Love Your Home Days 15-21: Refreshing

Melissa Micheals, of the blog The Inspired Room is posting little Love Your Home assignments every week. I quite enjoyed the first week I did them, so I thought I'd do the second.

Day 15 – Making Memories: Gone are the days when we send all of our photos to be printed. While there are some good things about the technology shift to digital, the not so good thing is many of our favorite photos live on our phone or computer. Today take a quick look through your phone or computer images. Pick a few candid moments or special memories and send them online to a photo printer (or print them out at home right from your phone! Here is a phone printer that looks really cool). Update your frames and send a few through snail mail to family! You’ll make everyone feel loved.

Wow. I don't think I have any recent photos of the kids. Not even from Christmas. (My daughter got quite upset when I tried to take a few shots Christmas morning, so I put the camera away. Then I got busy.) I should take some.

Day 16 – A Place of Your Own: Do you have a special spot in your home, a comfy chair or a desk? Today treat yourself to a little love by improving or designing that place of your own. Add a spring pillow on a special chair, declutter your desktop and add a vase of flowers, find a special cup for your morning coffee or afternoon tea, or gather a new stack of books and magazines by your reading spot. Treat yourself to an inspiring place of your own.

I finally found some daffodils! I decided to put them on my bedside table. I don't often put flowers there since it is so small, but I've been enjoying them enormously. I also stacked all my current library books neatly on my shelf.

oops, typos.

Day 17 – Lovely Linens: Today we are going to streamline and refresh our linens. Pare down excess sheets and pillowcases and only keep to what you actually use.  Tidy up the shelf or closet where you keep bedding! Now, make a fresh linen spray to keep your room and linens smelling divine! Here’s my current favorite blend: mix drops of lavender and lemon essential oil with water in a small glass spray bottle.

I have tidied the linen closet many times: I do not have anything we don't use....except for my yellow duvet cover. I haven't used that in along time. So, I re-dressed that and the bed. I didn't make a linen spry. I wouldn't know how to use it--and I probably wouldn't remember, anyway.

Day 18 – A Gracious Giver: Where do you keep your gift wrap? Is it hard to find, wrinkled and crinkled? Do you have pretty ribbons, gift tags or embellishments for gifts? Today gather what you need to set up a newly organized space. What will inspire you to give each gift your own special touch? Make or print a few gift tags, visit a pretty paper store to pick out something new, or just organize what you already have.

Am I strange? I just don't give gifts all that often....

My gift wrapping supplies are still here in the drawers in the basement where I keep them.

Day 19 – Make it Sparkle: Today let’s make the bathroom sparkly! Clean the whole room if you are motivated, or focus on one part that could use a little TLC. Clean the mirrors, polish the faucets or reorganize a drawer. Make it shine and step back to admire your progress!

I am definitely willing to make the whole room sparkly--but it will take more energy --and time--than I currently have. All of the grout needs a scrub.

I started.

 I also cleaned the fan--which is way more difficult than it should be.

Day 20 – Music to Your Soul: Music moves us, improves our mood and inspires us! Today get your home soundtrack organized and ready. Set up a house cleaning soundtrack, put together a fun dinner playlist or round up inspirational songs that speak to your soul. You can set up music with an online service or app for your computer or phone (Amazon Music, Spotify and Pandora are all great options).

Hmmm. Two things.

1) When I was cleaning out my old files in the basement, I came across lists of composers and their works to study from when we were homeschooling. So, I made some requests at the library.

2) I also listened to my favourite music playing radio station while I was at the computer and wrote down the artists and song titles of tunes I thought would be great to clean with. However, without a phone, an ipod, or mp3 player, I don't actually have any way to listen to songs as I clean and move from room to room.

Day 21 – A Cleaning Frenzy: Today we are going to clean as much as we can for 15 minutes. Before you begin, grab your phone and snap a quick BEFORE pic of the area you intend to tidy or clean. Now, crank up your cleaning playlist and set a timer for 15 minutes. Ready, set, GO! When your timer goes off, grab the camera and take an after pic! Amazing, right?

I chose my desk.

I am not doing every one and I'm not doing them every day, but here and there, as much as I can. I'm afraid I am a bit behind! (The week starts on Sunday and ends on Saturday--this is last week!)

The flowers have wilted, the desk is messy again and the playlist hasn't progressed much beyond that first burst of enthusiasm, but it's still good.

The Shopping Spree

I quite surprised myself yesterday. I went to Home Sense (a store specializing in less-than-full-price totchkes and trendy things for the home) to see if I could find a suitable tablecloth or sheet to use as fabric for lengthening my living room curtains (again!) and went nuts. I don't know how else to describe it.

There were a few contributing factors, though.

