a few that I have picked up or my friend has mailed me from Texas. But I could use a few more. They aren't expensive and I even sent them a link! I have a small Indian vase of them. This year I might just buy my own.
I have TWO bowls of kale, blue cheese and balsamic vinegar! Yum! My stomach is gurgling now, should I be worried? My coffee maker met its maker this morning but I managed to make some coffee and still drinking it.
I am soooo frustrated. Helping my SIL format her Christmas poem and have forgotten every little thing about Adobe Illustrator. A program that could master with my eyes closed, now can hardly open a file. I have hardly logged on to my computer in years, except to print some art out for the girls. It is all a mystery to me now and I can't believe it.
I want a cuckoo clock for Christmas. I love the modern versions.
I am really drawn to the color, chaos, symbolism and pattern of Asad Faulwell's art.
The Iranian American artist Asad Faulwell works with formal as well as thematic repetitions and symbolic attributions, which in its artistic execution is based on the patterns and decoration movements of the 1970s, but above all emphasizes the artist's interest in his family roots. The background of the large-format works is covered with small-scale painted ornaments, whose aesthetics are reminiscent of woven carpets or wall ornaments, and which stand out three-dimensionally from the picture carrier with spun threads, needles and sequins. The collage technique is in the tradition of Persian craftsmanship, which in Faulwell's case is symbolic of his personal connection to the culture of the Middle East.
I just polished off the last of the Thanksgiving Dressing! Have had it every meal. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Ours was very quiet and small, full of good food that I did not cook.
Having run out of Hallmark Christmas movies to sleep through, I have moved on to Emily In Paris.
Emily in Paris follows Emily Cooper, an American from Chicago
with a master's degree in communications, who moves to Paris for a new
job opportunity. She is tasked with bringing an American point of view
and social media presence to a venerable French marketing firm. Cultures
clash as she adjusts to the challenges of life in Paris while juggling
her career, new friendships, and active love life.
I had started watching this ages ago and gave up after a few episodes, but have returned. I think I slept through season three last night and have had it on all day through season four while I paid bills, changed over my insurance, worked on a poem layout for my S-I-L, did dishes.
This twenty-something, living in an expensive apartment, has an endless wardrobe of designer dresses (which even has it's own Instagram account). Your never see her or her boss or her friends wear the same exquisite outfit twice. What a life, you might think to yourself! Which is why I had many eye-rolling moments. Not to mention all of the beautiful, mostly wealthy French and Italian boyfriends. I should just enjoy the fantasy and quit being such a stick in the mud, old curmudgeon but it is hard for me.
It has that Sex and the City feel about it, fantasy TV series. Season 5 coming in a couple of weeks. Of all her boyfriend choices, I would have stuck with Gabriel, the French chef.
These are a great idea from Pottery Barn! Gingerbread inspired Christmas plates.
After two sunny days, it has turned really cold. The rain is back as of 10 minutes ago and I think it might turn to snow! The crows are all rushing to roost and it is only 3:30pm!
I got this text from Mason. I think that sums up the last few days perfectly.
My very talented writer, sister-in-law, Kate, here for Christmas and we are enjoying some quality, crazy family time together. Murphy still low-growls when he discovers Kate in the room, but the more pretzel treats she feeds him, the more he accepts her.
She has just taken them for a walk to the beach ;) and I am going to enjoy a few minutes of quiet while I do the dishes before we start this crazy day of shopping. We have promised to take them shopping today. It was Noah's birthday party yesterday and she came home with quite the haul of gifts (now piled high on the dining room table) and full of sugar. So much so that Matt had to drag her kicking and yodeling to bed last night.
The girls have only had a few fist fights, Kate has only threatened to go home a few times ... which my response is: you can't get away! She has discovered the joy of letting dogs and cats in and out all day, watching Pixie throw up in the mornings while drinking coffee and finding dog pee in the bathroom. In other words, she is having quite the holiday Miller experience.
Okay, this is all in jest. We are having fun. Because it was a thunderstorm all day yesterday, Kate and I hardly took off our PJ's and watched a season of Shetlands which she had not seen. I have NOT been watching any of the new shows, saving them up for her visit. We watched a season of Black Dove, highly recommend!
I had forgotten Christmas was just a few days away so I need to figure out what I need to get to round out my gifts. Bri has planned a big Christmas eve dinner and we need to try to start cleaning off the table for that event.
Kate just saw a FB marketplace ad: A man selling a $2,000 engagement ring, never worn. We both moaned with sympathy and said, that was a good start to a story.
After the beach walk, we are shopping. Wish us luck!
I really wish I was illustrating again. I love Anne Graete light touch and humor!
We are about to enter 4 years of total chaos, I am trying to prepare myself!
