I Feel Good . . . I Knew That I Would!

The is the article I wrote for The Leaf Chronicle, which was originally published on Oct 28, 2013.

Remember last week when I said I feel energized by this time of year? Well, I have smashed all personal best records since then! Who’s the gal? Me—I’m the gal!!! I admit I’ve been humming the Rocky theme song a lot lately; not “Gonna Fly Now,” but “Eye of the Tiger.” I’ve got a lot to do and this is the time of year, I’m likely to accomplish it. That feels good.

We normally pick-up at the shop this time of year, but things have been exceptionally slow this month. (Gee—I wonder why?) The good news, though, is that I’ve had time to tackle the backroom projects that I’ve had waiting for me. I’ve actually cleaned-out some filing cabinets in order to transfer old records to storage. I’ve packed-up all—okay, most—of my creative/crafting supplies so I can relocate them to my “studio space.”

Studio space? This is the room in our house formerly known as “the back porch,” which it was . . . a long, long time ago. It was enclosed –poorly—at some point in its history and we’ve yet to assign it a proper name or use. It serves as the catch-all storage area, but I continuously try to claim it for my creative space. We will see if that claim stands-up to time and the forces of nature working against it. (By “nature” I am referring to my tendency to keep things well-beyond my ability to remember why I thought I needed them; it’s my nature to be a borderline hoarder.)

As much as I am sure you’d enjoying reading a complete list of all the items I parted with this week, suffice to say I hope my Recycle Clarksville serviceman didn’t suffer an injury when he picked-up the stack of magazines I set-out in the bins this morning. Anyone who knows me knows I have a weakness for magazines, so this was a big move. I tossed my high school yearbooks years ago, but I feel sure I still have a few magazines from the years I graduated!

During the course of all of this cleaning and recycling, I continued transitioning the seasonal décor throughout the house. I like to think I’m done, but I usually do some tweaking right up until it’s time to store it again.

One of my favorite decorating elements is framed art. I like to use vintage art which reflects the season, as you can see in the photograph of my favorite mantel decked out for fall. Here I’ve propped a vintage print of a pair of colorful grouse. I keep an eye out for items such as this at flea markets. This rotation method—changing art with the season—is ideal for our home, as we are concerned our walls may eventually cave in under the weight of all the art we have purchased. Heaven forbid I just say I’ve got enough—not gonna happen!

As for our living room mantel, I decided to make just a few changes this year. My dear friend had recently given me the home altar with the image of Mary on it and I’m not quite ready to put it away, so it serves as the anchor. Beyond that, I just added a few candles in the shape of pinecones, wrapped my battery-operated candles in burlap and switched-out the homemade pomanders for some oats.

 

 

 

I always leave my velvet pumpkins on display, so they are not seasonal, but the branches of bittersweet are the provisional accent the pumpkins needed. The decorated bottle on the floor lamp is a leftover from this past winter—it escaped my notice for a few months, then I just couldn’t be bothered to carry it to the storage area; but I did dust it!

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Finally, I’m offering a picture of one of my favorite decorations of the season—my turkey. This is one of those things I had in the shop because I truly loved it and wanted in my home. This happens occasionally; I buy something for the shop because I really would like to have it in my own home, but know that I need to try to sell it. Most of the time, I can happily send inventory home with my customers, but as we sold out of these (I only ordered four), I became very nervous. When we were down to one remaining, I found myself just grabbing it on the way out of the door one evening. I am so glad I did! I love the presence of this guy. This year I’ve placed him in the entry hall along with arrangement of dried lavender and oats and another velvet pumpkin. Perfect.

 

 

 

 

A few other pictures not offered in the newspaper: