Sunday, December 19, 2010

Filling My Purse

My mother tells me that when I was a little girl, I never went ANYWHERE unless I had four things: my doll, a string of wooden beads around my neck, a pair of white gloves, and a purse (Imagine the ENORMOUS hit I was in Kindergarden!)  I don't remember a whole lot about that time, but I DO remember getting a new purse with Grandma Simmons once.  It was one of those shiny white patent leather numbers, VERY elegant!

A problem arose, however, when it came time to actually FILL said purse.  It's not like I had a wallet, I certainly didn't have any money.  So, Grandma Simmons gave me a big wad of Kleenex, an old empty compact, a used-up lipstick tube, and a key (no one was quite sure what the key opened, but it helped to add weight to my new purchase!).  Needless to say, I rarely opened that purse, unless the need for blowing my nose arose, of course.

I've been thinking a lot about that purse lately.  Let me tell you why...

When we recently moved into our new rented house here in Franklin, Tennessee, we quickly learned that there was WAY more room than we were used to in our former homes. Guests will be VERY comfortable when they visit, there's plenty of spare rooms and bathrooms for ALL!

But downstairs, in the finished basement, sat a nice big room overlooking the backyard, complete with it's own bathroom and huge walk-in closet.  I think it was initially intended to be a mother-in-law suite, but since both our mothers have very comfortable homes of their own, Alan suggested I use the room as my office/sewing room.  He encouraged me to decorate it however I'd like (although, since we're renting, painting the walls or changing the carpet is out of the question!).

The thought intrigued me.  You must know that throughout my whole childhood, I shared a room with my sister.  We slept in wooden bunk beds constructed by my dad, covered with simple blankets that my grandmother sewed.  None of us actually experienced the "girly" rooms our friends all seemed to have.  I decided this was my chance to create my very own "Girl Cave!"

Yellow has always been my favorite color, so I made sure everything reflected a yellow, lacy, flowery theme!  And since yellow is definitely not the "in" decorating color at the moment, I had to do a lot of creating on my own!  Like the two lamps in the picture above. I covered the shades with yellow fabric, added a ruffle on the bottom, and attached sweet pink ribbon roses around the ruffle!  (You can vomit now, I understand!).

I covered a bulletin board and the border of a dry erase board with yellow floral fabric, then attached all of my family photos to each of them to inspire my writing!  The dry erase board has future blog topic ideas scribbled on it.

Also, for my early readers, that's Tubsy sitting on the shelf, no Girl Cave would be complete without your favorite childhood doll!

To the right is a picture of another wall, which holds boxes containing my fabric, laces, ribbons, trims, yarn, patterns and such.  A framed photo of Dad, the original spouter of the phrase "Anything Fits a Naked Man," and subject of many of my blog entries, sits in a frame on the shelf, covered with my yellow floral fabric! Now, if I could JUST get better at actually SEWING things!

So, what do you think?  Kinda cool, huh?

Except, here's the only problem:  just like that empty purse Grandma Simmons bought me all those years ago, I look at my new pretty room and think, "Now, I have to fill this room with superlative blog entries!"  A room as grand as this can only be used properly if wonderful, thoughtful, high quality ideas are being created there!  Talk about PRESSURE!!

I'll be honest with you, as I write this post, I'm sitting in my living room with my computer on my lap.  I used the excuse that I wanted to be near the Christmas tree, and I really wanted to catch the Lawrence Welk Christmas special on PBS (oh, shut up!).  But the simple truth is, I'm a little bit afraid of my new room.  I've gone down there to read, work on crafts, fill out my Christmas cards, but so far, no writing!  Isn't that silly?

Has this ever happened to you?  Where do YOU write?  Any words of advice to get me down to my pretty girl cave?  I could REALLY use them!  Also,

Thanks for Reading!!

17 comments:

Cheeseboy said...

Looks like a pretty happening space for you to relax and do stuff.

Is Lawrence Welk still alive? Also, who is Lawrence Welk?

Shady Del Knight said...

Invariably I get all my best writing ideas when it's least convenient like when I'm in the shower or trying to get to sleep. I always make time to jot down my thoughts on a scrap of paper before they slip my mind. I do all of my composition in the office in my home. I become blocked if I try it anywhere else. Your girl cave looks very comfortable but maybe it's not conducive to creative writing for one reason or another. Hooray for your dated reference to Lawrence Welk, Joan! It's getting hard to find people who remember anything about the 20th century! (LOL) My parents never missed The Lawrence Welk Show so I got plenty of exposure to his Champagne Music during the 50's and 60's.

