Lovely old antique bed finds new home

OK.  So I’m back in gear with the giveaways.  Yesterday, Britt and her kids came to my house to look at my antique bed and vanity.  I was so happy that Britt’s oldest daughter wanted those two pieces of furniture.  I’ve been looking for a new home for them, but hated to sell them to a stranger.  I much prefer to give good stuff to someone I know.  The bed and vanity went this evening.  Yesterday, I packed up all of the bedding and delivered it to the Goodwill.

The vanity and ship

In addition, Dave and I gave the model ship and a Lionel train clock to our grandson, Sean.  I also gave an easel to my son-in-law Chris.

One last giveaway for today – I gave my giant China head doll to Rosana.  She seemed quite pleased.   I’m glad the doll has found a new home.  I’m sure that Rosana will dress her beautifully – something that I’d never manage to do.

Rosana's new doll

Giving away stuff gets easier all the time.  I love it that our guest room is almost completely bare.  After we let go of a few more pieces of old furniture, the room will be ready for repainting and furnishing.  I’m determined that the guest room will be a model of minimalism.  Bed, nightstand, dresser, a few pieces of art, and maybe a small tv.  That’s it.  Quiet comfort.  Nothing fancy.  No knick-knacks, bric-a-brac, or whatnots.

Nice ring on a wrinkly old hand with a crooked cranny

I don’t know what’s happening.  Even though I know that I absolutely must simplify my life, I have hit the doldrums.  I have been so wrapped up in work and life, that I have been neglecting my get rid of stuff project.  The shame!

My passion for needlework has died. I hope these books find their way onto the shelf of another needle nut.

This week, my giveaways have been small.  I gave Rosana my turquoise ring.  Rosana wore a turquoise blouse to work one day recently.  She looks so gorgeous in that color.  I simply had to give her the ring to go with the blouse.  I’m glad I did.

Today, I took the easy way out and grabbed a collection of books to give to the Friends of the Library.  I didn’t have the heart to do a more ambitious giveaway, but at least I gave away something.  I’ve got to get back into the giveaway groove.

Lately I’ve been distracted.  In the last few weeks, I’ve dedicated a significant chunk of time to doctoral work.   In addition, I’ve been taking swimming lessons.  The distractions have been great, but I must see my giveaway project through to completion.  I really, really want to move to a smaller, house, but I can’t do it until there is less stuff to move.

I’m determined to give away more stuff tomorrow.  The art stuff is still nagging at me, as is my overabundance of sweaters.   Decisions, decisions.

Another bookcase gone!

It must seem to you that I’m becoming a bit of a slacker with my get rid of stuff project.  I guess to some degree that is true.  This actually is a good thing, as it means that I’m focusing more on my doctoral studies and less on those activities that pull my attention away from those studies.  I am still getting rid of stuff.  I’ve slowed the pace a bit.

This weekend, Dave got rid of a few things for me.  After emptying a bookcase (really two small bookcases stacked) Dave delivered it to Mary, my oldest daughter.  Like her mother, Mary has a lot of books and can always use a bit more storage space.  Dave also took a box of assorted stuff, including two of

Quirky robotic desklamp. 1 of 2.

these robotic-looking desklamps, a couple of pint canning jars, and a bunch of other stuff to the Goodwill.  I’m not sure what the “other stuff” was, because it was Dave’s and I wasn’t home when he put it in the box.  While Dave was busy being a surrogate in my project, I enjoyed an afternoon with my daughter and grandkids.  Lunch and a movie.  I enjoyed our outing and loved the movie, Alice in Wonderland.

Today I spent the morning at the Zendo, then got caught up in some work-related email.  Now, I’m enjoying an Americano and a few minutes of quiet before doing more doctoral writing.  I’m thinking about jumping back into the art supply giveaway tomorrow.  It must be done.

I could build a bonfire with all of my weight loss literature

Today I found yet another collection of commercial diet materials.  The paper stuff went into the recycle bin.  The lovely carrying case, custom-made to contain the diet materials, went into the trash can.

I continue to find a variety of weight loss literature tucked into boxes, cabinets, and drawers.  This isn’t too surprising, really.  For a number of years, dieting was a huge part of my life.  It is amazing how much energy I put into losing weight.  Most diets resulted in a 20 pound weight loss which I promptly regained.

