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Making Spirits Bright
Dec. 20th, 2009 09:01 amMy friends Karin and Ami were expected in town yesterday, for a holiday visit to Karin's family. I spent the day cleaning, in honor of the occasion--I knew I could not get my entire apartment ship-shape (still unpacking boxes, you know) but I wanted to get the living room, at least, in a state that could receive visitors.
I got all but two boxes of books put away, rearranged some small tables and brought an extra chair in to all three of us would have a place to sit. I vacuumed the living room and hallway, and then, because my love for my friends is without limit, vacuumed the steps as well.
Then I started hanging artwork. This made me smile a lot, because all of the pieces I hung in my living room were made for me. I have two cross-stitch pictures that my mom did, two paintings by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yhlee, two line art pictures by Koshindou, two paintings from my friend Deslie, and an embroidered picture by Karin. I never had room in my old place to put them all up, so it really makes me happy now to have them all displayed.
The final stage was to locate my box of Christmas decorations. I have a tree this year, and space to put it up, so I am determined to decorate! Most of this will just be putting up the tree and garnishing it, but I do have a few other things. I have a really nice candle ring with (fake) evergreen branches, red blossoms, etc, with a red pillar candle in the middle for one of the living room tables, and a second one with cardinals (the bird, not the baseball team or clerical prince) and holly berries for the shelf over the door to my apartment. Also, I have some tacky yet charming gold star garland that I've draped the stairwell railing with. I'm still debating the window clings, but if I put the one of the candle in the living room window I'd have a candle in the window for my friends with zero fire risk. I must ponder this further.
Today's big things will be to finish cleaning the bathroom and to put up the tree. If possible I hope to see Karin and Ami, but I think her family has first dibs (and that is the way it should be). Maybe I'll save the tree for when they come over, and we can have a tree-trimming party. I could get some soy nog and rum and we could make popcorn. I'll see what the day brings.
I got all but two boxes of books put away, rearranged some small tables and brought an extra chair in to all three of us would have a place to sit. I vacuumed the living room and hallway, and then, because my love for my friends is without limit, vacuumed the steps as well.
Then I started hanging artwork. This made me smile a lot, because all of the pieces I hung in my living room were made for me. I have two cross-stitch pictures that my mom did, two paintings by
yhlee, two line art pictures by Koshindou, two paintings from my friend Deslie, and an embroidered picture by Karin. I never had room in my old place to put them all up, so it really makes me happy now to have them all displayed. The final stage was to locate my box of Christmas decorations. I have a tree this year, and space to put it up, so I am determined to decorate! Most of this will just be putting up the tree and garnishing it, but I do have a few other things. I have a really nice candle ring with (fake) evergreen branches, red blossoms, etc, with a red pillar candle in the middle for one of the living room tables, and a second one with cardinals (the bird, not the baseball team or clerical prince) and holly berries for the shelf over the door to my apartment. Also, I have some tacky yet charming gold star garland that I've draped the stairwell railing with. I'm still debating the window clings, but if I put the one of the candle in the living room window I'd have a candle in the window for my friends with zero fire risk. I must ponder this further.
Today's big things will be to finish cleaning the bathroom and to put up the tree. If possible I hope to see Karin and Ami, but I think her family has first dibs (and that is the way it should be). Maybe I'll save the tree for when they come over, and we can have a tree-trimming party. I could get some soy nog and rum and we could make popcorn. I'll see what the day brings.
