Vignettes

I want to show you some of the things I love in my house. Let's start in the kitchen. This is a plate made by the OnlyChild after our little dog, Bosun, died. He was hit by a car. It was so sad; we still miss him almost 4 years later.


Wonky-house pictures from New Orleans. Sorry about the awful picture - the wall behind these pictures is the same colour as in the picture above, but I had to turn off the flash because it was reflecting in the glass. (You can kind of see me taking the picture in the lower one.)


Now into the dining room. This is a Valentine made for me by the OnlyChild. We were not really on good terms around VDay and she was quite mad at me (can't remember why - teenagers!), but she still cared enough to create something crazy and sweet. She signed it "From your belly-button connection".

A wax/paint picture I made when I was four years old. My mum had it framed and sent it to me for Christmas one year. On the back it says "To Mum, Love Rachel" and she added a little sticker that said, "To Rachel, Love Mum".

Japanese Washi eggs in a bowl. I made tons of these years ago with a couple of friends. The bowl was overflowing. One day I came home from work to find that Abby Dog had eaten half of them. If it wasn't so funny, she would have been in the doghouse. Oh, the little egg in the bottom right-hand corner is a Ukrainian Easter egg, made by a man who is quite high up in the school district that I work for. I guess that's his relaxation.

Into the living room... Dear little Abby Dog, dozing on the couch.

Derby Dog, anticipating a treat as usual.

Family picture circa 1971. That's me sitting on my dad's lap.

I love these mouth-blown glass pears. They were made by a local artist and I purchased them at a fundraising auction. I momentarily considered giving them to my friend Sandi for Christmas (she would love them!) but I found I couldn't part with them after I put them on the mantle in the living room.

We're in the front entry way now. I have an antique mahogany table that I bought at an auction on Prince Edward Island about 3 years ago. We brought it home in the back of the truck, carefully wrapped in blankets. Yes, we drove 4500 km with that table in the truck, along with our luggage, the OnlyChild and the dogs. The old jar came out of the basement in my mum's house in New Brunswick, and I purchased the black sheep in St. Peter's, Nova Scotia when I was there visiting friends.


On the way up the stairs, you'll see this big birdcage. I don't own a bird and never plan to (well, I had a canary called Sunshine when I was a little girl living in the Canary Islands), but I love the birdcage. To the left is a huge window that lights up the whole staircase.

A portrait of my older sister, Sarah, painted by the OnlyChild as a Christmas gift for me. My sister died in 1990 and this picture was painted from a photograph taken when she was in grade 11. Needless to say, the gift brought tears to my eyes.

Upstairs in the bedroom - a stack of books, recently read and currently being read, found on the bedside table. I am really interested in history and current events, but I also read a lot of fiction. I don't like romance novels, though, or fantasy/sci fi. I am a realist.

The shelves in my sewing room. This is a tiny little room, but it's kind of neat. We think it may have been the "maid's" room in the house. It has built-in shelves, a built-in ironing board but no closet. Or maybe it was the sewing room originally. My house is 100 years old this year! These shelves may not look tidy to you, but you should have seen them yesterday. Yikes! I should have taken a before pic. I'm slowly trying to clean up this room because it feels like the walls are closing in on me. Too much stuff!

Coloured pencils make me happy. I had to move them from the shelf in the sewing room so they would have a nice backdrop. The red walls are in the spare bedroom (formerly the OnlyChild's room). I love that room - red walls (and one green, sounds weird but looks great!), white woodwork, white furniture, off-white comforter with bright red poppies and green leaves on it.


So, that's a little tour of some of the items in my house that I love. It's a good thing Mr. P isn't home this morning - he'd think I was strange taking pictures of all those things!

Have a lovely and relaxing Sunday. I'm off to do my tiny bit of marking and planning, and then edit some yearbook pages. Later I have a date with a treadmill at the gym, and (groan) need to stop at Wal-mart for some necessities. I tried to boycott Sprawl-mart a couple of years ago, but after about three months was forced to go back. No other store has such a good variety of products at such great prices. The Wal-mart by my house is also open 24 hours. And it's always busy. Ahhhh... the Americanization of the world.

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