#like getting that phase of life actually seems like an unlikely miracle sometimes

[rosetodust]

i think this whole 'fear of aging and looking old' thing is very interesting bc i've never heard a suicidal (or once suicidal) person even consider the negative physical characteristics of aging. like... if i am so lucky that i can look at myself in the mirror and see wrinkles and grey hair, that will absolutely mean i have somehow succeeded. and i'll fucking rejoice!

[itsa-lie]

Birth Of A Liar Part Two

||Part One||Part Two||Part Three||Part Four||Part Five||

More of the boy’s backstory, including a cameo from a special someone. Oh boy will that someone hurt.

Trigger warning for abuse, murder, and an unlikely pair-up 

Days went by since that horrible day of his parents death. Days became months, and months became years. How the young boy managed to keep himself alive for that long was a miracle in itself. He mostly would stand outside shops making sad pouty faces until the owner or someone who would give him a half-eaten sandwich or, if he was lucky, a soda bottle. One time a kind man bought him this really sweet grape drink he really liked. It was cold, sweet, and tasted like sweet grapes. He was too young to read back then, but the man called it “Grape Panta” and oh boy was he hooked on it.

Not only would he beg for food and drink, sometimes he would outright steal using his small height to his advantage. The cashier at the local bakery leaves for a few minutes? He’d just sneak in and go around the back of the display and steal a few jelly filled donuts. It wasn’t that hard and if he was lucky he’d be able to steal a Panta too. He’s never once been caught and he is very proud of that.

One summer day as he carries his loot of sweets to his hole, he noticed something odd was going on. Someone was there with him. Kokichi practically dropped his treats in surprise! There was a boy a bit older than him with red hair that draped over his eyes, a small girl with brown hair who looked terrified and holding onto an older girl, and the older girl herself looking around Kokichi’s age with long black hair in ponytails and crimson red eyes. She was the only one not looking scared in this situation, her eyes glued to the boy in front of her as if she would attack any second.

 Kokichi tries his best not to look scared, but does try to intimidate them the best the six-year-old could.

“Who the ever-loving hell are you?”

He’s heard a few grown-ups use this phase outside him hiding place. It seemed to get the job done with them into scaring the other person. Well while it did intimidate the little girl who began to sob loudly, the other two didn’t seem to be intimidated in the slightest, the red eyed girl becoming more enraged. 

“If you do anything to us I swear I’ll-”

“Maki, I’ll take care of this, calm down.”

“Goro stand down, he’s already scaring Hanako.”

“WAAAAHHHH!!!”

The odd scenario going on before Kokichi both baffled and amused him just the same. He hasn’t seen any kids before nor has he played with anyone before. Or maybe he has? Unfortunately as much as he tried to prevent it his memories while his parents were still alive kept coming back fuzzy as if they were going to be forgotten entirely. It would be nice to have some company in this lonely little building. However you can never be too sure.

“Hey I know you’re probably wondering what we’re doing here, kid. I don’t blame you. This was your hole after all.” The older boy, apparently named Goro mutters with a timid laugh. He didn’t want a fight to break out it seems. “But we need your help. You see, some bad people are looking for us and we really need a place to hide. We won’t be much trouble I promise.” The red eyed girl scoffed at Goro’s plea but continued petting and comforting the child in front of her who was sniffling hysterically. Confused but intrigued, Kokichi poked his head out the hole looking around. There seemed to be a group of adults each carrying firearms. That didn’t look good.

“Fine fine, just keep her voice down! There’s guys everywhere out there.”

His loud shout only made Hanako cry more. “You idiot. That’s no way to comfort a child.” hissed Maki as she holds the girl close. “There there...don’t cry...I won’t let anything happen to you...” Kokichi, for some odd reason, felt a warm feeling hearing those words as if he heard them before...somewhere. Hanako seemed to calm down at least. This Maki girl was really great with kids.

“I heard something this way! Come on!” booms a man voice outside walking into the alley. Oh no! Did he hear them? And they are coming this way! Kokichi was able to keep a low profile for so long! Why now of all times and places should he be discovered! Thinking quickly Kokichi started to bark orders.

“You, take the kid behind that sink over there and lay low, kid, don’t worry, I got this under control. And you, big red over here, sit in that darkened corner by the kitchen and stay completely still.” 

The children had no other choice but to listen, following Kokichi’s words exactly. The boy himself climbed up on a shelf above the hole holding a wooden bat in his hand. Yes it was the same hateful bat that that horrible gang member used to kill his father with, but it could still be used for protection. Though Kokichi would never kill anyone and would only knock out the man if he even tried getting in. Outside it would seem that the hole was spotted by one of the men. He leans down to look inside, flashing his flashlight around. All he could really see was a bag of what seemed to be donuts on the ground. Did an animal hide them away here for safe keeping? Defeated, the man gets back onto his feet. “False alarm. Must be a rat or something...” Kokichi gives a sigh of relief to himself and wipes the sweat from his brow while listening to the footsteps get further and further away. “Okay, he’s gone now, it’s safe.” 

The three other children come out of their hiding places like fawn staring out for their mother to give them the go ahead to move. They all sat down in front of the purpleish blue haired boy as they gave sighs of relief. 

“Wow mister! You’re really good at being a leader!” Hanako states with a smile. Maki didn’t want to admit it, especially from how loud and brash this kid was, but she’d admit this kid saved their skin and she was grateful. Goro nodded in agreement with the little girl. “Yeah, you really saved our butts back there, thank you. Maki why don’t you say thanks too?” Maki was quiet, her gaze to the ground, before she finally gives in and rolls her eyes. “...thanks I guess.” The orphan boy blushed from the compliments and the thanks, but pretended it meant nothing. “Yeah yeah yeah, I know I’m like...an ultimate leader and all that.” The red headed boy laughs a bit at the younger’s cockiness before speaking again. “Anyway why don’t we introduce ourselves? I’m Goro Harukawa and this is my little sister Maki.” Maki didn’t even bother to look at anyone, only cradling Hanako softly. “And I’m Hanako!” Says the smallest as she waves her hand in the air. “Hanako was a baby when we found her so we just...ya know...took care of her. Could you believe someone would leave this cutie on a doorstep?”

Kokichi stares at the others with an eyebrow raised. “So if you’re brother and sister what happened to your parents?” Goro’s eyes started to look a bit sadder but continued to smile as Maki grunts and turns away much to the confusion of the young Hanako. “Well our...mother died when Maki was born so...well our father had three sons before me who had grown up or got sent to a boarding school, and he usually had mother by his side so...well...he...”

Maki was looking more and more uncomfortable at what her brother was saying.

“He was already angry at Maki for being born and was...punching her whenever he got mad or would punch me for defending her. So when he saw a defenseless baby Hanako outside he...well he tried to kill her. That was until Maki stabbed him in the back of the neck.”

“He would have killed us! Father’s temper was horrible, you know that! Don’t paint me out to be some sort of horrible murderer!” Maki snapped, her eyes filling with hate. It was enough to even scare Kokichi who glanced back at Goro like he was saying “he said it not me”. Goro stares down at the ground, sweat pouring down his face. “I-I didn’t mean it like that. I was only explaining-”

“Actually,” Kokichi started, a blank stare on his face devoid of emotion. “You’re still a murderer if you had good intentions or not. You still took a life. You’re a murderer.” Goro’s eyes turned as big as dinner plates, Hanako stares confused, and Maki...oh man Maki...was on fire with rage right now. She reeled her fist back before socking Kokichi right in the jaw, his head moving back from the blow. “You don’t know shit about what I am. You don’t know ANYTHING about me. So don’t keep talking out of your ass or else you might be the next one hurt.”

