Some folks asked me about my “salon wall” (fancy name huh?) after seeing it on Apartment Therapy…What is that red thing?… Are they related?… I have that piece, where did you get yours?…Where can I get one of those things?
Since my home has never been featured in any sort of public forum, I was a little taken aback when it came to identifying my possessions the way they might be listed in a catalog. Very flattering, but it’s a little weird too! Especially when your whole creative ethos is based on glorifying the mundane. In short, this is new to me!
So while I sat on the couch this weekend emailing the responses, I looked up at the wall for a moment to see what was there, and thought, Wow I have a lot of crap. If I ever wrote where this all came from people would think I am really flippin weird.
But y’all knew that already 🙂
- My Grandfather’s ashtray. It reads May you be in Heaven half an hour before the devil knows you’re dead. Surprise! He had a tracheotomy (a surgical hole in the throat) and died of smoking related cancer. He lived with us for a while when I was a kid and sometimes I’d get a lemon flavored lifesaver for using a special vacuum hose to suck the phlegm out of his throat hole. (tmi? sorry!)
- Olive green mirror from Aunt Nancy’s farm house.
- Tin Candy box featuring the Presidential seal that my cousin John stole for me from the President’s box at the Kennedy Center. Apparently our Commander-in-Chief gets free M&Ms wherever he goes. Who knew?
- Silhouette 1968, from the childhood friend of my fairy godfather, Dale.
- Scrap of a green oil pastel project. (Click here to read more)
- Vintage Louisiana Yam advertisement.
- Illustrated makeup diagrams.
- Vintage playing card with a portrait of a beat up owl labeled as “Pugnacity.”
- Line drawing from my Uncle Joe.
- Bambi’s antlers.
- Valentine 2007
- Tree Painting by Kiki Bird.
- African mask purchased in Istanbul, 1997. (Yeah, doesn’t everyone goes to Istanbul for African goods?)
- Photo of a hairless cat.
- Portrait of two sheep that my father hung on his door, purchased in Woodstock UK, 1989
- (Top) photo of my mother in her kitchen in the late 1970’s (Bottom) photo of my father wearing all white, holding a bundle of wild flowers (if only you knew how unusual that moment must have been!)
- Acrylic painting of a tree by Kiki Bird
- Vintage Swiss cuckoo clock
- Collage box by my Uncle
- Collage of a paper hat.
- Madame Rhinoceros
- Stencil painting. Reads chez le fluer..
- Gift box covered in salvaged stamps.
- Collage made from old letters.
- Drawing from Aunt Nancy to my mother dated 1973.
- Illustration from Shel Silverstein’s, The Giving Tree
- Collage made from an old story book highlighting the words Foxy Loxy.
- Oil painting of a naked woman doing yoga by a window by Helen Goldfus.
- Watercolor and glue resist, Almost March
- Wooden frame with noodle alphabet letters.
- Watercolor by my uncle, painted the day I was born. Supposedly he was going to paint one stripe every hour they waited for me to be born, but my mom was in labor for 49 hours and he ran out of space. A piece of me still believes that story.
- Charcoal sketch of an old man, Lausanne Switzerland 1996.
- Acrylic painting from Kiki Bird.
- Watercolor and charcoal painting (used to be in a twinkle light frame and looked majorly creepy!)
- Nightlight made from an old acrylic frame and twinkle lights.
- Collage made from coffee grounds on a Monday.
- Collage made from coffee grounds on a Tuesday.
- Shadow box collage of screaming carousel horses.
- Ladder of Tzedakah. I am very superstitious, especially when it comes to ladders. Maimonide’s Ladder of Tzedakah is a Jewish symbol/guide/reminder on the importance of generosity, but I also see it as a talisman. Ladders are very good luck in my mind (a man who has no where to climb is quick to fall...or something like that.)
- Coffee filter flowers.
- Plastic cup set on fire and melted into a flower.
- Blue chocolate wrappers.
- Ahmed. Golden dinosaur and Tool of Worship.
- Vintage birthday card, probably from the 1930’s, salvaged from a dead neighbor’s kitchen. She kept it taped inside a kitchen cupboard — it must have been very special to her.
- Holiday card 2008
- Swiss train stub.
- Jonathan Adler vase that I got super cheap at HSN. Yeah, HSN, no kidding!
- My initial embroidered with 250 french knots. Intense, huh?
- Yurt nesting boxes from Kyrgystan.
- Diet Coke. Sometimes I wish I could show you the raw, un-edited versions of the photos I post on this blog — you would see that half of them have a Diet Coke can cropped out.
….and let us not forget, The Ultimate Matserpiece, Lola.
Wow, are you still here? I’m exhausted just reading this inventory and I live here. Go home and hang up something on your wall. Now go!
An amazing wall of memories. Loved reading about it Peaches. Thanks for sharing.
The Shiz.
Also, your father really shouldn’t hang sheep from his door. People might talk.
My finger is tired from scrolling. Love it all. You do, indeed, make me want to dig out my Greek metro tickets, my favorite Barbie wedding dress, and my dog Princess’ paw print from 1974 so I can hang them on my wall! Off I go…
Your soul mate in glorious clutterific display,
Jae
Love the Presidential tin! Though now (I believe), he receives his M&M’s in a cardboard box. We have a couple of boxes from when my husband and his roommate were Marines with the Presidential Helicopter Squadron. The cardboard doesn’t even come close to that tin – great addition to the wall! 🙂
love your wall Peaches it inspired my to put the importance of being earnest on my wall in my bedroom! also your coffee filter flowers are dotted along my other wall i made them last week i couldn’t believe how easy they were or how addicting before i knew it i had made like 20!
You have such great style. Thanks for letting us into your living room!!
I am too exhausted from the Missioni Target debaucle today to study the entire picture and read your comments right now. But, I will, and I really want to see a close up of your initial with the french knots. French knots are really easy to do. I wonder how many one could make during a half hour tv show? I think this would be an easy project for many people. If I run across weird stuff (s***) that I don’t know what to do with, I am going to send it to you. You seem to use almost anything. When are you moving, and what is the new place like? I think we all should pick out a really dandy housewarming present to send to you. You can award a prize to the weirdest gift. Much love, Ann
PS. I have a bunch of original 1920’s prescriptions. Is that weird enough?
@Ann, Did you see that Missoni crap?! I’m so ticked. The website is broken and my local store is empty. Grrr! To answer your question –I’m moving at the end of the month. New place is awesome –twice the size and lots of light, I can’t wait! I would post pictures but the current person’s stuff is in there and I don’t think they’d want their dirty laundry photos up on the interwebs. But stay tuned! PS: Where do you get 1920’s persciptions?! What a fun thing to collect? Are they mostly gin and morphine? Thats what you hear about people taking for everything…common cold…missing limbs…just take gin and/or morphine.
@Sara, cardboard huh? Probably better for the environment. And maybe less people try to steal them 🙂
@Liz, I’m so glad! Sounds wonderful. Send me pictures sometime! I would love to see what you put together!
So much fun! I love the numbered photo, a diagram of the mind of the Peach.
That’s one cool wall ! Have something similar at home too – though you’ve inspired me to add some more bits to it now !
LOVE Your wall of memories!!! My parents have a similar wall and we had to photograph it so we could paint the wall and put everything back up in the same order. We did it! No one but us knew we had painted the room.
Thanks for sharing. Of course – the best part is Lola!!!!
Love it fantastic! Currently I am only putting paintings/carvings on my wall. I might need to rethink that.
I love the idea of wrapping paper on the walls. There are more different designs today then
there ever was.