Umiko

I'm not even going to begin to recap on the last few weeks in the new house. It's been both invigorating to be out of the hotel and exhausting to have multiple projects going on at once. Whenever we finally get SOMETHING finished I'll start posting the progress photos...  but at the moment the chaos is too much for even a digital photo.

Some of what I have going on:

• painting vintage dressers for the bedroom so our clothes are not in totes on the floor
• mentally designing my home daycare rooms
• painting and restyling lamps
• covering IKEA mirrors with fabric
• knitting vase covers
• making a wax paper chandelier
• sewing curtains for my son's room
• researching upholstery fabric to bring new life to the seller's left-behind chairs
• going bonkers staring at the most hideous wallpaper-like wall paneling ever

That about sums it up (I think).

Today, we're having some nasty weather.  I just barely managed to fit The Beast (the Suburban) in the car port. Luckily, I'm a lot smaller than my husband... otherwise I might have had to exit the vehicle from the trunk. I got absolutely soaked in the process and experienced the joy of being battered by chickpea size hail.

Except for my knitted vase covers I have not been knitting anything since we moved in. I assure you, my hands are depressed. My husband works Monday-Friday, so every weekend that he's home we take full advantage of having time together as a family and more time to work on home projects.

Right now I feel like the house will never get done. Previously when we have moved, the house has been move-in ready as it was and we never had plans to alter it in any way. But here... we're ripping up and replacing flooring, we're painting, we're putting up walls and building things. It's a long process having to work around a young child and a full time job!

Years ago, I hit a point of revelation that sitting around and watching TV was mostly wasteful and numbing and I'd done enough of it. That being said, I really like watching the hoarding shows that have become popular recently. Long ago I knew a very old woman who hoarded very expensive museum-quality antiques. Every surface in her unkept house was covered with stuff. My Dad and I met her while visiting my Great Aunt at the lake and later, when I moved in with my father, she became our landlord. The house we moved in to was ... shocking. It took me weeks to clear the cobwebs, 10 years worth of dust and to sort through the furniture that was stacked ceiling-high. The "house" was quite small and in it were at least 15 dressers, 6 couches, numerous tables in all sizes and and and... it was insane. Not all of it was crap, though. Before moving out we bought all the pieces we liked and later sold them before moving overseas. We made four times the amount that we spent! It was very strange having to weave around furniture to get from one room to the next.

Throughout the years after, I always lived in relatively small spaces with too much stuff. It was always irritating. I'm a sentimental person and I like to hold onto objects that have meaning to me. It goes a little like this: "So-and-So gave me this. I bought this in This Country." Etcetera. There are boxes of "stuff" in random places in the house. Some of the objects in those boxes haven't been touched in years. In the last few years I've been working on downsizing possessions in general. Mine are easy, having my husband follow suit is a whole 'nother story though! But I won't get into that... It's hard to let go of stuff.

My personal story is that after my parents divorced, our house foreclosed and I moved short notice into my Dad's (above) cramped house. My entire childhood went into the landfill. I don't own a single childhood toy or book. All that remains of that time are a few ripped-out pages of my very first diary - red hearts on pink paper and all.

My husband is gone doing some training out of state until the end of the month. In order to escape potential loneliness I've been on a sort-chuck-organize rampage in the house. I did lots of that while nesting, but since it's been difficult while doing a lot of mothering by myself. Now that Lucas is older and can occupy himself for longer periods of time and I don't have a husband to take care of, I have more time to invest in the house. We'll be moving before the winter is officially over with and now is a prime time to gut everything that doesn't need to go through yet another move.

It feels good to see the trash bags go out, to see the charity piles grow and to finally, after a long pause, have space to breathe again. Having a clean, clutter-free living space is energizing for me. I feel less stressed, more at ease and the house seems peaceful and open. There is still plenty that is blocking the total clutter-free state of nirvana I could achieve, but much of that is out of my hands. (Read: husband's stuff, mostly papers and scattered stuff in junk drawers and storage spaces.)

I miss my husband a lot, but at the same time, I've enjoyed the extra time to get things in order and the time to spend with the girls minus guilt trip. Oddly, I've knitted very little. I brought my sweater that's in the process of being designed to knitting group tonight, but picked a meal-time-clean-up washcloth project instead so I could concentrate on socializing. I'm trying to keep my days as full as possible, an occupied mind is one that can't dwell on the negative! :)

Since I was a kid (or significantly younger) I've enjoyed watching HGTV. I haven't done any research on how long HGTV has been airing, so I can't quote an exact age range... My mom, who also loves everything home-decor and beauty, got me hooked. Now that we've been back States-side for a year I've had the opportunity to watch it on a consistent basis again. I can't watch it constantly because at certain times I get bored with the designers and the repetitive nature of the trends/shows. Not to mention the surplus of girly men, but that's a whole different topic.

While living in Germany and exploring all the neighboring countries I was exposed to many perspective-altering design concepts and different types of architecture. Everything was quite different from the type of design and decor I was used to in the Midwest. It was fascinating. Then, one day while eating an early dinner after my waitressing shift, I came across Architektur & Wohnen - a German magazine about architecture and living. I went home that night and signed up for a two-year subscription.

I'm always going to keep my collection of magazines. One of the best parts of the subscription were the extra inserts about hotels and other best-of types of pamphlets. Through those, my ideas of design and decorating were challenged and broadened. Now, I have a difficult time accepting everyday interior decorating. Everything seems so pale and lackluster compared to the potential a space holds.

Obviously I'm aware that the majority of people with a desire to make a house a home don't find it in their financial means to acquire designer pieces of furniture, don't have local venues offering non-standard decor elements or are simply unaware of their own creative abilities within the home. We're no different. Our house, with its eclectic collection of possessions obtained because of a practical need or availability, doesn't give away much of who we are or the kind of home we desire. We like most of our stuff, but we love very little. How much we like our stuff may also be a question of just how accustomed we are to looking at it.

I brought up HGTV because when I watch the home staging shows I privately covet those warehouses stuffed with interesting design elements and everything one needs to put together a cohesive, practical and beautiful interior for one's home. Hopefully, one day when we own a home that we plan to live in for an extended period of time we'll be able to start over inside and truly make it the kind of place that we want to live instead of having to work around what's already available to us and practical for the small space the military allots us.

Also, as this blog is gradually taking a downhill turn in terms of interesting reading material I am going to devote a couple days a week to features about things that I think are awesome. I'm considering a knitting, design and cool blog feature. I'm tired of posting about my ho-hum days because I don't have the time to knit and blog more about my own knitting.

Design, oh ye lovely beast. One of the ideas that air is home staging. Home staging is basically setting up your home to look