Imprinting
January 23, 2011 at 9:04 pm | Posted in Uncategorized | 12 CommentsTags: picspam, real life, travel
I’m gradually settling into the new house, although a week is hardly any time to live somewhere when you lived in your last place for 5 years. I own this house though, which of course makes it different; when I see things that annoy me (which I have, it’s amazing what you don’t notice when you’re just looking at a place during an open home) the thought that follows on from that is that when I have the money I can just get whatever it is changed. It’s a good feeling. I spilt tea on my brand new sofa today, which means it’s christened. Last week I also dropped a dining table on my bare foot and bled all over the carpet (seriously, blood was positively gushing out of my big toe. Toes bleed A LOT, FYI), so I guess that means that me and the house now have some sort of mystical blood bond or something.
Anyway.
The thing I’m most looking forward to is putting pictures up. In the years I’ve been renting I’ve actually not lived in a place with existing picture hooks, and it always seemed like too much trouble to ask to put things up, but ever since I’ve been planning to buy a house, I’ve been thinking about finally putting up some of the things I’ve collected over the years. I’ve travelled a lot over the last 10 years or so, and I have a lot of photos from those trips. Over the past 5 years or so I’ve also been collecting art, either prints, sketches, or paintings of the places I’ve been. I have quite a few of those now, so I’m going to put those up, mixed in with my own photos. I’m really looking forward to doing it too, although going through all my photos will be a mission.
I was thinking of doing this before, and wondering what photos I’d choose. The travel photos from before 2005 are all printed and in photo albums (so totally old school, I know), and the albums are lurking somewhere in a box I haven’t unpacked yet, so I was restricted to the ones I have on my hard drive. The earliest ones are from a trip to Italy I took in January of 2005, and I was just idly picking through them and decided to fish some out and post them here; they’re not necessarily the ones I’ll choose to get framed, but they’re ones I like all the same. I love Italy, it’s a beautiful, quirky country positively bursting with personality, but in the end I had to stop going there, mainly because if you can walk around Rome without a map then you’ve been there too many times, and it was time to remind myself that there was all of the rest of the world to explore as well.
First up, we have Tuscany, a couple of hours outside Rome. So lovely.
Venice. A lot of people hate Venice, but I love it. It’s such a unique place – you’ll never go anywhere else like it.
Rome. The Trevi Fountain – you could argue that the Trevi Fountain is an impressive structure surrounded by other impressive structures, but I don’t think that diminishes its majesty in any significant way.
Rome. The Coliseum, at the edge of the Arena. This picture I probably will have in a frame. I’m not religious in any way, but I adore the lighting and the composition of this (must have felt inspired that day, haha. The Coliseum does that to me. It’s such an amazing building). It appeals to me in a very throw-the-Christians-to-the-lions kind of way, even though I believe the cross was put there fairly recently, and so wasn’t there at the height of all of that.
Pompeii. This picture doesn’t show you what Pompeii actually looks like, but it is cool in a very creepy way. Apparently all the animals beat a hasty retreat from Pompeii a couple of days before the eruption, because they could feel it coming, but this poor bugger was tied up, and ended up suffering for it. There is desperation in every line of this dog. The – I don’t know what you’d call these, fossils? Casts? – of the young girl crouched with her hands over her mouth trying not to suffocate to death is also incredibly creepy.
And on that note, I’ll stop. š
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Meredith Shayne 
I didn’t see the dog and the girl when I was in Pompeii. That is so sad.
I love having my own home. I can decorate it however I want. I can change the floors and the wall colors and the doors and just about everything else in the house to suit myself. It certainly helps me to feel more at peace with my life. Before I bought this house, the longest I’d ever stayed in one house or apartment was four years. I felt like a gypsy.
Comment by strangemuses— January 23, 2011 #
It is sad. Those exhibits are the things that make it really strike home that they all suffocated.
I’m looking forward to doing some modifications on the house once I’ve settled in, more than just putting the pictures up. I purposely didn’t buy a do-up, but the house is old, so it can stand to have some things done. I have to have a handful of things fixed first, and then I’ll decide what I want to do first.
Comment by meredithshayne— January 25, 2011 #
It is sad. Those exhibits are the things that make it really strike home that they all suffocated.
I’m looking forward to doing some modifications on the house once I’ve settled in, more than just putting the pictures up. I purposely didn’t buy a do-up, but the house is old, so it can stand to have some things done. I have to have a handful of things fixed first, and then I’ll decide what I want to do first.
Comment by meredithshayne— January 25, 2011 #
I didn’t see the dog and the girl when I was in Pompeii. That is so sad.
I love having my own home. I can decorate it however I want. I can change the floors and the wall colors and the doors and just about everything else in the house to suit myself. It certainly helps me to feel more at peace with my life. Before I bought this house, the longest I’d ever stayed in one house or apartment was four years. I felt like a gypsy.
Comment by strangemuses— January 23, 2011 #
I took a pic of that exact same dog in Pompeii. And the girl with her hands over her mouth. š¦
LOL at the way you’re christening your new place! Congrats again. How exciting to get to put up all your travel pics. We want to do some of that too, but we haven’t gotten around to it yet (argh).
Comment by secretsolitaire— January 24, 2011 #
The one of the girl with her hands over her mouth is so sad. š¦
My mother would be absolutely horrified to find that I’d spilt tea on the lounge when wasn’t even a week old yet, haha! It just makes it really mine now, that’s all.
The hardest thing about the travel pictures is deciding which photos to use. I can’t have the walls absolutely packed with frames, so I will have to be choosy. But I think I will do it soon, mainly because I’ve got all these empty picture hooks on the wall at the moment – if I had to put up the hooks myself it’d take a lot longer.
Comment by meredithshayne— January 25, 2011 #
The one of the girl with her hands over her mouth is so sad. š¦
My mother would be absolutely horrified to find that I’d spilt tea on the lounge when wasn’t even a week old yet, haha! It just makes it really mine now, that’s all.
The hardest thing about the travel pictures is deciding which photos to use. I can’t have the walls absolutely packed with frames, so I will have to be choosy. But I think I will do it soon, mainly because I’ve got all these empty picture hooks on the wall at the moment – if I had to put up the hooks myself it’d take a lot longer.
Comment by meredithshayne— January 25, 2011 #
I took a pic of that exact same dog in Pompeii. And the girl with her hands over her mouth. š¦
LOL at the way you’re christening your new place! Congrats again. How exciting to get to put up all your travel pics. We want to do some of that too, but we haven’t gotten around to it yet (argh).
Comment by secretsolitaire— January 24, 2011 #
Happy nesting š The photos sound amazing! You can put them all up and then move them all around until everything is just right š
That poor dog! Pompeii sounds like a very scary place.
Comment by Anonymous— January 31, 2011 #
I need to buy some frames! But I’m looking forward to doing that anyway.
Pompeii during the eruption would have been awful. The remains of that dog/those people really bring home what it must have been like. I bet everyone was terrified.
Comment by meredithshayne— January 31, 2011 #
I need to buy some frames! But I’m looking forward to doing that anyway.
Pompeii during the eruption would have been awful. The remains of that dog/those people really bring home what it must have been like. I bet everyone was terrified.
Comment by meredithshayne— January 31, 2011 #
Happy nesting š The photos sound amazing! You can put them all up and then move them all around until everything is just right š
That poor dog! Pompeii sounds like a very scary place.
Comment by Anonymous— January 31, 2011 #