The Comforts of Home

Those who know me well are aware that I do enjoy home decorating a great deal.  They also know that my tastes run to the unusual, eccentric, and eclectic.  For example, here are two pics of my living room, which is full of things not seen in most ordinary (and boring!) homes:

I mean, every non-boring home should have a candelabra, right?

And a statue of Shakespeare:

And a unique plant stand on which to place your unique obelisk:

In order to acquire these fabulous things, I like to haunt the antique shops, and we have some good ones here.  And last week, a new one opened in the Uptown Shopping Center, one of my fave places to go, as there are two large antique malls there plus several smaller shops.

The new one is called Gleaned Antiques and it's small, just one owner, but she has a good eye for fun stuff at great prices.  For just $100 total, I picked up these three finds:

Miniature sundial (about 4")

Fabulous candlesticks

Globe with Atlas!!  I love the colors on the globe.

I also hit up one of the large antique malls, where I spotted what looked like a charming painting at a distance, of a typically English village scene, but upon closer scrutiny, it turned out to be a needlepoint!  And a very nicely executed one, too, I must say.  It definitely came home with me.

And finally, at that same mall, I found this unusual triptych mirror.  I'm not a general fan of mirrors, and the only ones in my house are in the bathrooms, but this one just spoke to me.  "I'm unusual!" it said.  "And eclectic!"  So now it is mine.

Many of these items are now gracing the headboard in the guest room, but eventually they will migrate to other spaces.  

So that was fun. 

Someday I'm going to do something with that guest bedroom, something wacky and eccentric, but it will have to wait until I figure out what that something is.  Wait and see!

Otherwise my week was pretty normal.  On our dog walks we noted that the Columbia River is still above normal levels (from snow-melt runoff in the Cascades).  Here are some trees that are usually out of the water:

The temperatures are climbing upward now, after a rather cool Spring.  It should get into the 90s and even over 100 this coming week.  A good time to cool off:

On another walk, we spotted this quail on the trail:

And more evidence of the high waters -- those little clumps of vegetation in the middle of the river are actually the tops of brush and trees which are part of an island, currently submerged:

Luckily, there is a dike, and the riverfront trails stay nice and dry.

As for artistic endeavors, I did this quick copy of a 1920s drawing of an Egyptian scene:

I spent a lot more time on this wonderful vulture, using ink and watercolor:

That's all for now.  Probably won't be out and about much this coming week with the high temps, but you never know.  

Stay safe out there, everyone!