SUNDAY NIGHT BLUES

I love quotes. I used to do painting and collages with quotes.
I am going to start doing that again.
Here are some quotes that are appropriate for me right now.....

Part of being a winner is knowing when enough is enough.
Sometimes you have to give up the fight and walk away,
and move on to something that's more productive.
- Donald Trump

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.
- Lao Tzu

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.
- C. S. Lewis

Whatever you want in life, start today.
Not tomorrow - today.
Let it be a small beginning - a tiny beginning.
Your happiness depends on starting today - every day.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

I choose not to project my past onto my future.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
- Albert Einstein

SPACE

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/small-cool-2010/small-cool-2010-whitneys-well-organized-home-teenytiny-division-1-113215

When I wrote my post about getting rid of STUFF and trying to do the minimal thing I got a comment from Nita that said how she is using her spare room for Holiday storage and how she only uses the items for a couple of months a year. http://www.modvintagelife.blogspot.com/
She was doubting herself on this decision and it got me thinking. When I first read it, I was nodding my head and thinking, yeah, MY spare room is full of art supplies, books and where my cats spend most of their time (when I'm not home I don't want anyone using my sofa for a scratching post and it's a BIG room with lots of windows and sunlight) anyway.....

THEN I thought, what would I DO with that room ideally?
Make it a pretty guest room for guests that never come?
Don't get me wrong, I don't WANT guests to come. I'm a hermit.

I just think I'm SO sucked into the perfect homes on the different blogs that I just feltlike it was the THING TO DO.
Maybe if my home is perfect, everything will suddenly fall into place and I will have the perfect happy life.

(I googled "Happy Family"....isn't this the SAME guy but different family?)

(Hmmm, maybe not. But don't they look perfect?)

I bet their home is stunning.

They make me vomit a little bit in my mouth.

Oops, my Jealousy Monster is rearing it's UGLY head

SORRY!

Let me stuff that side of ME back into it's dark and scary place.

Then this morning, I'm thinking how I NEED another room. Just one more room for my STUFF. A place for my art projects while they are WIP so that they don't get ruined.

and then I thought about my bedroom (that I have yet to finish and maybe there's a reason for that) I mean, I SLEEP in there and then I never use it any other time. NEVER.
I go upstairs, go to bed at night and then get up in the morning and never use it again until night. OK, well, I do USE it. I cover my bed with a sheet in the morning and leave Blue in there while I'm at work. Then at night I remove the sheet and go to bed. (I don't want dog goobers or butt smears on MY bedding.) But I must say -
He is VERY good. At night he sleeps on the floor but during the day he's on my bed. He always stands in the bedroom looking at me as I leave, kinda "acting" like he's going to lay down on the floor but as soon I leave, he climbs up. I know this because since he can't HEAR me and when I've returned home many times and walked upstairs, I find him either laying full length on the bed with his chin propped on the window sill staring down at the driveway or....

curled in a ball and snoring away.

(OK, this is actually on the sofa with Ralphie but you get the idea)

So, I could put my "work table" in my bedroom, my paint brushes, paints, my DVD player and etc.

Basically make IT my art room with my BED in there.

I googled Apartment Therapy and found the photo at the top of this post and this for inspiration:

 http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/ny/small-cool-2010/small-cool-2010-whitneys-well-organized-home-teenytiny-division-1-113215
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

There's the Feng Shui issue. All that stuff about the bedroom being a tranquil "space" with no electronics or "stuff" to disturb my sleep.

I do follow some of the rules like not having the foot of the bed facing directly towards the doorway. (You don't want that, it's scary stuff.)

and I do drape something over the mirror facing the bed....but to be honest it's not really because of Feng Shui. I could try to be funny and say something about catch sight of myself unexpectedly but really, to be honest, it has more to do with the "Candyman".

OK, I need to get back on track here.

While I'm sure there are people who would be screaming at me (both in real life and the blog world) that I need to keep the stuff out of my bedroom, I'm thinking that ultimately it will be BETTER energy for me. To have a place (other than my kitchen table) to work in.

I don't know why I'm stressing about this.

I hardly ever have people over and if I do, they are too busy stepping over little dogs to think much about my decorating.

And as far as the Blog World? Well, I just won't take a photo of it! LOL!

Anyway. I'm going sign off now and go rearrange the upstairs so that I can start PAINTING something!

And Nita, don't feel bad about using that room for Holiday decorating storage. I  personally think that the results of your gorgeous Halloween

and Christmas

http://modvintagelife.blogspot.com/

displays make it worth the use. Don't feel pressure to have the perfect guest room. Unless that's what you REALLY want!

Last Sunday...

I noticed that there was something going on in the street.

I guess a water main had broken.

I sighed in relief that it didn't affect my house.

The washer was going and I was doing dishes. Thank Goodness!

I planned on coloring my hair and I sat down to read the box. I was going to try a different brand.
I started to go upstairs to begin when I noticed the dogs water bowl was empty.
So I went to fill it.
No water.

Crap.
Thank God I hadn't put the color on yet!

I would have had no way to rinse it off!
A couple of hours later, the water was back on.
I could still hear them outside working. Drilling and ripping up the concrete.
They worked into the night.

The next morning they were gone but barricades were up. As I stepped out onto my front steps I found a little yellow notice laying there that said they would be turning the water off.
Yesterday.

So the street has been blocked off all week.
No construction going on but at least there is water.
This morning as I left for work there was a little yellow notice looped on the ironwork of the outside of my front door.

