Tag: photos

Waiting…waiting…

I was out shopping with Tim on Saturday (you can read about that and other things related to this post on his blog here), and I impulsively spent money I don’t have on furniture I hadn’t planned to buy. But it was ANTIQUE. And a good deal! And I even bargained, which is something I don’t do. I bought a reupholstered chair and love seat that the seller estimates are about a hundred years old–that’s even older than my house (eightyish) and ME (ageless). But I bought them just before Ja-vi Custom-made and Antique Furniture closed for the day, and they aren’t open on Sunday or Monday, so I had to wait until today for them! In Aries Instant Gratification Days, that’s two hundred years.

So Tom said he’d go into work late this morning; then my sister-wife Kathy arrived with her truck at nine, and off they went. Except the shop didn’t open until ELEVEN. If only I could read their web site, I would have known I had to wait another twenty Aries years.

But finally the furniture is here. After Kathy and Tom left, I arranged everything about a dozen ways, because even though the new pieces have their own kind of largeness, they’re smaller than what I took out and better suited to my living room. Finally, I was satisfied, and made a couple of dog-related decisions.


1. I would put my mother’s blanket chest under the window behind the love seat so the dogs can jump on the chest and watch Rex TV (the street) without being on the new furniture and potentially scratching the wood with their toenails.
2. I would put easily-washed quilts on the furniture so that when the dogs jump on it–and they will, blanket chest notwithstanding–I have a shot at keeping dog hair and stink off of it.

I had reckoned without Margot’s burrowing instincts. I went into the living room earlier to show Tim the arrangement, and the quilt on the love seat was already in a big pile. I smoothed it back in place and took a photo of Guinness there.

And here’s Margot in the nest she made on the chair.

Looking forward to Tim’s dogs building forts out of the quilts later today.

Magnetic Poetry 365:290

ETA: Does anyone remember where these vases came from? I had a couple of them when I was a kid, but I don’t know what happened to them. Mine were blue. I found this one in a junk store the other day and bought it for nostalgia’s sake. For some reason, I had it in my head they were free gifts with Avon back in the Mesoproterozoic Era. But I can’t seem to find photos of them online to confirm that.

Runway Monday: The Final Challenge (PR 9:12)

Oh, Project Runway, you couldn’t cut me some slack on the last regular episode? No. You had the designers create a mini collection. They were sent to Governors Island in NYC to get inspiration from the landscape, architecture, and the sculpture installation by Mark di Suvero. Then they had to create a range of designs for three models to walk the runway. (And not to be a total bitch, but Josh, the word is “artillery,” not “artillirary.” Just sayin’.)

The show failed to send a G6 to take me to Governors Island, so I went to the Houston studio space of Texas artist David Adickes to get another look at his tree sculptures. Here are some of the photos I shot there.

I then selected my models. In the order you’ll see them, I designed for Rusty, Maia, and Sharon, with casual, daytime formal, and evening formal looks. The solid fabrics for all three designs are of Dupioni silk, with a high-quality cotton fabric evocative of Adickes’ trees used for Rusty’s halter top, Maia’s belt, and Sharon’s bodice. Rusty’s beaded belt and Maia’s jewelry are my designs. Shoes are by Mattel. Enjoy!


Rusty, Sharon, and Maia in tangerine, strawberry, and coconut concoctions inspired by David Adickes.


I’m not sure if I’ll have another post before my final collection, but at some point soon, I’ll see you on the runway!

Previously this season:
9:11 This Is For the Birds
9:10 Sew 70s
9:9 Image Is Everything
9:8 What Women Want
9:7 Can’t We All Just Get Along?
9:6 The Art of the Matter
9:5 Off to the Track
9:4 All About Nina
9:3 Go Big Or Go Home
9:2 My Pet Project
9:1 Come As You Are

Joy at The Compound

That photo I used for Photo Friday–of the two dolls: Searching for it led to some interesting discoveries.

I knew I had a photo like it, although the one in my head is not exactly like the one I found. But I also knew it was an older picture. Although the computer I use now has access to all the photos stored on my old PC, when I’m looking for something without a specific date or file location, it can be daunting to approach thousands of photos. The photo I could see in my head seemed to predate the old PC, so I went first to my actual physical photo albums. I have a lot of them, and they’re well organized, but I came up with nothing. Then I have a lot of little random photo albums for pictures that aren’t something anyone would care about looking at–scenery from trips, state of The Compound grounds through the years, bad craft projects, TJB publicity shots. Those albums didn’t have what I was looking for either.

There are several wooden boxes on a shelf in the guest room (also known as the Lisa/Debby Suite) that I never open because they’re a reminder that I’m four years behind in photo organization. (I think a lot of people, like me, now depend heavily on their computer photos instead of having them printed to put into albums.) With trepidation, I started exploring the contents of those boxes.

First, I found a boatload of old family photos that I didn’t know I had. I remember one time my mother made Debby and me sit down with her extensive collection of photos and go through them to take what we wanted. At some point in that process, nostalgia kicked in, and she made us stop. Maybe these are photos that I was given before we stopped, but I don’t think so, because some of them are OLD. As in seventy to eighty years old. And they’re of relatives I don’t know. But some of them are of our immediate family, and those were exciting to rediscover.

I never found the particular doll photo I was seeking. But that’s okay, because: I have a journal that’s been missing for years. I’ve mentioned it on here, usually without identifying what it is, but it’s a journal of thoughts/memories I wrote about my friend Steve after he died. More importantly, it contains my few photos of him. And that journal was in one of those wooden boxes! I can finally stop driving myself crazy over its whereabouts.

During my search, I also found a few more of my mother’s buttons that can be featured on Button Sundays and some TJB-related items I didn’t even remember I had.

I think it’s time for me to take on the project of updating and reorganizing (and yes, to some degree, even purging) my photo and memento collections.

What’s in a name?


“Cleanliness is next to ramliness.”

When I was younger, even during times I was poorer, I was brand loyal. I remember when generic products first began hitting the shelves, and it would have made economical sense to buy those white packages with the black letters, but I just couldn’t. Was it aesthetics? Because I always justified my choice by saying, “But I know exactly what I’m getting with my Jif, Tide, Hellmann’s, Golden Flake, Heinz, Campbell’s, Nabisco, Bama, Comet, Dial, Coke,” blah blah blah. I was certain that if anyone ever put me in a blind taste test, I could pick my favorite product.

I’m not quite as bad as I used to be. I’ll buy store brands or different brands for a lot of products now. Okay, never a peanut butter that isn’t Jif or a mayonnaise that isn’t Hellmann’s. But I’ve drunk store-brand colas and eaten store-brand oatmeal. I broke with my mother on loyalty to Tide, but only because of the expense. I still think it’s the best detergent. Because cost is one of my main criteria, I’ve grown indifferent to brand names on paper products, and I’m more likely to pick cereals based on the nutritional information on their labels.

Still, when I shot this photo, I wondered, if I were still using bar soap, would I purchase this?

Are you brand loyal?