Heading Into the Weekend

Spirit Animal, am I right?

It's the Little Things

Welcome the latest addition to the hall, which is pretty much Equine Alley at this point:

Mostly horses there, while two lions are in the bedroom.  I'm almost at the tipping point: enough framed prints to build a tiny house, as opposed to a tiny house having enough wall space to accommodate them all.

This week has been productive.  Lots of moving and thinning out and re-sorting.  My back feels it, and there's a painful cardboard cut on my left middle finger.  When you break down box after box after box, that seems unavoidable.

Sec

YMy 2026 Nativity has arrived, and it is another mini one which fits inside a mint tin.  The Holy Child looks as though He's holding His breath until someone hands over the frankincense!

Or, for those of you whose memories go back far enough, a member of Bobby Benson's Baby Band.

I Do Not Like

1.  Liver.  It will always be first on a list like this.

2.  The word "pot."  Can't explain it;  I just don't.

3.  Spice without flavor.  Food should be a good time, not an endurance test.

4.  Runny eggs.  Ick.

5.  Meringue.  It probably hurt my mother's feelings when I would immediately slice off that my piece of her pies.  It's why I don't care for macarons.

6.  Chocolate ice cream.  Except for 

7.  Ignorance trying to mask itself with arrogance.  You know who you are.  And we know who you are.

Time to Count

Election Day in Georgia.  I was pleased to see a full parking lot at my assigned polling place.  I early voted at the Co-op Extension Office.  You should remember that that's the place with a really big chicken.

I like voting here.  It's seldom busy, and the poll workers are very friendly.  Actually, all the poll workers I've dealt with here have been lovely.  There's one woman at my assigned spot who knows that I'm always going to compliment her hair.  When she sees me, she starts turning her head around and laughing.  

I Do Like

1. The  smell of
leather.  Preferably worn, ideally in a barn.

2.  A level.  A plumb line, not so much.  Give me a good level.

4.  A good, strong bass line.  The kind that makes your feet tap, almost involuntarily.

5. A well-fitting men's suit.  You already know how I feel about men's hats...

6.  Snack Pack lemon pudding.  I didn't even know it existed until a few weeks ago;  now I'm hooked.

7.  Chimneys that still stand after houses are gone.  

8.  Rolled/folded/pushed up sleeves.  I also usually enjoy seeing sleeves rolled/folded/pushed up.

9.  These pants!  I might have had the chutzpah to wear them when I --- and my body --- were younger.  I will always love a good bell bottom.

Miss Kim Begins Putting Plans Together

For the porch "haven," I've begun looking for runner rugs.  What do you think about this one, with the miss-them-with-a-simple-glance bats?

Of course, there will be little knicks and knacks bought for decoration, but the main purchases will be a runner and a chair.  The searches have begun.  They must both be purple.  That requirement immediately narrows the range of choices.  Do any of you have recommendations for rug and/or chair purveyors?*

*"Purveyors" because I've been watching "Deadwood."  Other words from the series are a little more bawdy.

And Another Thing

My insomnia stretched past 36 hours.  I am a night owl, but that was ridiculous.

Just Waiting to Fall

I have been awake since 4:30 yesterday afternoon.  These stretches of insomnia almost always come on Thursday nights.  Therapy, of course, is on Friday, so there may be a connection there.

I replaced my sunflowers with these dark purple tulips,

which I do enjoy.

I've got some wildflower seeds which I'm going to scatter over some bald spots in the yard.  I ordered a lavender tree, which I hope to plant by the front porch.  Why I'm interested in seeds and planting all of a sudden is anyone's guess.  Oh, and I got a baby air plant.  Did you know they're called pups?  I have a small conch shell I may put it in, or a really pretty piece of glass that is part of something that I don't know.  I want to say it was involved in a tea set somehow?  Anyway, I've given it its submerge bath, and we'll see what happens.  I've never understood how air plants survive, much less reproduce.

Floral

 Temu has me in a wall art finger trap of animals on couches.  It is entirely Temu's fault.  To assuage my feelings over buying prints, I branched out and bought some artificial tulips.

Now, the problem with cleaning out your house is that whatever flower vases you had (and it was never many) are no longer handy.  So in the spirit of making do with what you have:When I gathered up shells to put in the lamp based, I had big ones left over.  I was seized with an idea.  Pride in this is now right up there with taking the treadmill apart (and hauling it from the porch to the front of the house.)

Florally speaking, my sunflowers are beginning to crinkle, but they have held up well.

That's Eilidh, and her name follows the grand Scottish tradition of sounding exactly nothing like how it looks.  ("Aylee," for the record.)

Staredown

Do you ever have to sit with something?  An idea, a problem, a memory, a person.

I'm haing to sit with my IKEA* lion.  Henrik.  The decision of whether to take him with me when I move is what's up in the air.  He has sat atop the armoire in the bedroom since I got him.  The armoire might not even fit in Tiny House.

"Armoire" is one of those hard-to-say words for me.  "Rural" I can usually manage.  "Rural juror" is a bit trickier.^

The porch is now empty of things that won't be in "my" room.  I took the cat tower apart, which was surprisingly difficult.  The treadmill eventually gave in after hammers and allen wrenches and rust removal oil and a crowbar.  I'm as proud of taking that treadmill apart as anything I've done in a while.

Now, I didn't say the porch was clean, only that it's empty.  On the left there, you can see the power drill I had to buy myself.  Yes, it's pink, but that isn't why I bought it.  I bought it because it was the cheapest one.  Which says that tool manufacturers still buy into stereotypes, and/or nobody wants to own a pink tool set because of, you know, stereotypes.  I'm excited about all this, but really hope I move out not too long after it's all done.

I want to buy a runner rug and a chair.  The chair will probably determine where everything else goes.  I've already built a plant stand you can't see in a corner.  There's a trip to Lowe's in my future for more potting soil.

*Not yelling --- that's how they spell it.

^IYKYK

Look Up

It's been a weird day.  I was up and down three times last night and into this morning;  my sleeping routine is still in shambles after being sick.  It feels very much like a weekend day.  Poor Tap is more discombobulated, though.  He has been fast and hard asleep all day, snoring away.

Welcome my latest Poppet.

Kind of self-explanatory.  After I had already ordered this, the Artemis poppet debuted.

I may yet have an opportunity to own one,but if I don't, there'll be this "catalog" photo, which almost brings me to tears: