Vignettes At Home...

Merriam-Webster says that a vignette is: "A running ornament (as of vine leaves, tendrils, and grapes) put on or just before a title page or at the beginning or end of a chapter; also : a small decorative design or picture so placed." 


I would like to think that our home is full of vignettes; little collections of ornamentation, placed just so to introduce a room, or more specifically, the people who inhabit the room. This weekend, I put together two new little vignettes, which I thought I should share, so you guys don't think I've completely given up design in favor of perpetual cooking. In this context, maybe "vignette" is just a romantic way to say "purposefully-positioned junk", but let's be honest, vignette has a much nicer ring to it, so I vote we stick with that term. 

(For you photo buffs, I hope you'll appreciate that I used iPhoto's "vignette" setting to
create the old-world-foggy-in-the-corners-effect. Just runnin' with a theme here! )

This set up is now in our newly-painted bedroom up at Fox Ridge. I was lying in bed one night over the weekend, and seconds before I fell asleep, I looked up at the shelf over the little desk, and said to John (who was already snoring most likely), "Remind me to move all the haeger pottery up here. It would look terrific on that shelf." 

Miraculously, I remembered this realization the next morning and enacted my plan tout de suite. Needless to say, John did not remember this plan, but pottery isn't really his area of interest so that's not a shock. The haeger pottery (all those white vases and pots) have particular meaning to us because they were collected for our wedding to be used as part of the floral centerpieces on the dining tables. They're a lovely reminder of a wonderful day, making this vignette all the more special. (See--- in this case, it isn't just purposefully-positioned-junk, it's sentimental too!) 

The second vignette is now set up in our dining room in the city... Inexplicably, I have a collection of beautiful old samsonite luggage pieces, which were sitting in a stack in the country in their former life. I suddenly realized that they'd be far more terrific over the closets in the dining room in the city, another opportune location for some strategically positioned junk. You might also spy John's big-ben costume from last Halloween up above the closets. Once again-- the addition of a nostalgic object makes this vignette that much more meaningful. Even if it is just clutter...  : )


We've got some other big D-I-Y projects brewing in the next few weeks, so don't give up on us yet, even if there are a lot of recipes sprinkled in there too!