Progress

For the past couple of months, I have been living with a lot of frustration, mostly over matters of my own doing. I'm not a very good decorator, you see, and I've been trying to set up our new home for a few months now. Somewhere in January, I hit a wall.

The furniture was all in its permanent homes, but questions on what to put where plagued me, in a near-continual barrage. Combine that with the challenges of a new puppy and everything that goes into building a freelance business, not to mention a lifetime's worth of 'I just don't know how to make an organized living arrangement' doubts, and maybe you can see why I got stuck.

And then I got sick, and I spent a lot more of February on the couch than I care to admit. By the third week of February, I was ready to take action. No more of this hemming and hawing and spending too much time 'thinking.' It was time to start doing. So I picked the things that were bugging me the most about the apartment, and I made a plan. (My friend Kaylene's awesome home tour might also have had something to do with my newfound motivation.)

First up: the carpets needed work. We have a little SpotBot that works great for those errant stains (and times when the puppy doesn't know she needs to go outside until about 2 seconds before it's too late). But then Rory started showing allergies to the food she was on, and one of the symptoms I will simply refer to as 'unhappy explosions.' And we were having unhappy explosions two and sometimes three times a day. The sheer volume was disturbing, and the fact that I was also ill and couldn't devote the amount of time to carpet scrubbing as was needed made things that much worse. It didn't take long for me to find a carpet shampooer on Craigslist for a doable $50 (my antibiotic drugs cost more!) and, after hunting down and then retrieving a missing part, my carpets have had a nice bath. Ah. Safe to breathe again.

So what was next? Here, I'll let you see for yourself:

Rory would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that she is, in fact, a border collie, and as such, she must be involved in anything and everything that is or might be going on.

That, my friends, is the cedar chest my dad made for me a couple of years ago. It lives in the entryway. And given its proximity to the entry/exit point and its ample flat surface, it has lived in shame. For three and a half months.

But not anymore. Its days of screaming for attention are over. Kaylene gave me some really good ideas, and off I went. (Someday I do hope to implement her lantern idea!) I raided my shelf of 'decorative items' which basically consists of various candle holders and vases, and this is what I came up with.

I still haven't figured out how to work with this hazy western light! 

The trunk is clear, and on its top I've put some candles and a little dish to catch keys and other various doodads.

It's like a breath of fresh air. You know? I feel like I'm finally making some progress on those sore spots that have bugged me for a while now.