Hope Vestergaard's Blog, page 2

Favorite Things Friday: Tiny Chairs, Revisited

Oops, this was last Friday’s post. I plead technical difficulties. (A.K.A. “summer”).

I’m revisiting a previous post because I’m short on time and long on tiny chairs. And my lovely sister brought me a new one!

Humpty Dumpty sat on Britt’s chair

I don’t know why tiny chairs, in particular, attract me. A friend recently made a crack about old ladies buying tiny bicycles (among other things they don’t need) at Hallmark stores and I thought, Does my affection for tiny chairs mean I am an old lady?!

Then I realized:

tiny chairs are so different from tiny bicycles!
I don’t buy tiny anything at Hallmark, just greeting cards and gift wrap;
I don’t as much buy tiny chairs as I hunt for them. Entirely different.

(Phew, dodged that old lady bullet.)

When I was little I liked to make tiny furniture out of recycled or found items: chairs out of toilet paper tubes, beds out of matchboxes, tables out of strawberry containers. I loved the Borrowers books and liked to imagine that my creations might be useful to someone, someday.

I don’t have a favorite era or style of tiny chair. Upholstered ones are cool because I have learned during my bird-making adventures that it’s really hard to make tiny things out of fabric. I also like to see scaled down versions of modern designs.

thoughtful modern monkey

I think I like chairs because they are a compact little stage. The way one sits also reveals a lot about the sitter–whether they’re comfortable, confident, defensive, etc. Look at this stylish, slightly harried housewife sitting on a lovely lawn chair tracked down by my friend Darla. Joan is relaxed, maybe a little frazzled, but completely in command of her senses (and audience). I’d like to hear what she has to say. Whereas Thoroughly Modern Monkey above is nervous and thoughtful. I wonder what he’s looking at?

isn’t she lovely?

Anyway…a few more chairs below. Be my guest!

Wham, Bam, Thank you spam! Look at my happy rainbow

A recent spambox comment:

>>That’s so funny that you posted that, buasece I just went back today after break and was thinking to myself, “Do I really have to go back?” and then I thought, “Gee, the blogger at Look at my happy rainbow!” would never have these feelings!  Of course, once I was back it was good to be back, but I’m glad to hear that you have “bratty baby” moments too. <<

This is funny spam…because there is a blog called “look at my happy rainbow” and I think the person who posted it must have accidentally cut and pasted to the wrong blog. Or something. It seems legit…that blogger is a KG teacher who recently went on vacation.

Akismet thought it was spam. Perhaps because BECAUSE was misspelled, perhaps because it involves the word rainbow? (Lots of spam comments have the word rainbow, I’ve noticed). Out of context, it does read like a lot of spam: friendly and technically grammatical, but doesn’t make sense at all (until you sleuth).

Favorite Things Friday: Fisher Price People

come on down!

I have always loved Fisher Price people. The original two-inch tall wooden peg style ones are my favorite, but I don’t mind the plastic ones of the same shape. Unfortunately, these were the epitome of a choking hazard in size and shape, so Fisher Price phased them out for newer models I found much less attractive. When I was pregnant with my first son, I used to dream about finding vintage Fisher Price play sets for my own kids to enjoy.

Those dreams did not come true.

You can find original Fisher Price sets many places, of course. They are highly collectible. Which translates into very expensive. Not only is buying high not my M.O., I didn’t have the budget for it. So I was happy just to occasionally find affordable single people or cars. I visited the expensive sets at antique stores and recalled fond memories of me sprawled on shag carpet, surrounded by FP, totally immersed in play.

$75. FIRM

Earlier this year a friend of mine who shares my love of treasure hunting found a bunch of vintage Fisher Price at a garage sale up north, dirt cheap. I was jealous! Then I realized my kids are long past them and my nieces and nephews are well-stocked with toys. So I was satisfied with the thought of visiting them at Lisa’s house.

BUT!

