Life Needs a Face Punch

Life Needs a Face Punch

Way back when I started this blog, I told ya’ll that being creative seemed to be my coping mechanism of choice. Life had been dealing me one upheaval after another and by the time we moved to Ohio, I found that being creative helped me deal with the aftermath of all the changes.

While I was trying to deal with my separation anxiety from moving 2,000 miles away from my 18-year-old Baby Girl, I made the following:

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Don’t get me wrong. Life does not have to be chaotic in order for me to produce something crafty. When the waters of life are as calm as glass, I still feel the need to create.

When things are not so troubled, I come up with things like this:

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However, when the storms of life start raging, my desire to create becomes an OVERWHELMING need. I HAVE to create something. If you thwart me in this desire, things are going to get ugly. It’s in these moments when I tend to fixate on a project and I can’t stop until I’ve figured it out or I completed the project.

I came up with the idea for the pipe-strapping basket during such a moment.

Maybe I’m trying to escape. Maybe the act of creating something useful or beautiful is a balm of sorts for me. Whatever the deeper meaning, the impact is still the same. There are simply times I NEED to create.

For example, I have this dresser. I’m not even sure it can be called a dresser. Perhaps Massive Double Chest of Drawers, or MDCOD for short, would be a better description. (Excuse the crappy phone picture. It’s the best I can find right now).

This is another one of the things we inherited from Hub’s folks. It used to be in Kiddo’s room, but we moved it out of there when we rearranged the rooms. One of the handles broke off the drawer and while I have the handle to fix it, I could never bring myself to do it. Why throw good effort after Ugly? It chafes me like a metaphorical pair of too-tight Big Girl Panties to put energy, time and money into something I don’t like to begin with.

This MDCOD resides in my office and holds craft supplies. It’s a really great use for the MDCOD.  BUT.  It seriously needs to be froufed up, dontcha think?  The 1950’s faux cedar finish has Got.To.Go. I want to take off the bar pulls and do something different. I’m thinking of a mash-up of these ideas.

Star knot light pull in hemp and cotton

Despite my BURNING DESIRE to get to work on this project, Hubs refuses, REFUSES! to let me start another project right now. While he’s probably right, it makes me seriously want to face punch Life right about now for getting between me and this project. Life is keeping me from my therapy.

Before you get your feminine-rights hackles all raised up in my defense, let me remind you that I’m supposed to be moving. In three weeks. To a new house. And I may, or may not, have started packing. Anything. At all.

Also, I have be on Buddy like a politician on a donation to make sure he finishes up his Advanced English homework for the summer. While this may not sound like work to you, trust me. It is W.O.R.K. to make sure he’s not “forgetting” about this responsibility.

We also are in the process of doing in-take evaluations for my sister-in-law, Katie, so she can participate in the local day programs. We (mostly me) are helping her establish a routine and trying to figure out how much help and assistance she needs on a daily basis.

Those things that are not physical work, are emotional work. I swear, the emotional stuff is more tiring. I know I could do a smaller scale project, but I really don’t have the energy to think up a smaller project. I know. That makes no sense at all. But, I already know how I want to do all of the projects on my list. I just need life to cooperate so I can actually do them.

Everything I want to work on right now is big.

Paint the dining room table and reupholster the chairs:

Refinish the piano to an aged silver finish:

Plus, there’s all my fun Door Projects.

I have a couple of other smaller furniture projects I want to get done before the weather gets too cold, not to mention what I’ll want/need to do in the new home.

Gah! All this creativity with no where to go can make a gal twitchy. And Grumpy. And seriously wanting to face punch something. Life better get out of my way, toot sweet, or I may not be liable for my actions.

“You hear me, Life? Back Off, already! You do NOT want to mess with me!” *Finger Snap. Finger Snap. Finger Snap.* “Mmmmm hmmmmm. You heard me.”

Did I sound scary enough? Do you think Life heard me? I bet Life is runnin’ scared now!