Thinking about what to write this week, I was going to say it was a slow week because of the holiday, but we actually have been busy this week. We (James primarily) have been diligently filling our dumpster – and it is nearly there!

It has been slow going. As I mentioned last week, the percentage of garbage compared to the overall amount of stuff is actually quite small, so extracting the garbage is a slow and sometimes arduous process of pulling and sorting and cleaning. We also ended up putting a lot of recyclable stuff (mostly cardboard) in this one, which we should have better ways of getting rid of in the future. For now, we just need to get enough debris out of the way that the pieces of our slide puzzle can actually move!

The next piece we hope to fit into place is the second-floor parlor, traditionally referred to as the “ladies parlor.” When we were kids, that room was always the kids’ hang-out/TV room, and we plan to use it for a similar purpose. We’ll still use the third-floor loft room, me for writing and social media stuff, James for eBay and gaming, but it would be nice to have a comfy space with a couch and some cozy chairs to watch TV or visit with friends.

The first step (for me) in the parlor was making a space for my plant. You may recall me mentioning Annie Ivy several posts ago – she’s the plant I’ve had longer than I’ve been with my husband 😆. A friend bought her for me at a greenhouse in Potsdam, NY in early summer 2002. I wanted a plant for my first solo apartment, and I didn’t even know where to get one. My friend was going to the greenhouse to buy seedlings for his garden, so I tagged along. At the greenhouse, I was told that they didn’t typically sell indoor plants that time of year, but that I could purchase the ivy they had hanging by the register. I happily agreed, but then I didn’t have quite enough cash and my friend bought it for me 🙃.

All these years (and all these moves!) later, she is still going strong… in fact, she is quite big, with loong, intertwining tendrils. We needed to find a place where she could wrap her tendrils around things and take up residence for a while. The bay window in the upstairs parlor is perfect – lots of space for her to stretch out, good light, and it’s a place where we’ll hang out (plants are people, too – it’s important to hang out with the ones you love) ❤️.

It was a bit of an undertaking just to get Annie untangled and properly hung. I actually thought I was nearly done when I realized I had different tendrils off the same main stalk (? idk the proper terminology 😆) going in opposite directions, so I had to carefully take a bunch down and reorient them, making sure to not re-tangle them in the process 🙃

Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll continue to work on the parlor, putting things we won’t use but can’t yet part with in the spaces James has carved out on the third-floor and in the basement. I hope to get it cleared out enough to put a small Christmas tree in there, since we really don’t have another place to put one at the moment 🙃🎄.

From there we march ever onward. I have been very busy with social media stuff, trying to post on all the platforms, learning what works, best practices, etc. I attended a live session with Amy Jackson just last night and it has me fired up about making this thing happen 🔥. While it is all a bit (okay sometimes very) overwhelming, I have been having a lot of fun with it. Learning the video editing, finding the right music & fonts and all that is the kind of creative thing I can really sink my teeth into. And now after the live session, I am super excited to tap into the creator community – to connect with other small creators, to learn from each other and lift each other up ❤️.

Shout out in the comments if you found me through Amy Jackson!

For everyone – What do you think about social media? Love it? Hate it? Somewhere in the middle? What’s your favorite platform? I have lots of feelings 🙃. Obviously now I’m hoping I can turn it into a living, so that changes my relationship with it quite a bit. I hate that all the platforms are owned by huge evil corporations, but I love that the opportunity exists for small creators to support one another in simple ways, like following each other and reacting, commenting on, and sharing each other’s posts (hint, hint 😉). However, if it wasn’t for Amy’s live, I have no idea how I would have connected with other creators with small (but growing 😁) followings like mine – I wish there was some way to encourage the algorithms to do that 🤔

Anywho, as they say – like, follow, and subscribe! (also comment, apparently that’s super important 🤣) We’re Old House, New Chapter on FB, Insta, TikTok, and YouTube

Special shoutout to Leah Goat, who comments on every post. I love that so much. It feels like a hug every time I see you’ve commented ❤️❤️❤️