snagged from amberdreams and all the hell over my flist.

[fufaraw]

2. Do you have any watermelon in your refrigerator?
Cantaloupe instead. Don't much care for watermelon
3. Is there anything mouldy in your refrigerator?
Likely the cheese, if anything. Though we try to cut from all surfaces to avoid it.
4. Are there any dirty dishes in your sink?
Not even overnight.
5. What would you change about your living room?
We need to reorient the furniture group, move the tv to a solid wall, add the damn bookshelves (finally!), get rid of the futon, either slipcover or reupholster the club chair in sculpted chenille, replace the window valances with fabric to match the chair (as well as the dining room chair seats), and replace the miniblinds with cellular down-up shades. If I could afford it, I'd rip up the carpet and replace it with hardwood, but I'm just dreaming, now.
6. Are the dishes in your dishwasher clean or dirty?
No dishwasher, we wash as we go, by hand.
7. Do you have a can of mushrooms in your pantry?
There's probably one, for emergencies. Otherwise it's fresh as we need them.
8. White or wheat bread?
I'm wheat-sensitive for inflammatory symptoms, so we don't use much bread. What we do buy is multigrain, to reduce the percentage of wheat. I miss things like focaccia and artisanal boule with rosemary. And biscuits, my lord.
9. What is on top of your refrigerator?
Two baskets, one with mini-pretzels and micro-popcorn bags, the other with rice cakes, and a small lidded container of candied ginger (for stomach upset).
10. What colour is your sofa?
It's a craftsman-style futon, with sort of a bitter chocolate/slate microfiber cushion.
11. What colour or design is on your shower curtain?
1. glass doors, 2. plain white fabric with nylon liner, on roller bearing hooks and a curved rod.
12. How many plants are in your home?
None. They're all outside. The only places inside that get enough light conflict with traffic patterns and furniture placement.
13. How many candles are in your home?
Let's see, I had an inventory here somewhere... Okay, the deal is, we used to make thrice-yearly pilgrimmages to a candle factory outlet a couple of hours' drive from home: early fall, post-Christmas, and spring. It was an old warehouse, and half the floor was roped off. You bought a handled shopping bag at the door: $15, $20, or $25, and you could fill the bag from the roped off area. What was there were seconds, batches that the color or scent didn't come to standard. Three-wick pillars, ten, eight, six, and four-inch high three-inch wide pillars, 12, 10, and 8 inch tapers. You had to be very early in the morning to beat the wedding planners buying up all the white and ivory tapers in the place. Sometimes the colors or the scents were nothing you wanted in your house, but it was always worth a look.

The rest of the warehouse had seconds, or damaged freight shipments, or returned out of date or unsold merchandise. Candleholders in glass, metal, ceramic, room scenters both electric and candle-powered, incense cones and sticks, and boats, trays, and boxes for incense. Wax tarts and scented oils for potpourri burners, for pennies. Scented tealights, two to five cents each, packs of unscented tealights, $1.00 for fifty. Scented votives, 10 hour a dime each, and 14 hour votives fifteen cents each. Three-inch pillars in all heights and scents, $2 and up. Jar candles, $2 and up, depending on size. After Christmas there would be a raft of returned merch: Christmas-themed candleholders and potpourri burners. And always there were specialty candles for a quarter or less of retail--square three-wicks in layered colors, sets of pillars in varying heights, candlesticks in brass, or glass, or wood, stone potpourri burners, or unglazed ceramic room scenters for incense or scented oil.

I gave Christmas, birthday, graduation, housewarming, wedding, and anniversary gifts of candles and candleholders for *years*. I found a stash of four-to eight inch high three-inch ivory pillars in the roped-off section, and bought a bag full. Got them home, and the scent was...unattractive. I stored them in an airy porch for a year or so, and they lost some of their pungency, but the scent lingered. So I used spray adhesive and rolled them in instant coffee, unsweetened cocoa, or ground cinnamon, wrapped them in brown paper cut from grocery bags, and tied them with raffia, or sheer sparkly wired ribbon, and had Christmas presents for my whole list (special people got sets of two or three candles of staggered heights).

