Spring
I had great plans to write all about Thanksgiving, and our recipes, and our family fun, but then time passed too quickly and all my plans got away from me. Thanksgiving was wonderful. There was a requisite turkey-related mishap, but it was very small and didn't impinge on the holiday. We had an abundance of cheesecake and just enough leftovers. We liked the turkey thing enough that we made another for Christmas, and then learned that a turkey for just the two of us is way, way too much bird.
We're still using up the frozen turkey stock, eight cups to go.
Christmas was lovely. Instead of a mountain of presents from my grandparents, we got exactly what I'd hoped for: hand stitched ornaments for our tree. Little things to treasure, and pass down, and celebrate. It's worth more to me than a bunch of stuff.
We have an abundance of stuff.
My mom spent a lot of this winter telling me about the mountain of stuff at her mother in law's, which my mother and her husband are sorting through and fighting with E's sister about. It sounds terrible. Stacks of old, unopened toothpaste. A lifetime supply of Tums. I don't remember the specifics, and the truth is that they don't even matter -- there's just too much stuff. Too. Much. Stuff.
In some sort of reflexive reaction to these stories, M and I made a stab at organizing the garage room this weekend. It is going to take many, many weekends for us to really get a handle on that space, but we're started now and that's very important. The bad part is that we're trying to get the space organized so we can put more stuff in that room and less in the rest of the house (which ultimately leads to more stuff everywhere, I'm pretty sure).
This is the closest to Spring Cleaning I get, people.
Outside of the Stuff Wars, we're doing okay. We sort of mid-review on a lot of different levels. We're two-thirds done with our taxes, reviewing our investments and savings plan, waiting to see what my raise is going to be and how last year's bonus will pay out -- February seems to be when I clean house financially, if not literally. M's rounded the half-way mark on school, and that's sitting better with everyone. We've earmarked a few house projects for this year, and bought our plane tickets for this summer's vacation.
I've also had a few unsubtle reminders to keep in perspective how much seemingly little things can affect other people for the positive. Sometimes we downplay the effect we have on other people's lives, or miss acknowledging it entirely. It seems to be an object lesson at the moment, one the Universe has on repeat.
On outside matters, our tiny garden has started looking like Spring. There are lettuces peeking up and the Apricot's in bloom. M bought a lawnmower with some of the Christmas money, and keeps hacking at the palm trees in his spare time.
I wax in and out of love with my job. Right now I am very much in a holding pattern, waiting to transition into the next stage of my life once M graduates and our opportunities free up again. I don't know if this job will be part of that next great adventure, but it's still integral to our Now. Part of this great journey is finding reasons to love it until we don't need it any more, and that's easier some days than others.
Showing posts with label Holiday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holiday. Show all posts
Monday, October 31, 2011
Voila!
These are some of the embellished IKEA pillars. They look a lot better than $3.50 finds and were kind of fun to make. I just finished the biggest one tonight. In order of decreasing size, they're decked out with a vintage pear garland image, Debussy sheet music, an antique dictionary page scan, and the first paragraph of a German fairy tale (from a book I bought in a Castle's bookshop).
The picture's kind of askew because I snapped it quickly on my cellphone.
These are some of the embellished IKEA pillars. They look a lot better than $3.50 finds and were kind of fun to make. I just finished the biggest one tonight. In order of decreasing size, they're decked out with a vintage pear garland image, Debussy sheet music, an antique dictionary page scan, and the first paragraph of a German fairy tale (from a book I bought in a Castle's bookshop).
The picture's kind of askew because I snapped it quickly on my cellphone.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
More preparations
The families are coming. Now that the guest list is sort of settled, and I'm not too terribly worried about the meal planning bit, I'm trying to get the house in order for a holiday gathering. Stop Laughing. It's possible.
And by ready.... I mean that it should look a little more finished after three and a half years of occupancy. So I'm sprucing up some simple stuff: Restore the front door, hang sheers on the front window, evict the cardboard box garden growing in front of the window, unearth M's rocking chair (possibly recover M's rocking chair), find a storage solution that works for our DVD mountain, hang a picture above the piano, dust the piano, corral the music, find Inez's metronome...
That's just the living room. It's not so much decorating as it is Acting Like A Grown Up And Putting My Shit Away.
In the kitchen/dining room, we have a lot more of ALAGUAPMSA to do, and I need to find/hang some wall art, clean up the sawdust from having the door/windows installed, move out the curio to make room for a sideboard, repurpose the white table/sewing table/guest room table into said side board, and clean clean clean.