My dieting mania started when I was a pre-teen.  My pediatrician, a rather portly man with strange-looking teeth and bad breath, suggested that I improve my eating habits, as I was a bit plump.  My self-esteem took a nosedive.  During those pre-teen and early teen years, I bounced back and forth between self-imposed restrictive diets and periods of overindulging.  I yo-yoed like crazy.  For most of this period my weight was really at the high end of a range that is considered normal for a person of my height.  Sadly, my body image was greatly distorted.  Looking back, I wish I had been mature enough to accept myself as I was.  I could have saved myself a great deal of grief.

It wasn’t until I had weight loss surgery that I was able to reach my desired goal.  I’m finally off the diet rollercoaster and it feels so good.

Junk from all corners of the house

Today at the Zendo, during the dharma talk, one participant, a woman in my age range, spoke about divestiture.  She mentioned that at her stage of life, she knows that she doesn’t really need much.  I noticed a pleasant sound of contentment in her voice.  I can’t be positive, but she gave the impression that she has pared down her possessions to manageable quantity.  I’m not there yet, but I’ll be there eventually.  I think it would be great to own a collection of possessions small enough to move into a tiny house.  I like small and cozy.  My house is not small and cozy, neither is it huge.  However, my house is too big for Dave and me.  I think there is a possibility that over the years I may have been subconsciously trying to create a cozy feeling by filling up empty space with stuff.  Oh, no, here I go again trying to analyze myself.  I don’t have the expertise.  I’ve got to stop that.

For the past week or so, I’ve had a small box sitting on my dining room table.  Whenever I encountered an unwanted object, I tossed it into the box.  This is a practically effortless get-rid-of-stuff method.  I like it.  Today I delivered the box and its contents to the Goodwill.  The box contained a bunch of silly stuff – a never opened universal remote, a lint brush, a lingerie bag, a dog dish, a web cam, a blue tooth ear piece, a cup rack, a beaded glasses chain, an electric pencil sharpener, and an unopened jar of saddle soap.

The items in today’s box are a testament to my inability to toss stuff that I don’t need or want.  I could have saved myself a great deal of time and effort if I had just adopted that practice a long time ago.   Better yet, I should have never fallen into the practice of buying unnecessary stuff.  I’m really trying to change my ways.  It is going to take time to break my bad habits.  I’m getting a little better, though.  I think there may be a glimmer of hope for me.

A few art supplies are gone...oh well, I rarely used them

“Life got in the way.”  What a lame excuse for not doing what one has committed to do.  That’s why I’m not going to use it.  I didn’t do much giving away this week.  I’ve been in a state of distraction.  Some very interesting things happened at work that totally captured my attention.  In addition, I started taking swimming lessons.  All in all it was a great week, except for one thing: I was a lazy about getting rid of stuff.  I’m so ashamed.

Part of the problem might be that I’m getting rid of art stuff.  Getting rid of my art stuff is invoking feelings of both relief and regret.  Reducing my art stash to a small inventory will make those supplies that I do keep more accessible.  I’m curious to see if I’m more likely to do art if I can easily lay my hands on the correct tools.  Right now, I have so much stuff that I never seem to be able to find what I’m after.  The freedom from excess is inspiring the feeling of relief.  The regret comes from a fear that I may really be giving up on a lifelong dream – to do art even if it is bad art.

Today, Dave and I delivered a box of arts and crafts supplies to the Goodwill.  In the box were acrylic paints, oil pastels, and a collection of items that I had purchased to make a scrapbook.  There’s another project that never happened.  This box has been in my car for most of the week.  I just couldn’t seem to find the time to make the donation.  Distracted and lazy!

As I’ve observed before, it seems that I have once again invested in a lot of hobby materials without doing much with them, as if I’m afraid to touch brush to paper.  I’d better stop now before I get into some serious introspection.

Last but not least – the recipient of my gesture of appreciation this week was Laura, a woman who works in my office.  Laura was immensely helpful during budget cutoff time.  Thanks to Laura, we were able to get all of our orders in on time.  She’s been a huge help to me.  I treated her to lunch at Fuji.  Yum.  It was a nice outing.

Artist Brenda with her new easel

Last night both my phone service and my Internet service were down, so I chose to be lazy and not blog.  Today, a twelve hour work day left no time for giveaways.  Ah well.  Yesterday, though, I continued my effort to rid myself of superfluous art supplies.  My friend Brenda, the phenomenal quilter, is also an outstanding artist.  She has actually had public showings.  She is way ahead of me – not that I’m competing with her!  My art is more of the doodle variety.  I take delight in its amateurish qualities.