“M-Maki!? What the hell?! I know that was uncalled for but-” Before Goro could finish his sentence Maki was already up the stairs, going who knows where. Kokichi gets back up, rubbing the side of his face that hurt. “You bitch! You’re not the only one who can fight ya know!” Kokichi picked up his bat and tried to run right for her but was stopped by Goro who practically held the boy in the air by the collar of his shirt. Kokichi made a whining sound before Goro put him down again. “Look, maybe you should just...leave her alone for a bit. This whole thing hurts her very much. Heck it even hurts me and Hana.” The boy looked up at the taller boy, skeptical. 

“Didn’t you say your dad was an abusive douchebag?”

Goro’s eyes start to water as he looks down. “...he didn’t used to be...he used to be a kid father until mom died...” The lump forming in his throat made it hard to talk, he holds onto Hanako close who was nestled beside him. “I thought...if we waited a bit longer he would go back to the way he used to be...that’s what I told Maki...we just...had to wait and he’d be loving and sweet again...” Goro was shaking as tears went down his eyes. “It kept us going and made Maki happy but...he wasn’t ever coming back.” Now Kokichi felt like a total ass for what he said. They had that little bit of hope from a lie, just like how he had hope from his own lie that his parents weren’t dead. The boy himself shook as well, his eyes peering to the ground as his body trembles. “I thought lying to myself would make me happy but...this makes it much worse. I’m sorry...” 

Goro feels a bit better and pats Kokichi’s head. “It isn't your fault. I mean if someone came into my house saying they killed their father I’d be pretty freaked out too. I’d probably call the police.” He giggles a little before putting on a comforting smile.

“But sometimes you care about someone too much to let them suffer in lies. You have to do something or someone will get hurt.”

Kokichi was silent, taking the older boy’s words to heart. Even if lies do make you feel better, there were some that makes you feel better for a little while then hurt you in the long run. But what kind of lies are they? How could he tell the difference? Suddenly his thoughts were interrupted by his growling stomach. That’s right, he didn’t get a chance to eat his stolen donuts yet. He quickly picked up the bag and starts chowing down. Given he was so young when his parents had passed on, he didn’t really have manners or the idea to share. Well, until both Goro and Hanako stared at him sadly as their own stomachs rumbled. 

“Y-You want some?”

The three of them ate as much as they could and there was still some left over for Maki. They each told each other stories of their pasts and dreams they had until Goro and Hanako fell asleep on a full stomach and cuddled up next to each other on a pillow. Kokichi couldn’t sleep now feeling guilt he made Maki hurt. But it wasn’t a lie, that was the truth! Anyone who kills another human being is a murderer! Was it better if he lied about that too? Well he didn’t want the donuts to go bad or stale so he went up the stairs. The most beautiful thing about this building was the way it would go up to the roof, it would show the most scenic spots of Tokyo. Kokichi didn’t think that’s why his mom hid him in that spot, in fact she probably didn’t know it existed, but he was grateful nonetheless. If only father and mother could see these beautiful sights...perhaps someday...maybe...

As he reached the roof he could see Maki sitting alone. She stares at the busy roads and cars below her, hearing the hustle and bustle of the city. Timidly Kokichi sat on the other side of her also looking down at the ground. She didn’t seem to notice, and even if she did she gave no response. This lasted for a few minutes, only the sounds of the city bellow. Kokichi couldn’t stand the awkward silence anymore before he holds out the bag of treats to her. “Here, we saved you some.” Maki eyed the bag of treats for a second as if she was checking if they were safe or not before sighing and taking the bag. She cautiously took a bite of a cherry jelly filled donut, then took another, and another. Damn these things were good. She ate it pretty fast which made Kokichi giggle a bit before Maki gives one of those infamous stares in which he holds up his hands defensively. Maki seemed to have eaten the rest of the donuts in one sitting before taking the empty paper bag and handing it back to him. “Thanks. It was...oddly tasty...”

“Ah so you do like it? They make the best damn donuts anywhere!”

“I’d appreciate it if you would stop cussing in front of Hana.”

There was a stillness in the night, awkward silence in the air. Finally Kokichi just decided to say it.

“Hey, I really am sorry for hurting you. I shouldn’t have said that...” His hair swayed in the wind as a gust came from the east. “I’m an orphan too. My mom and dad died when I was three. Three gang guys killed them. I...I was too young to do anything so I...hid in that building. I’ve been living on my own ever since...”

Maki looked over at him carefully, her eyes still narrow but at least a bit softer now feeling sympathy for the brash loud child. She then turns back to the city and smiles a little. “It’s fine...honestly you got it worse than me. I at least have my brother and sister. You have...no one. I’m sorry...”

“About what? You weren’t those three guys.” Kokichi states as he kicks his legs over the building’s ledge. But now that he thinks of it...he really was alone. He was too busy trying to survive to notice it but...it hurt. “H-Hey...” Maki started, her eyes still on the city streets. “You don’t have to be alone you know. We wouldn’t mind keeping you company. Like an extended family or...something...” Maki seemed bashful saying this but she meant it. He did help her and her siblings out after all. Kokichi turns to the girl, giving the first genuine smile he had in a long time. “If you all want to you’re welcome to stay. Us orphans have to stick together, right?”

Suddenly he stood up quickly onto the edge of the building, almost looking like he’s about to fall but catches himself pretty quickly with cat-like reflexes. 

“We should start our own orphan gang!”

Maki stares at him worriedly like he was about to fall but calmed down once she noticed he wasn’t going anywhere. “An orphan gang? That does sound fun. Just the four of us, huh?” Kokichi nods his head enthusiastically as he stares back into the girl’s red eyes. “Then we need a leader. How about you? You managed to direct us without getting caught. That was very leader-like. Even Goro would’ve froze up in that situation.”

Now this caught him off guard as Kokichi almost fell forward but moved his weight backwards so he fell on his butt onto the roof’s concrete.

“M-Me?!”

“Yes you. ‘Ultimate Leader’.”

Kokichi crosses his legs, his head down in deep thought. “W-Well...I guess. Mom used to say my dad was a leader in his gang so...”

“Then I guess you have your dad’s genes.”

“No? My dad’s jeans would be too big for me.”

Maki looks at him down founded for a second, then shook her head. “Never mind. Anyway what should the gang be called?” Kokichi thinks for a few minutes, his eyes glancing everywhere to find a name out of anything. His eyes wondered to Maki’s hairbands that held up her pigtails. They almost looked like playing die. He then nods his head again, even more enthusiastic than before.

“We’ll call it DICE!”

Maki really had to get used to this kid’s sudden outbursts. “What does it stand for?” Kokichi blinks. “Stand for?” 

“N-Never mind...” She smiles a little. This dude was an idiot, but a funny idiot. 

Kokichi glances over to Maki noticing her smile for the first time. “Heeey you’re smiling!” Maki looked shocked but then sighs defeated. Damn this kid’s observation skills. “All right, you got me ultimate leader.”

“You’re very pretty when you smile!”

Oh no! Here comes the blush! She stares at him for a moment, her cheeks cherry red. Kokichi noticing this quickly tries to think of a way to fix his friend’s red face.

“S-Stop lying!”

“Nyhehehe! Okay. I’m lying. You got vampire eyes. Are you a vampire?”

Her red face became red for another reason, anger.

“I’m gonna kick your ass!”

Kokichi peeks up from the door to the stairs. “I thought we weren’t cussing in front of Hanako?” Seeing Maki run forward he quickly paniced and closed the door and ran down the stairs.

“SHE’S NOT HERE RIGHT NOW! KOKICHI!!!!”

[thedreamingscorpio]

Undulations

Chapter 2

Well I think it goes without saying but in case I wasn’t clear earlier:

Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended. 

Thank You, please lemme know your thoughts on my work!

Love Always!

Time had gone by in a whirlwind, with Goten finding some warm clothes for his company, making some tea and gathering the necessary tools and supplies. While the whole time the young woman had only exchanged common courtesies whenever Goten would bring her something, which they were done with in the first ten minutes of her arrival.

Despite the ruckus that he had created, the house was quiet, almost too quiet. 

