Life of a Retiree
One of the best things in life that a retiree could have is time. I have come to a point in life where I do not have to check my watch or phone to check what time it is... and to hurry up to come home from work. Being a retiree, you do not have to worry if you are being caught not doing anything. You have all the time in the world, no stress, you decide on your own as you manage your time.
Since I have been working on my health issues lately, I am trying to manage my activities and one of them is walking and exercising to regain muscle deficiency which was a result of losing almost 20 kilos weight at the time of the sudden death of my beloved husband.
Thrifting
Being alone doesn't mean one is lonely. I have my family and friends who are checking on me. They push me up no matter what the distance is. Now. I have the time in the world and I want to continue with the hobbies I´ve been doing since ages. I like to scour the flea markets as I love old things that had stories in their past. Others do this with passion, trying to wake up very early to get the best bargains. My goal visiting a flea market is to be able to find things that I like. Sometimes, I´d go home without a haul. It's the escapades in interacting with people and experiencing the commotions and their happy faces that smile when they are able to make a bargain.
The Haul
As for my finds, I discovered them in a thrift store called Carla, it is a charitable institution of Caritas Vienna, that carries all things vintage and secondhand articles donated by people who no longer need them. The proceeds go to help homeless people and other charitable projects.
I carefully cleaned the candle holder from the wax and a patina of green and black hues came out which are lovely. I suspect that this pair had been made in Africa as I have a similar carved candle holder brought by the husband from his trip to Kenya.
This is a rustic wooden plate that is hand painted mostly by housewives from the countryside to earn extra income while at home. I have a few collections and I think they are lovely. I added this plate on that wall.
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I also found this magnetic memo pad for the wall in art deco style. It reminded me of the Metro stations while visiting Paris.
Lack of Wall Space?
Three years ago, we decided to downsize our 4 bedroom house with a garden and moved to a 2 bedroom flat with a balcony to have an easy life and more time for ourselves instead of working for its maintenance. Since we have many travel Memorabilia and some artworks, the only place I could think of is to make the wall of the comfort room into a gallery. This is the smallest room that has wall space, so I put some of the travel souvenirs to camouflage the empty wall and added bookshelves on one side. The books are mostly art books, craft books and cooking and baking books.
There´s plenty of dusting work to do in this small space, but I don´t worry, it is not boring as I have all the time in the world..... afterall, I am a retiree!
Thank you for reading my blog, and thanks to @dswigle for creating the Market Friday Community.
Hope to see you soon!
xoxo,
Mers
GIF by @gremayo
All images are by @mers
Hope to see you soon!
xoxo,
Mers