I was running errands this summer and saw a garage sale sign in a quiet neighborhood. They didn’t have much that interested me, except the MOTHER LODE of Fisher Price playsets, all the same versions I loved as a kid (plus a couple newer ones). When I saw the prices, I snapped them up, even though I don’t have a particular use for them at the moment. (If you want to hear the price, leave a comment. I will tell you. But you will be jealous.) The women running the sale were thrilled someone would give them all a good home.

loot!

I got the house, the schoolhouse, the garage, the camper, and the farm. They are not complete, but nearly. The foam on the beds has been picked away, some of the people are a little chewed up, and a few of the decals are peeling, but that only adds to the authenticity. I left the toys out in the living room and had the distinct pleasure of watching my nephew and niece discover them and go to town. Listening to Charlotte’s narration and Brody’s negotiating skills was such a delight. Easiest babysitting ever!

This post is picture-heavy. I hope you don’t mind. When I went to take pictures of the sets, I was overcome with the urge to play and so I did. My sister helped me. It was soooo good.

PS: I’m still on the lookout for the hospital, preschool, and (cue the hallelujah choir) CASTLE! (Found it at a church sale two days after typing this. No furnishings, but it’s a start!)

how many FP sets do you spy?

PPS: This picture conveniently (mysteriously? fortuitously?!) floated to the top of one of my piles just now. That’s my brother Leif with me.

Favorite Things Tuesday: Zenith Space Command Remote

(This Friday post was delayed by website glitches and my ineptitude).

Meet my Zenith Space Command 100 remote! I found this 1971 beauty at the Depot Town flea market. It’s a beautiful little piece of design: I love the lettering, love the shape and heft, love that arrow and the pleasing turquoise button. Even the sound it makes is packajectic! (That’s a Smith family word, describing something that makes a perfect sound or has a perfect shape, like a perfect little package.) It only has one function: changing the channels.

I was going to record the sound it makes for your listening pleasure, but I found the video below which features the remote and its perfect little click. Watch it and learn more than you ever imagined about the Zenith 100 Space Command. (I learned you could also program the remote to turn the TV on and off by assigning that function to a channel number which didn’t broadcast in your area.) I was fascinated by the fact that the remote physically turned the channel dial on the TV. It must have seemed magic then… it still does to me. I can wrap my brain around transmitting digital signals to change channels as we do today but I can’t comprehend a little metallic click creating kinetic energy to move a plastic dial. Nowadays our TV remotes can change channels, tune the TV, switch to stereo, search for a favorite scene, go online, answer the telephone, start a face-to-face phone conversation… I wonder if today’s functionality will seem quaint to future generations? What else would people need or want a remote to do?!

Speaking of magic, you may wonder what I do with my Space Command 100, besides fondle and admire it. I imagine that it has the power to change things for me. When my kids were little and they experienced some unavoidable unfairness or hurt, they expected me to do something about it. Admitting to your kids that you are not all-powerful is one of those sad little milestones of parenting. It’s fun to feel like a superhero for a few years. What I told my kids when they requested supernatural assistance was this: I would fix the problem if I had a Mommy Wand, but sadly, I did not. Essentially, short of magic, there was nothing I could do except agree with them that something hurt or a situation stunk and help them pick up the pieces. For a while they hoped to someday procure a Mommy Wand for me, but then they grew up a little and realized magic is an illusion. By that time they were okay with the reality. I don’t think I was a jerk to let them believe in the Mommy Wand for a little while. I never said such a thing actually existed, they just optimistically filled in that blank. Sometimes all you need is a little hope to get through the rough spots.

That’s what the Zenith Space Command 100 does for me. I know there’s no magic wand or clicker that will finish a rough revision for me, or find my tax documentation, or relieve the pain that someone I love is feeling. But it’s nice hold it in my hand and imagine that such a power might exist, at least until I make peace with whatever reality I am resisting.

Interested in early remotes? Here are some other people who have thought a lot about them.

