Pretty Pretty Bang Bang

I’m experiencing a creative block, much similar to writer’s block I guess. Basically, I have no idea what to make, I’m not inspired and the thought of spending time in my studio is mentally exhausting. Sure, I have lots of gaps to fill from the Christmas season, but I have no desire to work on my production line because that seems boring. No, I want something new to excite and motivate me into spending time in my studio. You’d think that having a new set-up and designated area would be enough to spark my interest, but it’s apparently not. This is why I usually take a spring semester class. The structure of a class forces me to think about creating something just for the assignment and not to overthink it as something I have to put in my regular jewelry line. However, I didn’t sign up for class because I wanted to be available to work extra hours at The Harem because Steve and I are trying to pay off some bills.

I would be a terrible motivational speaker. Most of my speeches would start out with, “What’s wrong with you? Just do it! You have no excuse for this laziness.” Oh yeah, I’m sure I’d get boo’d off the stage and probably have to duck rotten vegetables being thrown at my head. But this is what I tell myself almost daily. Between my motivational mantras and my crushing guilt of not utilizing my studio space it’s no wonder I’m experiencing any type of block!

I know this will pass. I seem to go through this annually after the rush of the Christmas season. I also have a couple of ideas floating around in my head so I know all the neurons are firing. In the meantime, I’ll fill myself with guilt, berate myself for not working and continually wonder why I can’t seem to be creative!

My dad and his wife, Karen, visited yesterday for the first time in about five years. My dad doesn’t travel. At all. However, an exception was made because they were going to Seymour, MO to get their new puppy, a [Bernese Mountain Dog](http://www.countryviewberners.com/). They came to our house first so they could see the new pad, then we had lunch at Mexican Villa before hitting to road to Seymour. Dad and Karen had already chosen their dog, a little female, from the litter and had received several pictures from the breeder. They had decided to name her Molly. I can’t resist a puppy so I just had to go along for the fun and to see the little thing up close and personal before she grew into her adult size of around 100 pounds. Let me tell you, these dogs are adorable.

This isn’t Molly, but she looks a lot like this one. They have the biggest paws! Molly didn’t like the car ride at first, but soon settled down for a snooze as we headed back to Springfield. Dad and Karen dropped me off at work and Molly got some extra loving from all the women of Harem and Company. My boss, Kathi, is an animal lover so she went wild over little Molly. Soon the fun was over and the crew had to get on the road to Jeff City. I called dad last night to check on things and he said Molly was adapting well, but she didn’t like being in her box for bedtime. I’m sure the next time I see her she will look quite different!

Wow, has it really been a week since I posted? I hate to let down the three people who read this so I figured I should give them an update. First, my fingers. I’m amazed at how quickly they’ve healed after the smashing they received last week. What’s really crazy is that I have no bruising. I guess it’s because I kept them on ice for several hours after the event. I have some tingling in the fingers on my left hand and my nurse, Ralph, says it could stay that way for a while. It’s weird how it feels like it almost didn’t happen, yet it was the most painful thing I’ve experienced.

Speaking of pain, it looks like our wallet is going to take a huge hit on this car thing. After several days of inspections by our insurance company and the car dealer, it was determined that the transmission couldn’t have been broken by hitting a pothole. Steve talked to the repair supervisor and relayed his concerns that a 7 year old car with only 89,000 miles on it would need an entirely new transmission. Sounded a bit weird. Apparently, Honda Accords made from 1998-2001 had transmission problems. Of course, we have a 2002 Accord. The supervisor appealed to Honda and it was agreed that we would get a discount on a new transmission. $500 doesn’t sound like a lot when the bill is $2,600, but I’m not going to turn down some free money. We should get the car back on Tuesday.

After living in our new home for only three months we refinanced and saved $150 on our mortgage. Our mortgage broker called us a month ago and told us the rates had dropped significantly enough to consider refinancing. Yesterday we closed and we don’t have a payment until March which means the February payment can go towards the new transmission. I’d rather save or invest that money, but at least I don’t have to charge the whole transmission job.

Steve and I have been trying to rethink money and make better decisions. Problem is that I like to shop and Steve likes to eat out so we tend to spend more than we should on the little things. Friends Alex and Miriam took a class through their church on money management and it changed the way they live so dramatically that they’ve recommended it to all their friends. Mom told me that her church was going to present the class so Steve and I signed up for it. What I’m hoping to get out of it is a new outlook on spending, less fighting with Steve about money and lessons on budgeting that we can both live with. I’ll let you know how things go.

I guess that’s my week in a nutshell. It’s been bitterly cold here so we’ve tried to stay warm. Have a good weekend.

What a day I had yesterday! I woke up feeling good because I knew it would be warm and sunny outside. Little did I know that a nice forecast couldn’t prevent the day from being a near disaster.

