housekeeping

It's back to the mad nest lining.

Don't know what brings it on, but periodically the only thing that makes me happy is holding a drill. The other week I found the perfect (cheap) Monet Nympheas print to put behind an old window I bought back in April, and hung the whole thing up on my bedroom wall for an old-time gardeny effect -- which I hope to find psychologically warming when the freezing snows howl outside my real windows in January. And of course by "hung up" I mean "drilled into the wall with eight unnecessarily long drywall screws which blend beautifully with the old stain of the wood, because the frame was satisfactorily heavy to warrant such measures. Oh and took out once because I misgauged the placement the first time, so I had to try again."

I did mention once before that my method of putting up wall arrangements is, if you want to be charming about it, whimsical. If you're not trying to be as kind you might call it cockeyed. I hold up the object, guess where the nails/screws might go, bang them in, and see if I was right. If I was, yay! Job finished. If I wasn't, okay, cool, let's give it another go. If I misjudged it by a tenth of a millimeter and the plaster won't accommodate my mistake, I'll either spackle if I'm feeling patient (yeah right; so far that option is only theoretical), or, nine times out of ten, come up with something new or live with the mistake.

So a few of my walls are full of tiny holes, like the miniature soldiers' bullet holes in Secret of the Indian.

But the whole process makes me happy. If it stressed me out, I wouldn't do it that way. I'd rather guess and guess and guess again, and wait for that moment when my whole gut tells me, Yes. You got it, than fiddle around for far longer than I'd like with rulers and pencils and angles and whatnot and find out I'd guessed wrong anyway. Way too technical. And I'm impatient. I prefer to judge with my eye and with that something else that tells me it feels right, that everything is well suited and in its proper alignment and in harmony with itself and its neighbors. The only measuring tool I find worth troubling with is my trusty level.

So the other week was the window, Tuesday was finding a new home for the two small Van Goghs that the window displaced (that involved a hammer and not a drill, but a hammer is fun too -- and an adventure in my walls, which are all plaster, and which are studded as whimsically as my hanging methods, so you never know when you're going to run into one and run the risk of a bounceback blow to the forehead, even if you've tapped it out beforehand -- some of the walls are good-old-fashioned studs, some of the walls are latticed), and today was the new coathook contraption I bought antiquing.

Next it's going to have to be some more old crates in the hallway, as supplementary bookshelves, and a bow-out to the absence of available floor space. But that won't be until after I've hung the pot rack in the kitchen, with Meg and Phillip's help -- that kitchen wall is latticed, and won't hold a couple hundred pounds of pots and pans and pot rack, so I'm following their recommendations, and that's going to cost a dollar here and there. The result is going to be fantastic -- I can't wait.

So currently all flat surfaces in my apartment are free of unnecessary papers, everything is in its proper place, the bookshelves are beautifully arranged (there's something so attractive about full, organized, arranged bookshelves, like walls of comfortable, happy, inviting, protective friends), and, with the exception of just a couple more things I'd like to hang up (drill), one of which I have to find first, two or three of which I have to buy first (crates), two of which I have to do some work on (windows, pot rack), the feng shui is just about perfect.

But it's nice to have ongoing projects around the house -- always something to keep me busy. Always a little more finish to the nest lining. Always the prospect of more drilling.

And once my drilling opportunities are exhausted (weep), I may have to turn my attention back to sewing. I should make curtains for the kitchen.

I should also strip the paint off the valance windows and let light into the hall.

Happiness.