I was visiting my grandfather a couple weeks ago and I saw he had this photo framed on the mantle. The first time I'd seen it was at my grandmother's funeral back in 2005, and I remember staring at it then for the longest time. He thinks it was taken in 1936 or 1937, when they were still in high school.  That was his jalopy he used to constantly fix up to drive her down the dirt roads of Lenawee County. They were together almost 70 years.

I told him that I found this photo to be cinematic and cool. It hit me later that they reminded me of Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek in Badlands (an all-time favorite around here), but better, you know, because this was real and they weren't about to depart on some pointless crime spree. I love their clothes. I love how they have that whole century ahead of them, together. I asked my grandfather if I could borrow it and scan it. A few days ago we drove back down to return it. The kids chased his jack russell around the house, and he told me stories about how the young man in that photo would get up every morning at 4:30 to deliver newspapers and then went right back to work after school was done (and still managed to get elected class president). I thumbed through his high school yearbooks, the scrapbook they made for him of letters written by community members upon his retirement as city water commissioner.

All that life behind him, I thought, watching him hold his great-grandson, with all that life ahead of him.

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This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

Francis "Bug" Mauer of Nashville, Michigan died last year after spending two decades building a miniature version of the large working farm on which he grew up near Roscommon, Michigan. Now his son and grandson transport the farm to county fairs on the back of a flatbed truck.



"My wife said I had to get a hobby. So I had a dream to build an old-fashioned farm. I started working on this in 1987.

In building this, I build and take apart until it looks right to me. All the shingles are made from a cedar board and tapered by hand and nailed on. I've been to Iowa, Indiana, and Minnesota to pick up livestock and machinery.

When I came back and told my wife how much it cost, she said 'Don't have a dream like that again.'

I know things are cramped, but I only had so much space! It was designed for a 200-acre farm. There's a lot of work to be done yet."
----Francis (Bug) Maurer





"I still think he should take up whittling!"
----Mrs. Francis Maurer

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This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.

I have been looking for some nice pillows for our couch for a long time. My wife---for whom total comfort on the couch is an absolute necessity---was falling asleep on these ratty old queen-sized pillows in ratty old pillowcases and every time guests stopped over I had to rush to throw them in the closet. They were seriously gross. Sometimes I would find the dog cuddled up on one down on the floor.

The last time we were in Cincinnati, I stopped into this little store on Vine Street and I saw one of these pillows embroidered with the image of suburban ranch homes. I loved it, but it was the wrong color for our room. When I got back to the hotel, I told my wife about it and the small company that makes them: K Studio. I'd seen their products online, but it wasn't until I'd seen them in real life that I realized how cool they were, and it wasn't until I talked to the proprietor at MiCA that I learned K Studio was based in Grand Rapids, a wonderful city in western Michigan where my wife and I have lived in the past and just a short drive from the smaller cities where we were raised. He also told me that it was a small business venture between a daughter and her mother, with the daughter doing the design and her mother working with the embroidery aspect. In short, I was in love with this company.

When I wrote to place my order for the pillow above, Shelly Klein wrote back to tell me she was a fan of the blog. So, of course, I had to buy one of K Studio's custom Family Series pillows, shown here:



There we all are---even Wendell----embroidered for posterity. This pillow kind of reminds me of a softer version of the Saul Steinberg print I bought for my wife during the last pregnancy:



We've now added a couple of simpler pillows to the couch as well, and I've thrown the ratty old pillows into the dog's crate. We hadn't done anything nice for the house in a long time, but just adding a couple really cool pillows to our living room has made it seem fresh and new.

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This blog is intended solely to share the things I come across that inspire me. If I have posted a copyrighted image, I have only done so to the extent necessary to comment upon or discuss it; I will always include a link to the original source of the image if that source is online or acknowledge the source if it is in print. If I have reproduced anything of yours here that is copyrighted and you want me to remove it, please do not hesitate to contact me and I will do so right away.