Paperwhites Are Blooming

And the smell is overpowering.  I clipped off half the flower heads, hoping that would cut the fragrance by half.  It's still too much.  Now, I am wondering why I start them?  Is it habit?  Or the power of suggestion with so many customers buying bags of bulbs (even now) so they have an unending supply of the stinky things.

I felt bad putting the perky little white blossoms in the compost bucket.

Maine, where I am, got up into the 40's today.  The sunshine is warm as long as the clouds stay away. I was out sitting in the sun while G and Riley took their walk.  then Riley and G napped in the sunshine until it was time for lunch.  Now they are off on a car ride.  Both my boys like going away in the car--to look at stuff.  It's a guy thing.

I am working my way through my book "Bellman & Black" by Diane Settlefield.  Oops, I was going to explain what is happening, but don't want to ruin anything for any future readers.  I stopped and deleted.   This isn't your regular work of fiction.

I brought home Roy Choi's autobiographical cookbook from the library.  I don't like his life and I wasn't interested in his recipes.  Drunks, gamblers, the f-word.  No thanks.  I saw him on Anthony Bourdain's show but they must have heavily edited his conversation.  He was also on the recent Top Chef as a guest for the Quick Fire. I wonder why the library chose to buy that particular cookbook.

G and I are still viewing our way through the five seasons of Fringe.  I think we are getting close to the end of season two.  G is watching Arrow on Netflix while I watch Rake, cooking shows etc.  Now that he has the iPad, he doesn't pretend to like what I like to watch.  He just sticks the ear pods in his ears and....... it's like living alone.  He does ask if I want anything from the kitchen when he takes a break. So it's okay.

Well, G and the dog just rolled into the garage.  I am interested in seeing what they got at the grocery. Always slightly different from my list.

Cleaning the Bathroom Today

Wishing it looked like this.  Simple, clean.  And it would be nice if we could have the window open.

I am getting sick and tired of snow and cold.

I took almost 80% of the stuff off the bathroom counter in my bathroom. Equally divided between the dishwasher, the trash can and the cabinets under the sinks. Mine is the master but it has no shower (duh!) so both of us use the other, hall bath.  No shower but it does have the stacked washer and dryer.  So, always a pile of dirty clothing on the floor.  Or in the tub.  Because we are slobs, I guess.

I scrubbed the tile counter top (why tile?) with Simple Green and then Windexed the large wall to wall "over the sink" mirror (I don't even want to know why someone did that).  I folded one load of wash and started another and then I took the full wastebasket with me and slammed the door shut.  This house and all it's design flaws and wallpaper (every room was papered) was someone's dream house.

Mrs C, who came after the dream house builder and before me, removed all the wallpaper and most of the cream colored wall to wall carpet.  Bless you Mrs C.  I have Mrs C to thank for the plain beige walls, beautiful walnut hardwood in the living room and dining, the finished upstairs master suite with full bath and shower.  Mrs. C did all that work and still sold the house to us for 70K less than she paid originally. Sad but true.

So originality and this dream house business---well and good, but it doesn't mean anyone else will buy your house.   I'd prefer the bathroom to be plain vanilla and USEABLE.  It's not large so I can't have a SPA.  Which I wouldn't want.  Those big tubs take forever to fill with hot water ($$$) and then you have to clean them after the bath.  Hardly anyone uses them after cleaning them the first time--or more likely, been left sitting in rapidly cooling water with only cold coming out of the hot tap.  When I see them in someone's house, I always ask how often they are used.  Never is the most common answer.  Second answer is "when the grandkids spend the night".

The Kitchen Is Still On The Back Burner

I found this one today.  Three things I am liking.  The hanging lights.  The bead board sides and door fronts on the island.  I actually like the sink but wouldn't want one.  We had a bigger model of this in the kitchen I grew up in.  And it marked and stained so much, and my mother bleached it so often, that she wore the porcelain finish off.  Ruined the sink.  Stainless is much more forgiving of careless sink use (not that I would EVER bleach a porcelain sink surface).  Soapstone sinks are very nice but they are flat on the bottom so there is always water in the sink (never completely drained).

I found another yellow cabinet kitchen on Houzz but the site wouldn't let me transfer the photo to the blog.  It had a soapstone sink you could wash a medium sized dog in.  Not Riley.  I liked the cabinet design very much. I'll keep trying to transfer it.

But.... I remain indecisive.  The carpenter put a thought in my head I can't quite shake.  He said "why not buy a smaller, more energy efficient new house with everything you want instead of changing this one which is really too big for the two of you".  In my heart of hearts, I would like a new, smaller house.  This one has too many rooms we never use.

