My New Old Phone

If last week's William Morris post was my most boring yet, than this week's is definitely my easiest. All I had to do was open a Mother's Day gift and snap some photos. 

A big part of the whole William Morris project is living with intention: buying and displaying and living with only those items that you deem beautiful or necessary.  So along with that intention, I knew that my husband had been looking around for a vintage rotary phone to use in our home.  I've wanted one too, but of course wasn't about to settle for just any old boring black or beige thing. 

Mother's Day morning brought flowers and waffles and sweet hand-painted art, two new books, and some Charming Charlies' bling. And then, there was this:

Ohmygoodness.  My new vintage aqua rotary phone. It is so cool.  It is so loud. It is so heavy. I forgot how heavy old rotary phones were. And yes, it works.  Perfectly. (It was purchased on Ebay, and all I know is that my husband had to bide his time for months to find a phone that looked good, worked and wasn't too expensive.)

It was amusing to teach the kids how to dial, to insert their fingers into the holes and tug: "you mean, I have to go all the way around?" (And yes,  when you dial each number, you hear that...rotary sound.)  It was like showing them how to wind up a Victrola.

Our phone doesn't ring all that often, and it'll probably give us all heart attacks if it ever rings after midnight, but hearing this thing ring...LOUDLY, and answering it, and placing the handset back into the cradle, puts a stupid, happy smile on my face. Every time.

Ring-A-Ling...It's for youuuu.   

Also: don't think I haven't been putting in my sweat this week. Because my bookshelves got the flu, and threw up their entire contents onto my living room floor.  It was helpful to type out the point of the WM project again at the start of this post, as it helps me remember not to keep something out of guilt, just because it was a wedding gift from nearly fifteen years ago.

So out go the dusty crystal vases and candle holders that never get used. In comes something old and funky and fun that'll be used every day, and will become part of the memories my children take when they leave our home. Maybe someday, they'll instruct their own kids on how to use an "antique" phone like this.  And they'll look like old pros.

Each Thursday I'm linking up with Jules at Pancakes and French Fries as part of her 2012 William Morris Project.