around-the-house-round-up

I learned a good word the other day, "Wunderkammer". It literally means cabinet of curiosities (from the natural world). In the medieval times rich dudes would keep these cabinets (or rooms) full of, well, "cool stuff" basically. They were meant to show how worldly and knowledgeable the person was. There are also "Kunstkammers" and "Rustkammers" (kunst = art, rust = historical).

(by the way, there should be umlauts in some of these words but I'm far too lazy to bother with them...)

I think I've made my whole apartment into a Wunder/Kunst/Rustkammer... only not enough people come over so I'm showing it off on the internet instead. And now I know why I do it... to show off how wonderful and worldly I think I am. haha!

So I've started to think of myself as a curator around here. Though I tend towards "collectorism", I try hard to not to hoard things. I like things to be neat and tidy... and by "neat" I actually mean I want people to come in and look at stuff and say, "oh! that's really neat!" Some people would consider this place "cluttered" but I know it could be A LOT worse if I was undisciplined. Things have to either "beautiful" (to my eyes) or functional or both.

Anyway, I really like old stuff and I enjoy "scavenging" and thrifting. Other people's trash truly is my treasure. There's almost nothing "first-hand" in here anymore (some books, electronics, and undergarments excepted).

Here's a round-up of recent innovations and acquisitions around the house:

The visible man isn't new, just freshly out-of-storage. I wittled a classy new base for him out of wood to replace his old, plastic base. He's "all heart" because I took out all the uglier organs.

Finally found a place to hang "Slap at Park Fence". I'm experimenting with mixing very stiff/traditional-looking things (like this fancily-framed print) with more kitschy items. So here I added a vintage fox postcard and Gumby and Pokey. I think they work well with the comical nature of the print.

The print hangs in the front hallway across from the Queen and some other junk. I attached a milk crate to the wall for winter mittens and scarves.

My farmer-brother-in-law recently had to tear down a really old barn on his farm. It was sad to see it go but time marches on I guess. I went over and cut up one of the old hand-hewn

beams to make some cool cat-scratching-posts.

Scored this old locker-looking cabinet very cheap from Value Village. (Maybe old IKEA? Not sure. Could be old office-ware.) Blinged it out with diamond-esque knobs.

Put wheels (scavenged from something in a dumpster back in the Halifax days) on my old drafting-table stool. Wheeliness is awesome! So mobile!

Ok, this last one is a bit strange. These old plastic dogs came in a bag-o-stuff from a thrift store (there was one item I wanted in the bag, these dogs were leftovers hanging around the house) and before bringing them back to the thrift store I felt inspired to chop them up. I made them into Ukulele-accessory-holders; "Tuner-head" and "Pick-head".