Sunday, August 28, 2011

Art Work

I hung some artwork today.

A few weeks ago I happened onto an estate sale remains looking for a free wool carpet that was advertised on Craigs List. Well the carpet was hideous (probably why it was free) but they were giving away some large painted canvases by her artist mother- like 48" x 36" and 36" x 34". I took all 7 of them (and felt a little guilty when the woman said she would accept donations for them. First they were FREE then she wanted money. I told her I couldn't give her any and was prepared to just walk away. She relented and stuck to the FREE deal. As I was loading them into my car, her brother confided in me that they were just going to donate them to Salvation Army so I shouldn't feel bad.

Anyway I thought either I or my art school son would just paint over the existing artwork. Large gallery wrapped canvases are expensive. Then I really looked at the paintings and some were actually good. So I thought I'd try to sell the good paintings on Craigs List and fund my needed car repairs. I would still have a couple canvases to paint. Fast forward a few weeks and they are still sitting in my dark basement waiting to be taken outside into the sunlight and photographed and measured for Craigs List.

I got a decorating bee in my bonnet and dragged the 3 good paintings upstairs (4 flights of stairs). First off I cleaned them. How do you clean paintings you might ask? The cheap way for not so great art is with white bread (I used a soft wheat because that's what I had) wadded into a ball and lightly rubbed all over the painting. It provides enough friction and moisture and whisks away dirt. You can see all the dirty bread crumbs falling to the floor. The paintings were instantly brighter and the colors more vibrant.

I hung one in the living room, the largest one in the dining room and the last above my bed. The dining room painting stretcher bars are warped. I will have to actually screw it to the wall to get it to lie flat and my son is freaking out about me putting more holes in the plaster. Something about how frequently I change my mind when decorating. I'll just wait until he goes back to college in about 10 days and rehang it higher on the wall and flush with little angle brackets.

Sick Again

Well, now I have a nasty summer cold. I didn't feel good yesterday but now I'm really bad. I'm popping cold tablets and drinking coffee to sooth my sore throat. I would prefer hot water with honey and lemon, but I have no lemon and I feel too bad to run to the store for some. On top of feeling sick, I look absolutely ridiculous. My comfy sweat pants are somewhere in a large pile of dirty laundry. So I have on orange knit capris, a turquoise long sleeved sweat shirt, and purple fuzzy socks. At least I'm comfortable and warm! Here's hoping I feel better tomorrow. I have a couple things I want to accomplish.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Craig's List Find


I found this beautiful campaign desk on my local Craigs List for -- FREE!. I would say the yellow is the original color because I've seen several dressers yellow also. I wish I had room - and the color would work in my house. Maybe I would paint it turquoise or orange to update the look. Sigh.


Friday, August 19, 2011

Housework Ahhha!

I'm reading a series of old posts from Nesting Place (www.thenester.com) on 31 Days to a Less Messy Nest. One of the comments from a woman named Anna struck a nerve. How come I've never figured this out before? No wonder I get so frustrated with housecleaning. 

October 19, 2010 at 11:44 pm
The single most helpful realization I have had about housecleaning was that I am not striving to have things DONE. It’s maintenance, which means it will never end. If you want something done, do a puzzle. ;)

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Another week

How is it the 17th already? I swear it was just Wednesday yesterday. Or it certainly feels like it. I had such plans for this past week. Did anything get done? Nope (except a couple loads of desperately needed laundry). It's been weeks since I've vacuumed or dusted (eww). Dishes are piling up again. The stack of mail was tumbling off the table, and then I discovered another stack in the drawer. I have a few items to take care of and was feeling anxious about them being possibly late. Wheew, I haven't missed any deadlines yet. I've got to figure a way out of the "lazy days" attitude I've been in for months now. Too much TV (online since I don't own an actual TV) and internet and not enough chores or projects. I have 3 weeks until my son goes back to college. I wanted to have him help me with several projects around the house. I better hurry!

The new plan - I'm to do 2 things around the house on days I don't work and 1 on days that I do. Seriously my to-do list has 19 items that need to be done in the next week or so. This will definitely make a dent.

Wish me luck.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Great Day

I had such a nice day today with my son. First off the weather was a beautiful high 70's degrees today. Such a welcomed relief from the 95+ of the last few weeks. I spent a great afternoon walking around the Museum of the Art Institute of Chicago downtown Chicago. Especially since the first and second Wednesday's of the month is free. Yea free day! We had a late lunch at Panda Express which is a treat because we don't eat out hardly ever. And to top it all off my friend dropped by a thank you bottle of wine for me. I popped it into the refrigerator and am enjoying a glass as I type this.  I would have had a few pictures to post except my batteries never charged. Time for new rechargables I think.

If only every day was this great!

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Still Sick

I’ve had a stomach bug for the last few days. I didn’t go work at my job helping a nice elderly lady, Delores, out around her house two days a week.  I will definitely miss the money, but I didn’t want to chance getting her sick (and I really wasn’t feeling up to working yet). I spent the morning watching 3 episodes of Hoarders online followed by some general blog reading / goofing off. I did manage to do a crap load of dishes. I have no dishwasher and absolutely hate washing dishes (probably because I let them go until everything is dirty and piled to the ceiling), although I love when the kitchen is neat and tidy. As a reward for my dish washing perseverance, I got a treat in the mail. Both a Crate and Barrel and Ikea 2012 catalog.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Fun Fact

I was married on 8/8/88 when I was 20 years old. I’ve been divorced for a long, long time.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Plumbing


Yuck. We have a drain backing up in our basement. There is about 2” of water in our furnace room in the building basement. Since I’m on the board, I called out plumbers and they rooted out the drain out to the street. I’ll have our maintenance man bleach and clean the floors. Plumbers really have disgusting jobs at times, I don’t envy them. But with the plumbing problems today we didn’t get to go to our free day at the Art Institute. Maybe next week will work out.