It's Been A While!

I've been quite busy with school and writing - my thesis still isn't done, but it's getting there! And I've become fond of pen and ink - doing a lot of writing NOT on the computer. I've also been participating in things like Swap-Bot (http://www.swap-bot.com/) - and loving it! And I've been planning and mostly dreaming about fitting my mid-century modern mindset within the confines of a house built in 1870! Not an easy task... But there is quite a bit of historical support for people living in older houses and "updating" them in between 1940 and 1970. That's why you sometimes see old frame houses with 1950s front doors. Or why, if you're able venture inside, you sometimes find living rooms or kitchens that, while not reflecting 2011, certainly don't look like they came out of the nineteenth-century. It used to bother me (as an historian) when houses were treated this way, but there is such a precedent for mid-20th-century remodeling that I've made my peace with it!

Now I'm hoping to get this blog more active again, hopefully posting at least a couple of times a week. We'll see how it goes... I'd like to center my posts on writing topics, mid-century design, my pets and occasionally, a craft I find splendid! Wish me luck!

The Things We Miss When We're Not Looking

Well, summer has put a crimp on my blog entries, hasn't it?
Over the years, I've become more and more (and more) interested in mid-century design and the history of material culture of the 1950s and 1960s. Lately, in looking at our family photos, I've begun to look beyond family and have become intrigued by structures within the photographs...a chair, the wallpaper, floors, cars, etc. Most of these things were around when I was a child, but they were such fixtures in the background that I never really took notice of them. Here are a few photos I recently pulled from the hundreds I've already scanned that show some really neat things in the background (or foreground, as the case may be). I think they're fantastic (and kind of miss them, too).


My mom's wedding shower, February 1955. My grandmother's kitchen table was sooooo cool!


My grandpa Ralph and a family friend. Love the chairs - each one is different!



Great-grandma Katie in her very 1950s kitchen. Look at the metal cabinets - I wonder if they're still in this house?

Speaking of Green...

This is my new rechargeable electric lawnmower. Yes, it's in my living room (well, it was when the photo was taken)! That's the battery charging at the left side of the picture. I love it! Well, if you can love a lawnmower, anyway! I have a reel mower, too (for anyone who doesn't know, the kind that has no motor and the blades rotate kind of like a cylinder), but this one is so much faster on a big lawn - and still green!

Green Sewing

I FINALLY got a copy from my local library of Green Sewing by Betz White. I have GOT to get me one! I love this book - possibly the best "being green" book I've ever seen. I hope to have more on this post later, but for now, just go check it out! (http://www.amazon.com/Sewing-Green-Projects-Repurposed-Materials/dp/1584797584)

An Earth Day Project

An impromptu project for Earth Day - just a stick, nine bottles with their caps and some fishing line (the lizard isn't climbing onto the stick - he's just hanging out on the wall). When I get it balanced, it's going out on the porch to swing around in the breeze.

Let's Save the Earth!

Happy 40th Earth Day (counting the very first one on April 22, 1970)! Although I tend to honor Earth Day every day by trying to reduce my carbon footprint as much as possible, each year I add something on Earth Day. This year, it's water - I'm going to attempt to reduce my use of water, water my garden entirely from my rain barrel, shorten my showers, not buy water when the water from my tap is perfectly fine, turn the water off when brushing my teeth, keep my gutters cleaned out to reduce rainwater run-off, etc.
On the Go Make Something site (http://gomakesomething.com/), the weekly "Make It Mondays" this week is anything inspired by a footprint, and all I could think of was a carbon footprint! So I added another page to my art journal, and here's my entry - very impromtu among all the other things I was doing last night - enjoy!

Spring!

I've seen signs of spring for a few weeks now - a little more sun in this part of Ohio, more rain than snow, a generally more green appearance. But yesterday, it really LOOKED like spring! My first tulip is blooming! Peonies and raspberries are coming up, and the buds on the trees are noticeable. And a little grey squirrel sat watching me as I walked around taking photos. Welcome spring!

A curious little grey squirrel..

Leaves on the bushes

and trees...

Rasberries

Peonies!

My potted plants

And my beautiful little first tulip!