So, What's On Your Coffee Table?

I normally have many more books stacked here and on the floor under the table too but I tidied up the other day. I try to keep a very clean space but I love books! Now, most all of my books are instructional or art books, cookbooks and the like. I don't read a lot of fiction. I do like some science fiction and some mystery books though. Of course, lately I have been pouring over house books for ideas. What color for the outside of the house, tile work, interior colors etc. etc. The 3 books on the left are some very nice ceramic art books. Wonderful work there! On the other side I have some of my catalogs (another indulgence) from seed companies, hardware suppliers etc. Oh, and that new one on stone work in gardens. The glass candy dish was my aunt Corinne's. It is sadly devoid of any chocolate. The little square dish in the middle is a raku ceramic piece made by a fairly well known artist, Richard Hirsh. Back when I was in college he did a workshop at our department and I was one of two student assistants. He made the dishes as part of his demo and gave me this one. In that dish is a pocket knife Allen have me years ago and a smooth stone I found down on my property. The little book is "The Art of Wordly Wisdom". I believe it was written over 400 years ago. Great book; still very relevant. The bottle with the white cap is some great hand salve made by an electrician that we know. I think it is mostly just beeswax and olive oil. Works wonders on winter dry hands. There is also a piece of square quartz I found on the job and some roofing nails. I often come home with nails in my pockets.
Well, the house is progressing. Allen hooked up the new water filter but they did not ship the filter media so the filter is just bypassed for now. It is always something. I am still trying to find out where the media is and what is going on. I painted both living room walls and cleaned and waxed the steel truss. It looks great and now I can take the scaffold down! I will be so happy to get that out of the house. It looks like it will still be Dec. 12th, 13th before my propane tank is delivered and hooked up so no permanent heat yet. There are so many little things to do such as window trim all around, I need to finish the pantry walls. I still have just a little tile work in the shower yet and a small area of slate to install in the bathroom. I thought at first I was going to have a built in shelving unit there but changed my mind. I need to build the bathroom vanity and install the sink. I can also install the speakers in the living room now. Hey, but we got the ceiling fans working properly! We found a transformer type controller that had high enough amperage to run both fans but low enough that there is actually a definite difference in the speeds. I was given one controller but the amperage was so high that there was essentially no difference in speeds. It was just on (and very fast) or off. Electrical things confound me so I did not realize these fans could pose such a problem. I'll try to get some more photos soon. I want to get straighten out some so I can throw soon. I would like to make some pottery for Christmas gifts but am being very cautious about actually having time. Oh, yeah, I painted the front door but you can't see it until I am completely done and it is decorated for Christmas! I have become so frustrated with not having time to work on the outside of the house that I actually dreamed the other night that I just started painting the Tyvek. I couldn't stand looking at that white paper anymore. Allen asked me what I was doing and I just told him to go away and let me do it. After I move in, I think the next big project is going to be the siding.