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 bunched-up bunny tail on 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!
Whatever downsizing you do manage to do will surely be appreciated by Domer. Because my mother and Tim’s father died before their parents (our grandparents) we wound up with much of the contents of two attics, each full of the possessions of several generations. Like you, we hope to spare our children having so much to wade through after we’re gone!
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. 😊
We seem to be on similar paths with a similar mindset, my friend. One of the things I plan to do when I’m done sorting is to write down a little history for each piece that I am keeping, in case the kids choose to keep a few things. But I am going to tell them they are my treasures and they need not feel guilty about dispatching them if they don’t want them after all. 🙂
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!
It’s so true, I’ve grown so weary of shopping! There’s no place to put anything new any more. Gone are the days when I had empty walls and shelves to fill.
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.
That’s so true about not seeing the same vendor the following year. That happened to me a lot, when I bought something and went back the next year to find something similar, coming away disappointed. But that makes the one-of-a-kind treasures I do have all the more special.
That must have been fun shopping with your mom. My mother wasn’t into shopping or decorating the house, much to my sister’s and my dismay. She didn’t care what we did to spruce things up. My mom just didn’t care what things looked like inside the house decor-wise, although the was a stickler for neatness and cleanliness. She loved being outside, camping and canoeing and gardening with a passion. But I did have my sister, and later my sister-in-law, to go shopping with at those unique little shops.
Yes, because those creative artists often have new wares or their current items are radically different and then you are out of luck. I do miss shopping at those little shops Barbara – there are some small carved duck decoys in this house, mostly bought at that shop, that I really treasure. We did enjoy shopping there.
Recently there was a shop in Wyandotte, a vintage-type shop, called “Love It Again Vintage Decor & More” which also had country items and fun vintage items. She had mostly new items, but some furniture pieces were refurbished. I kept wanting to stop by when I was in Downtown Wyandotte sometime and then they had a devastating flood a few months ago and lost a great deal of their inventory, so much so, that they sold what was not ruined at drastically reduced prices and she closed down the shop for good. She was heartbroken to close the store as it had been a lifelong dream of hers to open such a store and it took quite a while to accumulate the inventory to be able to open. That will teach me to wait. I followed her on Facebook and she would take photos of all her inventory, plus she had a few artists renting space or a corner and she posted photos of their goods … so I was mad at myself for not getting over there sooner.
I love the idea of curating your keepsakes. I think so often we buy for the thrill of buying in the moment. Now that I’m in my little apartment I try to be very thoughtful about my purchases. Part of the reason I came back to blogging was to kind of curate my favorite photos. A virtual photo album of memories.