Aug 23 2008
Creative Urges
I’ve been too busy to write these days. I actually have the urge to write but I have to resist it.
Once I start writing, it’s difficult to stop. Writing for me can be a bit like how eating Doritos can be for some people - hard to just eat one.
In my case, it’s hard for me to just write a few lines.
So I resist because I have more pressing things to do. What usually happens when I don’t have time to write for my blog is my emails become longer.
I haven’t even allowed myself much time for that. I miss being lost in writing, the drawing inward, and the attempts to capture a feeling or a moment with lines of text.
I may not be writing but I still have the urge to create. I have always had the need for artistic expression. I draw. I arrange flowers. I make jewelry.
Lately I’ve also had the urge to make my home more welcoming and warm. More…homey. I like space and light and I have both.
However, I don’t have a couch or rugs or a real dining room table and for a while there I only had one rickety floor lamp in my bedroom. I think the lamp is over 50 years old. The silk shade was torn during my move. Yep, rickety and torn since October 2004.
A few months ago I went crazy and spent about 20 bucks on a table lamp.
You’re thinking, “Uh..so Ms. Q calls buying a 20 dollar table lamp ‘Going crazy.’”
I don’t succumb to impulse buys too often. I also don’t like to buy … stuff. I tend to over-think long-term purchases. A lamp is something you generally live with for a while. How many of us have had some cheapo lamp or end table that just would NOT DIE??
What was so crazy about the table lamp? Some of the craziness was eliminated by the fact that it was on sale.
Other than that, I just bought it - I didn’t go home to measure the space I had in mind, nothing like that. I liked the paper shade and I especially liked the little pull chain. I still enjoy yanking on that chain.
Just like that I bought it. And it worked out perfectly.
The lamp is also part of my trying to have more FUN and not worry about making mistakes as much. What’s so fun about worrying about spending 20 bucks on a lamp? NOTHING!!
Having that lamp on my dresser really added a nice touch. Once I saw how nice, I wanted the rest of my home to have these touches.
I started looking for floor lamps. I’ve been looking for a new floor lamp for AGES and I could never decide on the style. I don’t mind spending a couple of hundred bucks on a nice floor lamp but it had better be nice.
Between flipping through some home decor magazines and eating at a restaurant that had this comfy painted-brick and weathered paint vibe, I got the idea to fix up my rickety lamp.
I used Teflon tape to stabilize the wobbly connection between the base and the bulb-holding part. Teflon tape is that stuff you see plumbers use around joints. Recall that I am a bit handy.
I then bought 2 yards of some cotton material that looked like linen. I had a very vague idea of how I was going to fix up my lampshade - organic and brown paper bag is a bit of what was going on in my head.
I re-covered my lampshade this morning.
Between making this necklace a couple of nights ago, the lampshade this morning and then writing this, I’ve blown off a bit of creative steam.
Feels good.
We gotta make time to do things that make us feel good.
I hope you’re out there feeling good!!
Ms. Q Tip (grooaaaan): Making others feel good makes you feel even better.
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Great lamp … it adds a nice glow.
Seems I am frugal in some instances, and loose pockets the next. Golf? I spend like a mad driver sometimes, yet will agonize over buying a tangible product. Not sure why!
I am glad you are still posting. What would we do without our MsQ!?!?
The last line? … the greatest statement we can ever discover
Speedy!! I can see spending on the “intangibles” - I tend to do that. I “spent” much of my airline miles on seeing my friends in Capetown. I’d rather have the memories than oh, some stuff. I still have plenty of hotel points and would rather stay somewhere than get electronics. I could get a camera, a flat screen TV, all sorts of that kinda thing with my points.
I end up buying food or wine or flowers. Food is a necessity but wine and flowers are not. It’d be nice to have a couch because it’d make it more comfortable for people to visit. Plus I’d have somewhere to cuddle with some lucky guy. Heheheh!!
For some reason I love it when art/craft projects are practical. Both your lamps look great!
No couch? Well…I dunno. I’ve been looking at houses with the guy who knows a song about a chicken and I keep looking at these gigantic living rooms and thinking, “We barely even go into the ‘living’ room.” Every once in awhile I read to my son on the couch. And every once in awhile my daughter reads on the couch. But the majority of the time the couch is either vacant or the kids are making forts for the cats out of the couch cushions. So I guess it wouldn’t be a terribly big loss if I didn’t have one. Though actually I have two…
You must at least add touch es to your places to make things more home like. No couch? Ms.Q you’re depriving yourself of small pleasures. These things are not crazy. they are comforts.