I have a vertitable *thicket* of brass candlesticks, and another of wooden ones. I decided long ago that the only unifying theme would be white or ivory tapers. I outflanked the wedding planners whenever I could, stocking up on shopping bags filled to level with tapers. I had a *stockpile* of candles and holders and peripherals--this post-Christmas sale was next Christmas' presents. Sadly, the outlet closed. But our circumstances changed, and my giftee lists shrank. I became less prodigious in candle use at home--OH being at home more reduced candle usage even more, because more than one candle lit at a time, and he's *dying* of heat prostration. So, the living room no longer resembles a Shaolin temple or a Police video. But, my grandmother's oak washstand is still *full* of pillars and tapers, the drawer full of floating candles, and I have bins in my closet full of votives and pillars. I don't have an actual count, but they'll last awhile, yet.
14. Is your bed made right now?
I've been sick, and it needs stripped and changed, so, no.
15. If you have a coffee pot, what colour is it?
Black and glass.
16. Electric or standard can opener?
Standard SwingAway.
27. Comet or Soft Scrub?
Bon Ami and toothpaste.
28. Is your closet organized?
My closet has been mid-reorg for more than a year. It isn't, but it will be?
29. What colour is the flashlight that you use the most?
Black maglite, and a little black one shaped like Serenity (so cute!).
30. What kinds of things are in your junk drawer?
Our drawers are organized by category: tools, picture hanging stuff, parts and screws, adhesive feet and velcro strips, glues and tapes, pencils, pens, and markers, scissors and craft blades, etc.
31. Do you drink out of glass or plastic most of the time at home?
Plastic water bottle, pottery coffee mug, china teacups, a cobalt blue square matte plastic tumbler for soda. Appropriately shaped and sized glasses for alcohol.
32. Do you have iced tea made in a pitcher right now?
Sadly, no.
33. If you have a garage, is it cluttered?
Carport, and no.
34. Curtains or blinds?
I have a philosophically adversarial relationship with curtains. We have valances and miniblinds on most windows, and a down-up cellular shade on the window with the problematic view.
35. How many pillows do you sleep with?
Two
36. Do you sleep with any lights on at night?
No. I have the LED numerals on the alarm clock taped over with opaque tape, and a cardboard panel in the window at night to block outside light.
37. How many ceiling fans are in your home?
One.
38. How often do you vacuum?
As scarcely as I can get away with. Hate vacuuming.
39. Standard toothbrush or electric?
Standard.
40. What colour is your toothbrush?
White and purple.
41. Do you have a welcome mat on your front porch?
Our doorstep is outdoor carpeted. We didn't do it!
42. What is in your oven right now?
Oversized baking and roasting pans.
43. Is your microwave clean or dirty?
Always clean. It's a thing.
44. Is there anything under your bed?
A couple of empty underbed plastic bins with the lids off. They'll be used in the giant closet reorg. Underbed in plastic apparently gets musty.
45. Chore you hate doing the most?
Vacuuming. Anything that involves an appliance. I'll use dusters and swiffers and brooms all day. Don't like whine or roar, and heavy things running into my calves or over my toes.
46. What retro items are in your home?
Victorian breakfront china cabinet w/bookmatched burl panels and machine carving across the drawer fronts. Pair pressback Victorian kitchen chairs. Late 1800s oak washstand (family), two oak-framed mirrors (family), 1910s bridge arm lamp, original glass shade, 1920s magazine table (family), handmade pine small library table (family), square bed table (family), 1930s club chair (Dad's), 1940s repro Gone With The Wind lamp, lionfaces molded into the glass shades, with handpainted roses (family), pair 1950s alabaster lamps (family), 1950s dropside crib (family), 1960s four-drawer chest, two 1950s sold-unfinished painted pine dressers (one family), 1940s handpainted vase marked Chekoslavakia (family), china teacups and saucers of various vintage and origin, 1920s batter bowls (grandmother), 1900s salt piggin (grandmother), 1900s sad iron, 1900s brass and milk glass nightlight oil lamp (grandmother), 1920s pitcher and basin set (grandmother), six glass kerosene lamps, late 1800s to 1970s repros (family), wooden boxes of various use and vintage, various size and origin antique crystal stemware, Unsent WWI postcards, framed (grandmother), pair 1970s painted cast iron base lamps (family), 1960s Danish Modern dining set, various 1960s framed etchings of German towns and landmarks. Antique, vintage, retro, whatever you call it.  
47. Do you have a separate room that you use as an office?
It's half my bedroom.
48. If you have a yard, who mows it?
No mowing. Most of our garden is in containers.
49. Is there anything on your kitchen floor right now?
Other than the boot tray by the door and the trash can? No.
50. How many mirrors are in your home?
Oh, so many. One in each bath, one over the bathroom storage unit, one on the bedroom door, one over the dresser, three grouped by the bookcase, one in the china display, one on the dining room wall, two over the washstand. Wait, that's only a dozen, and most of those are for lighting up a dark area, not looking into.
51. Do you have any hidden emergency money around your home?
I don't. OH probably has.
52. What colour are your walls?
They were freshly done by the previous owner: everywhere ivory-cream (which we prefer, actually), kitchen yellow & sage wallpaper with herbal border, baths rosy cream with girly vanity bottles and brushes border. That I'd like to change.
53. Which rooms in your house have wallpaper?
Actually, all of them. Everywhere but kitchen and baths is heavy wallpaper over panel board, but the paper's made to take paint.
54. Do you have a peephole in your front door?
Yup. I have to make sure the bows and stuff on the broom are clear when I change the seasonal decorations.
55. Do you keep any kind of protection weapons in your home?
Yes. But my preference is the Rapala filet and fish knives: sturdy clear birch unvarnished handle, slender blade sharpened from hilt to tip, with a thick backbone, leather sheath with a whetstone in the seam. I used to carry the four-inch in my purse when I had to walk to my car at night. The seven and the nine inch are in the kitchen block, very handy.
56. What does your home smell like right now?

