Cabins, Cottages AND Summer Homes: Bernard S. Mason and Frederic H. Kock

This Goodwill find was $2.99.  It's copyrighted date: 1947.
You can read or listen to this book for free on this website:
https://archive.org/stream/cabinscott00maso.
The illustrations are SO COOL! See below. It looks like Bernard is the author, and Frederic, the illustrator. They have several books in the same genre...all vintage. This second on Amazon, there's a used copy going for $8.00 http://amzn.to/1r1MxTT.

I'm very familiar with the term "Cabin". "Cottage" and "Summer Home" aren't typical terms I hear or use often, except when I'm browsing Trulia: http://www.trulia.com; They often use "Cottage" to describe homes for sale; most of them are out of my price range, and are located in highly desirable Phoenix neighborhoods, such as Encanto.  So I guess, by "browse" I really mean "drool".  I think it's neat though because with all this Mid-Century Modern stuff going on, it's refreshing to see the Cottage style, still in style, still going strong.  There are tons of Houzz articles on Cottages.
I took a Houzz Quiz about what style of house I should live in, fully expecting Cottage or Ranch but apparently...I should live in a Colonial Revival type house...who would've thought?

http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/29914917/list/houzz-quiz-what-style-of-house-should-you-live-in

An article in Houzz by Becky Dietrich defines a Cottage as any single-family home with square footage around 1200.

http://www.houzz.com/ideabooks/27105525/list/8-benefits-of-cottage-living.

I agree that that is one of the things so charming about cottages, is their small footprint; They're all about quality over quantity...and they're so darn cute!!


As far as Summer Homes go: Wikipedia says they are vacation homes people have "For relaxation in warm weather" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_house.  Ah! No wonder, this concept has eluded me!  From where I hail, surviving the "warm" weather with some grace, is a mark of heroism.  As a native of Phoenix, AZ I take pride in being one of those people who says: "You're complaining about 100 degree weather; try 118".  My husband can recall the exact circumstances surrounding the record breaking 122 degree temp on June 26th, 1990.  Somehow we all survived; yet this is coming from someone who owns an "I survived the Great Phoenix Haboob, July, 2011" T-shirt.  I guess we all need something to complain or boast about.

Although, not to minimize the dangers of the home of the Phoenix Suns. Skin cancer is a major problem and issue, which I know personally.  I'm a skin cancer survivor and still don't utilize sunscreen like I should.  Sad face.  I digress.

So, I think the point I'm making here is. When I win the lottery, I'm moving to a cottage in Encanto, donating resources to skin cancer research, and buying a cabin in the high country.  I might as well rip the Summer Home pages out of this book for their beautiful illustrations and make them into art.  I can live vicariously through those who need a break from the cold...not that I envy freezing temps...that's why I live here! Sheesh!

Pottery Barn Kids: Christmasy

I found this at Savers for $2.99.  It's bright red, metallic, organizing-ness called to me.  I love Christmas so the free Christmas stickers were a bonus.  It hails from Pottery Barn Kids.  I tried to  find one in the internet-sphere but could only find more pail-like or felt containers from Pottery Barn.  By the way, eBay, has a lot of Pottery Barn items and it's not too hard to find PB paraphernalia in thrift stores. 

At first I used this bucket to hold CD's.  In fact, I'm sure that's what Pottery Barn had in mind when they created this red CD holder.  I don't use iTunes and we have a large, 1991 Boom Box which is such a space hogger, by the way, but I refer to it to justify the CD reference. Anyway, now it holds random, small games and dice.  The Boom Box is now hogging up room in the office/junk room.  My desire is that it would end up at Savers but my husband won't get rid of it because "It still works", which I translate to mean that he has an emotional attachment to it and even though he's an iTunes pro, will continue to hoard any kind of sentimental "working" technology. Well, now it's the office's/junk room's problem.  Good riddance; The game room will miss you but will find a way to move on. 

Warren Kimble: American Cow

I found this in a three tiered wood frame at Savers.  It's heavy-weight paper glued to some very thick cardboard.  I didn't buy it for the artwork; I bought it for the frame and this came free.

Until today, I never bothered to look up the artist, Warren Kimble.  Okay, not to be dramatic but he is one of my new favorite artists!

