Count your blessings, big and small

In order to go forth and continue with life and be in a good place mentally, I do my daily blessings when I awake. This helps, it truly does. 

First and most obvious is my family, all of them including our furbabies. 

I am grateful for a roof over my head which we finally got the leaking to stop when we were able to get the roof fixed. I am grateful that despite the rising costs of everything, we can afford to keep our house comfortable. We always have food on the table and even have leftovers. 

Blessings do not have to be grandiose, they just have to be what makes you grateful, what makes you happy. Do not let people tell you what your blessings are, these are YOURS, you define them. Yes, they can be things, why not? I always tell customers in our antique shop when they say they do not need something but they like it. Honestly, who needs anything in our shop? BUT we need to smile and if something makes you smile, then yes, yes you do need it! I tell the customers just that. You are blessed if you recognize that magpie in yourself, the need to collect. Stop listening to the naysayers who define THEIR beliefs, what they believe are true blessings.

I looked up the definition of blessings and of course there is the religious aspect of the definition but there is another part of the word's definition which I thoroughly embraced:

a beneficial thing for which one is grateful; something that brings well-being - (well-being is the joy in the little things IMO.)

Blessings come in the physical, the senses - make sure you do not take for granted sight and sound. Mobility, even if it has decreased or changed dramatically. When I went to physical therapy for my walking issues, the therapist said I had such a good outlook on it all. I said, I was blessed most of my life to be in very good physical shape and could participate in so many sports, jog, hike, whatever I wanted to without issue. I never took that for granted knowing how many never will know what it is like to walk and play without a wheelchair, braces, assistance. 

Being able to read I always saw as a blessing, access to public libraries. WOW a world of my own. My mother used to drop me off at the Cyrenius Booth library and leave me there for hours and I loved it. That library is huge and old, the smell of old books ensconces you as soon as you walk in the door. What I loved about that library was how they never seemed to get rid of any of the books, the shelves were packed with books that were decades old as well as the newest. I would sit for hours on the floors going through so many books. I used to be able to read and retain so much quickly. I was a voracious reader, not so much now. Maybe when we officially retire. I will be like my grandmother and get those books with the large text that you can read from space. BUT the most important thing is still being able to see and read. 

I have so much to be grateful for, it is wonderful because when you do, the complaining seems to almost cease. Sure, there are some things I do want, a clean house, no bats in the attic keeping our son awake but in the grand scheme of things, these are things I can and will change and fix.

(and now I see it has been a year exactly since my last post, maybe this year I will actually post more...we shall see)

Almost a full year....

 I made it under the wire! What wire? That one year mark since I last posted.

I am exhausted. I am blessed. I am burnt-out. I am lucky.

Mandatory NJ Closure of Non-Essential Stores

This is a post that I shared in one of the Antique/Vintage Store groups I am in on Facebook.

Whatcha doin' during the closures?

We have a HUGE list of projects to get done which we have tried and tackled during normal business hours but could only make a small dent.

We have so much to do that we are pretty sure we will not have it all done before the mandatory closures are lifted in NJ.

I finally did a live Facebook video of me painting a piece as people have been asking me to do so for awhile. Why anyone would want to watch or listen to me is beyond me BUT I got that done as well as finally trying the new-to-me powdered milk paint for the first time. I was so happy nothing went wrong during the filming, I was able to use the paint without issues which was worrisome since I never had used it before. I say 'during' because afterwards, I turned the music back on and while dancing in my chair while finishing the painting, I knocked my table over with the water so I had to grab a bunch of things out of the vendors booths because as you know, even though it was not a lot of water, items which can be damaged by water were of course in the path of the small little river...

As soon as I logged off, I got a call that someone wanted the piece I was painting as soon as we were back open. I really did not want to sell it so soon, I even mentioned in my video I would be pricing high so I would have the sample on the floor for a little bit to showcase the paint and help sell more paint.

My husband who helps me a lot at the shop managed to get the newish PC hooked. I say newish as we bought it in Dec. 2018 to replace the 2011 model which has the original POS on it that came with the shop and lost all technical support back in early 2018. It does not work on Windows 2010 so we never downloaded it BUT the POS has had a few glitches so we have been wanting to get that up and running. So we popped the new POS onto the new PC and have some time to learn it and get comfortable with it whereas before we did not know when we really could sit down and do it.

Stuff - we have TONS of stuff waiting to get tagged in our shop's garage, the extra space we rent in the basement at the shop from our landlord, a storage unit we throw money away at, our house (can tackle that later) and most importantly, the bathroom at the shop with the slop sink which I really need to get to!! That bathroom has been inaccessible for a few years due to STUFF!

I also have a lot of signs I have to make, custom orders as well as filling-in my sign walls at the shop.

As for our vendors, we will figure out a fair compensation for all parties. We have a few things we will do including some rent credit spread out over a few months and being open extra days and some extended hours when this all said and done.

I am hoping we can all survive this unprecedented ordeal. It is unchartered territories for all.

I for one am sort of glad that we are closed as I am high-risk and also, if I had it and didn't even know, be the one who got someone else sick.

Best of luck to everyone. Stay safe and healthy, may we all come out of this with our businesses intact as well as our sanity!

School supplies - a quest not to be taken lightly

Now join us on the school supplies journey we decided to do on Sunday night since our weekend days are consumed by the shop.

We began at Walmart to get a protractor and compass and some other generic supplies. It was pathetic the assortment left, was like the bread and milk aisle when snow is forecast. People were wandering around all confused and dismayed at the lack of supplies.

We ran down to Dollar Tree which was actually better stocked and much more organized but alas no protractor and compass. 

