Unplanned Day Off Hodge Podge

It's not all about art or Christmas.... this time. 😄 Just a hodge podge of things on this last-minute-taken day off.

Our department at work caught up our work and they have had a hard time figuring out how to undo that. Sounds funny? Yes, but we should always be about 2 days behind so we never run out of work and they have to pay us to be idle. Maybe they've hired too many new people? ha ha ....doesn't THAT sound strange? Whoever says that anymore. Anyway, we ran out of work an hour before end of work day on Monday. I was lucky, I had a giant piece of work started and I didn't sit idle that day. Yesterday when we got in, it took them 35 minutes to load some work and we still ran out about 3:30 yesterday afternoon. I still had 9 hours of paid off time that I had not scheduled, so I messaged my supervisor and ask that since we keep running out of work, I was wondering if I could have tomorrow (today) off. I admitted I realized I was scheduled for a lot of time off this month, but none this week, so if the answer was no, that would be ok too. She nearly immediately replied that "this was a wonderful idea" (WHAT?? ha ha)..... and if I put in for it she would approve it immediately, so I am now suffering through doing my part to let the work get behind again. Oh... the irony! 😂

I am spending my day doing a hodge podge of things around here. Previously had the dishwasher whirring and now the clothes washer where I stripped my bed and remade it. I am alternating between doing some things I like to do and doing some chores.... slowly.

Since my new Christmas tree got here a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, I have been slowly decorating it. It is nearly done or maybe all the way done, one or the other. This is one of my fun ornaments from Old World Ornaments. So classic, Santa with milk and cookies. It is only a few years old, but I have been collecting this type of ornament since my late 20's. When things were good I would collect several a year. When things were tight, maybe only one small one or none, so very irregular collecting. Still, after all these years I have a nice amount of them, at least enough for a regular size tree.

This past weekend, after all the Thanksgiving things were done, I started pulling out more Christmas doodads. I'll show more of them along the way and some more ornaments too.

Last year as I was dreading the coming winter, I gathered a few things that I thought would help add a little fun to a cozy winter evening. I pictured me with a warm drink and maybe a winter snack and a book, with a new cookie lap blanket I bought across my lap, a fireplace burning logs on my big TV while a candle put a little smoke smell into the room. Nice thought, right? Anyway, last year I bought a candle called "Fireplace" and although I liked the candle alright, the hint of smoke was barely there, over shadowed by bergamot. I don't dislike bergamot, but that wasn't what I was after.

This year I decided to try another with hopes for better results and I bought this Wood Smoke scent, which happily does a LOT better job of adding a little smokey background to the atmosphere. I think this will be my go-to for this winter. Anything to offset a gray dreary day or evening is always a good thing to me.

Where else would you see something silly like this? One evening I lazily made this little collage from papers scattered across my desk. I liked the colors and the design was at least balanced. Of course in this photo you can't tell all the details exactly, but you do get a decent hint. I had some clips I had never used. I think they were for ornaments somehow, but I hooked two together and clipped the art to the bottom of my window valance. It is very light since the collage is on a thick paper background. I didn't realize when I went to hang it up, that it had a lot of the same colors as the valance. I have enjoyed seeing it hanging around.

I've always picked up things from nature and brought them in the house. I normally put them where I can see them frequently, a window sill, on the piano, on my work desk. I like making that visual connection to the outside. It makes me happy.

A couple weeks ago I saw this piece of bark with some lichen on it under some trees at my side yard. I thought it was perfect, so I brought it in. The bark is quite thin and can crumble easy. I don't know what exactly I will do with it. Enjoy it as long as it lasts?... or try to preserve it. It's just so perfect!

This is a tiny collage made with pretty papers. It has specks in the white part. I'm not sure quite how I did that unless it was laying on the desk when I was spattering paint on something else. It's ok though as I am just using it for a bookmark.

I have slowly continued to work on cleaning out every inch of my house. It's not a huge house, in fact, medium small I would say. The last house I was in had a divine amount of storage, so although I cleaned out a lot before I moved, I still got here with too much. I have gone through it over and over and each time more things made the cut, but somehow, it is still too much. A couple of weeks ago I pulled out my electrical "stuff" container. These are some of what was in the bottom. Some of these are really old. I let go of some of the oldest crudiest looking pieces, but still kept too many I am sure.

This is and is not a real piece. The cardboard with some of the inside exposed was hanging around my desk, so I started putting stuff on it while I watched videos. At some time or the other it had some potential, but I couldn't stop fiddling with it. The bigger blue parts were near the last to go on. I think I liked it better before I added those. I'm not worried about how a piece of cardboard turns out...LOL... although I had toyed with the idea of making a cardboard piece intentionally, a very large one and hanging it on my wall. Yes, as you can see, I will put nearly anything up.

It was a lot of fun playing with it though.

Ok, post time is over. It is time to go work on cleaning up my bedroom some more and pulling some more stuff out and putting some empty boxes up. Next though I think I will check out my outdoor Christmas lights. I can do my porch up in about 30 minutes, 45 at the most, but I need to make sure my light strings are still working.

(Just a photo at the edge of my work space one night. I had gotten a roll of pink burlap ribbon from Good Will and wanted to see how easy or hard it was to glue it on as part of some art. This was my test piece. I also used ink stamps and other stuff. It was a colorful and fun test piece.)

Hope you are all doing well and that your hearts are happy.

Love you!

Jacey