Saturday, October 8, 2011

i have a complicated and unusual relationship with the things i have around me. i like to feel their organic shift and rhythm. if something is stained or torn or chipped, i certainly don't stop loving it. i often love it more. and i am comfortable with a way of life that is odd for many. i'm drawn to the look of abandoned houses. and my personal aesthetic has much of that worn quality in it. i love my garden overgrown and wild. i love the chipped paint on my front door. i love the vines growing along the walls of our house. i love our bare floors. our old original wood framed windows with the 150 year old wavy bubbly glass. we have a rusty mailbox i found at an architecture salvage place. i love the original paint and it's creaky, rusty hinge. i love things as old as they can be. our doorbell is an old boxing ring bell that echoes through the neighborhood whenever anyone yanks the chain.
and tom loves and accepts all these odd little quirks of mine. dusty books and chips of paint. photographs of strangers. rusty metal and stone. i'm lucky his suburban soul is drawn to my undefinable soul.

5 comments:

  1. i read. and i know the next line fro before. because you describe a feeling i have always had, although grown up in a big city... in a world bright and shinny, with a fashionable love for "vintage", i am realy glad i `ve found you. this is the real thing...

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  2. My soul sings to read this. I feel the same. Things that are old, broken and have a story to tell. Things that have character. They are things I love.
    Blessings to you.

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  3. I love your attitude and admire your style. When I am in Italy I delight in the aged crumbling terracotta pots overflowing with geraniums, and window-shutters which have been neglected for years with peeling paint; somehow there in the sunshine it looks perfect. If I do that at my own home, it just looks shabby but not chic - I don't know why that is?

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  4. many people may think that my house looks unkempt. but it doesn't to me. to me it is cozy and real and warm and forever interesting. and although i feel that new, sleek, design store decor can feel cold and stiff, i understand it can also be clean and fresh and super functional. i think finding a place where we are comfortable with our surroundings and that they are natural to us, is part of finding a place of contentment and happiness.

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  5. Me too, but I no longer find it complicated. I used to feel very lonely though, searching for affordable things, having to touch and smell (!) everything before deciding. When my husband and I met, we gave away almost everything from our past, and started our serch for common things. We have bought nothing new, nearly everything has been found somewhere and repared. Every little thing has a story to tell, and most of our furniture's got names.

    I'd love to visit your house, as I am sure I would have loved it there.

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