Eye Candy

I’ve long put off doing something with my home office. All I have in a 9’5 x 11′ room is an L-desk, a file cabinet, and a salvaged printer table.

When the exterminator came by today for routine maintenance, one of the ladies in the rental office glanced in and I felt shame, so MUCH Libra shame. So I did what any good Libra would do and rationalize a little shopping spree by noting that it’s a three-paycheck month. Now I have a dark red and black traditional Oriental rug and a 55-inch black console table coming. I’ll get artwork after the rug arrives to see what colors will work best. I keep my office dimly lit, with warm light bulbs, so probably something in fall colors.

I didn’t stop there, though. I bought artwork for over my bed and a four-piece set of birdie artwork for somewhere in the living room. They’re 12-inch square so while they are long enough to take up the necessary space with three inches between them to fill the two-thirds rule of how wide artwork should be over a sofa, they might not be tall enough. If so, I will hang them in a square in the dining area.

Yes, I’ve been living without artwork in my apartment for about nine years now. Why? Because I got rid of all of the stuff I had when I moved back to Virginia in 2015 as it was all given to me by people I didn’t want to be reminded of in my new life. I also hate clutter, as my ex-husband was a slob (one of the reasons for the divorce—nope, signed up to be a wife, not a maid) and my ex-boyfriend was somewhere between a level 1 and a level 2 hoarder (living in the same zip code was enough for me).

A couple of years ago I started going to galleries and looking for paintings, but as much as I wanted to and could finally afford it, I just couldn’t bring myself to plunk down $2,000 or $3,000 on a piece of art for fear of getting it home and then finding that it wasn’t a good size or it just didn’t work with my furniture, color scheme, or light.

So hello canvas prints from small businesses on Amazon! If they work, great! If they don’t, no harm, no foul. I’m only out a couple hundred bucks and I can offer them to friends who might like them. I do know the bird art will work, because bird art will ALWAYS work in my home, but not sure about the abstract I bought for over the bed.

I also figured out where I’m going to hang artwork given to me in recent years by people I do want in my life, as well as smaller pieces I’ve picked up over the years and just never hung, like this beauty, “A Study of Riddles,” by Apollo the Crow at Diva Crows:

I don’t believe Apollo has been painting lately, or, if he has, Diva Crows has stopped selling his artwork, so I’m super glad I got one of his last commissions. He’s still alive and well as far as I know, though.

Another great thing about this painting is the fabric Diva Crows used to wrap it:

Yes, those are eyeballs in the roses. What lovely mix of romance and Hitchcockian terror! Fortunately, I’m on the good side of the Crows who live on the property, having kept them in peanuts for a couple of years now.

And now for today’s candy: Gummy Eyeballs! Fortunately, these were not around when I was a kid or I might very well have turned out even more warped than I did.

Housekeeping

A little housekeeping: I’m turning anonymous commenting back off. I think the way this comment system is set up, it’s not intuitive that you have to manually type in your name, etc. if you are not logged in on WordPress. This will force you to do that or it won’t take the comment. Sorry about that, but anonymous comments irritate me, even if they are unintentional.

A big housekeeping: We have a bit of a spider problem in my building.

And now for today’s candy: Whoppers! (Just like some of those spiders, heh.) These are malted milk balls. They have a nice crispy kind of crunch to them, unless you get a bad one. The bad ones are unexpectedly soft and chewy and a form of grossness unto themselves.

Boo-kends

I’m not much into decor, at least for myself as I’m terrible at putting interiors together (bad Libra, BAD), but when I saw these bookends, I had to get them.

They sit on my bachelors dresser, holding my growing collection of Barnes & Nobles Collectibles Editions and a few other books.

I call the one on the left Edgar and the one on the right Allan. Seems fitting for the subject matter of most of those books. I’m about halfway through a novel I’m reading, and then I’m going to read the Lovecraft. I’ve never read any Lovecraft before, but the first paragraph of the first tale, “Dagon,” has me chomping at the bit.

I am writing this under an appreciable mental strain, since by tonight I shall be no more. Penniless, and at the end of my supply of the drug which alone makes life endurable, I can bear the torture no longer; and shall cast myself from this garret window into the squalid street below. Do not think from my slavery to morphine that I am a weakling or a degenerate. When you have read these hastily scrawled pages you may guess, though never fully realize, why it is that I must have forgetfulness or death.

Heck, maybe I’ll just read that tonight, since I had to take the book off the shelf anyway. “Dagon” is only a few pages long.

I saw my bookends while picking out these for a buddy’s birthday last summer.

She put them to very good use.

An doll in Egyptian clothes with two cat bookends.
Image: Kada Walden

She collects Barbies (although the one above is a Monster High doll, the Howliday Cleo de Nile), so if you’re into that, check out her awesome YouTube. In fact, even if you’re not into Barbie, check out her awesome YouTube, especially if you love spooky season. Her Halloween display is a thing of beauty, dark, delicious beauty.

Speaking of things dark and delicious, here’s today’s candy, good ol’ M&Ms. My friend is so elegant, I couldn’t put something tacky, crummy-but-good, or flat-out terrible below her video.