Petunias. They're right beneath the front windows, and I have the fan blowing in from that direction.
57. Fave candle scent?
It's very light, sort of a cross between cut grass and light citrus, called "Spring."
58. What kind of pickles (if any) are in your refrigerator right now?
Kosher garlic dills. Can't get the small-vat ones we used to get in NC. Dill relish and sweet relish for tuna and egg salad.
59. Who are in the pictures you display?
Family.
60. What colour is your favourite bible?
Burgundy leather KJV. It's the one I grew up on, and I bought a nice one for the poetry of the language.
61. Do you have plenty of cabinet space in your kitchen?
It's never adequate, is it, no matter how much you have? But we do have a pantry for food and large bowls, appliances, potatoes and onions. We also have shelves on the back porch for beer, soda, and extra produce storage, too, as well as recycling.
62. Ever been on your roof?
Not I, but OH goes up every so often to clear storm debris and check roof integrity.
62. Do you own a stereo? Wait! There are two number 62s!
Couple of boom boxes, and the dvd player plays cds through the sound system.
63. How many TVs do you have?
One. Though sometimes in football season I think about having a second one. I have old eyes, I don't like watching things on a small screen, but there are...some things...I would like to watch in private.
64. How many house phones?
None.
65. Do you have a housekeeper?
The Other Human.
66. What style do you decorate in?
We have a Craftsman/Japanese/Danish Modern esthetic, we just can't afford to adhere to it. This was an evolution from faux-Victorian to horrid kitschy kountry, to primitive east coast colonial, to American traditional, to hidebound English library, to Provencal country, to where we are now. Elements of each style cling as we've moved through the phases.
67. Do you like solid colours in furniture or prints?
I love fabric prints and textures carefully selected for the piece. OH, on the other hand, would willingly cover every couch and chair in plaid, if he couldn't have a solid color.
68. Is there a smoke detector in your home?
Yes, one battery-powered, one hardwired.
69. In case of fire, what are the items you would grab if you only could make one quick trip?
Laptop, for records and photos. Possibly a couple of stuffed bears. Pre-digital photo albums.
70. Do you know how to work your electrical box?
Reset a tripped breaker, sure. Not rewire the thing, or add a circuit.
71. What temperature in your home is most comfortable to you?
Funny you should ask. The thermostat is set at 64F, which would be fine except the thermostat lives in a wall jog between the furnace and the clothes dryer, with the water heater nearby. It's not a thing in warm weather, but in cold weather, the damn thermostat is cuddled in nice and warm, and we on the periphery of the house are freezing our tuchuses off. OH has determined that a bag of remedial frozen peas clapped on top of the damned thermostat soon convinces it that a new ice age has dawned, thus tricking it into turning on the furnace.