The kingdom of Cupboard

Do you remember the poem we all sang out as kids... ":I'm the king of the castle and you're a dirty rascal!"?
I remember standing on various piles of dirt above my friends and brother  feeling on top of the world and triumphantly declaring my authority! Alas, if it were only true now. I want to be the queen in my cupboard, but it seems that the royal station is one that's not admired or respected, especially by four legged creatures, and various two legged ones. I truly think that the cat thinks she is the head honcho lol. She does keep the dogs in line, most of the time...of course claws make a difference! Hmmm, perhaps that is what I need. I have to say that being the queen would be nice, and I am sure that the responsibilities faced by the royals would feel like a cake walk in comparison to what I deal with in my little under the stairs dwelling. I do love everyone and everything that reside in my crazy world with me, but at times I would love it if they would give me space. It really is sad to think that my cupboard has become too small due to the fact that the stress here is so large. Stress takes up a lot of space in every one's life here in the kingdom of cupboard. I guess stress is like the kingdom's dragon. In fact this dragon has even made it difficult for me to have un- muddled thoughts!
(Insert big sigh)... I would love to have a vacation somewhere out of the kingdom of cupboard, but mine is a poor kingdom and really rather than being the queen I am but a pauper. Oh well, I think that if I put things in perspective my life could always be worse..after all some don't even have a cupboard to live in. I have to say thank you to the universe for giving me a cupboard to live in, and it has just occurred to me that almost all dragons have treasure hidden somewhere... so that opens up the possibility of a new adventure in search of untold wealth and riches!!

With love from the cupboard,
Amanda

Chaotic Cupboards

I know that most of my cupboards are places to store things that I don't want sitting out in the open. After all is put inside the cupboard, there  is the  pleasure of closing the door and hiding what is  crammed inside. I said crammed as I do have too much stuff sometimes and I have a difficult time purging. I do purge every now and again and then there is room in the cupboard for other things that I tire of looking at daily. The unfortunate thing is that I live in a cupboard and there is too much stuff all the time. It may sound horrible but sometimes there are too many living things in my cupboard too! I do love them all, but sometimes I don't like them. The past few days have been chaotic and my frustrations are affecting the energy around me. I wonder why sometimes it seems that when I am annoyed all the living creatures around me seem to do things to further frustrate and annoy me! I know that it really is that when a person is annoyed any little thing seems worse than it really is. For instance as I sit here and type, thinking I had successfully hidden away for a small moment of time to myself, my son bursts into the room and asks for food. I know it sounds callus of me to think that this is an imposition, except that he ate two full plates of food for dinner, and there are two other capable people in the cupboard he could ask.  On top of it the dog is barking outside and all seem to be stricken with deafness!!  Phew. Today is definitely a day that my cupboard is literally too small for all the energy that is crammed into it. I feel a purge session coming on, all I need to do now is decide what stays and what goes.  I think some of the first things to go will be the testicles of two large male puppies that seem to think they own the joint! Crazy in the cupboard!

With love from my cupboard,
Amanda

Calm Cupboards

Here it is late at night in my cupboard. and most of the creatures are snuggled up ready for bed. Others, like the mice will of course scurry about all night while making up stories about the humans lol. There are far too many mice in this cupboard. My daughter's boyfriend works in a pet store and has a soft spot for animals. For many days he would bring mice over after saving them from a fate more horrible than death... becoming snake food. The only porblem is that he failed to correctly seperate the females from the males and the result was babies! I have to admit that it is very educational for my son to see how animals take care of their young. Baby mice are very cute after they get their fur, so it is hard to want to find homes for all these little fuzzy mice. The result I am sure will be the mice eating me out of house and home. I have just spent time trying to fairly divide the stale bread, lettuce and crackers among all the little munchers. When it all gets to be too much I just keep asking myself  "in five years will this matter?" Of course living in the now is more important and life is too short to worry about the small stuff, even if that small stuff is far too many mice for one sane person to have as pets!

