The Edge of Reason: Pretty Things

This post in lieu of housework, because I am nothing if not the Queen of Procrastination.

Several years ago, I hired a guy named Frank to design the window treatments for my new home. It took months to cover all the windows, and while the window treatments were being made I met with Frank almost weekly to go over color swatches, measurements and the ever important budget. By the time my windows were all "dressed" Frank and I had developed a good working relationship - or so I thought! When the task was finally complete and my windows were looking ever so lovely, Frank commented that I had been an interesting customer. And then he told me that he had never worked with anyone who was so concerned about "pretty things." He said he'd had customers who cared about style and function, customers who wanted modern and trendy, and customers who were only concerned about color and design... but he had never had a customer whose sole intent was to be surrounded by pretty things.

Ever since Frank made that comment, I've paid attention to my innate desire to make things pretty. Frank was right! Pretty is important to me, and I think the reason is because when I see pretty I feel happy. Shabby, old, dirty, dull... those things depress me. And when I really stop to think about it, it makes sense that I am forevermore trying to pretty-up my life - pretty means happy and happy means content. I am all about contentment because when I am content, life is good!

And so in keeping with my intention to keep the blog pretty (see! This desire for pretty extends far beyond my surroundings), I've decided to share some of the pretty things I did last week while preparing for my company. Keeping in mind that I did not have time to make over an entire room, instead I chose to give little make overs to the rooms the company will spend the most time.

The first make over was to the digital frame that sits on the side buffet in my kitchen. A weird thing to make over, but I had a reason: I remembered that when my family was here in June, we all congregated in the kitchen to drink our morning coffee and pass the time between events. I also remembered that I was kicking myself for not updating the photos in the digital frame before they arrived because most of the pictures in the frame were pictures I'd added long ago to my mom's iPod, and the majority of the pictures were taken by my sister. Boring. Uninteresting. And the ever dreaded DULL.

I've mentioned in the past about using the digital frame as a digital scrapbook - which in essence means adding digital pages rather than single picture files. I've discovered that this is a fun way to showcase multiple pictures on a single screen, and it is also a great excuse to play with Photoshop, which is so much easier than actual scrapbooking and far more fun than doing housework to prepare for guests. In the end, I made nine new digital pages on Friday. Most of them were quick and easy, using basically the same design concept because 1) 6.5 x 4.5 is a really weird size to work with, and 2) my goal was volume not design.

Here are three of the pages I threw together. These pages show what I actually do with the pictures after I post them on the blog (all nine pages can be seen in my Facebook photo album titled Digi pages for the digi frame):

And so although I couldn't make over my kitchen before the company arrive, I'm hoping the colorful pages add something new and pretty to the mix. And if not, at least I found a good excuse to procrastinate doing the housework!

The other touch of pretty I added to the house was a new afghan to drape over the back of the sofa in the family room. The old afghan matched perfectly, but it had balled up a bit from so many washings and it has faded a lot from the direct sunlight - so it was time to retire the afghan to a less obvious location (like the bedroom). Plus... I was tired of it... and it was nine years old... the sofa needed a splash of color and something new - what better way to achieve that than crocheting a brand new afghan? Which is exactly what I did. I started the afghan the evening Alyssa left for college (that's called nesting), and since the pattern was a simple zig-zag I was able to finish it in about ten days. Voila! A face-lift for the sofa and a lot of color added to the room. To make this afghan I used the Lion Brand Homespun yarn, which is actually strands of thread and fiber woven to create a string of yarn. The yarn has a ton of texture and although it is a tad bit difficult to work with, it makes up like a dream. Here are pictures of the finished project:

The digi pages and afghan were all I had time to complete before the company arrive mid-week. I wish I would have had time to make over the upstairs hall wall. It is a mess. But that project involves spackle and paint, new shelves and new photo frames, and about a week of my time in order to do it right. I'm thinking the hall wall project will be saved for January when I have nothing but time on my hands and long, dreary days ahead. Until then, my two pretty little make overs will have to do because at the end of the day, a visit from family is not about pretty things and make overs at all... it's about the history and memories and sharing, which is exactly what I am looking forward to this week while Jeff's sisters are here.

Comments

i love homespun yarn! i am finishing up an afghan now that i started years ago and put aside...why now? because i bought the yarn for a school color zig zag and want to start working on it to take it to football practice! the rule is only one afghan being worked at a time....will i make it? who knows but i am furiously crocheting....

Posted by: pcsmart | September 18, 2008 at 05:15 PM