Cutting through the Clutter

"Each morning sees some task begin,

Each evening sees it close;

Something attempted, something done,

Has earned a night’s repose." – Longfellow

Can you relate to this quote? I'm telling you, it surely fits me. I love to create whether it's decorating around the house, sewing something up, or baking a dish. I HAVE TO CREATE! The problem is I like to see it DONE FAST! Just like the quote above says, I like to start something in the morning that I can see completed when the day is over (and sooner is better). ;=) Can anybody relate?

My current dilemma is that I have a BIG project going on which is going to take a little longer than a day. You see in a few months, my SIL will be heading to Iraq to serve his country in the National Guard. My sweet pregnant daughter, grandson, and two dogs will be moving in with us while he is away. This, as you can imagine, provides me with lots of opportunities to create while rearranging my house which now occupies only two empty nesters. Can you say PANIC?!

Don't get me wrong. I'm so glad to have them join us, but as I'm making plans and starting my renovations, I haven't earned my "night's repose" and I can't even see it getting close. If you're a person like me who needs instant gratification, this can be a problem. :=)

So that brings me to tonight's post. (Bet you thought I'd never get here.) Now here's a project I can get done in a day! And so I did and oh, how I feel better...sigh. Can you say THERAPY?!

My kitchen was overdue for a spruce up. Nothing major, but I had previously decorated the tops of my cabinets with old vintage items and intertwined them with greenery and grapes. Well, I liked it when I first put it up, but it's been up a while and lately I've been waaaay past it! I wanted a cleaner look and, well, let's be honest, something I could get done in a day.

The photo above is a "before" shot. All of the tops of my cabinets looked something like this - filled with clutter! Isn't it funny how when you first decorate, you think it looks divine and some time later, it looks like clutter! ;=) Do you ever think that way too or is it just me?

I thought about clearing everything off the top of my cabinets, but after looking at it for a while I thought it looked a little sparse, so here's the same cabinet after I got rid of most of the greenery and rearranged my vignette.

Here's another...

And another...

Next, I decided to stencil a favorite quote above my sink. "If a pot is cooking, the friendship's warm." It just makes me smile every time I look at it. :=)

What a good feeling it is to clear and cut through the clutter and "earn a night's repose".
And what a good feeling to share with you and check out all of your changes at Susan's Metamorphosis Monday.