skirting the issue

Last year, I retired the big tree I used for the glass menagerie I put up in the front room. I acquired a new tree last week, the first big fancy tree I’ve bought new at full price, I think, in forever. After the big bead garland caper of 2020, this big over-the-top tree needs […]

hints of christmas future

OMGosh! I found. Unicorn. Lights! Battery operated. Twenty-five LED lights per strand. See you really soon, Unicorn Tree…

solar chandelier reveal

Five weeks ago, I brought home a thrift store chandelier because seven weeks ago I saw a DIY garden project on Tiktok. This is it: The project is to strip, paint and convert the fixture to solar lights for use as a garden chandelier. I known I wanted to use multiple colors, so I dismantled […]

ST:TCT addendum

I found something. Rather, I found some things. Nine out of ten things. They will fit in nicely: I first learned about the ornaments from Star Trek: The Experience from this blog post, which is the same blog I followed to track down the earlier Keepsake ornaments when I first started ST:TCT. The Gorn was […]

additional spice of life

My collecting grows in spurts. I like to browse online and regularly check thrift stores, but there are inevitably moments where availability of things I collect simply opens the floodgates, and maybe I over-indulge my obsessions. Maybe. Recently, I decided I wanted to expand our CorningWare Spice of Life collection into the milkglass Gemco pieces. […]

sock it to me!

Seven hundred and some pairs of socks ago, I had an aversion to licensed characters on my hosiery. I felt they were too much commitment when I only wanted festive socks that supported my clothes. Well, today’s a new day, it would seem… The biggest haul in awhile now. I mean, the Fairly Odd Parents […]

today I learned…

I was today years old when I learned that okra was part of the hibiscus family. Looking at the photos from our garden, you’ll understand why I went to Google… Also, rose of sharon, which also makes sense.

keepsake premiere

Today was Hallmark’s Keepsake ornament premiere. Star Trek’s storyteller series is expanding. Today was Mirror Mirror Mr. Spock: He joins the three released last year, all from the Mirror, Mirror episode of the original series. The Ensign Chekov storyteller will debut in October… Presumably, Dr. McCoy and Montgomery Scott storytellers will complete the set in […]

thrifty christmas in july

I’ve been avoiding thrift stores as much as everything else through the pandemic, having gone only a handful of times in the past year and a half. Today, I cleared out some boxes from our front room and carted them off to Goodwill. And if I’m already there… I might miss a rare Wexford find. […]

a love letter to home…

Last Christmas, my sister got our parents each a digital photo frame. They have their own email addresses, so everyone in the family can send images of their lives direct to our folks. Today, I roamed the garden, shooting in 4:3 just to flood mom’s frame with our garden. Here’s the content: