I have put away all the Christmas decorations except for this one postcard, which I get out every year because it is such a good likeness to a house I once lived in as a teenager.  Not exactly, of course, being a painting by an Indiana artist, Ronald Mack, called "Homestead".  I have only two photos of the house we lived in, in Virginia but neither shows the house and the approach, the  aloneness of the location, as this painting does.  It was the last time we lived together as a family, dysfunctional but not yet broken.

I have moved a table near the stove for us to eat warm.  We already had our breakfast, the favorite omelette with Swiss cheese and spinach and mushrooms, and now I am sitting there with my coffee, reading the book Total Chaos by Jean-Claude Izzo, translated from the French.  For lunch I had just a quarter of an avacado, salted and eaten from the shell with a spoon and the last cup of coffee.  Mmmmmm, delicious!  Outgoing mail is propped against the lamp, lest we forget to put it in the mailbox tomorrow morning.

This New Year's I did make some resolutions,  to eat less, exercise more and to fast from spending money.  Amazingly, I have actually eaten much less and have walked on the days the street was not covered with snow or it was below 10  degrees outside, but somehow fasting from spending has not worked out so well.  I had read about a woman in New York who did this.  She was asked about groceries and she said Oh well, one has to spend some money but just in general I try to find some other way to get my needs met.  I loved that.  My daughter says that might be called "bricolage".  I understand that to mean working things so that more items do not have to be added, just using what you have.  Sounds a very green thing, no?  But in my own case, I ended up buying a new kitchen range, since three burners misbehaved, on Christmas day even, ramping up to high no matter what the setting was on and burning things all 'round.  However, if you like, you can excuse me because it was still 2010 when I bought the stove.  The new china shown in the picture above was definitely bought in the new year.  And though the first 10 pieces were cheap or free, the necessary plates and cups and bowls were purchased and were not cheap.  They are, however, not made in China!  It is Pfalzgraff from the '60's called "Gourmet".  Oven safe and reasonably resistant to chipping, unlike most new china.  Dark brown with a white drip all around the edges, I have quite fallen in love with it.  Now it takes up the space I used to set the bread dough in to rise.  I already had two pitchers in this style.  However, you will notice some blue and white little pitchers on the right in the picture,  I also have a large pitcher in that style.  Somewhat at odds.  Are you sure that things have to match?

I tell you, I am unwilling to give up the big blue pitcher, its the perfect size for iced tea and frozen orange juice!

Additionally, I found at an Antique Mall a lovely Tell City rocking chair rather like one I used for years that went to it's real home at another daughter's last summer.  And on the back a reproduction coverlet bought at the same booth.  And for this purchase I have no real excuse except that the price was very reasonable.  But saying I bought something because it was on sale sounds like recreational shopping to me!