One. after I steam cleaned the couch last week, twice, I got out the cushions I had purchased at Pier One several weeks ago, when the Hybrid Cure began.


But, of course, they don't work. I need to put back the off-white slipcover and put up my Ikea tab top off-white curtains. The problem with the curtains is that I foolishly cut them one year--and I cut them much too short. Since then, I have been looking for a fabric to use to lengthen them.

Two, in order to pull off the vibrant peacock teal in these cushions, I also need new artwork and new accessories.

So...shopping I a-went.

The first thing which caught my eye was this pitcher.


A pitcher? Why a pitcher? Well, because, Miss Mustard Seed has one (or two) on the top of one of her cabinets (photo in this post of mine) and I love it. So, three, uppermost in my mind this trip was the need for large items to fill the tops of my China Cabinet,


Bookcase,


and Expedit.


I found these tablecloths to serve as my fabric for the curtains.


Funny how light changes things. Last night I thought the lighter teal one would work (I actually like it more than the other) but this morning it was obvious that the darker one will have to do--if it works.

After I found these things, I caught Consumption--the 21st Century kind--a sort of shopping fever.

Look at this plant pot: isn't it beautiful?


This bucket is such a cheerful green:


I found this and I thought, why not? I'd seen someone use something like this over her front door to simulate the arched openings in her hallways. I have arched openings in my hallways, hmmmm.


But it doesn't fit. It is about 1/2" too tall. Probably a good thing as it would likely make the whole door area too fussy. It'll be returned.

I was thinking of the foyer, though, when I found this charming plate on sale. Doesn't it look perfect here?


And last, but not least, I found this beautiful plate. It made my heart go pitter pat.

It will have pride of place in my soon-to-be-made over living room. Who knows when I'll get it all pulled together, but, do stay tuned. It'll be a treat, I promise.

Merry Christmas II.

According to astronomer enthusiast Dave Reneke, Jesus could have been born in June.

June 17, 2 BC, to be precise.

Really?
Under whose calendar? Was there even a June yet, then?
Maybe it was really May?

Oh well. I like Christmas lights in the snow. If we moved Christmas to June, I'd be mistaken for a pagan.



Yep. Uneven, haphazard, and drooping. Nothing even vaguely formal or Martha Stewartish about our seasonal cheer!!

Merry Christmas

"

Turning the other cheek--

Perhaps it is because I don't watch a lot of TV talk shows and political stuff. Perhaps it is because I am naive.

But, I have been perusing You-tube for appearances by Michelle Obama-and I am greatly impressed. I think she was one of the reasons Obama was elected--and I think she had a very serious and essential role in his campaign.

This response to Larry King about Palin, though, is brilliant. Not only does it take the high ground--but it is a deft example of how to take someone else's "barb" and deflect it so completely, you can turn the conversation into something else. That's what I understand when Jesus says to "turn the other cheek." He doesn't mean, give him your other cheek for your opponent to slap (though he may), he simply means, turn away from the conversation your opponent is having. Don't give it the benefit of your attention or a defensive response. This is how you disarm him. This is how you remove the sting. This is how you render a criticism toothless. I've seen enough of Michelle Obama to observe she does this effortlessly.

"

I saw another interview after the election where Palin whined about why it was her kids were not "off limits" like Obama said his were.

Um--Mrs. Palin, watch Mrs. Obama.

Closely.

That's why.

Why Nothin' but the Real Thing Will Do

Malcolm Gladwell explains why the cheap stuff tastes, well, cheap.

After breaking the ketchup down into its component parts, the testers assessed the critical dimension of "amplitude," the word sensory experts use to describe flavors that are well blended and balanced, that "bloom" in the mouth. "The difference between high and low amplitude is the difference between my son and a great pianist playing 'Ode to Joy' on the piano," Chambers says. "They are playing the same notes, but they blend better with the great pianist." Pepperidge Farm shortbread cookies are considered to have high amplitude. So are Hellman's mayonnaise and Sara Lee poundcake. When something is high in amplitude, all its constituent elements converge into a single gestalt. You can't isolate the elements of an iconic, high-amplitude flavor like Coca-Cola or Pepsi. But you can with one of those private-label colas that you get in the supermarket. "The thing about Coke and Pepsi is that they are absolutely gorgeous," Judy Heylmun, a vice-president of Sensory Spectrum, Inc., in Chatham, New Jersey, says. "They have beautiful notes—all flavors are in balance. It's very hard to do that well. Usually, when you taste a store cola it's"— and here she made a series of pik! pik! pik! sounds—"all the notes are kind of spiky, and usually the citrus is the first thing to spike out. And then the cinnamon. Citrus and brown spice notes are top notes and very volatile, as opposed to vanilla, which is very dark and deep. A really cheap store brand will have a big, fat cinnamon note sitting on top of everything."