Techno kitty.

This cat is spoiled.  Not only does she have one tablet to play games on, but two!

She's serious about birds.  Probably more than boxes, if that's possible.

Cats?  Eh, not so much.

Izzie loves the tablets so much she often begs D and I to use them.  She'll meow at us until we put a game on for her.  And she'll come running if she hears one of the games, even when we think she's sound asleep in another room.

The new blog title 2

1907 Illustration by Arthur Rackham

If you haven't read about why I decided to change my blog name, it's here.

Blog names are important.  At least they are to me.  I have decided on whether or not to visit a blog based soley on its name.  It's similar to how I judge books by their covers, despite the platitude. Blog names, just like book covers, can make or break a blog.

What I wanted in a new name was something original, easy to remember, with a bit of whimsy. And I also wanted something that fit me.  I had a blog prior to this one that never went beyond a couple of posts.  I called it The Third Law of Motion.  It fit because I love science, especially physics, and I've often looked at that law as a metaphor for life.  But it was too serious.  No whimsy at all.

While brainstorming new names for this blog, the two that I seriously debated were Good Dissonance and The Resonant Spark.  I love the concepts of dissonance and resonance, especially in music and literature, and since music and literature, like science, are also interests of mine, they both seemed like good fits. But again, too serious.  And perhaps too intangible.

On the subject of originality, it's nearly impossible these days to hit on a name that hasn't already been taken by a .com, .net, .org, .whatever.  I finally gave up on that front, partly because I planned to keep my original URL.  However, I did still want to come up with something distinctive, if not entirely original.

I almost gave in and went with The Resonant Spark until I was perusing Etsy one day and came across this typography print that I'd bookmarked many months ago:

Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass were two of my favorite books as a child.  I found them magical.  Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast seemed to match up perfectly with the original purpose of this blog.  Again, read here and my About Me at the top.  It is also brimming with whimsy.

But back to that originality thing.  I had the brilliant idea of changing Six Impossible Things to Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.  It had a similar sound and seven is my favorite number. I have a tendency, in fits of OCD-like behavior, to count things by sevens.  I also appreciate that it's a prime number.  Surely no one else had the same idea for a name, right?  

Wrong.  See what I mean about everything already being taken?  

So I decided to go with Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast.  It's easy to remember, distinctive, and whimsical.  I like that it—the exchange between Alice and the White Queen—seems to suggest that not only should you believe that you can do and be anything (impossible things), but that you must also go out of your way to think outside the box (practice believing in impossible things). Which every true creative genius does.

There is a quote by Steve Jobs, one of the great creative geniuses of our time, that comes to mind. "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.  So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.  You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.  This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."

The notion that you have to take a leap at the end of the day is frightening, but inevitable.  One can't ever know if something will work out.  Whatever is is that you're attempting to create, be it music, art, prose, a well-designed home, or the next theory on quantum mechanics and general relativity, the only way to truly succeed is to bring your own unique perspective (by practicing believing in impossible things) and take the leap, trusting that your dots will eventually connect.  

The new blog title 1.

1907 Illustration by Arthur Rackham

I've talked about this before, but to recap, the main motivator for creating this blog was the desire to finally start taking my writing seriously.  As in genuinely working towards the goal of publication and not merely seeing it (publication) as a far off dream.  In this day and age that journey includes building an online presence.  It's important to many agents and publishers.  Granted, my presence is minuscule, but at least I exist.  If you google my name, this blog (ok, and my Pinterest page) is right at the top.  So I'm out there, however small.

I love a good blog name.  Some of my favorites?  The Lettered Cottage, urban farmgirl, freckled laundry, the handmade home.  They're memorable and fun.  However, they're also house blogs and this is not.  That's not to say that some writers don't have blogs with creative names and I do post about home decor, etc., sometimes more than writing, especially lately, but the prevailing wisdom in many writing circles is that if you're working on building an online presence in order to improve your chances of publication then you need people to remember your name.  The name that'll be on the cover of your books.  Hence the reason why this blog started out as simply Jill Kinchen's Blog.

That's just so darn boring.  I couldn't take it anymore!  I want to be published eventually, but I don't want to bore myself to tears before I get there.  So I went off-script and gave this blog a cutesy name.  I kept the URL the same (jillkinchen.com) and my full name is also still in the header.  That's good enough, right?  Someone back me up here.  Cindy?  When you're back from Europe?  ;-)

With that off my chest, I can explain how I landed on Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast.  Stay tuned for part 2.  No, I hadn't intended on being obnoxious and ending on such a nail-biting cliffhanger, but I'm long-winded and this post is getting too long so I'll save the rest for next time.

Easily amused.

Admittedly, D and I don't get out much, so maybe those of you with lives won't find this as funny as we did.

As often as I complain about the cost of gas these days I'm grateful it's nowhere near that!  I took the photo driving past a local gas station.  Some employee is either dyslexic or woke up with a raging hangover because that is nearly 3 times the average price around here.

Window shopping.

I haven't done a favorite things post in a while.  Because of my love of antiquing, I've come across a lot of cool stuff at the shops that I couldn't afford, didn't have room for, or just plum did not need, so I thought I'd do a little show and tell of some of the coolest items left behind.

An apple picking bag.

Gym locker baskets.

Chinese lotus slippers, which were worn by women with bound feet.

