Much Better Thanks

Amazing what a little wine, relaxation and chatting can do for one's psyche.

Upon further discussion, it seems the husband and I are very much on the same page. We both hate having projects completed half assed or not at all. More so, he dislikes doing a project and then finding out it was only 90% there. Maybe he missed a step that he was unaware of or used the wrong paint. Trial and error frustrates us both, I think him more actually, but we also hate that things take time and we have to learn to live with that. One does not go and blow savings on decorating and renovating the house. Especially now in this economy. Unless you have it of course and then you can get some great deals on appliances, contractors, etc.

I really need to get my butt over to Home Goods and see if I can find a table or something for the newly rearranged living room. The one table that used to be there is now in the guest room as a side table and the night table that was there is now in the green room downstairs next to the retro couch. They compliment one another perfectly. It is always a pleasure to have things in your house that if you just relocate it, it works. Night stands are the bane of my existence as well and who knows if I will ever find anything for our bedroom. Not the end of the world, but annoying all the same.

Now, from the blog YoungHouseLove, a serious post about home fires and certain things you should do and think about since you will be dealing with loss, anger and insurance companies.

On A Serious Note

Cheers!

MissFifi

Blah and Bleech

*Picasso

Ever have one of those days where you sort of fall to the wayside and cannot get back up? I am having that and it sucks. It is in my nature to be over sensitive and take things personally and I have struggled with it for a long time. I was much much much worse when I was in my twenties and there are many who could vouch. Of course, as we age, we do our best to improve, but when a stumbling block hits you, you spiral back, becoming that over defensive, insulted twenty five year old all over again.

I covered an old Ikea chair and I gathered the material on the sides. Thought it looked good and brought it down to the living room, all proud if how I wielded a heavy duty stapler. At first my husband liked it until he saw the sides and said, "You did not cut all the material?" In a snit, I swooped it up and brought it back up to the office, aggravated and pissed. Now I have to decide if I am going to rip it out and start over. Immediately I go to the bratty line of thinking,"If you do not like it, you do it." I think most of us would, but instead I simmer upstairs and vent on a blog. Not much maturity in that either, but hey, it is my blog and I will use it how I see fit.

I am also crabby because I have been editing "Cleaning House" again, finding mistakes, correcting them and wishing I was secluded in a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains working. For what it is worth, sure I can work at home and I do, but there is a lot to be said for focus and quiet. The idea of working all day without interruption to do laundry, cooking, taking the dog out or dishes would be ideal. Dream on you say and I am. I have found some artists some retreats, but a few require a fee or that you have been published already. I do not want to spend our already stretched budget on such a thing so I need to see if I can get a grant or find a place where I can earn my stay. In the meantime I should utilize the office more and remind my household that when I am in there with the door shut, I am working and to please leave me alone.

Stay warm if you are where the snow is and cool if you are in the heat.

Cheers!

MissFifi

Blog Discoveries

Just found some new blogs and had to share!

The Steampunk Home - as a fan of unusual designs, gothic mixed with modern or victorian mixed with cottage style, I love this site.

Slim Paley - Let us discuss how much I want that antique toaster.

Freshome - interior design and architecture. Really cool modernist ideas. I am sure I will be getting lost on this site for awhile.

Coco+Kelley - yeah, if only I could afford to hire a good interior designer.

Design*Sponge - another place for great ideas and fun.

Enjoy it all.

Cheers!

MissFifi

BBC

Yesterday I watched the BBC mini-series North and South. Good Lord it was wonderful! I cried, a few times mind you. I loved it. The acting was excellent and I have a new heartthrob in Richard Armitage. Nom nom nom nom. A very intriguing story by Elizabeth Gaskell about the Hale family that moves to Milton in the North of England. An industrialized town, filled with mills. The Hales come from the South of England and their daughter Margaret sympathizes with the workers and butts head with the owner of the local cotton mill, John Thornton. I insist that everyone read this or watch it, it is a fantastic story. The BBC has taken Gaskells' novels, North and South, Cranford and Wives and Daughters and turned them in to miniseries. I have seen them all and was impressed with how ahead of their time they must have been.

