the diamond

The "Diamond"

(See previous post for the details.)

Suffice it to say that we chose the safe and sophisticated color of black

to finish our stereo.

diamond in the rough

Call me what you want -

cheap, frugal, stubborn -

I have wanted a stereo for a long, LONG time.

Never has the price been right until THIS one.

"Free" the sign read on Saturday morning

(the last hours of a garage sale in a neighboring small town).

The gentleman even helped us load it.

He said he'd purchased it with his first paycheck in 1968

from a Murphy's store in Kentucky.

He said it had worked the last time he tried it but made no guarantees.

We plugged it in as soon as we got home

Sure enough!  It works.  Only a little bit of hesitation in the loud/soft control.

A friend of ours is coming over to fix it on Wednesday.

My husband mended the hinged top

and now I'm trying to decide on what color to paint it.

I'm thrilled with this diamond in the rough.

The first record album we played was an old Glen Campbell one I had

in a stack of records I've been saving for this day.

eclipse

 Did we watch it?

Of course we did!

In the thriftiest way possible.

How about you?

those good old "buy one get one free" coupons

 They sure come in handy.

 It was a great morning for a great morning!

by candlelight...

Our electricity went out last night.

Rumor had it that it would be 1:30 a.m. before power was restored.

By the remaining light of day, I gathered candles and hunted frantically for working flashlights.

By nightfall, we were comfortably settled in to enjoy a calm, quiet evening.

I think I'll just let these candles sit on the tray and light them now and then

when I want another calm, quiet evening

(and restock our flashlights' bulb/battery supply).
As happy as I am that power was restored,
there is something to be said for the peace and calm of an evening
without all the "artificial" pleasures that electricity enables.

"we need wabi-sabi"

I've got quite a BIT of wabi-sabi in my home

and have found the book Wabi-Sabi Welcome encouraging and relaxing just to read it!

"simply showing up, not showing off"

"live large, open lives"

 "largely about learning to pay better attention"

"uncluttered way of living"

ALL this and so much more..

Especially I like "learning to embrace the imperfect"!