The subject: a shiny barely-gold shelf. It's some kind of metal that clangs when you hit it. It has three shelves, each with a small lip to keep things rolling off. Each shelf has diamond-shaped cutouts, so you can't put anything too small on it. It's hanging on the red wall, above the dresser, to the left of the pipe in the corner. The bottom shelf is at eye level when I am standing up.
On the top shelf, left to right:
A teddy bear, blond, with poseable arms and legs. The fur is a bit time-worn. It is vaguely reminiscent of my childhood teddy bear, though far from identical. I got it from a moving sale I heard about on the local Queer Exchange facebook group, I think, or perhaps a Buy Nothing, or perhaps Craigslist? I think it was Facebook, though. Someone moving across the world and shedding a lot of their things. I got some good stuff from them, including a fantastic sweater that's too small for me and a pair of yellow salt-and-pepper shakers. (I keep salt in one and Crazy Mixed Up Salt in the other. One has green masking tape on it and the other doesn't. I don't remember which is which.)
Next to the teddy bear: a large many-pointed star - I can see eleven from here. A Christmas tree topper, but a bigger one than most I've seen before. I actually don't remember where or when I got this. It was free, I know that much. I like free piles; I like picking stuff out of bins by the side of the road. This tree topper is painted metallic gold and it's a little patchy, but the patchiness just gives it a nice weathered feeling. It's made of some type of stiff cardboard, I think. It could be plastic but it has a certain heft and texture to it that makes me think otherwise. I've never put it on a Christmas tree. It's not heavy for an item of its size, but it's certainly heavier than the angel tree toppers I'm more familiar with. Those can sort of perch atop a tree without needing much support at all; this, not so much.
On the middle shelf, left to right:
Stuck through a diamond-shaped hole, a glitter-encrusted foam heart on a red stick. I have two of these. They were, I believe, fifty cents at a thrift store a few hours away. It was raining when I went. I was visiting a friend and they were at work, so I went out to a thrift store to keep busy. I remember liking the place, though it was pretty small. There was a good selection of knickknacks and a bad selection of clothes. It usually tends to be one or the other when I go to thrift stores, I've found. The glitter is the type of glued-on craft glitter that rubs off on anything it touches.
A box with a full (sealed) sharps container inside. The box is for mailing it to disposal. I filled out the label and then checked how much it would cost - too rich for my blood. So it sits on the shelf. I believe my theory was that if I kept it somewhere visible, I'd eventually do something about it. Not so far. There are needle exchange places near me - plenty - but, you know. Leaving the house. The container inside the cardboard box is hard red plastic.
A headless toy purchased from the Goodwill near the pharmacy. They probably should've given me a discount on account of the missing head, but I think it was only 2.99 or so anyway. It is, I think, a black cat, although without a head it's hard to say. It has a long tail with a white tip, and its paw pads are white. It's small, probably half the size of the teddy bear. Its limbs are jointed and poseable. It's wearing a rather jolly-looking shiny lavender jumpsuit with a rose embellishment on the chest. It looks like a sleeveless dress, but the bottom is actually voluminous pants with elastic at the ends. The jumpsuit has a bit of velcro at the back and could be removed. I'd like to give it a head someday.
The cat(?) is resting on top of a flower crown. A small headband with orange and red dried flowers glued to it. My sibling made this for me with flowers they grew on their farm; they grew them, dried them, and made the crown themself. I'd love to wear it more, but I'm scared of damaging the flowers. It feels fragile and precious to touch. The flowers are a range of sizes, the smallest being about the size of a quarter and the largest being about the size of... I'm not sure. Touch your fingertip to the tip of your thumb to make a circle. It's a little bigger than that. Unless you have large hands.
The cat(?) is leaning back slightly against an empty glass milk bottle. A quart size. I have an assortment of little jars and vases and things for putting plant cuttings in. I don't remember where I got this one or when. College, maybe? It's a bit too big to be really useful for my purposes. It's a bit dusty and I can't actually see it from my desk chair. I like milk bottles; they feel so sturdy, and they're a pleasing shape. It's got some heft to it. No labels or anything; just a clean empty glass bottle.
A plushie with an AM radio inside of it, purchased from the Goodwill website. It is, I think, an alligator or perhaps a dragon? It's bright green with a white belly and a red mouth. It's difficult to ascertain what animal it is meant to be, besides a green one with four limbs and a tail. It is lumpy and poorly-made. Tuning knobs poke out through its chest, and a zipper goes from its back all the way around to just under the chin. The listing said the radio worked, but I could not figure it out. Some wires need to be connected in a way that is utterly opaque to me. An utterly, delightfully, useless object. Even if it worked, it would still be useless, as it's an AM radio.
