Test Blog #1

It’s summer and we have plenty to do. The back-packers returned Tuesday (August 3) from their three-day, two-night excursion into the Boulder and White Cloud Mountains in “the wild heart of Idaho.” Son Clint returned to his home in Hagerman while Mike, Nick and Hallie came on to the Frog Ranch where I was waiting with a pan of lasagna for dinner. I have never seen so many mosquito bites! We’ve been cleaning camping gear, playing croquet, exercising in the sun, and sitting up late to watch the night sky as the grain ripens in the fields all around.

I seldom buy new things for my house. For one thing, I have a lot of old things and that makes it hard to justify buying more. For another, I am not confident of my ability to decorate my home, but I resist asking an “expert” to tell me what to do. And I’m careful about what I spend: I don’t want things to be cheap but I also don’t want them to be so expensive that I’m stuck with them forever. Believe me! I don’t part with things easily.

Recently, though, this cute little shelf with “doorknob” hooks caught my eye at Pier 1 Imports. I didn’t buy immediately, thinking that if I showed the shelf to Mike, maybe we could make one similar using old doorknobs here at the farm. Then Hallie sent a message: “If you want that little shelf, you’d better check into it. They are on sale now.” By the time I was able to shop, just one of the shelves remained in stock at the Lewiston store, and of course, it had my name on it.

So with great care and as much precision as we could muster, Mike and I hung the shelf  on the designated wall in the kitchen just outside the hallway. “That shelf looks great there,” Mike would say every time he walked into the kitchen. “What are you going to hang on the hooks?” My plan is to make and hang aprons, perhaps as a means of seasonal decoration. Just one hangs there now – a crocheted number from my mother’s collection. I’ve seen the pattern in vintage crochet books.

On the same shopping excursion, I bought this little decorative trunk for Shirley Anne, American *Farm* Girl. (Yes, I changed the name of my American Girl doll to better reflect the role I want her to illustrate.) I just couldn’t see paying the exorbitant  price for a genuine American Girl trunk, so I shopped the “decorative box” department at Ross and eventually came up with this nice little trunk for $20.00. Mike points out that for travel the clasps are not really sturdy enough, so I will make it a security strap. The trunk is just a little short. I have to fit the doll in at an angle, but that’s okay. KW