I need a maid

I have my jewelry bench put together and all my paraphernalia in that department in place. Otherwise I would be embarrassed to have anyone come in here, it's such an incredibly huge mess. We have no time to unpack, everything is in total disarray and I am so tired at work it's all I can do to make it through a day. *sigh*

This weekend, my days off, I am working two ten hour days at the Intergalactic Bead show in Richmond, a rather foolish decision I now see, after our moving ordeal, from which not I nor my husband or parents are sufficiently recovered, physically or mentally.

And I'm working on jewelry orders with boxes piled to the ceiling, my fat kitty Mango leaping from stack to stack (fat boys are light on their feet, you know...), my dog Lucy wanting attention and and and... oh well. no use complaining. better off just jumping back in and getting busy. My husband just told me that Buckingham Palace has 775 rooms. We have 6 rooms. Why is this so hard??

Our kitchen is one of those things that makes no sense. Sometimes in an apartment or house, you just scratch your head and go, huh? 'cuz it makes no sense at all, the arrangement of it, the layout. Because by some sleep deprived state of dementia, when we looked at the apartment 5 weeks ago, I (and my husband) neglected to notice that this kitchen has one tiny countertop, next to the sink, and it has NO DRAWERS AT ALL! Seriously! No drawers. In the entire kitchen. None. I mean, WTF? Who thought of that? Crazy! And how did I miss it? I told you this was an old building but really, no drawers? So, I decided to do something original, stop whining, and get a hutch of some sort and put it in the kitchen. There's room for one. We went to Target and found a nice kitchen cupboard, waist high, with a nice countertop and three drawers. Not in stock. Went to two more Targets. Not in stock, only the floor model, which we didn't want.

After all those stops, time was up and it was back to the work week. Then, this past Saturday, we moaned and groaned, set the alarm for 6 and headed out with bed-head, no showers and rumpled clothes (oh yes we are living the good life these days...) for a huge yard sale on the southside of Richmond. We got there, found almost no one set up, browsed a bit, and left. Oh, I did find two little woven kitchen rugs, which after washing, Mango immediately appropriated them for his new bed on the sofa. They're still there for him. Our pets are our kids, after all, and we deny them very little.

So we figured it was a wash and headed for the James River farmer's market, a stupendously wonderful organic market off of Forest Hill Avenue (for you locals who haven't been there, get on over there, it's fabulous) that also houses local artist's wares. Turning back the road to the market, we spied a woman pulling stuff out of an old house and setting up a yard sale. There, gleaming on the side of the road, was my cupboard-- a vintage white enamel top cupboard with black enamel trim and lovely mint green crackle paint. It has two large drawers on the left side, one deep bread drawer on the top right that has intact the original punched tin sliding top, and a large double sided storage area underneath with chrome handles. Michael hit the brakes and swung into the drive. The lady was ready to make deals, and by 8:30 a.m. we were putting Lucy in the front seat, folding back seats down and loading up the lovely little gem, my new kitchen cupboard. A good scrubbing with Dow bathroom cleaner removed some of the paint and all of the grime, and it's now resting prettily in its new home- our little dumb drawer-less kitchen, full of bamboo utensil trays, vintage aprons and dish towels.

A little something to be happy about, just what I needed. =)