Prepare To Decorate...

Holiday decorating at Foolsewoode has taken on epic proportions this year.  First of all, I'll let you in on a little secret.  Not only do I decorate the house for every holiday, I decorate the shop too (I'm sure this isn't that much of a secret...I mean, somebody's been doing it for the last fifteen years...) And this year, I've volunteered to help my mother do her two shops as well.

I'm actually confused as to why I did this.

I'm sure it stems from the idea that I love to decorate for the holidays.  And the fact that I will be decorating for more than the two places I usually do apparently escaped me.  I fear I shall be all Christmased out soon.  Like that could ever happen.

After all, it's me that has these vague fantasies that I will secret myself away in my house under a quilt with some sort of hot drink and watch Old Christmas Movies all of December, and be all nostalgic for a time period I wasn't even alive for.

I am picturing myself in my tiara in this vision.

And sometimes instead of a hot drink I will be draped across my couch, with a glass of wine...and wearing a pair of marabou slippers.

(ok.  Mostly with a glass of wine)

(and also?  I don't own marabou slippers...something else for the Christmas list)

Setting all tiaras and wine aside...Rozzilyn and I are some of the only very enthusiastic Christmas decorators in the family (she has her own tree...mom likes to decorate late and take down early...I use to have my own tree when I was Rozzies age...mine was a pink aluminum one.  It's almost like a preservation mechanism...cause my mother thinks we're nuts.  Although, she's very supportive because I think she took both of us to go buy our own trees)  I use to put everything up on Thanksgiving afternoon...but with the advent of Rich and I's relationship (and my eating all day on Thanksgiving interspersed with napping and movie watching...and most likely my age) I haven't decorated on Thanksgiving Day at all in a while.

Also?  I had to work this weekend...and I only got one day off this week.  Which, oddly enough was spent at The Airstream watching movies, napping and eating.

Again.

Before I went over there though, I decided that it was time to prep the house for decorating.  For some strange reason, this year that meant that I needed to do all the little crazy stuff I've been putting off doing around Foolsewoode.

First?  I had to change the light bulb in my bedroom.  It burnt out a couple of months ago (at least) and lest you think I'm totally lazy...I have no idea how to get the light fixture off to even change the bulb in the first place.

And I'm short.

And the fixture is in the middle of the room, which is also in the middle of my bed...and I can't stand on the bed and figure out how it works because I'm not 8 feet tall.

I'm not even 6 feet tall.

(again...this is where marabou heels would come in handy)

So, I grabbed my step ladder and put it in the middle of the bed and climbed up on it.  This is probably not the safest thing to do (this may also be the reason I keep falling and hitting my head) especially if you have a TempurPedic mattress...because apparently you can jump on the bed without even spilling a glass of wine that is also on the bed...because the mattress sinks down so deep?  (I personally would not want to test this...because I like to drink my wine...and not have it soak into my mattress)

Well, this also works with a step ladder.

I muscled my way up there, figured out how to take the shade down (it's a 30's light fixture my EX installed for me...and it hangs by wires from the base that is attached to the ceiling...so it's a bit tricky.  It also looks like something Madonna would wear, so I call it the boob light...short of asking my EX to come over and change my bulb, I had to get down to brass tacks and figure this thing out)  dumped the dust and dead bugs out of it, washed the shade all up, put in a new light bulb and reinstalled it.

Now there's light.

(woot!)

It was getting to be a bit much to go in, flip the switch and have nothing happen (and I did this at least once a day for several months) only to walk over and flip the lights I have hanging on the canopy and the light in the living room and the studio...so I could see what I was doing.

While undecorating the Thanksgiving Mantle, I finally got fed up with my lack of enthusiasm and painted the bare wood of the mantle shelf white to match everything else.  Two coats...both sides and the outside edges.  I couldn't take looking at it anymore...I mean, mostly it's covered by festive cloths I make for all the different seasons and whatnot...but I can totally see the bare wood underside while sitting on the couch, which matches nothing.

It's been a 4-year + project in the making.

(it took me 2 hours.  Sigh)

While at The store this weekend (which took more than two trips) I remembered to buy:

Water Filter Replacements.  Then I installed a water filter on the Pur faucet thing...now my water tastes better.

A new shower curtain with rust resistant brass rings...it's actually a liner (I change out my cloth shower curtains by season) and the other one was moldy.  Ick.  And this one didn't smell at all when I took it out of the package, which was a nice bonus.

I also remembered to buy batteries for my kitchen clock...which hasn't been working for months...the left overs will fit in my wireless mouse.  That also hasn't been working for months.

It's like I've been living in an abandoned house.

I couldn't bear to walk into the kitchen one more time only to look at the clock and wonder why I was either very early or very late.

I bought a new external hard drive and Rich worked on formatting it all day yesterday.  Or whatever he did to make it work.

On top of hauling various holiday boxes out of the place where they live...I have been rearranging, vacuuming and dusting...

And this is before I even had anything decorated.

On Sunday morning when I originally thought I'd be elbow deep into Christmas...I went to hang up the three fabulous reproduction glittery bottle brush wreaths on my front window (choosing the color of these could be an epic post all together) and discovered I had no thumbtacks.

Can you believe that?

Not one thumbtack to my name.

So, it was with entirely good intentions that I was forging ahead decorating...but accomplishing everything but.  Apparently like a painting, you need to prep the canvas of your home before you actually do any decorating.

Luckily, I was waiting for Rich to call me with my good-night phone call last night (which he forgot to do) and I went to bed with the Christmas Quilt washed and put on the bed (complete with fresh sheets and The Grinch doll) The mantle decorated, The tree up...lit...and fluffed, greenery hanging around the living room doorways, the vintage mistletoe hanger up in the kitchen doorway (I stand under it all day, and yet nothing happens) I'm already tired and I swear I'm only halfway through this process (and had mini panic attacks that I have too much stuff and a major resort is coming...)

At least I ran out and hung the three wreaths on the front window while in my PJ's in the freezing cold last night.

Just in time to for them to get rained on.