When one makes a proclamation
that one is going to revamp one’s whole life and make it pretty, it feels
good. Because it is what you want to
do. And you make plans before suddenly
realizing that lofty hand waving grandiose manifesto you promised others and
yourself might be a little bit harder than you thought.
Yeah.
About that.
I have been looking around and
taking steps but have not done an actual full project until today. I have
called people and made appointments and bought materials for projects and
slept. A lot. My agreement with Sean was to do four things a day 1)
do something to take care of my body 2) do something to improve my house 3)
work in my garden, and 4) write, everyday.
Three days last week I did all
four. I was exhausted from feeling like I had to to do all four. For two
days I did three, and for two I did two. I started to feel guilty about
this until I realized that I was looking for the dancing monkey treats that
Seth Godin talks about. The familiar Atta Girls that I am used to
getting; The ones that I as an overacheiver have been conditioned to look for, and feel
cheated when I don't get them.
I gave all that up. I am now doing what I feel like doing to move forward. It is okay to do nothing but make phone calls and schedule appointment and count that towards what you need to do.
As part of the appointment making and and resource gathering, I have been sucked
into . . . er, doing research on Pintrest in terms of how to do some of
my projects. One of them (from Food 52) I have had in my head for
quite some time. Today I decided to do it.
The counters in my kitchen are
butchers block cutting boards. I have
been careful to not cut on them instead using a mobile boos block, and still
had managed to spill a couple of things and once, tragically, left a basket of
strawberries out on a hot summers day. Remember: I have lived here for five years, so it isn"t THAT bad. I had gotten kosher salt, lemons and
white vinegar at the grocery store. I
took pics. Here is the before:
You can see the brown water and
coffee stains as well as the bright pink fruit stain. I first spread salt and lemon juice on the
board and let sit for a bit. I then cut
another lemon in half and began to scrub the salt into the stains. I then wiped off all the salty lemon with a
tea towel.
Here is the final pic. No berry stains, and all rings are much much
lighter. I wiped in mineral oil three
times to allow for the wood to moisten after all the drying bleaches. It shines and is beautiful.
One project down.