Our 7 year-old Accord had been leaking transmission fluid since we’d hit a ginormous pothole on New Year’s Day. We were hopeful that it was just a seal problem but it wasn’t. We need an entire new transmission. That huge pothole had torn apart our transmission to the point where it has to be replaced rather than fixed. Before he called me with the news, Steve wisely called our insurance agent who said it would be covered under our collision insurance. Thank God. I have no idea where we would have found $3,000 to fix it. Not only will it be fixed through our insurance, but we’ll have a rental car in the meantime.

Ok, I recovered from that shock and prepared myself to go into work to get some photos to scan for my boss. The garage door decided it wasn’t going to close. The sensor kept triggering and the door wouldn’t shut. Grrr. I called Steve and he suggested, since I couldn’t figure out the problem, I disable the door and close it manually. Keep in mind, my car is running and my purse is in it. I disabled the door, with Steve on the phone, and began to close it when both of my hands got caught in between the panels. Cue blood-curdling scream and mass cursing. Steve’s still on the phone and I can barely breathe due to the pain. He freaks out, naturally, and I start getting angry. He asks if I can drive myself to the ER. I tell him I can’t and I wouldn’t go there anyway. About 15 minutes later I can breathe almost normally but my fingers are throbbing and I’m still in a world of pain. Steve is on his way home, but it will take him almost 45 minutes to get here. I tell him that by the time he arrives I’ll be fine so not to bother. He comes anyway. I realize that I’ve left the car running in the driveway, but now have my hands on ice and can’t move. I call mom who comes over and takes care of the car, the purse and the phone call from my sister, who’s a nurse. I spend the rest of the day and evening with my fingers on ice packs and a steady supply of Tylenol. That, and a couple of beers.

Today my fingers are very tender and red, but it looks like I won’t lose any nails. What a day. I’m planning on doing a big load of nothing today. Maybe I’ll read a book. My mom has lent me The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Killer which I’m anxious to crack open. Now I need to quit typing because my fingers are starting to hurt!

From the moment we decided to buy this house, Steve and I felt compelled to learn more about it. The design was so different from the others in the neighborhood, that we wanted to know everything we could about the builder, architect and people who lived here. An abstract was left in a drawer so we learned that the original owner and architect was a man named Harry Rowe. He and his wife bought the land in the late 60s and construction was supposedly completed in 1973. That was about as much as we knew, however I knew not to underestimate the power of six degrees of separation.

As we were going through the moving process we talked to people about the house, its location, the unique architecture and our desire to research its history. One person thought she knew the brother of the second owner and we connected with him. Sure enough, his brother had owned the house from about 1982 to 1999. Unfortunately, shortly after moving, the brother passed away so couldn’t talk directly with him. Ted, the brother we connected with, remembered a few things, but not much as he was busy raising a family when his brother lived here. Fast forward to Monday when a friend of mine, Jeff, told me that he knew who had built the house. I told him that I knew also, but Jeff said he was in contact with the original owner’s daughter on Facebook. Of course, I got all excited and asked Jeff to have her contact me. Before I heard back from him, I got curious and looked her up on Facebook. Weird. She looked familiar, but I couldn’t figure out how I knew her. A quick email to Jeff uncovered the mystery: Susan Rowe had worked with my sister in HS, worked with Steve many years ago and had owned a pottery studio here several years ago.I actually knew her.  All along the connection to the original owner of this house was just a few people away.

Steve emailed Susan who called us right away. She was so excited to know we lived in her beloved childhood home. We chatted with her and her brother, Brad, and they told us stories of how the house used to look when they lived here. Apparently, not much has changed. We still have the parquet floors, the open floor plan, the cool rocker light switches, many of the light fixtures and all the built-ins. One sad thing was that the outside of the house used to be stained redwood with orange front doors and everything has now been painted. Steve mentioned that he wanted to see the siding stripped of paint and stained so I’m willing to bet we’ll be taking it back to it’s original look sometime in the future.

Last night, Steve contacted Susan’s dad, Harry, to talk about the house with him. He not only designed it, but built it himself using only two other guys to help. All the ceilings are redwood and the floor joists are fir. He said he has some photos of the house shortly after it was completed and will gather all the information for us. I’m hoping he also has some pictures of the inside as well. He lives in Stockton and we’ve invited him to come by and see the house whenever he’s in town. Once we get some pictures, I’ll be sure to post them here.

So the history of the house is now complete and it easier to uncover than we thought. Isn’t it amazing how small the world is?

While grocery shopping today I saw something that literally stopped me in my tracks. Powdered peanut butter. I’m not making this up. It is peanuts, sugar and salt ground into a fine powder. You mix 2T powder with 1T water, mix and voila, peanut butter! The jar claims to contain 85% less fat than regular peanut butter and much less sugar. Good news for those of us who love peanut butter but don’t need the extra fat and calories.

