When I shared about my dining room previously Kathy had asked about what was to the left of the pictures that I had shared. Between being out of town in Japan and being quite sick since the middle of last week I haven't had a chance to post about it up until now. 
That area is opposite from the dining room bay windows and features a small wall between my stairs and the hallway doorway to the side wing of my house. On that wall I can't have anything that sticks out from the wall very much or it would impede traffic from the living room to the kitchen. I always need to have more book storage so I built a bookshelf from bricks and bi-fold closet doors for the spot. I previously shared a tutorial about how to make the bookshelf here.
Above the bookshelf I have black and white 12x18 enlargements from pictures that I took. I framed the photos in some inexpensive 16x20 Ribba frames from Ikea. From left to right the pictures are Machu Picchu in Peru, Florianopolis in Brazil, the Great Wall in China and Banaue Rice Fields in the Philippines.
On top of the bookshelf I have arranged several of my souvenirs from various trips. The left side has a vignette arranged in some antique boxes that I bought in Japan at a flea market. I love the dove tails joints on the box and the embossed markings on the sides.
In my medium box on the left I have one of a pair of shisa (guardian lion dogs) from Okinawa in Japan. On top of the box is a little wooden carved container from the Carribean.
Inside the large box I have a rice god statue that I bought while hiking around Banaue in the Philipines. I picked that particular statue because I liked his dangling earrings. Behind the statue is a jade carving that I found at a market in Beijing which I had a lot of fun haggling over the price about.
Up in the top little box is a wood carving of a black bear from Hokkaido. To the right of the boxes are two carved coconut cups that I bought in Guatemala. In front is an abacus that I bought at the flea market at Toji Temple in Kyoto.
On the right side I have a series of bowls perched on Japanese silk bobbins called itomaki (木製糸巻). The bowls from left to right are a hand carved redwood bowl from California and a bowl from South Africa carved with the big five African game animals. Following is a bowl that I made in Seto, Japan and a vase I got in New Zealand carved from a native tree fern, mamaku.
Just to the left of the bowls I have a carved vessel with two birds perched on top that I bought in the Philippines on the same trip I bought the little rice god statue. To the left of that is a carved hanger for tapestries that I found at the Night Market in Luang Prabang in Laos.
Directly in front of the bowls is an African elephant calendar I bought in South Africa. The twelve miniature elephant carvings each represent one month of the year. Arranged in order by height, you flip the direction of one elephant for each month that has passed.
To the right of the bowls I have a bottle that I discovered in my house's walls, a little abacus and a rock I picked up while hiking Mt. Fuji.
I know that the top of the bookcase is overcrowded and a bit cluttered looking, but each of these items is really special to me and can't imagine not displaying everything.
While I was in Japan I hit a milestone. As I was wandering around Gujo Hachiman in the rain I snapped this picture along the banks of the Yoshida River.
Thursday, August 2, 2012 at 8:06AM | Posted by 
