You can take the girl out of her mom's house, but you can't take her mom's house out of the girl

[stakebait]

I'm looking around my cube at work and realizing that I've accidentally decorated in vignettes. Orange and green, modern, cartoony, fun stuff is on top of the filing cabinets (with purple as an accent).

Black and white, quotes and photos is on the back wall, mostly greeting cards evenly spaced with buttons in between.

The front wall is softer green and cream with red as the accent and a words leit motif -- a photo of an antique typewriter on a cream background, two green and cream prints, a paper doll in a party dress of red words, red roses wrapped in green and cream musical notes paper and ribbon, a cream candle shaped like a Victorian lamp.

Even the flat paper cat that looks like mine has a little photo of kittens that look like they could be hers underneath, and Buffy and Angel are forever separated by a three-headed monster on top of the monitor.

The chances of mom decorating with any of these actual items is slim to nil -- particularly the action figures. But the arranging of things into little groupings? That's her all over. She has little clumps of 40s kitchen implements, of 1800s kettles and breadbowls and crocks, of perfume bottles, of iron keys.

I just realized when I hung up the roses and got absurdly pleased by how they completed that section how very much I am my mother's daughter.

Also, thank you to everyone who commented on my last post about my mother's illness. I will reply to everyone eventually, but it may take a little while.

Mer

Comments

[scrollgirl.livejournal.com]

I had to go look up "vignettes" before I figured out it had more meanings than just "short, descriptive literary sketch". And wow, your cube sounds so inviting! I barely remember to put my name tag up most times, but you've made yours so personal and pretty :) Well, three-headed monster separating the OTPness that is Buffy/Angel notwithstanding! *eg*

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I have an advantage -- I work for a gift magazine, and basically all of this stuff came in across the transom. I just have to snag what I want, not actually pay for it and schlep it here.

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

But the arranging of things into little groupings? That's her all over.

Huh. I kinda do that too... and I'm sure my mother doesn't do anything of the kind.

You've never been to my house, but -- you should see the Sherlock Holmes collection that's currently arranged over my kitchen doorway, apropos of nothing. Two little busts of Holmes and Watson that a friend gave me, a number of little replica vintage pub signs, the deerstalker hat I bought in the other Cambridge on our high school class trip, and the "Baker Street" Underground sign magnet that kalessin brought me from London. (Hmm, come to think of it, maybe the real theme of this display is simply "souvenirs from England", but it comes off as a little more focused than that.)

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

Hee! That's adorable. My brother would love it -- he's a big Sherlock Holmes fan.

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

I'm looking around my cube at work and realizing that I've accidentally decorated in vignettes.

It being a Friday and me being overtired, I read the last word in that sentence as "vinaigrettes" the first time through. Which, though inaccurate, gives an interesting image.

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

*grin* That would be hard to do accidentally.

Mer

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

I don't think so, all it would need would be a large tray of well-dressed salads piled up overly full, which you could not see over and were carrying around, and to trip up and send them flying at the crucial moment.

[ madly competitive creativity will now be shackled and returned to its cage. ]

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

My cube's got a fantasy theme going. I have a Fellowship of the Rings poster on the wall behind me, a matted greeting card of a Michael Hauge unicorn standing in a pond among swans that doe_eyed_bunny gave me years ago for a birthday. On my PC I have my loch ness monster, which akawil brought me from Scotland, and on my Mac I have Wrendel, the dragon dotsomething gave me for this past birthday.

Overall I think it's nice without overdoing it.

*hugs*
LMG

[dotsomething.livejournal.com]

*hugs* Saw your other post, been thinking about you.

In my cubicle: Two Lord of the Rings posters. A figurine of Zahn from Farscape. A child's drawing done by a coworker's kid. A few nice cards, one of a cat, one of fruit done up to look like faces. On the only empty shelf space available, a tray of scented candles and a tiny zen garden. A twisted piece of metal from those report holders that my intern made last summer as a joke, we called it modern art, a tiny plastic Bubbles figurine, a ribbon of cow pattern pinned to the cube divider. Cartoons like Foxtrot and Cathy, and a small metal gargoyle.

The rest is a collage of work--schedules, meetings, a giant wall calendar, reminders, emails of things I need to remember, pricing charts.

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

Thanks, for both the thought and the mental picture. Have added more roses, some black and silver panels of flowers and the word Dream, and a photo of suitcases to mine.

Mer

[ocean-song.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to let you know I've been thinking of you a lot the last couple of days. Hope you are doing ok. I understand the need to nest and hide out for now, and how you prefer no comfort to the "wrong kind". So just know that I'm thinking of you, and wishing you everything you need. blessings!

[stakebait.livejournal.com]

Thank you.