be it ever so humble....

From the photos I've posted here, you'd never know I wanted to be a photographer when I was in high school. Either that or you'd think, hmmmm, no wonder she's not a photographer.

Well, I must warn you, the quality of the photos I'm posting today are of the same caliber. Lousy. They were taken by a person (who shall remain nameless) that has never used a digital camera before using a camera she borrowed from her nine year old son.

I've poured out my heart on this blog and let you see the good, the bad and some of my uglies. Now you can see where those pieces of me dwell. Just remember what I said in my poem from a few days ago:

I'm from a house filled with inexpensive objects; things found at garage sales, Goodwill, handmade, or handed down. Almost everything here touches my heart, tells a story, or simply brings joy.

This is the desk my husband built for me. Sitting is still an issue so he built it 39" high-that way I can stand and plan school, stand and scrapbook, stand and do bible study...I like to stand and work on projects regardless of what my body's doing so even if I'm "normal" again someday this will still be the perfect desk for me.

Winters here in the middle of America are long and grey. The sky is grey, the trees are grey, the grass is grey, the roads are grey. I had to do something to bring a little joy into those lonely grey days: twinkle lights seem to help. You saw them around my desk, and here are some in the livingroom. We're still tweaking that contraption. There's still too much wood showing. But, the twinkle lights are there, reminding me of the stars on a crisp winter evening and funky little restaurants hidden in cozy little nooks of the world.

Don't ask me why I'm showing you a bookshelf. I guess I wanted to post it because it's made from an old ladder that had been leaning against the side of the house for years. Rather than throw the ladder away, we re-purposed it. It's a bookshelf here, a piece of it is in the boys' bathroom as a towel rack, and another bit is hanging on the wall with a few nick-nacky things thrown onto it. Oh, and the monkey? Sock monkeys hold a very, very special place in my heart and that's all I'm going to say about that today.

OK. I know. A boot? Really? For a plant?? This boot was probably once worn by a cowboy out in Idaho. It then became a vase full of flowers at my nephew's wedding reception. I brought it home as a reminder of that special day. Rather than throw it in the closet to collect dust, I threw a plant in it and hung it from the ceiling. Now I can picture the mountains, blue skies, a beautiful wedding and a vacation out west every time I look at it.

This is a picture of some of my babies. These are the babies that will never grow up and leave home. I have 37 of them scattered around the house.

I couldn't leave this little bookshelf out of this post. My dad built it about a year before he died. We made a deal: he would make a bookshelf for me and I crocheted a pair of slippers for him. I think I got the better end of the deal. Oh, the rooster. Normally I am not a chickeny type person but that too is from my dad. He bought it for someone else who didn't want it and dad wanted it to have a good home. Guess who got it?

And of course a piece of the kitchen. This is where I spend a LOT of time. See? Twinkle lights in here too. :-)

And finally this. It's an old window my daughter-in-law gave me. We put pictures of the boys in it, hooks along the bottom of it and voila! A one-of-a-kind, sweet reminder-of-days-gone-by coat rack. It didn't looked finished even when it was finished so I just stuck some dead branches around it to frame it in. That helped, but like the livingroom thingy, I may do some tweaking here.

So, that's it. A few of my favorite places in this place I call home.