Jaci Dawn

I only made two resolutions this year. I figure if I keep one, I’ve got a 50% success rate going.

#1 is to finish that family tree. I was working hard on it in 2010 and 2011, and then my dad passed away. I sort of lost heart. I know it was a season, however, and bought a filing cabinet just for the research he sent me and I set it up close to my desk so I could follow through when I did decide to pursue it again. I’m ready now.

That’s the thing with grief: don’t try to rush it. Let it take its course. You’ll never fully recover, and that is perfectly all right. Don’t measure yourself against other people’s standards.

#2 is to seriously declutter. WE have too many rocks, bottles, little antiques, dust bunnies, and other odds and ends. I cannot do too much about my husband’s clutter, but I sure as heck can control mine.

I think.

Because the Christmas tree is still up (and will remain up until this coming weekend), I can’t do too much yet. We live in a small house and the Christmas boxes need to be stored before the real decluttering can begin.

But – there’s always a ‘but’ – I can start in my studio. I rearranged furniture so things are more ergonomic and so there’s more floor space. I should have thought of this angle a long time ago. I can only show you one half of the room because it’s a work in progress.

First up: the office space. Everything is close, but not too cluttered. Reminds me, I need to sit down and pay bills tomorrow evening.

The space where my desk is could be the closet space if we ever decided to finish this room and make the house into a legal two-bedroom home. My desk also sits on top of what was the original stair case. Before the house was remodeled and brought up to code, it probably had those steep, narrow steps to the upstairs and possibly two small bedrooms up here. The remodel took out that stair case and eliminated both upper bedrooms. This room is not a legal bedroom in Oregon because there’s no actual closet. It’s large enough for a king-sized bed, but… rules are rules, I guess. (It was Chrystal’s bedroom when she lived here and it doubles as the guest room, so there.)

I digress.

This is what I really wanted to blog about. I have been storing junk in the display case. Today, I rearranged the sculpture supplies and put my precious items into the display case. I bought that sucker at a yard sale for $5. It does have lights inside of it, but there’s some great big spider lurking behind the rabbit on the left and I’m not sticking my hand behind the display case to plug the lights on. Not without rubber gloves, I’m not.

It’s probably not a Black Widow (we don’t have those here in the Willamette Valley – too wet – unless one smuggled in), but it could be a Brown Recluse and I’m not going there without rubber gloves. Whatever it is, it makes a helluva strong web fiber.

All my supplies are labeled and stored in the plastic units along the wall. Canes in the old family laundry basket in the corner. (Canes & laundry bin are part of my inheritance. Can you believe my family knew how much I loved that stupid laundry bin with the black-and-white contact paper that they made certain I left Nevada with it? Yep. I “see” things in the contact paper. Probably should blog about that sometime or go see a psychologist.)

These really have nothing to do with decluttering. They *are* the clutter. I “rescued” the tennis rackets from my dad’s basement. The blue one was mine. I was never any good at tennis. My girlfriend, Lisa, and I used to go to the tennis courts and pretend to play tennis just to talk to guys. But I couldn’t bear to part with the rackets when I found them in Dad’s basement (one is my brother’s racket).

The figurines were on a shelf at Goodwill this summer. I couldn’t resist. I bought them for a couple bucks and then wondered what the heck am I gonna do with those?? Tonight, as I set up my photo shoot, I stumbled onto the answer. I’ll cut out some of the netting on the rackets and attach the two climbers to them. I think it’s going to be a great project.

I have long wanted a china hutch to display my Trail of Painted Ponies statuettes. I’d have a lot more if my family could only remember that I collect them. (hint, hint).

The second shelf absorbed some of the items my mother collected (the boots, the vases) and a few things that have come my way.

I didn’t picture the bottom shelf, but it has many of the antique bottles we have collected over the years and the “furniture” I am collecting for faerie houses I plan to build “sometime”. In other words, more clutter, but clutter I can’t bring myself to let go of.

We all have clutter we can’t let go of.