Keeping with all things English, I have begun reading Wait for Me! Memoirs by Deborah Mitford, Duchess of Devonshire. Her style is dry and witty and her incomparable life is fascinating.

I adore this wall mount pump, but $70?? Really??

Okay, must contend with snow today, good times. Stay warm if you are in the cold zone!

Cheers!

MissFifi

And scene

My tenure as fill in nanny has ended, which makes me sad. First off, it is a tough job caring for multiples. You truly get no time to really breath or shower or just sit. This is not about me, it is about the parents. My friend was able to do laundry and put Christmas decorations away because I was an extra set of hands, but if all had a meltdown at once, he had to stop what he was doing to assist.

The girls were and are quite delightful and it is clear that Sidney will be the Brain. She is always thinking, contemplating, considering our deaths a la Stewie from Family Guy. She will be the child I wished I had. Her sisters are charming, delightful and quick to cuddle and play. Sidney's twin, Aria, is very zen like which is really cool. A mini Gandhi if you will. Vivian is just this sweet smiling gal, ready for love and being made to laugh. You gotta love watching their individual personalities come to light. What I enjoy most is knowing they will evolve from their current incarnations and it will be quite an honor to watch who they become.

I have not written since Wednesday and may I say, it is bizarre. In many ways, not working on one's novel, but caring for children, helps clear your mind in ways you would never think. Ideas popped into my head all week for Cleaning House, my futuristic thriller and the Archangel novel. This is good and bad. Lots of fixing and rewriting, while par for the course, makes me worry I am second guessing myself way too much. But when I look at the changes I want to make, they are not life threatening to the story lines, just common sense. At least, one can hope.

I have begun reading "Wonder Boys" by Michael Chabon. Now, I have attempted his work before and I admit was not a fan. My husband loves his work. We own a couple of his novels so as I was getting ready to go stay with my friends to help with the little ladies, I grabbed Wonder Boys and decided to give it a shot.

So far, so good.

A very funny read and I like his style here. What caught my eye is he pulls a Gabriel Garcia Marquez and writes sentences with mucho commas that are a paragraph long. Now I get why people go to writing classes at University of Iowa. I know nothing. Sometimes I feel like such an amateur, which technically I am, when I read a book and everything I thought I knew about the English language goes out the window. Punctuation and I are not the best of friends. I desperately try to recall everything I have ever learned in schools, but alas, I fail. Sure I can take a refresher course, but let us be honest, would any of us want to sit through diagramming sentences again? As one who loves English as a subject and loves to read, diagramming almost did me in.

Whoops, need to steer me back on topic here.

The best part about reading other books is learning from them and I am doing my best to absorb each author's structure best I can. Granted, there is a template every writer follows, but it is more interesting to get past that and watch how they build around it. So Michael Chabon is currently my educator, whether he likes it or not, and I hope to get my money's worth.

Have a fabulous Sunday.

Cheers!

MissFifi

Mish Mash

Whew! Between watching the little gals, having a massage client (yeah money!) and trying to write and keep house, it has been a crazy week. Invigorating and insane, but also lots of fun and filled with good times.

Keeping with insanity, HGTV's Dream House is in play. The location is Stowe, Vermont and it is lovely. A friend remarked that they make these house too damn big and I have to agree. A ski dorm that sleeps eight is useless unless we have lots and lots of company. See? I am gonna win that is why I have been thinking about this. Not that we would not let people use it and enjoy it as much as possible. What would be the point if having such a home if you are going to keep the darn thing shuttered up most of the time. My favorite not really necessary appliance in the house is the towel drawer warmer. It also heats up lotion. Yeah, we can all get through life without it, but what a darling luxury. Considering our upstairs bathroom lacks any insulation, yes it is cold as Hades there right now, I would like this. Of course, once we redo the bathroom it will be insulated properly.

Just so we are clear, I would dress like this everyday if I could. Thank you Lucinda Robinson for making such ethereal delights.

I have no need for them but I covet these pink chairs from the Continentale hotel in Florence, Italy.