Art.com carries his work: He does a lot of animals and scenery.  It's all so beautiful and idyllic!


 http://www.art.com/gallery/id--a1660/Warren-Kimble-posters.htm?RFID=571502&domain=com&keyword=Warren+Kimble&KWID=872167935&CTID=2123158260.

Check out this Daschund! http://www.art.com/products/p1445229036-sa-i4155431/warren-kimble-good-dog-iii.htm.

You can check out his stuff on Google Images too: Here's one from Google Images:

Here's his website: http://warrenkimble.com/about-warren-kimble/.

Write on Me: Chevron Meets Chalk

I found this at Saver's for .99.  My daughter found it also and I give her credit because I found it first but decided it wasn't essential. As it turns out, it was...at least to my daughter, who once home, quickly forgot about it.  I didn't want it to end up in a toy bin, lost, dented, unused for all of eternity, so I rescued it and now it's at least in the open air...I actually haven't decided what it's purpose should be, but I'm sure it will find one...knowing our household it will end up containing either pens, change, or M&M's...yes, we're an original household. It had a sticker on it that said "Write on Me".  Has anyone ever invented chalk that's as thin as pens? Those would be useful for the space, given here. 

I put this tin canister in the functional art category because Chevron is very in these days, and for good reason...it's pretty!! And that's a fact.  The chalk sticker thing gives it even more character and versatility.  I won't ever write the name of the items which it holds...that's redundant, in my most humble opinion.  It's not like I'm a rebel though.  It won't write "PENS" on it if I'm using it for plastic silverware...but I also won't write "PENS" on it if it's containing...Pens. 

I think it was a good investment for .99, even though I could've gotten a can of refried beans for about the same amount, of which we buy large amounts at Costco.  I doubt I would have found this at Costco for .99, and I think the refried beans will probably be there tomorrow, so that justifies my purchase. 

The identifying sticker on the bottom says: Manufacture name: Nanzhou Hardware Arts. When I Googled this name a lot of weird websites came up and none had this item.  Etsy, Oriental Trading Company, and Amazon: http://amzn.to/1zuxZ4v had something similar without the chalkboard thing. 

The only other Chevron item I own at this time is a gift bag that my daughter received for her birthday.  I forgot what was inside, but I kept this gift bag and it hangs on my closet doorknob. Right now it's job is just to sit and look pretty.  Someday I envision making it into an art project, but who has time for art projects? 

Flower-Power

I found this metal flower at Bookman's for $5.50.
http://bookmans.com.

This website has something slightly similar:
http://www.countryporch.com/darice/view.asp?item=106-4740M

Amazon has something in the neighborhood:
http://amzn.to/1nt2L9Z

Bookman's description says they buy, sell, and trade the following:
used books, music, movies, video games & musical instruments.


They also carry lots of very random knick knacks.  They have a separate area for the non-book, non-DVD, non-musical items, but they also have knick knacks interspersed between the various book genres and they do a fantastic job with matching the knick knacks to the book genre.
  
For example, I was validated and amused to see a benign enough looking clown sitting on a small floating shelf, next to  used books in the Horror genre.  I'm in that category, dare I say the majority, who sees clowns for what they are:  People in disguise who can literally get away with murder or any other crime and remain justifiably anonymous, due to their culturally acceptable costume. Nevertheless, a part of me felt bad for the clown because I doubt it's creator wanted it to the representation of evil incarnate, sitting next to used Horror novels.  It's creator, most likely meant it to be a comfort for small children, who's brains aren't yet developed enough to sense evil. 

In the "Beauty" section is where I found this too-cool flower. At first, I thought it was just a flower statue, knick-knack, but soon realized it was for holding jewelry.  My mom told me that earrings go into the perforated holes in the flower petals. Shows, how much I know about jewelry, let alone beauty, in general.  I keep all my "jewelry" in a painted, porcelain, flip flop box, I painted at one of those paint your own pottery places. I've never been huge into beauty products but this flower jumped into my Bookman's basket and made itself right at home with a plastic-bird-house church tower.  

The Sociology section had two carved wooden heads, male and female.  The Medical section had a small wooden Pharmacy and so forth.  It's too fun. I didn't pay attention to the non-book items in the "Self-Help" section because I was too busy trying not to laugh at the book titles.  Also, I was "cashe-trophizing" that someone would snag my flower while I was distracted by titles such as: "Why Men Marry Bitches" and "Strangling Your Husband is Not an Option." 
"Why Men Marry Bitches" is going this second, on Amazon for less than $14.00 http://amzn.to/WI5cvt.


