It’s been a quiet week here. I went from feeling completely disappointed with the wallpaper situation to vacation mode two days early. You know how it is, right? It’s Thanksgiving week, which marks the true start of the holiday for most people. And even though Thanksgiving isn’t until Thursday, we’re at the end of the year and the holiday mentality always creeps up a few days early. I’ve been there for the last few days.
I think to myself: “Oh, I should start sewing my curtains!“ and the thought immediately follows: “No, I’ll start after Thanksgiving.“And then I think: “I should buy everything to make the headboard!“And immediately it goes through my head: “But it’s Thanksgiving, so I’ll wait.”
Yes, it’s an excuse to procrastinate (not that I ever really need an excuse), but it seems to come to mind every year around this time as we’re winding down the year and getting ready for Thanksgiving and the entire holiday season. Once we get past Thanksgiving, I’ll be preparing for the final three-week push before heading into the New Year on my end-of-year break. But this year I’m feeling more tired and burnt out than usual. Maybe it’s just the bad timing of Matt’s hospitalization and the wallpaper problem. But regardless of the root cause(s), this is exactly how I feel as we approach the end of 2025.
But I continue to take small steps forward. Yesterday I took the new frame and chapel picture to Hobby Lobby to have a new double mat cut out and the whole thing assembled for me with a new piece of museum glass. However, it won’t be finished until Saturday, so I didn’t get the instant gratification I was hoping for.
And then I came home and started playing around with some models for the ceramic bird arrangement for the long wall in the bedroom. I like to have a model on hand before I start driving nails into the wall so that I don’t end up with a lot of extra holes in the wallpaper.
I tried several different models, but they all fell into two specific categories. The first category was an organic arrangement and the second category was a very structured arrangement. If you’ve been here long, you know that I have an incessant need for structure and symmetry, so I was actually surprised that I liked the more organic arrangement better.
Of the organic arrangements, this one was my favorite. This is the model I created using my photo editing software…
And then I copied and pasted that onto a photo of the actual wall to give me an idea of what it would look like in the actual room. I’m not sure if this will be the last. It’s possible I’d make a few more adjustments to it before putting nails in the wall, but an organic, free-form design would come pretty close.
The more structured arrangement I tried was oval, since the wall is so long. This is what the model looks like. My main problem with this arrangement is that as soon as I finished it I immediately saw an eye.
And this is what this model looks like, copied and pasted onto the picture on this wall.
I liked it even better after I copied and pasted it onto the actual photo of the room. When I hang it on the wall, I don’t immediately see the shape of an eye, but I’m also not thrilled with the large empty area in the middle of the wall. However, I like structure and symmetry, so I haven’t completely ruled out a structured arrangement. But at this moment I like the freer, more organic arrangement a little more.
Anyway, I might try to get this done today, but I’m making no promises. I’m not going to put any pressure on myself to finish any big projects by the end of the weekend. I plan to rest, spend time with Matt, eat good food, and prepare for the final three-week post-Thanksgiving push. I’m hoping that the slump I’ve been feeling this week is just the result of the two day hospital stay and subsequent wallpaper problem, and that I can recharge and refocus over the next few days. Even though we’re nearing the end of the year, it’s still far too early for complete burnout. So I really hope that’s not what I’m dealing with because this is going to be a really miserable three weeks for me. I don’t think that’s the reason though as I’m really looking forward to getting the curtains sewn and the headboard made. I think I just needed a few slow days to regroup before tackling these big projects.
