Hello !

It's almost noon and I am about to have my first sip of coffee. In fact, I just stopped typing and took a sip. Yes... it is good, a very fine cup of coffee it is. 😊

Once again I stayed up till the wee hours of the morning, so slept in. Within 15 minutes after I got up, my grocery order was delivered, so I brought it all in from the porch and took it to the kitchen. I then put on some coffee to drip while I went through and pulled out everything that needed to be refrigerated or frozen, checked the expiration dates and put it away. Then I did the same for all of the other stuff that belonged in the pantry, except for some items I will be using later in the day. I took a couple of quick photos of my fun art for this post grabbed a cup of coffee, filled up my big daily water cup, grabbed a yogurt cup and here I am....a few minutes after noon. The half morning disappeared in a flash !

I didn't create this last night, I think I did it last weekend. It is not a pure collage like most of my recent little pieces are, it is mixed media with an acrylic paint background and bits of painted collage paper featured in the center swirl. Like most times, it is just an abstract, vivid pop of color, you know, my favorite thing to create. I sometimes think the close up photos look a bit messy and maybe they are.

I know you can appreciate my professional photographing of them too.

😂

I always think they come together visually with a few steps back.

I'm not sure what all I will do today, just like normal. I like not having a specific plan on Saturdays. I have my kitchen nearly spotless already, but I am sure I will do a few other light chores.

My only sure thing is that I will attempt to clean the limbs of a 4 foot vintage aluminum tree. I bought 2 4-foot silver ones last year to add to my collection. I received the first one. It is in such excellent condition and I was totally happy with the way it looked.

Then, the second one arrived shortly after, It has less limbs than the first and would have been a little cheaper back in the 60s when it was first bought. It was barely used. The general story on it was that the person that sold it to me purchased it at an estate sale, but had taken the time to talk to a family member about it. It seems the family member's Grandmother had always loved Christmas and kept up with all the up-and-coming holiday decor. When the aluminum trees showed up, she bought this 4 foot one and displayed it a couple of years, but then decided she needed a bigger one, so bought a huge one and a color wheel and never put the 4 foot one out again. The family member said her Grandmother never got rid of any of the decor, even when she no longer used it, so it had sit happily in it's box all these years till Grandma passed away. After the family members had taken what they wanted, they were then selling whatever was left and.... now it is here with me. Thing is, once I got it out and put together beside my previous one, there was a big difference in their shininess. What ? You would have never noticed it (I didn't) on the first one without it's barely used cousin sitting beside it. I knew you could wash them and it is quite a chore (which I'm choosing to look at as a labor of love instead of a chore so I don't dread it)....so today, I will do a test limb so see if the cleaner I have will do the trick. I will basically spray each limb individually, let it sit a short bit and then rinse it off. I'm sure it will be a watery mess, but I will prepare with old towels and styrofoam to stick them into, so they don't get crushed in the process. If the first one comes out shiny like knew, there will be 40some other limbs waiting their turn. OBOY ! ...right ?? ha ha One of it's life chapters must have been in a home where there was a smoker or a fireplace I'm guessing. It really doesn't look brown at all and if I had left well enough alone and only bought 1 tree, I'd probably be happy as a lark just like it sits.

But no....

That is the only project planned, but we'll see if any other projects get done after or not.

Part of my grocery order had the ingredients in it for an breakfast casserole I plan to put together later on today. It is one where you create it one day in a casserole dish, put it in the frig over night and bake it the next day, so I will cook it fresh in the morning and take it to Mom's for lunch tomorrow. She loves it and so do I, so we will have breakfast for lunch. I picked up a little fruit to serve on the side. It's going to be yummy !

So, that's about it for now. I'm going to sip another cup of coffee or two and then give my tree a bath. LOL ! Whodathunkit???

Hope you are all having a pleasant weekend.

Love you !

Jacey