The bathroom is pretty lovely, so that just needs to be clean-clean-clean-ed. And the hallway can be decluttered and as long as we shut all the doors no one will notice too much that there's chaos brewing within.
The back patio needs to be cleaned up, too, but that may be beyond the scope of the holiday. The front entry needs to be cleared off, swept, the metal entry door needs to be cleaned and repainted. The trim below it is ugly ugly ugly, but filling/sanding/painting that out is more handy-man work than K-work. The gross wicker chair thing needs to go to the dump, either in pieces in the trash or on one good haul with a borrowed truck. (If the latter, then we should also dispose of the pruned tree limbs and other clutter in the back yard).
I'm getting tired just thinking about it. Phew. But I love all the areas we've cleared up lately. And I'm hoping we'll be able to keep on clearing up spaces, and eventually get to the painting of walls and fixing of electrical outlets and other little repairs we need to do.
The families are coming. Now that the guest list is sort of settled, and I'm not too terribly worried about the meal planning bit, I'm trying to get the house in order for a holiday gathering. Stop Laughing. It's possible.
And by ready.... I mean that it should look a little more finished after three and a half years of occupancy. So I'm sprucing up some simple stuff: Restore the front door, hang sheers on the front window, evict the cardboard box garden growing in front of the window, unearth M's rocking chair (possibly recover M's rocking chair), find a storage solution that works for our DVD mountain, hang a picture above the piano, dust the piano, corral the music, find Inez's metronome...
That's just the living room. It's not so much decorating as it is Acting Like A Grown Up And Putting My Shit Away.
In the kitchen/dining room, we have a lot more of ALAGUAPMSA to do, and I need to find/hang some wall art, clean up the sawdust from having the door/windows installed, move out the curio to make room for a sideboard, repurpose the white table/sewing table/guest room table into said side board, and clean clean clean.
The bathroom is pretty lovely, so that just needs to be clean-clean-clean-ed. And the hallway can be decluttered and as long as we shut all the doors no one will notice too much that there's chaos brewing within.
The back patio needs to be cleaned up, too, but that may be beyond the scope of the holiday. The front entry needs to be cleared off, swept, the metal entry door needs to be cleaned and repainted. The trim below it is ugly ugly ugly, but filling/sanding/painting that out is more handy-man work than K-work. The gross wicker chair thing needs to go to the dump, either in pieces in the trash or on one good haul with a borrowed truck. (If the latter, then we should also dispose of the pruned tree limbs and other clutter in the back yard).
I'm getting tired just thinking about it. Phew. But I love all the areas we've cleared up lately. And I'm hoping we'll be able to keep on clearing up spaces, and eventually get to the painting of walls and fixing of electrical outlets and other little repairs we need to do.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Preparations
My mom has hosted Thanksgiving every year in memory. Sometimes family comes. Sometimes family is pointedly excluded. Sometimes it's themed. Most years it's duck. This year, she's mired in transitioning E's mom through a rather substantial lifestyle change and doesn't feel up to hosting. Which means, for the first time in my adult life, I could actually host Thanksgiving.
So I volunteered.
And M didn't leave me.
Mom & E, Russ & Elaine, me & M, and possibly a couple last minute additions to the roster will be falling in around our gorgeous (yet impossible for us to find linens for) dining table. And then it struck me: I don't have eight of anything, as far as linens go.
Since I have recently discovered top stitching, and how it makes things survive the washing machine better, I decided to make my own. They're a bit eclectic -- just like everything else in our house -- but they're colorful and should cheer up the table under all that stylish china and crystal. Good thing we picked a neutral tone pattern. :)
My mom has hosted Thanksgiving every year in memory. Sometimes family comes. Sometimes family is pointedly excluded. Sometimes it's themed. Most years it's duck. This year, she's mired in transitioning E's mom through a rather substantial lifestyle change and doesn't feel up to hosting. Which means, for the first time in my adult life, I could actually host Thanksgiving.
So I volunteered.
And M didn't leave me.
Mom & E, Russ & Elaine, me & M, and possibly a couple last minute additions to the roster will be falling in around our gorgeous (yet impossible for us to find linens for) dining table. And then it struck me: I don't have eight of anything, as far as linens go.
Since I have recently discovered top stitching, and how it makes things survive the washing machine better, I decided to make my own. They're a bit eclectic -- just like everything else in our house -- but they're colorful and should cheer up the table under all that stylish china and crystal. Good thing we picked a neutral tone pattern. :)