Gorgeousity

I finally took in my über-talented friend Amber's letterpress broadside to be framed, after years (years!) of planning to do so someday. I had two copies, so the title page/back page is on the left, and the inside of the booklet is on the right. The poem is one of Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus, next to an English translation by William Gass.

I love the poem:

Anticipate all farewells, as if they were behind you
like the winter that's just past, for among winters
there will be one so relentlessly winter
that in overwintering it your heart will be readied to last.

Remain with Eurydice in the realm of death—rise there
singing, praising, to realize the harmony in your strings.
Here—among pale shades in a fading world—
be a ringing glass that shatters as it rings.

Be—but nonetheless know why nothingness
is the unending source of your most fervent vibration,
so that this once you may give it your full affirmation.

To the store of copious Nature's used-up, cast-off,
speechless creatures—an unsayable amount—
jubilantly join yourself and cancel the count.

Awww Yeah...

The Flossie household has reached the epitome of domestic chic (circa 1977), not to mention achieved the American dream (think The Graduate, think Dallas): a home bar! We spotted this one, complete with vinyl bumper and barstools, at a local antique store, and knew we were destined to have it because, well, we already have some matching barrel furniture—armchairs and a sofa. I have heard that one's interior design should have a motif that ties together different rooms. Our motif is barrels.

The vintage store owner—who also sold Mr. Flossie the other barrel furniture years ago—said he was selling them on consignment for a woman who removed them from her husband's, quote, "man cave."

The bar not only looks hot, it's functional, too. Inside the barrel are shelves for the storing of booze. Quoth Mr. Flossie, "We have now made alcohol consumption the focal point of our home decor." As well it should be.