Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Gifts from Gramps

Visited my gee-pah a couple of weekends ago.


Michael joined me for the first time. We drank wine all night and talked history and politics in the sun room. I felt so warm and comfortable and happy to be with them. My grandpa is full of stories that I'd like to remember forever, even when he's gone (as a child, I always thought he was invincible and that he'd outlive us all). He's the clingy type, too, saving odds and ends, magazine clippings, vintage art, and photographs (about which I will be writing a completely separate post), and I love him for it.

The sun room.

Sometimes it takes some coaxing, but my grandfather is very generous despite his attachment to his possessions. While I was there, Michael and I explored the house and found some beautiful items my grandfather had stored away unused. Of course, with a couple of pokes, he handed them over to moi. I am very excited to share these gifts here, as well as to have them at all!

Stained glass, antique lamp. AHHH!, isn't it gorgeous? I absolutely could not believe he gave this up. The base weighs an effin' ton and the shade is really fragile! Actually, one of the stained glass panes broke awhile back, but my grandfather saved all of the (itty-bitty) broken pieces to be glued together. This is my project.

What kind of glue do you think I should use?

In high school, I decided my favorite word was cacophony. This poster is the source.

My grandpa had it sitting on his bathroom counter, silly man! I had to have it, it being a bit of my linguistic history. Toad Hollow is a brand of wine and this is a poster of the label for Cacophony, it's Zinfandel. Pretty jazzy, too. I am a wine and jazz sort of gal. It reminds me of The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, an animated film featuring Bing Crosby as the narrator that I adored as a child.

And, the finale!


Ooooooo, aaaaahhhh.
A Canon AE-1 SLR in mint(ish) condition! An old I-don't-know-what-kind-of flash! A nameless, cloudy zoom lens! To be frank, I don't know very much about cameras, but I like taking pictures, so I am truly looking forward to exploring the city to experiment! So exciting! Michael challenged me to a pitcha-takin' contest and I've totally got it won.

Sharing is caring.
<3

4 comments:

Sara said...

How generous of your grandfather! Those are some pretty sweet treasures.

And thanks for stopping by my blog! :)

Sarah B said...

SHARING IS CARING!

diane said...

hello new classmate!

a few things:

* i'm a wine and jazz gal too.
* cacophony is an excellent word.
* that lamp is amazing.

thanks for stopping by...looking forward to class with you!

Sarah said...

Another commenter named Sarah, haha.

I am in love with your grandpa's sun room! It is so beautiful and peaceful looking. And fantastic presents. :)

My Mom used to always fix broken figurines and the like with tin milk, just dab a bit along the edges and hold them together and they would fuse.

Good luck! It's such a beautiful lamp.