Special notes to special folks

 The first M**k e-mail, there may be more, went like this

This is in response to the Unelected Felon's demand that Federal employees all submit five bullet points of their activities last week. Quite a few other unauthorized  people accepted the invitation to flood the box.  At this point agency heads are instructing employees to ignore the demand. So maybe they'll get largely trolling messages instead of whatever they expected. 

At home I'm sorting through the results when Gary eventually leaves, deciding if and how I can manage here, as an owner,  without his help, all aside from the loss of such an interesting neighbor. I wonder if he's realized he'll be cut off from chocolate cake?

If I move to rent, where? My current house is worth a whole lot more than I paid for it, so selling it would yield good $$. But the idea of moving.. Anyway there's time. And options without moving.

Meanwhile I ordered thermal drapes for kitchen and front door. They arrived last night, in fact Gary brought them in from the step. I tried them. Too short for the front door, too bulky for the kitchen, and the color was too grey.  Aside from that they were fine.  Quite a time installing and uninstalling, and by 10 am they were on the way back to the seller. I tried. The return process was the best part of the project.

Meanwhile I'm drowning my sorrows in watching a TV series about Edward VIII and Mrs Simpson, whose troubles were pretty much up there, too, though with nice clothes and jewels.

It's very well acted, great cast who even resemble the real life people. Wonderful Nigel Hawthorne playing legal adviser Walter Monckton, and on. 

This is a time my parents remembered very well. They had great sympathy for Edward,  as working class people did. They  found him very likeable and appreciated his concern during the depression and unemployment. They hated the Prime Minister, Baldwin, and thought he was out to get  Edward.  Much emotion over that period of constitutional crisis.   

The finer points of law escaped most people, I'm guessing.  Also his Nazi sympathies went unreported in the mainstream media, and that could have made quite a difference in understanding the delicate balance at the time.It would certainly have affected his popularity.

So you could say I'm coping with the present personal and general upheaval with the story of another upheaval, in true Greek classic theater pattern. 

This is a highfalutin way of saying I was in it for the dresses, wonderfully bias cut and fabulously constructed, great colors, and pounds of jewelry. 

Furs galore, there must have been a lot of naked animals around then. The makeup, too. Beautiful women. Patricia Hodge playing Diana Duff Cooper, remember her as the glamorous Phyllida in Rumpole? Edward's clothes were sharp and edgy, pushing the envelope in fashion. Apparently he was very interested in fashion.  Anyway, I found it on Freevee, and recommend it.

Happy day everyone. Today's about soup and tuna melt, taking advantage of the sliced cheese I ordered by mistake.  Sometimes you can see a downturn as an upturn. It takes a bit of doing, admittedly.

Martha doesn't live here any more.

I've been reading House Beautiful again.  I love reading decorating HD magazines, and seeing dear little tables at a mere $1200, just to fill in that little corner on a budget..it's like reading recipe books you marvel at but would never be pestered to make.

Anyway, I figured, if Apartment Therapy can do it, and House Beautiful can do it, anyone can do it, so I had a little tour of House Adequate, which is where I live, but if I say it myself there are areas of flair and even panache. Downstairs only, too lazy to climb up and continue.  That's for another issue of House Adequate.

I followed the old maxim of using a lot, yards and yards, of cheap fabric when you have a massive window to cover.  The patio door is 92 inches wide, super extra large because it's the only downstairs window on that side of the house.  

Light does get through the passthrough from the kitchen window, and the living room is light enough.  But that window is out of my budgetary reach.  Even curtain rods are hundreds of dollars at that size, being custom made, anything over 84 wide is custom.  

Enter the handy eight foot pvc pipe, less than three dollars, slung on three big hooks anchored in the wall, using mollies.  The curtains are cheapish cotton tab tops, two pairs, one swaggy thing, and another pair of long tabtops in some transparent material forget what.  Total cost about $50.  And I think it looks pretty elegant. The other thing you can do for a curtain rod on a small budget and an elegant frame of mind is to use a long bamboo cane from the garden store, strong as anything, unbreakable, and long enough for a lot of windows, if you like a rustic touch.

Then there are the Arrangements of Art ideas, which I've been doing for years, long before House Beautiful caught on and all the posh Martha Stewart people.

And the funny object idea, here a child's chair rescued from the dumpster, brushed up and put below a fiberart work of mine.  It's decorative, but you'd be amazed at how many grownups pull it out to sit on it!

And whoever said you don't have art in the kitchen?  I do, why not. Oh, and remember my fussing about being shorter these days, and the counters too high to mix on comfortably, and what would be a good solution.  See that wooden top in the picture?

After wondering and measuring and faffing about whether to introduce a table or an island, neither in my budget, I realized, as I was reorganizing the kitchen ready to start painting, that the storage shelves are sturdy and the right height for me. 

Two cutting boards side by side on the top of one, and now I have my right height mixing counter and very well it works, too.  Happy to hit on this solution using only what I already had in the house.

Dear blogistas, especially people on a limited budget, what cool ideas do you have to share?  please do, always on the lookout for good ones.