Choice, Chance and Change

You must make the Choice,

To take the Chance,

If you want anything in life to Change.

So true.  A friend of mine (currently living on Jersey, in the Channel Islands) posted this to her Facebook page a few days ago and the thought has been with me ever since.

Make the Choice.

Take the Chance.

Experience the Change.

So simple. I wonder why it is that we never get off the ground on most of the changes we think we want? 

Personally, I think my biggest challenge is in making the choice - fear of making the choice? Perhaps. I can see something isn't working for me, I can feel it and I can taste it in my daily happenings, but sometimes I'm afraid of what happens next.  What happens AFTER I make the choice? If it doesn't work, sometimes I can go back to the old way, as long as I didn't burn bridges... but most of the time, once the choice is made and actions have been taken, there *is* no going back. 

This one sort of falls into the "evil you know" category for me. What eventually forces my hand, in almost all "negative impact" situations is that the current negative experience FAR outweighs the perceived "evil I don't know" - making it impossible for me to stay where I am, or doing what I am doing.  Thankfully, I have only had a couple of these experiences in life and have been able, once recognition kicks in, to make the choices and take the chances needed to force the change.

I know a lot of people who don't cope well with change.  They freely admit to it & avoid it at all costs. I have always liked it - change, when needed, is a great thing.  At work, at home, personally, professionally - change (when needed) is a great thing.  Change simply for the sake of change isn't necessarily the best thing in the world, but I haven't really lived my life by the adage that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"  because really, if you never look outside the windows to see what else is there, how do you know it actually ISN'T broken?

Taking chances all depends on your personal risk tolerance levels. Some people take loads of physical chances - bike riding without a helmet, driving without a seat belt, hell - running with scissors! Some people are more chance-oriented when it comes to their money (nope, not this girl, I need to ensure my "sleep at night" factor is covered) and some others are more chance-oriented with their lifestyle, relationships, locational choices... well, you get the picture.

As you can see, I have been chewing on this for a little while now.  I wonder, what are your thoughts on Choice, Chance and Change...?

With love across the waters,

Slow Progress - Wallpaper

Well, slowly I'm making progress. Slowly. The training program at work is making for some long days - not overly mentally intense, but long. 

Think chicken head moments whilst staring blindly at a computer screen after having already stared at said computer screen too long.

So by the time I get home all I really want to do is sit on the sofa and watch TV.  There is, however, still, dinner to get and a dog to walk. Dinner and dog done (how's THAT for alliteration at 7 in the morning?!) the projects here don't get dealt with.  And then, as any dog owner knows, there are the evenings (or early mornings) where on your walk, said dog rolls in something that smells like crap that got eaten & then vomited back up AND had anal glands expressed all over it.  Like last night AND this morning.  This required said dog to be placed in bathtub and washed. Said dog is, by the way, not happy with me now - and I don't understand how it is MY fault that she rolled in this foul stuff and had to have TWO baths in a 12 hour period, but WHATever.

Anyhow, tangents aside, this post was about removing ugly wallpaper.  Come to think of it, the next few posts will probably be about removal of ugly wallpaper.  Last night, sitting on the love seat (after canine bath #1) I looked up at the peeling off wallpaper on the wall at the front door.

These thumbnails don't do the hideousness justice.  Think mustard yellow paint (I think it is actually supposed to be Harvest Gold) and then a wall covered in wallpaper that looks like this:

Gah - I KNOW, right?

It isn't a perfect removal job - there were spots where the glue really did hold the paper to the wall, but that is something I can live with until December when I rent the steamer to remove the rest of it, setting up the walls for patching, sanding and then PAINTING.  Anyhow, that wall now looks like this:

Next up, since I was already on a roll, I tackled one kind (there were two) of wallpaper in the bedroom I have taken over as mine.  Before:

And here's an up close of that little beauty:

OK, truly not quite as bad as the living room one, but still!!

And here's after 1 of the two kinds in there have been removed:

And yes, those curtain holder things HAVE to go!  ALL of the lace curtains in the house have been garbaged, I will likely get rid of all of the horizontal blinds as well & replace them with curtains, but right now I can live with them the way they are.  I can't live with the wallpaper.

Next I plan to tackle the bathroom. What I need to do in there is quite a bit bigger than JUST wallpaper removal.  I have already taken care of having the toilet replaced, but in the immediate I need to remove wallpaper, replace the light fixture and paint - it's heavy and dark in there and at present it is #1 on my can't live with it list.

Now, just so that you don;t get the wrong idea about this, I want to clarify that I LOVE doing this stuff - there's something intensely satisfying to me about pulling off ugly old wallpaper and being rewarded by knowing that I really did see the amazing potential of this home underneath.  I love the creation in painting - and I REALLY love the joy of knowing I can do these things myself.  Sometimes with help, but knowing that I really am capable of learning how to, and then doing these things myself, well, it's a pretty darn good feeling.

And here's some early morning beauty from my back yard.  It is a Granny Smith tree and tomorrow my plan, after getting home from Mum & Dad's place, is to harvest apples and then, as time permits through the week, make LOADS of sliced apples to freeze and apple sauce to enjoy through the winter. I have some great recipes for apple cake and pies and am excited by the idea of making these things with apples from my very own tree!

With love across the waters & wishes for a safe & happy Canadian Thanksgiving,