"And In This Corner . . . "
Greetings,
It was at least 20 years ago. It might have even been from a magazine. I still remember the first time I heard it used as one of life's rules. And the more I thought about it . . . it kinda seemed true. "There are three things in life. A great home. A great job. A great relationship. The only caveat is . . . you can only have 2 of the 3 at any given time."
Great houses, great jobs, and great relationships each take a great amount of focus and time. And though I've never liked the idea of letting one 'slide' to focus on the other two, when I look back over the last 20 years . . . sometimes it felt like the saying might be sort of true. But, sadly - I've let one of them slide too far. And for too long.
Oddly, this post started out as something else all together. You see, my house and I have been fighting the last few weeks. After lavishing hours of attention . . . and a goodly pile of cash . . . on the house for a photo shoot last month, I started spending my time on other things. Catching up at the office. Spending time with Drew. Well, like any other jealous lover, the house has not responded well to being ignored. Instead of feeling its loving embrace each night when I get home . . . it's just been sitting there. Glaring at me in the semi-darkness. With everything but a, "and . . . where have you been?" lingering in the room.
Then I remember that old chestnut about not being able to have it all . . . . and then I decided that I was not going to hold myself to such a low standard . . .
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| Clara Bow |
So . . . starting last night . . . my house and I made up. Hell, after re-organizing half my closet and a good part of my kitchen, we practically made-out.
I can remember years ago . . . working on an installation for a large home. We had been there for several days. Placing all of the furniture. Hanging all of the artwork. Slowly and carefully placing all the accessories and decorative pillows throughout the house. As my client walked into her living room - filled with fresh flowers . . . and still a few delivery people . . . and me . . . and my staff . . . and the cleaning service . . . she commented, "I never realized how much it was going to take for the house to look amazing!" And I replied, almost without thinking, "Living a fabulous life is hard work. Sometimes it even counts as cardio."
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| Barbara Standwick |
Fight the good fight,
Scot
UPDATE : James, so are SO right. It's a quote from Maupin's "Tales of the City."
Comments
And, agreed, once we've started keeping up with the house, oy vey, it is cardio!
debra
Eve
Cleaning, repairing, updating, painting, restyling etc. our homes are so lucky to have us love having them. Once this plan is in place then the car start to have a jealous fit too...oh my... gotta share the love!
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
1. I've come to accept, peacefully, that it doesn't mean failure if only two of those cyclinders ever fire in harmony together, while the third sputters and languishes. It's ok.
2. And the languishing-sputtering cylinder will suddenly one day, kick into full engagement...but usually in concert with the leading, most efficiently firing-preening cylinder's decision to sputter in response.
3. And finally, I'm in the midst of disassembling my nest-home-man cave that I've evolved over the last decade. And the idea of that particular cylinder, the one constant cylinder that hasn't sputtered for one moment amidst a decade where the other two have at times--gone completely dead--is huge.
Sorry. I think I just did a whole damned blog post on your site.
"And In This Corner . . . "
Many thanks, fairly refreshing, I enjoyed reading your article, You are wonderful!
Thank you!
I never miss a post from you and THIS is the very reason why!!! Kudos to you, and may God continue to bless you in EVERY way!!!
That line you told your client...priceless!!!! I swear, my house and I are definitely at a stalemate right now. Window boxes being ripped down, waiting for the new ones to go up, once the house is painted. Buzzing of chain saws in the background. Me retreating to my bedroom for sanity. Landscaper waiting for contractor to paint the exterior so they don't trample the plants. Who knew it was this hard and this much work.
End is somewhat in sight...and this made me realize. It really does take work. And patience!
Fight on!
xo Elizabeth
And speaking of corners, great bobbing and weaving on Pinterest last week as well. I jumped in your corner and boxed for ya.
http://chezviviv.blogspot.com/2012/03/thumbs-up-or-down-pinterest-manners.html