Bill DeRouchey (of Push Click Touch — a cool experience design website)
Allee Willis (of the delightfully titled and stocked website, Museum of Kitsch!)

And, the promised video. I love to find evidence of people digging deep into stuff they love.

Wham, Bam, Thank You, Spam!

New feature!

Some secret setting on my blog control panel has mysteriously changed. A few of the spam comments that I usually don’t even have to view are leaking through the filter into my mailboxes. And what entertainment they provide! In the tradition of making lemonade from lemons, I have decided to parse the gems. I  haven’t added any words, only punctuated run-on sentences into readable blocks where necessary. I trimmed repetitive and utterly insensible phrases and cut out spammy links and bad words.

This one is from Japan:

Sir Spamalot: With a range Tactfulness in vivo lordly, iron-handed, wild, of sensational emotions.

H: Strangely sexy, in a Middle Ages Sci-Fi sorta way.

SS: He felt absolutely, earmarks of its own to participate in this red Trident. Furthermore, I is accompanied past trembling a little. Does it means that you in no way be depressing for the power of the Poseidon tinge shudder this red happy even? Numen, what is that you bag to handle up?

H: Now we’ve gone underwater. Is this literal or symbolic? Is a tinge shudder different from a regular shudder? What’s a red happy even? Is it related to red algae bloom? Who’s Numen, and what is s/he bagging up?!

SS: It is unshakeable, it is tragic, the predominating behalf Dab force of six bone concentrated in the zoom, 3-core.  Smattering some of the fearfulness that changed the red illumination.

H: So very sci-fi! Such evocative language. Tragic, unshakeable spam, smattering the fearfulness.

SS: Most conversion 3 bone Swathe, a gargantuan intensity with a getting on in years embodiment. Soup spouting blood was not distributed to the legion, readable, made the bone. 

H: I confess, I’m not a big sci-fi afficionado. Some of this text makes as much sense to me as published science fiction. Doesn’t made the bone sound like a thrilling metaphor from an epic poem? It’s spammetry in motion.

SS: Team apology shatter of his primitive torment, is engrossed during the coat of his repayment. Originally, the expectations of Nip, whale stupendous magical vivify of this cryptic affability anatomy cingulum regent.

H: I don’t think I want to be a member of Team Apology. I might like to wear a coat of repayment, though. Does Nip know Numen? How do you vivify? Why would you want to? What is a cingulum regent and where does it get its cryptic affability? Is that something I should aspire to?

SS: A unique at intervals at length engrossed, binding the Poseidon, sine qua non be thanks to it a baby, it is zing deep-felt.

H: Zing! I feel your passion, Sir Spamalot! (fans self)

SS: In accordance with the development of Dowel as expected down to the ground, also the impenetrable voodoo whale peer royalty, this absorption situate of

feasible you did not with any genius in the phosphorescence did not assume that you did not carry in a next of kin way to him, Poseidon. There is sex.

H: A-ha! There is sex! I knew it! I bolded the fantastic band names contained in that paragraph. And now we come to the grand finale, a crescendo of evocative adjectives and odd verb usage and epic imagery…

SS: I sentiment the late pilfer a nosedive of all of Hiroshi entrants on hammer in his cease operations before, initiatives, and to chief up his essentials like a hammer Haotian fragment of it.

H: Coming to a high school battle of the bands near you, they’re semi-punk post-pubescent poets with a grungy metal edge, let’s give a warm welcome to… Sentiment the Late Pilfer! Lead singer Hammer Haotian is here to Chief. You. Up.

Amen.

Favorite Things Friday: Materials Unlimited!

can you spot the travelers?

Today’s post will be short on words and long on pictures–you’re welcome .

My delightful brother Luke and sister-in-law Dimitra are in town and I was trying to think of a new place to take them when it hit me — Materials Unlimited! Luke rehabs historic houses and vintage furniture as a hobby, and I knew this architectural salvage mecca would tickle his fancy.