Brenda draws exceptionally well and is a talented watercolorist.  However, I am greedily keeping most (but not all) of my drawing and watercolor supplies for me.  I’ve decided though, for now, to give up my acrylic paints and oil paints.  I started by giving a nice easel containing oil paints and brushes to Brenda.  I also gave Brenda a smaller easel that is great for outdoor painting.

My aim is to reduce my art supplies to a manageable amount.  If I can easily access my supplies without wading through tons of tubes, bottles, and brushes, I may actually use what I have.  Maybe.  We’ll see.

One batch of art books heads to the "Friends"

No matter how painful it may be, I need to get rid of some of my art supplies.  I started out by gathering up several of my art books, bagging them up, and delivering them to the Friends of the Library collection bin.  It was almost painful to drop them into the Cheshire Cat’s big mouth. These books have provided me with hours of entertainment.  However, I rarely even look at them now.  I’m going to trim my art book collection down to no more than a half-dozen favorites.  No more.   I’ve also started sorting through my pastels, oil paints, water colors, water containers, paint containers, etc., and plan to give many of these items away.

Here’s the truth as I see it today.  I like to draw and I like to paint, but I’ve turned these activities into such big deals that I rarely do them.  I have so many art supplies that getting to the items I need for a drawing or painting is daunting.  I realized today, that instead of really doing what I want to do – which is draw and paint, I buy stuff instead.  I buy how-to books, I buy paints, I buy brushes.  I load these items into giant tackle boxes, where they sit unused.  So this is how it is going to be.  I’m going to get rid of the pastels, oil paints, related oil paint supplies, easels and canvases.  I’m going to keep a small assortment of drawing supplies, watercolors, watercolor supplies, a few of my nicer sketchbooks, and one or two tackle boxes.  That’s it.  I’m shooting for simplicity.

Two good things: book and bracelet

What a gorgeous day today!  A great day for giving stuff away.  This morning I passed along a favorite book to some good friends.  I hope they read it, enjoy, and perhaps pass it on to someone else.  I also gave my friend Sharon a bracelet that I bought at a Tibetan Buddhist shop in Madison, WI.  Each small component (bead, tile, bone, wood?) is decorated with a different Buddhist symbol.  I’m not sure what they represent.   Sharon has a real dedication to Buddhism.  She deserves to own the bracelet more than I do.

A strange assortment of stuff

After returning home from the Zendo today, I gathered up a collection of odds and ends that don’t seem to fit into my life or my house, such as promotional stuffed animals, a window treatment that was never hung, a box of crayons that keeps showing up in the strangest places, yet another skein of yarn, and some knick-knacks that I don’t love.  I delivered all of these items to the Goodwill.

There are days when I am utterly amazed at the volume of stuff that I have acquired over the years.  Why do we do this?  Why do we think we need so much?  Is there some need in our souls that can only be met by trinkets?

Such pitiful plants

I shouldn’t be allowed to own plants.  Plants are not safe under my care.  I am a plant killer.  I don’t kill plants deliberately, as I have no ill will toward plants.  In fact, I rather like them.  However, I tend to neglect them until they simply give up.  Case in point – the plants in the photo above.  I’ve had these plants for quite some time.  Several years.  For a long time, they survived fairly well.  They were located on top of the refrigerator where they got a lot of sun.  I usually remembered to water them once every week or so.  Sometimes, when really dry, they’d start to look a little sad – just as they do in the photo, but once I watered them they’d perk up.

Today I took a good look at my plants and realized that they were done for.  I took them off the fridge and saw that they had outgrown their pots and that they had become quite scraggly.  With a touch of sorrow, I tossed all three in the trash can.  Another of my few houseplants will soon follow suit.  It was a beautiful plant.  It is now deader than a doornail.  It did quite nicely for about three years and then suddenly withered within the course of a day.  The only reason that it is still in the house is that it is in a really nice pot and it is going to take a bit of effort to remove said plant from said pot.

There are now a grand total of four plants in my house.  Three African violets and one orchid.  They look OK for now, but the way things are going, these four little beauties could turn up their toes any day now.

I mentioned in my last blog that I was going to start honoring one person each week.  I started by taking an African violet (strange coincidence, no?) to Fran, my boss’s administrative assistant.  She is a lovely, pleasant person, who is endlessly helpful.  I hope she is better with plants than I am!