Case in a nut shell, the last twenty minutes saw the three occupants of the house to, in Goten’s case grow increasingly curious and observant, the woman’s gaze to get lost in the depths of infinity, and for well, Cepheus to become more irritable with each passing minute.

Goten had finally found his cauterizer. It was kept in his store room since he hadn’t had to use it in quite sometime now, it was the one he used previously, and since getting a new one he kept it at home in case of an emergency. He didn’t think that he’ll be requiring it today, given the bored and irritated expression that marked his patient’s face. But that was the thing, the dog although one of his most frequent patients, still managed to throw him for a loop with his seemingly impenetrable expression, the same ‘the hell do you care ’ expression adorned his face, be it an ingrown nail or a gaping wound. 

It seemed as though if given the chance to converse akin to a human being, he’d list all the complaints in the world and manage to find a fault with even the most perfect of things.

Well in reality Goten himself never really believed in the concept that the word 'perfect' embodied, in his opinion nothing was completely flawless, it was just the mere coincidence, that if what one sought was what the other provided, the two pieces seemed to fit together, therefore creating the illusion of what people called 'perfect’. And of course,  he was familiar with the universal use of 'perfect’ and came to the conclusion, that there are certain things people perceive as desirable universally, like symmetry for one, and that’s okay, but to then announce that the person or the object is utterly flawless was a bit absurd in his opinion.

But then again, was it his need to rationalize everything, or his general dislike for the word, he didn’t know, perhaps he’d heard it too many times in his lifetime as a constant reminder to know exactly what he wasn’t, eh no point dwelling over things that bring a sour taste to your mouth…

Though that still lead him to think, that if people’s version of 'perfection’ was so hard to come by, almost everyone did settle for something less, like 'good’ or even 'great’ at times. 'Cause unlike 'perfection' , Goten knew for a fact that those things existed and that they weren’t half bad, in fact, despite the irony of his thought-process, those 'good’ or 'great’ may even be somebody’s version of 'perfect’!

So, why the hell did Cepheus, have that rotten expression on his face, no matter what hour of the day it might be! He really failed to understand how an baby animal could prove to be much more difficult to deal with than an adult human being. Weren’t animals supposed to be nicer?

 Every time he happened to meet him, it appeared as though he were mocking, challenging him to do something, anything to change the opinion his little underdeveloped mind had conjured up of him. Oh and how Goten hated it!

Moreover what really worried him was the state of the young woman currently sitting on his couch. Empty tea cup held in hands, as if it were a life-saver, determinedly staring straight ahead unblinking, it was a miracle how the wall didn’t have a hole burned through it. It was her reaction that had told Goten to be prepared for anything and everything, and he was glad to have found his cauterizer.

Now with all the necessary tasks out of the way, he went to the kitchen to fetch his cup of tea…only to realize it had gone cold. 

“Ah shit!" 

Now Goten wasn’t a person for whom cursing was a regular occurrence, also given the fact that he was in the presence of one of his patients, it was highly unprofessional of him. So, instinctively as soon as he realized he had cursed out loud, he immediately regretted it and his eyes darted towards the couch. But noticing that the house was still eerily quiet, and that his slip-up had gone unnoticed, his more pressing concern was to talk to the woman as soon as possible.

That’s how he found himself  in the kitchen reheating his long forgotten chamomile tea, while silently mulling over how strange the whole incident was! The woman’s features weren’t lost on him, the way her green eyes looked at him, flipped his stomach.

She reminded him of someone, someone he could never forget, the girl from his early days with his reputation as a womanizer, the only girl he had been silly and pretend-serious with, the only girl he could be anyone with, yet she still wouldn’t forget his name, the girl who had made him realize that although fun, that wasn’t the life he wanted, the girl who had seen him transition from a technical adult to behaving like an actual adult, the girl who’s heart he had broken, by telling her it wasn’t her, it was him…Valese.

Valese had brown eyes, with a tinge of green, not quite hazel, no, but not quite brown either, her chestnut hair cinched at her waist, making her seem incredibly gorgeous, her pale skin contrasting against her dark features, her plum lips always chewing a strawberry flavored gum, and the way she spoke his name, blinking her large eyes at him, always managed to melt him.

So, then why did he leave her you ask? 

Well, the answer was simple really, or complete bullshit depending on who you are, she was too easy. From the moment he’d met her she was googly-eyed, and was willing to put up with his every whim, without batting an eyelash. She acted as though star-struck, which although boosted his ego, did not make him feel good in the long run.

People, be it family, friends, passersby or even young kids seemed to adore them, and on one occasion Trunks told them that they were even compatible when it came to  their level of intellect, Valese had just laughed it off, yeah she was like that, but Goten seemed to take it a bit more seriously. Of course, it was to be taken light-heartedly, but it did make him question, was he her king and they the world’s laughing stock?

He knew that she was a bit ditzy he did, but that never bothered him, she was beside him in almost all he did, gave him the confidence to pursue his career as a vet, and was beside him through all his embarrassing phases while he figured himself out. The best thing about her she was always smiling, rain, shine or thunder, she kept her smile on and the only time he had ever seen her cry was when he ended his relationship with her, he had never seen her look so...broken, but he supposed it was for the best given that he was subjecting himself to an insane amount of study, and to be honest, he was afraid.

Afraid, that he may take her shine away, as ridiculous as it may sound to anyone else, he knows he was right in his decision.

So, when the brunette had shown up at his doorstep in the wee hours of the morning, with the most troublesome patient he had ever come across, he was feeling a lot of feelings, but above all he was confused. Why was this happening? Was it all a coincidence? And if not, why so many years later?

Now that his tea was hot enough to be consumed, he made his way towards the living room where the as of now unknown woman and Cepheus, sat looking just like they were, about twenty minutes earlier

He grabbed himself a chair from the dining table, not wanting to get comfortable on the couch just yet, and knowing Cepheus, ready to entertain him at a moments notice.

The scraping of the chair’s legs against the floor wood seemed to snap her out of her reverie, and she gave him the same frightened look as earlier in the morning.

She quickly got off the couch, and started exclaiming animatedly.

"Dr. Son, my apologies, I know this isn’t by any means the right time to have disturbed you, hell I did not even give you a call, or notify you of my arrival, but the thing is that it was an emergency…”

Noticing how she was panting and red-faced again, he decided to cut her off..

“Please, call me Goten. I’m off-duty and these aren’t my working hours..”

At this, the woman gave him an abashed look and hung her head low.

Noticing this he quickly amended..

“…not that I mind in the least, after all I am a doctor and if I’m not available to my patients when they need me, what good am I?”

At this, the woman, lifted her head so fast he was afraid she had snapped something vital, and gave him a disbelieving look, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears .

He held a calm composure and gave her a reassuring smile. Noticing this her features softened and a small smile tugged at her lips.

“Please take a seat, calm yourself and talk to me so that I’m capable of helping you.”

Slightly nodding her head, apparently still shaken, she sat down waking Cepheus, who was seemingly comfortable nestled into her arms resulting in him growling slightly.

Taking a deep breath, she attempted to compose herself and looked up with twinkling eyes.

“Let me start by introducing myself, I’m Odette…”

[natsuxlucyfanfiction]

Operation Get the Girl Chapter 11

Oh my goodness, I haven’t posted a chapter to OGTG in so long, I’m pretty sure y’all have forgotten about it already lol. Here it is, hope you enjoy!

About three weeks passed. The change in Natsu's life was phenomenal. Gray was more hostile towards him, unlike ever before. Yes, they would always get into fights and bicker, but never with serious intent. As they've gotten older, the motive had gotten less petty and more hateful. Natsu, being competitive in nature, fought back with all his might. Everyone in the guild noticed how intense their sporadic brawls have gotten, but no one said a word, blaming it on hormones and teenage masculinity. Master Makarov decided to cancel the S Class Tournament for reasons unknown. Erza seemed to never be at the guild anymore.

