My future kitchen table project

 

When I have time, I intend to paint my kitchen table so that it looks something like this.  This paint job looks awfully professional. Could it be spray paint?

I'm not sure when this will happen, but when it does, I will post photos.

Meanwhile, don't forget that your vote counts.  If you haven't voted already, please do so on Tuesday.  May the candidate who is best for our country win.

.

This is the key

I have noticed this so many times during my life. Occasional events, acquisitions, occurrences, praises, acknowledgements, celebrations seem to make us happy.  Actually, the joy which we were each meant to experience in our lives has been lost and replaced by these fleeting pleasures, which seemingly alternate with equal amounts of gloom, as though we spend our lives on a slow teeter-totter, up and down, ad infinitum.

My reading this summer has brought me to the understanding that joy, or the happiness referred to above by Deepak Chopra,  is a state of being.  And as Deepak says, it requires no reason.  That's good news. 

Now, if I can just figure out how to access that state after decades of the habitual pain vs. pleasure flip flop.


.

How pinteresting

I've always loved pandas.



I don't know what Pinterest is and frankly, I don't have time for any new pursuits, so I'm not interested in Pinterest.  But Pinterest is the source of this really cool photo.

And apparently Pinterest is allowing me to use this cute koala as well:



Thank you, Pinterest.

On a related topic, I enjoyed this viral video yesterday of a koala spying, swimming to, boarding, and finally being given a ride on a canoe.  I wish I'd been there to see it happen!





.

And on top of that, Be Kind

f  

Thank you, Lynilu, for posting this on facebook.  Each time that I encounter this wisdom about kindness, I nod in acknowledgement and say to myself that I won't forget it this time.

But then I do forget.

I forget about kindness when I have been neglectful of my inner peace.  When issues are left unresolved, when responsibilities are neglected, when I fail to examine my words and deeds, that's when anger sneaks in and spews its poison.  Anger is not kind.

My intentions for kindness are useless unless I take care to establish the necessary peace of mind from which it emanates.

Peace of mind may arise from daily examination of any internal disturbances caused by one's behavior, interactions or thought processes.  Meditation, journaling, exercising, counseling and various spiritual pursuits help maintain that peaceful state.

Does this make sense to you?

.

typical Sunday

Just behind my house is this entrance to a very inviting urban park which I strolled through this past Sunday.  . 

The lake is stocked with fish normally, but right now it is waiting to be re-stocked after a fountain was installed. 

In the gazebo a concert was taking place, with what looked like impromptu dancers adding to the performance.  One of the dancers had ridden into the park on a scooter (the old fashioned, foot-operated kind) with his wild costume blowing in the wind.  It was quite a sight.

Next I headed to a  popular eating and food shopping mecca a couple of blocks from the park. 

It's always full of people.

The pedestrian nature of this urban neighborhood invites chance encounters.  As I approached the park on my way home from the farmer's market, I ran into a friend from work and we spent the afternoon discussing work issues. 

And by the time I got home it was nearly dark.


.

Back to bloggiing

Well, let's see.  A lot has happened since I last posted.  I sold a house, bought a house, moved and just returned from a visit "home".  In this instance, "home" refers to the place in upstate NY where I was born and raised and where my father still lives.  In fact, I have a few photos.

 This is the street I grew up on, where my father still lives.  The hills in the background are the foothills of the Catskill Mountains.

This is my father, all but hidden behind one of the many stacks created by his wife.  He claims that she subscribes to entirely too many magazines and insists on keeping them all.  Forever.

And this is a Rose of Sharon bush.  There are many of them around the perimeter of my father's house, as there were when I was a child.  I am fond of Rose of Sharon and recently bought a couple of them for my new yard.  I hope they thrive the way they do around my childhood home.

The interior of my childhood home is dark, messy, and smells of cat litter boxes.

Fortunately, my new house is much more appealing.  And has no odor.

.

Happy Mother's Day

I spent the day unclogging a bathroom sink drain using an all-natural method incorporating baking soda, vinegar and boiling water.  At the end of the procedure, when the drain was still clogged!, I used my own enhancement to the online unclogging recipe- a cheap sink plunger from Target.  Lo and behold, I heard a mighty "swoosh" and the drain now operates the best it has in the 11 years I've lived here, and that includes the time I paid a plumber to unclog the drain of the very same sink.

I may not feel like the world's greatest mother this Mother's Day, but I do feel like the world's best all-natural plumber.  And I'm happy to cross one more burden off my to-do list.  (That sink was so severely clogged that it was unusable!)

Now I have to figure out how to fix the hardware for a curtain rod in that same bathroom.  I have fixed it so many times that the bole for the nail is enlarged.  Now the nail just falls out.  I guess I'll try spackling the inside of the hole to see if that helps.  And if it does, this will have been a great Mother's Day. 

I hope you and your mothers are enjoying the day!

.

Please advise

My realtor just called to say he wants to hold an open house on Sunday (yes, Easter Sunday) at my house.  And he has reconsidered my question about whether the price should be lowered.  He agreed. 

You see, I've been trying to sell this house for a long time.  Even now, after the renovations, it is not selling.

Here's my question.  Is this shower curtain OK?

It's spring-like and cheery.  It's brand new.  But I am starting to lose confidence in my ability to figure out what people like and dislike. 

Thanks for any opinions offered.



.

OK, I'm ready

Yes, I think I've done everything I can to make the dream (of selling my current house and moving to my preferred neighborhood) happen.  Now my house looks like this:

And this:

 

And this:

And this:

And this:

And this:

And this (basement):

And this (basement):

And this:

So I'm ready for this to happen.  I'll keep you posted.


.

another decision

I have to buy a small elevated bistro table with 2 chairs for my kitchen.  The kitchen is not yet finished, but here's how it looks now:

I have narrowed my bistro search down to 2 options.  This is option A, available in a local store:

Well, I know it's fairly impossible to tell anything from these photos.  I can assure you that being able to see the kitchen and the bistro set in person doesn't help much.

Option B would be ordered off the internet, for 60% of the price of the other set:

Option A can be brought home the day I buy it.  Well, almost.  The store has only one stool, and it will take 2 weeks to get another one.  If I order option B (free shipping) it could take 2 - 4 weeks, I'm estimating.  My kitchen should be finished by the end of this week, so it would be nice to have a table and chair.  My old table and chairs are NOT going in that kitchen (especially seeing as how they'd no longer fit).

Option A would be easy to return if it doesn't work out.  I am willing to bet that option B would be a hassle to return AND it has to be assembled.  (How does one return an item which must be assembled?)

I really doubt that option B would have to be returned, though.  It's pretty straightforward, and I was ultra careful with my measurements.  Option A is a bit more...well.... off-the-beaten-path, shall we say.  It looks kind of space-age.

  And here is one more option, also available at a local store.  Please note that this option, also 40% cheaper than option A, at first glance may seem the obvious choice.  The problem is, it is nearly twice the size of option A, and I am squeezing this bistro set into a tight space:

What do you think?


.