Sunday, November 05, 2006

Blue Door Primitives

My parents live in a small village in southern Maine. One of the places I love in this quaint little village is an antiques/primitives place called The Blue Door. It is run by a husband/wife team and they actually make all the primitives themselves. They spend much of the time crafting their inventory and are only open a couple of days a week. I can actually never stop by to browse except for the weeks between Halloween and Christmas when they are open on Sundays.

So, this morning my mother and I went over to see what we could find. What we found was overwhelming...and delightful. I love going into places like this, mostly to look, as I don't have a big enough home to use most of what I see. All the same, I do have several small things (pillows, sachets, etc.) that I've picked up over the few years I've been stopping by. For example, I have one of the big dolls similar to what you see in the last photo sitting in an antique rocker in my living room. She keeps me good company =) No back talk!!!

They are gearing up for their Christmas open house next week right now so it's particularly beautiful... and delicious smelling as well. Every nook has some kind of potpourri or candle or centerpiece thing that has something to do with Christmas spice. Oooh! it was nice!

Every time we go there, we find something odd and/or interesting. Today, we saw a number of items with the words "Simplify" or "Simplicity" embroidered or painted on them. We thought it might be fun to get one and give it to my youngest sister who is having a difficult time right now simplifying her life.

Well, truth be told, so am I. There's no such thing as a simple life when you are involved with kids. There are too many layers. And the harder you try to understand them, the more frustrating...but many times rewarding...it becomes. Both my sister and I are neck-deep in kids, and therefore over our heads with responsibilities connected to the thing we love doing: teaching.

5 comments:

Heidi said...

How much fun this looks! I always like looking in these kind of stores. I went in a more sophisticated store (compared to what you described) on Friday, and had so much fun looking around at all the little curiousities. And yes, I did buy something. A painted sign reading "Home is where your story begins." Appropriate for a writer, don't you say? :)

R. Aastrup said...

Very appropriate. They had a sign like that and also one that said "Home is where memories are made." I love that you bought the sign. I don't have a place for one right now...

Heidi said...

The sign is a positive reminder right now about what my purpose is: to tell people's stories. The last month or so has been a "beat 'er up" kind of time. Too many deadlines. Too little time. Small mistakes creep in. Complaints flood in. Some of the feedback I invite, others I don't. Some of the feedback is ligitimate, others aren't. Some are ignorant, some aren't. So purchasing the sign was a way of offering myself a visual reminder that I can't be all things to all people, and that my purpose is to tell people's stories. H'mm, I think I'll turn this into a blog entry! :)

Sunny said...

"There's no such thing as a simple life when you are involved with kids"
Yes, that is exactly what I was thinking. You and Martha and the other teachers can just forget about a simple life. You weren't called to that. But knowing your focus and goal can help simplify it and make it easier. Like, when you are weeding a garden, you have to deal with all those annoying little time consuming details, but it is for a good purpose. Look at the great result you get. What is simplicity anyway? Different things for different folks for sure. Richard Foster would say "single-mindedness". (And, girlfriend, you sure are that. You have devoted your LIFE to those kids-God bless you.)Just to cheer Martha up a little, tell her one of Webster's definitions of SIMPLICITY is "lack of sense; foolishness". Who needs it anyway? On the other hand, one of the meanings of SIMPLIFY is to "make easier". Oh yeah, I'll take that.

PS I like what mulberry patch said about being reminded "what her purpose is". Now, THAT's simplicity.

Patty said...

What a great place to go. I would want to bring it all home : )
Next time I am back east, maybe I need to get directions from you !!!
Maybe simplicity is simply knowing what you are supposed to do and not fighting it : )