Disconnected Observations

Home decorating influences:

Throughout my life, the one of the places I enjoyed most was the library.  As I child, my poor mother would carry 2 paper shopping bags homeward loaded with fairy tales. In sixth grade, I started to teach myself Russian. I loved exploring the fiction section and reading all the work of a particular, new-to-me author: Anais Nin, Ambrose Bierce; home economics books from the forties, photo books of silent film sirens.

A large university library was heavenly.  It yielded folk lore journal and a large collection of Victorian era gardening books.  Western explorers documented species found in Asia, Wardian cases held ferns from forests just beyond city boundaries, the pale creamy hues of a flower commemorated the death of a child.

My other favorite place was a glassed in conservatory, like a Wardian case 

but big enough to walk through.

My other, other favorite place was the aquarium.

Also churches and cathedrals for the stained glass and the murals!

In combination they added up to a cabinet of curiousities.

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At one of my first jobs out of college, a boss came and touched my shoulder from the back.  She wanted to check if my shoulder was real or padded.  The cheek!

I have wide shoulders and am always clipping out shoulder pads from my sweaters,  blouses, dresses, coats.  I saved them not knowing how they would come in handy.

Yesterday, it occurred to me to used as a makeshift mask for going to the grocery store, etc, where the new 6-foot social distance rule is difficult to implement.  People are milling about every which way like lost souls.

I simply placed a shoulder pad that was an appropriate size and shape cupping my nose, mouth, and chin,  The top of the teardrop shape was over my nose, the rounded part over my chin.  I used a long cotton scarf over the pad, wrapped it over my ears and came around again to the front to tie under my chin.  I had to adjust a bit around my cheekbones and under eyes,  I wear glasses with a strong prescription so I wanted to avoid the fogging effect that would blind me more.

Instructions for do it yourself masks call for layers of opaque fabrics. a loose weave lets in air and lets out germs.  Shoulder pads are already thick, so seemingly a good starting point for an easy mask.
What do you think?


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I was in the car with my husband. We had just picked up some baby items for a young woman in our family who is expecting.  We were leaving the house of the family who gifted them.  They were moving out.

We passed an alley and I saw a large scale abstract art work in dramatic, blacks, grays and reds.  I asked my husband to turn so I could get a closer look.  It was a bulky pallet spray painted in a random way.

My husband sighed.

"I see beauty in everything!" I exclaimed.

"Close your eyes!" he retorted in exasperation.

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I see beauty in everthing!!!!!!!!!