No. I haven’t ditched blogging altogether, I just took a big chunk of Summer to relax and focus on future pursuits. A grad program, a new web venture (which you accidentally might have previewed on this page,) and working, and wifey-ing, and mommy-ing filled up the rest of my sunny days. It was time for me to do some much needed UN-plugging!
Personal Summer Highlights:
We took many family trips which involved mass amounts of strolling at waters edge, art gallery touring, thrifting and antiquing. I purchased almost nothing of the sort but did lots of LOOKING! I tend to straddle the border of loving old things from the past and growing/making new, green, fresh things to make everyday feel a bit like a faux spring around our house. Just my glorified ADHD, I suppose. I have been on more of a planting, growing, cooking kick rather than thrifting lately.
Mainly, I used this summer to re-inspire myself. I gave myself (and my husband) permission to allow our son a weekend night over grandma’s house here and there ….and we went social again. If you have a child, you know to what I refer, don’t you? I hadn’t really gone out for “Adult Only” nights all that often since having our son, but this summer we closed the gap between friends without kids and just had some (moderately) crazy, youthful, fun= listening to bands and jazz downtown, bar hopping, chatting over art, strolling through festivals, and taking in an R rated movie or two.
But most days we spent with our little boy, who entertains us in an even better fashion. We rode our bikes over our newly refurbished neighborhood bridge after having lazy dinners. I am so proud of a project started in our own backyard: our first big garden plot! Our son helped us plant the most wonderful crops which nourished us all summer long. We've been treated with loads of cucumbers, (just the right size for pickling)---along with, oodles of beans, peppers, and fresh, sun-warmed tomatoes from our very own vines. The raspberry bushes even hung in there for a long while to give us a healthy snack for our son to nibble on as he played the afternoons away back there. However, our most exciting growth has been the PUMPKINS!
My husband/son duo planted LOTS of seeds and those vines took over our arbor and crept across our yard in a magical way that left me feeling all cinderella-ish everytime I stepped foot back there! Now four good sized pumpkins await an October picking and carving.
What else, hmmm.... Lots of good media action (and product commentary) to inspire you too:
I haven’t felt creatively amp’d up by a new movie in quite a while. Everything is so played out and super spectacular that nothing really is, you know?
HOWEVER…I am headed toward a movie upswing. We just went to the Detroit premier viewing of Drew Barrymore’s Whip It, about a girl joining a female roller derby revival league and it was pretty amazing. They even gave us sweet t-shirts at the party with the “Be Your Own Hero” movie slogan on them. I can appreciate the smart marketing.
Two highly anticipated films are also coming out. This one, which I already gushed about, and Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, (in 3D!) which is going to be flipping amazing!
TV…well TV pretty much always lacks luster. I like it as a mindless utilitarian tool to absorb my (totally biased) news, PBS, and the occasional Tigers Baseball game. The only show I try to be available for regularly is on Sunday nights (yes, sacrilege) on AMC. Yes, I am a Mad Men fanatic! I don’t think I have really appreciated the writing like this on any TV show since The Sopranos. Oh wait! It must be because the same guy wrote for both of those shows and it earned him his zillionth Emmy last week.
I actually want to get all 60’s secretarial glam and jump into an episode. Yes, it too (like the Sopranos,) is about not so great people doing not so great things…but its so smartly pieced together. There are all these subtle layers, like real life. And the clothes and the cars and the hair and makeup are so authentically Jackie Kennedy 1960’s that they could be saying the pledge of allegiance all hour and I would still watch. Those set/costume designers need a raise, AMC! Plus, its all about life working for a superficial ad agency, which I can relate to.
On the technology front, our household has made some upgrades. I am a big fan of this blog, Last Year’s Model. In the past, I have maintained my old curmudgeon stance that I don’t need any of those new fangle gadgets to be totally on the pulse. I just want a phone that dials out in case of an emergency. I just want a computer that word processes and internets and has a wide web. I just want a reliable car that drives without sounding like the muffler is going to fall off, (Oh! And I have missed air conditioning these past 5 years..)
