A walk and a trip

I was actually planning to look for art fodder yesterday, because it was so beautiful and I had not been anywhere for so long. I decided to take a walk around my neighborhood and search for flotsam and jetsam, those remains of daily life left carelessly behind for me to discover and add to my altered art.

As I walked down the block, I saw some of my neighbors had their Christmas decorations out. That's when I decided to return home and get my camera, which would now join my plastic bag that would hold my finds. Like my art often does, this day was turning into something totally different than I originally planned.

I turned the corner and walked about a block and found this adorable display. I love this one because of the clean lines and simplicity of it. I say that, because across the street and on the corner of the next block was

this house all decked out to light up at night and play music as the trees put on their display. Now granted, I haven't seen this at night, but I bet it's a real car stopper.

Each of the trees is wrapped with lights even up the smaller branches, and the strings of Christmas lights at the curb were what first caught my attention.

Then I saw the many little trees that looked like the bottle brush trees I collect.

I have to admit that I was so caught up in the bottle brush looking trees, that I nearly missed the big one toward the back made solely from strings of lights

Of course, I was pretty impressed with the wreaths on the house next door. There were actually a total of six that I saw, but failed to take even one photo of the front of the house and only captured two.

I guess that was because as I was turning to take more photos of the wrapped trees, my neighbor Donna stopped by the curb and asked what I was doing. Of course I had to tell her, and she giggled and asked if I wanted to go to our little local grocery, drug, cosmetic, you-name-it-they-have-it store. I said sure, because frankly, it was colder than I anticipated and the warm car felt good on my cold hands and feet.

When we got to this store (now be aware this is NOT a high end store, but caters to local consumers), I thought it would be good to take a few Christmas shots to remind everyone what time of the year it was.

Christmas wrap and stick-on bows caught my eye,

then the chocolate marshmallow Santas had me giggling like a little kid.

Next were the various colors and flavors of candy canes. Who knew? I thought they were peppermint and colored red and white. Now they have watermelon, blueberry, and strawberry. Again, I was giggling, thinking how much Christmas (and this blog post) had changed.

I have no idea what these are, but, like everything else, they added to the slightly tacky, but colorful and festive feel of Christmas this store exuded.

The tiny tree with its lights hid the cash register.

That was when I noticed that all the decorations were along the cigarette/cigar counter. More giggling.


The tiny lights and garland added a real flair to the lighters in the background.

Once I got past this counter, there were no more decorations, or things I could giggle about, except Donna, of course! So, I bought some eggnog from their newly expanded grocery area, and Donna graciously brought me home. It was quite the day trip.