Category: Collections

A Photo a Week Challenge: Glass 4/13/2020

I LOVE Glass…all kinds…always have…fascinated from childhood on…blown away at 5 years old, watching a glass blower make little animals at the San Diego Zoo. Started collecting those animals, one Zoo visit at a time…had 50 or so by the time I reached adolescence…fell in love with Cobalt glass eye cups and medicine bottles (after an eye surgery at 6 years old).

At this writing, my collection of blown glass figurines is packed away so no good photos, but here are tiny samples.

 

An addiction you say? Well, probably. Undeniable proof? The Glass Museum in Tacoma is one of my favorite places on the planet, and the fact that I often give a trip to the museum, or a Glass Blowing class (held in a small local studio) as birthday and Christmas gifts!

My collection has become unmanageable, out of control so I had to put myself on Glass Buying Restriction a few years back…

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crammed into way too small a hutch

 

 

I have combed antique stores, garage sales, swap meets, etc. my whole adult life, and have found some real treasures.

Mostly bottles of all varieties…

But once people who love you, know you have a weakness for something, mine being blue glass, they have a perfect (and easy) way to find gifts for you, so my collection grew from bottles to all things blue.

 

And there have been favorites along the way…too many to show you so I picked these at random

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the tiniest candlestick holders ever!

And this one I thought was an odd candy dish…until I got it home and really looked at it

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It’s actually a “front door”
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If you look closely, you can see hinges and the door handle

 

But really, my favorite use of this Cobalt Collection is designing playgrounds for my BUGS!

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https://nadiamerrillphotography.wordpress.com/2020/04/09/a-photo-a-week-challenge-glass-2/

A Photo a Week Challenge: Signs (II) 10/20/19

Uh Oh. I had to circle back to include these wonderful old Neon Signs collected inside the old “Vertigo Building” where I get my hair cut.

 

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(This post dedicated to the person whose blog is entirely about Neon signs. We had an exchange when she saw some of these signs on an earlier post of mine, but I lost her email address. Hoping she spots this and leaves a comment!!)

 

 

https://nadiamerrillphotography.wordpress.com/2019/10/17/a-photo-a-week-challenge-signs-4/

Photo a Week Challenge: Blue 11/26/18

I know it will seem lazy or like I’m cheating, but I really do want to participate in Nancy’s Challenge. It’s just that I seem to do a LOT of posts on Blue and I’m not sure I can come up with anything new to share.

So here is one I did most recently…and at the end I’ve included several others I did on the topic Blue.

https://chosenperspectives.com/2018/10/18/one-word-sunday-challenge-blue-10-14-18/

I do hope you will check some of the links out and tell me what you think.

Oh Wait! How about THIS??

 

What do you mean, “over kill”?

😜

 

 

 

https://nadiamerrillphotography.wordpress.com/2018/11/22/a-photo-a-week-challenge-blue/

SYW (Share Your World) for 1/22/18

The questions posed by Cee Neuner in this innovative challenge:

List 2 things you have to be happy about?

Have you ever owned a rock, pet rock, or gem that is not jewelry?

Are you a hugger or a non-hugger?

What inspired you or what did you appreciate this past week?  Feel free to use a quote, a photo, a story, or even a combination. 

 

My Answers:

List 2 things you have to be happy about? 

  1. I am so happy that James is home. He’s been in this 2 weeks here and 2 weeks gone cycle. It is a little hard on us because we both do really well being alone so there is a big adjustment on both ends of his travel: when he leaves, remembering the comfort of solitude, and when he returns, adjusting again to the joys of sharing the everyday life again.

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2. I am relieved and blissed out (oh, it is too a word!!) that my 17 year old “Heart-Cat” is still alive since I was told back in October he might only have days to live. He definitely has kidney disease and has lost a ton of weight, but he is still here and as ornery as ever.

Well, maybe not. This is a cat who, for 17 years, has let no one pet him but me. And even that never included him being on my lap…but these days, he accepts pets from everyone and will sit on my lap for a whole hour if I let him.

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Have you ever owned a rock, pet rock, or gem that is not jewelry?

