WEDNESDAY, ORDINARY TIME 23/NO-BUY 2022 DAY 249/7x7 CHALLENGE DAY 7


Started a new gallery-wall configuration on the wall by the kitchen table yesterday. It's a big wall ---



--- so really there's a long way to go before it's a full-fledged gallery wall, but I like this composition pretty well so far. I was out of command strips and nails, which is why the blue Our Lady of La Leche, painted by a friend of my college children, is resting on the wall molding, but otherwise, it's a reasonably okay configuration. Some larger gaps between items than I'd strictly like, because I didn't want to move nails any more than was necessary, but I think it works. 

Some other items for which I have yet to find homes on the wall: 



This beautiful Bavarian crucifix might go with my husband to his office. 

But then there's this thing: 



A framed shadowbox of the Holy Family. It's --- three feet high? More than three feet high? It's really big. It also apparently used to play Stille Nacht when you wound a key at the bottom of the frame, but the internal music box is frozen up. I have no idea what we're going to do with it. 

I also scored any number of porcelain plates which seem to be God's message to me to have a Twelfth Night party this year: 





Anyway. More adventures in Good Thing We Didn't Want to Be Minimalists. 

In other news, I'm kind of sick. I've been coldy and coughing for days, thinking maybe it was allergies, but at this point I'm not sure it is. I took a Covid test some days back, but I think I'll do another one today. I have essays to write, of course, but otherwise I'm going to lie very low. Dora can have a sniff-out-kibble-in-the-backyard-grass day instead of a big walk day. 

UPDATE: Not Covid. Just some late-summer yuck, I guess. OR possibly really allergies. Who knows? I know only what it's not. 

Meanwhile, there's this coming up next week: 



More info TBA, but mark your calendar! 

Wearing today, for the last day of my 7x7 challenge



Maggie, Team-So-Basic that I didn't even bother to make my shoes not match my dress. I did give her a wash and tumble-dry yesterday because she had stretched out again, so she's back hitting just above my knees, which is my great preference. 

ETA: I washed both Maggie and Camellia, plus my crocheted periwinkle cardigan, in the machine yesterday, on cold and the handwash cycle, with half a strip of Tru Earth detergent (because it was such a small load) and a generous squidge of hair conditioner to soften the wool fibers. Both dresses feel so soft today! I hung Camellia to dry, since she never needs to shrink again, but did dry Maggie with some heat to draw her up. 

Morning backyard close-up selfie (not shown: 8 million mosquitoes):



Garden looking luxuriant after much rain: 





A single extremely flourishing spike of obedient plant: 



And so to work.