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Well Hello Excitement! I’ve Missed You!
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Hey there my Lovelies!
You didn’t keel over from the shock of seeing a post from me, did you?
Ah, you know, my needles have been quiet while I write books and my nesting inspiration has been severely suppressed as I bide my time until we leave this tiny townhouse.
I didn’t feel like I had anything exciting to share. Yes, Mr. Excitement hasn’t visited our house in like forever. That elusive cheer-maker paid us a visit a few weeks ago, though.
Hubs works for the military so we knew a job transfer to Germany was a possibility, but I always thought it was a long shot … like winning the lottery long shot.
Turns out it isn’t such a long shot after all. It turns out that the odds are very, very, VERY good!
To say I’m excited is an understatement. I should record my audible squeal as I write this and upload it just so you’d understand. I would love to move to Germany!
My dad was in the U.S. Army, my mom is German, I was born in Germany and I spent many years there including those all important preteen/early teen years. We left Germany for the last time when I was 13 going on 14. It was a rough move for me, a rough age to leave friends, right?
Memories of good times in Germany contribute to my excitement, I’m sure.
To give you an idea of how long it’s been, the Iron Curtain was still up when we left. I have long lost family in what was East Germany. I’d love to see where my mother grew up and what was the family homestead before World War II.
And there’s the whole living in Europe as an adult thing.
Here’s what I’ve been dreaming of:
- Munich flea market
- Paris flea market
- Brussels flea market
- Berlin flea market
- Lyon flea market
- Euro-antiques big and small
- a yarns of Scandinavia tour
- a Cognac tour through France
- a Mosel wine tour through Germany
- and, yeah, a Rhine wine tour through Germany
- a chocolate tour through Belgium
- maybe a cheese tour of Switzerland
Vintiques, yarn, food and drink. LOL.
My imagination has run wild. My hopes are sky high.
Here’s hoping that Mr. Excitement sticks around to make it all pan out, huh? In the meantime, I’ll keep dreaming
If you think you can take a gazillion pinned pieces of all of the above join me on Pinterest. I just signed up.
I Know Why The US Post Office Is Going Down
The USPS is going down because they hate their customers. It’s true, read on for the evidence.
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A Fabulous Design Star!
HGTV's 2011 Design Star Winner, Meg Caswell
Confession. I stopped watching this season’s HGTV Design Star around the third or fourth episode. Same with the Next Food Network Star. As I said before, these kinds of competition shows were stressing me out and I didn’t need that.
Just now, though, I caught the Design Star finale followed by Meg Caswell’s new show, Great Rooms. She did a kitchen and OMG I love it!
Congratulations, Meg! You obviously deserved the win. Oh, and please, please, please come to Colorado and do my kitchen!
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Ma’am? Don’t You DARE Call Me Ma’am!
We took mom to breakfast yesterday and true to form she started complaining. Yesterday’s bitch session included the ever fun topic of kids-these-days. Kids have no respect for their elders, mom said. I guess some youngster had the audacity to call her by her first name last week. How dare they! It’s ma’am, damn it!
I just laughed. It’s the best way to deal with mom’s bitch sessions.
Then I remembered the first time some youngin’ called me ma’am. I swear, I wanted to slap the fresh-faced little kid. I was in my 30′s at the time and I think the kid was 10 or 11.
Ma’am is something you called old ladies. I
amwas certainly not old. Don’t you dare call me ma’am!So, yeah, it probably isn’t American kids-these-days being disrespectful to their elders. I think adults stopped teaching kids to say ma’am and sir, because adults don’t want to feel like elders.
I mean, I’m positive the kid sensed my reaction. I recovered the best I could and told him to call me by my first name. He did, but prefaced it with Miss from then on. That was sure better than ma’am! His parents were old-fashioned and strict. I’m sure the kid continued to address women that way. But any other kid, who got a reaction like mine, may have thought twice about using the word ma’am ever again.
It makes me wonder what else we give kids mixed signals on based on the generation we belong to. Maybe we should blame their behavior on adults-these-days.
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How Dumb Can One Woman Be?
So, the hubs talked me into hiring a cleaning lady … just once … to get the house back into liveable shape.
We’ve both been working extra hours – me writing a novel and, oh my GAWD the house was awful. And the worse it got the less either one of us wanted to tackle it.
So, yeah, she came yesterday while I was at work. For $65 she cleaned three bathrooms, a kitchen, dusted every single surface on all three floors, vacuumed all three floors – including the stairs (I hate doing the stairs!) and wiped down the interior windows as well as the glass on the French doors leading to the bedroom.
I’m sold. I really am. Walking into a clean house on a Friday night – beat from a week on the day job, wanting to spend my weekend writing – was one of the most awesome feelings of relief I’ve ever felt. I can’t believe I was dumb enough not to hire help sooner.
Hubs said he’ll pay for once a month. I’m going to pay for a second time per month to have her come in about every other week.
Oh, oh, wait. I didn’t tell you the funniest part. The hubs was home yesterday – his office does the alternate work schedule so that they get every other Friday off. Before the cleaning lady came, he: picked up all his
crapshoes, papers and clothes; washed a couple loads of laundry; put away his coffee fixin’s that he always leaves out; and generally just picked up after himself finally. I’m thinking that ALONE is worth $65.Do you have a cleaning
ladyperson? Isn’t she, or he, worth their weight in gold? I think I’ll leave her chocolates next time as a big old THANK YOU. 
Gilt. Aged Golden Goodness.
My nesting gene has lain dormant the last few years, a function of limited space and limited money. Then I got an auction notice yesterday that made that gene swoon. Feast your eyes on …
Clock I want
Love! Other clock I want. It's the German in me that loves GILT!
