Memories of a Memoirs Sink

I'm convinced you can find everything for your home at either a Garage sale, thrift store or Craigslist.
I mean EVERYTHING... I convinced my husband of this when we bought our home. We had a wish list of things we would like to do- I think everyone does that - then you figure out how much more it costs to own your own home. Then you dial down your plans for renovations, gutting, etc.

So when we were talking about redoing things in our 82 year old home- we wound up paying for important things like a new furnace, or hot water heater.  Things we needed to do with the house were put on a list.

We had in mind that we like the Kohler Memoirs sinks because they looked classically elegant - one  day when we could remodel the small bathroom between the 2 tiny bedrooms of our bungalow.  I liked to hunt around Craigslist and weirdly saw a barely used Memoirs sink- it was used for 2 months in a McMansion type powder room- the new owners didn't care for it. $150 it was ours with the pedestal base, AND Moen fixtures. All that would have set us back over $600 at retail.  The fixtures weren't exactly what we had pictured, but nice... but the sink deal alone was worth it. My husband became convinced about purchasing some things second hand since it was barely used. From that point on he became a fan or thrifting, yard sales, Craigslist.. even the occasional alley picking.

Silhouettes!

I found another silhouette to add to my collection at the thrift store today.  This one was done by a renowned silhouette artist Wallie Spatz.  I notice a lot of DIY silhouette art out there- but the artists who did this for a living seem to add a special charm to their work.  These artists were at tourist destinations, and it seems like every southern family had these hanging on the wall as I was growing up. I had the same artist cut my silhouette when I was 7 and again when I was 30 - we went to see her on Lookout Mountain in Tennessee.
This is the way some of my silhouettes are hung on my bedroom wall- I got the idea from an old Domino Magazine. I wish I could figure out a way to add more but I have a small house and small walls.

Absinthe Plates

So I got started collecting these plates by accident. I was at a flea market and got a stack of them for a dollar.  I knew they were something relating to french. I found out more and found a couple here and there- yes, in Chicago.  I don't really know much about them except the price in the middle is what the customer was to pay for a serving of absinthe.  I like the way they look "spilled" across my kitchen wall. Martha Stewart had them in her magazine a couple of years back, one of her "people" collected them- referred to them also as "tip plates' . I really can't find too much info about them and why some are quite valuable.  I have seen reproductions at P.O.S.H here in Chicago.

Target- Hamilton Wood Type Vintage Varsity Clothes

So I had no idea until yesterday Target has a line of clothing where wood cut types blocks were an inspiration for the designs on their Vintage Varsity clothing. I guess some of the Target team went to Hamilton and spent some time. There are pieces for kids, men and women, as well as a few accessories. I think as a company it rocks for them to have take notice of Hamilton and possibly help educate people about wood type and how printing used to be done.

I do love some of the pieces, there are a few I would not wear because they seem a geared towards a teenager... I also wish they had done some more accessories- and that some of the items didn't say "varsity" on them. Oh well. I think scarves would have been really cool too, maybe they will surprise me.

Every time I kinda ignore Target, I turn out pleasantly surprised by something and go running back. I had to go to the store near the house that has the full line of clothing. This week the line is on sale so I wanted to get dibs. Bravo again Target!

Kentucky Derby Glasses

So, I have been wanting to use all of these glasses I have been picking up at thrift stores and garage sales. The idea was to have a derby party. Of course, being a few days away from the Kentucky Derby, this isn't going to happen for 2011. I have about 20 of these glasses from different years of derby races. I didn't realize until recently that they made commemorative glasses for each year-and that they were a "thing". I am kicking myself for not buying these really cool older glasses from the 60's that I saw at a yard sale last summer. Generally the glasses cost about 6- 8 dollars in antique stores, and now I want to find older ones that have more traditional horse graphics. The newer ones in my opinion aren't as pretty.

A derby party would give me a good excuse to pull out some southern recipes, make mint juleps - and of course wear a hat. Maybe next year? These glasses want to be used.

When I talk about Social Media

Recently I was talking to a friend I have known for a really long time. She is not on Facebook, Twitter, or any social network besides LinkedIn.  In discussing Social Media with me- she says these things that really irk me. “When grandmothers started blogging it was over- who cares about reading blogs” “this Facebook, Twitter thing is just a fad” – you get the gist. Oh no- this is another occupation where you say what you do and people look in disbelief and say something like “Oh you tweet”?

I went to school for Graphic Design and being from the southern family that I am from people would say “what does Rhonda do” ? It was easily described as ” Oh, you makes the signs that hang in the pharmacy?  Always feeling like I take out a box of markers and poster board to do this.

My husband also is a culprit-something will happen like a discussion about replacing the toliet paper – he will say “oh, are ya gonna tweet that” ? I always say I should but don’t want to be “angry man-hating tweeter”, and “I would get a lot of support on this issue but you don’t tweet”.  I will share something amusing about Twtter- like Kanye’s tweets and the response. He also will say “don’t these people have jobs? Argh! This is a person who went to school for Marketing and International Business- and has no interest! It kills me.

I can’t explain to my close friend why social media is important to businesses, relationships and also how important her LinkedIn profile can be and feel believed. I thought I had converted them when they both went to see “The Social Network”  and liked it.  They both had tons of questions about Facebook, but not enough to actually sign up and see what happens on it.  I have became the person that I know they roll their eyes about and say “She facebooks” behind my back.

Test Driving Blogger, Tumblr and Wordpress

Ok just when I get the hang of something I was told to take Blogger, Tumblr and Wordpress for a spin  and compare.  So, here's what I think. It depends on what my goal is.  I am still thinking about the work the blog I'd like to start would take.

To me Tumblr seems like a social community to me, rather than something personal. I also like to see people's icons who follow the same blog I do- Tumblr doesn't have that. The idea of "Tumbularity"  based on your site activity makes me nervous. (the pressure). It does have some nice layout designs, even ones you can purchase which is interesting- the themes and audio work well.  I just wouldn't be using the site they way it was meant to be used. I would not integrate My Twitter and Facebook accounts into it. Also the other Tumblr pages seem to have some graphic photos. The Tumblr community feels like " facebook combined with blogging". I feel the topics I'd want to cover would probably fit better elsewhere.

My experience with Blogger has been good, the integration with my Google email account and other google features is handy. But downside is the individual page layout.  The storage is 1 GB compared to Wordpress who has 3GB. I like the gadgets sidebar, the access to Google Analytics, its all convenient. I also like the archive- you can see posts from a couple years ago. The layouts are clean - it seems like they recently added some - but..

Wordpress seems to be the most versatile for a blogger.  You can easily import your current blog, it has 3GB of storage for FREE! It also has multi-page capability.  I like some of the templates, but Wordpress is also pretty html friendly-  I think it would look more like MY website.

I'm not sure I would move my current Blogger site to Wordpress- I do however like the site for the blog site I have been thinking about. I think Wordpress would really work well and might be worth a shot. It seems the most versatile- I probably will not be posting audio, or too many videos, so I think its a good solution for my needs.

After I worte this I found an article on a blog I follow- Its instructions on how to use Wordpress and get your website done in a weekend... cool!
http://www.designspongeonline.com/2010/06/biz-ladies-get-a-website-in-a-weekend.html