A dear friend who cans, got me some canning equipment for Christmas. This was due to the fact that I have helped him numerous times with applesauce and tomato sauce. Now I just came across this book, Canning for a New Generation. That just might get me motivated.

And now, off to the gym I go :)

Cheers!

MissFifi

Triplets, Blue and Books

Forgive my lack of posts, but I have the honor of helping out dear friends while their nanny is away for two weeks. I am assisting with three very lovely and sassy triplets. These gals are awesome and at three months all have their own little personalities. How any parent does this without having a flask permanently attached to their hip is beyond me. All kidding aside, their journey was even more incredible because these little ones were born via surrogates in India. Now, I know some folks are against the idea, but please, read the story before getting all judgmental. These three girls are seriously adored by their families and all their parents friends so no bad karma okay?

I love painted floors. Adore them actually and this post on Apartment Therapy about blue floors made me drool.

Believe it or not, I am still reading the J.D. Robb "In Death" series. I know, shocking right? I am about to start book number 5 called "Ceremony in Death". I admit that I have figured out who the killer has been in every book, am I sleuth? Nah, just lucky. When you introduce new characters each time deductive reasoning says "Hey, it is either Edgar or Poe." (See what I did there?) I have never read a really hardcore murder mystery and perhaps I should go get me some Agatha Christie, but I do love Eve's tough as nails persona. I also like her hubby, Roarke, for the simple fact that he is the one steady calm in her life. For once it is nice to read a relationship that has it's quarrels or tiffs, but does not fall apart like a dramatic scene written for acting class. I do have my beefs about parts of the series. Words like "more" and "greedy" are used a lot in their sex scenes and I pretty much have come to expect him to cup her breast every few pages or so. This is usually why I dislike series novels so much. It is way too easy to fall into the same routine for your characters without even realizing it sometimes. But, for now, I am happy so we shall see how far I get. I am surprised no movie has been pitched for this non-bumbling female cop, but Hollywood still seems to prefer its women semi-helpless if not strong at all. C'est la vie!

Cheers!

MissFifi

We Are All Connected

In a post by the wonderful SB Sarah at Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, she pointed out how after all the tragedies of the day (AZ shooting, floods in Queensland, our own personal struggles that are not public) we need to remember how we are all connected and sometimes share more common ground then we know. She shared this incredible video by Symphony of Science called "We Are All Connected". It is a beautiful, musical, scientific reminder of how we have deeper connections to one another. Not just as children of God, no matter your faith, but as simple cogs in the universe.

Peace.

Cheers!

MissFifi

Everyone comes out swingin'

We saw the movie The Fighter yesterday and it was absolutely fantastic! Christian Bale and Melissa Leo totally deserve Oscar nods. Keep in mind, all the performances were stellar, but those two actors really stood out and that was not easy considering the cast. Let me tell you, I was on the edge of my seat during the fight scenes and I have not gotten that excited during a film in a very long time. I love it when Hollywood delivers, thanks to Mark Wahlberg's persistence. Yes, we have a very fine film out there people, oh we sure do.

My query letter has just been sent to another agent. It is sort of a weird process. I look at who the agency has published then review the photos and backgrounds of the agents and hope I choose right. I may work on making the letter more concise depending on the response I get. Apparently I have a two week window if she is even interested. I can appreciate that and I believe agents get back to you quicker then HR departments and normal business correspondence. HAHAHAHA! Yeah, note my nervous laugh everyone. Ah hell, who am I kidding? I am excited too, this is like an adrenalin rush in a way and I welcome it.

Newest book I picked up at library today is called Dogtown: Death and Enchantment in a New England Ghost Town by Elyssa East. Never heard of it until I saw it displayed at the library. It looked very intriguing and I like the sound of the actual history. I also feel it may be a little inspirational for an idea I have for another story. My ideas are lovely and flow with ease, written in a notebook. It is finding the one that can be executed into a 75K plus novel that is not always a straight path. More importantly is finding a damn good book to enjoy. Not always easy.

Well back to work I go. The Archangels need their story completed in this second novel of mine.

Cheers!

MissFifi