Motivation

I always have good intentions of fixing things up or getting some decorating done in and around my house, but most of the time they are just intentions. When I go shopping I can almost always talk myself out of buying about anything and especially decorating items for my house or just essentials like towels, rugs, sheets.... and the list goes on. My biggest problem is that I just don't care that much about decorating and can make do with about anything. And the fact that I don't feel like I am any good at it doesn't help either. Also, I would rather save my money for a trip than buy a towel.

So I always need some motivation to get things done and this last week I got that motivation. To me having visitors is always a great reason to start sprucing things up (you know you really do need towels for visitors because it is embarrassing for people to know how you really live). My friend Anita emailed to say that she and her family would be coming for Christmas for two weeks. We are so excited, but I realized that there are lots of things that I meant to fix or change over the last six years since her last visit but haven't. Thus my motivation.

Since the beginning of summer I have had this big empty wall after we moved our bookcase to another wall.
And I have had this collage picture frame for probably eight months or more just waiting for me to find a place to hang it and replace the pictures of strangers with family members.

So this week after spending a day shopping for towels, curtains, a bedspread, rugs and a toilet paper holder (I only bought the toilet paper holder), I sat at my computer rummaging through all my picture files. I forget just how many pictures I have on my computer until I start going through them all. Luckily Lonica helped me figure out a system to organize them all but it still took almost a whole day to pick, crop and order the 38 pictures the frame needed.
And then a couple more hours to cut, paste and place them all. I think my motherhood qualities came out because I tried so hard to make all the pictures "fair" - not too many of one child and not enough of another.
And then as I looked at the few pictures I had left over I wondered if they said anything about me. Why had I chosen one and not another? Was it just picture quality - no. Did I pick just my favorites - no. Was it mat size - kind of. But was there some other deep meaning behind the pictures I chose, off the computer and off the floor? Who knows but I do know that when Anita and her family come for Christmas, we will have one less blank wall! And I do hope some new towels too.