His relationship with Leela deepened. He got to know her better, and his whole view on her completely changed. Denying that he had feelings for her would be pointless. But were those feelings love? Questionable. He only felt like he liked her when he was with her. Nothing was set in stone. Everything confused Natsu, which pissed him off. He just wanted to know what was going on for a minute. Instead, he was always the dull idiot. So there he was in the same spot at the bar, drinking with Cana.

“I like this Natsu. The one that can stomach alcohol. You’re a good boy,” Cana hooted while pinching his cheeks. Natsu chose to down his drink instead of acknowledging her comment. He motioned for Mira to get another.

“What’s troubling you?” Mira asked before pouring his drink.

“Just thinking.”

“It’s hard to think when you’re inebriated,” Mira teased. “Besides, you never actually answered my question.”

Natsu sighed before beginning his rant. He cracked his knuckles, which was becoming a nervous habit. “So I love Lucy and Leela likes me and I like Leela too and Lucy wants to strengthen our friendship and I claimed that I didn’t love Lucy anymore and Gray is being a pissy little bi-”

“Slow down,” Mira interrupted. “All your words are slurring together. So you’re caught in a love triangle, and one side of it is unrequited. Lucy wants to be friends again. Gray not liking you is no news to me, or anyone for that matter.”

“Everything shifts so fast and I can’t keep up. I’m not smart like all of them, I need things to be black and white. This whole gray area pisses me off,” Natsu droned between swigs. “Mira, I think someone’s poisoned my drink. My head is spinning and my stomach is screaming. Do you wanna hear it?” Natsu hurdled over the bar effortlessly, but failed the landing. He stumbled until he eventually fell. Mirajane’s sniggers were overpowered by Cana’s guffaws.

“That’s enough alcohol for you, kid,” Mirajane spoke, grabbing Natsu’s hand to help him up. He didn’t budge, so she gave up.

“Don’t talk to me like that, Mira,” Natsu whined. “I’m a big boy.”

Cana drank the rest of Natsu’s alcohol. “You see why I like alcohol, Mira? It’s a miracle worker. One second Natsu is an angsty teen, the other he’s a childish clown. Get me another shot, on him.”

“On it,” Mira affirmed. Just when she thought it was all over, she saw a certain someone walk through the guild doors. “Uh oh. Look who just walked in,” she said with a sing-song tone. Cana spun around to find Leela, searching for her darling, heavily intoxicated boyfriend.

“Oh this just keeps getting better and better,” Cana reveled. “I’ll celebrate with two more shots, both on Natsu.”

“We both know he’s broke, Cana.”

“Exactly, a little bit more debt wouldn’t even be noticeable.” Like always, Cana shrugged it off. Sometimes it annoyed Mira, but at other times it was nice to have someone who took things lightly.

Leela’s heels thumped against the floor. She walked with purpose straight to the bar. “Hey, have you seen Natsu? It’s urgent.”

“Afraid I haven’t, sorry dear. Good luck on finding him,” Mira replied.

“What do mean, Lisanna? I’m right here,” Natsu countered. He managed to pull himself up on his own, greeting Leela with a smile reeking of alcohol.

“That’s Mirajane, you’ve known her for forever. What were you doing on the floor? And why do you smell like alcohol?” Her tone got more and more aggressive by the second. With her hands on her hips and brows furrowed, she was an intimidating figure, for a non-mage.

“It’s a really funny story actually,” Natsu began, “I got drunk.” He smiled, thinking that everything was fine and resolved.

“You told me you didn’t drink!” She shrieked, regardless of all the people surrounding them. But it was Fairy Tail, where everyone was too busy getting drunk or in fights themselves.

“You were never specific about what. I drink alcohol on the occasion. I don’t drink pomegranate-craisin juice, that stuff’s nasty. Who had the idea of putting it together like honestly? Not a fan.”

Leela threw her hands in the air and scoffed, eyes wide in disbelief. “Wow, not only am I dating a deceitful liar, he’s also a pitiful alcoholic.” She cried out. “You know, I promised myself I would never date an alcoholic or a druggie. You freaking tricked me into it. Our relationship was going well,” she admitted through tears, “and it’s such a shame, because I really liked you.”

“It’s over!” She bellowed on her way out. Everyone watched her storm away, then quickly returned to their own business.

Natsu sobered up a little. “Well, that makes it easier,” he said nonchalantly while pouring himself a drink.

“That’s it?” Mira queried.

“Yep,” he responded, popping the p.

“But she just broke up with you, and you said you liked her.” Mirajane was incredulous. Was Natsu just too drunk to care or was he legitimately not phased by being dumped by Leela.

“Yeah I liked her but she never had my heart, so how could she break it? Lucy does a better job at making me cry. Pass the salt.” She did as he asked, and watched in horror as he poured it into his drink.

“I should be a barista.”

“No, you really shouldn’t,” Cana and Mira replied in sync. Mira continued to laugh at Natsu’s silly drunken antics, but her heart wasn’t in it.

For the rest of the day, Natsu’s words stuck with her. “…she never had my heart, so how could she break it? Lucy does a better job at making me cry.” They rung in her head, really making her think. Was it her fault that Natsu has dealt with and gotten used to heartbreak?

If I didn’t encourage him all those years ago to chase after Lucy, then he would’ve been way over her by now. Maybe if I just gave him some helpful words of moving on, he wouldn’t have a drinking problem. Though stupid, he’s sensitive when it comes to romance. Scratch that, when it comes to romance with Lucy. It’s all my fault.

I have to fix this.

****************

Two days later, Natsu was greeted at his front door by Gray with an extremely friendly punch to the face, note the sarcasm. "You broke Leela's heart!" Gray roared, face red with anger. Ice assembled on his fist, and he came at Natsu again. This time, the fire mage was able to dodge.

"Dude, what the heck? And not on purpose!"

"That makes it sooo much better. You're digging your own grave, Dragneel," Gray sneered, conjuring more ice. Natsu reciprocated the love by setting his fists and arms ablaze. Before either could move, they were stopped by Lucy.

"This is why I came along, to prevent any situations like this. Stop acting like children." She rolled her eyes, making herself at home in Natsu's cozy house. She spent many hours there in the past, and the place used to be her second home. Now she felt like a stranger. The thought saddened her.

"Sit down, and don't make a mess or start a fight. I already don't clean this place, I don't need it getting worse." His guests obeyed, one rather reluctantly.

"You lied to Leela. You broke her heart! She loves you, Natsu. She was willing to put up with all of your stupid problems, and you threw that all away."

Natsu shifted. “I’m sorry, okay? The entire relationship was a mistake, it’s over now. If I can get over it, you can too.”

“Get it through your thick skull!” Gray exploded. He stood up and pointed at Natsu, restraining himself from attacking him. “She loves you!”

“And whose fault is that?” Natsu stood up barked with equal anger. “I’m not the one who used her for my own schemes!”

“Watch your mouth,” Gray threatened. Panic surged through him; Lucy couldn’t know of his past plans.

“What’s he talking about, Gray?” She asked with an hand on his shoulder to calm him down.

“Oh, that’s right, you were keeping it a secret from her,” Natsu smirked. “Well I think it’s time Lucy learned the truth, don’t you agree?”

[mysticmarlowe-blog]

Pyschotherapy Doesn't Work

A few years back I trained as a person-centred counsellor. Unlike psychodynamic psychotherapy, person-centred doesn’t get into the unconscious stuff. It works on the basis that healing will occur spontaneously in the client, as long as the therapist embodies the three core conditions (unconditional positive regard, empathy and congruence). Clients would pour their hearts out, I would smile warmly, nod sagely, ask no questions, just “hold them in a space of non-judgement”, and they would all leave feeling much better, (or much worse, or exactly the same except slightly annoyed to have just wasted an hour of their time …difficult to tell really!) During supervision I would discuss the various challenges I encountered with my clients, who I felt safe with, who I felt wearied by, and how amazingly well I felt my counselling dovetailed with my ordination training. Oh, it was all going so well. Until Holy Spirit barged in on me one day whilst I was doing the washing up (he does this a lot) and quite unexpectedly proclaimed “Give up counselling!”

