A Box
This post is from my good friend Nicole from deliajude who I coincidentally know from back in the cringe-worthy years. Thank you Nicole!
I love parcels in the mail.
Even expected packages, you know, the kind you order yourself.
(I love the unexpected ones even more.)
This particular box was the kind of parcel I handpicked from Amazon.
A little indulgence.
A just because I deserve a new book…or two.
I knew what was coming.
Books I had heard a many great things about.
But how could I know just how amazing the books would be.
The Gentle Art of Domesticity and Cringe.
Patiently, I awaited the US release of Gentle Art,
as I was not willing to pay shipping costs from the UK.
Well worth the wait.
A lovely little, or as the case may be, not-so-little book.
I did the initial flip-through, stopping occasionally to read an excerpt and soak in the photographs…I definitely want to try my hand at making “rock cakes.”
I cannot wait to dive in…curled up on a cozy sofa with a cuppa joe in hand.
…
When I flipped open Cringe the first thing I noticed was inside the book flap.
What are those called?
The compiler, Sarah Brown, had a list from her teenage years of everything she wore to school for the school year 90/91.
I started chuckling because somewhere is stashed a box full of my teenage journals and somewhere in that box is a journal, on yellow paper is written every thing I wore for in grade 10.
Yeah, call me super vain!
Or super insecure. I suspect the latter.
…
I was inspired to pull out my old journals and notebooks and spend a couple of hours gasping at what I thought were huge life decisions…turns out I was a vain, selfish teenager who thought far too much about clothes, boys and death.
Also, it appears I have since tossed a couple of teenage-angst-filled diaries and what remains are many journals from my twenties, clipping notebooks (articles and photographs), and prayer journals. I thought about giving you a wee sampling but instead I challenge you to unearth the journals of your youth and take a good look at your younger self.
Entertaining I suspect.
Or go out and buy Cringe, which by the by is the perfect name for such a book, and be entertained.
Better yet, do both.
5 Comments
Gayle
That is so true Nicole! I have just one journal from my teen years and I definitely cringe when I look through it. Makes me glad I’m not a teen anymore!
karen
I’ve got a few of my teenage journals in storage, with the idea that I’ll hand them to my kids someday, so they’ll know that I was also insecure, self-centered, and terrified my mother would find out I’d kissed that boy. It’s amazing any of us survive our teens…
lynne
I was thinking of buying the Gentle of Art of Domesticity as well. I hope you like the rock cakes. They should be moist and they are lovely warm from the oven spread with butter. I have a diary from my teenage years lurking about here somewhere too but I ma sure it would be toe curlingly embaressing. But we had to grow through the people we were to get to where we are now, so here’s to forgiving our self – involved teenage selves :)
Annabanana
Thanks Nicole I think I just might do that. I have a feeling mine will be quite like yours. I even had a fashion journal, now that would be a hoot!!
I was reading over at another blog a few weeks back about writing a letter to your 19 year old self. What would you tell that self?
I think I would have a lot of yelling to do in my letter. But then again I think if I didn’t do the masses of stupid stuff I did and write the dark dreary stuff I did I wouldn’t be where I am now. I would probably be married to a certain ‘meeting’ guy and be miserably pregnant with my 8th chid and have never picked up my paint brush. Thank you Lord!!!
Sarah Brown
Aw, thanks for the plug!
Those outfit lists are actually Amy Shapiro’s. I fought hard to have them in the endpapers like that. My favorite is “Alabama tie dye outfit.” What? Oh yes.