I gotta have a couch. That’s where I tend to spend most of my leisure time around the house, reading, some TV watching. Ditto when I go on vacation. Read. Snooze. Read. etc.
Jill: You and Razor are looking at houses?? Hmmm.
I don’t live in a gigantic house. I live in a one-bedroom condo. If I had a couch I probably wouldn’t spend much time on it. I either am at my desk or in bed and I don’t eat in my “dining area” (dining/living room) I eat at the counter.
The couch would make it more guest-friendly. I don’t have a TV to aim the couch at either. Actually, 2 of my couch-owning friends don’t have TVs. I’m not thinking of a big couch, more of a loveseat size.
Ricardo: I haven’t had a big need for one - I used to be on the road all the time. I still don’t have a big need but I do need someone to cuddle and a couch would at least provide a place! hehehehe. So..”buy a couch and he will come?” who knows but my friends will have a comfy place to sit!!
ack: I can’t even imagine just hanging out on my couch. I barely read in bed these days and my free time at home is spent either puttering or on the computer.
I thought I should say something before the Trademark Police (or Copyright Police … I think they work out of the same station house) show up.
No one can eat just one *Lay’s* potato chip.
Lay’s potato chips
Lay’s potato chips
Thin, crisp, and oh so light
Lay’s potato chips
Lay’s potato chips
No one can eat just one
(I think you’ll know the tune. One or two of the words might be off in line three.)
And, while I’ll admit it *is* hard to eat a single Dorito (honest to God, I just finished a small bag of baked Doritos and as crappy as they are I couldn’t eat just one of those), and you said “hard to eat” not “no one can eat,” I’m not sure an attorney would be able to make a distinction. You know how they are.
Fair Use may apply here. Unless, of course, you were listening to Prince as you typed this entry.
delmer: I dunno about the TM or CP police and what I wrote - I mean, it was my opinion and based on anecdotal evidence, I’m not seeing many people eating Lay’s and I see a lot more eating Doritos.
I also wasn’t thinking Lay’s or the TM or CP as people have said they couldn’t just eat one French fry (usually McDonald’s) or M&M. Basically, pick your salty or sweet bad-for-you snack item of choice.
Yeah, sometimes you just have to do it. No thinking about it, just do it.
The thing with lamps and me is making sure it fits in with what ever other furnishings are in the home - not so much the price. But that is something I had to learn when I started working more often and wanting to do more with my money. So I started watching costs.
What ends up happening now… I’ve found balance. I’ll get stuff that bring me joy and for other things I’m more careful as to the financial hit.
UT: Yes, it is all about the balance! I recently asked a friend how my place felt to her and she said it musta felt comfortable because the “comfort” thought hadn’t come to her mind. She did write that she found my place interesting - a good blend of color and neutrals.
I watch costs but I like things to work together. My friend also said that there were “no outfits” meaning - nothing was bought as a set! I’ve always like the look of modern furniture and I have been very close to buying some pricey (not over the top but definitely pricey) chair or table seen online and then I’d check out the store and POOF. Didn’t work. My tastes have shifted a bit as well. Which is why I didn’t want to just buy something. I also like COMFORTABLE furniture and accessories. I’ve seen some very stylish sofas and then sat on them. Gotta be comfortable.
Did you get the couch??
I ate some of your Doritoes on the end table. Don’t be mad, I will get the orange cheese powder out of the sofa later. Going to get one more coffee right now.
Speedy!! No, didn’t get a couch yet. No problem on the Dorito Dust. It came out with my sticky lint remover roll. I always keep it handy for when you visit, what with all the Speedcat hair.
I totally understand about the shedding. It’s summer, cat’s shed. No problem.
I don’t believe in having a TV in the living room, so a TV being a prerequisite for a couch wouldn’t have occurred to me…
Okay, but I’m against living room TV but the house that we did find (!) and hopefully will live in one day soon has a big built in entertainment center & it turns out that if all goes as planned, there will be a TV in the living room.
Razor doesn’t even own a TV. You may or may not remember (if I even told you) that that was why I declared myself in love with him on our first date. Well, that and the chicken song thing. But, we’re going to have to somehow rig up the entertainment center so you can block off the TV somehow, because I won’t be able to stand it having center stage all the time like that. I mean, if we get the house we’re trying to, at any rate.
