Speaking of Mother's Day - I got to chat with Tara via Skype over in England on Sunday. She sent me some stunning, stunning pictures of where she lives when she went on a walk recently. I will share some of them next week with you. They are images of what one thinks of when you think of bucolic England. Just lovely.
I was lucky to have Brianna home for Mother's Day - so I received many hugs from her. I also received beautiful flowers from my son, Patrick and he sent me a one line text which made my day!!!
And speaking of mothers I was reminded of a childhood memory over the weekend...
...Growing up, I tended to have a lot of time to myself in the mornings. Both my parents usually slept in late as they were up late with their life as actors. I knew how to turn on the television (black and white in those days) and one of my favorite shows was "The Little Rascals" which consisted of a close knit group of children about 5 - 7 years old who always seemed to get into a situation and with comedic results.
One morning, after watching the Little Rascals using flour to clean a rug, I decided since my parents were going to have company over that night for dinner, I would surprise them and clean the carpeting (which was a dark grey) in our apartment, too. I went into the kitchen, found the bag of flour and proceeded to sprinkle it all over the carpeting in the living room and the dining room area. It didn't look right. That's when I decided that
perhaps if I added water and scrubbed the carpeting, it would do a better job. So, that's what I did. And I worked hard scrubbing that rug with my mother's hair brush to really get the carpet clean! NOW I could see the difference. It was no longer that drab grey color but now almost bright white! I was ecstatic and very proud of my hard work. Next, I decided to lay out a pathway from my parent's bedroom door to the kitchen so that they wouldn't get their feet wet while the rug dried. I found a box of aluminum foil and pulled it all out and laid it down on the wet carpeting creating a magical path.
My father was the first one to wake up. With great pride, I stood on the aluminum foiled pathway and greeted him - very excited to see how proud he was going to be for what I did for them. My father's first words uttered as he surveyed the scene was, "Georgiana,
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?????"
Not quite the reaction I was expecting. Next thing I know, my mother is standing in the bedroom doorway and now comes the "performance theater". Having two professional actors as parents was not easy as once the two of them started in - everything was drama, drama, drama. Once my parents finished their duet of, "How could you", "What were you thinking?", "Why? Why? Why?" - my mother than demanded that my father - "Get her out of here. Out! NOW!!" I never even got a chance to explain anything.
So, my father got dressed, bundled me up and we headed out of the apartment. We started walking up 8th Avenue towards Columbus Circle in Manhattan. He didn't speak to me at all. I just knew that he was furious with me. My mother was furious with me and I couldn't understand why there were so mad at me when I was just trying to surprise them by shampooing the rug.
As we continued walking up the avenue, he was holding my hand but stiffly kind of pulling me along as we went, I would look in the reflection of the shop windows as we moved and occasionally saw my father looking over and down at me. I didn't even dare look directly at him. I just kept trying to figure out how it all went so badly.
As we approached the entrance to Central Park, all of a sudden, my father bursts into laughter. I hesitantly looked at him and he just kept laughing and finally asks me, "Georgiana - what were you thinking?" That's when I started crying and trying to explain how I saw the Little Rascals cleaning and I just wanted to do something nice and surprise them.
Fortunately, the rest of the day was spent in Central Park and my father and I had lunch together, ice-cream and stayed for a long, long time. I'm sure my father was thrilled to not have to deal with removing flour rubbed into carpeting. When we finally arrived home - somehow my mother with the help of a neighbor managed to vacuum up most of the flour and then borrowed area rugs to cover the parts of the carpet that couldn't get done in time. It did make for a very good story for their dinner guests that night!!
Travel forward thirty years to the day that I am now the mother. My four year old son, Patrick, ventures into my craft room and discovers a large red inkpad for rubber stamping. He, also thinking that he would 'surprise' me - proceeded to ink up his small feet on the red inkpad and walks all over the cream colored rug in my bedroom. Pretty proud of his design, he then adds his red-inked hand prints all over the rug. When I walked into the room and found Patrick proudly standing with red feet and red hands and a big smile on his face - my reaction was probably not what he was expecting. "Patrick -
what have you done?
What were you thinking?...."
Later that evening, as I was telling my mother over the phone what Patrick did and how angry I was and what a mess I had to clean up with all the red ink on his feet, hands and then - the rug..., her response was, "OH! He must have had a wonderful time", and she laughed and laughed.
Well my sister crafters - I am thinking of you every day. I am here for you via email or text messaging or (eventually) via video magic! Please don't hesitate to reach out to me especially if you simply need to vent through this Covid-19 chapter in our histories.
We are all reminded of this new world with commercials on the television and ads in papers and magazines. Getting overwhelmed is
normal. Remember - giving yourself a day or two or three OFF is also
normal. Treat yourself to a nap in the middle of the afternoon. Simply sit in a chair and play a game on your iPad. Indulge in something that you not only enjoy - but relaxes you. No guilt here allowed. Take a lovely bubble bath. Listen to your favorite music. Bake a cake. And there are days when doing nothing feels best.
So, do nothing.
I am a firm believer that when we allow ourselves to do 'nothing', we are recharging our very worn out batteries. We must recharge and renew and rejuvenate at our own personal speed.
Out of curiosity - share with me if you would - what are you doing during this pandemic to "calm" yourself and recharge? Are there any books you would recommend?
As always -
Stay Crafty My Friends!!!!!
Cheers,
Georgiana
