I started a new blog under my first domain name, dponline.org. It’s actually not live yet outside of WordPress — weird, but I guess it will take time for the nameservers to update. I hope that’s all it is. I’ve already spent far too much time trying to figure it out.
The holidays were nice — great having Clare here. We celebrated a little late, but that’s okay. I wasn’t really ready for Christmas on Christmas Day anyway. It was nice having those extra days.
I spent yesterday and today de-christmasing. Nearly everything holiday-related is out of the main floor, but I have a lot to do in the attic in terms of putting everything away.
No resolutions this year — just a continued effort to keep the procrastinations at bay.
When I was young and visited my grandparents home in Elgin I loved the room with the books. It was off the dining room and while the adults played poker at the dining room table the kids played with toys or read books in the book room. They had only a few books that kids would like, most were my grandfather’s books with titles like “Have Gun, Will Shoot”.
While I liked the Rupert Bear annual from maybe the 1930s, I always gravitated to the huge Ripley’s Believe it or Not book. First printed in 1929, it held illustrated stories of the strange, the next to impossible, the macabre. In its pages I learned about the man with two-foot-long fingernails, that Saint Patrick was not an Irishman, and I learned about shrunken heads. To this day I think about this book when reading clickbait headlines on the Internet.
My delight in this book was tempered with a small bit of shame. It seemed naughty reading this book and looking at the illustrations which were often off-putting. Close-ups of people, like the illustration of the actor who could make his hair stand on end or the man who buried his head in the sand for 9 hours.
And while thumbing through the book I came across something that I repeated to people as true fact throughout my childhood. I’d completely forgotten about until just now.
A box of various items that I am relucent to dispose of has just resurfaced. I’ve written about some, but not all. Maybe more of these items will find homes.
I thought I’d written about the porcelain Wade figurines that came in boxes of Red Rose Tea back in the 1970s, but cannot find it in a search of my blog. I believe I had more at one time, but all I have is a rabbit, a hedgehog, and a leopard. I don’t know if I got them in England or when I returned to the States. Of course the hedgehog is my favorite.
Wait! I found another — a bird and this one says Wade on the bottom.
These two resin faces were made by Jeremy when he first visited the States. He crafted them in the art room at my high school. At least I think that’s were he made them. I had the clay mold he poured the resin into at one time, but that’s understandably long-gone.
This small compact was given to me by Frances Lide. Its needlepoint cover is in good shape, but the mirror inside is not. There’s still face powder inside! I think I know what I’m going to do with this. (Note that after I took the photo I cleaned up the mirror and it looks much better.)
Three black stones, two polished and one that might be some manufactured material. It looks like it has a seam and feels lighter than the other two. I think I will add these to the stones on our fireplace mantle. At least the polished ones.
Two tiny bottles. One is made to look like a Heinz ketchup bottle (it’s actually a pin for your lapel) and the other like a Coca Cola bottle. I don’t know where the Heinze ketchup bottle pin came from, but the Coca Cola bottle has been with me for decades. My Barbie doll used to drink from it. They are about 1.25 inches tall.
A very tiny toadstool. I should be using coins to compare the sizes of these miniatures, but the is about half an inch tall. It is possible that Clare made it for a terrarium she gave me. As you can see it is very detailed.
A Celtic cross that, I believe, was also part of the terrarium Clare made me.
A bird made out of plastic or bone (hopefully not ivory) — possibly some sort of pheasant. A gift from Frances Lide. It’s about 1.75 inches long and .75 inches high at the head. I remember exactly when Frances gave it to me and where I found it at her house. For some reason I was looking in a drawer of her sideboard in her dining room and it was among other items. She asked if I would like it since I liked birds.
A plastic vial containing bits of heather, including rare, lucky white heather and a tiny seashell. I picked these up on my first trip to Scotland with the Burgoynes.
And finally a piece from a crystal chandelier. I probably picked this up at an antique store, but I remember talking to Frieda, an elderly next-door neighbor when we lived in Alexandria, about how beautiful these were when they refracted the light and made sparkles on the walls and ceiling. This one doesn’t make rainbows, just sparkles.
Clutch Cargo Lips 