I've seen a lot of old typewriters, but this is definitely the most unique.

Olive picking baskets.  

This camera ached to come home with me, but it's pretty rare so it was pricey.

Wire baskets are common in antique shops these days, but this particular one spoke to me.

Marine compass.

How many people can boast having an airplane cabinet in their houses?  Definitely a conversation piece.

It's funny that I wanted this metal bin so much since I do not drink soda.  I think it'd make a cool sewing machine table though.

I'm always drawn to vintage fans.  Love the cage on this one.

Tobacco basket.  Never smoked, but I want one of these for my wall!

Apparently I really like any type of container (baskets, bins, bags, cabinets), gadgets (typewriters, cameras, compasses) and metal (nearly everything).

Fini.

The blog redesign is complete.  Favicon, media buttons, and custom About Me all changed to match the header.  In my opinion, this place looks much better, especially when compared to the original look.

It still doesn't quite look professional, but that's what I was going for.  For example, the trend nowadays for media buttons is to use single letters—F for Facebook, T for Twitter—but I didn't want the blog to look like it'd been touched by a real designer.  Which it doesn't.  Because I'm not.  I don't know why I feel that way.  Maybe it's that so many of the professionally designed blogs blend into each other after a while?  Or maybe it's because I enjoy doing it myself, but haven't learned enough about blog design to step it up to the next level.  Or maybe it's simply that I wanted it a bit rough and worn around the edges, just how I like my antiques.  Probably all of the above.

Speaking of the header, I never did get around to explaining why I chose that particular Alice quote.  I haven't forgotten and I will get to it eventually, in case anyone is curious.

Update:  I decided to add word verification to the comments.  I hate having to do that, but I've received 10 spam comments in the last 4 days and I'm tired of having to delete them.

Currently in progress.

This week I'm working on finishing the blog redesign.  Finally.  I created the header in May and meant to continue on with the favicon and media buttons, but as is usually the case with me, I got bored and moved on to something else instead.  Story of my life.

Anyway, I went to pull up the new header for reference and came across the rough drafts.  I'd forgotten how many versions there were.  I thought I'd share so that we can all (the 2 of us) cringe together.  They're in order, the first being the first one that I made.

The sad thing is that there were many more variations, particularly in font style, between 1 and 2.  I just didn't start save as-ing until the 2nd.

Some are really bad, but often you can't know if something will work or not until you try it.  Now that I'm looking at them all together I might actually like the last one more than the one I chose.  If I put my name on it somewhere and added the Alice quote to the bottom, which I obviously meant to with that negative space there...  Hmmm...  Which one is better?

Since I'm on the subject of blogs, why do I get so many spam comments?  Luckily, blogger's spam filter intercepts them before they're published, but they're still a pain to delete.  I've received 75 in the last month.  How is that possible?  Hardly anybody reads this blog!

A trip well done.

Although I saw a total of 8 states (Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, and Tennessee), I couldn't consider the vacation completely successful until/unless antiquing was involved.  I didn't get the chance to go while in Omaha, but my father-in-law and I hit up a few shops in Northern Arkansas.

Score!

I've been looking for a vintage ladder to hang throws, linens, etc. for at least a year.  I come across them every now and then locally, but they're always at least $100 and they're never very old or all that interesting.  I found a ladder from the 30s in Fayetteville for 30 bucks!

I love the character.  The gorgeous patina.  The galvanized steel parts that lock the ladder into place.

The branding.

Now I need to find some cool things to hang on it.  The vintage Godchaux's sugar sack is staying, but the scraps of upholstery fabric are not.

I also picked up this rusty minnow bucket for 2 bucks.  

Can't beat that.  They'd charge at least $30 for that here.  

I think Northern Arkansas has officially become one of my favorite places to antique.  Remember these chairs?

The shrine.

While D and I stayed at a hotel near the stadium, the in-laws settled into their travel trailer on the other side of town.  With just one car between the four of us, this meant lots of traveling back and forth.  Early on in the trip I noticed a road sign by the RV park directing visitors towards the Holy Family Shrine.  Being the curious person that I am, I was determined to check it out.  D and the in-laws eventually humored me.

We were pleasantly surprised to find this beautiful glass chapel, founded by the Catholics, on a hill overlooking a valley.

 

It was closed for the day so we couldn't go inside.

Behind the structure was a garden.

The water flowed right through the middle of the chapel and ended at the alter.  

The whole place was exquisite.

History

On a day when those of us that are American contemplate the history of our country, I thought it was appropriate that I share a part of Omaha's (and the surrounding communities) history, which is actually also a part of my own family history.

During the 1800s, many of the pioneers traveling west across the plains stopped at a place along the Missouri River they called Winter Quarters (now North Omaha).  There they quickly erected homes to wait out the winter. Due to exposure, poor nutrition and sanitation, hundreds died.

The burial site is now a landmark.

I noticed that a lot of Marys are buried in that cemetery.

The large white building beyond the cemetery is an LDS (Mormon) temple.

Across the river in Council Bluffs, Iowa, is another pioneer site (then called Kanesville).  A large log structure was built there in three weeks in order to accommodate 1000 people.

Above, in the middle, is my great great great grandfather.  I have pioneer ancestors on both sides of the family.  

I'm grateful for all who blazed new trails for those of us coming behind.  Happy Independence Day, America!