Driving Inspiration

On Christmas Day last year my guy and I meant to go and walk the beach, but it rained, so we settled for a long drive in the country and (when the rain stopped) a walk in a state park we like. I brought the camera along because although it was a wet, kinda miserable day I like taking pictures of interesting things I see. Sometimes all I need for an idea for a story is an single photo, like this one of an ancient wooden sailboat boat that looked like it sailed onto this property and got wedged in these trees. If you found that in your backyard one morning, would you look inside?

This tumble down barn we passed seemed a bit menacing. What secrets might it reveal if it suddenly collapsed? Treasure? Bones? A tunnel that leads to an underground world, or another dimension?

At the park there are these concrete steps everywhere that are green around the edges and suddenly start and stop in the oddest places. If you follow them, where would they take you? Forward in time, or back?

I loved these little ferns I saw growing out of the side of this step, and they gave me the strongest story idea of all. I wondered how I'd react if I came home and went to take a shower, and found one growing out of the side of my foot.

Maybe the squirrel watching me knew -- or maybe he's someone or something that is just disguised as a squirrel. :)

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Gifts

This is a story that starts out very sadly, so if you're depressed by the holidays you might want to skip the first part. As far back as I can remember I've dreaded the holidays. Being poor, having constant family troubles and belonging to a strict religion made that time of year always pretty unhappy. I just hunkered down and hoped to get through without being yelled at or punished because I didn't do something I was expected to do, like sit in church for hours without moving or making a sound while a priest spoke mass in Latin. Gifts were uniformly disappointing, too. My mother usually gave me dolls or socks or underwear for Christmas. I understand now as an adult that she was doing the best she could, and trying to save money at the same time, but as a kid I'd been told good children got what they wanted for Christmas. I was a pretty good kid, but while my friends received new bikes and cool toys and lots of treats from Santa, I didn't. I thought San

We Have Backsplash!

Yesterday my guy and I decided to chose this natural stone as the backsplash tiles for our new kitchen counters (which will be in the same quartz I'm holding at the bottom of the photo.) Since all the bids for installing the backsplash came in very high my guy is going to put it in himself; he's done a bit of tile work in the past, too. I swear there is nothing this guy can't do. :)

Detoxing Results

For twenty-four hours I left these five vintage cigar boxes sit with detoxing agents (baking soda, coffee grinds, dryer sheets, vinegar and Febreze) inside them to see which worked best to remove the tobacco/storage odors that came with them. I then removed the agents and did a sniff test. Before we get into the results, a reminder: none of what I do is ever meant to be expert advice, as I am certainly not an expert at anything. Follow my methods at your own risk, and please first consult an actual antique expert conservator or restorer to detox items that have value for you. Okay, let's see how my experiment worked. Baking soda (left) did nothing to remove the odors. I think if I let it sit for a longer period of time it might have done something, but for a 24-hour test it was a complete fail. Coffee grinds (right) removed 100% of the odors, and left behind definite coffee scent. I like that and think it goes very well with wood, but if you don't like the smel

Rayen

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