With a price tag of $4.99 I wasn’t sure if I wanted to take a chance on something that might be really gross, but curiosity got the best of me and I just had to buy it. I brought it home, opened the jar and took a big whiff. Hmm, smells like peanut butter, but I wondered how it would taste. I followed the directions and made up a little batch which looked like this:

Ok, it looks like peanut butter. Now for the taste test. Well, it tastes like…peanut butter with a little cardboard mixed in. I thought, perhaps, it would be better on bread so I made myself half a sandwich and took a bite. Not bad, but not fabulous either. I give it a 5 out of 10. I deducted an extra point because it only comes in creamy variety and I prefer crunchy. I say for shear kitsch value it’s pretty cool, but I’ll stick with regular peanut butter and just eat less of it.

The new year got off to a relaxing start as Steve and I spent the day together drinking coffee, running errands and playing with his new toy – Rock Band 2. Our Dillard’s was having an additional 50% off sale so we decided to check out the bargains. A pair of boots I’d been eyeing all season were now almost 75% off so I snapped them up and Steve supplemented his work wardrobe with some $10 shirts and a new tie. Then I dropped Steve off at Best Buy while I went to Target for some exciting things like cat litter. We met up a little bit later and Steve surprised me with the season one DVD set of Mad Men. What a sweetie! We ended our exciting day at Sarah and Dennis’ with a few Old Fashioneds and some snacks. All in all, a good start to the year.

Today, however, will be a busy one. I have to get the house ready for our local paper, the News-Leader, to come over and take pictures for their Home of the Week profile. My mom and I are always griping about how ugly the profile homes are so she said once we were settled in the new house she was going to call the paper and suggest us. They called on Tuesday and will be here Monday.  I’m excited because this will force me to finish up the projects I started before Christmas. Today’s agenda is replacing dying plants inside, cleaning up clutter and arranging the office. Better get started! If you take the News-Leader, we’ll be in the Sunday, January 18 edition.

It’s almost time to say goodbye to 2008 and I, for one, am happy to see it go. I’m not one to take the day to reflect on the past year but if I were, I would have had my fill just by watching the Today Show. It seemed like every half hour they were playing a “best of” montage of the previous year. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not being crabby about 2008 and the year had its moments (good and bad) but I prefer to look ahead.

So, what do I plan to do in 2009? Well, that’s a good question. I’m hoping to take charge of my finances and make better monetary decisions, take a glass blowing class, lose some weight (I’ll take any amount here), help my sister move and celebrate her new home, experiment with enamels, expand my granulation line, and just try to be a happier person. None of these are resolutions, but more like guidelines for the coming year. What do you want to accomplish next year?

Our house has officially returned to normal. Steve and I took down the two aluminum trees last night and declared Christmas over. I used to love the season and love decorating my home, but the last few years have been stressful for me and I’ve had a hard time really enjoying Christmas. This year I didn’t feel like decorating the new home because we’d just arranged everything the way we wanted and I wasn’t in the mood to mess things up for Christmas. We put up about 1/4 of our normal decor which made taking it down much easier! Next year we’ll probably get out everything, reassess what we have and get rid of some extra stuff. One thing for sure is that our ornament collection won’t get any smaller! I still love collecting them.

We’re anticipating a quiet New Year celebration. I think the last time I actually got dressed up and celebrated was the year I was 21. New Year’s Eve has never been a big deal for me and I just enjoy a quiet evening at home with Steve and maybe another couple. I think we’ll end up doing dinner and movies with Valerie and Kevin – probably at their house since they have a huge tv! Today I have to work so I need to quit blogging and head to the shower. It’s supposed to be 60 degrees here today so I’ll be volunteering to run errands for the store!

Merry Christmas everyone! It’s been a whirlwind of a day here at the Smith house. The day has been full of squeals of delight from two little girls who declared it was “the best Christmas ever.” I wish I could remember all of the funny things they said, but I can’t so I’ll just say that we spent most of the morning laughing hysterically.

Blair’s mom made an egg/cheese/sausage/hash brown casserole, Ralph picked up some huge cinnamon rolls for breakfast and we supplemented all the sugar and fat with some fresh fruit. Blair’s parents, Mary Kay and Everett, stayed most of the morning and enjoyed the entertainment, then bowed out to take a nap before their next round of family events.

There we so many gifts under the tree that we didn’t get all of them open until way after noon. Of course, we had to take multiple breaks for the girls to play with all their new toys so that slowed up the festivities. After some mid-afternoon showers, we had a late lunch/early dinner of ham loaf, cheesy potatoes, fresh green beans and crescent rolls. Tonight’s festivities include giving the girls baths, putting them to bed then watching Monty Python movies and drinking some wine.

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you had a blessed day!