Welcome to the new blog!

As this blog celebrates its fourth birthday tomorrow, I've decided it's time to change things a bit. The old layout needed some jazzing up and my obscure literary reference title was too much of a tongue-twister. Writing museum newsletters is forcing me to learn to be concise! I also wanted to describe what inspires my writing - even if I'm not doing intense research anymore, I always think and observe like an historian. I want to know how things got the way they are today, and I can't get enough of contextual backstories. And if I come across really smart discussions of how America's crazy religious potpourri evolved, I'm basically like:

So A Beaten Copper Lamp of Deplorable Design is now Catholic History Nerd! (New URL coming soon.) Don't worry, I'll still keep referencing Brideshead Revisited as much as humanly possible. I'll also keep posting pictures of cool churches I visit. I'm working in a museum while my husband finishes his history dissertation, and we're doing our best to take lots of field trips around New Jersey and New York.The pew pictured in my header is from the Basilica of St. Louis, King of France aka the Old Cathedral of St. Louis, MO.

Standing at the gateway to the west since 1834

Over my past few years in the blogosphere, I've been blessed to meet some inspiring  people and take part in some exciting discussions about what it means to be a young adult Catholic in this post-post Vatican II era. Spiritual topics that are are on my mind a lot include: Catholic culture, liturgy, love and marriage, feminism, the Pope, what makes for good church architecture, how to be a person of faith engaged with the modern world.  There will also be gluten-free food, Sunday church outfits, and goofy pop culture references. Thanks so much for reading!