A lick of paint, the smell of smoke

Whew!  Turkey Day is DONE!  What is it about that particular hollerday that can engender such drama!  It’s mostly just folks gathered around a table, eating food, then watching football.  Oh, that’s right:  ‘folks’.   And, in less temperate parts of the US, ‘folks’ are generally stuck in the house for the entire day.  I envy those who have a big house – and even better?  A family room and possibly a rec room.  And a living room.  And a guest house.   Obviously, my fantasy includes lots and LOTS of space so people aren’t jammed at the table asking a young guest ‘is it yours?‘ when his young girlfriend has just announced her pregnancy.

Ummm.  really?  You just asked that?   (and you know who ‘you’ is, right?  of course you do 😉

There is a lot to be said for eating alone on Thanksgiving.

And another thing – Why a sense of smell is important (and why Labeling helps, too):  making gravy, I grabbed a thawed container of what I was sure was my homemade chicken stock.  But there were these little ‘crystals’ at the edge of the lid that looked…’not chicken’.  Sniffed (rather than just streaming into the roux).  Glad I did – it was lemon syrup I’d made and forgotten to label.  I can’t even imagine what a cup of intense lemon syrup would do to a traditional turkey gravy.  Who knows?  Perhaps it would’ve kept the focus on the unusual taste and off the ‘question’.

But we all got through the day, with the young girlfriend saying ‘oh, I do love the smell of woodsmoke’, which was just a lovely thing to hear.  We just installed a wood stove and have been heating the house with it.  Being a closed system it’s not quite as picturesque as a fireplace (or even an open wood stove) but it sure does the trick and emits a faint whiff of that yummy woodsmoke smell.  I have some friends who heat their entire 2500sf house via their wood stove – they are retired and the lady has more energy than folks 1/3 her age, so they forage wood and she actually chops that stuff up!  I’ve seen her do it!  They now have a log splitter but even with that, it’s a lot of work.  But their Nicor bill is $25/mo.  For those of you living in the snow belt, you know how amazing that is!  And their house always smells so….homey.  Wood stoves and steam radiators.  And the sound.  There’s something about the pop of a wood stove and the slight hiss of a radiator that says you are safe from the ravening Beast of Winter.  If I recall, CB I Hate Perfume did a November fragrance with woodsmoke.  I love his scents, especially the ones that evoke weather-related smells (and I consider woodsmoke to be weather related).  Black March is the epitome of a cold, wet Spring day.  The November one & Burning Leaves are the essence of  late Autumn.

Black Friday (which will lead us into Paint):  I would rather eat a cold, dead rat than go to a mall on Black Friday – but there is one HAPPENIN’ place that I love:  Black Friday at the Thrift Store.   Oh, baby!  A brand-new humidifier for 75cents (50% off its $1.50 pricetag).  2 near-new wicker chairs for the patio:  $5ea.   Y’all know how much I love vintage Pyrex.  Ba-BAM!  Promotional gilt & blue lined casserole.  $1.  ONE DOLLA!  Jaysus, be an oven!And my Thrill of 2016:  my solid wood Bassett Furniture hutch (from back when furniture was Furniture, with dovetail joints and not a piece of particleboard to be found).  $50.  It’s in the bathroom, being primed and painted – btw, if you have inclinations to do this remember:  90% prep.  10% paint.  Truer words never spoken. Took El O 30 minutes to get all the hardware, glass and stuff off (it would’ve taken me 3 hours – some of those hidden hinges are tough) but omg!  it makes painting such a breeze.  I was going to use an oil-based paint solely because I love the smell – turps and linseed oil is a woozy Happy Place for me – but El O looked pretty green at the notion…and it’s our only working shower so…latex!! which smells like chemicals but disperses rather quickly.  It’s coming along well and I hope to have it done and ready for towels and body creams by the middle of the week.  That wasn’t one of my Done by December demands but hey!  It’s here.  It’s $50.  And I haz the paint.  So.  Done by December it iz!  The top part now has the primer on and I’ll paint tomorrow, fiddledeedee!  What’s up for you guys, post-Turkey?  Non-turkeys?  What’s goin’ on?

work in progress