Materials Unlimited has been around a loooong time. My parents used to shop there in the 70s. At that time, the store was in a warehouse in an industrial area. When that building was destroyed by a nearby warehouse fire, they relocated to a historic building in downtown Ypsilanti (pronounced “IP-suh-LAN-tee” for you out-of-towners). It’s the perfect building to showcase their fantastic wares.

Even the basement stairway is beautiful.

The company salvages fixtures, furnishings, and trim from historic properties and refurbishes them as needed. Walking through the show rooms is like taking a walk back in history. Most items are labeled with a date of manufacture and often a location. Sometimes there are even pictures of the original setting. The store also sells supplies to repair vintage furnishings and you can order modern versions of old classics like claw-footed tubs if you’d like.

follow me

Their collection has lots of gorgeous Arts and Crafts and Art Deco furniture and trims. We bought our mantel from them when we built our current house in 2003. It’s one of those small investments that can have such an impact on a room…it knocks off the sharp new edges, adds warmth and character. We had bookshelves and cabinets built to match its style. There are also many other design periods represented in the showroom, but I always zero in on my favorites.

brother, can you spare a strikeplate?

Need hardware for your vintage home or desk? They have tons, carefully sorted. Doorknobs, pulleys, hinges, you name it, they’ve got it…old doors, sinks, cast iron tubs, faucets, grates.

I always appreciate attention to detail. Even the signage at this store is packajectic! That’s a Smith family word (a family of 12 kids develops its own lexicon) that cannot easily be defined but this lettering is a great example:

even the signage is awesome

I’ve saved the best for last. THE LIGHT FIXTURES are to DIE FOR! So many unique, beautiful pendants, chandeliers and sconces. Whatever you seek, they have it–glass and metals in all shapes, colors, sizes, and patinas. I have a friend with a gorgeous vintage chandelier over her dining table that I’ve threatened to steal on more than one occasion. I really should just buy my own at Materials Unlimited…but like a kid in a candy shop, I have a hard time making a decision.

parade of pendants

Can you blame me?

gorgeous

One more featured beauty before I leave you to peruse the gallery below… the beautifully restored Michigan Theater is a favorite Ann Arbor landmark. It seems like people paid more attention to beautiful design in the past. I hope someone finds a similarly spectacular home for these gorgeous Art Deco theater lights.

grand, amirght?!

PS: FYI regarding prices…you don’t go to a specialized store like this for bargains, but I have to say their prices are quite reasonable. Considering the quality of materials, the knowledge of the sales staff, and the carefully curated collection, this store is a Midwest Gem. I have been to plenty of antique stores all over the country that charge more for so much less.

 

Vintage Advice: The Secret of Perfect Living

The Secret of Perfect Living

James T. Mangan

Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1963

The subtitle really drew me in:

How to set into motion tremendous “sleeping powers” that can bring you all the good things of life as if by magic.

Confession: when I read ”tremendous sleeping powers,” I expected to find a cure for my ongoing insomnia. No such luck. James T. Mangan is referring to powers within yourself that you haven’t fully realized or activated. Oh, well.

First: what are we striving for?

Perfect Living is a state of absolute togetherness, a union of the conscious and subconscious selves for the ultimate good and benefit of your whole person. It’s a highly thoughtful state of being. Mangan suggests that using switchwords helps people gain the cooperation of their subconscious selves instead of battling subconscious fears and desires.

This book is written in a winsome, witty style. Read the contents of chapter 2, The 12 Answers to Life. Along with the usual suspects (God, service, art, love, etc.), there’s a section called All the Answers are Confusing to help the reader sort out what might seem like conflicting advice. I love a self-help book that helps itself!

The book’s introduction is titled: The Shoe Clerk Quoted Goethe. Irresistible. A clerk loses his shoe horn, jeopardizing a sale. The customer says, to break the tension, “We do these things to ourselves.” The salesman agrees, and quotes Goethe: “There are two souls in my own breast, and one is determined to beat down the other.”