The upholstery is god-awful.
But ooooh, the detail!
Not that old, but oh so fancy!
Love the center one with slots for coins.
Exterior of the compacts
No, I’m not going to the auction. But I’m so happy to have my swoon-capacity back!
Life as Dominos
One thing leads to another. Meeting so-and-so led to this-and-that, this-and-that led to meeting whats-his-name. That’s the basic gist behind the domino effect. Prominent in my life, it’s a phenomenon that I wholeheartedly believe in.The most recent run of dominoes is very exciting.
Losing my TV job to downsizing was the first domino. Diving wholeheartedly into the antiques biz to supplement the unemployment checks was the next domino. That experience led to writing the ebook Selling in an Antique Mall. Researching how-to create and sell an ebook led to stumbling onto the indie author industry that, thanks to technology, is just exploding.
Oh my god, people! Indie authors are actually earning a decent living. Holy smokes! I gotta get in on this. I’ve always wanted to be a storyteller ala Joss Whedon – that’s why I went into TV in the first place. Too bad I wound up producing mostly news promos on disturbing sh!t like the Columbine shooting.
Oh my god, people! Here’s a chance to really live my dream. I grabbed that domino with two fists and wandered off to a corner to write a young adult novel.*
Exciting stuff, no? And I got here by losing my job.
Now, A Lovely Thing is a do-it-yourself kind of blog, and I’m a do-it-yourself kind of person. So, I’m not going to proclaim that something magical puts the bones** in place.
Yes, some of dominos in our lives are placed by other people. Most dominos, though, we put in place ourselves. The job-layoff domino was put there by some guy at big-TV-company headquarters, but that antique mall domino was all me.
Recognizing that that biz experience was worthy of a book was all me, too, so was researching and the aforementioned stumbling.
The indie market domino was placed by other people – many other people, both writers and techie people at Amazon. Writing the novel was my domino.
You get the idea.
I’m going to place more dominos in the form of writing more books.
Expect a blow-by-blow feature on A Lovely Thing on a regular basis. Once the book is up for sale, I’ll even post numbers of sales and profit, and probably have a few cries when the dominos go askew
How are the dominos falling in your life? Do share!
*It’s under a pen name and will be published this fall. I may or may not share my alter ego here in the future.
**bones is slang for dominos
Do I Look Like a Grandma?
I’m not sure where the idea that only grandmas work with yarn ever came from. Just look at these classic Hollywood stars all with needles in their hands.
Doris Day
Doris Day often played the girl-next-door, but granny? Uh no.
Judy Garland
There’s some debate as to whether the needles in Judy’s hands were prop or real. Who cares? The point is she ain’t no grandma!
Jayne Mansfield
Pin up? Yes. Grandmother? No!
Ingrid Berman
Even while in makeup, the needles must work!
Ginger Rogers
Nimble with her hands as well as her feet.
Katherine Hepburn
The Hollywood epitome of style and glamor knit in public. Take your project with you wherever you go and don’t hesitate to whip out that yarn, ladies. We, too, can be STARS!
Stressful TV
Okay, TV producers, showrunners and programmers, enough. I can’t take it anymore. Uncle, uncle, UNCLE! No more stressful shows, please!
I’m Boycotting
I’m talking about challenge shows – those reality TV shows where people compete in various ways for various rewards. Chopped, Next Top Chef, Design Star, cake bakers — you know the shows I’m talking about.
Well, they stress me out! I learned just how much they bug me on a Sunday morning. There was the calm, the lovely Sandra Lee (of Semi Homemade) showing me a lovely, calm tablescape and wishing me a great day. Ah, how nice. Then, boom, Chopped came on with its stressful contenders … and I just had to change the channel.
I’m so done with those shows! Join me in my boycott, won’t you?
What I Want to Watch
1. Useful and informative shows that teach me something. Food Network and HGTV, I’m talking to YOU! I know those reality shows are cheap to produce. But you get what you pay for. I want more stuff like Sarah’s House. DIY Network? Pffft, I stopped watching you when Knitty Gritty got canned. Boo to you!
2. Smart scripted drama and comedy. Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a good past example. Hot in Cleveland is a current bar to hit.
Please, oh please, can we be done with reality shows?
A Change of Life
Nope. I’m not talking menopause – not yet anyway. I’m talking about changes in attitude, desires and things I need to live my life. Fear not, dear readers, nothing life shattering has happened to me. It was just shopping – shopping for a tote bag.
I carry around a lot of sh!t – a laptop with all the paraphernalia, notebooks, knitting with all the paraphernalia, my lunch, an iPhone with all its paraphernalia, and oh so much more. I go through totes like most people go through paper towels.
Fossil's Vintage Messenger bag is a contender.
So, instead of buying any old piece of discount store junk, this time I’m on the hunt for a tote that will really stand up to me and all my sh!t. I’m thinking sturdy leather … and pockets, I want lots of pockets.
On this hunt for this superior tote, I went to TJMaxx/Homegoods. I didn’t find a tote, but walked out with an epiphany.
You see, once upon a time, I’d want to buy everything I saw at Homegoods – rugs, dishes, lamps, side tables, just about everything in the place appealed to me. Yesterday while shopping for a tote? Nothing appealed to me.
Did I grow out of home decor shopping? Am I becoming more frugal in my old age? Or is it the tiny townhouse (that I hate) nipping my decorating desire in the butt?
Or maybe I’m just too focused on finding a tote.
Whatever the reason, since I saved all that money buying nothing at Homegoods, I have more to spend on a bag – like the $168 Fossil vintage messenger bag that I’ve been eying online. That’s sound logic, right?
