Outside the (cigar) Box

(written in September)

I was first confused & later horrified by an email I received this morning touting a pre-sale on HALLOWEEN decorations…EEEEK!  Shaking my head to realign my mental calendar pages, I moved from full denial (but it is still SPRING…Why Halloween???) through incredulity (OK, so it is SUMMER…but we’ve got tons of time until Autumn…How dare they start pelting us with Halloween ads when it is ...) to utter defeat (OMG!!...August 21^st!!???...I’ll never be ready for Christmas.  Might as well take a nap.).

I’ve been benched this summer with an injury that prevented me from lifting my equipment to vend over the last couple of months.  As much as I love vending, I haven’t missed it nearly as much as you’d think.  I’ve missed talking to visitors, working by the waterfront (sounds like a Longshoreman?) & selling what I make.  It’s just that setup & takedown of my tent & displays has never been the fun part & I’ve found so many great activities to occupy my time without that component. 

Aside from my usual marathon fruit (pineapples, mangos, bananas, etc.) harvesting & storing mambo, this off-season has also afforded me the time to catch up on some of the zillion ideas I have during the high season when there is no time to act on any of them.  A note here:  Admittedly, not all these ideas are gems warranting action—storm season equates to brain storm season in my head.

This summer, interior & exterior décor have been front & center on my to-do list.  After living in my little house five years, it is finally starting to look less like a blank slate & more like I feel—upbeat, exuberant, colorful…& a little over the top!

Wall art was a necessary first project.  I mounted espresso-toned modern cigar boxes as display cubes, a task I had been procrastinating about for ages.  The delay was because masonry walls, while a definite plus in the Caribbean, are the natural enemy of hurricanes & drill bits.  I have burned up many bits & friends, just mounting curtain rods & a microwave.  Hanging art here can be quite a commitment in time & effort because by the time you’ve drilled through cement block to mount it, you can be sick of something you loved just days before. 

To avoid that, I’m keeping displays flexible and mounting all with what I consider to be the greatest invention of the century…OK, I’m being a little hyperbolic but I really love them—COMMAND STRIPS!  The boxes aren’t heavy, & I’m only using them to support Plexi-mounted art prints, so the strips aren’t overtaxed.  Originally, I had in mind Plexi-sandwiching some beautiful handmade gouache prints I bought in boxed sets from my beloved Anthropologie some time ago, & only using the modern cube boxes. 

And then I remembered something liberating—those are my walls (OK, mine & the bank’s) & I can do what I want…& COLOR happens to be what I want.  This hit me when I was sorting through the cigar boxes & found a bunch I had altered a couple of years ago.  I love orchids & I love photographing them, so as mine bloomed I had taken extreme close ups, printed them on translucent vellum, & then ‘wallpapered’ them to the front of some older cigar boxes, applying a paste wax to protect them after they fully dried.  And then promptly shelved & forgot about them.

When I added a few of these bright image boxes to the wall arrangement, it came to life & united the colors of my mod crimson sofa & crazy tropical print drapes (also Anthropologie) in an unexpectedly harmonious din.  And yes, I know that is an oxymoron, but then so is my house. 

I had cleaned out Home Depot’s precut Plexi shelf, buying the 9” x 11” sheets by the dozens.  To create a floating appearance, I sandwiched the gouache prints between 2 sheets, using black binder clips top & bottom to hold all together.  I had 2 boxed sets of the prints, a dozen per box.  Midway through mounting them, I found a pile of orchid photos I had printed on vellum & hadn’t affixed to boxes.  Sandwiched between the Plexi sheets & atop the cigar box display shelves, slightly tilted to allow light through the picture, these orchid images fairly glow. 

So I mixed the plain & printed boxes, Anthropologie prints & my photos, threw in a couple of mercury glass candlesticks & a little yellow enamelware teapot, & now my walls speak volumes.  It may not be a language to everyone’s liking, but it suits me just fine.  It is impossible to be depressed in that house.

Next project:  the ‘sledbed’ room.  Stay tuned!