Design Rocket: A little bit of Disney Land

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VINTAGE EYEWEAR
Well, you can go get glasses at the local Lenscrafters, OR you can hunt down some spectacular vintage hand cut frames at your local antique shop and have them fitted with your prescription lenses. Or maybe---do both. I have some very normal, "don'-t-cause trouble" frames, and some "in-your-face" frames I like to wear when I am feeling "con cohones" and have had a drink or two. Better to buy "new old stock", if you are going to invest much in the lenses. It is not good to throw money into old frames in bad shape that will fall off your head or lose an arm and need that proverbial piece of masking tape to keep them together. Unless that is the look you crave--the look of half the boys in my nerdy seventh grade class circa 1965. If so, I have an old briefcase and a pocket pen holder I would like to sell you. I'll throw in the slide rule.
Lawn art and ashtrays
Back when guys stayed home more, listened to the radio and do other things at the same time, they probably labored over homemade lawn art, standing ashtray holders, and door stops. Usually they were made out of plywood, then painted. Look for slightly crackled paint. Many of the best of these were old comic strip characters like Jiggs and Maggie, or the ocasional Disney character. Black cats are plentiful. Also Butlers. You do not have to smoke to appreciate them.
old silhouettes
Many of these come from the 20's and 30's. You can often guess the age of the piece by the dress of the person whose portrait it is. Hung together on a wall, they have a wonderful impact.
Old cookbooks by local groups: i.e. Grange cookbooks, church cookbooks, college cookbooks, etc.
Tacky Souvenirs from old site seeing locales

A little bit of Disney Land

I live in suburban Boston in a much added-on-to house that was built in 1950. It was originally a ranch, but after two major remodels it now resembles an overgrown cottage with a touch of the "Craftsman" look. It's more than a little funky. That's good, because my family and I are all more than a little funky anyway.

Just before the second addition, I managed to track down a landscaper whose work I had driven by for years in our town, always thinking, "Now this guy is really talented. Who is he?" A handful of houses around town were always so artistic looking with a more creative flair than most. One lucky day I actually caught his crew working at one of the yards I had admired. I did one of those "come to a screeching halt" turns into the driveway and cornered him.

Good thing. He's worked wonders with our yard. It needed it. I think in a past life I used to to like to plant things in the same way that I used to like to cook. But then I became famous for buying pots of perennials that I would place where I wanted them and quickly proceed to let them die in the pots before I got them in the ground. Oh, well, that was then and this is now.

It is always a good thing when one recognizes where one's talents lie and where they don't. Mine did not reside in my garden. In fact, mine died in my garden, kind of like those potted perennials. Now we have John Cosgrove, master landscape designer, who has also become our close friend. I think he could work for Disney. He managed to create the illusion of a running stream with waterfalls right outside my home studio.

He really is an artist in the truest sense of the word.He combines colors and textures of plants and shrubs like other artists use paint and mixed media.

The fish in the pond. Keeping them safe and swimming can be a little touch and go if other animals come by at night for a little midnight snack.

When I need a little break, I open the studio door and work to the sound of running water. That's my dog Bitty grabbing a little sun on the back porch.

Sometimes I even sit out there and sketch or read.

But, mostly, I count frogs. I love to count those froggies. I waste more time doing that. One summer we had a community of 12 frogs hanging out by the pond. I made it my mission to find each one each day. Did you know that they really sun themselves on lily pads?