Back to work

The house is quiet….just the way I like it! Kids at school, two big mugs of coffee consumed and a little of the tiredness is going away….I didn’t get much done yesterday….that is by my standards……due to the invasion of the body snatchers…also known as carpal tunnel syndrome. I injured myself and started this problem about five years ago remodeling a house. I installed wood flooring, applied venetian plaster, painted, sanded, moved furniture and sewed for a couple weeks straight and it resulted in the worst week of sleepless nights I have ever had. The pain in my hands and arms was excruciating. I thought I had a temporary injury from the work but it has continued to flare up when I overdo it. Lo and behold, I read yesterday that using the vibrating sander is a big no no. My number one tool! Guess it’s back to old fashioned hand sanding for me. My hubby will have to take off the worst bits I guess and then I can take over……he always says he’s happy to help 🙂

So yesterday, my hands kept going numb and I had to stop and sit and do nothing……frustrating. I did manage to get five loads of laundry done, a whole sinkful of dishes washed, dried and put away and dinner made. Then the kids had a youth group meeting so drove them to that and finally came home at 9pm to a lovely glass of red wine (it’s good for me) and a bag of popcorn and an hour or so of TV with my long suffering hubby….kiss, kiss.

My house is still a wreck from the Porch Sale on Saturday! There are lamps, books, fabric, linens, baskets, silver and other assorted stuff piled in the living room. I did pick up two wrist braces when I was out last night….to the tune of $50…..and wore them to bed and some this morning. My hands are a bit better but I’ll need to rest them again after all this typing!

Goals for today: Fill the two pieces leftover from the Porch Sale…..(I’ll post pics for you before I put all the stuff inside)…..with the items in the living room; vacuum said living room; usual housework (dishes, beds, dinner, etc). I think that may be enough. Tomorrow I can get the garage straightened up. I do need to pot up some plants and put some annuals out that are being maintained with daily showers from the hose. They won’t last long in this heat. STOP…STOP….Too many things to do with bad hands!!! Don’t you love all those old movies where the woman of the house had a reliable old housekeeper? I mean get real….Carol Brady wandered around all day doing practically nothing while good old Alice cooked and cleaned! Puhleeze…

I’m giving myself the month of May off and will not even darken the doors of my usual furniture finding establishments. It’s hard…..maybe not as hard as quitting some other addictions….but I have to stop my car from going down those roads! I think it automatically drives there…..LOL

I have more time before the next sale and maybe if I work slower, I won’t have as much trouble with my hands. I figure if I refinish one piece per month I can have five new pieces done! There are already two in the garage…..a chest on chest and a nice old armoire. I can’t wait! I don’t know what I’ll do to them yet. Sometimes the furniture starts to tell me what it needs to look like as I work on it. For the last sale I did a lovely Georgian mahogany desk over in distrtessed cream. but the top had me stumped for awhile. It was leather covered and not removable. I sanded it smooth and put a couple coats of primer on but I could not get a smooth finish. Then I remembered a roll of paper I had bought that was covered in French letters. Brown writing on cream background! Perfect. I decoupaged that to the top leaving a 1″ border of cream all around. Then I painted a small brown twiggy vine around the edge of the paper to transition. A couple coats of finish and done!! Looked beautiful and was a popular piece. Sold it quickly on Friday. I’ve recommended that she get a piece of glass cut for the top to protect the paper. Even though it has some finish, a scrape and then some moisture would begin to cause some lifting.

I really want to do a girly piece and am thinking that the small armoire….it’s shorter than I am….would look beautiful in a little girl’s room. I can see it filled with frilly dresses…..hmmmm