I am going to start off with something interesting. Last night, talking with my bestie who lost her son years ago. It is coming up to a hard time of year for her. She has a friend who is a medium and through him she has been in contact with her son for some time. I love to hear the stories about their conversations. I mean, they don't sit down over coffee and talk ... but they communicate in all sorts of ways. She has her signs from him all the time.
Anyway, I was talking about how hard it is to clean out David's stuff, how all of it is the essence of him. How I can feel him in everything little thing, I know most of the stories behind his knick-knacks or treasures stored in boxes on his chest of drawers. You know the things ... old rings, Matt's tooth fairy teeth collection (yes we have one), passports, collected business cards, notes he left himself about antique clocks or places to shop, antique cuff links, watches, little gifts I had given him. It is all there ... our lives, his life in a wooden box. (I have my own treasures in my wooden boxes ;)
SO while we were talking about all of this, Ian and David, life and death ... the medium randomly calls Faith. She hangs up to call him back and then calls me back. She told me she was talking to him about me, about David and he said "I see some poop, something funny, like David is a real stinker." Well, I had been complaining earlier to her that the cat had been locked in the bedroom and pooped in there. But then it hit me!
Mason and I "went shopping", as Mason put it "an over-spending spree".
We went to Target, Cost Plus, Trader Joe's to look for Christmas stuff and boy did we find it, lots of it. We got lots of cookies and chocolate, cheese and cream cheese dip, crackers, wine and such at Trader Joe's. We got Cadbury Chocalote finger cookies, and chocolate digestive bisquits, lots of fun stuff that mom and I would buy there every year. We got ... honestly, I can't even remember the $150 worth of stuff we bought at Target ... oh, I got a sweater and we got Noah some presents.
But the funny thing we picked up were chocolate poop candy. Mason grabbed one, and I said "get two" and we laughed.
So these are sitting in the bedroom in my not-so-hidden-Christmas-stocking-treasures ... when I thought about the poop comment from the medium. Of course, that was it! David would have bought one for everyone's stocking, he would have loved it. I snapped a photo and sent it to Faith and we laughed.
And so it is Christmas. Bri put up the tree, but only balls this year. We call them the "angry balls" because one of the first years we were all leaving together, the tree wasn't going up fast enough for them and they were moaning about it. I got mad, said "f*ck it", ran to the store, David and I bought a bunch of tacky ball ornaments, decorated the boring tree with them ... and said THERE ... THE TREE is up.
Do the balls are always referred back to the angry trimming of the tree. I am desperately trying to clean up the bedroom for my sister-in-law, who will be here soon. I don't think it will ever be like Christmas when David was here. He was the master gift-giver, stocking-stuffer person. But I try, I focus on the stockings now without spending as much as he would every year.
I love this house, chock-full of fun things, charm, and now Christmas decorations. I just had a text conversation with a fellow sand collector-friend, around my age, about what to do with of our treasures as we get old and no one else wants them. About how we love our stuff, how we can remember the moment we found it, or bought it and how close we feel to those things. So, I appreciate Richard E. Grant’s stories about his collection of treasures. I also loved what he said 'Try to find a pocketful of happiness in each day’.
A tree in every room.
Foraging for a Christmas wreath
I have been watching the new Wolf Hall and Seinfeld reruns (for my mental health). I laugh out loud, master of my doman, the puffy pirate shirt, yada yada episodes. I am not sure my kids get it. Bri and I had an interesting conversation the other night. She told me she thought Seinfeld cast was older, not in their 30's. I said, yes, I watched this in my 30's, I dressed like Elaine, I totally identified with these characters ... when I was 30. She said she thought a 30's sitcom characters would be more like Friends ... she thought they were more like 30. I didn't really watch Friends, it felt a little silly to me? I am not sure why but I loved Seinfeld. Anyway, we just thought it was interesting the way she saw the ages of the characters and didn't feel Seinfeld was of my age group (back then).
Bri pulled off Christmas all by herself. Her car is the only car we have that drives in ice and snow, so she did all the shopping for gifts and food for a week. Matt watched the kids, I sent her money on Venmo. It was all too easy. I did not decorate but Santa visited here anyway. We had an ongoing fire. I made mom's crepes. Bri made a lovely Christmas eve dinner. I drank many Mimosas and we watched the kids rip though their gifts. We had a couple of weepy moments when the girls got their Christmas ornaments I found hidden in David's closet. We opened the three ducks he had made and bought "in secret" the very last and we all had a moment of tears. I bought Bri, Mason and myself necklaces to hold David's ashes. As usual, my S-I-L, even having the crude I had managed getting up perfect, beautifully wrapped gifts AND got them in the mail.
Santa brought Noah many princess dresses and she modeled them all morning.
And now it is all over. The snow vanished and lashing rain moved in. I still had hardly moved from the sofa.
I got Matt "couple more days construction" T-shirt.
I look for the beauty in nature, patterns, the ordinary. This is my place where I save wonderful discoveries since 2004. Please contact me at kimberlycarney AT hotmail DOTCOM.
