taking stock

One year ago on January 7th I was informed that my position at the newspaper had been eliminated. Suddenly I was free to pursue other interests and a short time later someone commented that I appeared to be the happiest unemployed person they'd ever seen.

I remember going to see a movie in the middle of the day, just because I could. To this day I don't remember the movie title but I do remember feeling like a kid who'd ditched school.

The downside is that I haven't felt like I've used the time to good use or gotten much accomplished, certainly not all the grandoise plans I'd daydreamed about while tied to a desk.

I had the good fortune to work under an amazing publisher who understood what it takes to make work fun and challenging. He taught me some great lessons and one lesson was taking stock of your accomplishments. Many time we feel like we haven't made any progress. At times like these he suggested to take pen to paper and start a list. You'd really be surprised with the result.

ON THE DOWNSIDE:

I still can't speak Spanish. Illness forced me to drop out of the conversational Spanish class last spring.

Procrastination.Won a fabulous Mamiya RB 67 camera on Ebay, but haven't dropped a single roll of film into it.
- Intended to cook a gourmet meal every night for my family. I have fallen short.
- Bought fabric for bedroom drapes. The roll is standing in my closet.
- Intended to get some of my photographs framed and hung. Still only pixels.
- Many knitting and sewing projects are in limbo, waiting for final assembly/finishing.

ON THE UPSIDE:

Creative Efforts.
- I've continued the photoblog another year. (Not daily as in past years)
- I've opened a shop on Etsy. (Have yet to figure out the promotional piece of this puzzle.

House stuff.
- I transformed the bedroom closet. No before photos because it was entirely too hideous. I laid the hardwood floor myself, cutting all the pieces with a dangerous power tool, painted the walls a shade of beach glass blue, and connected the new light fixture.



Upon completion the farmer's son commented, "I want to move into your closet." The success in the closet was life's way of preparing me for the big kahuna.

- At the end of August terrible storms resulted in the flooding of our basement. I was returning from an out-of-town trip when the farmer called and informed me of what was awaiting me. At that moment I was thrust into the role of general contractor, demolition crew leader, and student of power tools. Heat gun and putty knife were my weapons to remove 200 feet of tile. (I'll spare you that photo)

The following 4 months have been a blur of really hard work.

Here's the farmer looking astonished at my attempts to remove tons of carpet glue from the concrete floor. I scraped this entire area ( about 550 s.f. using a combination of chemicals and again....the putty knife.



The farmer's son and I have done most of the work up to this point ourselves. We had a great electrician. Quality tradesmen are gold.

So I guess I'll cut myself some slack and admit that yes, I did in fact have some accomplishments in the past year.
Upon completion the farmer's son commented, "I want to move into your closet."

In between there somewhere I managed to win third place in the Gingerbread House contest. Gingerbread construction was a welcome respite from real construction.

So I guess I'll cut myself some slack and admit that yes, I did in fact have some accomplishments in the past year.

Tomorrow we're going to talk about some recent thrifting finds. I promise some pretty pictures.