Updates, Whereabouts, Changes, and Goals

You’ve probably been wondering where I am… Or not… For now, just allow me to live in my delusion of importance to you. Seriously, has it really been nearly three months since I posted about getting started on the studio? Well, suffice to say, I am still here… Sometimes I wonder if I should continue with Our Philly Row. I mean, the entire point of this blog for me is to document the process of turning our house into a home, and to share it with friends and family (and all of you who don’t even know me, but are still interested). So with that said, it is time to get caught up with updates, whereabouts, changes, and goals. Here we go!

Updates:

When I last posted, I had just finished painting the newly installed floor in the creative studio. My plan was to finish the other side of the room and set things up. Well, there has been progress. I did set up my stained glass studio and I have been busy learning how to do stained glass and making things. So, one side of the room looks great, the other side is just like it was when I last posted at the end of September. I still need to finish the floor, patch and paint the the wall, finish the ceiling, and then re-hang the closet door.

I am only showing you the finished part of the finished part, you will have to wait until it the whole room is finished for the full reveal.

As for my new endeavor into stained glass, things are coming along nicely. I have completed several pieces, and am learning as I go. Check out some of my work so far.

Whereabouts:

As for where I have been… Well that’s a good question, and I am not quite sure how to answer it. Let’s just say that life can get in the way sometimes. I’ve been busy, but I will say that I have somehow managed to do a daily walk for the past 246 days without missing a single day (as of today). Back in April when I was still recovering from my cancer surgery and treatment, I started out walking a mile and a half a day, meandering around South Philadelphia (as seen in photo). That turned into two miles a day in May, then three miles a day in August, and as of this month, I am hitting four miles on most days. This is kind of a big deal for me! I have never stuck to anything like this for more than a week in my entire life. Of course, now that I am on this roll, I don’t want to interrupt it. My goal is to complete one full year of without missing a day.

Changes:

As some of you know, for nearly two years now, I have been co-hosting a podcast, True Tales From Old Houses, with my amazing friend Stacy Grinsfelder from Blake Hill House. While it has been an honor to serve as co-host, I made the difficult decision to step down at the end of the current season four, of which the final episode comes out today. I have very much enjoyed working with Stacy, doing guest interviews, developing a website, and learning more about how the world of podcasting works. Why am I stepping down?

As is often the case, it’s a bit complicated, but it boils down to this. I am stepping down from the time constraints of the podcast with the hopes that I can refocus my energies to my creative self. A big part of the reason we left NYC for Philadelphia was to allow me to pursue my creative self. I was always creative but always struggled with getting to come to fruition. Throughout my adult life, I have had to put work and career ahead of creativity out of necessity and my own fears of following my dreams. Creativity has always been present, but it has mostly been relegated to the back burner.

Moving here has allowed us to live on a single income and given me the space I need to set up a studio to pursue my creative self, whatever that may be. Since we arrived, I have certainly increased my time focusing on my creative self, but I find that I am still putting it on the back burner for other things. It’s time I allowed myself the freedom to really focus on me and explore where it will go. Currently my focus is on stained glass, but I have no plans to limit myself to just that.

That said, while I may not be co-hosting any longer, I will be back on the show from time to time, and I encourage you to keep listening. Stacy is already hard at work on Season 5 which will begin on Monday, February 1st. I am excited to see where she takes the podcast and wish her the very best.

Goals:

So, with all the above out of the way, let’s get into some of my goals for the new year. Hopefully, you will find them as interesting as I do and will come back to find out more as I progress through them.

But before I get there, I just need to say this past nearly two years have been a real doozy for me. It started off with the loss of my mother in January of 2019, followed by what I thought was depression that spring, which revealed itself to be a cancer diagnosis in September. Then after treatment followed by surgery, I was finally on my way to recovery this past March, and then the whole world came to a screeching halt. You know what happens from there… While I have made the best of things, and gotten a few things done, I still feel as though I am just now coming up for air.

So for my 2021 goals… First up will be finishing the creative studio. It’s about 75% there, but as I noted above, I still need to finish the floor, patch and paint one wall, and a final portion of the ceiling. I also plan to build a movable 4’x6′ work table which will be instrumental in making the space functional. looking back at my post from last April, where I unveiled my plans for the studio, things are on track, and not far off from my original plan. I promise I will post about it as I go with a reveal expected around the end of January.

Simultaneously, I want to finish a room I started last August and haven’t written about. I did do some stories on Instagram, but I haven’t really posted about it here (the photo above is a hint). This is mainly because it’s mostly a ‘lipstick on a pig’ room and isn’t terribly exciting. Sorry to keep you in suspense, but I’m going to continue to keep it under wraps for now. However, it is 90% done, and just needing one wall painted, and some art hung to be there. Once it is finished, I will also do a reveal.

Once those two rooms are done and revealed, I plan to move onto the parlor. This is a room I have written about several times [see them all here] and can you believe it was nearly two years ago that I revealed the wall color (image below)? I never imagined two years ago, I would sitting in my unfinished parlor typing out this post. But here I am.

I will write a newly revised plan for the parlor before kicking it off, some of will be familiar, some of it will be new, all of it will be exciting. Some highlights will include patching a rotten section of flooring (not exciting, I’ll admit), installing my vintage plaster medallion (which I wrote about way back in the spring of 2018. Yikes, has it really been that long?), installing some ‘faux Lincrusta’, a picture rail, painting, lighting, art, and more…

Getting the parlor done will be a very big deal as I have yet to complete a primary room in the house. It will be so nice to have at least one completed room to come home to each day instead of general chaos.

Once the parlor is done, the focus will move to our main bedroom suite (formerly known as the master suite, but I digress). This will be the biggest project for the house thus far as it will involve building out a bathroom where there is now a small bedroom. But of course, I have written about this a few times as well. That said, you can expect newly revised plans to come out before I get started. Like the parlor, most of the plans remain unchanged and are still inspired by the image above, but a few things will be tweaked.

So, there you have it, my updates, whereabouts, changes, and goals. I will be back in the new year with my first post on what remains in the studio, so I do hope you will stick around.

I also want to take a moment and acknowledge my gratitude in all of this chaos of the past couple of years. I have been through a lot, but I have my health back, I still have an amazing husband who is there to support me, my friends and family (even though I haven’t been able to see them or hug them in a long time), a warm, albeit unfinished, home to live in, and so much more. I am looking forward to 2021 being a much better year, I am looking forward to my turn to get the vaccine, followed by the day that I will no longer suffer from foggy glasses caused by wearing the damned masks.

Sending you all hugs 🤗  and bunnies 🐰 for your holidays, whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, or something else. And best wishes for a Happier New Year ahead.

Till next time. . .

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