Scattered Hither And Yon

February 27, 2012January 25, 2024 / Ally Bean / 14 Comments

“God is in the details.” ~ Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

I’m an organized person, but I am not a tidy person. There is a difference. The reality is that I know what I need to do to make things look tidy– and when my heart is in it, I can get things looking pretty darned spiffy. If I do say so myself.

However, this past weekend when I attempted to get some of the more {how shall I say this?} egregious messes in our house under control, the Fates were not on my side.

• For instance, I knew what I needed to make the bookshelves in the TV room look great. But the shelves are so shallow that almost no baskets or photo file boxes or office-style charging stations now available will fit on them. Except for one lovely wooden desktop organizer from Ballard Designs… that isn’t available for shipping until April.

*growl*

• In the bathroom I had a very cute idea, gleaned from Pinterest, about how to make my make-up and other stuff look organized… but I need a tray of a specific size to make it happen.

So I tried Hobby Lobby, Meijer, Pottery Barn, Ikea, Crate & Barrel, Kroger, Kohl’s, Tuesday Morning & who knows how many places online. And here’s what I learned: that size of tray doesn’t seem to exist, rather like a unicorn.

*humph*

• Meanwhile in the un-bedroom, the project stalled over the size, style and cost of the frames I need to create a gallery wall behind the chairs. The beautiful floral drapes from Pottery Barn dictate the color scheme in that room.

But now I can’t find any images to put into the theoretical, yet-to-be purchased frames that won’t fight with the drapes, while gracing the wall behind the stylish and comfy chairs… that we bought at Crate & Barrel just last winter.

*loud sigh*

• And then there is my perennially not-so-tidy desk in our home office… where I shuffle little pieces of paper and catalogues and pens and file cards all over the place. Never quite sure what to do with all the notes I make. Never quite able to file things properly in file cabinets or in computer files. Always aware that my way of organizing, such as it is, would give Leo Babauta nightmares & David Allen fits.

*oh well*

All of which brings me to the following conclusions:

Decorating a home is much more difficult than I once believed– and makes me understand why so many people don’t even try;
I do not enjoy the process of making a house pretty, but know, from experience, that I will love living in it after it’s all finished; and
That when this home redecorating project is over I might never, ever change another thing in this house again. Ever.

Weekend This & That

January 16, 2012January 16, 2012 / Ally Bean / 14 Comments

{january – monday – early morning}

√ I’ve been making small tweaks here on my blog since the beginning of the year. Have you noticed? Over the weekend I think that I finally got each of my posts entered into the proper category where each post belongs. Now instead of Monthly Archives I have a list of 7 Categories where you can find all of my past posts. By category. Obviously.

√ We started putting together our traditional winter project, a jigsaw puzzle! Years ago after seeing an episode of Northern Exposure where a married couple had a fun time putting together a puzzle, we decided to give it a try– and found that doing a puzzle was a harmless distraction from the winter gloom. So now every winter we do ONE puzzle. Yes, I know– not the most high-tech, cutting edge thing to admit to doing. But it’s fun.

√ I tried a new recipe for cupcakes that uses Blue Moon beer. The cupcakes were good, not at all beer-y– but not orange-y enough to make them interesting. I made some notes on the recipe and will try it again later this winter. I think some clove and more coriander are in order. Maybe a drop of orange extract? If I ever perfect the recipe, I’ll post it here. If.

√ We did a test on the stair railing to see how difficult it would be to strip the old stain and varnish off of the railing and posts. Our conclusion: not difficult at all. But because of the fumes and mess involved with this project we decided to postpone it until late spring when we can open the windows for ventilation. Plus they’ll be more daylight then– which can only help us see what we’re doing. Always important.

When A Presbyterian Decorates Her Coffee Table

January 12, 2012September 19, 2016 / Ally Bean / 18 Comments

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Two weekends ago after we put away our holiday decorations the coffee table in the living room was looking a bit puny— despite the fact that I keep a crystal bowl filled with jingle bells on this table all year round. [The jingle bells are from my childhood. Remind me sometime to tell you the story of how they came to mean so much to me.] Clearly the table needed something more on it, but I was all out of ideas.