With love from my cupboard,
Amanda

Painted cupboards

Tuesday, I always like Tuesday. I think first it is because I typically have this day off. I go to the gym for two of my favourite classes with one of my favourite teachers. I did that this morning, and it was lovely. Yes painful at first as it is a lot of work, but how I feel at the end is worth it. Then the rest of the day is usually spent doing what a lot of working moms do... housework, laundry, entertaining their kids and other projects they have on the go. My on the go project is painting my son's room. Sounds easy enough. If only it were so. Painting a room for either of my children always involves an elaborate plan they have cooked up. My daughter and son came up with a design for his room that involved painting rectangles and squares all over one wall. Simple enough yet time consuming. Four different colours of blue and blackboard paint. So I guess I got an extra workout today as I climbed up and down with the level drawing lines! As I sit here and type my daughter and her friend are taping off the design in preparation for the next step. I have to admit I am excited to see what it will look like after all is done. My son is eager too. He can't wait to draw with chalk on the wall and not get in trouble for defacing his room. Really, when I think about it, it doesn't take too much to make kids happy. A couple gallons of paint and some elbow grease will put a smile on most kids' faces. The best part is that they helped me and that makes them feel a sense of accomplishment and pride. It's a wonderful experience for us all. Doing things like this is good for me too as it has made me less uptight and taught me how to let go of control. It really amazes me that even as we age we have so much to learn. Perhaps we have more to learn than when we were young. By mid life we have many learned behaviours that can control our lives and learning to be flexible and let go of control can be difficult. I am glad that my kids like to help with these projects. Sometimes, if it were not for their enthusiasm, I would not spend time doing any projects that are creative. I am sure instead I would be caught up in the mundane routine that life can become.After the creative juices were flowing, I spent some time finishing a painting for my bathroom. I did something very linear and graphic which is unlike my usual painting style. I finished the edges of the canvas with a silver leaf treatment. It is an interesting way to do the edges, and adds so much more than simply putting a frame on the piece. I can't wait to spray it with varnish so I can hang it up! All in all this Tuesday has been a good day of painting and creating in my cupboard. The only sad part is that it is almost over and tomorrow I am back to work.

With love from my cupboard,
Amanda

Closing the cupboard door

Today was a good day. Even though the sun was hiding behind grey clouds I still found the energy to ride my bike to work. However, I have to admit that now I am tired. When I arrived home after a full busy work day I was greeted by the smell of brownies baking. What a lovely aroma to come home to. Nothing says home more than the warmth of the oven and the smell of baked goods full of love. These of course were made by daughter. I love that she is baking. She mostly does so for her brother. Today it was so that he and his friend had a treat after dinner. It is a little hard to resist eating all the goodies myself! I try hard to watch what I eat and be conscious of a healthy diet, but what is life if one cannot have a brownie now and then! She made me a nice hot cup of tea and I sat down to relax with half a brownie. It was not long before I started to nod off :)
This is when I would love to close my cupboard door and crawl into bed. If only I could. Too many people gather in my cupboard in the evenings to watch television.  I find sometimes that my cup 'board' runneth over! I think that it is important to have boundaries and to know when is the right time to open my cupboard to all, and when to close the cupboard door. I think now is the time  to quietly close the door and make my cupboard quiet, pull out my copy of Artful Blogging and crawl into my soft bed. What a lovely thought.

With love from my cupboard,
Amanda

Clean Cupboards

I love it when I come home from a long day at work, and let's face it they are all long days, and someone has cleaned the cupboard. It makes the chaos into which I walk each time I arrive home a little easier to handle. It makes the end of the day as beautiful as the beginning. This feeling of joy was furnished by my eighteen year old daughter who is awesome! The day outside today was glorious. The sky was that promise of spring blue. Light and frosty at the horizon in the early part of the day and then a warmer blue as the afternoon arrives. I like the spring with it's fresh promise of new things. Crisp sunny days that are cool enough to be refreshing yet not too cold. I can still see snow on the mountain caps as they cast a shadow on the spring flowers just beginning to bloom. It is days like this that make me believe that all can be right with the world, regardless of how many wrinkles I experience at work. This is the feeling that makes me know that my cupboard is so full of love... and right now that love is mixed with the smell of home made cookies, also furnished by my awesome daughter.

With love from my cupboard,
Amanda

With love from my cupboard

I am sure you are wondering if love from my cupboard comes in the form of baked goods, or some delicious food. Well at the risk of disappointing you, I have to be honest and tell you that I don't really like to cook, so love from my cupboard has nothing to do with such things. I know that all the people I work with will understand why I chose the name, but seeing as they will be unlikely to follow me on here I will explain :)
I live in a small basement suite, in a house that I co-own. It is a long tedious story, so I will spare you the details. I like to refer to my small abode as my cupboard, and have been know to throw about phrases such as "my cupboard is so small that if I swung a cat by it's tail it would hit all four walls"... of course I would never do such a thing but it does give quite an interesting mental image of my cupboard lol. Another reason I chose this name is because it is something I would hear my mother say as I grew up. I, and my family, came to Canada from England and that is a country that has a lot of interesting and strange sayings, such as cupboard love. My mother would always refer to the love our many pets showed us as "nothing but cupboard love". I myself use this saying often when the dogs or cat show me affection. It of course it really means showing love or attention for the purpose of some kind of personal gain. My dog Milo is a classic cupboard love creature. He thinks with his stomach! He will only listen if he thinks I have a treat for him... typical male! His brother, Rocky, is less of a stomach thinker and more inclined to do as asked for the reward of a scratch behind the ear. Pal, my little ankle nipper, will do anything for a piece of toast, I think. Hmm, come to think of it ,I just offer him the toast and expect nothing in return. It seems Pal is the smartest of all the creatures. He has me trained! Our little kitten just takes what she wants and gives me that look that makes me understand that this is really her cupboard! So now you can see that my cupboard is not only small but also crammed full of creatures, both four and two legged. That is why it is full of love. I can't say that I love living in  a cupboard, but I do like that my cupboard is full of love :)

With love from my cupboard,
Amanda