Yippie-Kai-Yay

Is that how that's even spelled? Does anyone really know?  Anyhoo:  TABLE RODEO this weekend!  Similar to the "Houseplant Rodeo" I do 3-4 times a year, wherein houseplants get moved around, put into new pots, trimmed, bathed, and generally spruced up and reorganized.  This time with tables!


#1  Altar + Meditation Corner
My little prayer altar got moved from the tower of cube-furniture in the bedroom, to a small wooden chowki in the "back" of my living room where my little meditation corner has been set up.

Before:  the meditation corner, with the "tower" altar next to it, before I moved the tower into the bedroom. Also before I moved the couch into its current spot. Old picture.

 

After: The new Meditation Corner, rotated 90º (because it functions, and is more comfy, that direction), and the new little devotional altar next to it.

I like this version a lot better.  It's simple, and quiet, and pretty. 


<-- also some new cushions. :)








Talk to you about #2 later this week...when it's finished, hehe.

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Last Post of 2010!

After the All Most-Of-It-Encompassing List of yesterday, I thought today I'd revisit my very favorite projects of 2010:


Living Room Paint Job
July

• love, love, love the color, and the way it sets off the dark wood tones and bright teals/turquoises
  

Meditation Corner
August

• pretty, soft, comfy, peaceful, dedicated space

Laundry Room Reno
September

• so tired and afterthought-y before! So fresh and pretty now!

before

after

Tool Cart
November

• damned useful!

 
Guitar Rack
December

• damned useful! 
• also displays attractive instruments instead of big banged-up cases, and brings a bit more of my "other" passion into the look of my house - how could there not be music here?  <3 

See you all on the flip-side!


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Squee!

My BFF and I, in addition to all the other crazy junk we do, often sneak little gifts and joke-gifts into each other's homes, hiding little surprises here and there just to see how long it takes the other one to notice.

Friday night when she and I and Kress were at my place catching up on our Vampire Diaries, I noticed she'd done it again - a little brass Ganesh statue that she tucked into my meditation corner!

Squee!  *dances*  

I don't have pictures, because I'm still in the middle of freshening up the corner (my cats "meditate" there, too, so it gets covered in fur and I have to wash all the cushions once a week) to include my new elephant god - I'll try to get pics tonight so I can post them tomorrow. 

The camping trip I'm taking this weekend is another spiritual retreat for women like the one I go to in June, where there's a raffle, a couple of swap meets, and many vendors with beautiful wares to buy.  I'm hoping to come home with either new piece of fabric to add to the corner (a blanket/sari/sarong/etc.), or something for my little Ganesh to rest in/on.   :)

My BFF, by the way, is pretty freakin' awesome - her first fiction novel, which is her third book, just hit the shelves a couple of weeks ago.  Check it out! :)
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Meditation Space Available (Inquire Within)

Good morning!  Happy Monday, too.  Wanna see what I did over the weekend?* 

My heart really, really wants this just outside my  back door - to relax in on a rainy day, or sit and meditate in on cool mornings...

(Picture credit unknown - please comment if you know where this came from)

Mine would have one of these on it:

(The Hangout Place)

And lots of brightly colored lanterns and candles hanging above and all around:

(TripAdvisor.com)

But instead, I have this:

usairnet.com's heat index for Aug. 21st

*sound of brakes screeching* 


Oh, well.

For years I've simply plopped down on whatever expanse of floor in my house was available, sometimes with a pillow or a blanket under me, sometimes not.   These days, though, it hurts me to sit on the floor - so I'd been thinking about building a raised platform to pile cushions on top of.  Something a bit more springy than the hard floor.

Where, though?  Here, maybe, I thought, in this little empty corner of the living room under the windows:

It's out of the way enough, lit - but not heated, thankfully - by the windows all around, with a view of the garden outside and already sheltered by plants.  This picture kept springing to mind...

(photo by Di Lewis, from the book India Style by Alexandra Bonfante-Warren)

That's made of pallets!  Pallets, which are available for free just about anywhere you look - I found a stack of them behind my local grocery store over the weekend, and picked out several nice, relatively new ones from the pile (with permission, of course).  I took two apart and used the slats from both to make a new, sturdier top on one, sanded it, and painted it.  A few pillows, candles, and houseplants later...

YAY!!!

Aside from the pallets, this entire space was made with stuff I already had - candles, plants, the little ceramic cuppa-sand with incense sticks in it...

The little plant here I separated from the big palm-y looking one hanging over the area - a Bird of Paradise.  ...does that make this one a Chick of Paradise?

I really, really wanted to get a little brass Ganesh for this corner - and I found one at World Market over the weekend that I almost bought, but, it'll have to wait until payday.

In the meantime...

THAT didn't take long!  Silly kitty.  This is Rabi  (pronounced "robbie").  I was fully expecting this little corner to turn into a dog bed the second I turned my back, but Rabi and his feline brothers and sisters claimed it almost immediately.  I don't mind sharing. :)


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