Wilcox Park, Westerly, Rhode Island
Every day my cell phone sends me a random selection of pictures it has taken in the past. When this whimsical photo of a lion popped up I wondered where on earth it came from! Turns out it was taken nine years ago at an art festival we used to love to go to, even though I honestly don’t remember this particular piece.
Some people have a way of arranging everything about them, so the objects take on not only their own meaning, and a relation to the other things displayed with them, but something more besides — an indefinable aura that belongs as much to their invisible owner as to the objects themselves.
~ Diana Gabaldon
(Voyager)
I am one of those people who carefully curates all the meaningful objects I’ve collected over the years. And a good many of these mementos have come from artists with booths at the Virtu Art Festival in Westerly, Rhode Island. A close up photograph of a barred owl on a snowy evergreen, infused onto a sheet of aluminum… A uniquely shaped turned wood vase with a tall spire-shaped lid… A glazed earthenware pot with a little bunny head on the rim on one side, and a little bunny tail near the bottom of the other side… I didn’t buy every year we went, but if I fell in love with something I was more than willing to break the budget to bring it home.
I do miss those days! All my most precious keepsakes survived the drastic downsizing we did to move down here, and they have been arranged anew, still, perhaps going forward it’s a good thing that I’ll no longer be tempted to add even more “objects” to my home.
Memories are special, Barbara, so I’m glad you were able to “cull” through the pile of stuff and set aside things you love. I wish I were better at organizing and cataloging my stuff, but here we are. I only hope to downsize sufficiently in my old age that poor Domer won’t have to wade through everything when I’ve moved on to my reward!
I am not surprised that you are a collector of the arts that win your heart and an organizer those keepsakes!
I too drastically downsized. Although not as organized as you, nor for the same reasons.
I too was a collector of the arts and antiques. I’m comfortable with all that I did decided to let go and to keep. I too am of the age that I no longer invest my money into keepsakes and focus my money only on need. 😊
I used to love craft fairs, too. Likewise, I’m past the ‘accumulating’ stage of life and little interests me. Even shopping, except for food, seems senseless!
That is a cute lion – how clever too! I have not been to a craft fair in forever, but like you if I saw something I would get it as they are unique, one-of-a-kind items and you know you would not see it the following year, if ever again. My mom and I used to frequent a country store called “The Grape Vine” and we could not go in that store without coming home with something … we’d go just two or three times a year, but this house is done in Early American and a country kitchen, so there was always a fun find to be had. There were also little carved ducks, or a wreath or something we had to have. I was sad when it went out of business. The owners lived next door to the store and it was just a small store and they made many of the country items, even the wreaths, dried flower bundles, etc., potpourri.