Nooks and Crannies

Nothing is so fatiquing as the hanging on of an uncompleted task.
~William James 

When I teach, the task lurks around me like the Grim Reaper. Even on my off days, the lesson plans and papers and creative teachery have to be tackled. They loom about there, and I never really relax until they're packed up and put away for good.

Just thinking about them puts a pooper party on my ambition. That’s why I barely peeked at The List in the past five months.

I lack balance.

I need to figure out a better plan.

It might be nice to do that before I turn fifty.

So my first next thing  of summer was to tackle the traveling teacher box that I yakked about HERE.  Not long after that post, I actually tried to transform a curbside wonder that I was using for paint storage into teacher box hideaway.

Isn't she lovely?

It was going fine until I tried to tackle the drawers...feel free to scroll back...

Then, I gave up and tossed it back on the list for more time and a better plan. It currently hides under a cover in  the garage.

Because I lack skill as well as balance.

The teacher menace ended up hidden from common sight as well. It finally stopped its meandering and took root as this eyesore in a dormer nook of the master bedroom.

In fairness, it didn’t look quite this messy the whole time. This is the way it looked when I hauled the classroom dwellers back home.

What a welcome sight for a hard working bread earner who spends many nights on the road, huh? A real oasis in the desert for him… So like our sin nature to worry more about the mess we expose to our front doors than the clutter we leave in our innermost spaces…

I threw that sermon in for free.

So I whacked away at that kudzu until it was organized and filed and relabeled and boxed into a tidy pile ready to be put out of sight. And before the husband left the house, I assigned him the task of hauling it all up to Innie Paradise.

He loves it when I give him attic duty in June.

But he was just glad to see it go. Now, my dormer nook looks like this. Clean… but just as boring as usual.

I tend to be a simplicity seeker in my decorating, but even I know that I have flunked Dormer Decorating 101.

I’m at a complete loss as to how to showcase them.

I chose valances and sheers because those are the only two windows in a very large room, and I wanted as much light as possible. I chose simple valances because my sewing skills basically match my carpentry skills…

Logic calls for window seats, but I already have that look in Miss Whimsy’s room on the other side of the house. Plus, my dormers have little doors accessing the eave storage.

That little red string has a Polish purpose too. I will yak all about it at a later time.

So I’m putting this out there in the “stuff I should be ashamed to yak about” file and hoping that someone with more talent than I can offer some inspiration… the kind that can be done on a dime.

Help.

And because this post is already too long, I’ll cut it short before I yak about what I did yesterday… Let’s just say that it involves the eaves and the list and a serious decluttering session.

When I get my groove, I get my groove. I might even pull the curbside wonder out from under the curtain.

Stay tuned…