Fighting the Blues

I'm falling behind on several projects, which makes me annoyed with myself. My progress on the thrifted clothing fabric quilt has been frustratingly slow. I'm mired down with spring cleaning the last two rooms, which are probably going to take until summer arrives. My guy has been busy pressure cleaning the outside of the house, so I've been taking care of the dogs solo, including their long walks, which takes up more of my time. All of these things combine to drag me down.

On the upside? I've finally gotten into the rhythm of working on my latest project for the day job, but I had a lousy couple of days with that. I did finish our hurricane prep, and now have everything in place to weather another storm season, but I still wonder if it's enough. I'm constantly second-guessing myself.

Although I have a good routine established with housework and the day job, sometimes I can't get into it. I know some of the culprits are lack of sleep (I had a bad time last week with insomnia), physical limitations (I'm definitely feeling my age and afflictions more keenly these days) and general blahness. Like everyone I get tired of all the demands on me. I'm really sick of the internet, too. All this doom and glooming and hatred makes me sick.

How do I combat all this aggravation? I'm writing a little every day in a new journal about how fortunate I am, and what does make me happy in my daily life (i.e. reaching my work quota, the pups, a nice walk.) I'm cooking up a storm, and in the last couple of weeks I've discovered three new delicious recipes. I made oatmeal raisin cookies that are safe for me to eat that my guy actually loved. I'm fighting the frustration with positivity and creation, and it's working to slowly pull me out of this blue period.

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Gifts

This is a story that starts out very sadly, so if you're depressed by the holidays you might want to skip the first part. As far back as I can remember I've dreaded the holidays. Being poor, having constant family troubles and belonging to a strict religion made that time of year always pretty unhappy. I just hunkered down and hoped to get through without being yelled at or punished because I didn't do something I was expected to do, like sit in church for hours without moving or making a sound while a priest spoke mass in Latin. Gifts were uniformly disappointing, too. My mother usually gave me dolls or socks or underwear for Christmas. I understand now as an adult that she was doing the best she could, and trying to save money at the same time, but as a kid I'd been told good children got what they wanted for Christmas. I was a pretty good kid, but while my friends received new bikes and cool toys and lots of treats from Santa, I didn't. I thought San

We Have Backsplash!

Yesterday my guy and I decided to chose this natural stone as the backsplash tiles for our new kitchen counters (which will be in the same quartz I'm holding at the bottom of the photo.) Since all the bids for installing the backsplash came in very high my guy is going to put it in himself; he's done a bit of tile work in the past, too. I swear there is nothing this guy can't do. :)

Detoxing Results

For twenty-four hours I left these five vintage cigar boxes sit with detoxing agents (baking soda, coffee grinds, dryer sheets, vinegar and Febreze) inside them to see which worked best to remove the tobacco/storage odors that came with them. I then removed the agents and did a sniff test. Before we get into the results, a reminder: none of what I do is ever meant to be expert advice, as I am certainly not an expert at anything. Follow my methods at your own risk, and please first consult an actual antique expert conservator or restorer to detox items that have value for you. Okay, let's see how my experiment worked. Baking soda (left) did nothing to remove the odors. I think if I let it sit for a longer period of time it might have done something, but for a 24-hour test it was a complete fail. Coffee grinds (right) removed 100% of the odors, and left behind definite coffee scent. I like that and think it goes very well with wood, but if you don't like the smel

Rayen

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