Five, Six, Pick Up Sticks

Late blog post. Slept in. Went food shopping with Himself. Had a late lunch. The weather was gorgeous. Too nice to stay in. So I spent some time outside picking up sticks and debris from the Zensical Garden. Scrubbed the bird bath and filled it with clean water. I'm pretty sure the birds would be like Ink and would prefer dirty water, but I cleaned it anyway.

Spent some time looking for the shepherd's hook that holds the gazing globe. The globe was brought into the sunroom for the Winter. I thought the hook had been left outside, but it is gone. Must have blown away. Relocated the hook from the front which usually holds a plant. Figured Mother's Day is coming up and a new hook and plant would be an easy gift idea for Himself.

Mixing Well Covers

Part of the homework for 26 Seeds was to paint a color wheel. Reggie suggested going to the hardware store to have plexiglass cut for covers to keep the plastic palettes clean. Remember my word this year is frugal so I wanted to think what I had around that could serve the purpose.

I've heard of people using cleaned styrofoam from meat trays but didn't have any on hand. Looking around I found a bunch of old MRI films from when The Young One injured her shoulder at karate. I've used a couple of them to cover the work table while doing messy work. They were thin and would do the trick.

I traced the palette with a black marker, cut, and covered. An elastic band to hold the cover in place will be perfect.

The Friday Five Good Things

Five good things that happened this week.

1. Didn't have to worry about the black ice warning and The Eldest driving home from work late at night as she was at the anime convention in Boston.

2. The Eldest arrived home safe and sound on the train after her anime adventure in Boston over the weekend

3. The Young One hasn't been feeling well for 14 days. Trying not to worry while waiting for test results. Saw the male cardinal at the feeder. Dad stopping by to tell me everything will be alright.

4. The Young One ate a little bit of real food. A scrambled egg and toast. Plain spaghetti with butter and cheese, two small meatballs without gravy, and some ginger ale.

5. Test results for The Young One came back negative. Still don't know why she's feeling blah and still in pain.

How was your week?

Throwback Thursday - The Notebooks

Other things that I remember was my mother in my early years was a happy woman. She would sing while dusting or cleaning, doing other chores.

I remember we used to have company. Uncle Joe, Uncle Alfred, Uncle Louie, Uncle Vincent, cousins, etc.

I remember one Christmas when Aunt Philomena and her husband, Uncle Mike, spent that Christmas with us.

Uncle Mike brought me a gift, a wind-up, toy car. I played and played with it that Christmas Eve until I over-wound it and that was the end of that.

I remember that my father made wine and my mother put up vinegar peppers. Which was a community custom.

This period [ed: 1920s] was a happy one. And on certain months attention was paid to Christmas, Easter, birthdays, holidays.

The men worked long hours. The women stayed home. As young ladies, they worked as secretaries, garment industry, chocolate or candy factories. Schools up to 14 years old and work. Not many attended high schools. The cities and states encouraged education. And it was not unusual to have many to sent to work at 14 years.

The days of the supermarkets was still off. One went to the local family run store for food, fruits, cold cuts and canned goods.

A lot of fruits, fish, and vegetables were purchased from vendors who would come with their horse and wagon or push cards and hollering of their wares to attract the attention of the women. It would be quite a bargaining event as they bargained to bring the price down. Usually, it did [ed: work] because one woman in the crowd would say forget it. Wait for so and so, he'll be along soon, he's at such a street and should be here in a short while. And he's selling at giving the price. Usually a penny or two less. The price would go down.

Fruits were bought by the dozen starting at ten cents a dozen and 15 cents for larger sizes. Canned goods were sold by the ounces at 16 ounces or tonic [ed: soda pop] bottles which came at 10 cents for the quart plus two cents to insure return of the bottles. All glass and the legend printed thereon "made from all natural products" Our food in those days tasted a lot better.

Just First National, and coffee and butter and local grocery stores, pushcarts and wagons.The men who earned their living in this manner awoke at 5 am to go to the distribution centers to buy their products for resale. Meat, veggies, fruits, etc. And some delivery.

In Winter it was rain and snow for those with pushcarts, would stop. The horse and wagon vendors would return to the barn, unhook the horse from the cart and hook up to the sled and back where they left off.

Not many vehicles. But lots of carts and wagons and it continued right after WWII when things began to change. Even pies and baked goodies were sold in this manner.

Wordless Wednesday

T Stands for Water Containers

I had to be vigilant about emptying water cups and bowls after inking or painting. Ink liked to jump on the drafting table to take a swig or two of the dirty water. I was never sure why. He always had clean water in his bowl in the kitchen.

I don't know if he liked the "get down from there. You don't belong up there." attention if I was working at the computer station and heard lapping noises. Maybe it was any dirty water container instead of trotting upstairs if he wanted a drink. Or maybe forbidden water, when no one is around, just tastes better. I've also repurposed Ink's water and food bowls as über clean, sorta clean, and dirty water bowls while painting.

Sample for upcoming workshop at the Worcester Public Library

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Fix It

Recently, I purchased some black cat desk items from Amazon, a smartphone stand, and an eyeglass holder. I was crushed and upset when the items arrived in pieces. Whoever was in charge of packing and shipping, shipped the items without packing material to guard against breakage. Not very bright. The tails on both cats were broken off. And worse than that, the front legs on the smartphone stand were broken off completely and shipped without feet!

Both of these items came from third party distributors. The smartphone stand had a notation that the item was not returnable. I didn't notice that at the time of purchase. Caveat emptor. Amazon was great about issuing a refund, and since the item could not be returned, I didn't have to bother sending it back.

The tails on both items had been broken off cleanly and were easily fixed with a bit of Gorilla glue. But what to do about the broken smartphone stand.? I didn't want to just toss it in the trash. I didn't think the polyresin it was made of could be recycled.

I thought of painting the stumps and gluing a bit of yarn in front as if the kitty was playing with a skein of yarn. I really liked the stretching kitty pose. Ink used to do that pose a lot.

I decided I'd try to make legs with a bit of Sculpey clay. Sculpey is a polymer clay which needs to be baked in order for the clay to harden. When baking, the clay gives off toxic fumes. I had an old toaster oven which was dedicated to baking the polymer clay, but the oven died long ago. I never bothered to replace it as I didn't really do much with polymer clay.

While in Michael's picking up the Sculpey, I wandered around to see if there was another type of clay I could use. One that didn't give off toxic fumes, could be air dried and didn't need to be painted.

In the kiddie aisle, I found a package of Magic Model by Crayola. It came in a rainbow of colors, could be reused or air dried. It even came in black. Perfect! So I fashioned some legs and molded them directly to the stumps. They seem to be holding without having to use glue. With some Tombow markers, I colored the white features on the face to resemble my Ink. So a happy ending to a shipping disaster.

The legs are still drying so not sure how long it will take for them to harden completely. I've since propped up the body so air can circulate completely around the front legs. I'll also have to take care to make sure the stand doesn't get knocked off the table as it won't survive a fall.