"Strangling Your Husband is Not an Option" is available at Amazon too: http://amzn.to/1urce6A.

I think authors and publishers are on to something with this catchy title phenomenon.  They definitely caught my attention.

Another title that caught my attention was in the "Writing" section, entitled: "The Writer Got Screwed but Didn't Have to." http://amzn.to/1t8FFc1. I may go back and snag that one, someday, if it's still there. I mean, why get screwed, if you don't have to?

The point is, I could spend all day at Bookman's but usually only have a couple hours to spare, which feels more like 10 minutes.  I think I did an okay job snagging this flower find and maybe it will inspire me to wear more jewelry...goodness knows I could use some bling in my life.

House2Home: Wise Sayings.

I found these at Savers for $3.99 each.  I know! I wish they were only $1.99 each, but considering House2Home sold them for $19.99 each, it's not a bad deal.

I had never heard of House2Home before. There's a House2Home Store website: http://www.house2homestore.com/index.php?route=product/category&path=33.  It looks pretty cool, but it says House2Homestore.com; not sure if it's the right store.  They have a FB page too: https://www.facebook.com/House2Homestore

This website: Seattle 2nd Hand: http://hongqiaomarket.jimdo.com/buy/collectibles/framed-art/
is selling them for $15.00 each.

Anyway, it occurred to me that since I don't know Chinese, this artwork may be saying something other than its English translation. Lucky for me, my sis-in-law speaks Mandarin and was able to satisfy my suspicions of possible American-Artwork-Monolingual-Ignorance, you know (AAMI). The last thing I would want would be someone to frequent my powder room with mocking or obscene statements bearing down on them, unsuspecting, thinking they're absorbing positive vibes, when really they're just being insulted for not knowing Chinese!

I think I've defensively stated this before but, usually I don't like artwork with simple, cliche-like sayings, but this smallish, bilingual pair, with plastic bamboo frame-outline-thing won me over, as an exception to the rule.  Usually when people, or inanimate objects tell me common-sense, generic, sayings, my initial response is "YOU LISTEN TO YOUR HEART!!!!!" and "LOVE DOES NOT HEAL ALL, WHATEVER." Maybe it's all in the way it's stated.  For some reason, I don't feel patronized by these two, humble, statements and patronizing word-art is nothing to laugh about.

They've found a home on my bathroom wall, which, by the way, needs a major paint job.  What color goes well with gray? Anyway, someday in the next two years, they will go smashingly with their new background, and that background will NOT be taupe or tan or beige...I don't know if I can wait two years.  Of course I would design a room with my Savers art as the foundation...what else would it be, the vanity? I rest my case.

DIY: Word Art: Crap I made YOU

So I found this plastic faux-metal frame at Savers for $1.99.  I wanted something round for that particular blank space on the wall.  I thought this would do it, despite the square corners.  Long story short...it didn't cut it.  I couldn't pretend its hard edges weren't there.  I've never been great at denial.

I decided it needed some spray paint and I had red and green left over from Christmas.  I cut these sayings out of magazines and taped them onto the background with that patterned tape used for scrapbooking...it holds pretty well (And someday I will make page two of my child's scrapbook). I moved it to another place on the wall and eventually, you'll be happy to know, found another round-round item to put on the wall.  For those of you who are waiting with baited breath...I shall tell you.  It's a mirror that looks like a porthole...it's awesome.  My husband told me he had one in his bathroom as a child.  I wasn't sure what to make of that but at least I knew it was somewhat...not young...approaching vintage status possibly.  I will discuss it in a future post, if I can figure out how to photograph it without myself in the picture (Need we say Vintage Pantry Queen Mirror).

Language is powerful.  I am guilty of not using language to my advantage, although my job is to use it to other's advantage and empower themselves to do the same...easier said than done (no pun intended).

I hope our digital age doesn't eradicate paper formats because there's something so therapeutic about taking words out of their original context and using them in a whole new and different way.  Talk about coloring outside the lines...I mean usually taking things out of their context is frowned upon, but magazines make it so easy and tempting.  We should not pass up an opportunity for a beautiful, tangible magazine...because who knows for how long we will be able to take scissors to paper, without feeling guilty...this is one thing tablets etc will never be able to replicate.  Call me old fashioned...exclaims the blogger.