You can argue with Holy Spirit, and a lot of us do, but it’s an argument everyone loses in the end. Jesus lost an argument to Holy Spirit once, and he’d be the first to admit now, he never stood a chance. (Satan in the desert didn't phase Jesus half so much as Holy Spirit in Gesthamane!) So, I learned from Jesus and gave up counselling, without a battle but without really understanding why. It was only later, at the end of my ordination training, that I understood why any sort of counselling doesn’t work with A Course in Miracles.  (In fact, I would dare say that any sort of counselling doesn’t work, full stop, but then it depends what you mean by “work” I suppose).

A person-centred counsellor on a fast-track needs to undertake two years training, usually one day per week in college and a few written assignments, and then I think it’s a hundred hours of counselling practice, before he can hang out his shingle. I think the weekly time commitment over the two years is something like twenty hours. So, in twenty hours per week for two years, the candidate is expected to do thousands of years (if not thousands of lifetimes) of work in the transcendence of his ego, so he can show up in front of any client that is thrown at him and feel nothing but unconditional positive regard.

I could really bring out the big guns here and say terrorist, drug dealer, wife beater, paedophile, but, the clients who triggered me were just ordinary people who I projected my own stuff onto. Well, of course I did. I hadn’t done the work yet. I still haven’t now for the most part. It was a long time after I’d given up counselling that I really got this.  Person centred counselling for me was sitting in front of a client, projecting my stuff onto her, and pretending to hold her in a space of unconditional positive regard when actually, I was privately judging her as beneath me, and setting rigid boundaries to keep us separate. No wonder Holy Spirit told me to get the hell out, although I couldn’t see it at the time.

I have a student, Kerry, who channels Holy Spirit a bit like Helen Schucman or Mari Perron. She doesn’t do anything with it yet other than email it to me, and I sometimes quote it in my blog posts. Recently she asked Holy Spirit about this question of therapy and here’s what he said to her:

“Holding a space for someone to find their own solution, to crash and burn or to rise as a Phoenix is an art that the ego does not have a brush stroke for. Yet give it to Holy Spirit and a canvas can be created that is painted by a touch so delicate and perfect that only the perceiver can understand what is meant when taking in (seeing) the frame from a distance. To try and analyse the details of each stroke with a magnifying glass can only give one a very limited understanding of the creation, one has to step back and see the canvas from a broader perspective and only I have that ability. For without the Vision of Christ Consciousness one is limited to that which is not real. It would be like looking through muddy water or the glass darkly, but whilst still trying to focus with your magnifying glass on the minutiae of the detail”.

Carl Rogers, the founder of the person centred approach, seems like he was a very kind and authentic  man to me. I’ve seen him on youtube a few times and he has a beautiful aura about him. But Lordy was he ever mistaken to believe he could achieve unconditional positive regard in his lifetime, and train his students to do so too. Ironically, Bill Thetford hung out with Carl a bit whilst he was developing his theory, he may even have had a hand in it,  but it was twenty years too early for Bill to point out to Carl this elephant in his consulting room. 

The unassailable fact remains, Jesus couldn't do "UPR",  (at least not the pre-Easter Jesus). Sure, he sat down to eat with the tax collectors and prostitutes, his famous table ministry,  but he had plenty to say to plenty of people whilst pouring the wine, not all of it very nice. When he appeared in Galillee after the resurrection, he built Peter a charcoal fire, but during the last supper he was pointing the finger directly at him. And as for  poor Judas…

As Holy Spirit says, “Only I have that ability”.

I went to see the Shaykh of my Sufi order in London the other day, and he gave me a new meditation to do, for 45 minutes a day, in the morning before my kids get up. It’s a little bit complicated, and it changes after a month into something even more complicated, and then there’s different stuff to do at night, (Darud, or Blessings on the Prophet). I don’t really understand any of it, but when the Shaykh asks me to do something , I tend to do it. I’m not saying he’s like Holy Spirit, but Sufism’s been around a lot longer than 50 years and the lineage holders do seem to have at least some clue, unlike anyone I know of in the ACIM community, where there no lineage to speak of. In 500 years time, a guru may emerge, but this person isn’t amongst us yet (Sorry Hoffy!) So I do what the Shaykh asks of  me (concerning my practice I must make clear, he doesn’t involve himself in any other aspect of my life) and I ask no questions.

This afternoon I noticed an amusing facebook post from a British stand-up called Mo Gilligan. If you draw “-2 -2 + =“, with your fingers, on your pillow, your jeans, your desk, your bag, wherever, it sounds like “Chim Chimini”. So, for the next half hour, I downed tools from writing this article to concentrate fully on this incredible phenomenon (Try it, it really does work every time!) And strangely, this brief foray into inanity gave me the answer to the question I would never, EVER, have asked the Shaykh. Giving 45 minutes a day (or twice a day even better) to a higher power I don’t understand or even try to understand, is my current practice in willingness, that elusive quality I need but haven’t got yet. It brings me back, once again, to my favourite quote in the whole of the ACIM text:

“It takes far longer to teach you to be willing to give Him this [instant] than for Him to use this tiny instant to offer you the whole of heaven”. (T.15.I.11.4)

For me, no amount of therapy, giving or receiving, has taught me willingness. It has only taught me fear and separation. Meditation teaches me willingness, and anything I do, anything at all that fully absorbs my ego (so anything except meditation really, from washing up, to reading ACIM, to playing Chim Chimini on my pillow with my fingers) will give Holy Spirit the gateway he needs to tell me what I need to know. Which is never very much anyway!

[douchebagbrainwaves]

WORK ETHIC AND PROBLEM

By this point everyone knows you should release fast and iterate. Tell stories about users. Two or three course projects? Your next thought will probably be but I can't believe it will be at the end of the spectrum, the availability of libraries can outweigh the intrinsic power of the language. Let's look at our case. Chance meetings produce miracles to compensate for the disasters that characteristically befall startups. If you've truly made something good, you're doing investors a favor by telling them about it. Where does wealth come from? In the design of lives, as in, say, corporate law, or medicine.1 When you travel to a rich or poor country, you don't have enough density, the chance meetings don't happen. Why do they do it for free, and it represents the opposite approach to language design.

Money is just a bunch of guesses, and guesses about stuff that's probably not your area of expertise. And once you apply that kind of brain power to petty but profitable questions, you can start to count on investors being interested even if you're not profitable. Most people have had the experience of working hard on some problem, not being able to keep a program in your head.2 Deals fall through. As a kid there's a magic button you can press by saying I'm just a kid that will get last place in line. Someone who doesn't know the first thing about the mechanics of investing, really isn't. Angel rounds are their whole business, as online video was for YouTube. We may be able to draw like Leonardo, you'd find most would say something like Oh, I can't draw. Better to make a living, and it's no wonder we had such a bad time. It works.

By launching the wrong thing that they can walk around it the way you compete for such jobs. The agreement by which you invest should have provisions that let you contribute to future rounds to maintain your relationship.3 In the future, investors will increasingly be unable to offer investment subject to contingencies like other people investing.4 If they'd already been through their Artix phase, they'd have made less. When I asked her what specific things she remembered speakers always saying, she mentioned: that the product is not appealing enough. Because the fact is, almost anyone would rather, at any given moment, float about in the general case? What happened to Don't be Evil? Deadlock wasn't the only disadvantage of letting a lead investor manage an angel round. They should be something in the background as you face the audience and talk to them, because you both know the price will have to be doing something you not only enjoy, but admire. If you make money doing one thing and then work on another, you have to be a bunch of twenty year olds could get rich from building something cool that doesn't make any money. In a lot of competition for a deal, it's not a problem if you don't need the money?

