It’s a stressful week! Everything is terrible!! But I keep watching this video of lil sandpipers that someone used as musical notes and just smiling:
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I also have to remember this: 
And remember my Didion:
Wednesday Essay: “How To Stay Hopeful”
Here’s an essay from last summer from designer and writer Mike Monteiro this week, which popped into my head because of that terrifying Ring Superbowl ad. The whole thing is heartening, but the ending here is the pull quote I saved:
Our current dystopia is built on fear. Fear of our neighbors. Fear of our communities. Fear of others. Fear that they will eventually come for you, so why not offer them someone else in your place. It’s easy to fall for this and let dystopia wash over you. You literally have to do nothing. You can sit there, thinking that it’s all too big to fix, because it is very very big. And it is very very bad.
Dystopia is easy. You take what people are afraid of and tell them it’s right outside their door. The cure is to open the door and see the truth for yourself. What’s on the other side of the door is your neighbors, and some of them brought donuts.
There is hope. As long as you are here, and I am here, and we are here there is hope. It may not be a lot, but with every hopeful step you take there’s a little more.
Tuesday Project Roundup: A Paper Project
I pulled out the book board and papers and made a tissue box cover for the new bathroom over the weekend:
It had been a while since I worked with the thinner Italian papers vs. the forgiving Japanese ones but we made it work. And we have some nice pops of orange in there now:
And! We finally got shower glass last week, so everything is DONE-done now:
Projects That Are Almost Invisible
The fresh snowy white paint down in the new sewing lair made me realize how dingy the rest of the white paint in the house is. I guess it makes sense–I closed 15 years ago tomorrow (!)–but if we’re going to sell in a few years, we’ll need to paint anyway, and why not enjoy new paint until then?
So I started with the old sewing room because it was still empty. I prepped over the week and knocked it all out Sunday and ended up with a room that…looks the same in photos!
Before: 
After: 
Up close, though, it looks really good. There was a weird ghosting coming through at the roof line from the 2x4s (you can see it above the window in the before) and some blocking primer and paint fixed that, along with 15 years worth of scuffs and dings and nail holes.
It looks SO good that I’ve realized I’m going to have to do the whole house, not just a few rooms. It’s good to have projects, I guess.
Friday Links
1. Is your blood pressure high? I recommend watching seven minutes of cheetahs running in slow motion. (Bonus, you can see the toy they pulled along for one to chase.) 
2. And then you can get your blood pressure back up with this essay from Mike Moneteiro about voting with your wallet.
Oligarchs like Tim Cook and Elon Musk have shown us their ass. But when you show someone your ass you end up also exposing your neck. America has one neck, and it’s capitalism. Which runs on your dollar. If you want to change how America works, change where you’re putting your dollar.
3. How about a Rebecca Solnit quote to take us into the weekend?
The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean that we cannot save anything and everything we can save is worth saving. You may need to grieve or scream or take time off, but you have a role, no matter what, and right now good friends and good principles are worth gathering in. Remember what you love. Remember what loves you. Remember in this tide of hate what love is. The pain you feel is because of love.
Wednesday Vibes
The mood for February:
My mood when I think about taxes this year (by Wizard of Barge):
This is incredibly accurate. We had no idea…
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Wish I could go on a beach vacation and relax! (Sound on for screaming.)
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Wednesday Poem
Everything is bad but we have friends. If you need to, come over. (We’ll show you the basement!)
We Have Enough Friends
by Lena Oleanderson
Come over. The doors are open,
my flat’s a mess and
so is my heart
but the doors are always open.
Come over. I will make soup,
probably from frozen but
the important thing is
we will both eat.
You don’t have to be dying,
but if you are,
or feel like you are,
or if living’s been hard,
call me, and I will show up.
It doesn’t have to be that bad,
it doesn’t have to be bad at all,
but if it is, please call.
Do you want me to do the groceries?
Do you want me to mop the floors?
Do you need to be held;
you don’t have to be dying to be held.
If you want me to be there, I want to.
I’m on the bathroom floor again,
and breathing is hard,
and eating’s been hard, and sleeping,
the world is a laden thing
rolling around on my chest lately.
Just being alive is heavy tonight,
but we have enough dead friends.
Come over.
Decorating Instead Of Sewing
I’ve been hanging pictures and drilling cabinets for hardware instead of sewing (or even knitting) but the new Luxury Sewing Lair in the basement is all set up!
This is what you see when you walk in. I need to make machine covers (the fabric is just draped here) and I’m waiting for a tabletop ironing board to arrive to go on that far left desk. (My regular ironing board is huge and I don’t need it unless I’m ironing lengths of fabric, so that’s going to stay in the closet.)
On the other side of the room, we have the thing that gave me the idea to finish the basement in the first place: I wanted a guest room. Sure, I ended up making a Luxury Sewing Lair instead but I still wanted the ability to turn this into a space for guests. So there’s an ensuite bathroom down here and that blue chaise opens like a book into a queen bed. (Still need to make some throw pillow covers.)
And on the far end of the room, there’s fabric storage and the record player. I’m debating adding a TV over there, too, but the decorating budget is maxed out for a while.
I love this space, though. Other than the chaise and the doors to the cabinets, I had all the other furniture pieces; they just got shuffled around the house. I can wheel the little coffee table out of the way and cut stuff out on a nice thick rug and generally luxuriate in a room I dreamed about when I bought the house 15 years ago.
Seeing Green
Let’s ignore the fact that we’re seeing green because there hasn’t been any snow this winter and yesterday was 50 degrees in the mountains and instead just enjoy some growing things:
Friday Links
1. There’s a general strike today in solidarity with Minneapolis, comrades! (And if you can’t miss work, here are 20 other ways you can show up. Collective action takes many forms.)
2. If you’re local, there’s a rally at 2:00 at Washington Square downtown. I already made my sign:
3. It’s been a LONG terrible month but Sunday is February at least? I’ve also been doing Dry January–so I appreciated this post about managing anxiety without booze.