So off on the highway we ventured away to Target. I went to the ladies room as the quest had left me needing some relief. Imagine my joy when the stalls were lacking TP, I found a small supply and warned others as they entered. I found a female employee to tell her of the urgency many ladies were about to face....I found my small tribe, no protractor or compass to be found in the cart, they had no luck. I walked down one aisle and found the Holy Grail right next to a pack of scissors. It was both needed items in one package, I returned to the hunters and showed them my kill. They were amazed and dumbfounded after having beaten the brush thoroughly in that area and finding nary a beast. I was the hero of the night.

One more for the road!

Since I rediscovered that Blogger is still around and that I have an account, I feel like I have found a new friend I can chat with about the incidentals of my day.

Sure, even though that 'friend' is only myself, it is just nice to have a place I can chat without judgement, a hand-gesture indicating 'get to the point' when I have only spoken literally five words, and where I can let my mind wander without fear.

What do I hope to gain from this experience?

The ability to fall asleep faster and then to stay asleep.



My mind does not shut-off. I wake myself up with all sorts of nonsense. Sometimes there are some great ideas for the shop, the home, etc. But usually it is just something that could have waited to pop-up in my mind in the morning or even better, never! 

Yes, this is yet another distraction for me but it may help me regain some focus.

I am not writing this for anyone but me - here's to hoping this gets me going in the right direction.

I feel the last two days have been very good as I accomplished a few things. Small accomplishments to most but for me, it is a start.

RA, sciatica, fibro and all the other things I have been diagnosed with, screw you! I'm getting myself back on the road to 'get 'er done'! 

After all, slow and steady won the race.

So - on your mark, get set and GO!

Ooh something shiny...I never can keep my mind focused!

I was not even sure this blog and it's blogging platform still existed!

But I have wanted to write for so long, I am glad this old comfortable blanket of a site still existed.

I read some of my old posts and there were a few drafts.

Tonight I am here as I know no one will read this, especially my husband.

Pish posh you say, of course he will, he is your spouse after all so he would want to know what is happening in that quirky mind of yours.

But I know it is safe here, hidden from his eyes. Why? Because I wrote a novel, a complete novel full of characters, dark humor, murder, mayhem, love, hate and more. It has a beginning, a middle and an end. I wrote it over the course of a few years. I had it printed out so he could read it easily and correct my grammar.

My husband LOVES to correct my grammar and everyone else's so I thought he would revel in the chance to correct me. Alas, I was wrong. Yes, it does bother me. Yes, I have told him this but you know when you mention anything more than once in the course of twelve months, it is considered nagging.

So in a box from Staples it sits, some of the references becoming as outdated as...me.

Perhaps one day I shall self-publish.

Or not.

Anyway, I digress, I had not intentions to come on to this long-forgotten diary I had created almost a decade ago to whine about my book.

But now that I am on that subject, it is MY book, so I will do as I always do and take the proverbial bull by those horns and proceed to proofread on my own. I am not a complete grammar-less fool, I can construct a sentence, even a paragraph.

Well, that was a good talk, I am adding 'proofread and self-publish' to my growing to-do list!

Negligence, laziness, forgetfulness.....

Well, yet again I have reneged on one of my many not-so-lofty goals I set for myself, to post daily, even just fluff if need be. Actually, fluff is good, it makes things soft and happy and fluffy! And I just love saying that word, fluff, fluff, fluff!!

I can only blame one person for such unfluffy-like behavior and that is me. I take full responsibility for being irresponsible in keeping-up with my blog. I have been good, though, with adding to my feedback fanpage which if you have done so already, please like me, I mean the page. I am fine, I do not need that much, I mean any, pats on my backs via the way of the LIKE button.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/BushellCollectibles/157708530941634

But do please like the page, I need more likes as I love (I am so full of....love this morning) doing my Sally Field's Oscar acceptance speech impression - you like me, you really like me!

So what has happened since I last posted? Not much except we finally lit a fire under our tooshes and have begun to declutter the house so I can work much easier on my eBay and getting things ready for our booths in the Grey Barn Antiques in Andover, NJ.

I had said when I finally leave the Rat Race of NYC and Corporate America and became a mompreneur working from my sunny computer room that we would finally tackle the mountains of shi...stuff in the house.

It began when I finally convinced Don to find out about the refinancing of our little messy split-level as we pay a rather high interest rate compared to what they have dropped down to in recent time. In order to do this, we needed the house appraised yet again. In order to allow someone to come into hoarders central, we needed to dig in and work. And we did and though for us it was a vast improvement, it still was bad.

I decided we needed more incentive to push ourselves, what better way than to host a party? We have lived here since December 2001 and have never had any party here, not even a small dinner. Our son turned six this past week so we went for it with a BBQ this past Saturday. Fingers were crossed, many requests to the powers that be were sent to make sure there was no rain on Saturday so we could keep everyone outside BUT in the event of needing to bring this shing ding indoors, we tackled more of the clutter. And the hard work paid off.

To anyone seeing our house inside for the first time, you will see much work needs to be done, flooring replaced, walls painted etc BUT the miracle hidden within this sentence is 'seeing our house inside' as prior to all this work, we could not invite anyone in without complete shame and a list of excuses longer than Arnold gave Maria for his indiscretion(s).

I now can sit in our living room or the man cave and actually relax! It is as if a huge burden has been lifted off of my shoulders. And we are set on keeping it nice and neat which is much easier now that I am home most of the time.

So, the moral of this story is don't call in the wrecking ball to demolish your house. With some motivation and fear of total embarrassment, you too can work on removing yourself from the casting call of Hoarders.