And now for something completely different...

Sorry for the morose entry before this. Sometimes it just needs to be written down/said/acknowledged.

Moving on: I had a great 30th birthday. Spent the morning going to various yard sales around town and scored some great stuff without breaking the bank. Will be posting photos of said items as they find their permanent homes in our tiny house.

One thing I didn't get that I REALLY wanted was a taxidermied raven. I am mortified of taxidermied animals, but this one spoke to me in an Edgar Allen Poe kind of way. I wanted it for the bookshelf that's going to run along the ceiling. It would have been great. But it belonged to the kid of the woman having the yard sale. Damn little whipper snapper!

But we still found quite a few treasures, including some cool books (for keeping, diplaying, and cutting up into art projects), a mail/keys holder, more little glass jars (collecting as flower vases)...

3 new plants, total cost: less than $5

A French-English dictionary from the 50s,
some classics, an encyclopedic dictionary,
and some McGuffy readers containing great art like this

The moral of the story is, kids: mind your parents.
Or you'll drown.

flower vases and new curtains I made out of a vintage sheet

more glass chotchkies

some great art in the encyclopedic dictionary

After we spent all the money we'd budgeted for yard sales we came home unloaded the booty and then spent a few hours working on the gutter on the tiny house.

Well, Keith worked on it.
In the rain.
I watched.

It looks fantastic, but there was a small hitch in the installation and it has to be fixed and/or reinstalled. Not to worry, I have my best man on the job!

seeing things in the clouds

As I handed him a piece of drip edge, I saw this little guy sitting there.
I didn't hear him strike the window, but he must have (judging by his little poop and his dazed look for a few minutes). I shoved my camera in his face and he just sat there. Then I let him be; he sat there for a couple of minutes, shook his feathers, and flew off to the pear tree. Which is probably where he thought he was going before he hit the window.

This isn't the first bird strike we've had, with all of our windows, so I'm on a mission to find something to prevent the little buggers from flying into the glass. I printed out some predator bird silhouettes (I read that would work) and taped them to the window, but I'm not all that happy with how they look, so I am looking for something better. Maybe something like this.

We also have a robin's nest in the spruce tree outside our bedroom window and it's full of baby birds.
Keith held the camera at arm's length to get it, hence the blurry. Look at how many there are! They must have just hatched in the last day or so - they hardly have any feathers.