This is the pencil sharpener from my grandparents' house in Mena. I love seeing functional things like this that don't deteriorate through the years - it's just as useful as it was on its date of origin. I'm relieved that it isn't totally foreign to my kids to sharpen a pencil in class, and despite moving my life closer and closer to paperless I still keep this and good supply of old-fashioned pencils and Field Notes Brand notebooks in close reach at my desk. It steel feels like a moment of ... View Post
The House Dress
I love all the pictures of my Mom in South America in the 1970s with what appear to be very chic caftans and muumuus. At least, that's how I'm going to glamorize them. I'll find some pictures to share. I have a couple of super cool (as in, not toasty) dresses that can go with or without straps, and they are my summer staples. I call them my house dresses, and only partly tongue in cheek. I loving something effortless to survive warm weather and chores around the house and garden that is at ... View Post
Grandmother’s Birdhouse
Around here, it has to be almost Wordless Wednesday, because I can't really live without words. I'm using these posts to share a few of the small but meaningful things around our home - the tattered remnants and found objects that make me smile. There is a massive tree in the front yard of my grandmother's old home in Texarkana, Arkansas. She cobbled together this birdhouse that hung on that tree for as long as I can remember. A few years ago, my Dad divided the entire item into three parts, ... View Post
1956 Handprints
Around here, it has to be almost Wordless Wednesday, because I can't really live without words. I'm using these posts to share a few of the small but meaningful things around our home - the tattered remnants and found objects that make me smile. This image is from the carport that was added decades ago to our 1905 home. I love thinking that the two kids who made those handprints are probably in their 60s. ... View Post
Nine Essential Apps
Although it has been a few years, Lucky Magazine used to run a column called "How I'm Wired." Their tech staffer Emily Hsieh would share all the gadgets and gizmos she loved most, from wireless printers to her favorite purse-size camera and so forth. Here's the last column I've been able to find from 2010. I suspect that the simple truth is that a) none of the good stuff is really "wired" anymore and b) 90{cab58b9493bca9eccefbf3ae00ef5a3add1991efca1fb728a890b19984c3cc67} of readers are now ... View Post