This rings very true. I am often my own worst critic or enemy. Mangan explains that the two souls Goethe described should get together, but they want to fight. I love his description:

The stronger and bigger of the two, often called the subconscious…is the one with all the experience. But the little and weaker soul [the conscious mind], is the boss of the person and like a silly little office boy is eternally giving orders to the big underself, the real president of the corporation. The president then goes out to fight down the little office boy and it knows how.

Switchwords are cues our conscious mind can use to activate better subconscious functioning. I occasionally suffer from anxiety and panic attacks. My therapy involves doing something to change the tape that runs in my head and/or switch direction. When I feel the flush of anxiety begin, I say, “triple A” (the Antidote for Anxiety is Action) and find something to DO that will take me away from the helplessness of panic and move me toward acting (and therefore feeling) more in control. For example, I work well under pressure, but sometimes I procrastinate too long and get overwhelmed with anxiety. When I recognize that sensation kicking in, I make a detailed list of all the things I have to accomplish. This allows me to focus and start crossing things off my list, and thus feel less overwhelmed. And even powerful! The act of making the list makes me cognizant of all the work I need to do, it acknowledges my fear, and it gives me a positive action I can take.

(I’m sure somewhere, somebody reading this is laughing at the thought of a grown woman repeatedly mumbling to herself, “triple A.” Let me assure you that 1. it’s not the weirdest thing I say to myself, by far, and 2. I will laugh with you, all the way to the bank or the grocery store or whatever productive task this self-talk enables me to accomplish. As Popeye says, “I yam what I yam.”)

Mangan says we are each the sum of all our experiences, positive and negative. We can use switchwords to actively push the positive experiences to the forefront in our brains in order to react effectively to challenges. He explains that consciously accessing these unconscious (hidden) mental files can speed up the process of learning to cope, because each success will beget more success.

One example of Mangan’s switchwords is change. He says humans often employ this switchword without being aware of it, for example when someone dresses better for an important meeting or changes location in order to get a better perspective on a problem. This is productive but subconscious behavior we have learned based on past experiences.

to dispel an attack of the blues: UP

Getting back to change…in my case, when I recognize a  headache I think: HYDRATE. Dehydration is a primary cause of headaches, but even when it’s not, taking time to drink a glass of water empowers me. I can affect the outcome of the situation rather than surrender to the pain.

In spite of my general aversion to “power of positivity” peptalks and a tendency to dismiss most self-help books, I really enjoyed The Secret of Perfect Living! The writing is clever and engaging, and the way Mangan framed internal struggles really resonated with me. I am not on board with the notion that specific words are the perfect switchword for everyone, but I appreciate the author’s attempt to outline them. Some make great sense, while others seem silly.

File under “sensible” switchwords:

To be a good mechanic: CONSIDER
To meet a deadline: DONE
To achieve moderation in any field where tempted by excess CUT
To break a bad habit: OFF
To get ride of inertia: MOVE
To stop faultfinding: PRAISE
To handle anything unpleasant: ADJUST

File under silly:

To be kind: TINY
To relieve constipation: SWIVEL
To heal a scab: ALONE
To make your children obedient: CROWD
To cure hypersensitivity: DUCK (I know it kind of works, but I can’t help but picture the bird)

What are your switchwords or mantras?

optimism

PS: I also use visual switches. This photo of me when I was about 3 reminds me of the child’s perspective that the world is full of good things just waiting to be discovered.

 

Vintage Advice: Pack-o-Fun

isn't it festive?

Pack-o-Fun

“The Only Scrap-Craft Magazine”

May 1971

Publisher John M. Klapper, Park Ridge, Illinois

I came across this magazine in my scrap drawer, which holds old calendar pages, magazines, photos, and other paper ephemera I cut up and use in projects. I can’t fathom what possessed me to bring this home, because it’s consistently hideous. Maybe it was tucked into something else I picked up? Or maybe I wanted to gape at it with someone else. Here I am! There you are! Thank you for gaping with me!

