Have you fucked up your resolutions yet? I haven’t but I’m teetering. What are yours? Mine are all the usual
bullshit with a few easy ones peppered in there so no matter what on the eve of
2018 I can claim I accomplished the
majority
of my resolutions. I’m bad enough at
math that no matter what it always seems to work in my favor. I was able to start the year on a very
virtuous and strong note because I was on death’s doorstep with the flu. Maybe not death’s doorstep but on the curb to
its driveway. Luckily when I’m sick I
don’t crave comfort food I actually only crave citrus, cucumbers, and the
sun. Did you see
that thing about the experimental drug that has early preliminary research it can stop about 90% of
the spread of melanoma? You better
believe I’m going to send them some money.
Let’s hope they have it to market before summer. I have such an unhealthy affection for the sun
that whenever I see Magda all I can think is how happy she must have been.
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| She's got her dog, her Kools, her bendy straw, her tan, her heavily embroidered fuchsia housecoat...she's got it all |
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| For New Year's Eve I made Caesar salads... |
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| Angel Hair tossed in truffle butter and mushroom with chive... |
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| And chocolate cheesecake. Everyone was ready to start their diets the next day! |
Anyway, I am eagerly awaiting some time at the beach so
that’s some good motivation to keep me from baking. For today anyway. I can’t help you with weight loss resolutions
because of the elephant in the room but it seems another common resolution is
to get more organized. My weight might
fluctuate more violently than the stock market, but I’m pretty consistently
organized.
I have inventories for everything. Actually my weak way with weight and my
strong way with order collide in my wardrobe because I have like 85 different
wardrobes that range within about 1000 pounds.
It can be confusing trying to remember if I have a jumbo white polo with
a blue monogram or a medium white polo with a pink monogram—or wait—were both
monograms green? Easy confusion to make
when you have like 38 monogrammed white polos.
I think that’s why minimalists are always thin: they only need white
polos in one size.
But the first thing I ever made a formal inventory for was
my tabletop collection. This collection
has expanded and reduced many times as my needs and tastes have changed. Though currently nowhere near its all-time high,
it ballooned a bit leading up to the holidays because I just kept finding such
good stuff! So as I was updating my inventory this morning, I thought you might
be interested in the process.
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| It's so hard to find vintage/antique platters over 16 inches. I found four in one afternoon! The bottom one is circa 1900 Limgoes and 20 inches! |
It’s a very straightforward endeavor. I use a dry-erase board to write what
something is, measurements, and quantity if necessary. If it’s something that is stored in boxes
where contents cannot easily be seen, I assign a letter and number to the box
like O-4 and write that on the dry erase board in the photo too. So I’ll not only know that I have 23
turquoise 4 inch ornaments but they are in box #4 of the ornament boxes. It takes so little time and makes managing a
lot of stuff a lot easier. I like having
options and different looks for the seasons
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| I found these in May 2016 and used them for Thanksgiving |
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| Spode Maritime Rose. I started collecting this pattern last Easter and have done pretty well considering its scarcity. |
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| I looooooove this Limoges pattern. Still trying to find its name. |
Take a photo, and organize in albums on my phone or
iPad.
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| Hit the plus sign in the top left corner |
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| New Album... |
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| You can use this system to inventory anything |
I have the albums organized by type of plate/glass since I
like to set mix and match tables. You might
prefer to organize by pattern. While you
may not have skeletal to manatee sized white polos to wrangle or too many china
patterns to keep straight, I’m sure you have a lot of something that could
benefit from an inventory.
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| I found these two pink-bordered trays in early December (actually on my GG's birthday and this was her favorite color...) and I am in love with them. I can't find any information on them. Do they look familiar to you? I'm wondering if they were made for a hotel or restaurant. |
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| Do you recognize this crest? |
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| The marks on the back. I take it Soane & Smith was a store but I can't find any information. |
In another direction, one of my more altruistic resolutions
is to grow an abundance of milkweed and hopefully provide habitat and forage
for Monarch butterflies. I only saw one Monarch last year and that is quite
depressing. I realized it’s all my fault
for not having any milkweed. So I plan
to start some from seed both to keep and to give away. It’s easy to grow and
terribly unfussy. If you don’t already allocate some space for it, I urge you
to. This is worth mentioning now because
the seeds perform best when given a month or so in the refrigerator. I’ll start mine in March, but if you live in
a more moderate climate, the time might be sooner. Soooo… nudge nudge.
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| Doesn't it look cold out that window? It was about 2 degrees! |
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| Often in the winter I like to use an abundance of colored glasses and lanterns for candles instead of flowers. The cut glass illuminates so beautifully! And I love the flickering snowflake shadows |
