It is very appealing to think of keeping chickens. I imagine myself scattering seed in the early morn, then gathering the eggs gently into my apron. Blogs have saved me from this false (or perhaps “dramatically incomplete” would be a better word) imagery: reading other people’s chicken-raising experiences has made me feel (1) like I really could keep chickens if I wanted to, and also (2) deeply grateful, as I put a carton of grocery-store eggs into my shopping cart.

Still, the chickens continue to appeal. I have a two pieces of chicken-related art in my kitchen: one of a hen and her chicks, and one deceptively representing our kitchen as a place where fresh eggs can be purchased. They are an excellent way to enjoy chickens without the various downsides, and I have considered acquiring more of those instead of acquiring chickens (or bees, which I think are going to replace chickens as the new house-farm hotness).

Farm Bureau Co-op Chicks (photo from Amazon.com). This would go well with other prints in my kitchen—I have quite a few of those fake/reproduction vintage signs for food and coffee and…chickens.

Chickens Wearing Shoes (photo from ChasingtheCrayon on Etsy). I didn’t even notice at first that they were wearing shoes. Now I badly want to know what kind of shoes the brown chicken is wearing.
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This is the time of year my mom and I notice ourselves craving spring colors. “Oh, soon the SPRING STUFF will be here!” we exclaim as we walk through the aisles of clearance blankets in the browns and wines and golds and deep olives that looked so warm and cozy a couple of months earlier and now look heavy and dark. It’s still winter, but we’re pining for spring.

Grasslands Road Just Desserts Parfait Cups (photo from Amazon.com). Ahhhhhhh.

Geninne Zlatkis Walkabout Framed Print (photo from UrbanOutfitters.com). Spring bird! With flowers!
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After Christmas, when the gifts and ornaments and lights need to be put away but I’m not ready to tackle that sad task, I turn my attention to the fun of choosing the next year’s calendar. I need two of them: one for all the family appointments and so forth, and the other for next to my desk. And there’s such a WIDE RANGE of options! Did you know there’s a Kardashians calendar? an Apocalypse Survival Guide calendar? a Toilets of the World calendar? a THOMAS KINKADE DISNEY CALENDAR??

Here are the ones I’m considering:

Fractal Cosmos: The Art of Alice Kelley (photo from Amazon.com). Colorful, and cool, and the kids would think it was neat, and it looks good for standing in the kitchen staring at it while trying to figure out when I could fit in a dentist appointment and still be here for the bus.
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Every year, EVERY YEAR, I feel like it is wayyyy too early to discuss gift ideas / holiday china / holiday cards and so everyone will be annoyed because OMG SWISTLE IT’S ONLY HALLOWEEN—and then every year I am sitting here with only two Wednesdays left before Christmas, thinking, “There’s no tiiiiiiiiiime! There’s no tiiiiiiiiiiime!!” Still on my post list: gifts that have to work for an unknown recipient, food gifts, holiday cards, holiday china patterns, a holiday craft a child can make as a gift and it’s something a non-related-to-the-child person might even WANT, gift-idea books for children, gift-idea books for adults, good general DVD gift sets, puzzle brand comparison, teacher gift ideas, stocking stuffers, gift ideas for 4/6/10/12-year-olds. We can pick two of those. And by “we” I mean “me,” because by the time you read the first of the two posts (this one), I’ll already be working on the second one. So. Next year don’t be surprised if I start the discussion in October.
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Le Creuset 12-ounce pumpkin casserole (photo from Amazon.com). Let’s not even look at the price. Let’s just focus on the cuteness and imagine making each dinner guest their own personal Thanksgiving-leftovers casserole in one of these. They’re 4-for-3, so…. No. Let’s not compute the price. Let’s just daydream a little longer.

Wilton pumpkin-pie-shaped pie tin (photo from Amazon.com). This seems clever AND adorable, especially for families that make more than one kind of pie. Er, not that there’s any confusion once the pies have been cut into. Still. Cute.
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We need a new blender. We are discouraged before we even start, because we’ve never had a blender we were happy with. And because this is a very boring purchase.

Here are the things we use a blender for, because apparently that’s part of the problem—i.e., finding one single blender that does several things well, versus blaming a particular blender because it isn’t good for crushing ice even though it’s the best choice for purees:

1. Hummus
2. Smoothies
3. Icy-slushy coffee drinks

And here are the three candidate blenders (so far):

Ninja Master Prep blender/crusher/chopper (photo from Amazon.com), $70. This is one of the few $100-and-under blenders rated well by Consumer Reports, and it gets good reviews on Amazon.com (4.5 stars average of 40 reviews). Paul is intrigued that the blending seems to come from…above?
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Hanging Flower Pots (photo from Amazon.com). These get such poor reviews, but don’t they look pretty in their picture? (Or you can spend twice as much and buy the same thing handmade! by an artist! on Etsy! This is the sort of reason I’ve been doing fewer Etsy-related posts.)

Sonia Ceramix Planter (photo from Amazon.com). I like the color, and I also like the row of beading.
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In our kitchen right now we have many bins. We have the regular trash can and a second trash can we use for paper recycling. We also have a large ugly cardboard box and an ugly broken plastic bin: the ugly cardboard box is for glass recycling, and the ugly broken plastic bin is for plastic recycling (it pleases me that I’m also reusing an otherwise unusable bin—but it is so ugly).

This is too much ugly. I first thought we should get a line of matching trash cans of the “kitchen” variety that have a little swinging lid on top—but the problem is that the tallness of such trash cans doesn’t work with putting them in the car to bring them to the dump waste management station. Something short and wide like the ugly box/bin works much better. I was shopping for such a thing, and I’d had NO IDEA what a lot of options there were. Some don’t work for our household but might work for yours.

The Neu Home Organize It All Stainless Step-On Recycle Bin (photo from Amazon.com) is clearly gorgeous. It’s also clearly over $100. And, saddest of all, at 12 gallons total, it’s not big enough for our household.
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It had never occurred to me that I would want a vegetable peeler in the shape of a bird—until I saw one, and then I Just Knew.

(photo from Amazon.com)

Same with the can opener that looks like a toucan—or rather the head of a toucan, which is a little disturbing now that I think of it.

(photo from Amazon.com)
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Please please please let it be spring soon. I am tired of complaining about wet snow gear, and would like to switch to complaints about muddy clothes and shoes. In the meantime, a taste of spring for our poor wintered eyes:

Sunny Morning art print by paintedbliss on Etsy ($18) (photo from the shop). Sweet little birdie + sunshine + sunny yellows + spring greens + spring lilac. Aaaaaaaaaaaaah.
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