I’m thinking this magazine might actually be perfect for the untalented and/or uninspired crafter, because anyone who attempts any of these projects can only come away with increased esteem for their own handiwork and taste.

The feature article is about Crazy Hats. It begins: These hats will never win designers’ awards, but they might bring a prize at a crazy hat show.

You don’t say! Actually, a crazy hat party sounds fun and funny. And I do love the offbeat challenges on Project Runway. But these creations are just grim. They would win first prize at an ugly hat show, no doubt.

The sketches of crazy hats are fairly charming…although one might wonder how it is possible to realize the artist’s vision with the suggested scrap materials: plastic jugs, tissue paper, paper plates, foam trays, etc. Let’s zoom in on a gem: the pizza hat.

atsa lotsa look!

The thing that perplexes me most about the pizza hat is the execution. What is UP with that Eiffel tower of pepperoni in the center? It is made of red socks. Recycled socks. Think about that for a moment. Appetizing? Not so much.

The article helpfully concludes with verses describing some of the fashionable creations which your event’s emcee can read aloud during the parade of hats. (forgive the poor meter)

Table Tennis Hat:

Despite the fact she’s tired/Mom will join right in the fun/This hat will speak for her/And say, “Tennis, anyone?”

Eiffel Tower Hat

At times, Mom dreams of travel/Of Spain and Shangri-La/With this French hat upon her head/She’ll feel, “”Ooo-la-la!”

Pack-o-Fun certainly lives up to its name — at least the packed part. There are many other projects: painted cutting boards, sock pincushions, Foam Egg Cartons, skit suggestions, plastic jewelry, plastic cleanser bottle projects, macaroni and seed art patterns, handy hints, and a Q & A section called Leader’s Page. I found some of the questions charmingly specific.

Please give me directions for making a footstool from large fruit juice cans.

How can I use a number of the enclosed soft sponges in projects?

I have quite a few red plastic milk bottle caps, and have no idea of what to do with them. Can you help me out? (Editor Edna Clapper suggests lapel pins, doll house dishes, belts, pin cushions, shade pulls, and table decoration bases).

The back of the magazine features classified ads for craft patterns, sales agents, fund raisers, and pen pals! Pages and pages of names, addresses, and interests of people who are seeking pen pals. I remember dreaming of a pen pal when I was little. I think I had a couple false starts. It is interesting how very far this is from today’s concept of protecting personal information. Also, I am a little bit tempted to try and look up some of the kids seeking pen-pals. Wouldn’t it be funny if I could track down any of them and get a letter back? Google rabbit hole, here I come!

So the thing I keep wondering about is this: forty years from now, will people look at currently popular crafts and think they are hideous? Is the evolution of craftiness more about taste or skill? Taste has to be a big factor. If you think about gorgeous primitive art or the charming crafts (paint, decals, embroidery) of the thirties and forties, it makes you wonder about the seventies…why was everything so ugly? Did the preponderance of plastic have anything to do with it? I don’t think it was exclusively an American pitfall, as I have old magazines from Denmark with plenty of ugly seventies projects. Things that make me go hmmmmm…

So: my takeaways from this week’s vintage advice:

Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder.
Just because it’s recycled, doesn’t mean it’s beautiful (and sometimes garbage is just garbage).
People throughout the ages have felt compelled to decorate their environments…some with more success than others.

Favorite Things Friday: Clocks!

Today is my birthday. I think that what you do on your birthday reflects your priorities for the year, so I really wanted to write. I was having trouble picking from my list of favorites when my husband suggested I write something related to the milestone.

