Alexis finds unexpected goodies at Dollar Tree

Alexis attempts to placate Hayden, who's still unhappy about the progress of home improvement, with her finds on a junket to the big Dollar Tree out in Mesa. For instance, there's this very fine urn that will look lovely in the garden once it's repainted in beige.

There are four of those urns.

Look! Either tops for garden tables or stepping stones for the garden. Was this not a bargain? (The girls took their hats off because the sun went behind a bank of clouds, this being monsoon season. Alexis is looking a bit mussed from being out in the heat.)

The round things are coasters and deserve a close-up. Although the design is printed on the stone-like substance, rather than embossed, the overall effect is pretty nice.

And a lamp! Who could turn down a lamp with a glass base? (Alexis has lost one of her sandals in her excitement.) Hayden's attention, however, is elsewhere.

"That looks remarkably like a dog," says Hayden. She feels a migraine coming on at the prospect of yet another resident of their small house, one that will need to be walked and cleaned-up after.

But it's such a cute puppeh, isn't he, isn't he just? Since he is a King Charles Spaniel-mix, he will be named Fitzroy.

Fitzroy is part of the (very limited) Tiny Petz series, which is doubtless a knock-off of something, possibly Hasbro's Littlest Pet Shop.

The lamp was a phenomenon I'd first seen on Hey, It's Muff!, in a posting that's two months old, so finding them for myself was a source of great excitement. The packaging consists mostly of warnings that this must be kept away from heat at all costs, at all times, no heat, nada, NO HEAT EVER. Of course, I'm taking it home by a method that involves a wait outdoors in 100-degree weather of 20-30 minutes. I'm going to explode.

But I will explode in the cause of owning a fashion-doll-sized lamp for just one dollar!

I did take the precaution of not buying more matchboxes for dressers, so that when I exploded, I would not wipe out the entire shopping plaza and leave a smoking ruin in the midst of Mesa.