I Married Adventure

In a corner of my living room I have a little space that I call the adventure corner..although I just now realized that it's no longer in the corner so I might have to come up with a new name.

It contains items that are precious to me and reflect my interest in travel and my love for a couple of filmmakers/photographers/adventurers/conservationists from the 1920s and 30s - Martin and Osa Johnson.  If you've never heard of them, and I don't imagine you have, go Google them right now, they were awesome.

They were a couple of kids from Kansas (birth state of my daddy) that spent their whole married life on a long adventure - first to Borneo and all over Africa. They photographed and filmed everything they saw and provided some of the first moving images of Africa. Part of me thinks it would be amazing to live life like that and part of me is happy just reading about it.

Osa wrote several books about their adventures. The books are really interesting but these days they are sought after more for the zebra and giraffe print covers than for their contents. I think they're beautiful too (that's why they are displayed proudly in my living room) but I wish the decorators would read them in addition to displaying them.

A famous purse designer liked the idea of the zebra print cover so much that she stole used the design for a purse a few years ago. I hate the fact that the Safari Museum, the copyright holder for the book, isn't getting to benefit from sales of the purses but I do love my purse and carry it often. When people comment on it, and they always do, I bore tell them all about Martin and Osa.

Osa's book about the four years she and Martin spent living near Lake Paradise in northern Kenya has inspired my love of giraffes.

Seriously, I LOVE giraffes.

This is Lance. He has nothing to do with Martin and Osa, Africa or giraffes, I just like him. Mr. French bought him for me for Christmas 20 years ago although it took almost a decade before he made it home to me because he was having an extended vacation with my sister. Now I've had him with me for a decade and I love seeing him in my living room. He's part of the family, I even decorate him for Christmas. He looks hot in a Santa hat.

Martin and Osa Johnson with their plane Spirit of Africa, 1920s.