Or is this the vilest picture ever

[ThinkAboutItTomorrow]

and what the fuck do I do with it?

My cleaner just brought us a picture back from her holiday back home in Lithuania. I have put a photo on my profile page, but it doesn't quite capture the full horror in all it's, er, 'vibrancy'.

It's not just the picture itself, it's the little glass bead type things attached to it, adding texture and a bit of a sparkly effect.

She is lovely and I can't hurt her feelings but I cannot fathom what possessed her to think this would go in our house, let's just say it doesn't exactly fit the decor. She is here every week so we have to have it on display somewhere. But oh. my. god. I cannot look at that every day.

If someone comes on here and tells me this is a great piece of Lithuanian artistic heritage I will feel suitably ashamed and that IABU. But I won't change my opinion off the bloody picture. It is hideous.

where do I put it?

[BakeOLiteGirl]

Put it in your DD's room and say the Baltic amber in the picture is helping with her teething.

[ravenAK]

The biggest danger is that you WILL start to like it.

I have a massive silk-screened abstract thing a London friend bought me ten years ago - we were pottering round Camden, I flicked through a rack of these, &, I think, said something vague about one of them being a lovely intense purple (& didn't add that it was otherwise bogglingly fugly because shopkeeper was hovering).

Friend said 'oh, you should get it'; & I said something like 'no - I just can't face lugging it home on the train'.

No prizes for guessing what I got several months later as an engagement present. Not even the purple one!

Dh recently pointed out, as we moved various rooms around, that we could quietly hide it, & friend would never notice as the whole room it was in has been re-decorated & changed purpose - & if she did we could claim it had been put away for safekeeping during the decorating.

I found myself defending the ghastly thing. It's bloody gone & grown on me.

So I'd suggest that you pretend to take yours to work 'to brighten up my office, it's so lovely...' before it takes root!

[GrandstandingBlueTit]

Oh gosh, bless her. She must really like you to do think of you when on holiday at home, and bring something back like this.

I can appreciate its qualities. But... overall... It's not great, is it?

[Thumbwitch]

I second putting it in your DD's room, perhaps above the door where you won't see it every time you go in.

Amber isn't as expensive in the Baltics as it is elsewhere, IME (certainly it was cheap as chips in Russia when I went) but it's still not dirt cheap, so she has given you something that she considers of value. If she loves your DD she'll be very happy that you thought of putting it in DD's room :)

[KittyMcFumble]

It's vile. Couldn't you punch a big hole in it (between the beading) and tell her there's been a Terrible Accident...

I was given a hideous garden ornament by a friend who clearly has no idea about my taste and I'm wondering how long I need to keep it. It's been there about 6 months. I am thinking a year tops but at least it's tucked away in the garden.

[Chusband]

Do you want a house full of mass produced matching items from Ikea or a house full of quirky and interesting things that have a story behind them and remind you of places you've been and people you've met?

Try and convince yourself it's the latter!

[RevoltingPeasant]

I would definitely put it in DD's room. If the cleaner loves DD you can say, 'Oh DD kept pointing at it and we wanted her to see it when she woke up in the mornings'. Thank your stars DD is too young to give you the lie.

Then sedulously train DD every day: 'Look at the lovely pretty picture, look DD look'. One day soon DD will say 'pwetty pitcher' in front of the cleaner and then there is no way she can be offended.

Job done

[cashmiriana]

You will learn to love it, in the same way that we learned to love the blown goose egg, sprayed gold, mounted on a gilt stand, and decorated with golden braid, 'jewels' and tiny diamante butterflies that was a present to my mum from the lovely lady who cleaned her classroom at school (my mum was tutoring her daughter as a favour.) It was... unique.
It was also considerably smaller than your lovely picture.

[FrenchRuby]

I actually really like it! I love ship pictures.

[ThinkAboutItTomorrow]

Justgettingonwithit Now I feel guilty. She isn't exactly flush and certainly shouldn't waste money on us.

I guess it goes up. Somewhere easy to move in the week.

[Jinty64]

Replace a picture in the living room with the monstrosity for the day the cleaner is there. Change them over again in the evening. Sorted!

[JustGettingOnWithIt]

I just dropped it into photoshop for a closer look, it is Amber.

[LJL69]

That is a belter!! Why not ask her where she thinks it would look nice? Or maybe not as she may suggest somewhere that isnt the garage/loft

[Rooners]

Oh gosh how sad, this always makes me want to cry since a similar story in my first confession booklet when I was 7

You didn't need to know that, but anyway, I have seen worse. It's a toss up between two 'paintings' my sort-of ex used to have on his walls. I had to stifle a giggle, he actually liked them.

One was a faded-to-blue picture of a wood, or a lake or something...you know I can't remember what it was but it was some kind of landscape. It was the colour of a smartie packet that had been left in the rain for four years. It was a print obviously.

The other one was a huge oil painting of a weird looking jazz trumpeter's face, close up, (this will out me to anyone who knows him) and if that wasn't bad enough it has got splashes of primary colours added all over it, presumably to cheer it up a bit.

Not sure if the trumpet player is crying too. You know, like pierrot?

It sucks, it really does. I have no idea where his taste in 'art' comes from. Hell, I think. He has some nice things too though.

[JustGettingOnWithIt]

BTW just to warn you it's considered standard to keep cellophane on if you don't want it to become a total dust trap. At least you have a cleaner though.

[JustGettingOnWithIt]

I was just about to say those stones are almost certainly Amber (I had two from well meaning Latvian friend as thank you presents) and I'd be suprised if they're fake. She's actually probably paid quite a bit for it, just to make you feel worse!

As the stones started to fall from mine I encouraged them and set some in a pendant and made much of it to him, and turned the unhappy gift into something nicer we both could enjoy me having.

[cocolepew]

Obviously it's no crying gypsy woman but i quite like it

[ThinkAboutItTomorrow]

Amber? God, I hope it didn't cost her much, she's saving for her son's wedding! And it's horrible.

[Onesleeptillwembley]

How lovely of her, but there's only one way to deal with this so she's not offended - kill her and hide the body.

[CharlotteBr0nteSaurus]

once upon a time I would have said put it up to be polite. however, I have a cautionary tale. SIL once got me a small Vettriano print. Very much not to my taste, but on the wall it went.

For my next birthday, four friends clubbed together to buy me two, enormous, framed Vettriano prints. Because they'd seen the print in my house and "noticed I was a fan".

6 year later they were in "the box that went missing" during a house move.

[Antidote]

Arf. That is nasty. It reminds me of the present my French exchange brought us, which my mother poped, unopened in the fridge assuming it was naice French chocolates.

Oh the shame when we opened them after supper on her third night, with guests, to discover a foul landscape of les alps.

[BlingBang]

Seen worse like the the shockingly naff catholic pictures (3D) and statues our overseas rellies insisted on sending us, along with their ugly second hand clothes. Display it with pride!

[LumpySpace]

You need to take it to one of those overpriced old shit vintage shops. I bet they would sell it for £££££ probably to Kirstie Allsop.