Saturday, September 06, 2008

an extremely long unorganized post in which I attempt to bore you to death

Extreme Eccentricity

It occurred to me last night that the décor in our house is extremely eccentric. For instance, hubby has four swords (three from LOTR) and a dagger hanging in the living room. Around the house is scattered the globes in my growing collection of globes (two recent acquisitions are particular favorites – I ought to photograph them sometime, one is of a moon) as wells as both glass and metal pin floral frogs. I have a collection of glass lemon juicers. I use baskets for many things in addition the cupboards in the kitchen hold an array that seldom get used. I love mirrors and use mirrors in various decorative arrangements around the house (often three or four per arrangement).

I like wrought iron wall art and have a great deal of it in the entry and some in the kitchen. In addition, I use wrought iron plant boxes that are made for hanging on the fence to corral supplies in two of our three bathrooms. I have a largish lion figure in the entry. I have lion cubby in the kitchen that holds tacks and another in the girl’s bathroom that holds hair bands. Scattered around the lower level are six inch tall chess pieces that I distressed by using them for garden décor and then by sticking in a container where I layered them with wet teabags. I have a cookie jar full of rocks on the kitchen counter, a jar full of marbles on the buffet, a jar full of seashells, multiple jars of buttons, beads, and jingle bells, and a jar full of feathers.

There are book shelves and piles of books all over the place. We have several gargoyles (on is picking his teeth and is named Feast on Fools) as wells as some M. Pena dragons and unicorns. I have a French pleuriant. We have a figurine of Gollum on the mantle. I use an old school bulletin board map for a curtain and have another one hanging nearby. I don’t believe in typical hanging rules and tend to put things very high or very low and certainly not in a row (partially because I seem incapable of making things straight).

There are probably a dozen clipboard collages distributed around the house. I have three different stacks of hard-sided suitcases. Three brown ones hold the girls dress-up clothes in the living room. Three brown ones reside under the sewing table and a stack of five blue ones live in Grace’s room and hold calendars, albums, paper ephemera, and stationary. There are books all over the place – I think books are decorative – husband does not. And of course, there are my plants – I have quite a few of those too. By the time my girls are teenagers they are never going to want to invite friends over.



My cosmos were pathetic this year but the few that bloomed are lovely and I think being a bee would be nice if one could dine in such lovely surroundings.







I recently ordered this lovely from my friend Julie from Is there a shadow? She is an extremely creative artist who sells her stuff on etsy. This lovely doll has leaf beads scattered in her skirts. One of the beads reads curiosity.

The doll bust is from a an old German doll factory. Apparently, they were buried during war and just recently exhumed. Julie bought a lot of them. She makes the coolest stuff from the doll parts and she sells some of the parts on her etsy shop too (I want to order some in the worst way but so far have resisted the temptation).

We had a brief rain shower this evening. Hubby was grilling during the shower and he looked over the deck and remarked on how lovely the hosta blossoms looked so when the sun lowered and came out I went out to take photos of them. The first shot was my favorite.

I wandered around the yard and noticed this duo were at truce while hiding from the rain.

I was making the little spider nervous and so I blew on her to see if she would move away. When I blew on them the bee lifted his leg up. I experimented and every time the bee caught a breeze he lifted his leg. I wonder if he was looking to dry off?

The white spiders (usually in my yard they are white or white with pink markings) in my yard are Crab Spiders (my variety are sometimes called goldenrod crab spiders). I did not know they could change their color so I was surprised when I found this yellow one on a black-eyed susan. They don't spin webs or trap. They simply wait with their legs outspread and capture their prey with their legs.

I took this photo of a dragon fly in my yard earlier this week.

This would be one of my all-time favorite photos of hubby and me.


I want to call out to KansasRose. You can reach me at timmelhow at the normal Y place dot c0m. In addition, in the past I have not responded in comments but I intend to start.

15 comments:

  1. WOW!!!!!!!!!! your photos are gorgeous! love the bee and the spider! so much detail! sunflowers are my absolute favorite!! that pic of you and your husband is beautiful!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fabulous photos, as always :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous6:12 AM

    My home is rather eclectic too...and untidy. I can't do the show-home thing...tried and failed. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder (to coin a cliche). It sounds like you have some lovely things in your home.

    And I agree with Emma. Fabulous photos, as always.

    I love that you're going to respond to comments. Just don't make yourself a law, respond when you can and feel like. I have got myself stressed in the past because I've not gotten to respond to comments for one reason or another. And the hardest thing in blogging is that you cannot just smile and silently agree with someone...and a smiley face never quite reaches that silent 'oneness' that real-life friendship has...you know like when a husband and wife can sit in happy silence.

