Leaves

I love the trees on our street.  I do, however, miss baby quail season.

Work Work

 I've been making new stuff for Saturday all day long; it's very exciting!
There will be buttons, rings, earrings and a whole bunch of new (and some old) necklaces.  I'll post what doesn't sell to the shop after the weekend's over.

This Saturday

We'll be here:

As the flyer states, there is a raffle to benefit B.A.R.C. an awesome animal shelter in brooklyn, and there are going to be drink specials and other fabulous vendors there.  It will be fun and exciting, and afterwards you can go to the game!

My Kitchen

It's not really a secret that I love jars.  When we moved, we got rid of everything and I had this grand idea to only use jars as drinking glasses.  I would (and still do occasionally) buy items at the store because I liked the jar it came in.  Of course, some just won't work as a drinking glass but still can be very useful, and I felt wasteful throwing them away--so I ended up with a large surplus of glass bottles and jars that were accumulating at a fairly alarming rate.  Since then I've found a solution in using them as storage containers.  I had bought some plastic kitchen storage bins to keep things like rice and sugar, but I stopped using them because I like my solution better.  I'll use sharpie to label the contents and it washes right off when I reuse the jar for something else.

Silver Coins

Justin gave me some old coins. Aren't they lovely?  The pennies are more than one hundred years old (!) and the rest of the coins are coin silver.  I didn't realize that quarters were made of silver until 1964, I always thought they made the switch to nickel clad copper earlier than that.  The liberty half dollar (the one on the left) is one of my favorite coins, I think it has a beautiful design.  I don't think I'll be able to drill these into necklaces.  However, I have been itching to make one of these rings for a while, and I have a few ben franklin half dollars. .  . I may just have to sacrifice one.

This weekend we went to Trash Beach

And it was wonderful. I felt like the greedy kid in the candy store who ends up with nothing because I tried to grab everything.  Except that I actually ended up with tons of fabulous trash.  Then I got to come home, clean everything and organize it. 

I think my favorites might be the three nail polish bottles that still have dried nail polish in them, and the little round glass stoppers.  There were Clorox bottles (broken bottoms only) everywhere. 

Antics

Don't you love it when your cats have knocked over the trash can while you're away, and you get to clean it all up when you get home?  This has been happening with more regularity since Subway Cat (melvin) has come to live with us.  Apparently, trash cans contain edible food (I swear that ice cream carton was completely cleaned out!)  There has also been a rash of bag chewing in our household; another likely street habit. sigh.

Bookshelf

I love looking through other people's bookshelves; I've been known to peruse friend's books while visiting (and maybe ask to borrow a book or two)  One day I will have a dedicated library.  I want a room with floor to ceiling bookshelves filled with books, comfortable chairs next to a window, and perhaps a desk and a fireplace.  Or why don't I just move into the Morgan Library?  That would be nice.  Until then, I'll have to be content with my Ikea Expedit bookcase (at least it's double sided!) and the 'library' being the entrance to the bedroom.

This is my favorite shelf: My favorite Nancy Drew books, an Italian phrasebook, and some great pulp paperbacks.

I was inspired by this post this morning.

Locks!

Locks!
Originally uploaded by Lock and Spoon

Spoon is stranded in England right now (lucky her) and she gets to go to museums that have all kinds of fancy old things in them. I love the triangle lock in the center, but there is something fabulous about the big lock in front, too. I love the pattern on the metal.

My Jewelry

This copper pendant was attached to a ring of rusty keys at the farm.  I didn't know what it was, but my grandfather says it is an old taxi operator's license.  Regardless of what it is, I like it, and I especially like it with my brass caribbean coin.  It's one of my favorite necklaces to wear.

TIn case you're wondering, this is what James H. Kerby looked like.  He was the fourth Arizona Secratery of State: 1923-1929, and he served again from 1933-1939.  

Tea Time

The book is called Best American Humorous Short Stories.  The foreword is very interesting.

Greasey likes the milk and has no qualms about drinking it right in front of me.  If I shoo her away, she'll come right back.  She will drink anything I leave out if she can reach the liquid, and sometimes if she can't.  I caught her once drinking orange juice by reaching her paw into the glass, dipping it into the juice, and then licking it off.  She also likes to knock things over: sometimes she gets angry that the water level is too low, and she'll push the glass of water off of the table.  I keep telling her "that's why we can't have nice things," but I don't know that she listens.

Salt Cellars

I have a thing for salt cellars. . . I love decorative dishes and bowls, but these just happen to be tiny.

Good Luck

Yesterday I found a secret package at practice.  I didn't know who it was from but I was very excited to find out what it was:

I really love it so thank you secret gifter!  I'm trying to figure out who it was, and I've narrowed it down to about five people who would have guessed that a crochet covered horseshoe would be right up my alley.  I do know it wasn't Justin because whoever it was has nice handwriting. 

Tiny Leaves

Nearly all of the trees have sprouted leaves, and the streets are starting to have a canopy.  The leaves are so tiny, it's not fully covered yet, but I swear they are substantially larger every day.  I'm also loving the flower covered trees--I never noticed that they are everywhere.  

Sleepy Mason

Mason the Greyhound enjoyed the air mattress while we had it out for guests.  It's his favorite bed.  The cats all find perches near the open windows; the weather has been beautiful since those hot days last week.