year of the Rat

something's in the air, i tell you. it seems like EVERYone EVERYwhere is cleaning up, purging, re-doing, redecorating and generally Simplifying and de-cluttering. even me (scroll down through my previous posts regarding my own Big Dig). my friend/neighbor/person my height and artist Deb from down the street is a Feng Shui consultant. she said it's the Chinese year of the Rat. sounds yarky, but according to her, the rat is a very home-and-family type animal (who knew?) and so all these urges people have to revamp their home and make it more workable and less stressful with clutter....thank the rat. now as i write this, of course i'm biting my cheek and resisting the urge to make husband jokes, but he's been in my good graces lately, so i'm going to be good. i pre-ordered a book about how Other Artists have organized their studio, but before it had a chance to get here, the urgings took over and, well, you know the rest. this weekend, for your reading enjoyment...Hoo Boy! husband & I are painting the kitchen. those of you that know us are already clutching your sides laughing....and unplugging your phones so i can't call and ask if i can move in. well, to set the stage (because i feel i must - this has all the warning signs of a future epic), once upon a time, the stepdaughter and I decided to do a "while you were out" episode in the kitchen (while my husband was out). the veeerrrrry short version is that we ended up with 7 coats of R-E-D paint on the walls (and anything we hadn't moved out of the way), and husband hates it. hates it. for 3 years now he remarks on how much he hates it. every time he goes in the kitchen. so he got a good end-of-year bonus and decided we were going to re-do the kitchen. so 3 months later, we still can't agree on countertop colors or floor colors/materials. and part of the problem is that Nothing Looks Good next to the R-E-D. so we're going to paint the walls and take it from there. i can tell you No Progress will be made from there though, because the Home Show is at the Fairgrounds in 2 weeks, and of course we'll have to go there first. i just want this done done done. i can picture it. he can't. so we wait. but i'm okay with that i guess. more studio time! **so i think i may apply to be on Mystery Diagnosis. so far it isn't: MS, lupus, MD, Lyme disease. 8 vials of blood were drained on wednesday, with some more fun to come next week. aaarrgghh. i'm just tired and hurty. not to mention that whole period thing. so stay tuned and thanks for your calls. well little Diva is now deciding she may want to go out, so i'm off to cart her caboose....L.