Field Day Letter

Dear Moms-I-Spent-Three-Hours -With-At-Field-Day,

If I am ever hanging out with you at a school function. Or even if I just bump into you at Target. Or wherever. If ever I notice that your t-shirt is inside out I promise to tell you, just in case you are not aware of it.

If I don't tell you I can pretty much guarantee that when you do figure it out -- say after you have been at school, at Starbucks, etc. etc. E.T.C. and you go home you will be embarrassed. Chances are the phrase, "total horses ass" may come to mind when you look in the mirror.

Sure you might have been exremely distracted today by the fact that you saw a rodent in the kitchen, that you had to work before going to field day, that you really really really need to get home and finish painting.

Did I mention the rodent?

I know we aren't close. We don't have much in common except that are kids are in the same school. But come on. Some of you I have known for three years now. So I promise I will feel comfortable enough to say, "Did you know your t-shirt is inside out?" Just in case, as an adult, you are not purposely wearing your clothing inside out.

Sincerely (and now wearing her shirt right side out),

Slow Panic

Catching Up

Oh. OH!!! I am still painting. You probably already knew that.

I am making progress. The walls are painted (painting brick sucks). And I've started on the trim. This morning I polyurethaned the floor (one of the benefits of this project is I can now spell polyurethane) -- just part of the floor --so I can slide back the shelving and put in the new file cabinet tomorrow night. Which means I can move around the room a little easier.

Are you still reading this?

Actually I'm enjoying the whole process. I would like it even better if I wasn't also having to be mommy and employee.

Also, BIG GIANT NEWS: my husband got a job. Yes. Ten months of unemployment is OVER. He started yesterday. My favorite thing about this is peace and quiet and the house to myself all day long. The extra income is pretty nice too.

That about sums things up around here. I'm going to get back to polyurethaning the floor.

The Good, The Bad, The OMG I Will Never Finish

Do you see those windows? Yes, I know they are filthy. Thank you camera for accentuating that. I have 15 of those eight pained windows to prime and paint. It is taking forever. I am very excited that I was actually able to open all of them. They haven't been opened in years and I thought they were all rusted shut, but a little WD-40 and a lot of swearing and they opened. I'm so excited.

Yeah, the office remodel continues. I am in painting hell. I lied to myself over the weekend and said this workweek wouldn't be so bad and I could spend most of my time painting and get back in there in a week.

Not so much.

Work is crazy busy -- which is good. Those windows however, are unbelievably time consuming. I'm still priming them. Monday I wasn't able to paint at all, yesterday a couple of hours in the evening -- which means this morning I catch up on the housework (and I use that term loosely) I didn't do last night which means this afternoon I catch up on the work I skimped on this morning when I was catching up on the housework (still using the term loosely).

So yes, I have had moments of panic about this project. But really. Is it going to last forever? No. One coat of primer and two coats of paint are going to take much longer than I thought but in the end it will be worth it. I'm also going to sand and polyurethane the floor. I want to pull those ceiling panels off because there is bead board under there, but I'm going to put that off (don't tell me I should be doing that now. I know that.).

Honestly I'm really excited about it. It's a huge step for me to be proactive and take on a project like this. The decluttering and throwing stuff out is huge.

Once it's done, instead of walking into the room and trying to ignore the rusty windows, dirty walls and tons of junk I'll walk in and feel proud of the work I did and the beautiful space that is just mine.

Don't Trust the Bunnies

So I'm sitting here reading blogs while D8 does homework.

He says to me, "We trust God and then we don't trust anybody else right?"

I'm sitting caty corner from him and I start to say to him, "You trust me to take care of you don't you?" I figure I'm in for a big teachable moment where we talk about trusting friends, family, etc. etc. etc.

As I'm talking I lean over and reach up to pull him close to me for a hug.

And I poke him in the eye.

Yep. Right in the eye. Just to prove that he can trust me.

Then I really did hug him, said I was sorry and he said, "But we don't trust bunnies right?"

No baby. We don't trust bunnies.

After the poke in the eye I was willing to settle for that.

It All Started With A Lamp

It all started with this lamp. I was at Target a few days after the Liberty of London collection came to Target. I'd been waiting and waiting. There were only two of these lamp shades left and I was standing there looking at them when another woman walked up and I said to her, "I want this so bad, but I just don't know where I would put it." She said the same thing -- that it just wouldn't fit in her house anywhere. We had a little conversation about it and then she walked away.

I really loved that lamp. I really wanted it. So I said to myself-- what the hell. I'll find a place for it and I bought it.

As soon as I got home I realized it belonged in my office. As soon as I put it in my office I realized how grungy, cluttery and dirty my office was.

Thursday I started painting the two tables that make up my desk. I'm still working on them -- applying polyurethane. Yesterday I started priming the windows and walls. It's a big job -- mostly due to the incredible amount of stuff in there that I have to organize. And the cleaning. Ohhh the cleaning. And the painting the zillions of windows. I will post photos of them next time.

Like I said in my previous post I'm creating a room that is just mine -- where I can work, sew, write. It feels good even though I can feel my usual reluctance to finish a project. I can't wait to show it to you when it's finished.

Why I Blog (or don't)

I've been feeling stuck or blocked or whatever. To stubborn to come here and admit it. To lazy or scared or ambivalent to do anything about it.

Yesterday I ran across this post at Lisa Call's blog. I've recently discovered her blog and I really haven't been reading much of anything lately. So it feels a little serendipitous that I happened to read this particular post. Lisa writes about being stuck and the importance of writing as an integral part of her creative process.

Everything she wrote really hit home with me. It was exactly what I needed to read. I need to get back here and the truth is I feel like I'm always writing this post -- about how I haven't been writing and how I need to and how I'm embarrassed to come and say this again.

So then I keep not posting. It's silly. And I can feel myself getting more and more stuck.

So yesterday I painted one of the tables that makes up my L-shaped desk. I'm finally redecorating (OK decorating for the first time) my office/sewing room. This is kind of huge if you want to know the truth. If I keep it cluttery I don't have room to sew and I can't get to anything.

A couple of weeks ago I sorted and organized my fabric. And by the way. damn. I have a lot of fabric. Now I'm attacking the office side of the room and it's not pretty. But I'm making progress and I'm determined to turn it into a room I love to be in. It's going to take me a while to declutter everything, paint the room, and get everything the way I want it. I can already feel the energy shifting in that room and I know that change is really coming from inside of me -- from the changes I've made lately.