A Blog Inspired Project

 I've recently discovered my new favorite method of procrastination,

and it's called blogs.

I justify the hours of sitting at the computer instead of doing laundry,

(one must always justify procrastination activities)

by claiming that the beautiful photos will inspire me to actually do something.

And, well, now they have.

I stumbled upon a photo one morning, in a marathon blog-stalking-session,

of a kitchen with an old weathered sign hanging over their back door.

I looked up to the space above my back door, 

shocked to find the christmas garland that hadn't put itself away.

(Yes, I missed that Valentines Day deadline of packing up the last of

Christmas, but, hey, I was blogging!)

I looked back to the beautiful sunlit kitchen in the photo,

then up to my dusty February 19th defiant Christmas garland,

and turned off the computer ( ! )

(really I did)

By the end of the day my back door looked like this,   

That's right folks,

Christmas is officially over.

And, procrastinating really does pay off... right?

Sure.

Are you ready for the best part?

I didn't spend a dime, in fact I gained an afternoon with my

favorite 10 year old, to boot,

as we turned this,

(yes, that's a dirty old fence picket I found behind the house)

into this,

with a little left over paint from my cabinets, and scrap of sandpaper

I have my own not-quite-authentic weather beaten sign.

Now... back to those blogs!

Paint or Patina?

I'm currently hunting for the perfect little something

to deter the kids from climing on the coffee table.

It's a large heavy piece with a beautifully smooth top,

just right for jumping on to avoid the alligators

that apparently swarm around the carpet in our sitting room,

and the perfect height

for jumping off of while dueling with light sabors.

As always,

I started my hunt in my favorite vintage shops,

(that's a pretty way of saying - goodwills)

There are several in the city, and they are virtual treasure troves of

things I never knew I needed

(and some I did)

I did not get lucky yesterday, they were fresh out of coffe table security systems,

but I found this wonderful and enormous picnic basket.

I snatched it up, thrilled to have beat the other wandering stuff-hunters to it!

It's a bit worn, and has some water staining at the bottom,

but has a beautiful hinged lid and is large enough to hold almost anything.

My intent was to paint it black and sit it next to the man-chair as

a sort of side table.

(That would be the man-chair with my favorite man)

I carried it in and plopped it down on the windowsill for the time being,

and today I happened to catch it looking very happy there, supporting the kids' birdhouse project.

Now I'm not sure if I want to paint it after all...

What do you think?

Searching Bliss

It seems I'm always searching for that certain little something.

I'm not talking life aspirations,

just that small something lurking right around the corner to make your days a little sunnier.

Whether it's the perfect pair of shoes to complete your favorite outfit,

or a new organizing system that will make cleaning up those endless piles of toys a breeze,

uh-huh,

I can't get it out of my mind until I find it.

I turn every stone obsessively searching for that next small step toward bliss.

Every now and then I get lucky,

I turn a corner and find it.

Today it was a set of warm blond bowls

smiling at me from the display shelf at T J Maxx where I was obsessively searching

for white kitchen towels.

I found those too.

They say you can't buy happiness,

but now those bowls are smiling at me from my kitchen counter,

and while I'm sure that's not quite the happiness they meant,

I have to admit,

I'm smiling back.