art family fiber art history home pragmatic historian

House Excavations: The Makings of Childhood

House Excavations: The Makings of Childhood The sorting continues …. The past number of weeks, I’ve been packing boxes with books and décor, trying to sort as I go. There’s no sense moving stuff we no longer want. And when you’ve lived in a house for close to 30 years, it’s amazing how much stuff accumulates that you no longer have a use for or, worse yet, never had a use for and can’t figure…

Continue reading

family history observations pragmatic historian preservation

The Quirks of Our House

As I sift through and pack things in our home for our eventual move, I’m trying to look at the house from the perspective of new owners. We’ve made a great many improvements to the place since we moved in roughly 29 years ago. We gutted, insulated, rewired, and sheetrocked most of the old part of the house, which was built in 1894. We also removed the rotted front porch (trust me when I tell…

Continue reading

family history music pragmatic historian technology

iPod Receipt

As Hubby and I sift through our stuff to get ready for a move, interesting items pop up. Last week I discussed the “Love Ya 2 Pizzas” box (which would have been very appropriate to today – Valentine’s Day). Today, it’s the receipt for my iPod. I came across this Walmart receipt for my Apple iPod music player while I was gathering old electronics from around the house for recycling. It was still in the…

Continue reading

family history

Love Ya 2 Pizzas!

As Hubby and I start sorting through an accumulation of 30-some years’ worth of stuff, certain personal artifacts make an appearance that bring back delightful memories. Here’s one of those artifacts: This pizza box with the words “Love Ya 2 Pizzas!” and several hearts drawn on it was created and given to me by Erik, my then-boyfriend and now-husband of thirty-some years. He’s a very romantic guy. 🙂 While we were courting, he would periodically…

Continue reading

art family history reading

Seventeen – Another Novel Based on History

I posted a few weeks ago about a novel I read, “The Art Forger,” that was based on a historical event, the theft of numerous works of art from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Since that time, I have read another novel based on a historical event. This one is called “Seventeen” by Hideo Yokoyama. I found a hardcover copy at a local dollar store and was so taken with the cover art and description…

Continue reading