It read : "The boil order that was issued on 7/24 has been lifted".
Today is 7/28.
My first thought was,
WHAT BOIL ORDER!?

Apparently they had tested water samples from the water main and it was verified to be safe.....
But WHEN was it safe?

I don't feel so great.........

I need to rinse my mouth out...

OOPS!

You caught me.......

Daydreaming and Wishing!

Sigh.....

WE'VE BEEN HERE BEFORE....

I've spent the weekend inside, in the air-conditioning, cleaning, sorting, rearranging and throwing away. How is that possible? Didn't I just call for a "Special Trash Pick-up" and throw everything that I possible could OUT? (or drive it to Goodwill?)
And yet here I am, doing it again.
I've been reading different "Minimalist blogs" and I find that minimalism and frugality is NOT the same thing.

At least not as far as I AM concerned.
When I've tried to be frugal and it's resulted in me HANGING ON to STUFF just in case I need it later.
It would be a WASTE of money if I threw it out and then needed it later...right?!?!
Also, in my attempt to save money, I would do the estate sale, Goodwill, Restore thing and drag home MORE stuff. It doesn't help being the CREATIVE type. I pick up stuff and SEE in my mind what it could be. Problem is, I never seem to have the time to CREATE what I've envisioned. I'm too busy cleaning or moving my STUFF around.
OK, that's not all I do. I work in the GARDEN and I care for my pets and I spend an incredible amount of time on the computer............
ANYWAY....I won't be doing FRUGAL FRIDAYS anymore.

I kinda dropped the ball on that one anyway.
(Maybe a Minimalist Monday? LOL!....maybe not.)
Besides being REALLY frugal isn't buying the cheapest or the best buy. It's about not buying it at all.
This will be hard.
I've spent so many years of being addicted to stuff.
But I know that I am not alone. I remember that when I drive by all those storage unit garages.
I recently bought some containers for some of my things but that's just "containing" it. It's still taking up space, it's just hidden inside plastic.
So, I am going through my home, trying to keep in mind the "Keep only what you believe is Beautiful or Necessary" rule.
Last week I was surfing around on Craigslist and checking out Goodwill for an another dresser. I always put away all my clothes but I seem to have 1 or 2 laundry basketful's setting in the laundry room waiting to be put away... but my drawers are full. Then I got to thinking, I pretty much wear the same things over and over again. Sure, I have some items that I wear only occasionally. A few nice things for going out to dinner or some celebration. A few black things for something serious. But I have a lot of gardening, painting shirts and that type of thing. Clothes that I hope to never be caught dead in, ya know...the stuff the women on "Cops" are wearing while standing outside screaming as the cops drive away with their baby-daddies.

So today I'm trying everything on. I'm turning the full length mirror around from the wall and seeing how everything fits. And tossing what needs to be tossed.
I did a clothing-purge a couple of years ago. I donated all my nice work dresses and "interview" clothing and "some day I'll be that size again" clothing. I mean really, If I was that size again I'd want to wear something that didn't have shoulder-pads in it.

Many years ago I worked at a high-end department store and sold clothing. My friends had a great chuckle over that. They know that I'm really a t-shirt/jeans/flip flops girl. So it was kinda bizarre. I was amazed at the amount of clothes that people bought and I think I got a little bit sucked into the trend.
I read somewhere that in France the women will spend a HUGE amount on maybe 5 perfectly tailored outfits and wear them forever. 

The article said that American women preferred to have quantity over quality....

I think it all depends on your lifestyle. If you have a career, a life where you must be dressed impeccably. OK, I totally get that. If you have a job scooping up dog poop and spend your free time gardening and painting, you probably want something that comes in a plastic 3pk bag.

So....that's what I'm doing, once again.
I scheduled the pick-up and other people must be doing the same because I had to wait 2 1/2 weeks.
I had already dragged Blue's loveseat down the steps from my bedroom and pulled into the backyard before making the call. It's been sitting there, getting rained on and no doubt someone has probably lifted their leg on it by now.
Thank God it's behind the privacy fence!

And here I had the gall to talk about my neighbors! If someone were to peer over the fence, I would die of shame.

apartmenttherapy.com

(who is that man in my yard and I can't believe he brought his dog!)

Then there's my kitchen. I'm not quite ready to take the doors off the cabinets and have open shelving, but I'm thinking about it.

I definitely can't do it with the upper shelf because I have a zillion little plastic containers strategically jammed in there, which all tumble out when I open the door.

 I have tons of mis-matched glassware and odds-n-ends array of coffee mugs....and I live alone.

How many do I need?!

I need to donate my collections and just save what I use and/or love. (yes Denise, I LOVE those mugs! and the black stripe glasses are perfect in my kitchen) but the "don't need" additional stuff has got to go!

Wish me luck!

I only have 2 days left until my special pick-up!

BEFORE THE HEAT SET IN...

my garden was doing pretty well.

filling in, and starting to come together....

This is my birdbath. I HAD to buy it a couple of years ago.
First because it's in one of my favorite colors and second, because of the way the glaze ran down into the bowl and created a "crescent moon".

so I took some photos so that I could analyze my yard.

Yep, the tree needs to be trimmed, and the house needs to be painted, shutters put up...that sort of thing.

You might look at my home and see a little house clad in old siding, I see a house in a great neighborhood but with LOW property taxes! :)

Here's the beds along side the driveway-

But still, very much a WIP.

lots of work to do....

and now it's so HOT outside that I can't bear to be out there weeding, much less finish what needs to be done.

Oh well....