Random Musings

How ADORABLE is this vintage children's sweater! (The word "vintage" gets thrown around a lot on Ebay.) Read on to find out how it can be yours....

It feels like fall. It's cool and clear outside, nice denim jacket weather, and the Patriots had their first game today. I picked the Red Sox game to listen to on the radio, and they lost.  The Pats won. I'd still much rather listen to or watch baseball than football.

I wish I liked football more than I do. I grew up surrounded with it, living with a father and 6 brothers who loved the game.  Once baseball's over, on Sunday afternoons I'll always put the football game on. It just feels like the right thing to do. I like having it as background noise, even though I rarely know what is going on in the game. It feels comforting, probably because it's what I've listened to every Sunday afternoon since I was born.

While I was listening to the Red Sox lose to the Yankees earlier, I started selling things on Ebay. The spare bedroom has been become my base of operations- there's jewelry and an autoharp and clothes and McCoy pottery spread out all over the bed.  I plan on systematically going through my house and selling everything unnecessary in our lives.  It might become my new addiction. So far I have one bid on a wireless Skype phone.  $0.99.  Exciting! Look me up- marie_pascale2ihz- buy my crap, please!

Speaking of getting rid of things, I have that urge every fall.  It must have to do with knowing that I'm going to have to look at things in my house a lot more in the coming months.  In the spring and summer I'm outside as much as possible- my attention gets focused on my porch and gardens.  Now I'm turning inward, to closets and drawers and baskets full of stuff. And beyond that, the never-ending battle of the out-of-control garage, attic and basement.  I don't want to die and have people see those messes and think I was a deesgusting troll, as Nina would say.

Speaking of messes, I love this woman's blog, particularly this post on cropping(see below.)  I'm a big believer in making pictures look perfect by cropping out the surrounding untidiness, and I also do a lot of mental cropping. Since I don't have a staff to tend to things that need taking care of around my house, I try to not notice the things I can't get to right now. They're in the back of my mind, and I intend to get to them, but I'm learning not to let them drive me crazy. And I don't let the messiness of my own life and stupid decisions I've made bother me.  They are history- I learn from them and move on and try to do better.  I crop them out. And I do the same for other people- I don't want to hang onto the past. It's so much nicer than beating yourself up and not feeling good enough and judging other people.  We're all stupid. We all mess up our houses and our lives.

OK- going to put an antique vintage children's sweater on ebay. It's adorable- fuzzy kittens, handmade birch hanger..... It's time for it to go. And then I'm going to have wine and cheese and crackers for dinner. I had company last night. I'm tired. Big Al is napping- he has very low expectations at the moment. Or actually most of the time. He's great at cropping.

http://lusaorganics.typepad.com/clean/2013/08/behold-the-power-of-cropping.html