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Archive for the ‘Nostalgia’ Category

My Annual Prayer Service

Posted in Everyday, Nostalgia, tagged , , on January 30, 2014| 9 Comments »

It’s time once again for the annual Salute To Diggy trip to the casino.  As some of you may know, Diggy is my brother who crossed the veil nearly eight years ago.  It seems like it was just yesterday that I saw him; at the same time it seems like it was forever ago that I saw him.  Anyone who has lost a sibling probably knows what I’m talking about.

Diggy had a penchant for the slot machines.  He’d visit the local casinos when he could and had a field day in Vegas.

Every year between the end of January and beginning of February Husby and I go to the casino in honor of Diggy’s birthday.  For me it’s sort of like a yearly visit with him; I’m talking to him in my mind a lot of the time while I’m plugging my money in and spinning the wheels.  I remember him, get things straight with him, ask advice from him, and also plead to him for some good luck.  If anyone could give me good luck at a slot machine it would be Diggy.

I don’t know what people might think of my methods of connecting with my brother.  Some may think I should be spending time in a church instead.  Some may feel I should be floating in a boat at sunset in my attempts to commune.  In my mind, enveloping myself in the darkness, noise, and anonymity of a crowded casino brings me as close to my brother as I can get.

He loved the slots.  I’m pretty sure he’s right there with me when I’m taking chances.  If only I could high-five him when I win big.

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Silent Night

Posted in Artists and Shops, Holidays, Nostalgia, tagged , on December 21, 2013| 5 Comments »

It is a silent night for me tonight. The day was spent by attending my great Aunt Margie’s funeral. She was buried on the same date as her brother, my grandpa, who died a few years ago. Seems people in that family like to spend Christmas together. According to someone in the family Aunt Margie said she was ready to go onto the next realm. I hope she’s happy, dancing with her husband and spending the season with the many members of her family who entered that realm before her.

A Distant Memory by The Crooked Camera

When I returned home from the funeral I spend a half hour gathering my thoughts and went on to make preparations for the annual Christmas Cheer party I have for my family. I did some cooking and baking and preparation for the most festive entertainment event I have every year. I’m preparing new recipes and also some tried and true ones, the libations are stocked, and the old victrola is ready to play some of the old 78s that were listened to by generations before me. Christmas is a time of nostalgia, a time to remember Christmases past and to romanticize Christmases before our time.

The house still smells of the buns I baked this evening and I wish they were the buns my grandma used to make. Mine were made from store-bought frozen dough, thawed and baked. Delicious, but not the same as those made from scratch by Grandma Mabel. Some day I’ll make them as well as she did; I have the old recipe complete with instructions out of her head rather than precise measurements and sure-fire techniques. Oh, to have the time to perfect her wonderful buns.

I find myself remembering Christmases of my past on this silent night. Christmas Eve on Jackson Street with the great aunts and uncles on my dad’s side. Christmas mornings at Tug Lake with a roaring fire and presents galore. Grandpa Mike looking out his picture window, telling his grandchildren Santa’s sleigh had been sighted by the weather men at the local TV news station. Grandma Harriet with her glorious Christmas Day meal. Yes, Christmas is all about nostalgia for me. And every year I build upon the nostalgia of future years.

Via Google Images

Great Aunt Margie had a lot of Christmases under her belt. Ninety-five of them. Sharp as a tack until the day she died I wonder what she would think about at Christmas time. Did she reminisce about Christmases she spent as a child on her parents’ farm? Did she miss the years gone by, or did she embrace the holidays as they came?

On this silent night I think about the generations past and the generations to come. I also think about right now. That in a few hours my family will gather at my house for food, drink, and merriment. As we celebrate the season and ourselves we’ll also be creating memories. These are the memories I want when I’m ninety-six years old like my Great Aunt Margie.

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Antiquities

Posted in Nostalgia, tagged , , on October 22, 2013| 2 Comments »

Husby and I had a wedding anniversary recently.  We didn’t feel like doing the typical dress-up-for-a-fancy-dinner thing so we put on our jeans and set out on a Friday afternoon to Architectural Antiques in Minneapolis.

I wish I had the knowledge and focus to make my house into something like those grand mansions on Summit Avenue in St. Paul because I would dress it up with all the things at this store.

