Wednesday, September 12, 2007

the things you'll do to avoid cleaning

I had great intentions, as you saw, on Monday. Clean and clean and clean.

And, guess what...I did clean. But right smack in the middle of cleaning, I made up a new, very unnecessary project.

You see, the wall above the mantel had some soot stains from some candles burned ages ago. Oh, I need to clean those, I thought. I took out my super dooper Mr. Clean sponge (which I love very much) Well, in my zeal to tackle this long abandoned and ignored but now suddenly vitally important sooty problem, I took the paint off the wall. I don't know what I uncovered...drywall? who knows. But what I do know is that what was uncovered was uglier by far than soot. And, as you know, soot is ugly.

So this is what I did smack dab in the middle of serious cleaning...



A wispy watercolored sky and landscape to serve as a backdrop for my miniature village. I just got the chalkware houses this week and they are among my very favorite things in the whole wide world.

If you're wondering why I was cleaning so much or rather putting off cleaning so much, my friends Pam, Lorraine and Pat all came over today to help me put together packages for the current Club Little House...48 participants each sending in 12 items. You do the math, I'm too tired to even blink my eyes.

It didn't even matter one iota that I'd cleaned because the house was completely trashed with all the Club Little House goings on. Here, see for yourself...

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your mantel and little village look awesome. What a clever solution to the "cleaning incident" problem.

As one of the impending recipients of Club Little House treasures, I thank all of you for your hard work.

SOINSPIRED said...

I just want to reach through the screen and open one of those boxes.

Anonymous said...

I could not possibly be more excited about CLH. NOT POSSIBLE!

Saucy said...

I think Club Little House looks like a little bit of a confusing endeavour this time round! Glad you had help!

Yummers! said...

Can you tell me a bit about Club Little House. If you check my blog you'll see that I'm in the middle of dollhouse construction and would love to connect with others.
Joni

Lilli in Vancouver said...

I love how you're brave and creative enough to just redirect your 'cleaning' project into an adorable panorama :)

Unknown said...

o i love your mini mural!! i wish i still ahd a fire place and mantle in my new house now.

Christen said...

No one will even notice that your house isn't cleaned when they lay their eyes on your adorable little mural! Anyone can clean but not everyone can cook up something as cute as that!

Heather - Speckled Egg said...

Love your backdrop for your little village! What a great idea!!!!

Thanks again for all of your work on CLH! I can hardly wait to see the goodies!

Tammy Gilley said...

Oh, I'm just so excited about receiving my CLH box! Thanks so much for hosting, Sweet Amy! What a lot of work. xoxo

Judy said...

Oh, that is too too cute.

Must go find some soot to scrub...

tricia stirling said...

I wish my cleaning procrastinations turned out to be wonderful pieces of magic! gorgeous.

Anonymous said...

Wow, Amy! It all looks amazingly organized! What a big project. So glad you had help.

Anonymous said...

Ooh, I want to go "clean" over my mantel right now. How hard did you scrub to remove the paint? Perhaps I could just encourage the kids to write on the wall there with permanent markers.

JUDY CORONA said...

I've been cleaning this weekend, too. I'm SOOOO into the Mr. Clean sponge. It is an awesome cleaning tool. Love your mantle. I'm going to be posting some pics of my artful overkill mantle adornments soon. In fact you've inspired me to go take those photos pronto. Love your blog. Thanks!!!!

~Molly~ said...

Ohhhh, that mantle!! How SWEET!!!!

Mine is dark Mexican brick ugly with a dark wooden mantle board(made by my dad so I can't touch it). I may have to find some canvases to put back there though.

Molly