Then a few days ago while I was shopping at the grocery store I saw a small houseplant of ivy for sale. It looked very healthy so I bought it, brought it home and transplanted it into the first pot that I found in the garage. However, once I got the pot inside the house I realized that it was too small for this table and that it needed some height. So I pulled some gardening books from the adjacent bookshelves and placed the potted ivy on top of the books.

Still I wanted something more on the table, so I took the plain vanilla candle that had been in the screened-in porch all summer/fall, brought it inside and put it on the table. Suddenly, I had a pretty look for the coffee table. Very coordinated & cheerful.

Or so I thought at first….

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It wasn’t until the next day when I lighted the candle and sat down in the living room to read a book that it dawned on me that I’d set up a tableau that amounted to the Roman Catholic Church’s time-honored excommunication ceremony.

“The bell represented the public character of the act, the book the authority of the words spoken by the presiding bishop. The candle was believed to symbolize the possibility that the ban might be lifted by the repentance and amendment of its victim. The ceremony was performed in some conspicuous place….”

~ Encyclopedia Britannica

After I stopped laughing at myself I got worried that maybe I’d really offended Someone– or some System– or some Being. You know how I like to live a harmonious life. So I did a bit of research about how one gets himself or herself excommunicated, and discovered to my relief that:

“The purpose of excommunication isn’t to allow you to quit or make a political statement or pursue some other private agenda. It’s to allow the church to throw you out. If you’re already out — that is, if you don’t partake of the sacraments or otherwise participate in Catholic activities… — excommunication is likely to strike church authorities as a waste of good holy water.”

~ Cecil Adams, The Straight Dope

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Finding out that I couldn’t excommunicate myself while decorating a coffee table has set my mind to rest about this situation. Also, considering that I’m not Catholic I figure that the authorities won’t want to waste holy water on me either.

Of course, I have to admit that upon closer self-examination during this situation, I’ve come to realize that as a [lapsed] Presbyterian I really need not worry about how I’ve inadvertently offended the Roman Catholic Church, as much as the fact that I rarely go to church. Which I suspect is going to reflect more poorly on my character when I reach the Pearly Gates– than my accidental excommunication-themed decorating tableau. 🙂

Of Head Colds & Door Handles

January 10, 2012January 10, 2012 / Ally Bean / 11 Comments

Last week both Zen-Den and I had bad head colds. Z-D soldiered on going to work with a determined attitude and a box of tissues by his side. I took the opposite route to renewed health and became a hermit at home, nesting with a book on the sofa in the TV room. With a box of tissues by my side, too, of course.

By the weekend we were on the rebound– moving slowly with stuffed-up noses, not tired enough to want to sleep through the day. We had some energy and the relaxed calm focus that comes from not hearing very clearly. We wanted to do something productive that wasn’t too mentally complex or socially interactive. So…

We decided to start replacing the handles and hinges on all our interior doors. Good-bye cheap shiny brass. Hello stylish satin nickel. This is a project that I’ve wanted us to do almost from the first day we moved into the house 13 years ago! I’m not a fan of shiny brass as the featured metal in northern homes; imho, it’s much more tasteful as an accent color here and there around the house.

Turns out that this project was easy enough for two sniffly, tissue-toting adults to do at their own speed without much need for thinking. It went smoothly and provided instant gratification– unlike so many home improvement projects that drag on for months. And the results of the transformation are stunning. Perfect, even.

Oddly enough we’ve never done this sort of hardware change before in any of our houses. Now that I’ve seen how much better everything in the house looks and how much calmer I feel with the proper color and style of hardware on our doors, I know that I’d do it again in a heartbeat if a new home didn’t have [in my opinion] the proper hardware on its doors. Happy is in the details. And blessed are they that make it so!

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