It's The Little Things...

I really, really wish I could find the connector cord for my digital camera.  I'm sick of posting with grainy iPhone pictures.  Hold that thought...

OK, I found a connector cord that will work, but now my camera batteries are dead.  Just a sec...

Great.  No more AA batteries in the house.  Ugh...

Sweet! My sister Kristen is actually letting me borrow her new digital camera.  Thanks Kristen!  Now on with the show!

Warning, this is a picture heavy post!  I've spent the last couple days trying to rearrange what was the living room half of my "suite".  Now that my ex has taken the furniture it doesn't really have a function assigned to it.  I've put in an antique dressing table from the 1930's to serve as a desk, but other than that the space is sort of random at the moment.  I don't want to use the bench seat that goes with the table because there is no back to rest against, so for right now there is a folding chair.  Classy!

All this decorating has made made me realize that it is the little details that really bring a room together.  My style seems to be this weird mixture of antique and modern, yet it somehow seems to work in a way that makes my bedroom all cozy.  I'm trying to do the same thing for the other half of my "suite".  You can already begin to see it in the picture above- notice the antique desk along with the modern prints on the rug and curtains?  Heck, you might be thinking I have no taste at all and it looks like crap, lol, but I like it.  I've taken some close ups of some of the other details that add to the room:

This is not an antique (in fact it says Made in China on the knobs), but being the history dork that I am I like it none the less.  My mom was about to donate it to Purple Heart, but I snagged it out of the box.  I just wish I had some oil so I could light it up!

I have no idea who this is.  He is part of my "Cute Dead-Guys" collection.  Yes, you read correctly.  I have a growing collection of antique photographs of men who I personally find attractive and are most likely deceased.  This one dates from WWII.  It is the only one in which there is even a possibility of the subject still being alive.  I choose this photo for my desk because of the brass frame, hoping it would tie-in to the oil lamp.

I don't know who this is either.  He actually was the first of my CDG photographs.  I was just walking through an antique store years ago and saw him, and something drew me in.  It is actually part of a set, there is a second photo of his wife.  I couldn't split the pair up so I bought them both, and she hangs above him on my bedroom wall.  Judging by their clothing (her dress and hair mainly), I think they date from the 1840's.  Definitely dead.  I think he kinda looks like Heath Ledger.

And this is the most recent addition to the collection.  No info on this one either, other than he probably lived in the mid-19th Century.  I actually used this one to be my first "husband"  at work.  (For those of you not in the know, I work at a living history museum where I portray a woman living during the Civil War.)  My character was a widow who's first husband was a dairy farmer and then died at the battle of Gettysburg, and I used this photo to portray him to the public.  He now sits on top of my TV.

I was given this butter sign as a gift from a co-worker at the museum.  It was for sale in the gift shop and I had had my eye on it for a year before she gave it to me.  I love it! It's cute, and has meaning to me since I played a dairy farmer's wife and can actually make butter from scratch.  It hangs above a bookshelf in my bedroom.

This too was a gift from a friend at work.  It's a Cat's Meow replica of my favorite house to work in at the museum.  It was "my" house last year, and hopefully will be again.  It adorns my windowsill.

Next to the window I have an actual  prop letter from the movie "A Walk In The Clouds".  I bought it in Disney World when I was 21 and stuck it in a frame as "art".  If you've seen the movie, you'll know there was a trunk full of letters written by Paul Sutton (Keanu Reeves) to his wife Betty (Debra Messing).  She never bothered to read them.  There actually is a letter on the inside too, it's not just the envelope for show. Say what you like about the movie, but I like it and I think it's cool to have such an integral prop.

Below the window I re-purposed the bench seat from the antique dressing table-now desk.  My cat is always trying to lay in the window sill to look outside, but it's too narrow.  I figured this could act as a little kitty-seat for him, but since I put it there a couple days ago, he hasn't used it once.  Ungrateful cat.

This photograph of Marilyn Monroe actually came from a calender.  I just cut it out and put it in a "floating" frame due to it's odd dimensions.  Isn't she lovely?

Above my bed are two framed prints by the pin-up artist Alberto Vargas.  This one is my favorite.  If you can't tell, she is holding a letter in her hand.  I've always wanted to know what it said to create the expression she has, and I can't quite figure out what exactly that expression is.  Happy?  Sad?  For me it's like trying to figure out the Mona Lisa!

This stained glass lamp was given to me by a former employer.  She didn't want it anymore, and I needed a bedside lamp so it was a win-win situation.  Next to it is a small jewelry/music box I put my rings in when I go to bed.  This prevents the cats from turning them into toys as I sleep.  It plays "All I Ask Of You" from Phantom of the Opera.

Last but not least, my silver plated piggy bank I've had since I was a baby.  He needs a good polishing, but for now I'm calling the tarnish "character". 

This is not an exhaustive list of everything in my "suite", just some of the highlights.  These are the things that help me feel like this is my home.