Comments on: What are you really buying, anyway?

By: communicatrix

communicatrix — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 06:12:31 +0000

Jeanne - I think a large batch of some kind of cookies made with almond flour and honey are in order. Email if you need recipe.

By: Jeanne

Jeanne — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 20:21:56 +0000

Oh, count me in–my baser instincts want it all. I want the je ne sais quois that I am sure I will get when I wear the Running on the Beach dresses that would never look good on me in a million years and would be ridiculous in a climate that is cold-ish most of the year. I want the life of the mind that I will get from owning ten million journals that I never seem to journal in. I want the stove that screams “gourmet” and costs more than my car even though my Sears stove is fine and I make fabulous things in it. Oh, and we might as well remodel my kitchen because the only reason I’m not having terrific parties every night is that my kitchen is small. And I want a cell phone that is pink because it’s pink and pretty and will make me look pink and pretty. Sigh. Oh, and don’t you think that my daughter will have more friends if we get a professional artist to do a mural in her room?

By: communicatrix

communicatrix — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:55:27 +0000

Bon - Thankee!

Mary Ellen - That’s an interesting point about small items from nature. Maybe that *is* a function of wanting more white space. I’ve gotten way more particulars with souvenirs. Sometimes it’s something pretty, sometimes something natural—it definitely changes.

The constant these days is “do I LOVE it?” I’m still looking for a new coffee mug, and when I finally find one on my travels, that mug is gonna remind me of the moment in time and place that I got it. Hopefully, it will be a happy one!

By: Mary Ellen

Mary Ellen — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 13:37:49 +0000

You describe this “chasin’ jason” feeling so well. It may as well be drug-induced, it’s so powerful. On a neurochemical level I’m almost certain it looks identical, the “I want” thing, to any drug-seeking phenomenon. And then the low that inevitably follows the high. Strangely enough, though, when my trinkets come from nature, like the rocks and stick from Petosky, MI, gathered on my honeymood, I still feel the love. But I notice that the smaller the nature item, the greater the love. Pulled a big branch into my studio and propped it up in the corner. Looked good for a bit and then quickly became that thing in the way. Right now my brain seems to be craving small w/endless white space. Loved this one, C.

By: Bon

Bon — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 05:53:05 +0000

Wonderful!

By: communicatrix

communicatrix — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 16:35:23 +0000

Mary K - I know what you mean. The last phase of the decluttering is the information part, and it’s such a bear, I’ve called in the experts.

One thing that’s helped reduce the book clutter is to let go of books I know I won’t read again, for whatever reason: for fiction, good but not great. For non-fiction, it’s harder, but I’ve been playing with ways to make it easier. And more and more, I get non-fiction from the public library, so I can’t keep it.

By: Mary K

Mary K — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 08:11:46 +0000

You’ve just nailed why I have all these books, journals, and papers lying around my house. I love ideas but unless they’re written on paper or some other medium, I have no way of “feeling” and I am definitely a visual kinesthetic person. It comforts me to know that I’ll never lose these ideas because “they’re in the book.”

And I am sad that I’ll spend the rest of my life trying to read all the words associated with those ideas. If I could only trust my brain to remember…

By: communicatrix

communicatrix — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:30:07 +0000

Jeremy - Good for you! (Bad for Apple, I suppose, but they’ll survive.)

I’m a bit shocked, myself, re: that google search. But not at all surprised you did the search. No, not surprised about that at all…

Renita - Uh…actually, I could use a really BIG dutch oven. Cooking in quantity these days, and the enamel has worn off the Chantal piece I got for my wedding 18 years ago. Whatever happened to lifetime guarantees? Or is the guarantee for the life of the marriage?

Mahala - Oh, I would never speak out against someone’s personal tastes or desires! The BF lives in a fake Frency Normandy “castle” (complete with turret) and his house is filled with mid-Century Modern–Heywood Wakefield, Arne Jacobsen, etc.

I’m just saying I wouldn’t like the thing in my house. I like it there. Big difference!

By: Mahala

Mahala — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 14:45:06 +0000

There’s this little India store in downtown in Big City that I can’t enter without buying something to hang on the wall or drape over a bureau. Thing is, I live in a tiny little crappy trailer in the N.C. mountains. Saris and incense don’t go with anything I own lol.

By: Renita

Renita — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 13:23:01 +0000

Thanks, Colleen. You just explained why I have random pieces of really nice cookware. (Anyone in the market for a barely used Creuset pot?)