Bric A Brac

So... I got up too early and full of awakeness, and got up to start sorting through all my papers from last year for taxes. Fun, huh? (Not fun for me.)

So I was sorting through my receipts from the UK, throwing away the things that weren't deductible and remembering how much I love museums and books and charity shops (not, not, and not deductible).

I thought I would add this to the knowledge base of anyone who didn't know and might care a teensy bit: In the U.S. when you buy something from a thrift store and it wasn't worth a category of its own, they call it misc (for miscellaneous). In the UK, it's BRIC A BRAC (a term I knew for the little statues grandmothers put on little shelves). Or on a receipt that's not all upper case, capitalized with a weighty three capitals: Bric A Brac

I hope someone needs to know this and can maybe win some money on Jeopardy, or Countdown.

Here's some bric-a-brac (American spelling):



I bought that round Elizabeth II cup, second from the left, for Bea Marshall. I have the receipt sitting right here. Marie Curie Cancer Care charity shop, 107 GLoucester Rd. Bishopston, Bristol. June 30, 2011. I mailed it to her, worried that it might break, but it didn't. I sent it because when I had visited her earlier in Sheffield, she'd asked me who my favorite member of the royal family was. I said Charles, because I felt sorry for him. So I got a Charles and Diana memorial teacup. I think it was supposed to be a commemorative teacup, but poor Charles. So I thought an older Elizabeth might be good for her everyday teacup collection.

No good way to get this home, but England is swimming in cool teapots:



And egg cups:



I almost bought that one. Then I thought a photo of it was plenty.

They have a much better quality of bric-a-brac than the U.S. has:



... though maybe when it's useful like a teapot it should be dishes. According to what I can learn from my receipt, though, if it's not toys, books, or womens accessories, it must be Bric A Brac!

My beautiful quilt

A year ago I was in Pennsylvania and thereabout. Lori Odhner had given me a beautiful quilt, for speaking at her "Caring for Marriage Conference." Today I found a photo and pulled it out and cropped it. Chara Odhner had set up a self-operating portrait operation with a fancy camera and lights and backgrounds and props, but I used my new quilt as my prop. Gravity and luck posed it very nicely.

Look what I did today!

You can see below that some of the things I had already created previously.
That's how it goes in my universe. :-)

(Here is the reality of it: http://sandradodd.com/reality)

January's gone and February's moving along

I haven't posted for a month! That's rare. We had company after the symposium, and then some more, and then some more. Joyce took some cool photos January 3 on a day out at the petroglyphs and Old Town.

We took our picnic lunch to sit on the plaza in Old Town, near the gazebo.

Holly said, "People get married there," and just about then a couple, one witness, and an officiant show up to do a wedding. They didn't have a photographer, so I took some photos, got an e-mail address, and sent them to the bride.

Elsewhere in Old Town, also by Joyce:

I invited some people over one day when Heather Brown was here, to talk about unschooling.

Heather, Amy Childs and her daughter Nikiah went for a quick hike, and later sat in the hot tub in our back yard.

In around that, I've been corresponding with people about visiting and speaking in ten or twelve places in the next year and a half. Some of those are already set, especially the 30 of June, in Leiden, south of Amsterdam. http://sandradoddleiden.wordpress.com/
A Day in Leiden with Sandra Dodd
learning about unschooling

I've moved my speaking schedule to a blog, and it's set up so that one can subscribe to one section (tour or set of talks):
http://speakingsandradodd.blogspot.com/