Life isn't perfect....

This is my day after Thanksgiving mess a few yrs ago. I spend so much time cooking that I don't do dishes till the next day. I just don't have the energy left to do that.


I saw this video Ive posted below and it started me thinking. How many blogs we go to that show beautiful, perfect houses. How many pretty magazine pictures of homes are out there. And then we see it promoted on TV too. And even Martha Stewart, the Queen of perfection. And I thought about all the anxiety all this has caused women. And how its made men think women should live like this. My own ex would be furious with me for any messes in the house. He lived in hotels all week tho so of course it was ez to keep it clean, especially when there were maids to clean up after YOU! (BTW I have been a maid so he doesn't get off so ez with me about that.)

And then I read this blog about trying so hard to keep a house nice and how many bloggers felt bad when they would see others perfect homes. So this blogger asked others to send her pics of their messy homes. Honestly I love this video. Not cuz of the messes, heck most aren't even that bad. Perhaps they didn't send in the really bad ones cuz they didn't want to be embarrassed. But regardless look at these photos. Wanna know what I see?

I see messy kitchens where there is food and abundance. And how lucky they are to have all that including some beautiful kitchens. And I see overflowing laundry, which to me means, there's a family there......together. And I see toys and kid stuff around the house, which to me means there are children there and their playing is more important than keeping that floor clean. I see paperwork on desks and counters which means they have a real life like me, with bills and taxes and such. Some even have craft rooms which to me means they are lucky to be able to have time to be creative and have the space for it.

My fave one is the junk room area in that one pic. Looks like my laundry room. We enter thru the garage past it all. Right now there's loaves of bread on the desk because it seems anywhere else I put it, it molds fast. And there's a big plastic box for ironing. There are my tools too for cleaning. And best of all the tops of things are covered with containers filled with seedlings growing. IT means if they survive Ill have a great garden. While its messy, I see potential.

I guess what I'm saying here is we all think our homes are such a mess and maybe they really are. But I'm sure not anywhere near one of the Hoarders. Maybe instead of worrying about perfection and messes we should look at what to be grateful for. All those things means abundance and life is in the house. It is not a museum. Real people live there. As Martha says: Its a good thing.

I turned a covered fuse box in my kitchen......

into something useable. This is the before. Not ugly but rather pointless. 

First I sanded it and wiped the sanding dust off real good.

Then I painted it with chalkboard paint. First across like you see in this picture. Then I let it dry for 4hrs as the paint can said. Then i did another coat up and down and let that dry for a few days.
(There's not much space here to take pictures so that's why I had to angle it.)

 And now it looks like this. I rubbed white chalk all over it to season it like they say and then wiped it off with a dry rag. I found Crayola has some great colorful sidewalk chalks to use. I wanted to get some Chalk Ink pens but they are very expensive.....almost $4 a piece. I have one or two but wanted more color. 

So this will be my grocery list. I figure I can use the colorful chalk to draw cute borders across the top to match the holidays and such. Since its summer..........I drew the beach.........with a sign telling you which way it is. My bf thought this was such a cute idea. 

To see more cute ideas:

A New Old Necessity in my life

We had a nasty 24hr. power outage the other day. We have had them before but never as bad as that. But it got me thinking about where I'm moving to and what I will need.

We love coffee here. I mean we loveeeeeeeeeeeeee it....a day without coffee is like.........well it sux! The man is worse than me tho. I have to have that first cup or I'm just fuzzy all day. But I don't need anymore. He on the other hand has to have that plus he sucks it down all day. Honestly I don't know how he sleeps at nite. Well he has cut out the evening cup. In fact when he was working and getting home at 9pm we switched that pot to a really good decaf.

And so after a very frustrating 24hrs last week.......and having gone thru the no coffee thing before with minor outages, I knew it was time to update the coffee grinder situation. Now this is really funny saying updating cuz what I ordered was an old fashioned hand grinder. I have the small electric model most folks get for $10-20. We drink so much here Ive broken too many of those. So I finally broke down and got the big guns......a kitchen aid grinder for our daily needs. We love it. But sadly when the power goes out its useless.....like everything else today, its electric.

So finding myself with a camp pot and gas in my grill with a side burner on outage days means nothing when you cant grind the beans! I used to have one of those old fashioned cast iron and wood ones many yrs ago. I got rid of it, it was mostly decorative, never really used it. So who knew that Id ever need one of those in the future?

So the picture up there is the new one I ordered that just came in today. I decided against the wood box ones,,,,,,they actually have gotten very pricey. I searched online and found a nice stainless one......for just a couple bucks less than this one but.....I was afraid it wouldn't have much weight to it. I could see me trying to turn the grinder on some tough beans and have it shift around a lot. And so I settled on this ceramic one. It has some weight to it.....and its sealed like a canister so you can grind and leave it there for later. It has a nice loop for a coffee measure too. Its pretty enough to leave out on the counter in a modern kitchen. Its not so old fashioned like the wood ones.....those always collected alot of dust too.

So for now it will stay in its box.........but I'm ready! Power outages.........go ahead...........you cant scare me anymore .......ILL HAVE COFFEE !!!

Decor and moving....

I feel a blog rolling around in my head at the moment. Ive been wandering online looking at blogs. I love home decor type blogs, that show before and after pictures. I love to see what great ideas people come up with. I love to see what they do with old junk too, some are quite creative.

I tend to like girly type decor or beachy cottage type, so my eyes are drawn to that. But its all so frustrating for me right now. I'm slowly putting away my decor and redoing my house, not how I like it, but how I think might help sell this place once its listed.

I see all these cute ideas and I wonder what kind of house Ill find up in Oregon. I'm cleaning out stuff here and wondering what to toss since I don't know where I'm going. Its hard. So much I may need and yet I don't know. And if I find just the right spot so I can have a business on my property, I might just need my extra stuff for sale there.


So I look at these blogs and link to them, hoping for a future that I don't know if its a reality or not at the moment. I get lost in them wishing I could do some of the things. And yet I know I cant here because these days when you sell a house, your not supposed to have anything personal in your decor. This way anyone can envision living there. When did it get so hard to sell a house? Who created this mess out there where people get to dictate how your home should look? After all isn't the point of buying a new house , to put your own look into it? I can understand painting if it needs it or anything else if the house looks run down. But these days your expected to put in new plumbing and carpet and paint and make the house look like its a model home.

But its not. Its an old home, not a new one. People can no longer see the bones. They must be "sold" by making it look different. And I like to see how people decorate their homes when Ive house hunted in the past. I know it doesn't come with the home. And yes sometimes that red paint on the walls has to go but paint is cheap. People have gotten so spoiled to have what they want right now with no work, its sickening. Unless you have a brand new home.....a house is someone elses. Its up to you to change it, not them.

So lots of extra money has to be spent just to put it on the market or they chew you way down in price. Now like I said, I can understand that if the house is in need of repair. But beyond that is just cosmetic and most likely will be changed anyway when they move in.

So I dream in the blogs I find and hope that wherever I land will be a good place, with good bones. Because I am smart enough to see beyond the decor, the paint, the junk in someones house and see what the real house is. Too bad the rest of the world has gotten lazy. It costs us all then.