I made a short visit to my local Anthropology store over the weekend and was surprised to find a display of Halloween items for sale. I know these things tend to show up early but, July just seems way too early.
So if you are in need of Halloween dishes and decorations, I know where you can get them.
I think almost everyone has little collections of things in their kitchens. I certainly do. I bought this little tile trivet on one of my trips to Santa Fe New Mexico. The image on it really appealed to me so now I can see every day.
A friend of mine has this cute little chef sitting on her kitchen shelf. I love seeing him and on my last visit, I decided to get a photo.
The kitchen is a good place to place for items that remind us of interesting places and happy times.
Something tells me that the owner of this Jeep is a dog lover.
What a cute spare tire cover!
My new passport arrived last week and it prompted me to take a look at all my old passports. As you can see, I now have 50 years worth. If you want to get a "fast forward" look at yourself aging over the years, just take a look at the photos on all your passports. It's a sobering experience.
At a recent trip to the nursery, I encountered these beautiful ceramic pots. I was tempted to purchase one even if my luck with plants is notoriously bad.
One of these would look good in many a garden.
We had our art challenge meeting at my friends Julie and Dave's house last weekend. While I was there, I took a photo of the protea blooms Julie has in her kitchen. I think there were four of them in the vase and they are all artificial but they look so real.
They saw the real protea plants on a trip to South Africa last year and liked them so much, they brought these silk ones home to decorate the kitchen.
They look so exotic.
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I spotted this sticker pasted to a light pole in a parking lot and the eagle caught my eye. That is the symbol or trademark for the U. S. Postal Service. Normally, it would say U.S. Mail. Why it says "Moist" is a mystery to me.
I tried doing several searches online to find a reason for the sticker but got no useful results. One explanation said something about stickers being made for water bottles and laptops and another just said it was a parody. But why? Obviously it cost someone to create the thing so my question remains, why and what purpose does it serve?
Maybe it's a joke that I just don't get.
I went to Costco Saturday morning and discovered that the "kid" in me was alive and well. I saw this little Mickey Mouse train set up with lights flashing and music playing and it stopped me in my tracks. I stood there staring at if for a few minutes before deciding to snap a photo. I'm sure this is set up to lure parents into buying it for their kids Easter celebrations and I have to admit, it beats a hard-boiled egg.
I'm constantly reminded by my aging joints that the years are piling up so it was great to know that the sight of Micky, Minnie, Pluto, Goofy and Donald could still put a smile on my face.
I would never call my neighborhood a "Sleepy Hollow" but Ichabod Crane showed up nonetheless. I heard some noise out my window so I stepped out on the balcony to see what was happening. That's when I spotted "Ichabod Crane". I've seen many cranes show up around here but this was the very first "Ichabod Crane".
They need to use cranes when an air conditioning/heat unit needs replacing. On my building and the building next door, the units are hidden deep in the roof line of the buildings so they can't be seen from the street.
I must say that Ichabod Crane is great name for a crane service. Very clever.
I recently spotted this "fellow" standing on the bar at a tiny little cafe. It took me a minute to figure out what it was. It looks like if you call this doctor, he arrives complete with a bottle of wine.
That's a pretty clever bottle holder.
My car was parked in a parking lot that happened to be across the street from St. Joseph's Hospital when I heard the roar of helicopter blades revving up. I looked over in time to see one lifting off from the helipad on the Hospital's roof.
I took three photos in rapid succession and caught it on it's way.
It reminded me of the time I spent one night in a hospital for some tests and my room overlooked the heliport on that hospital. It was a good thing I was only there for one night. The roar of a helicopter right out your window is pretty loud.
When I first saw this birdhouse, I thought it was attached to that saguaro "skeleton" at the front of this house. Later I saw that it was actually sitting on top of a wooden plank.
The birdhouse looks like a very roomy, ranch-style house with a nice balcony surrounding it. The wear on the paint around the opening makes me think it has housed many feathered residents.
Meeting some friends for lunch, I arrived about 15 minutes early. It was such a nice day, rather than wait in the car or inside, I wandered around the parking area looking for anything interesting. This reflection in the window caught my eye. I liked the slightly blurry signs.
Then I was attracted by the "dream catcher" hanging from the mirror in this car. After downloading the photo, I see something even more interesting. Is that some kind of camera with two lenses attached above the mirror? I've never seen anything like that.
My last observation is the brightly colored Union Jack decorating the rear-view mirror on a Mini-Cooper.
I found plenty to see while waiting those 15 minutes.
I saw this in the window of a tailor's shop and boy did it bring back memories. My grandmother had one very similar to this. I loved watching her use the foot pedal to increase the machine's speed while she was feeding the material through it. I can almost hear the sounds it made.
Anyone else have similar memories?
When I saw this theme coming up I thought that I might just pull a photo out of the archives. After all, I have plenty of dogs, cats and even quite a lot of zoo animals in the archives. Then on Saturday I stopped at a small store that is adjacent to a local grocery store and I saw these colorful and very furry critters for sale.
The colors were so bright and cheerful, I couldn't resist a few photos.
All that brilliant color and all those happy faces, it was a more than I could resist.
Today is theme day for City Daily Photo Bloggers. Click here to see more "furry" photos.
I think this fellow got left behind after all the Halloween decorations were taken down. I saw him over the weekend sitting in a bowl in the waiting area of a salon. I hope somebody remembers to put him away with all his other 'boney' friends.
I love finding these cell phone towers that are disguised as trees or other plants. This one looks like a tall tree unless you look closely.
From this viewpoint it's pretty obvious.
Most of the ones I see are shaped like palm trees. I've even seen one that looks like a saguaro cactus.
They have been finding some creative ways to hide those antennas.
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I couldn't resist snapping a photo of this car I saw driving on Central Avenue this last weekend.
We've all heard the saying "the black sheep of the family" referring to that one that just doesn't fit the family mold. This Jeep owner has done a cute play on that phrase and put it on the spare tire cover on the back of his black Jeep.
I love it.
I saw this machine parked in a parking lot recently and I was curious about what such an ugly piece of equipment was used for. I did some research and found that it is used to pave the streets and in this case, the parking lot. It's a scary looking contraption but I bet to the construction company that owns it, it's a beauty.
Here is another odd thing I found on that Sunday drive around town. I saw a house surrounded by palm trees and a block wall and each of the palm trees was decorated in some way. I might add, the wall was decorated too.
As you can see, the tree that I got out of the car to photograph was still very much alive. The two next to it look like they've had their heads chopped off.
I couldn't find any reason for all the decorations. It must just be a random art project.