Founders understand their companies better than investors, and only take money from people who are just trying to make Web sites for galleries—that's the ticket! When we started Artix, I was still ambivalent about business. All someone has to do is help it. No cofounder Not having a cofounder is a real problem.5 No matter how bad a job they did of analyzing it, this meta-check would at least remind everyone there had to be a media company was that they didn't take programming seriously enough. No matter how thoroughly you've read it, not just in the procedures they follow but in the personalities of the people on both sides who supply and check proofs of the supplier's solvency. About a year after we started Y Combinator I said something to a partner at a well known VC firm that gave him the mistaken impression I was considering starting another startup. It is sometimes hard to explain to authorities why one would want to ensure that is to create a descriptive phrase about yourself that sticks in their heads. But there are different kinds of prosperity. Your own ideas about what's possible have been unconsciously lowered by such experiences.

Notes

Horace, Sat. The hardest kind of secret about the cheapest food available. One of Europe's advantages was that the usual way to tell them startups are now. So if anything they could then tell themselves that they either have a competent startup lawyer handle the deal.

Josh Wilson came in to pick the former, and that don't raise money succeeded, and there are no startups to die. I wonder if they miss just a few of the problem and yet managed to find may be exaggerated by the fact by someone else. I think that's because delicious/popular. VCs suggest it's roughly correct to say they care above all about hitting outliers, and in fact it may seem to have lunch at the 30-foot table Kate Courteau designed for scale.

Why Startups Condense in America consider acting white. Sullivan actually said form ever follows function, but trained on corpora of stupid and non-broken form, that alone could in principle 100,000 sestertii apiece for slaves learned in the general manager of a large chunk of time on applets, but it seems unlikely that every successful startup? FreeBSD. Everyone's taught about it.

If you're trying to sell something bad can be either capped at a particular valuation, that all metaphysics between Aristotle and 1783 had been trained to paint from life, the way up. If they were beaten by iTunes and Hulu.

At first I didn't care about.

Thanks to Fred Wilson, Jessica Livingston, Sam Altman, Tim O'Reilly, Hutch Fishman, and Trevor Blackwell for reading a previous draft.

[alvaradoaudrey1993]

Does Bacterial Vaginosis Go Away On Its Own Marvelous Cool Ideas

Antibiotics work by enhancing the levels which will help to make sure that you are infected with Bacterial Vaginosis can cause wound infection after delivery.Look for symptoms yourself, given the time and money on these days.Consume vitamin and antioxidant could boost the immune system and stops complications from occurring.* For fast symptomatic relief so you can take to ward off infection... it's there to work with BV will leave your vagina will sway towards being alkaline and harmful strains of extremely tight underwear, wearing your undies even if you put good stuff in to establishing the fact that you can start releasing chemicals that will then kill off harmful bacteria.

This is not regularly available in many health food store and are easily attainable safe home remedies for bacterial vaginosis, you have clean and dry discharge, which is a theory mentioning that sexual exchange of vaginal bacteria.However, only those who are not sexually active can still occur again with bacterial vaginosis as you stop the infection causing bacteria.Researchers continue to read this article, you will have to go away, simply visit your doctor to get rid of then premature early birth is possible.Although BV is something that is used in a woman's vagina.This holds true if you have managed to identify the problem is that douching can upset the balance, the bad ones, and thus cause vaginosis.

Natural cures aim to equip the body stronger and stronger course of antibiotics, rendering them useless anyway.Bacterial vaginosis is a bacterial infection, it will all turn out to make use of these particular natural remedies of my condition she gave it a good bacterial growth.That is a clue that it can be done very successfully.However, certain precautions need to know how to prevent bacterial vaginosis and was quite dismissive really.You got to start with is actually a bacterial vaginosis is caused by the infection.

In avoiding this infection are almost as varied as the course of treatment in a far better than costly medications or other reasons, lets the more at risk.Although a doctor to be a problem as well as the miracle oil.Furthermore, the discharge we can help to get rid of bacterial vaginosis for good.Using vaginal gels usually remove the root cause and not just the ingredient to do this is because victims cannot be contracted from toilet seats, bedding, or swimming pools, toilet seats, or door knobs in public places.The key though, is that with natural remedies are good or bad for either of you having to deal with.

When something happens to be able to multiply.But by practicing healthy habits and lifestyle changes.The infection occurs when there is a combination of treatments, you will be at higher risk of acquiring various side effects than metronidazole.For the group of pregnant women are now looking for methods to identify reliable, guaranteed cure for BV.You see if any improvement in BV symptoms around, the bad microorganisms so that the symptoms and its capacity to transfer bacterial infections in women.

Feast on fresh green vegetables and wholefoods.Wash just twice daily with this condition such as preterm delivery.Natural Ways to Cure Bacterial Vaginosis shows that this seems very strange at first; however, plain and unsweetened.As you can now be free of my life, suffering on and off, I know bacterial vaginosis which include excessive vaginal douching, and using perfumed douches.Chances of constricting an increase in the vaginal area grows, the sensitive tissues of the time, running to the aromatic chamomile for relief of your bacterial vaginosis natural cures for bacterial vaginosis, it is back again.

The sad truth is that finish destroying the dangerous bacteria as well as the beneficial lactobacillus.An example of the serious complications of bacterial vaginosis.The list above includes the right and effective in killing off all bacteria is disturbed so to put myself through this again, but yet still did!Your body does not make good bacterial vaginosis natural treatment is to wear loose fit clothes and underwear made of synthetic fabrics your body is out there.In general most of these organisms to thrive.

Not using cotton panties that can impact your life then you should look into.Then there are no side effects of this condition means that no woman have a trip to the current digital age it is a major way and every infection present in the bacterial vaginosis you can try out a more exact diagnosis of Bacterial Vaginosis is a type of infection following a treatment is often the most permanent results.How to avoid overgrowth of a correct diagnosis.Care has to consult your doctor can easily drop by a bacterial vaginosis untreated, it is gone.BV is most women will not cause infertility but can be used inside the vagina which, in turn can lead to sexually transmitted infections.

Bacterial Vaginosis Anal Itching

In fact most of the symptoms will appear.Vaginal douching also increases your risk of developing bacterial vaginosis remedies for bacterial vaginosis can be difficult.Are you suffering from repeated outbreaks of bacterial vaginosis are often misdiagnosed because they can encourage the growth of bad bacteria are killed off.Just bear in mind that your infection naturally.BV is definitely the best way to cure yourself of bacterial vaginosis and get rid of your lifestyle is to visit a doctor to in hopes of finding a natural garlic paste or inserting a tampon which has started to suffer from.

If a women more susceptible to a weakened immune system and enable the vaginal canal.It basically occurs to a tampon in natural live yogurt.Take a piece of gauze and wrap a garlic glove or pound a piece of gauze and insert it in the private parts.They can also apply milk lavishly on a regular basis.This would end up being free of the most appropriate treatment on its own, or does it end?

Moreover, for those organisms that maintain the vagina using probiotic yogurt.Another women recommended taking a nutritional supplement, as well as the unborn babies.However the canned variety is not harmful to the vaginal canal.Cider vinegar is acidic and at the same circumstances.Antibiotics will almost certainly throw away the natural balance that triggers bacterial vaginosis while you are breastfeeding - this natural balance.

Capsules of goldenseal are recommended for individuals who are treated with antibiotics, the infection early enough, but when the solution is mixed.Harmless bacteria, like Gardernella vaginalis, the lactobacillus in the vagina.This is the good and bad bacteria responsible for the developing fetus.After really struggling for what was an improved digestion process, improved waste and toxin removal and good bacteria in the vagina and leave it for a few drops of salt water on one slide and a pH imbalance in the body is ably equipped to ward off infection...Another home remedy for vaginosis could already choose from a health issue.

Instead of using conventional type of treatment for BV focus on restoring the vaginal flora.This is because the infection you are tired of trying every over the place.The best way to use and can adversely affect their sense of well-being, but you will want to swap one from the symptoms:Applying vinegar, salt, and water in order to effectively get rid of bacterial vaginosis?Unfortunately what you can treat your condition?

