Mom, interrupted

I have about fifty stories to explain this picture of my mother pouring herself a drink at a bar at which she didn't actually work, but I think it might just be self -explanatory. If it's not, remind me to tell you later about the time she drank too much Bailey's at Christmas dinner and left the table and came back in her nightgown. Either way: HI, MOM! You rock!

The Bookcase Project :: Bookcase 1

Here we go! Due to continuing financial hardship, I am on a strict no-new-books policy, so I'm determined to shop from my own shelves, to revisit titles I loved or to read ones I haven't gotten to yet.
One bookcase documented per week (more or less), until I'm done, noting candidates for near-future reading as I go.



Bookcase 1, Shelf 1: Ackerley, JR - Ashbery, John
Quantity: 29 / Quantity Read: 18
Candidates: Little Men, Louisa May Alcott; Beyond the Mountain, Elizabeth Arthur

Bookcase 1, Shelf 2: Ashbery, John - de Balzac, Honore
Quantity: 32 / Quantity Read: 22
Candidates: Lady Susan, Jane Austen; Another Country, James Baldwin



Bookcase 1, Shelf 3: Ashbery, John - Beerbohm, Max
Quantity: 31 / Quantity Read: 19
Candidate: A Favorite of the Gods, Sybille Bedford

Bookcase 1, Shelf 4: Begley, Louis - Benson, EF
Quantity: 27 / Quantity Read: 20
Also on this shelf: antique glass slide featuring a cocker spaniel and the words "Topsy," "No Fear" and "No Alcohol
Candidates: Writing Home, Alan Bennett; Colin, EF Benson



Bookcase 1, Shelf 5: Benson, EF - Blackburn, Julia
Quantity: 26 / Quantity Read: 18
Candidate: none

Bookcase 1, Shelf 6: Blackburn, Julia - Brandeis, Gayle
Quantity: 28 / Quantity Read: 14
Candidate: The Crazy Hunter, Kay Boyle



Bookcase 1, Shelf 7: Brite, Poppy Z - Busch, Charles
Quantity: 32 / Quantity Read: 25
Candidates: Undue Influence, Anita Brookner; Tarzan of the Apes, Edgar Rice Burroughs

Five Pounds, Dripping Wet

A bath can be very exhausting.

And for you weirdos who look at the books on the shelves in the backgrounds of pictures, you're looking at the corner that holds fiction, roughly the Poe-Twain area.

Earth Day

Today I made a terrarium because my friend Beth has one and I am so jealous of it I can hardly stand it. Plus I think our gradually re-modeled kitchen could use a little something organic in it besides that gnocchi that fell down between the stove and the counter that we are not talking about.

Anyway! It's easy. First you get a jar (Target!) and put some pebbles in it. These came from an aquarium supply store.



Then you add activated charcoal, also available from an aquarium supply store. By the way: in my experience, people who have aquariums are weirdos. That's not part of the terrarium lesson, it's just a fact you should file away. Oh and also, the aquarium supplies are usually uncomfortably close to the snake aisle at most pet shops so be prepared for that because they do not like it when you shriek out loud repeatedly at the pet store. Again, in my experience.



Okay! So then you add some moss (it keeps the about-to-be-added soil from filtering down into the gravel. Neato!) and then some plain old potting soil. Then a plant or two. I bought a too-big one but we'll see.



I also added a Bigfoot.



And now I'm off to do other things from the seventies, like make a macrame pocketbook and/possibly/or swing with the neighbors! See you later!

Young and pretty

Here is a picture that I was very happy to see: me and my friend Suzy at our friends John & David's wedding many many years ago. This was a big day: after this, which was all the way down the road in Monteagle, we drove back to town for Beth & Thom's wedding reception. I think we made a pretty couple: my seersucker is traditional blue and white; her dress was pink. I was wearing white saddle shoes. I wish I had known then that you're supposed to unbutton your jacket when you sat down because I was totally a 29-inch waist in those days and the buttoned jacket makes me look fat.

We look so young and pretty! My hair looked so cute! I HAD HAIR! Anyway. Picture courtesy of Kathryn Schoepflin.

Almost finished!

The cabinet project turned out really pretty, though everything took longer, especially because I put stuff back in one of them and it all stuck and then I had to repaint. Also a Typical Strong Family Crisis has arisen: the sea mist green Fiesta plates in our Fiesta color mix look icky in the green cabinets. So we have to replace all the sea-foam green ones with the shamrock green, even though I think food will look gross on it like it does on the persimmon orange that I already can't even eat off of.

Sea mist green has been discontinued and I'm going to let my friend Janet in NYC have it if she wants it, but if she doesn't, let me know in the comments and you'll be next up. Two dinner plates, two bread plates, two mugs with saucers, two cereal bowls, one vegetable bowl, one platter thingy. two bouillon bowls. The only person who can't have it is one Mr. Joseph F from Chicago who is a LIAR who doesn't do what he SAYS he's going to do when you send him the Fiesta he ASKS for and if I could leave NEGATIVE FEEDBACK on his LIFE, well I WOULD.

ANYWAY! Look how pretty. I like that it's this crazy intense green when you open them but when the doors are closed, you just get a little hint.

Oh Baby

No context, just a funny picture of a baby in distress. Isn't it hilarious?

Worst. Project. Ever.

Okay, so here's some advice: never undertake a kitchen cabinet painting project. My house was immaculate before I started. Now it looks like Sanford & Son just moved in. The green's fantastic, though.

Yes, that might be chicken wing detritus visible in one of the pictures. Very important to the painting process.

Going Green

Me: "Gee Sister Meg, that sure is green."

Sister Meg: "It'll dry darker."

Me: "Mmmm hmm. Will it also dry not green?"

Sister Meg: "It's my signature color."

Sister Meg's Pocketbook Wall

Somebody asked to see this so y'alls all gotta suffer cause this was the best way to show them....and I thought it might be nice to get the dead cat post off the top.

This is Sister Meg's pocketbook wall. She collects this one kind of pocketbook - Enid Collins box bags. Not the canvas ones, just the wooden boxes. It's pretty arresting when you walk up the stairs and you see them all like art on the wall. Also, they have to be from the era when Enid's husband made the boxes and she painted them, not after they started being manufactured by some company. Also, painted backgrounds are preferable. She never carries them because people ask her about them NON-STOP (seriously, every single person asks about them) and Sister Meg does not like to be the center of attention. Which is my strongest piece of evidence that she's adopted.

She has one that's a donkey and one that's an elephant and they have the words "People's Choice" on them.

When she lived in Atlanta, someone broke into her house and nearly went crazy opening all the pocketbooks looking for money. It must have been very frustrating.

If you look closely on the lower left of that upper pic, you can see Buster, one of our un-dead cats.

She Went To Sleep