In which I finally hang a picture in the Chief’s study, and more!
Blogging and sharing on social media has really changed in the 18 years I’ve been doing it!
It got easier to share things and then suddenly a lot of “influencers” and professional DIYers got on board. I get a lot of inspiration from some of them, for sure.
But one result is that the things I used to share without thinking about it give me pause now.
The reason is because I don’t stage things and I don’t make my choices based on how things will look. I remember thinking, when one such person said her decision to make everything white in her kitchen was based on how it looks in videos online, well, I don’t know that I can do that! Another lady has everything extremely dark and moody — and yes, it does look amazing in photos. But I am not sure I personally could live with that! In real life!
Listen, they are free to do what they like!
I still learn from them. But it does make me realize I have other things to do than make my life look perfect online.
All that is a disclaimer for any imperfections — and there are indeed many! — you see in my photos. (I am the first to admit that I am blessed with a house that has character — and that’s a story in itself, how that came to be! Suffice it to say it was a lot of trust and prayer, and really, looking back, I’d say one of those little miracles that God bestows on His little fools.)
I guess I’m still back in the “sharing what I’m doing” era; the “if I can do it, so can you!” vibe I started with.
If your overall impression is something like “wow, I could totally do that, even better!” then my work here is done!
Anyway, all of which is to say that for a good long time the Chief’s study has been decorated up to our medium standards, thanks to Bridget painting it back when she was here after graduating from college.
I even put up a bunch of pictures and things on the walls, and got nice bamboo shades which is a triumph over my serious window-treatment-deficit disorder.
But what to put over the fireplace?
He really wanted something more inspiring, spiritually, than merely decorative. But the space is big. And it needed to be something with a vertical orientation.
Finally we brought this Our Lady of Guadalupe in from the living room (and it’s a second-class relic, having been touched to the tilma) and that fit the bill for him. It just leaned there for the longest time while I tried to figure out how to hang it. “Just bang a nail in, Auntie Leila!”
I know, right? But it’s a bit heavy, and there’s brick back there… plus the overthinking…
After visiting the Orchard House in Concord MA (a must-see if you’re in the area), I took the idea of hanging it from a cord this way, which I think adds to the impact.
Now that fabric stores with notions and ribbons and sundries are a thing of the past, it was nigh impossible to find the cording I wanted, but I figured that this brown velvet ribbon would work.
Basically, I’m here to say that these things can take time, perhaps even a quarter of a century. I bet they won’t take you as long as they take me!
So now the image is up and I love it, and so does he. I think I would have done it differently if it were for the online impact, but in person it looks just right.
And what is that thing on the right there? The wooden box with the sort of curtain? It’s an observation hive (not active at the moment). You can put bee frames in it and the bees will fly in and out through a tube and you can watch them safely. I wrote about it here. And that was all before the study got its update — but the vintage fabric on the hive goes perfectly!
Knitting Corner
I’m coming along with this little mouse… (when I ordered it, it was on sale FYI)
I’m using sock yarn instead of the heavier yarn the pattern calls for, to result in a smaller mouse. I love it already.
I’m heading out to the garden! Lots of cleanup to do! How about you?
bits & piecesLong-time readers will remember a couple of “book club” series I had here back in the day. I recently rewrote something I think is of the utmost importance to understand about what we really seek in worship: Life’s Center of Gravity
The Brownstone Institute has been excellent at analyzing incursions on our freedoms. They have a series for the fifth anniversary of the lockdowns. It’s a lot. But it all has to be remembered and revisited for the sake of not forgetting!
I love this substack and this real rabbit-hole in all its glory: the bookplates of Margaret Ely Webb. I encourage you to seek out books by this illustrator! This Ex Libris account is a great place for cleansing the palate of the trend of today’s awful illustrations. It’s like we are intent on deforming our children’s imaginations and aesthetic formation.
As you know, I am unalterably opposed to in vitro fertilization and think it should be made illegal across the board. It’s a nefarious effort to plunge us into transhumanism and to monetize human persons. Let’s not be fooled again with yet another assault on life and love. There isn’t a lot of money in good medicine to help people with infertility in a moral way, but a reader sent along this information about FACTS — Facts About Fertility. Natural family planning, so called, is the way forward to helping married couples conceive.
By the way, this lovely book is coming soon (and if you preorder, it seems like you can get a discount right now). It’s about St. Hildegard, with many beautiful images of the plants she would have used in her medicinal array.
I wrote the foreword for it! I hope it will help people understand that it’s our loss if we regard this saint and her time as benighted or somehow beneath our interest. She’s amazing, she’s a Doctor of the Church, and we have a lot to learn from her!
from the archivesAn apologia for pragmatism — why I think we enable our misery by continually revisiting all the reasons for detaching from the ideologies of equality.
You’re doing too much for your toddler!
liturgical living
Blessed Clemens August von Galen, Bishop of Münster
follow us everywhere!
Here is all the info:
Visit me at The School for Housewives and recommend it to your young friends!
My “random thoughts no pictures” blog, Happy Despite Them has moved over to Substack! — receive it by email if you like, or bookmark, so you don’t miss a thing! The old one is still up if you want to look at the comments on past posts.
There you will find the weekly podcast done by Phil and me, called On the Home Front. Do let us know what you think!
My book, The Summa Domestica: Order and Wonder in Family Life is available from Sophia Press! Also in paperback now! All the thoughts from this blog collected into three volumes, beautifully presented with illustrations from Deirdre, an index in each volume, and ribbons!
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We share pretty pictures: Auntie Leila’s Instagram, Rosie’s Instagram, Deirdre’s Instagram. Bridget’s Instagram.
Auntie Leila’s Facebook (you can just follow)
The boards of the others: Rosie’s Pinterest. Sukie’s Pinterest. Deirdre’s Pinterest. Habou’s Pinterest