How many of you have downsized to a smaller more efficient house? Do you recommend it????

Today we did errands.  Joann's to buy tightly woven white cotton to make pillow covers for the feather inserts I have for my sofa pillows.  It's not tight enough.  The feathers keep getting out.  It seemed like all the fabric in the store was 30% off, which was okay with me.  I got 4 yards which should be more than enough to do all the inserts I have (in use and in the attic) and it has a bit of spandex in it to make it more flexible for pillow stuffing. The clerk said it could be used for pants. Then Goodwill to drop off things and look around.  I found a wonderful bowl (I am always looking for the "perfect bowl" for oatmeal and soup) and this one seems pretty darned perfect-- and only 99 cents.  If I had only one bowl-- I want it to be perfect.  We'll see.  Then we stopped at the library, the bank and a store where G said they had red eyeglasses frames.  They did not.  Then we came home.

I tried to find a small packet of cream colored wool (cashmere) yarn (@Joann's) with which I can repair about four holes in a cream cashmere cowl neck sweater.  Looks like the front of the sweater got snagged in a zipper. No luck.  I thought I might ask my Readers if any of you have about 2 yards of cashmere wool in cream that you wouldn't mind sending me (selling me).  The sweater cost me only $2 and will probably only be worn around the house or under something else so it's not super important that the weight or color is a perfect match.  I just don't want the holes to get any larger. I can probably add small appliquéd circles over the holes.  But that still means finding cream cashmere or baby wool.  I've never repaired a sweater before.  I think you just weave the sides of the hole back and forth, up and down and hope for the best.

The Dining Room Table: A Guide To What Is Going On Here

The usual suspects in the clutter department.  The Ficus tree is covering the worst of it.  Magazines, seed catalogs, books, receipts, glue sticks, recipes torn from the Food section of the paper on Wednesdays (mostly vegan for my friend P).  A cluttered table means I am not paying attention.  Decluttered means I am trying to pay attention.  I still have a few  feet of table to work on--G's side.

After.  Mostly done.  A scarf, a few winter hats and some gloves have already made moves on the north end of the table.  We tried having a basket for these things.  But they migrated to the kitchen and then we seemed to have hats and gloves everywhere.  I prefer to stuff them in my coat pockets.  That way, I am pleasantly surprised to find them there as I rush out the door.

The chairs are Danish or German.  Purchased in Germany at an "antique warehouse" in 1988 or 89.  Stripped of all finishes.  G has had to re-attach the legs with dowels and glue on many occasions.  I think they are early 1900's.   I bought a table with them, but the table and chairs didn't belong to each other.  The table with two added plywood "wings" is in my sewing room.  Raised to a good working height.  The table is older I believe and was probably of better quality.  The chairs, not so much.  One is missing.  No one knows where it is.  Believe me, we have looked.  My daughter has even had her house searched.  Still, missing.

The chili turned out quite nicely.  It's packed into containers (for me as G doesn't eat chili).  The meatballs were (are) delicious as always.  We had them for dinner.  Then I packaged the  leftover pasta and some sauce for G to have one of these days and the remainder is in two packages ready to be frozen.

People are divided into two groups.  The first group (mine) will eat the same thing over several days until it is finished.  And we enjoy doing that.  If it was good yesterday, well, it'll be just as good or better today.   The second group (G) doesn't want to eat anything, today, that they ate yesterday. Or the day before.  So, I package and freeze all leftovers after one day instead of watching them decay in the fridge.

It doesn't help that we (G and I) don't eat the same foods.  Different breakfast cereal, different yogurt, different milk, different bread, different sandwich fillings.  Even different grapes.  Green for him and red for me.  And that continues for toothpaste, soap, shampoo etc.  Even sugar.

No wonder our dining room table is cluttered.  Our lives are cluttered with two of everything.  What did we see in each other when we met????  I sometimes think the only reason we stayed married was that G was never home.  The kids and I enjoyed chili, tuna casserole and spaghetti--night after night with a side of tacos and pizza.  Those were the days.

G and Riley are back from their walk.  G said it was "okay" meaning it wasn't as freezing cold as he expected.  No wind.  No pals for Riley to run around with.  Riley is ready for the snow to be gone, his pals the squirrels to be back and sunshine to warm him as he naps on the back stoop.  I am ready for the greenhouse to be open, my pals to back at work and the sunshine to warm me.  I am also ready for that evil Polar Vortex to go back to the North Pole where it belongs.

Our local weather man said the Polar Vortex might be spending the entire Spring season over the northeast.  I hope, hope, hope, he is very wrong about that.