a peek inside the fishbowl

28 Sep, 2007

A little tour of the things I love: first stop

Posted by andrea tomkins in: Easy ways to make kids happy|Oh! Things!

These past days I’ve been researching a pre-Christmas piece for Ottawa Magazine. It’s basically a gift guide, and my task was to tra la la around Westboro and West Wellington and find cool gift ideas for kids. I had a great time with this assignment. What a lucky lucky gal I am.

I had the pleasure of talking to many many extremely friendly shop owners and managers along the way. The message I interpreted from them was ultimately this: (a) we should surround ourselves with beautiful things (b) beautiful things don’t have to cost a lot of money and (c) our children’s toys can be beautiful too.

I’m not going to tell you what it is that I picked out for the magazine spread. You’ll have to wait until the issue comes out and see for yourself, but I will say that our stretch of Richmond Rd and Wellington is home to many sweet little shops that deserve our time and attention. Hmmm. I should supply you guys with names and addresses, shouldn’t I? I could do that later if you’re keen.

This whole thing got me thinking about our home, and our things, and especially the things that I love around our house that give me a special little thrill. And if you happen to be visiting my house, stopped in front of any of these things and told me you liked them, well, I’d like you a little more just for noticing.

I have a few things I wanted to share with you, but I will start with this jar full of (mostly) vintage game pieces and old dice:

 jar of random game pieces

This is an ongoing collection. I picked these up at various yard sales etc.  I really like wooden monopoly pieces. They feel warm to me, like they’ve retained Friendly Ghosts of Past Gameplay inside them. Am I sentimental fool or what? :)

Although I started collecting these for myself, I’ve since discovered is that the contents of this jar comes in very handy when the girls are playing games that come as a magazine pull-out, or if they’re concocting their own board games with a pencil and a pad of paper.

These pieces are pretty when they’re all together, but because they’re not rare, breakable, or valuable I never worry about the girls losing them. That way, they’re enjoying Friendly Ghosts too.


1 Response to "A little tour of the things I love: first stop"

1 | debra

September 29th, 2007 at 8:27 pm

Avatar

These remind me of things from the I Spy books.

comment form:

Archives

Me and my pet projects

Ottawa Bucket list

Subscribe via email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.


  • Gretchen Humphrey: I had a beautiful bee& birdbath filled with a solar fountain and dozens of antique marbles that were suddenly disappearing. At first I thought my
  • Jinjer: I am sobbing reading this post. And you're right, companion is not enough. Little furry treasured gifts that they are. Thanks for sharing cutie-pi
  • Karen: Dear Andrea, Mark and your daughters I am so very sad for your family xxx Piper was/is my favourite Instagram post. You shared with us so intimately
  • Christina Banuelos: Thank you for sharing Pipers life with us. Your posts of Piper brought me joy. Every time I see your post and see what kind of mischief Piper was gett
  • Carla Slocum: I am sitting here yet again crying at your loss. We have known that loss with Asta the WFT our first pup but now have the enormous gift of Stryker the
  • Janelle Brown: Dear Andrea Thank you for sharing Piper’s story with her followers. I empathise with your grief and emptiness as I lost my 14 year old Westie last
  • Natasha McReynolds-Nicholl: My god reading this is heartbreaking. December 1st was the as you describe longest day of my life, we lost out beautiful WFT hazel. Pipers final momen

The Obligatory Blurb

My name is Andrea and I live in the Westboro area of Ottawa with my husband Mark and our dog Piper who is kind of a big deal on Instagram. We also have two human offspring: Emma (24) and Sarah (22). During the day I work as a writer at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. I am a longtime Ottawa blogger and I've occupied this little corner of the WWW since 1999. The Fishbowl is my whiteboard, water cooler, and journal, all rolled into one. I'm passionate about healthy living, arts and culture, travel, great gear, good food, and sharing the best of Ottawa. I also love vegetables, photography, gadgets, and great design.

If you'd like to contact me, please use this form. If you're so inclined, you can read more about me here. Thank you for visiting!

 


Connect with me at these places too!

Still calling it Twitter