What I did the rest of the year...

Since the new year is rapidly approaching, I thought this would be a good title.  Even if it is not, here are a few things that I'm sharing with you. As you all know I have spent the past year or so remodeling my home.  Timbo and I had done so much to the house with the carpet being one my favorite things.

After our last kitty had died, Timbo and I decided it was time for new carpet.  I had always wanted a light color carpet and we found just what we wanted.  He worked very hard getting ready for the new carpet and we loved it.  Right after he died, I took up all the rugs and carpet remnants that he had used to keep the high traffic areas from turning black, got new furniture, had all the dark trim painted white and was quite pleased.

Before

After about sixteen months, I realized that the carpet was extremely dingy in the entry way and no amount of steam cleaning was taking care of it.  I asked our friend TD what to do about it and he suggested hardwood.  I'm not a big fan of hardwood floors through out, so I came up with the idea of replacing the carpet AND adding wood flooring for the high traffic area...Taa Daa!!!

After

I never did like the half wall in the hall and hubby and I were taking it down gradually.  He took the spindles off years ago and painted the top white, but we just never got around to removing the rest of the wall and basically used it as a catch all/room divider.  It was also the main reason that the rescue squad had to take Timbo out the window in the office when he had his heart attack, but I digress. I was ready for it to be g.o.n.e.

The whole process only took eight days and my guys tried to make it as stress free as possible, but still having all my furniture jammed into my studio for a week was a bit disconcerting.

The noise and dust that were byproducts of the remodel were a hassle, but they tried to clean and dust everything as they put it back.

All in all, I would have to say it was extremely successful and now the only rooms left to do are the bathrooms.  Who knows maybe I'll do them in 2015.

One thing I am going to try to do is write more.  Blog more and work on my novel which is tentatively titled "Lammy's World".  Hopefully there will be lots of art going on and jewelry being made and books being read.  Looks like it will be a year full of hope and happiness.  That's my plan...how about you?

Well, until next time, take care and remember to have fun and love as much as you can.  It's easier than you think.

Still not finished...

Not only is the portrait not finished, I haven't done any more on it.  I told him he'd better have a good back up gift because I wasn't going to complete it for Christmas. 

One of the main reasons I haven't had time to work on it is that I started attending a two week real estate seminar.  I wanted to take some classes that were not art related, as I tend to do more art during the warmer months.  So I had been thinking about doing something fun, but something totally different.  The course is actually an accelerated course so you can get your sales license. The first week was quite interesting and I enjoyed everything I was learning.  The first weekend is what really got me.  I had to study all week end for a test and it reminded me quite firmly that I was STUDYING.  I don't want to study.  I don't need to pass a test so I can become employed.  I quit work eight years ago because I wanted out of the rat race.  Anyhoo, we had a test yesterday and a substitute instructor.  I did not like him at all and he kept hammering away at the point that this course is so you can get your license, get your license, get your license...I just wanted to learn something new and I did.  I learned that real estate is never for fun, even if you can afford for it to be.  It is work and I don't want or need to go back to work. I would be great at the real estate game, if all you had to do was meet people and show them houses, but it's so much more than that.  I have a new found respect for anyone that has to make their living in this way.  You have to love it to do it and I say, if this is your thing, go for it! 

So from now on the classes that I take will most likely be hobby related.  I don't want want to change my life, that will happen no matter what I do.  I don't really know if I want to do anything different right now.  I may take some art classes if I feel the need to get out and socialize, otherwise for now I'm going to concentrate on having the inside of my house painted and having new flooring put in and just doing my thing.

Taking classes is really nothing new for me, over my lifetime I have taken:

Ballroom dancing

Baton twirling

Belly Dancing

Sewing classes

Key punch classes

Speed writing

Photography

Cake Decorating

 Glass Bead Making

Precous Metal Clay

Chain Maille

I know just enough to be dangerous in things like:

 Ceramics

Polymer Clay 

Sculpting

Crocheting

Painting 

Drawing

Interior Decorating 

 Jewelry making

Wire Working

Metal Working

Just enough to be dangerous...herein lies the key.  I don't want to be totally proficient at anything.  I don't want to be an expert or a master.  I just want to learn enough to see if I like it and if I will be good at it.  Take gardening for instance.  Don't care for digging in the dirt, planting stuff and weeding out in the yard.  Don't like it at all.  I have several house plants that I haven't killed, but please don't suggest "Garden Club".  Everyone is different, I don't like to do things that I'm not good at immediately.  I give up too quickly if I feel like a failure from day one.  No one wants to feel like a failure, and they deal with it in different ways.  My late husband was much more of a perfectionist than I and would delve into something with everything he had.  He would become fixated on whatever it was that he was doing and he didn't understand by casual attitude to learning things.  My attitude has always been, "looks good enough to me" and I seldom pull out a seam that's not completely straight (that's why quilting didn't work for me) and if I'm three feet into a knitted afghan and see a dropped stitch, it's "oh, well, whatever".  I would not frog (you know, rip-it, rip-it) unless it was a really bad mistake, and then chances are that I ball it up in a Kroger bag and eventually give it and the yarn to the Goodwill.  

Perhaps it comes from my mother.  She would say things like "it will never be noticed on a galloping horse" which meant "you're a kid, who's going to notice or care if that hem is straight".  I took this to heart.  That is probably why when we painted our living room, we used masking tape to repair the wallpaper before painting over it, and why she and I removed a corner cabinet with a claw hammer and dry-walled our kitchen using a butcher knife AND probably why I have a partially finished nightstand in my guest room.  Seriously, who cares?  Not me.  All those things worked for what we needed. 

Now, know that when I've done something well, I'm properly proud of it, but I'm just as proud of the not so perfect things that I have created, also.  After all, as Peri the Great knows and says...

"That's how we role in The Shire"

So,in closing this post, I'd like to say, if you don't like the way I do stuff, then you can just kiss my @$$ and stay home.  Ohhh, I do so hope you're not offended, if you are, please see previous sentence.

xoxo

Susan