Dangling from a diamond-shaped hole on the far right side of the shelf, there is an Uglydoll keychain plush. I never knew the names of these guys; this one's brown and has buck teeth. This was a gift of some kind to me when I was a child, I believe. I adored Uglydolls and had a couple of full-sized ones. Now I've got this keychain and a full-sized one a friend gave me. My cat adores the big one. It's one of his favorite things to sit on. The keychain's tag is frayed and featureless and its fur has a greyish tinge to it that is to be expected of a decades-old keychain. I believe I have washed it before, though.
Third shelf:
A light blue heart-shaped pillow from CVS that says, "Be Mine" on it in white cursive. One of those bits of seasonal trash they put out for Valentine's Day. I got it for myself, of course. I find it hard to resist worthless trash. It's a bit bigger than my hand and has a nice squish to it. There's magenta-pink "stitches" in a heart shape around the text.
A little hedgehog plush - maybe three inches? - with a party hat on. The party hat is red, with a yellow frill at the bottom and a blue pompom on top. A birthday hedgehog for a birthday present. I believe it was from my sibling, when they were in college, but I couldn't say for sure. Its got brown fur mostly, with a little white ruff around the face, and its paws and snout are a beigey-looking fabric. Its stitched mouth is smiling.
A plush keychain of Hello Kitty riding a large dog. A gift from my dad from a business trip overseas. I was obsessed with dogs as a kid. Hello Kitty is wearing a red dress and the dog has a red collar to match. I've never put this on anything, so it's still in good condition despite its age. Like the Uglydoll, it's an impractically large object to have on a keychain. I was too scared of losing it to put it on a bag like some of my other keychains, though.
A wooden "piggy bank" shaped like an elephant. A blocky cartoon elephant, though. It's purple. There's no coins in it. I just like how it looks. I think it's for a baby's room. I got it at a yardsale. The folks at the yardsale were happy to see me; I think they hadn't gotten many people coming by, and they wanted to wrap things up, and they told me I could take whatever I wanted for free. I took this and an alligator-shaped wooden piggy bank and I think one or two other things; they enthusiastically repeated I should take whatever, take anything! Please! I felt a bit bad for not wanting more of their stuff. Yard sales are a great way to get things for very little money, because people are just trying to get rid of it all. Unless they're snobs or it's actually an estate sale business type of thing, the answer to "how much do you want for this?" is often either "hmmm, five dollars?" or "ah, just take it." Even if it's something that would be really expensive otherwise.
Slightly in front of the elephant is a very ugly little ceramic figurine of a dinosaur. The dinosaur is a pale creamy yellow with blue spines down its back and a blue plated belly. It also has faint red-pink polka dots and a pink hat. The hat looks like a mushroom cap. It's clambering on top of some toy blocks, the largest and most prominent of which simply has the number 1 on it. On the block is a baby blanket (teal) and a ball (multicolored). The dinosaur's face is puffy, with round fat cheeks and overlarge cherubic eyes. It's supposed to be cute. This item is quite dense and heavy and enchantingly ugly. My housemate took me to a far-off thrift store for my birthday a few years ago and I got it there. It's for a baby, I suppose, although it's not a toy and it would definitely break if flung on a floor, so maybe it's for somebody who knows a baby? Something intended to be put on a shelf near some photos, maybe. It looks like it could be a cake topper, but I think those would more likely be made of lighter plastic - I think this would not be kind to a cake if placed atop one.
The last item is a clown doll. A windup musical clown doll! If you wind the key on its back it'll tinkle out a little music-box ditty. The face is a rosy-cheeked smile with star-shaped eyes that I find very cute. Its hair is brown yarn curled in a reasonably convincing simulation of curly hair. It has a pastel mint and lavender clown suit with a ruffle at the neck. The doll is permanently in a seated position and has a somewhat weighted body so it doesn't fall over; its limbs are rounded and plush. My friends think it's creepy; I think it's adorable. I have developed a very particular fondness for some clown junk over the years, though I'm quite picky. Some clowns are really really ugly, but some clowns are cute. This one is cute. When we were moving it kept getting jostled around, which made it clink out notes from the music box once in a while, which my friends did not enjoy. They are haters.