Dishing the Dirt!

I am now officially in the gardening phase of my ADD cycle. I have left the dollhouse, quilting, wardrobe re-doing, knitting (did I mention I was obsessed with knitting again?) phases and have followed the lure of spring into the garden.

For the past two days I have had an obsession with succulent dish gardens. So there was nothing for it but to spend hours on the internet looking at pictures of cacti and fat leafed succulents. Then I had to go out and find the stuff to make my own. None of this was on my list of things to do on my spring break, but when the spirit moves you, what can you do? And, because I am obsessed, one is never enough. I had an overgrown bunch of succulents in the window, but I didn't like the pot. So I went out and bought this pot.


While I was at that nursery, I saw some lithops, which are the "living stones" but for some reason I always want to call them "living toes." They are such an odd little plant, I felt the need to buy some (they were only $2 each so I got 3). Well, what was I to do for a pot? I went to the flea market and found this really nice 50's style planter, but no hole in the bottom. Plus it wasn't really the right color for my "living stone toes." But I knew if I bought it, I could fill it.
This was another planter from the 50's they had (sans drainage hole) and I thought it was perfect for those odd little South African succulents. I had to go to Lowe's and buy a $7 drill bit for ceramics and glass, but I used it to drill holes in 3 of the planters I bought. (I thought I would destroy the planter, but Jim drilled while I used a spray bottle to keep spraying the bit with water to keep it cool and the dust down.)


This was a planter and succulents I had that I repotted and added the $3 cowboy to. He cracks me up.


He seems very serious about his job.
I bought this teacup and saucer at the Salvation Army on the way home today to use as a test run for the drill bit. Since it survived, I thought it deserved to have its own little succulent.

And these are the dish gardens all lined up in a row. The blue one is on the top shelf and didn't make the picture. They all need to fill in a little more before they reach their full photogenic potential. But I'm pretty excited about them.

Now I'm obsessed with the idea of 1940's and 1950's planters with holes drilled in the bottom. And funny little guys perched atop the soil. (The blue one was $6 and the yellow was $4.) Hopefully, my addiction will pass before I fill up the window.

Call Me Imelda Marcos!

I've got 27 pairs of shoes! That's about 23 pairs more than I thought I had!I took their picture to remind me what I have and to remind me not to get anymore.



Shoes are funny. I had a student once who was greatly bothered if she ever saw a single shoe in the middle of the road. It spelled disaster for her. Whoever went anywhere with one shoe, she said. One sock maybe, one glove, one earring, but never one shoe. I came to see her point. Now one lone shoe in the middle of the road disturbs me. Especially if it is a small shoe. I also find those images from the Holocaust Museums--of stacks and stacks of worn shoes--horrifying. Those shoes still bear the impression of their owners' feet. When I lined up my shoes on the bed to take their pictures, I thought about that. A sad business anyway you look at it. Shoes have a personality of their own when there are no feet in them. More so than other articles of clothing, I think.

In March the mood came upon me to find clothes that matched and start dressing better. The catalyst for this move was a comment made to me by one of my students. He casually said that I didn't seem to fit in over at the main building. I asked why that was--certain that it must be some complimentary reason since everyone over there seems so grumpy and burdened while those of us in the small building are much happier and upbeat. But my darling student said, "Everybody over there dresses much better." I deserved that. That's what you get when you set yourself up for a compliment--a reality check. It's true, though. Mostly I am a slob and happy to admit it. Not because I can't do matchy-match, but the effort involved in doing so seems out of proportion to the reward if you ask me. However, in true impulsive form, I decided I should make an effort. My plan was to get 5 pair of pants, 5 shirts and mix them up so I'd have 25 outfits and I'd be set. Unfortunately, I started getting into the matchy match thing. I bought 5 pair of pants at Marshal's in grey, black, brown, dark blue, and blue jeans. They were petite and I didn't have to hem! That opened a whole new world for me. So over the course of the next two weeks, I bought some scarves, shirts, socks, sweaters, jackets and just went crazy. I probably spent about $500. That includes the great deals I got at consignment shops and Good Will.

And of course I had to buy some necklaces. When I couldn't find the color combinations I wanted, I bought the beads and strung them myself. So I made necklaces in pink and brown beads, brown and green beads, blue and brown, pink and purple, pink and gray. Then I decided I needed to knit some scarves. So I knitted two with some yarn I had, one is very, very long and thin. The other is thicker and more of a winter scarf.
I laid out all my necklaces, both new and old, and charm bracelets and took pictures so I could keep track of what I had. I thought my pierced ears had grown over, but with a little poking and cursing, I got my earrings in.
The whole scarf thing was pretty fun, too. I got a very nice silk one off of Ebay. One from Marshal's. Another from Target. I can see where some women are addicted to clothes shopping. I got focused on finding a blue leather purse and spent at least 2 hours looking online for one. My closet is stuffed and I've got more than enough to keep me looking stylish for the next few years. My students have been full of positive comments. Normally they are threatening to call what not to wear, but now they just say how nice I look and ask if it will last. Probably not.

In Case You Haven't Seen Enough of Diniyoyo...

Spring Cleaning

I got in the cleaning mood and tidied all my quilting fabric. No mean feat! I sorted it by color and folded it fairly neatly and swore not to buy any more until I used up half of what was there. I've got big plans, big plans, I tell you, for quilting this summer! Following my predictable ADD cycles, I became enamored of beading and made beaded necklaces to match all my outfits. I could only hang so many in the closet and the rest I draped on the lamp. then, in my ADD fashion, I started knitting scarves. This is my second one in the basket.
This is my bedside table which is actually a 3-drawer dresser I got from the Salvation Army, painted yellow and mosaiced the top with 1-inch glass tiles I'd had for about 10 years. The mirror was a big wooden one I got from the Salvation Army and I painted the frame with blue-green spray paint.