More decor!

Our plan for the 4th of July was to take a day trip down to Letchworth State Park (which is about an hour south of here) and do some bike-riding and picnic-eating. However, the rain ruined those plans. We've rescheduled the trip, and we spent yesterday inside—so we found other stuff to do. We did some work on the new bird's cage (more on that later), I started two new sewing projects, and we got some more decor hung up. Yay! Check it out.

I bought these Malma mirrors from Ikea probably about 2 or 3 years ago. (Yeah.) And they've sat in a pile on the floor since then.

We finally decided to hang them up when we put up the rest of the home decor in our new place. We found a perfect wall for them in the dining room, but then discovered that to hang them the way we wanted, we'd need some picture hooks.

So, it's been a few weeks since our initial decorating binge, but in the meantime Arik has gotten the picture hooks. So yesterday he installed them. I told him how I wanted them spaced out. And he hung them up. (Yeah, I wasn't very much help.) But because these babies are perfectly square, hanging them up was a breeze.

Aren't they fun?


I'd love to stain these and/or decorate them with some kind of motif, but Arik and I both really like the natural wood look. However, the natural wood look doesn't match any of our hand-me-down dining room furniture. C'est la vie. It was more important for us to actually get them up on the wall. So there they are.


The other new bit of decor we got up yesterday was a gift I bought Arik for his birthday. I went to the local fair trade shop, One World Goods, and got him chopstick service for four (we're crazy into making stir frys lately) from Vietnam, and this super-cute sculpture from Haiti. I love the little birds in it. The artwork is pounded out by fair trade artisans in (poor, poor, poor) Haiti and is made from discarded oil drums. Isn't it awesome? We hung it right in our entryway and I think it looks perfect there.



PS—If you're interested, I've read a really good book about Haiti: Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder. I highly recommend it. If you enjoy really good non-fiction, or if you want to be inspired by someone who honestly IS making a difference in this world, or if you want to educate yourself on health care in third-world countries—pick it up.

Here's the blurb from Amazon:

"At the center of Mountains Beyond Mountains stands Paul Farmer. Doctor, Harvard professor, renowned infectious-disease specialist, anthropologist, the recipient of a MacArthur “genius” grant, world-class Robin Hood, Farmer was brought up in a bus and on a boat, and in medical school found his life’s calling: to diagnose and cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most.

"This magnificent book shows how radical change can be fostered in situations that seem insurmountable, and it also shows how a meaningful life can be created, as Farmer... blasts through convention to get results.

"Mountains Beyond Mountains takes us from Harvard to Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia as Farmer changes minds and practices through his dedication to the philosophy that "the only real nation is humanity."