Welp, fuggetaboutit!
I gave in. I relented. I ditched last year’s model (and 1998’s model) and I became a sudo socialist (or whatever they want to call me,) because I took some cash for my clunker and signed away my financial future for 60 months to a shiny new ride with Microsoft Sync and Sirrius Satellite Radio. Oh the sunroof, Oh the 4 cup holders, Oh the little hidden compartment for my sunglasses! Now, I don’t how I lived so long without them. (Sigh.)
Then my husband kept badgering me that our contract was up on my cell phone and that we were due to go in and upgrade at some crazy rebate/discounted (marketing scheme) rate for service and new phone. He pulled into an AT&T store and said “let’s take a look,” on a Saturday afternoon. He can never just “look” at a new gadget, even if it’s not for him. Yes, I knew this was a set-up. So we traded last year’s model (actually...2004’s model,) for a Smart-phone. Now, I don’t know how I lived for so long without having my email, photo texts, facebook alerts, weather, internets, all at my fingertips in one handy-dandy touch screen phenomena! (Sigh.) I am so easily addicted, but conflicted. Some days you just need to DISCONNECT. Even as a marketing communications girl, totally addicted to the tides of information and distribution of messages, I know this to be true. You can make yourself sick and crazy and mentally french fried if you don’t get away from that crap. Seriously!
The final frontier (in my husband eyes) is our 2004 Dell computer with about negative-0.5 Gigs of anything left on it. It actually won’t even shut down properly anymore. Every time I forget to bring my work laptop home and go to use it, I am afraid I am going to be the one it finally smokes up and explodes on. The fan in the back of the tower actually moans. It might be trying to ask for human assisted suicide. It has taken much abuse, and I don’t blame it. However, I am holding out as long as possible.
I actually want one of those old Mac Clamshell G3’s. I have been fantasizing about owning one for so long and they have several sites that sell refurbished old ones out there for between $150-200. They don’t have all the storage and speed of new computers, but that is not the point. If there is such a thing as a classic, vintage computer model…the clamshells are so perfect and in their day they were the height of cool and cutting edge for the average user. I wanted one in teal or lime green when I was 18-19 yrs old. Now, I would take one in orange for my son to use as his own, (as he uses phonics programs and learns to read/write, do school work, etc.) He is only 4.5, but time flies and before we know it he’ll be gadget savvy too. (He already knows how to get to his favorite spelling app on the iPhone…)
I suppose a vintage state of mind isn’t applicable to all walks of life and products. I suppose everything cannot evolve and find new life by being recycled or upcycled. The machine that cranks out the latest version, the latest update, the latest upgrade, the latest model.....works hard to convince you that you need the next best, more, more, more.
The great challenge is not scraping the money together to acquire all of these fantastic new “must haves”. The great challenge is deciding where to draw the line and keep last year’s model because it is solid and well made (if it is,) and has life left in it. This is commandment number one of living a “green” and more thoughtful life as a consumer.
The real challenge is in the editing and deciding what you are better off without.
I am not sure how much longer I will be maintaining this personal blog, (no surprise since I am a sporadic blogger, indeed!) However, I will be launching Vintage Mitten, my new site which you may have noticed is actually being built right now (I got my typepad wires crossed and showed some of the graphics on this page...) which will carry on the essence of what I love sharing: vintage items, social commentary, and an independent perspective on objects, art and homelife.
On my first day of art class at University (Drawing 101, I believe...) my professor, Joe Deluca, wrote on the board: Beautiful art is not created with paper and pencil. It is created with your eye when you decide what to leave out of the picture.
I hope that as you edit your life you make a conscious choice to include more of the beauty that surrounds you (even if it is last year's model,) and leave out all of the over-hyped junk!
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