Soooo…I love parties, I love cake, I love ice cream, I love taking time to tell someone they are special to me AND I adore receiving the same treatment. But I don’t have pictures for those topics. I looked around my house and realized another favorite thing works well to mark the passage of time: clocks.

my office white noise provider

I am not a clock worshipper. I try to be timely, but forgiving friends with flexible time frames know that sometimes I run behind. I am often late sending birthday cards or such. I get to appointments on time, but if there is slack in the time-space continuum, I am likely to find it. (Or it finds me.)

I don’t look at my watch much during the day. I have an instinctive sense of time and can often guess accurately without having checked a timepiece for hours. I usually only check the time when I’m  stressed or worried. Maybe that is why I am fond of broken clocks! It’s like someone has pulled the rug out from under my anxiety. I like clocks that work, too, but they are more objects of art or soothing background noise (tick, tock. tick, tock) than they are tracking devices. (Except when I am exercising, and then I am looking at the clock every 20-30 seconds, and each minute expands to feel like five, and I wonder if the clock is, in fact, broken.)

I especially like old clocks. I laugh when I stumble upon my terrorist-grade high school alarm clock at garage sales from time to time. It sounded like an alarm on a nuclear submarine and terrified me so much that I eventually trained myself to wake 2-3 minutes before it went off at 5:40 a.m. (the bus came at 6:30). The digital display was green but the numbers were fuzzy because one of my siblings had painted over the plastic with nail polish and the remover roughed it up. It was like viewing it without my glasses, all the time. Nowadays when I need an alarm, I wake to the crickets tone on my iPhone. Ahhhhh.

First broken clock I acquired: this Bakelite cutie that currently hangs out on our mantel.

an eclectic assortment of tchotchkes

Two songbirds by Jim and Tori Mullan keep it company. I found it (for a song! ha!) at the Depot Town Flea Market, filthy. It had a cord and it ran, the seller showed me, but as it turned out, it didn’t run for long without making an alarming hot smell. No matter. I cut off the filthy cord and cleaned it up and now it shines in any spot where it lands.

You can easily kind find beautiful, charming little dinged up old clocks for big money on Etsy and at antique shops. But that’s no fun. I love the hunt. Happily, there are plenty of dinged up old clocks in want of homes at lower rent venues, i.e., Value World, rummage sales, and even the garbage.

 

hands, skunk, clock, scrabble tiles

The clock pictured here in my crafty nook would not grab me by description alone. I like red but it’s plastic and 80s era and neither one of those descriptors make my heart skip a beat. But look at it! It’s sweet and represents the best of 80s style rather than the worst. (Who needs an overstuffed purple reclining sofa clock, anyway?) And! It was handpicked for me by a friend who (oh baby) knooooowws what I like!

Same friend also found me the gorgeous kitchen timer pictured with Moomin Mama below. Aren’t friends grand?!

The travel clock below has a cool roll-top leather cover. I got it for a dollar. The plain white clock I liked for its simplicity, plus it says Smith, my maiden name. And it perfectly sets off one of Carsten’s pieces of random art: a hand made out of packaging tape.

Sometimes I like fixer-uppers. The pile of watch faces is destined for bird and robot projects (Carsten’s specialty) and the broken down cuckoo clock is due for major refurbishing. I do love a fixer-upper. And at $3, how could I say no? (I guess I’m a girl who just can’t.)

 

 

Vintage Advice: Dream Analysis!

ta-da!

10,000 Dreams Interpreted

Gustavus Hindman Miller

1931, Hubbard Press

Today in Vintage Advice…what your dreams mean…or not!

Here’s a quick recap of the 40-page (!) introduction:

There are three pure types of dreams: subjective, physical, and spiritual…The latter is always deeply prophetic, especially when it leaves a vivid impression on the conscious mind. The former, too, possesses an element of warning and prophecy though the true hidden meaning is hidden in symbols or allegory….Physical dreams are more or less unimportant. The rest of the book is essentially a catalog of entries on particular topics and what they mean.

