We’re Doing Something Normal!

It was so nice to shop with Kathy last week; just a little drop of normal in our otherwise weird lives. This week, we’re going to go garage saling together for the first time since the fall of 2019! We won’t know how to act doing something that we just took for granted for so long. We’re even going to get takeout from our favorite Indian restaurant. If there is something that I have taken away from the pandemic, it’s that I should be more appreciative, especially of the people in my life.

I do appreciate my tulips this year. The deer have been avoiding them, for some reason, and with all the rain, they are gorgeous!

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These are double or peony tulips. They were all white, pinkish, or full-on pink. I just love them. I got them from Costco, and they were really nice big bulbs. I hope the deer give them a pass every year!

Onto the thrift store. These look like fun books in the locked cabinet:

I was looking at them thinking, “Gosh, why does Munro Leaf sound familiar?” Well, thanks to Wikipedia I know/remember that Munro Leaf wrote The Story of Ferdinand and 39 other books over a 40 year career. I bet these books were pretty cute, but being wrapped up in plastic and locked away made them pretty inaccessible. Depending on their condition, they are worth more than $6. I would like to read his book, Metric Can Be Fun, because I just can’t wrap my head around that idea! I guess that if a bull can be gentle, the metric system can be not just sensible, but fun.

What would you say to a person who presented this to you after their trip to Peru?

Gee, I’ve always wanted a leather clock isn’t a sentence that rolls trippingly off the tongue. I’m glad that the mighty llama is featured in a couple of the illustrations. He looks particularly noble in front of the church. Gosh, wouldn’t you rather have a lovely traditional textile, coffee, something silver? I looked at the list of common Peruvian exports, and there was nary a leather clock to be seen!

We had the Summer Intern with us last week. This poor kitty offended him mightily:

He frequently doesn’t like cloth representations of cats, or anything really, and this bothered him because she doesn’t have any legs. I’m guessing that it sits, decoratively, on something that some folks hide, like a toaster or a roll of toilet paper. Personally, I would much rather look at a toaster than Miss Kitty.

There are a couple of distressing things in this post, and this is one of them. The other is a clown, just so you know what lies in wait:

A couple of weeks ago, we showed you two cats made of shells that were pretty yucky. I’m not sure that this isn’t worse! They went to a lot of trouble to make these flowers look as real as possible, with the botanical reproductive organs added to the inside of the shell flower looking at you. You know it doesn’t help convince me this is a flower. The roses at the top were made of wood shavings, so there was a whole lot of craftiness going on! I respect that they used a Capodimonte style vase; what the heck, they were all in.

Just because I can, here’s a picture more from the side:

Not any better, alas.

This was puzzling in that it wasn’t fun or cute at all:

Sorry Louisiana, magnolia angels just can’t compete with hollyhock dolls, which were a staple of my childhood. Maybe it’s liking what you are familiar with, but magnolia buds, sprayed gold even, just can’t compete with a fresh flower. We are two for two in the disappointing vacation gifts/souvenirs. Just think, you could have brought back some Cafe Du Monde Beignet and Coffee Mix, Cajun spices, or even a King cake. Missed opportunities.

Well, there’s no putting it off; it’s clown time:

We really don’t want to even see nasty clowns any more. There have been so many that we just shudder and skitter by the everyday clowns on the thrift store shelves. But, every so often, you see something that you just can’t ignore. We were wondering why on earth he had green eyes with cat-like pupils—isn’t that just too weird? Turns out he’s even weirder. Those are his eyelids painted green with a black lines down the centers. You can see his eyelashes on his extremely pink cheeks. The green cat eyes are pretty awful, but maybe green-cat-eye-eyelids are even worse.

Looking at his left shoe, I just can’t tell if it has teeth in the front. What the heck, where is the weird line that you can’t cross when making clown art?

So sorry for the clown. I have something to wash that nasty sight right off your eyeballs:

Coincidently, he has some amazing eyes, too. The pupils are Phillips head screws, which made me laugh out loud. They seem just perfect for this over-caffeinated fellow. We aren’t owl collectors, but considering how much they amuse us, we probably should be!

Well, that’s it for this week. I’m giddy thinking about going to garage sales. People have been cleaning closets for a year now. There could be some great treasures!