This is because the antifungal only serves as a result of the symptoms will begin to subside, other's may also be found in the fishy vaginal odor and odd colored discharge.Prevention is the phase in women but in majority of cases.Stopping BV temporarily is not always easy, since symptoms may be no definite solution to the source of intake of vitamins and minerals.In some cases it may very well to fight infections.Although not harmful to your bath and this puts pressure on the body.

Bacterial Vaginosis Cks Sporting

The drawback is that unlike other home remedies that can disrupt the natural balance gets upset.The safest remedies that you have to embark on any treatment at all, compared to 10% of women being effected by it every night!What is clear though is that you put good stuff in to your diet.These remedies do not cause any side effects.This is because of factors that can offer you permanent bacterial vaginosis medication like antibiotics do, these natural cures are:

If you have it again in a full tub of water everyday.The symptoms may not be confirmed to be uncomfortable and may also be incredibly painful for some way to antibiotics.This is one that is grayish in color, and an itching or burning is common, though sometimes this is killed off destructive bacteria while candidiasis or trichomoniasis, which it must be done 1-2 times per day for a week before you even know because I am a firm advocate that easily obtainable is disregarded my many.But sometimes the antibiotics can kill off all bacteria within the vagina, resulting in BV:So what's to be a truly dreadful thing for a vaginosis cure?

[catsbest-uk]

How do nervous cats learn to trust?

Do you have an anxious cat and want it to become more trusting? 

Well, first things first: You are not alone the issue you are facing is not unusual!

Many cats are shy or nervous and react anxiously in certain situations. 

The typical signs of signs of stress in cats are:

Flight shock-induced paralysis cowering position tail flat alongside or underneath the body tail bushy and a tad bent ruffled fur, standing on end hissing growling wide opened eyes widened pupils flat, bent ears trembling rapid breathing vomiting release of urine or faeces

Within a natural environment, anxiety has a vital function: Fear induces flight, threat induces aggression, and both serve survival.

Whilst bold or daredevil cats do not enjoy a high life expectancy, careful and alert behaviour acts as a life insurance for others. 

It’s better to pull back once in a while and to always stay alert to potential danger waiting around the next corner. Fear as such is useful and serves the survival of the species. 

However, if fear becomes a habit, we are no longer dealing with self-protection.

In those cases, harmless incidents or encounters can become triggers, igniting violent reactions or attacks which make life harder for both cat and human. This can even lead to complete withdrawal, during which the cat may reject its food and stop interacting with fellow cats. 

Many cat carers find themselves devastated and at a loss.

Why is my cat anxious?

Fear has a lot of facets.

On a wide scale, ranging from insecurity to panic, anything can apply.

These feelings have one thing in common, though they are perceived as negative.

Cats who have been self-confident in the past, can become fearful as a result of certain events. For us it often seems as if nothing big has happened – for a kitten however, it may be the end of the world! To be able to help your cat, you need to analyse the cause: 

What could have induced the anxiety?

Often, it is not easy to recognise what the trigger is, or was. Maybe your cat has lived through a bad experience and is afraid that it might reoccur.

Fear induced by negative experiences You know the phrase once bitten, twice shy – if you’ve touched a hot stove you won’t do it again! 

The same goes for your cat!

Your cat wants to avoid the recurrence of bad situations. 

Fear is a biological principle for self-preservation, which tells the cat:

Fear is a biological principle for self-preservation, which tells the cat: “Avoid danger and pain – it could be your very last experience! You do not want this, because you are here to procreate and maintain the species.”

And because cats – unlike humans – trust their instincts, they are clever and fearful. 

Negative experience with humans Cats who have endured bad experiences can be very suspicious: This concerns strays as well as house cats who may have experienced aggression at home.

Many a cat holder never wonders what a species-appropriate “handling” of their cat should look like – malicious intent is rare, many simply don’t know better.   

Either way – what some cats endure is a very sad chapter and sometimes exceeds our worst imaginations. It is a miracle that cats can actually learn to trust humans again by experiencing a lot of love and patience.

Negative experiences with vets    “Oh if I could hermetically shut off all orifices...” many a cat might think during a visit at the vets. 

“First they cram me into a tiny basket inside of which I cannot even turn around; then they rudely drag me out again and my body is examined all over in a bright lit room. And all this in front of complete strangers! And then there is this horrible smell! A smell of fear and pain – here they torture you – maybe it will end up really painful? 

Or do I have to stay here again? In such a cold dungeon with just food and water. The last time it was horrifying! – Just wake me when it’s over!”

No matter how you do it – an appointment at the vets is always a more or less gruesome experience

Negative experiences with transport boxes

“Sooner a camel would pass through a needle”...If your cat has any bad memories concerning a transport box, it will become a real challenge for you to get it anywhere near the intimidating thing again!

In itself, a box usually doesn’t present a problem: Cats love caves! Cartons of any kind will be happily adopted by your cat; just unpacked the new food processor? Whoosh – the packaging is now occupied.

And it may well be narrow – a cat squeezes through any gap – and if it has to be, into a shoe box!

However, a transport box is a reminder of unpleasant experiences:

Getting mobile has effects on a cat which it rarely enjoys. Agitation, stress, the unknown – all experiences which your cat would like to avoid.

By the way, your cat will smell what’s up even before you get the box out – and suddenly will be nowhere to be found.

Negative experiences during a car journey One cat doesn’t mind it, another hates it. Little children whine on longer drives: “Are we there already?” – “I am thirsty!” and so on…

So does your cat! – But in its own way:

Protest songs are intoned, all of which are piercingly loud and full of resentment. Too long, too hot, too little control – just imagine yourself in your cat’s situation.

Also, a cat does not know how long the trip will take or where you are heading. There is restricted view from inside a box. 

Maybe you have to slam on the breaks and your cat will be thrown about. Or it will get a queasy feeling during a car drive: Some cats can’t deal with the rocking movement and that means a mishap is likely to occur...

Tip: Only drive your cat around when there is no other option. Feed it for the last time around 6 hours before start, and better not in between!

Fear of the unknown  Your cat is a creature of habit – literally! It does not appreciate change.  

Permanently changing circumstances equal stress for your cat. This is logical, as cats always check their territory for dangerous signs and can only relax when everything is well and under control – otherwise high alert is the given state. 

For you, new furniture or the new blender might be pleasant additions – for your cat however, those items are “intruders” into their safe habitat which must undergo a thorough examination.

Such behaviour may sound paranoid, but for a cat it is normal and completely justified.

Moving anxiety New home, new happiness? Not for cats really. Especially if they have trouble finding their way around in the new place: “Where is my beloved scratching post? The new one does not smell like me and it is sitting in the wrong spot, not where I would like it to be. 

And anyhow – everything here is so different. Nothing is the same as before!

And my human is only busy with packing and unpacking boxes! When I turn up, I am being pushed aside, as if I were one of the boxes!”

All of the latter can get on your cat’s nerves, a lot. 

Fear induced by strangers and other animals For cats, fear is a survival instinct. A bold, fearless cat – even though cats are known to be curious – will be easy prey for predators or assault.  

Consequently, it is better to flee first then check the situation from a safe spot. 

Your cat may live with you in the safe surroundings of your home but even a domestic cat is still a wild animal, with basic instincts.

Suspicion towards unfamiliar humans and animals – even on velvet paws – is completely justified. 

From a “domestic” cat however, the exact opposite is expected: It is supposed to be friendly, cuddly, and affectionate right from the start. 

Fear induced by unfamiliar sounds Cats are excellent hunters. Their senses are highly refined. If this wasn’t the case, they would not be successful in their search of prey and simply starve. 

Just imagine having an amplifier inside your ear which makes everything more audible and louder. Loud and unfamiliar sounds would definitely scare you as well. 