I have been a “rock hound” since I was a small child. My Dad, in his quiet genius, got us a rock polisher. We would find rocks on the beaches and from the mountains and everywhere in between. Then we would wait…literally for months. Opening that polisher was a miracle every time. I learned so much from that experience, especially about delayed gratification and memory and anchoring experiences. I could write a book about all the lessons from this amazing, covert teacher. (Oh wait, I AM writing that book. My Dad is who taught me about choosing perspectives.)

Early in my therapy practice, I learned that some clients really needed concrete reminders of the things they were leaning, so, being my father’s daughter, I gave them Quartz, Lapis, Hematite or Amethyst hearts….and over the years, hundreds of polished rocks.

And, I have a basket of what’s left of a really old collection of pieces of polished petrified wood, from long before it was illegal. Not exactly rocks, but in my mind they qualify as “gems”.  (There is a great story there, too long for today’s post but this has reminded me to write about it.)

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Are you a hugger or a non-hugger?

Oh I am definitely a hugger. You might even say I have hugged for a living for more than 40 years.

I’ll just let that sit there and see if you have any questions.

 

What inspired you or what did you appreciate this past week?

David Letterman’s new Netflix show, called My Next Guest Needs No Introduction. His first interview was with President Barack Obama. I laughed and I cried, and I longed for more of the intelligence, humor, depth and light these two men bring.

What a waste……..

 

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https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/14846827/posts/1741990336

ChosenPerspectives on Collage for WPC 7/12/17

Collage

My life is FILLED with “Collage”. I love surrounding myself with collections in categories.

The are each a Collage I made for someone else (top to bottom). A jewelry box filled with the jewelry pieces from a dear friend’s Mom, Memory Boxes for my Grandsons containing tiny symbols and souvenirs from their adventures, and photo cards.

My dear friend who gave me her mother’s jewelry pieces and old jewelry box above inspired me to facilitate a Collaging for Grief Workshop. My participants would collect the small things they couldn’t part with after a death. We would gather together to put all the trinkets in collage shadow boxes, all the while telling each other the stories behind the pieces. It was a wonderful way to let go of the large piles of things we can be left with when a loved one dies, but still end up with a lovely memorial piece of art in their honor.

I have posted before the embarrassing proof that most of the walls in my home are giant Collages

This is a series I called “Toy Baskets”. Trinkets from my own childhood. If you are of a similar age you might recognize Monopoly, Pick up Stix, Tiddly Winks, etc.

 

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More Wall Collages from my home and Office

 

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I could never stand to throw away the beautiful cards my clients have given me over 40 years in private practice, so I would always turn them into collages and display them. They so enjoyed spotting a piece of a card I had saved from them.

And many of my clients have been artists so I have many beautiful handmade pieces.

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This is titled “a Million Tears” (cried in therapy). Each tear hand-inked with a blue pen

This one below is my favorite. It was when my practice was HUGE. I had 8 groups of 10 people each (5 therapy, 1 couples’ group, a Graduate Group, and a training group). The artist who did this mixed media sort of collage told me it represented the path of my heart through my professional life, with many, many connections shooting off into the world, like stars. I was so moved by this. The piece always remains a focal point of my current Wall Collage display. Hand done painting, stitching, gluing, etc. (I especially love this piece since my current practice is only 3 clients.) It’s so sweet to remember that I used to have a larger impact on my world…..

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She told me this central line was my heart path….connected to and spreading out to the world, each star and sequin representing a life I had touched. It’s taken me years to accept (not my focus at the time) that I really did get to love a lot of people!!

Author note: Sorry for bad photos and for lack of editing. I wanted to get this in before the new challenge happens today!

Heritage for WPC 5-17-17

Heritage
The word for this week’s WordPress Challenge theme is Heritage. This “wall” in my home  office/group room was created to balance the masculine energy in my house these days as I live with SIX MEN!

But it really represents my Heritage. I come from a long line of very creative and powerful women, specializing in survival. Most of them, through necessity or circumstance, were Single Mothers.

These lacy, pastel bits and pieces are from these women, as far back as one of Brigham Young’s many wives…all of whom were basically “single mothers”

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