vignette love

A few weeks ago, I turned our bedroom upside down in an effort of getting a specific photo that I had in mind. (Obviously, I didn't turn it upside down, but I did make a mess, as usual.)

It was this one:



and lots of variations on it... I always tend to take too many photos and then can't figure out which one I like best...

I *really* wanted to get one with Emil in it, but he absolutely would not cooperate. I tried to lure him in with treats...



but he's a cat - he prefers to knock the treats off the chair and onto the floor.

When B came home I asked him to try to get one with Emil in it, even if it meant I had to try to trap him in my lap or something.



Again, no luck.

And you know what, all of this was just because I was remembering a photo that I had taken fourteen years ago, when I was living in my spartan (illegal) artist's loft in Boston's Fort Point neighborhood.

I was at my parents' place this weekend and dug that photo out:

(I have no idea why it is so large here -- tried everything I could think of to make it "normal" size... Ugh. Blogger keeps changing things and I can't keep up.)

Anyway -- I used to love creating little vignettes in that studio. It was an artists studio, so the walls and floors had been painted and repainted and spackled and slopped all over, so it didn't matter where I put holes or what color I painted all or part of a wall -- which were long and straight. When I first moved to Boston, I worked at a fancy-pants tobacco store across from the Harvard campus. Whenever we put out a new box of cigars, we ripped the tops off of the boxes. Ever the re-purposer, I used to take the box tops home with me and turn them into frames. I'd paint them to look like dark wood, mount a postcard or photo or magazine clipping to the center, and then use the latch hardware to hang it; small nails fit through just perfectly.

I still have some of those frames... And I still (obviously, you can see it in the top photo) have that chair! One of my favourite trash picks - plucked from the curb one night as I was walking home to my little Beacon Hill apartment.

Okay, that's enough nostalgic rambling! On the work table this week are wholesale orders and some custom pieces, so I may not get to posting again before the end of the holiday weekend. Whatever your plans may be, friends, have fun and play safe!