Since the acquisition of a new couch and my beloved Weasley China Cabinet, our living room has (is) gone through a lot of changes. It’s a little bit like a Days of Our Lives, living room edition.

“Hey, look! I moved this buffet.”

“Never mind, I moved it back. But I changed the art wall.”

“Should I spray paint this?”

You get the idea.

A lot of people decorate a room and leave it that way. Those people are usually stable, settled souls unlike myself. Every five years or so I get a major itch to change things. Last weekend my errands took me conveniently close to Anthropologie where they were having a huge clearance sale. And I found a bundle of tablecloths (72 x 90) marked down to seriously low prices. Clutch your pearls prices.

They were the perfect length and better yet, already hemmed and ready to hang on the ring hooks I already had. I never considered the color navy as a neutral before. It always seemed too heavy for me. But I love these curtains. They’re so cheerful and mesh well with the existing colors. It’s nice to have a neutral option other than brown or black.

So those are some of the changes happening around here. Did I tell you my doctor cut my migraine medication in half? I have so much more energy now… and no vertigo so far. With all this new-found energy comes more house changes.

More changes are coming. Stay tuned.

Does anyone else feel simultaneously exhilarated and defeated when they get in Pinterest mode? I’m exhilarated with all the creativity and overload of inspiration. I’m defeated because I think to myself, “Hardy har har har. You can’t find time to paint your fingernails. How are you going to find the time to create a homemade chandelier out of tutus and plumbers pipes?” Not that anyone would ever really want a chandelier out of pipes and tutus, but you get the gist.

Out of all the pins, all the awesome ideas, I finally found the time to do this one. It was nice. It was simple. It made me feel like standing on top of a mountain, shaking my fist and announcing to the world, “I completed a Pinterest project! I win!”

*Tip: When I do this again I’ll use more than one lemon. All I could smell was rosemary, which is fine, but it fell a little short of the promised “Williams Sonoma” store smell. But still. I win.

 

And I wanted photographic evidence.

*Picture is pre-Weasley China Cabinet. Goodness I love that thing.

It’s been a long time since we’ve done one of these, so lets, shall we?

1. Is Jane walking yet?

No. She does things at her own pace. For example, she loves it when I say, “Uh-Oh!” She likes to mimic me, but so far she’s only gotten the “Uh” part and not the “Oh.” The other morning I tried so hard to teach her. I kept buzzing around in front of her like an annoying fly going, “Uh OH, Uh OH.” She flailed her hands in front of her face, frowned and yelled “UHHHH” and then crossed her arms. She wasn’t ready to say the whole thing and she didn’t appreciate my incessant prodding. Message received. Jane will do what Jane will do on her own schedule. And right now her schedule doesn’t include walking. Or eating fruit. But that’s another topic altogether.

2. How is it going since you’ve turned off your comments.

Awesome. And not awesome.

It’s awesome because I feel like I’m blogging the way I want to now. I’m not worried about hateful comments. I’m not worried about impressing anyone. I’m not worried about being embarrassed when no one comments. Or being proud when lots of people comment. It’s really simplified things.

It’s not awesome because I checked my traffic meter a few days ago and it looks like less people are showing up to read these days. I guess the no comments thing ticked some people off? Or maybe they’re just bored? But, I don’t care. I really don’t. A year ago? It would have bothered me immensely, but for the first time in so long blogging is stress-free and fun again. If that means less readers, so be it.

3. How is your health?

It’s a work in progress. I’m currently decreasing my beta blockers (for the migraine related vertigo) because frankly, the stuff is making me fat. Start-a fire-with-my thighs-if-I-ever-wore-corduroy-pants-fat. So far so good. Fingers crossed the vertigo stays away and I become slim and svelte like Heidi Klum.

Stop laughing.

4. Are you writing another book?

Yes. I have an idea, and yes I’ve started. But it’s still churning around in my head like bolts in a washing machine. The idea has morphed three times and I’ve thrown away several reams of paper. I’m keeping it on the down low for now.

When I was writing my first book (that didn’t get published and was kind of awful), a good friend suggested that I read Stephen King’s On Writing. In it he discusses a writer’s penchant for over-sharing. I realized that until I had the idea in concrete, until I had several chapters written that I loved, I didn’t need to be running around asking for lots of opinions. The beginning of the writing process is kind of like a romance. It’s important to have a honeymoon before opening the doors to your house so other people can come in and critique it.

Although… it’s important to be critiqued. If you’ve been writing something for a couple of years and no one has read even a paragraph of it, you might have a problem.

So anywho. Yes. I’m working on something. That’s about as far as it goes.

5. I’ve written a book, can you refer me to your agent?

Please remember that not all agents represent every kind of genre. My agent only represents non-fiction. My best advice to anyone searching for an agent is to go to agentquery.com and search by the genre you’ve written. You need to do extra research on whoever you find there… but it’s a good place to start.

6.  You got a new bed? What happened to your four poster one?

My lovely white farmhouse four poster bed is in storage. But I have plans for it, never you fear.