Adventure #8-- Decorating the porch

I was wandering around pinterest the other day, like ya do, and came across this photo of a porch:

If you know anything about me, you will know that I am not particularly creative. I recognize things I like, but if you were waiting for me to come up with a porch design like this, you'd be waiting a long damn time. This porch belongs to a designer named Melinda Jennings, who writes a blog about pretty things she is doing to her house. I want this porch for my very own.

Boys and girls, our porch currently looks like gaping butt. It's a good sized screened-in back porch that I like very much, but the people who put the porch on our house cheaped out. There are several problems with the porch, including but not limited to:

1. The builder did not use pressure treated lumber, so the boards holding up the screen are warped.
2. The untreated lumber was primed but not painted, and is not doing so well in places. I painted a lot of it before it got too cold outside to paint, but in some places the damage is already done.
3. They didn't put a ceiling on. Yeah, there's a roof, but not a ceiling. I'm thinking bead board. Someday.
4. They used an interior fan, not one that is made to go outside-- so now it is rusty, falling apart, and broken. Classy.
5. The screen door that goes from the porch out to the deck is literally falling apart.

As far as porch furniture goes, we have two wicker chairs, two wicker ottomans/tables, and one wicker love-seat.

So... basically blank slate. I'm going to start by painting the furniture black.

Then... get cushions, an outdoor rug, a large urn-shaped planter, plants, and accessories. I've been eying  these cushions on overstock. com:

Not exactly the same as the picture, but similar concept.

Since I don't have a spare $500 lying around just begging to be spent on porch accessories, I'm thinking the porch decorating process will be an ongoing one. Right now I'm working on something small that will go out there...

Bee needlepoint. Beedlepoint? 

This will be a little pillow someday. I haven't needlepointed in ages, but I did all of this yesterday. Needlepointing is so soothing. The background is going to be a variety of greens, and the bees will be pale yellow, dark teal, and coral. I'll put up a pic once it's done.

Adventure #7-- Signing up for Flylady

She's apparently really into fly fishing. The things one learns...

Today I signed up for flylady. If you don't know about flylady, it's a daily email newsletter about little 15 minute projects you can do each day to keep your house de-cluttered and clean. I'm pretty sure doing flylady projects is going to be one of my new years resolutions. I'm going to try to do the projects over the next couple of weeks and then make my resolution decision.

I used to think that clutter, messiness, and dirty houses were the work of the devil. I also used to dust my baseboards every week. Several years ago I bought two large housekeeping books and read them cover to cover out of pleasure. I judged people who lived in gross, dirty, messy houses.

Then, just like so many things in my life, it all went out the window when I started studying for the CPA exam. In fact, JJ and I got into a bit of an argument over it a couple months ago, which we resolved by each getting a room in the house that we "owned"... his is the office, which is so perfectly neat and clean that you can see the tracks in the carpet from where he has vacuumed it. I am not allowed to mess up the office in any way.

Artist's representation of JJ's room. Except the pen cup and other
 items on the desk represent inappropriate levels of clutter. 

My room is the guest bedroom (aka "CPA studying central/ filth hovel") and, during the time I studied, was usually a disgusting heap of clothes that needed to be hung up, dirty dishes, test prep materials, papers, notebooks, and blankets. The rest of the house stayed fairly neat. Any clutter or mess I produced elsewhere came home to roost in my filth hovel at the end of the day. I cleaned the filth hovel once every week or two, though I was pretty good about bringing dirty dishes to the dishwasher on a daily basis. No matter what my filth hovel looked like, JJ was not allowed to fuss at me about it in any way.

Artist's representation of my filth hovel. JJ is the irritable looking bear on the left.

Well, the days of the filth hovel are limited.

The more time goes by since I passed the CPA exam, the more I feel like my old highly tidy and neurotic self again. Today I put everything in the house (including in my filth hovel) away, even though we aren't having guests. I might even dust the baseboards later.

The impetus to sign up for flylady came as I was reading this article on lifehacker about how to clean your house in 15 minutes or less. It's not *actually* cleaning, obviously, just decluttering and wiping down surfaces. The responses exploded with "that's not possible!" "oh yeah, maybe 15 minutes per room!" and all kinds of nay-saying. I was pretty shocked, because I honestly think I could "clean" my house in 15 minutes these days, if only I had motivation and direction. So flylady it is.

Adventure #6-- Pajama day

Sloth: the cutest of all the deadly sins.

Today I did almost nothing. I slept until 10 a.m. I got out of bed and migrated to the couch to check facebook. I ate a toaster waffle. Some time later I ate leftover pasta. I snuggled with the kitties. I worked on the stocking I'm making for my niece for a little while. I ate some candy. I stalked the internet more. I remained in my pajamas. JJ woke up and we hung out for a while.

Around 6 p.m. I finally took a shower. Then I painted my nails. I went to choir an hour later. I have returned home from choir, reattached my ass-end to the couch and am now tossing back a glass of wine. The only useful things I've done today around the house are one load of laundry, unloading the dishwasher, and making the bed. However, I count today to be an epic success, though perhaps in a peculiar way.

Story time: When JJ and I first moved to town, I didn't have a job for several weeks. I joked that I was a trophy wife (which, if you know me at all, is slightly absurd) and that I was going to swan around town doing trophy wife things. Yeah, that ended when I basically had a complete meltdown because I hated having so much free time. At that point in my life, about a year and a half ago, I spent all that free time becoming neurotic and anxious rather than enjoying myself. So I got a part-time job, took four classes, got crazy involved with a ton of stuff, and had zero free time. Then I finished school, studied for and took the CPA exam and got a second job. I have never enjoyed free time or "relaxing" and in the past found it to be annoying at best.

Fast forward to last month... I quit one of my jobs (the "regular" one) the week before Thanksgiving in anticipation of having to restudy for a section of the CPA exam before I started my new job in January. Turns out I passed that section of the CPA exam (and the next one!), so I'm now on a six week pseudo vacation. I work a day or two a week at my remaining job, and have the rest of the week to myself. JJ is working crazy pre-Christmas hours, so I barely see him. When I found out that I passed the section of the CPA exam that I presumed I had failed, I actually got worried about having all that free time.

I don't know what is so different between the "today" me and the "year and a half ago" me, but instead of finding this free time stressful and neurosis-amplifying, I am enjoying the daylights out of it. Possibly because I know my time off will end soon and will be followed by working at a job with extremely long hours? I don't know, but I thought I'd write about today because although on the outside it was nothing remarkable to you or to me or to my life, it has been a very good day on the first vacation during which I've actually been able to relax in my whole life. I'm enjoying it immensely.