To Decorate Our New Home

         Tim and I moved in to our wonderful and colorful apartment in Midtown Sacramento the day we got back from our honeymoon (to Yellowstone).  There was a whole lot of work to be done from cleaning to packing to unpacking.  It was a long arduous process but finally, after a few weeks, all the boxes were gone and things were starting to settle. Through all of this, Tim and I embarked upon a new hobby I believe we'll stick with "until death do we part." We now love to go meet artists and buy their artwork to decorate our home!
         The beautiful thing about it is that these pieces are "ours"- not Tim's not Emily's alone, but Ours.  By moving in to the same house as my husband I quickly learned that he has a lot of "cool" things- things that need to be on display and shown to passerby. While I thought I was the same way at first, it was only after the final box was unloaded that I saw the true magnitude of Tim's collections.  Don't get me wrong, it really is cool stuff!  Things from his lifetime, scientific findings, mementos from family vacations- all super cool!  The collections include a nautical compass, a TV rock, pine cones and leaves, plastic models of adrenaline and citric acid molecules. See? it's cool!  Another wonderful thing is that Tim has a collection of great paintings he has done himself so we proudly display those on our walls. I have contributed a couple myself, but none as grand as Tim's.
         But hey, let's get to the point here, the beautiful thing about us buying art together is that it is Ours, not his or mine, ours.  The point is, I want to share with you some of the art we're procured.

To the left is a picture of a portion of one of our walls- one of my favorite walls in our apartment.  The box shelves were a wedding gift. From left to right, the elephant was my grandpa's, the globe was a gift, and there is Tim's nautical compass. On top are model ships of a Pirate Korsar and a viking longboat.  The rightmost shelf has a real starfish Tim got for me along with a "love" piece that was a wedding gift.  The newest item here is the beautiful Blue Mountain Butterfly. We bought this last weekend (Oct. 16-17th) at the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival.  I love butterflies so much- they always remind me of God's beautiful extravagance because their magnificent beauty isn't entirely necessary to the world, but it's so delightful.  This butterfly was raised in a farm for scientific research then mounted as art so its loveliness could be cherished.
 This particular species, scientific name Papilio ulysses, was observed by a man named Alfred Wallace in the Malay Archipelago as he was tracking differences between this species in various regions as he developed a similar theory of evolution around the same time as Darwin. Cool, huh?  If you're interested to see more, check out the butterfly website at bugsunderglass.com

 A long time ago I saw a necklace with a butterfly wing in it and I've wanted one ever since.  My husband bought this for me and I've worn it each day since.  This is a Madagascar Sunset Moth wing pendant.  It contains the colors of an African sunset (I obviously love sunsets) and it's one of only a few day-flying moths in the world- and definitely the most beautiful!  I'm a little obsessed with this necklace.  In the photo I placed the pendant upon a painting given to me by my dear friend Angelique!  It's perfect.

Next up we have our FIRST art we bought as a married couple! Here are two photographs we bought from a Yellowstone photographer named David Peterson.  We befriended him at the Old Faithful Lodge as Old Faithful was erupting!

Bison near a giant Mud Pit

Mud pits are Tim's favorite geothermal feature,

This is a mud put bubble exploding!

Old Faithful through the Lodge Window (photo by Emily)

 In conclusion, it's so wonderful to be married to such a uniquely wonderful guy who has so many interests and is quite the genius.  What a pleasure it is to share in his life and make investments in our future each and every day.  I look forward to many more years full of procuring art with my true love.There are many more wonderful paintings and photographs on our walls and I encourage you to come visit our apartment some time to see them for yourself!
Thanks for listening!
Love,
Emily Oldenkamp

We Got Married!

best day of our lives :)

July 3, 2010

(more pictures to come)