Kitchen Window Keepsakes, and the Weekly Photo Challenge: Grid

My kitchen window opens a view to the back porch and beyond — but just now I’m looking at my keepsakes on this side of the grid.

Are you wondering what’s with the little red dress?

It was at least half my life ago when, on a visit to my parents, I walked into the kitchen and fell about laughing at the sight of the dish soap in a tiny dress. My mother, who shared my hilarity, had made it — apparently, dressed-up dish soap was all the rage. She asked if I wanted one. “Of course!” I said. She made this one for me.  Not long ago, when clearing out boxes, I found it packed away. Naturally, I decided to use it. Here’s a closer look —

A prim country dish soap, very retro. I don’t know who started this fad. Could it have been related to skirts for piano legs?

Problem: modern dish soap containers tend to be of different proportions, and it took a while to find one the right size. Now that I have one, I plan to keep it and refill it, so that every time I look at it I’ll remember what fun I always had with my mother.

One more thing, not quite so easy to see —

One of my nieces gave me this silver wire spider web (the spider has a crystal body)

Not that I need extra spiders around the house. There are plenty of natural ones here, especially in the fall, but it tickles me to have a favorite gift in the window where it catches the light. My niece knows me well. I’ve long been a spider fan, but right now I especially appreciate that — unlike the family of spiders who recently moved into the basement stairwell — this one is pretty, and it doesn’t reproduce.

One more photo. I looked for a picture of my parents’ kitchen and found this one, not very clear, and taken before I was born — here they are, doing the dishes. I love the glimpse of my mother’s face in the mirror.

Dishwashers must not have been invented yet, or my father would have had one. He was always the first with gadgets.

My mother always wished for a window over their sink. I think she would have liked it that I put my keepsakes in mine.

Do you have keepsakes in the kitchen?

For more on the weekly photo challenge: Grid

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Amsterdam Birds, Selling Used Books, and the Weekly Photo Challenge: Monochromatic

My friend Donna’s planning a trip to Amsterdam, and I’m getting nostalgic about the trip Sam and I took last fall. On a morning walk to the Oude Kerk, the oldest building in Amsterdam, we found lots of monochromatic images.

Misericord Owl – Amsterdam Oude Kerk

Oude Kerk interior — choir stalls on the right.

I found lots of birds that day (OK, I’m always collecting pictures of chickens). Here’s a handsome tombstone.

One more bird – across the street from Our Lord in the Attic.

Meanwhile, here on the homefront, I haven’t been wasting my time. Just a couple of weeks ago, Bob’s vintage 1909 Harvard Classics “Five Foot Shelf of Books” went to a happy home courtesy of eBay, as did the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica set I sold earlier in the summer.

Even the Harvard Classics are monochromatic.

My Amazon book sales have been slow, so those two sales helped a lot on the clearing out. I’ve never thought of books as “by the pound” but mailing those out, I realized that, combined, they totaled over 150 pounds of books.  As of today, I sorted out another box full and loaded them up to donate to the library tomorrow morning. I’m so sticky fingered about books that I always find it hard to let them go.

I have to buckle down now, though. On that library trip tomorrow I’ll be picking up a copy of Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. We’ll see if that speeds up my basement cleaning project.

Wish me luck?

More on the Weekly Photo Challenge: Monochromatic

Five Photos/Five Stories Part 5, the Dragon Con Parade, and the Weekly Photo Challenge: Connected

How long since you connected to your inner fictional character or better yet, your inner super-hero? This mini Wonder Woman was a magnet for passing super-heros at the Dragon Con parade on Saturday morning.

Here comes another Wonder Woman, and the little one’s still got it…

The Importance of Being Wonder Woman

Posing for Dad.

Even this unfortunate Storm Trooper got to shine (“Ewok stole my speeder…”)  — so what if he had to walk?

This post veers off the topic of hoarding and downsizing, but it seemed like a good time to take a break — please stay tuned for an update on progress.

Five Photos/Five Stories — the rules are: “Post a photo each day for five consecutive days and attach a story to the photo. The stories can be fiction or non-fiction, a poem or a short paragraph, with each day including a nomination to challenge another blogger. I’ve been a slothful blogger and not blogged my days in proper consecutive fashion, but still, thank you to Jean at Social Bridge for nominating me for this blogging challenge.

And, should any choose to accept, I’d like to suggest the Five Photos challenge to the following bloggers —

One Foot Out the Door

Solar Blessed

Paula B. Puckett

Meanwhile, tell me, who’s your inner super-hero?

For more on the Weekly Photo Challenge: Connected

For more on Dragon Con