Radvent Day 5: Decorate

I kind of feel bad doing this post right now (today's Radvent prompt: decorate!), because what I'd really love is to show you the wonderful Christmas decorations and our beautiful tree up in our house. The only problem is that we don't have these things up yet. We just fixed our broken vacuum yesterday (thank you Scott!) and delayed getting our tree until next weekend, so all the decorations are still in storage.

HOWEVER, I love my house at any time of year. I have been giving it more TLC lately because it's helping me get through these tough times. I think I've mentioned before -- I'm a nervous cleaner! And there's been a lot to be nervous about in the last couple of months, and a lot to deal with emotionally. I deal by cleaning.

My favorite room in our tiny loft has to be the kitchen. It's my kitchen, in spite of the fact that it was Scott's first, and he is also a great cook, and he uses the kitchen all the time. But I use it more. I feel more at home in my kitchen than I do anywhere else in the house; and lets face it, the house is pretty small, and it's my home, so there's nowhere I feel uncomfortable. But the kitchen is my favorite. Unfortunately (like the rest of the house) it's been suffering from clutter. We have too much stuff for our tiny abode. But a couple of weeks ago, on Thanksgiving (just before Jeffy died), in a spate of "worried about Jeffy" -related cleaning, I cleaned myself some counter in the kitchen, got rid of most of what was on it, and created a clean, minimalist (!) space for myself to cook on.

It has been the most amazing thing ever. I'm serious -- it has become a catalyst for cleaning up messes punctually, for keeping the kitchen and even the rest of the house cleaner by default ... plus, now -- for the very first time -- I have a space on which to create beautifully composed photos of food! This means so much more to me than I care to admit. All of you with your gorgeous food photos always make me so jealous, because I'd love to do that every day if I only had a space to do it in. It all came together on Thanksgiving, and here's an example of what I mean:

everything in its right place

I am not only enamored with this part of my kitchen -- I'm obsessed with it. I feel like Gollum. "The precious." You think I'm kidding! I scrub it multiple times daily! :P

♥  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥

And now, the only Christmas decoration I have up so far: a poinsettia plant my boss gave me at work. And yes, it remains at work because poinsettia plants are deadly poisonous to cats! Don't have them in your house if you have cats! Anyway, she gave me this as a gift after Jeffy died, and I love it so much. It really livens up my office space and has become quite the conversation piece.

Poinsettia closeup

Warming up my desk. Sorry about the errant tape dispenser. It's driving me crazy! 

♥  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥
I'm participating in Radvent this year via the ever-awesome Princess Lasertron, and you should too!