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I Can’t Say No To Jesus or Mayonnaise

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I love finding little places like this:

I think everything in here came from my childhood home.

Stuff n Such Thrift Store Shopt in Whittier

I tend to show a lot of restraint when it comes to buying things but sometimes I cave when it comes to artwork….like when I saw this embroidered Jesus portrait.  Really, it wasn’t my fault…the “lion mane” hair hypnotized me:

Jesus Art and Vienna Sausage by The Crafty Cowboy

The Vienna Sausage painting that hangs above Jesus was a piece I picked up a few weeks ago.  I was in Gainesville and came across a disabled vet selling his paintings.  At first I was drawn to the Duke’s Mayonnaise clock…and then I got to know the artist and listened to his story and, well, I just ended up buying half his tent:

Artwork by The Crafty Cowboy

 The Crafty Cowboy

The mayonnaise clock hangs above my desk.  (I just realized I haven’t shared photos of how we’ve decorated our cottage yet….I’ll try to get to that!)

Mayonnaise Clock by The Crafty Cowboy

I figure I’m just building an amazing art collection to donate to the Getty or the MoMA one day.  I don’t even like mayonnaise…or Vienna Sausage.  But I do like Jesus. And he has a-may-zing hair.  It all evens out in the name of great art.

Oh, I also picked up these tiny “caution” cones for 25 cents.  The squirrels above our house have been pelting me with acorns. I confiscated one….not that it will make any difference to them.

acorns and cones

I wanted to buy these from a box on the side of the road but luckily another lady beat me to them:

puppies for sale in Bryson City

Just kidding. Diesel is an only dog.  But…Donna says there are miniature pot bellied pigs for sale nearby.  I’m going to have to take a look. Just a look.

 

 

 

Things I Saw Today

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Things I saw today while wandering around Bryson City.

A flowering vine left to grow wild behind a building downtown. I thought it looked like an elephant:

An Elephant Topiary in Bryson City

 

 

Giant sunflowers at Darnell Farms. Brett ventured out to show the scale. We bought bananas and one sunflower for innkeeper Lainey.

Farmer Chad: Well heeyyy there little lady! How’s the writin’ comin’ along?
Me: Slow. I need to come and hang out here for some inspiration.
Farmer Chad: Monkey pickles and a flow-urrr.  That’s an interesting mix.

I need to go and hang out with Farmer Chad more often.

Sunflowers at Darnell Farms in Bryson City, NC

 

A giant potato in the front of Gil’s bookstore.  The truck driver had to do a 74 point turn in order to park it.  I get anxiety thinking about it….this is the reason I am not a truck driver:

A Giant Potato on Everett Street in Bryson City, The Idaho Potato Tour

The Tiniest Dog in Our World

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I have a great business opportunity for someone in our small town of Bryson City: Dog Groomer. After looking for a few weeks locally I finally found a place….but 25 miles away.  I’d found someone local but when I called them they weren’t taking any new “clients.”  Poor Diesel had become so shaggy he couldn’t really see anything…and he was up to about 2.5 lbs including all the fur.  When I got him back he weighed about 2 lbs…and resembled a tiny deer. And so ridiculously dainty. The groomer said he was the smallest dog they’d ever seen….so small they charged me an extra $10 for the trouble.  I took this photo when I got him home…doesn’t he look like a cardboard cutout?

Teacup Yorkie

 

I think Diesel is settling in well to our new life.  He loves the grass and flowers and all the new smells:

flowers

 

He’ll be 13 this year and we can tell he’s getting older. Our front steps are a little too big for him so I put a little brick to create a “mid-step” for him. You know you are getting old when you no longer have any teeth to hold your tongue in:

diesel2

 

He has a little bed under my desk and he still sleeps on the 5-foot-long stuffed dog we hauled all the way from California for him.  He loves looking out the window from our bedroom and watching the birds.  And mostly he just loves to sleep:

sleeping

 

Boo and Diesel have become better friends since we’ve moved…he’ll let her pet him now, which he never really let her do before. Desperate dogs do desperate things? Is that a saying?

friends

 

Diesel was a trooper when we drove him cross country. I think he was just happy to be with us….all the time.  He sat in his little bed the entire trip and only popped his head up when we’d stop for gas:

Tiny Teacup Yorkshire Terrier

 

He stayed in his little bag when we visited sites….he’s been through 2 presidential museums and lots of historical sites.  Except for the Hoover Dam and the St. Louis Arch….because they have X-Ray machines.  I didn’t want to be on the front page of the paper for that one:

Crazy Woman Sends Dog Through X-Ray Machine At National Landmark

Diesel under the Arch….he looks so darn proud:

arch

 

Funny how a little tiny 2 pound animal can give us so much joy.  He’s smaller than the squirrels I see around the house….and I’m sure the hawks and eagles would try to gobble him up in a second if we weren’t careful.  I hope he’ll be around for a long time.  I just hope he improves his attitude a little since he’s chased off the Hemlock Inn’s dog Scruffy a few times and tried to attack a very forgiving therapy dog yesterday.

P.S. I could feel the therapy dog’s silent amusement. He outweighed Diesel by 48 pounds,

 

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