The Home Office Gets Sorted!

soooo...my office is almost finished! Thanks to Christy at http://thedailydish.wordpress.com/ and her post on "collecting". This motivated yours truly to get a move on. I do not want to be the crazy lady that saves everything that her children will have to go through someday and wonder why did Mom save all this crap kind of thing! The office has been my nemesis for awhile and I just could not figure out what was bugging me about this space SO much. Holy Ugly Desk Batman. I hate the computer desk, it is cheap and it is not my taste. Moment of revelation....drum roll...my ex-husband picked it out and bought it! It is the very last piece of furniture that we owned together that is still in my house. Guess who will soon be desk shopping!!! My computer is fast becoming an antique and since I spend the greater part of the day at a very nice computer with a huge screen, I would like a laptop for home use. I am picturing wireless ANYWHERE in the house, not just the office! Anyway, I do share the "office" with my husband and we purchased a television this weekend JUST so he could put his playstation in there and get it out of our bedroom! We call it the office, it is more of a multi purpose room. Three trash bags later and there is light at the end of the tunnel. I have a couple of boxes of things that may go to Goodwill or somewhere like that. I moved furniture around again because I just can't seem to wait for the men in my life to do it and I am exhausted today. I missed church on Sunday because I was tired, achy and my feet refused to be put in any type of shoe you would wear to church! Sometimes, you just need to rest. I think God and I are okay with that. He knows my heart. I did receive a phone call from a friend and while this should have made me feel better, I found I was very irritated with her. She takes on a tone that I do not think she realizes that she is using and that is her "righteous tone" Instead of gee, I hope you are okay, I got " why didn't you go to church today". I started to say "none of your #$% business"...but since I already missed church, I thought it would be safer to be nice and try to explain some of my issues. This gal was not interested in my issues! Just as you must clean your "office" and sort and toss, sometimes friendships encounter a shift and you must sort them or move them to another level, and some may be discarded when they become toxic for you. I am reminded of some words of wisdom from Christine Kane, "If it is not an absolute YES, it is a NO". This has become my mantra in just about everything I do. So no to the desk, no to the friends that are not supportive and yes to the friends that accept you, issues and all, including your very bad feet. As I was sorting through my file cabinet, I found the "Rules For Being Human" I have no idea who wrote it or who gave it to me, maybe you will agree with some of it, part of it or none of it:

1. You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period this time around.
2. You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called LIFE. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant and stupid.
3. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial and error experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately "works".
4. A lesson is repeated until it is learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can then go on to the next lesson.
5. Learning lessons does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.
6. "There" is no better than "here." When your "there" has become a "here" you will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better than "here".
7. Others are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.
8. What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.
9. Your answers lie inside you. The answers to life's questions lie inside you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.
10. You will forget all this.

Let me know if you want a box or two of undisclosed "stuff" I will be glad to share the wealth!

Corners and Wabi Sabi

Anna found her much needed corner because she was not tired and did not want to go to bed!

Do you ever wonder why corners are so appealing? Corners offer a little haven of protection. To a child a corner can be the no fun corner when misbehaving or it can be a place they go to "not be seen" Small children often think if they can't see you, you can't see them! Corners can be comfortable little nooks where one might sit in a chair or on pillows to read, knit, watch television, meditate or daydream. Corners can be decorated attractively to enhance the ambiance of the entire room OR sadly, corners can be the catch all place for all the STUFF that hasn't made its way back to where it really belongs or doesn't have a place, yet. My friend Jayne embraces feng shui and decorates accordingly...me, feng shui is a little on the confusing side so I am embracing the Japanese practice of Wabi Sabi! "Wabi-sabi nurtures all that is authentic by acknowledging three simple realities: nothing lasts, nothing is finished, and nothing is perfect. For the Japanese, it's the difference between kirei-merely "pretty"-and omoshiroi, the interestingness that kicks something into the realm of beautiful. It's a richly mellow beauty that's striking but not obvious, that you can imagine having around you for a long, long time-Katherine Hepburn versus Marilyn Monroe." (I have completely lost the architect"s name to give credit to for this information) Make no mistake, Wabi Sabi is not an excuse for sloppiness or laziness however it acknowledges the imperfection in all things and is used frequently in art. I am in love with the theory of imperfection. Imperfection is what gives each person, place and thing its character! I really do not want my home to be a cookie cutter copy of the one in a magazine. I may get ideas from a book, magazine or home show only to put my personal stamp on the look. I love my home, it is always a work in progress, that would be the joy of home ownership. We remodeled about six years ago, I love the changes but am now thinking what I would have done differently, however I do promise there will not be another remodel. I believe I am too faint hearted for that these days!!! We have a screened porch that will be the next really big project. Oh, I have plans for that space!!! We already have the windows and the floor tiles. The floor tiles were a donation from an electrical job we did and I love them. Bright Red, 12x12 I believe. I was thinking Asian influence...I waffle back and forth...I would really love an in fared sauna and small bath...give it a spa feel...or an artist's studio for when I have time to be an artist again...I have created and recreated this space so many times, that is the real fun, the fantasy of it...I hope the reality will be as great!

For your viewing entertainment...dum, dum, dum...pictures of a few corners in my home...some are works in progress and I call them the corners of shame...the garage, who's corner is worse, mine or Carl's, you decide!!! The "home office space" is my nemesis at the moment, there is much sorting and discarding to be done...I can find an excuse to avoid this every weekend...it is getting to the neat freak in me...hmmm, I am babysitting Anna tonight and most of the day tomorrow....

You would be very amazed at what you see in the "corners" of your home when you capture them on film!!! What's in your corner? Or see you in the corner! Looks like I'll be spending some of my weekend in the corner, bad girl that I am.