Mercy Langille said...

I'd love to have a cave like that (though I'd use green for my color scheme), some place to get away from it all and hide from my kids when I need a break.
I don't have any ideas for getting you down there to write, sorry.

Margaret (Peggy or Peg too) said...

I didn't see anything that plays music down there or a television with old movies. Those are 2 things you love so they must be in your girl cave! Like a man cave - Fill it with all things you love and you'll go there more.

I would love a girl cave - I am green with envy. Although when I told my hubby that sentiment he said, "the house is my girl cave" I know what he meant - I don't see the laundry room as my cave....just my punishment.

Stacie said...

I love your Girl Cave and the windows are to die for! I vote to have something to play music for you too though, I usually need something on in the background so I can focus :-)

Unknown said...

I have a room I call my office, and it's utter chaos. I really nead to neaten things up! Your room looks wonderful!

Hearts Turned said...

Your room looks so wonderfully feminine, Joan--I really love it! I'm not sure what to tell you...as I'm sure you know, if you feel like you HAVE to write something somewhere, it probably won't happen! You'll be able to write down there one of these days...when the muse decides it's time! But for now, sitting by the tree sounds pretty perfect to me!

Merry Christmas to you, my friend...thanks for all you share throughout the year!

Julie

ReformingGeek said...

Very nice, Joan.

Tell yourself to go down there for something other than writing. Who knows, writing may happen.

Being Me said...

Delightful room! Yellow is just about the happiest of colours, such a good choice. I find that when I make dedicated spaces, they actually add more pressure on me (self-placed) to achieve or over-achieve there.... Perhaps you could refer to it as your retreat or something like that? The way you look on the space may be just the thing you need to reignite your creativity there. I do have favourite places in the house to write and none of them are dedicated :) But I am currently working on setting up a room for myself similar to yours. I bet I never write a blog post in there! Too much pressure to perform!

Joanna Jenkins said...

Yellow is a favorite color of mine too so I especially like your room and everything you did with it.

I have a "girl cave" too but I mostly only use it when I working on a project-- translation: making a mess that I don't want to clean up until it's complete-- Otherwise, I'm never in there either.

Merry Christmas, jj

starnes family said...

Cute story. A big room is more intimidating than most would think. We just moved into an 1,100 sq foot house with 3 children. Filling space has not been a problem. :)

Chrystal said...

Hey girlie! You when Jason and I were first married he set up a girl cave for me to paint. It was so sweet and I used it when I wanted to be alone. But when I wanted to paint I realized I wanted to be in my living room. When I think about why I think I wanted to be close to the "action" of the house. Coming from a big family I like noise and a bit of chaos haha! I love your girlie cave - enjoy it! I kind of wish I still had mine. :)

Sharon Rose said...

I totally LOVE the girl cave! I have seen many man caves in homes. This is the prettiest space. You have it looking so inviting!

I'm thinking I could sit in front of that window and write stories for hours!

Of course, I'm not there. I may be just like you and wish I was upstairs next to the Christmas tree.

Do you have music down there? Music, even soft instrumental music is good. Just a thought?

Kelly L said...

I like yellow too - last year I bought a laptop so I could blog in the family room - a year later I still write in my office... and my husband has taken over my laptop..

Love to you
Kelly
I've Become My Mother

Looking for Blue Sky said...

Your room looks really cute! Do you need inspiration for your blog? I think it's pretty fabulous already :D Like Shady I get ideas for stories at really odd times, like in the car, or just about to go to sleep, so I have to have a pen with me at all times...there's always something to write on. Oh and Happy Christmas Joan xx

Mia said...

It's not the room that you try to make comfortable but the room that actually is comfortable that you spend the most time in.

Mohamed Abdellatif said...

المنزل هو المكان الوحيد في العالم الذي يشعر الإنسان فيه بالراحة النفسية، فبعد عناء يوم طويل من العمل لا بدّ من الحصول على قسط من الراحة التي لا يمكن لمكان أن يوفرها للإنسان كالمنزل، وهو المأوى الذي يقي الإنسان من برد الشتاء وحر الصيف، إلّا أنّه في بعض الأحيان قد يتعرض المنزل إلى بعض المشاكل التي تفقد الإنسان شعوره بالراحة فيه، كغزو بعض أسراب الحشرات للمنازل، ومن أبرز هذه الحشرات هي النمل.

شركة مكافحة النمل الابيض بالدمام
شركة مكافحة النمل الابيض بالخبر
شركة مكافحة حشرات بحائل

شركة مكافحة النمل الابيض بابها

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