Some stuff, narrated (no garden interest)

MidBeaconHill gave us a small tour of her house and possessions after a long night of birthday-related debauchery. Chez whoreticulture begins an extensive kitchen and living room remodel on May 15, so we're packing up the downstairs and bivouacing to the top floor for the rest of the summer. Everything is down off the shelves, waiting to be packed up, and begging to be blogged.

Mark these down as random objects from my grandmother's house (her library in particular) that ended up with me. The apple is made out of some very heavy, dense plastic with suede leaf and petiole. I love this GE desk clock from who knows when. It plugs into the wall and for all I know sucks more electricity than a modern television.



Also from my grandmother, this pitcher I found under her kitchen sink. Inside was a baggy of small nails, screws and rubber-bands. The sticker from the department store where she got is still on the bottom. It was either I Magnin or J Magnin, I don't remember right now (everything has since been packed away). This is from back in the time when you could go to a different department store and find different merchandise, including unique, hand-painted Italian pottery like this.



This is a Gouda vase. Like a good California doctor's wife, Grandma had her little hobbies and one of them was collecting Dutch art deco pottery. She had a small collection. Most of it went to my aunt, but I got a few pieces.



I bought this teapot from an artist in Santa Cruz, last name of Lambert. He has several lines of wacky teapots and tea service equipment. In front, is a toy weebil that belonged to my grandfather as a little boy. Too cute.



My grandmother also collected Franciscan ware. Maybe collection isn't the right word...we used it every day. All my life, and long before, grandma served breakfast off this design, and used a different one, with blue and gray instead of red and brown, for dinner. She put milk on the breakfast table in this. The candles Guy and I bought in Kauai on one of our earlier trips.



She used this one for hot tea which she alone drank.



We bought this table lamp in Kauai too. I love it. It was the first "nice thing" we bought together.



I gave this clock to Guy for his birthday one year. It's a little guy sitting on a rock. Made by another artist in Santa Cruz.



A relative of Guy's built this jail out of little rocks.



Guy has a professional relationship with A.G. and he signed this for Guy.



The contractors who built our deck uncovered this beautiful brown glass bottle in our backyard. Since then, I've found dozens more, and they're lined up on the back fence. Our house has its 100th birthday sometime this year. We'll honor it after the remodel.



Finally, this is a piece of soft sculpture by an artist friend of mine. It's called "Turd". My friend guts children's toys she gets at the Goodwill, and takes out the mechanical part inside that says things or makes sounds when you squeeze the toy. And re-purposes them into art. So, if you squeeze Turd (and there are several little pink satin buttons on turd that say "Squeeze me!"), you hear Big Bird saying "I love you!" or "Give me a hug!" or "That tickles!"



I have several pieces like this but different, including one that looks like a giant bug-eyed vagina that Guy won't let me put out because it disturbs him.