The Art & Poetry of Mary Coleman

To take a break from this painting I am going to do a super duper thorough decluttering and organization of my art studio. Because it is so filled with stuff from wall to wall, I do not want cleaners in it so I will have to do it myself. I am going to start with one corner and work my way through it, going through every drawer and getting rid of things I haven’t used in a long time. My flat file needs to be cleared of old art I no longer want. A lot of stuff that is piling up can be moved to the basement (which also needs a decluttering though I avoid it due to spiders). I’ll post before and after pictures.

Here are the before pictures:

We’ve had a few house expenses lately. First the furnace needed a surge protector and secondly the fence needed repairing. The fence repair was only about 150 but the furnace cost us 478. Then I am getting a yearly deep clean done on November 25th before Thanksgiving which is going to be 250. I’ve decided to hire cleaners to come every month from now on but the first clean has to be a deep clean then it’s a standard clean thereafter. Though I do not keep a messy house, I don’t like to clean it due to its size (4 bedroom, three story) and I think if I’m not having takeaways as much and not ordering off Amazon, the cost of having a cleaner around won’t impact us very much. I’d rather cook dinner 6 days a week than clean my house. Daily I do a tidy up, but that isn’t too bad and only takes about 30 minutes. If I keep things tidy every day, having a good cleaning once a month should keep the place really nice.

My anxiety has improved drastically since my biggest stressor has been lifted. I don’t really want to share what that stressor was, but suffice to say I didn’t realize how much it was affecting me until it was gone and it had been weighing on me for a very long time (think years). The sensation of not having that problem anymore felt like an enormous anvil lifted from the shoulders of my entire being. I do not think I will get panic attacks at the rate I was getting them anymore because the core of them was this particular issue that was resolved.

I am continuing to read Pride and Prejudice and Hollow Kingdom but I also added A Discovery of Witches to the mix. It’s a long book (23 hours) and will occupy me for awhile. I’m nearly done with the Jane Austen one and only have an hour remaining on that. Hollow Kingdom I am about halfway through.