Five Among Friends-- Cottages, Collections & our Fuzzy Family!

This week's Five Among Friends are brought to us us by Kera Martucci of Nugget on a Budget {love the blog name btw Kera-- so catchy!}

1. If you get a day to stay home {and not have to go anywhere} what's on your list of things to do?

Right now?  Play Borderlands with Jeremy.  We make a great team.  We finished Portal 2 not too long ago, and now we are busting up Pandora like pros~*

That's it really.  Have I mentioned I've been going to lots of meetings lately?  My brain is tired.  

2. Are you a dog or cat person or neither? Do you have a pet?

Both.  We have two indoor cats-- Boromir & Mac + an outside stray that we feed and have named Dalek.  We get a lot of strays where we live-- my guess is that college kids who got pets they can't afford to keep drop them off thinking they will become barn cats. Dalek showed up skinny and scared & we had to help him.  I would adopt him and bring him inside, but he won't have it.  Recently he has been allowing me to pet him & he even runs up to me when I pull in after work.  Baby steps.

We have 3 dogs-- Alice, Thing 3's jack russel terrier mutt; The Doctor, my husbands very fat beagle, and my puppy Poosh, a chihuahua mutt.  We love them all much of muchness.

2. Do you collect anything {or have a hobby you're passionate about}? What is it?

You mean, besides pets?  Lol!  We have a few collections-- but with the exceptions of the books in our library and my "bubble" glass they aren't generally displayed all in one place.  I like collections scattered around the house like reoccurring themes.  I gathered a sampling of some of our favorites, lemme give you a tour!

Lots o'books.  Vintage cookbooks & party planning are our newest obsession, but we also collect history books (comes with our profession), encyclopedia sets & vintage editions of Alice in Wonderland~*

World War I German sweetheart postcards, vintage door knobs & trench art. The World War I collectibles are a nod to my husband's field of research. On a loosely related note, he also collect vintage group photos, just because. Our two favorite mortar shell vases are on our table right now-- soldiers referred to going to the trenches as "seeing the elephant," so finishing their grouping with the white elephant seemed fitting. The flowers are artificial, to keep the shells from corroding.

I collect pigs-- they were seen as good luck in American colonial culture. I also collect one specific mold of cast iron flying pig because he appears to be smiling & I find him adorable. I have a few cast iron doorstops, but my Humpty Dumpty is my undisputed favorite. My Mom found him-- she knows my taste so well! You might notice the Tweedle Dum & Tweedle Dee print in the background of the first photo-- Alice art is another collection.

And then there are the craft supplies.  Projects in the making, I has them.  I didn't photograph the piles of scrapbook paper & empty jars because I don't want ya'll to think I'm a hoarder.

Those are just the tip of the iceberg really. Some other collections have made appearances in past posts {like the vintage frames & mirrors in our bedroom}. For the most part our collections are relatively small & quite specific-- that keeps them special & makes finding them more fun.   We are always on the look out for new things to amass!

4. Cabin in the mountains or house on the beach?

Oh wow, that is super tough.  Hmmmm.  Okay, I'd have to go cabin in the mountains, well, cottage in the mountains to be dream-perfect.  But I reserve the right to change my mind later~*

Photo from Remodelista

5. What is the best piece of life advice that you can give?

Life is what is happening right now.  You can't live it by thinking "someday I'll be happy" or "when this is done I'll be happy"  or "if I meet the right person, I'll be happy."  You are in charge of your own happiness, and every single day you spend unhappy is a day wasted.  That doesn't mean life is always perfect, or will ever be perfect-- and it doesn't mean you should stop growing or changing.  But it does mean that if you are currently unhappy, look hard at what you are doing-- if it is worth doing, or necessary, find peace in that and let go of the unhappiness. If it isn't necessary or can be changed, then change it.  Most mistakes you make can be fixed, but remaining unhappy out of fear of failing is just a waste of time.  Besides, isn't living an unhappy life the biggest failure there is?  Max Ehrmann had it right:

Poster from Matt Dominguez

That's how I try to live my life.

So there it is, be happy by making your own happiness and, correspondingly,  stop making yourself miserable.  Is that too much to ask? lol

One way you could make yourself happy is to check out the other bloggers that play Five Among Friends!! 




Now go out and be awesome!


PS 
This is the first week of classes-- I do have posts thought out for Wednesday & Friday, but whether or not I'll have time to write them remains to be seen...