I had a vivid dream about gnocchi last night, and wondered what my man Gustavus had to say on the subject. I found no entry for gnocchi. No entry for pasta, though there is one for pasteboard. (I was also bemused to find four pages of horse imagery.) There was no entry for food, though there is a banal one about Cooking: Some pleasant duty will devolve on you. Many friends will visit you in the near future. If there is discord or lack of cheerfulness you may expect harassing and disappointing events to happen. So GHM is saying if you dream about preparing food, you are going to have guests. Duh!

It is funny how some entries are so obvious while others are oddly specific. For example, Crust: To dream of a crust of bread denotes incompetency and threatened misery though carelessness in appointed duties.

Do people really dream about bread crusts? I guess a gnocchi dreamer shouldn’t cast aspersions. I’d wager that the implication of incompetency mostly reflects that era’s culinary fondness for dainty finger sandwiches.

Other entries are simply bizarre: Freckles: For a woman to dream that her face is freckled denotes that many displeasing incidents will insinuate themselves into her happiness. If she sees them in a mirror, she will be in danger of losing her lover to a rival.

I think freckles are adorable, although I realize pale complexions were prized at the time of this book’s publication. But Gustavus takes a flying leap off the crazy cliff when he connects seeing freckles in a mirror with losing one’s lover. What do freckles have to do with relationships? If we consider freckles metaphorical “stains,” why would losing one’s lover reflect badly on the woman rather than on the cad?! Maybe GHM just thinks that being “rejected” is the most significant unhappiness a woman could experience? This interpretation reminds me of college. I went to a women’s school and some male visitors assumed our parties were meat markets. When rejected,certain men concluded we were lesbians…that if we weren’t attracted to them, no man would do. Egomania at its best!

There are many different birds cataloged in these interpretations. Once again, GHM goes a little too far. Crow: To dream of seeing a crow betokens misfortune and grief. To hear crows cawing, you will be influenced by others to make a bad disposal of property. To a young man, it is indicative of his succumbing to the wiles of designing women. I am starting get the idea that Gustavus has a poor opinion of women, what about you?

tangential!

I decided to take a look at Dancing, (surely a gateway drug for sin, right?) and was pleasantly surprised to find that entry was quite positive. But then I read further and the following entry, Dancing Master, is equally negative. Click on the pic in the gallery below to compare them.

Total tangent: the discussion of dancing reminded me of something I found this week while cleaning my office: a tiny Arthur Murray rumba flip book. Love it!

Back to the book. I googled Mr. Miller, picturing a somewhat sheltered, European scholarly type with bushy hair and bottle-cap glasses. According to Wikipedia, I am way off the mark.

Fiction writers sometimes chafe at the suggestion that their writing reflects their experiences, values, etc. Not me. It is the personal filters that people use in their storytelling that make stories interesting (or not) to me. It’s certainly possible to assume someone else’s perspective while developing a character/narrative, but I’d still argue that the details authors choose are not meaningless. Even when we try to disguise our point of view, it can leak through. Of course, what the details mean is always open to interpretation.

My take: GMH’s interpretations reflect the social norms of his time as well as his own biases, and probably also represent a bit of creative license. I agree that images can have strong cultural connotations, but sometimes a bird is just a bird. Other times it might just be a vehicle to deliver a secret message written on tiny paper so our imaginary story makes sense. I believe dreams are a combination of our hopes and fears, plus random sensory impressions that get “misfiled” in our brains and show up unpredictably, plus our unconscious mind’s attempt to solve problems.

So what about my gnocchi? I was hungry. And I am expecting guests. Also, I had seen a snippet of a reality show in which an Indian father-in-law complained about an Italian restaurant not offering lasagna or chicken parmigiana. Why did my dream feature gnocchi, since that wasn’t mentioned? I suspect it has something to do with fun word itself. Say it with me…gnocchi, gnocchi, gnocchi!

PS: If you have dream imagery you would like to run by GHM, post it in the comments. I’d love to look it up! (Do so on behalf of a friend if it’s embarrassing…)