My Daughter Cleaned My Kitchen Counters

After Thanksgiving dinner.  And I am loving the empty, bare, clean look of my counter tops.  In "real life" there is always stuff on these counters.  And, in case you are wondering, this photo was taken with me in the computer chair and the camera on the very edge of the center island facing the back garden.

The little sticks are my white orchids.  I didn't intend to have 9 white orchids.  I tried buying colored ones but in the end, I seem to only be able to keep the white ones alive.  And they are ALIVE.  Been blooming since last winter.  Always have flowers.  Amazing, but true.

The round orbs are glitter balls.  The original intent was to replicate the polka dot lights spinning around a shop I adored, Brambles.  The sunlight refracted off the little mirrors on the balls and the entire interior of the shop was washed in swirling white dots of light.  It was dreamy.  I don't have enough mirrored balls, nor do I have the right amount of light coming into the windows.  I can only have floating dots when I get the orbs to move.  They stop moving--no more dots.  Perhaps the dots swirled at Brambles due to customers entering and departing and making waves.

The little iron moon with a bell to the right of the window was a Zen thing I purchased during my Japanese Zen period.  I like it and moved it into the house.  Used to be outside the front door near the Indian Goddess that my neighbors think is a Buddha.  I do have a new Buddhist monk (on my bedroom dresser) that I could put on the table by the front door.  He looks more Buddha-like except his hands are in prayer.  So a monk not a Buddha. You have to know these things when buying statuary.

Somehow, quite randomly, I now have items in place that reflect a rather meditative decorative style, if not personality.  I just wish this personality would manifest itself with better housekeeping.  I am happier, calmer and more creative when everything is neat and all surfaces are clean and bare.  Hardly ever the case.  No wonder I am usually crabby.

I found a website with Watercolor 101 posts.  Now I want to go searching for my watercolor supplies (which I know are buried under tons of crap) and fill all the little paint pans with paint and arrange my brushes with the tips on a rolled towel.  Then I can practice washes, dots and drags.  Since the dining room table top is also clean and bare; it seems like a good time to prepare for winter painting practice. I am going to the library and the bank this morning, so I can purchase a pear.  My "model".  Or an apple.

My cranberry sauce finally jelled.  But the SF orange jello was a flavor miscue.  Next time, no jello.  The orange overpowers the cranberry.  I know!  How can anything overpower cranberry?  I have a large amount of the stuff to eat.  Perhaps I will enter it into the disposal sooner rather than later.

I also sorted my sock basket.  Summer socks are now on the bottom and winter socks and work socks are on top.  I feel better.