    Sorry rambling, but I am really pleased you are going to respond it feels more like a conversation then.

    Hugs.

    p.s. I love the title of your post, that made me smile.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous6:12 AM

    ...ha amused I used the expression 'gotten'. Been reading too much Janette Oke...that is not an Englisism.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I like the update of MB's world as well as all the nice pictures. The sun flowers are exceptional. If you saw our house ( mess ) and how eclectic it is you would think your home is normal.

    Min wants to change things but that will take time, from the South West flavor mixed with modern art, Shaker furniture and Chinese wool rug. But some how it all works, it is home.

    Like Sarah our house could use about 48 hours of a good maid to get it clean to the point of where it would be model quality. But like Erma B., said don't let a dusty lived in house stop you from inviting friends. We don't seem to have much time for that but the kids are always having friends over, they like the place, so it must be ok.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Your house sounds absolutely wonderful to me, ME. (Btw, my BF, a fencing coach, has contributed Narsil and a cool-looking German zweihander sword with a wavy blade to the decor here... he'd be jealous that your DH has 3 LOTR swords!)

    The kids might be embarrassed by it when they're teenagers, but they probably would find a reason to be embarrassed by it anyway. And then when they're older they'll spend hours trying to figure out how to imbue such character into their own homes. :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh my goodness, all of the goodness. My jaw drops when I read your posts. I think it's a sin to feel how I feel, envy?.

    I love that photo of you and hubby, so tender. Reminds me I need to take one of those with mine.

    I really want to see all of your collections.
    I want to come over to see and touch, but your gorgeous photography would do just as nicely.

    I am in awe of these garden pictures. I love the spiders, remarkable. This morning we were remarking how we haven't seen any spiders lately, other than daddy long legs. It's so very dry right now, no bugs at all really, if you can imagine, except bees, wasps and a very few flies and fruit flies.

    My home is so boring. It's very small like a tree house or boat, so it must be kept ship-shape, I also married a sailor, can't keep things lying around a sailboat.

    Though, I do have a table where we keep our "rip-rap", stuff we find on the beach.

    You continue to inspire me.

    Awe-inspiring.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Eclectic means interesting..active thinker, engaged, NEVER boring. Give me eclectic anyday! I would love your house. Your flowers certainly do rock! Detail obsessed I am...your photos have fabulous details. What is your favorite flower? will send ya an email. :) I hope I think I know what the Y stands for...

    ReplyDelete
  9. you live in my kind of house...I have one room that has build in bookcases completely around two walls...and they are all full... as well as books in both of our other bedrooms...
    and the rest of your collections sound very interesting as well...
    I love your pictures today also...

    ReplyDelete
  10. I am happy to find so much support for the eclectic non-show home style house. I also enjoyed hearing the descriptions of your homes, what fun.

    For blackswamp girl I have the low-down on hubby's swords. Hubby has Glamdring, the shards of Narsil, Aragorn's Elf Dagger, and Herugrim (King Theoden's sword). Hubby recently told me that the company that made the swords went out of business so many of the swords (the shards of Narsil in particular) sell for over a thousand dollars on e-Bay. Narsil is probably the most valuable thing in our house since our computer is seven years old and my camera is five years old and we don't have many techy gadgets (no Wii, or Ipods, or even a plain ordinary MP3 player - we just got cell phones this year).

    BTW I like what you say here "The kids might be embarrassed by it when they're teenagers, but they probably would find a reason to be embarrassed by it anyway. And then when they're older they'll spend hours trying to figure out how to imbue such character into their own homes."

    Claire but you must know there is beauty in the simplicity of small and shipshape too.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I love it! We don't even have cell phones!
    We don't have TV! REALLY!

    But I had to pop over to Is There a shadow?, I want one of those ornaments. SO COOL!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Oh...your photos are always so beautiful! I only wish I could capture the lovely things I stumble across in day to day life in such a way.

    Thanks so much for sharing!

    Emily

    ReplyDelete
  13. I think your home sounds absolutely lovely.

    How could it not be?

    You live there!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous8:24 AM

    Oh, you're so sweet. I could just hug you after seeing these shots, and the icing on the cake is the shot of you two snuggled together.

    Btw, your camera takes the best close-ups too. Very beautiful.

    I was even taken by your remark of what your husband said about (was it the hostas?) being so lovely.

    I adore stuff like this.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I would love to see pictures of some of your eclectic room. My decorative style is sparse, intentionally, but I love to see and dream about crannies stuffed with interesting and textured thngs.

    ReplyDelete