My mother-in-law used to ask me, “so you like old things?”  She thought old things were dirty and poor.  Having new and shiny things was best for her.  Me, I’ll take the old stuff, the ghosts from houses long gone.

Architectural Antiques is a salvage store, and they take things not only from doomed houses, but also doomed churches.  Such magnificent treasures taken from age-old places of worship.

Even the salvaged hardware fascinated me.

There was also a huge bar for sale.  I don’t know where it came from, but I image it holds close to it the shadows of new loves, heartbreak, joys and despair.

My mother-in-law didn’t understand my love for antiquities, the things that go on living long after their owners and the romantic pasts they hold for us.

After soaking up the atmosphere of this glorious store Husby and I kept with the historic theme of the afternoon and had a nice lunch at Mayslack’s Bar, which has been around for almost sixty years.

Yeah, we like old stuff.

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In Search Of Key Plates And Apple Cider

Posted in Candles, Everyday, Nostalgia, tagged , , , on August 2, 2013| 2 Comments »

The weekend is upon us and I’m more than ready to jump into it.

Last weekend I was really domestic, getting caught up on house cleaning chores, doing piles of laundry, and generally doing the things I wasn’t doing while I was busy selling stuff at craft shows.  Because I was feeling so domestic I got carried away and started obsessing about the french doors I inherited from an old convent.  I want to incorporate those doors into my house and have been trying to think of possibilities.

I got a nice response on the last post about the doors by Nano, and a helpful one too.  She thought I could get Ray to do anything I wanted if only I would feed him sardines and cashews and let him wash them down with whiskey.  (She would know, Ray is her brother.)  But if that didn’t work she suggested a Google image search of “repurposed french doors.”

I took Nano’s advice and started a Pinterest board dedicated solely to The French Door Project.  I’ve been having a blast looking at all sorts of repurposed doors and other vintage door projects.  I really like this one:

What a great idea! Now I have to go to an architectural salvage shop (only one of my favorite things to do) and pick up a bunch of key plates to make this. Lots of great ideas on Phantastic Phinds.

Alas, this weekend I have to suppress my desires to collect key plates to assemble a light fixture and concentrate on some candle production.  I might nudge the chemist in myself and concoct a nice little autumn fragrance of apple cider.  We’ll see how that goes.

Until next time, have a lovely weekend!

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Come See Me When You’re Old Enough

Posted in Craft Business, Nostalgia, tagged , , , , , on July 22, 2013| 4 Comments »

This past weekend I took my wares to the Cannon Falls Art & Wine Festival in Cannon Falls, Minnesota.  It was my second showing there, and I consider it one of the nicest venues I’ve been to.  Artists and representatives from local wineries are situated in a way that lets those attending the event meander gently through the park sipping wine and enjoying (and hopefully buying) the work of local artisans.

My magnets are always a good draw to my booth.  The pulp fiction magnets to be exact.  They’re colorful, they’re funny, and best of all they’re kind of naughty.  On my previous blog I wrote a little piece on the background of my attraction to pulp fiction cover art.

January 21, 2010

When we went to my Grandma’s house I was always intrigued with her True Story magazines.  My mom would never let me even look at the pile of them laying by Grandma’s chair because they were not something a child should see.  They were, okay I’ll just say it, smut.

Maybe it was those taboo magazines that gave me a fascination for trashy publications, or maybe there’s just some kind of naughty-girl archetype that lives in all of us.  And the best part about smut?  The pictures.

Auntie B is proud to present to you for the first time over the interlinks her version of  Pulp Fiction Artwork, magnet style.  These images-turned-magnet are the cover art of actual paperback novels.  The ones from which your mother would shield your eyes.  They gave good girls bad ideas.  They fed your alter ego. 

At the Wine & Art Festival there were two young girls, grade school age, looking at the pulp fiction magnets.  Their mother came along and one of the girls was giggling and said, “hey Mom, look at this!”  The mom stood in front of the magnets for a while and then quickly led her children away.  I gave her a little nod and she looked relieved that I understood.  She also looked like she wished she could linger for a while more for her own amusement.  It’s good to know there are still mothers that don’t want their kids looking at smut.

Shortly after that a woman was looking at the magnets and commented “I really want to get this one for my camper, but it’s kind of naughty.”  I told her “you totally should get it, it would be perfect.”  She bought it with a shy smile.

Sin on Wheels

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