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2024 52 Card Project: Week 37: Magpie
Sep. 20th, 2024 05:40 pmThis feels like more on the same theme: See Nesting, Thrifting, Pictures and Dismantling. Now that the bookcase is down entirely, I am eyeing my bedroom like a blank canvas and I have been working to determine my own taste and preferences as I consider how to fill it.
It feels quite odd, in a way. I am in an acquisitive mood, almost like a magpie eyeing shiny things to bring home to its nest, which feels unusual. For much of our marriage, the house felt more like Rob's house than my house or our house, just because of the enormous amount of stuff he put in it. We didn't have money for decorating, and it seemed pointless with so many things in the way. And so I buried the desire to make purchases, the desire to make my home my own. There didn't seem to be any purpose to it.
Now it is my house. What do I want it to look like? I am craving...beauty. I am seeking out the elegant, the exquisite, the unique.
On the other hand, as I have been culling Rob's possessions, I have been going through a long period of GETTING RID OF THINGS. It feels weird--and perhaps counterproductive?--to be acquiring again, bringing things into the house. What's more, the places I have been looking have been thrift stores and estate sales. I am keenly aware that this is stuff stocked often because people have passed away. No need to have lovely things if you aren't around to enjoy them. Swedish death cleaning starts for many people around my age.
So I am acquiring, but trying to do it with careful judgment. Just a few small things, and only if they truly capture my attention as beautiful.
Image description: Background: floral porcelain. Upper: a miniature winter landscape oil painting in a gilded frame. Center/lower left: four elaborately floral teacups. Lower right: a small table with a six-volume set of books (an antique heirloom set of Shakespeare), supported by brass bookends shaped as books.
Magpie
Click on the links to see the 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.
It feels quite odd, in a way. I am in an acquisitive mood, almost like a magpie eyeing shiny things to bring home to its nest, which feels unusual. For much of our marriage, the house felt more like Rob's house than my house or our house, just because of the enormous amount of stuff he put in it. We didn't have money for decorating, and it seemed pointless with so many things in the way. And so I buried the desire to make purchases, the desire to make my home my own. There didn't seem to be any purpose to it.
Now it is my house. What do I want it to look like? I am craving...beauty. I am seeking out the elegant, the exquisite, the unique.
On the other hand, as I have been culling Rob's possessions, I have been going through a long period of GETTING RID OF THINGS. It feels weird--and perhaps counterproductive?--to be acquiring again, bringing things into the house. What's more, the places I have been looking have been thrift stores and estate sales. I am keenly aware that this is stuff stocked often because people have passed away. No need to have lovely things if you aren't around to enjoy them. Swedish death cleaning starts for many people around my age.
So I am acquiring, but trying to do it with careful judgment. Just a few small things, and only if they truly capture my attention as beautiful.
Image description: Background: floral porcelain. Upper: a miniature winter landscape oil painting in a gilded frame. Center/lower left: four elaborately floral teacups. Lower right: a small table with a six-volume set of books (an antique heirloom set of Shakespeare), supported by brass bookends shaped as books.
Click on the links to see the 2024, 2023, 2022 and 2021 52 Card Project galleries.