Jill: Yer a woman after my own heart - no TV ! Now that I think about it, is watching TV really living? Eh. I shouldn’t be so against TVs. People do justify watching it I noticed - saying, “Oh, I watch Discovery” or “news” or “Sports”
Big entertainment centers can be great fun for family - as in a family with children! Plus inviting guests and having Super Bowl Parties and suchlike.
Ooooh….Razor just keeps sounding better ‘n better. NO TV? YowZa! I dated a librarian (briefly…sigh) and he basically didn’t have a TV. I say basically because the one he had was a portable and it was unplugged and stored on some high shelf. He had sculpted shoulders, the whole bit (as we discussed a while ago, serious gal talk). He also had library cards (!!) yeah. Plural.
If you have a built-in entertainment center, have sliding doors or panels in front of the TV. You may as well get one of those flat-panel things that take up less space.
I’m still wondering about this house thing with you and Razor. Sounds like more than salt and pepper shakers will be co-habitating..
Yeah, I have to move in with him. Because, y’know, between his not owning a TV & knowing a song about a chicken and him opening up a hookah bar & all, he belongs with ME!
Razor does want one of those flat tv things, since we’re going to have one anyway. Believe it or not, it’s me that has the TV. But that’s because I have to put in my Denise Austin videos to work out in the morning. Plus, now & then the kids & I watch the Simpsons on a Sunday evening.
And it’s good to have when you’re sick. But I’d be totally fine without one. I just wouldn’t be able to work out with Denise.
My brother used to have his tv in a closet that was fully blocked by a couch. So when he rented a movie, he would turn the couch around to face the closet, open the door to the closet, plug in the tv & pop in the movie. You wouldn’t have known he owned a TV if you hadn’t seen him shoving the couch around.
Jill: I can see it being IMPERATIVE that you live with Razor ’specially since it seems you have the Consummate Love Thing going on. I recall the Denise Austin videos. Maybe it’s time to upgrade to the DVD version and don’t you have her workout memorized by now?
Your brother certainly sounds…related to you!! What with wanting to hide the TV. Are your parents also TV-less (or close enough?) All I can recall is your dad said something about dogs and dating that was really funny.
I grew up surrounded by TVs so I have enough TV for several lifetimes. My mom has one in practically every room. It’s a bit much. I probably have an unhealthy aversion to TV because I associate it with depression and loneliness. I’m not exactly neutral about TVs, I have negative feelings about them.
My parents have two TVs but aren’t big TV watchers at all. In fact, my brother & I are the only people I know who had to pay to watch TV while growing up. Needless to say we could think of better ways to spend our allowance. I think we got an hour or two free a week.
I have a lot of negative feelings about TV, but that was from being married. I always felt in second place to the TV when I was married, always. And it was on constantly constantly on whenever my ex-husband was home. And we lived in a very small house where you couldn’t get away from it.
So…y’know, you use less brain cells watching TV than you do just sitting & doing nothing? And did you know that it changes the way children’s brains develop as they watch? Yeah, I read a lot about that when I was married to a television set…I mean, a guy who watched as much TV as he could possibly fit into each day.
I mean, not that I’m bitter or anything!!!!
Jill: Aaaah..I had forgotten (sorry) about your ex’s constant TV viewing. I know some people who have the TV on all the time as “company” but for them it’s like the radio - background noise and not some major focus as it sounds like with your ex.
I’ve read the same thing about TV viewing being incredibly passive and low on brain engagement. I realized how true this was when I would come back to the hotel after a long day at work that involved a lot of analytical stuff and all I wanted to do was veg out watching TV! Watching TV relaxed my brain because..it had nothing to do! I always had a book or 3 with me but reading took energy!
I am not even much into seeing movies but have relaxed a bit about it.
YOU? BITTER? Can’t imagine. I can see your being hurt, though. Bitter? Bitterness takes energy. I am sorry you felt second place to a TV. I am so happy you seem to be FIRST PLACE with Razor!! You’re so lucky to have a Mutual Appreciation Society and he gets along with your kids!!
Yeah, with some distance from the situation I can imagine that I wasn’t in second place but that he just didn’t have any sense of what it meant to be in a relationship. It sure felt like second place for all those years though and maybe it was. Maybe it wasn’t.
I just know that the TV got more time and more attention and often came out ahead if we were in direct conflict. But it might have just been thoughtlessness and not a true preference for the television, who knows.
And no, I’m not really bitter. What happened happened and I’m sure I’m a better person for it somehow. Or something.