Weekly Roundup
/
A highlight this week was getting a special photo back from Framebridge who preserved a very old family photo for me. A couple months ago, I stumbled upon this photo in a box of vintage linens. I was beyond tickled when I found out that it’s a photograph from the 1890s of my great grandmother. I’M GUSHING! She’s sitting on a sled made by my great great grandfather. REALLY GUSHING. The photograph is the original albumen print in great condition on a cabinet card (click those links for some photography history) so I knew that it couldn’t spend its life hidden in a cardboard box. I sent the photograph to Framebridge and asked them to keep it safe in a frame and to float mount it so I can admire the pretty edges without a matte cropping the cabinet card. I picked out the Gresham frame from the new archive collection which is inspired by 100+ year old Chicago architecture. Could that be any more perfect for me? Old architecture, a favorite city, and timeless detailing. Perfect.
All that to say, the new (old) addition to my wall is just perfect and I’m in love. I planned on making this photograph a part of my seasonal winter decor, but I adore it so much, I might keep it on display all year long. Framebridge partnered with me on this project, but all opinions are my own.
A major event yesterday was bringing home Baxter, our new foster pup! You may remember when we fostered kittens and had a great time with those lil’ ones - we knew we’d foster more animals again. When Ross and I went to New York and visited Daniel of Manhattan Nest, we fell in love with his dog Mekko and it solidified our need to foster a dog next. Well, here we are! Baxter is going to be with us for three weeks while he waits for his dental appointment at the end of January. After his trip to the dentist, he’ll stay at the Humane Society and wait for a kind soul to adopt him and give him a forever home. He’s only been with us for half a day but he’s such a sweet old man (he’s 10 years old!) - if you’re a San Diego local looking to adopt a dog, reach out to me!
I’m getting asked a lot about why we’re fostering and not adopting. The short answer is we want to help more than just one animal right now. We have the time and space and love to share! Plus, without a permanent animal resident, we have flexibility to take in a litter of kittens or a senior dog, and every animal in between. We also like how the schedule of a foster animal fits in between our frequent travels and potential renovations. In addition, we plan on starting our kitchen renovation soon and don’t feel it’s fair to an animal to adopt them and then immediately add a bunch of noise and stress to their life in a brand new home. I realize lots of people have animals during renovations, and animals do just fine, but we just feel it just isn’t worth the potential stress on an animal to schedule an adoption that way. There are plenty of animals in the future to adopt, so there’s no shortage (unfortunately - I can’t stress the Adopt Don’t Shop slogan enough).
In other news from around the web…
Alison renovated the bathroom in her cabin and it feels like it belongs in my house. The wall color is the same as my den, the board and batten detail is that of my master bedroom, the wallpaper is like my kitchen floor, and everything else is just perfect. Sharing a similar style is one of the many reasons we’re internet bffs.
Marie Kondo’s Netflix special is out! Remember when Natasha Habermann and I teamed up to tackle my closet in the KonMari method? Well, now I’m totally on the Marie Kondo train. In fact, I have a video coming soon about how I’ve been folding my clothes lately, too. The TV show isn’t as informative as her book, so I definitely encourage you to pick up a copy of that, watch my video on tidying my closet, and stay tuned for more KonMari inspired organization soon. The TV show focuses a lot on family dynamics and the way that tidying can improve life in many aspects, which is cool, but a little too dramatic and formulaic for my taste. But I looooove watching people tidy, so I dig it.
The Faux Martha has a great tip for storing your seasonal baking supplies! Speaking of Melissa, her (free!) Minimal Kitchen Course starts next week. You can bet I’m excited.
I joined my yoga studio’s challenge to take 30 yoga classes in the month of January. Anyone else set a 2019 goal like this?
I wrapped up my December 2018 Spotify playlist. But this also means all of 2018 is over! You can find each of my monthly playlists on Spotify under the username @ashleykgoldman.
If you don't have Spotify, you'll only be able to preview those tracks, but you can make a free account easy peasy to hear the full-length tracks. Follow me on Spotify to listen to each month's playlist as I add to it every week - don't wait for me to share it on the blog!
Happy Friday!
