Doors open

Well, the big news around here is that a writer and a photographer from the Springfield News-Leader will be walking through my doors this coming Wednesday to do a story on our house for the Homes section that runs each Sunday. I am trying to focus on the word flattered right now, rather than the word panic, and I've been walking around my house for days tweaking little things here and there and trying to see all my junk from an outsider's perspective. I only talked to the writer this past Monday, and I was thinking I would have weeks or even months before she got to us, but instead I've got a matter of days. I do wish it was spring, or even Christmas, when things seem more alive and interesting rather than tucked into the winter doldrums, but the writer said they'll focus on the interior and will only be here for about 30 minutes. So I'll do what I can do and that will be enough. One thing I've been meaning to do forever that I marked off my list last weekend was to back the glass on the French doors to my office/craft room with burlap so that if a project or two or three has exploded in there and I want to hide or ignore it, I can shut the doors and none will be the wiser.

The door knobs are faux, cast iron (or is it wrought iron and/or is there a difference?) purchased on half-price from the knobs/pulls aisle at Hobby Lobby and screwed on in a somewhat rickety fashion by yours truly. I tucked a book page snippet behind the faux keyhole just because. They do allow me to pull the doors closed, but they don't go through to the other side, so I could theoretically be trapped in there for days. I can think of worse fates.

I did the same treatment, this time with some scrap leopard print I had around (or is it cheetah?), to the glass doors of a chippy cabinet that I have had for a few years but has only in this house found both a home and a purpose. It hangs above the toilet in the little WC in our master bath and holds all manner of bathroom unmentionables, now veiled in a feline fashion. Both jobs took only a glue gun and very little time, so I don't know why I didn't take care of this sooner. Oh yeah, I had to get out the iron and ironing board. That's why.

So I'm looking at the newspaper visit this way, in part because I could potentially have a maximum meltdown if I didn't and partly because there is so much I love about my house and what's in it as is...I'm thinking I will focus on 3-4 key rooms over the next 3 days, including the kitchen, living room, my book page powder room and maybe the master bath for overall photos, and then I think there are plenty of smaller, interesting vignettes, in those and other rooms, that could make up the rest of the shoot. I don't particularly want my bedroom pictured, or any of the sad and winter-weary outdoor spaces, or even Macauley's room. Especially not the bonus room, which was trashed last night when Macauley hosted his BFF Kalin for a very successful sleepover and--this is so not me and so embarrassing--still has a fully decorated Christmas tree up! That's just the room that's so far away in the house from where I normally plant myself, and so often played in by Macauley and his pals, that I just put my blinders on in regards to it. I've been re-working the guest room, but I still think there are better things to see in my house than it. I've still got a lot of work to do, and my friend Barb and I spent the day shopping in Ozark today getting inspired. We had major shopping karma today and both found many treasures. So...I won't panic. I'll prioritize and present what I've put together without the pressure of the entire place being perfect (couldn't help being alliterative there...long-time English teacher). And it will be okay. Won't it?