Home is Where the Art Is

A few nights ago I returned home from work to find three surprises. Well, maybe "find" isn't the right word. It implies that there was no struggle in my discovery of said surprises, which was not the case. "Notice anything different?" asked the bf expectantly as I entered the living room. I was setting down my purse and removing my office ID badge, my weary mind unprepared for the challenge that awaited. I should interject that the bf takes a special glee in remarking upon my shoddy powers of observation. To be fair, his teasing isn't unfounded. As this account shows, I spotted only one of his surprises without the aid of his coaching, which took the form of that age-old crowd-pleaser of a party game, "hot and cold."

Outrageous Owl Print

Remember this? It's a print of the Large Outrageous Owl Tote I made for Katie of the blog What Katie Wore. I'd framed it ages ago with the intention of hanging it, but you know how that goes. I like to imagine someone looking at it and thinking, "Ooh! It's a painting. Wait, no, it's a print of a painted tote bag. How clever!" Of course, this person would have no prior knowledge of my tote painting enterprise. (I realize I'm taking some liberties here, but why write a blog if not to entertain such indulgences?)

Here we have the newest member of our Animal House menagerie, the blue jay corkscrew. This surprise was the most difficult for me to discover. The bf and I were sitting in the kitchen when he asked, apropos of nothing, "Do we have a corkscrew?"  "I don't know," I replied, and began rummaging around in the drawers. Coming up empty-handed, I admitted, "I guess not. But then, we're not big drinkers, so we probably figured we didn't need one . . ." The bf seemed to ignore this comment, instead taking off on a new tangent. (In hindsight, I recognize this as the dead giveaway it was.) "Don't forget your jewelry on the shelf," he said. Absently, I glanced at the shelf above the sink where I frequently discard rings and bracelets before attacking mountains of cheese-encrusted dishes. Something blue and foreign caught my eye, and I finally realized what he'd been getting at. Honestly, sometimes I think I make it too easy.

Now, the third surprise I did notice. We'd had these mini cutting boards from Target since we'd moved in two years ago, and although we'd always intended to display them, it never happened. So I was more than charmed to see them hanging cheerily against the stark kitchen wall.

The bf knows I like to craft as kooky a space as possible, and I was touched that he'd taken it upon himself to humor me. (Did I mention that he also scrubbed the kitchen floor? He would be annoyed if he knew I wrote that.)