Amber Dusick

Goodbye Stuff

I've been in organization and de-clutter mode for a couple months now and one of the things that I never am able to get rid of are my books.  I have books and books and books.  I've read them all already and  I have no room for them and they tumble off the shelves in my studio.  I keep them because they remind me of a certain time of my life and I daydream about having a larger house with a library to display them all.  

 

No more!  Time to start living in the now, rather than living in clutter for the "someday".   

After hearing of George Carlin's death earlier this week, and watching his famous "Stuff" sketch I was inspired to take that final leap and let go 

of my books. I've had the realization 

that having books does not make me who I am. 

Even if I no longer have a copy of a 

particular book, I still read it, it is still a part of me

and I'm still the same person. 

I let go of 20 jewelry making books, 

but I still used to make jewelry. 

I let go of lots of Arabic studies books, 

but I still used to study Arabic.  

 

I also realized that I can let the libraries 

store my books for me which is 

exactly where they went. 

This way other people can enjoy them 

and I can visit them if I want.

 

I donated 10 FULL boxes of books (we had to 

fill this cart twice) to my 

local branch and 

rather than be annoyed by them, the 

librarian was thrilled to receive them.

 

Little Red Riding Hood

One of the vintage book finds I mentioned in my last post was Little Red Riding Hood, which I have several versions of and and beginning to think I "collect" them:

So, I made up my own little figure version, although it is still "in development" as I'm going to play around with a standing up wolf next.  This one is available in the shop:

I'm back from the woods

I just spent the last week in the middle of the woods in a cabin.  In central Wisconsin.  Where all the flooding is happening.  Phew, we remained safe and dry (for the most part) and we still had a great time amongst the june bugs and stag beetles and of course, plenty of mosquitos.

It was nice to be so far, far away from Los Angeles and city life.  Things are just so much slower in the midwest.  Horseshoe throwing in the back yard:  

Besides the nature, the other highlight was going to all the cheap local small-town thrift stores.  And I mean cheap.  I went to one thrift store that had more vintage clothing and pyrex and milk glass dishes than I could possibly carry home with me...and the clothes were sold for $6 per stuffed grocery bag.  I'll share more of my vintage finds soon, including a hefty stack of children's books I found at the flea market for just 50 cents per book that included several rare 1940s titles.  I have daydreams of going on a cross country thrift store road trip...  

Homemade Gouda Cheese

First of all, I LOVE cheese.  Love.  I'm a mouse after all.  Our second cheese harvest happened over the weekend.  The first was ricotta.  We made gouda and it had been aging for the last six months so we were excited and nervous to try it.

   
 It was delicious and salty but alas, the texture was a little too waxy so we grated it and had it on wild mushroom ravioli for dinner.  Scrumptious! 

An Odd Favorite Vintage Button on Felt

I've had this vintage button for about 25 years now, inherited from my great grandmother.  It is a single red button with a center silver filagree and I finally put it to use as the center of this felt brooch that I made last night.  I'm not 100% happy with it, but it is a good temporary way to showcase it.  Much better than sitting in my button caddy!    

By the way, the cute purple top with the scallop collar is from Target from about four months ago.  I was surprised to see an almost identical top in the recent Anthropologie catalog here.  Since when are they taking cues from Target?  Funny, and I'm feeling smug that I got my Target version for a fraction of the price.

Lowest Carbon Footprint US Cities

Guess who lives in the 2nd lowest (US) carbon footprint city?  Me!  And no...I don't live in Portland or Seattle or San Francisco.  Los Angeles!  Surprised?  Yeah, me too and quite proud of my beloved city that gets such a bad rap with the cars and smog.  Apparently we aren't doing too bad over here with our lovely climate and less need for heating/cooling.  Not that I don't think we could do better.  We can.  I'm sure the rankings pale in comparison to many European cities. 

Here we are finally putting our tree identification book to good use on a walk earlier this week.  I've always wanted to be one of those people who could spot a tree and say "That is a California Sycamore" so I'm learning. 

Here is the full article in Newsweek in case you want to see where your city falls.  Honolulu was #1.

 

Wee Toadstools & Children's Book Inspiration

I just love the little red and white mushroom hats the little ones wear in Children of the Forest as their camouflage.  This book is an oldie, first published in Swedish in 1910 by Elsa Beskow but I didn't discover it until I was an adult.  The illustrations are dreamy.  The way the little girl has her arm on her toad friend just slays me.

 

I've been sorting through my scrap wood and have a lot of pieces that are too small for any of my usual figures but were just the perfect size to create some tiny toadstools!  These will be available in the shop soon. 

 

I still like to believe that there are wee creatures like these hiding in tiny nooks and crannies, like this one I spotted on a walk today:

My Favorite Freezer & Ice Cream

Walked to the Farmer's Market yesterday for lunch.  Every time I go there (which isn't nearly often enough) I realize how much I love living here.  

  

For dessert in any situation I usually opt for ice cream.  One of the ice cream shops there (that have been there since the 1920's) houses my most favorite freezer in the world.  Wouldn't you love to have that pink and white retro monstrosity in your kitchen all filled up with novelties?  

This time I went for classic and picked vanilla dipped in chocolate.  Enjoy your Wednesday!  

Wee Little Neighborhood Tea Towels

Here are some tea towels (actually in our house they are lintless drying towels for wine glasses) that I gocco'ed recently.  I drew the little houses inspired by the houses from the book The Color Kittens that I mentioned in my last post. 

 

I feel like a "Color Kitten"

I've been painting up so many little house sets that I'm feeling like a "Color Kitten" lately.  I adore children's books and collect them based on the illustrations.  I have all of my children's book from my own childhood and it brings me such giddy joy to now enjoy them again through the fresh eyes of my own child.

One of my all time favorites is The Color Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown and lucky for me, my son loves this book now too.  The illustrations of course are the best part, illustrated by Alice & Martin Provensen whose work I adore.