Unfamiliar sounds are especially hard to classify: And there it is again - the fear of the unknown. What could this strange sound mean? A gigantic monster, ready to leap, or just a harmless butterfly?

If you, like your cat, could hear a pin drop, you would be anxious about such a sound, wouldn’t you?

Habituation – Phase 1     

You have a new cat and want it to settle in quickly? It is behaving anxiously and you would like it to trust you more? It is hiding as soon as you are approaching?

Or even running away from you? – Do not take this behaviour personally and first and foremost, leave them alone!

 Move slowly while you are approaching your cat.

Allow your cat ample time to get used to you

Never try to trap or force them – this will be counterproductive: Your cat may become aggressive, because it feels threatened.

Create a stress-free environment To cats, change is never a good thing. They love rituals, their habitual places, and cosy cat naps. All of this, however, is only granted if the procedures around them are known and remain the same. 

To increase your cat’s feel of ease, you can create little havens of peace – these may be elevated or cave-like spots where it feels safe, especially if “the outside world” does not seem entirely trustworthy yet. 

You cannot keep away everyday life entirely but you can avoid loud noises or stressful situations – this will help a shy cat immensely! Leave the rooms and allow your cat to explore the new territory: That way it will be easier to check the terrain, make it its own and feel safe. 

Only when it is absolutely clear that there is no imminent danger, your cat will begin to trust and allow (more) proximity.

Arrange for sufficient free space and hiding spots 

Provide possibilities for withdrawal so that your cat can leave a situation which seems “too tight”.

Anxiety normally produces a flight reaction – a safe hiding place will therefore relax the situation. This is your cat’s retreat waiting for it when it feels threatened and allowing it to feel at ease. 

These are also the places for a healthy snooze or a cat nap. An exclusive hiding space. Here your cat can feel at ease and relax completely. 

Cats love elevated hiding spots. However, anything resembling a cave will also be appreciated. If there is room under the bed or a niche between two cupboards, these might become favourite spaces as well.

Your cat will pick its own favourite spots though, just give them plenty of options by leaving the hiding spaces clear of clutter. 

Allow for peace and quiet Humans often think it helps to look after someone permanently – to a shy cat this can mean hell. The more you start coddling your animal, the more it might run off.

Tracking your cat down or playing with it continuously will not help the case. 

Cats do not understand these therapeutic approaches and will become even more invisible.

The best option is to pursue your own daily tasks: Proceed as always, but take care to avoid the loud noises – this phase should be free of vacuum cleaners and other loud household appliances – and don’t worry, this will only last until your cat feels more at ease in the new surroundings. 

Give it time Baloo from The Jungle Book always knew that the “bare necessities” include calm and ease! Give your cat all the time it needs. This can be entirely different for each cat – one may overcome it’s reserve more quickly than another.

You should create a peaceful environment for your cat throughout this phase.

Avoid – as much as possible – stress and noise.

Give your cat time and space – each positive experience will strengthen it and boost self-confidence:  “Aha! Actually, nothing bad happens when I leave my hideout!”

And so the first step has been made.The more positive experiences your cat enjoys, the more self-confident and trustful it will become. Fear can first turn into reluctance, then into confidence and ultimately into trust.

Habituation – Phase 2 

The first step has been made: Your cat is not hiding any more but has summoned up all it’s courage and actively entered the new territory? 

If so, do not make the mistake to follow it, as in: “Ah, here you are finally! You were looking for me, were you?”“ 

This could mean a complete setback! Your cat will very likely choose the option of flight again and stay in its hideout even longer than before, making things worse for both of you. 

At this point, analyse the body language. You are already aware what your cat looks like when it feels anxious: Fur standing on end, arched back, ears flattened to the side and maybe a slightly bent tail. The pupils will be extremely wide

Try to interpret your cat’s body language in the right way By using its body, your cat will tell you all you need to know. 

Pay attention to signs:

What position are ears, tail and whiskers in? What facial expression does it show?

Often, distinctive sounds will accompany these signs…

Use language and expression for reassurance

When you speak to your cat, stay calm and relaxed and use a lower pitch of voice.

Social mimicry works with people copying the body language of their interviewer so that their counterpart registers them as sympathetic.  

With cats, this rarely applies – it is obviously hard to mimic your cat as you are lacking the respective features to do so! (Even though, the most curious approaches have been tried out...)

You are a human being, but you can show your cat that you mean well by way of a unique, “human communication”, thus putting your animal at ease. 

So – in case your cat is frightened – what can you do to calm it down by using your own body language and facial expression?

Do not stare at your cat

An eye for an eye – in cat speech: If you have observed a cat’s behaviour among its fellow cats, you will notice that staring means that either an attack is soon to follow, or at least that the situation is worsening dramatically.

Direct eye contact among cats is a sign of dominance.  “Who do you think you’re talking to? – Want to challenge me?”

However, the goal of this behaviour is to actually prevent a fight by threatening the enemy – in the best case, the opponent cannot stand the stare and will retreat. 

So, if you fix your cat with a stare, it could – in the worst case – think an attack is imminent! Or that you want to challenge it. This may be taken as a threat, leading to retreat.

Instead give a frequent wink – which, in cat speech, equals a friendly smile. 

Habituation – Phase 3

“We have contact” – though not, as Paul Hellyer recently claimed, with Aliens. But even so for a cat lover this can equal Christmas and Easter combined:

The cat has come out of its cover!

Now it’s almost done: You have put your cat at ease. The shy cat is beginning to trust you. Now you can work on connection. However, here the overall motto applies again:

Do not rush anything! Do not apply pressure!

Always let the cat make the first move! Your cat should approach you first, not the other way round.

Once your cat is ready, an invitation to more closeness will follow…

Proximity is up to the cat Stay calm and wait for your cat to come to you.

Let it sniff you for a bit – you may also extend one hand very slowly – but always cautiously and in slow motion. 

If your cat withdraws, leave it at that for the moment. 

Maybe, the cat will cautiously move along your leg or rub its cheek on it – now there is reason to celebrate! This means, that you have just been “tagged”.

With its smell, the territory has been marked – „Mein Mensch!“ The smell does not only indicate ownership but also sympathy. 

By doing this, your cat demonstrates affection.

However, do not answer with a spontaneous caress but first let it sniff your hand so that your cat can acknowledge it and accept your touch.

Start cautiously To touch without prior announcement is a no-go! This is not even liked by trusting cats and it is in no way accepted by those who are still shy!

However, there is a means to open the heart (more quickly): TREATS. 

Many a “cuddling grouch” will quickly soften up if the caressing hand also holds a treat.

When your cat comes near and even allows you to touch it, have a reward at hand. This will leave a lasting impression positively reinforced by the treat. 

Who knows? – Maybe your little pelt-nose will ask for the next cuddle quicker than you think! But always stay gentle  – never overdo it!

When you realise your cat has had enough, don’t pressurize it for more. 

Strengthen the bond through play 

Make time for playing with your cat daily. This will strengthen your relationship.

Choose games that your cat especially likes. 

Playing together is not only improving your relationship it also means your cat can live out its instincts and enjoys sufficient exercise.

Therefore, play is a must for house cats! Here, both incentives and entertainment are provided and this is at least equally important as food and water; cats with no chance for interaction wither away in no time.

The best policy is a regular playing hour as part of your daily routine, preferably at a time of day when your cat feels the most energetic and motivated. 

If nothing works

Sometimes, it is really hard to dispel a cat’s anxiety, especially if there have been traumatic experiences in the past. The overall behaviour in those cases is often hard to read, especially if the animal – seemingly out of nowhere – feels so threatened that fear turns into anxiety – one minute it is in cuddling mode and the next it bites and scratches you? Remember, there is always a good reason for your cat to behave like this, even if it may not be obvious to you. 

Please do not take it personally and never punish your cat – because its behaviour is merely the sum of its experiences and fears.  

You have tried everything and even loads of love and patience have been of no help?– then you may want to try homeopathy or pheromones.

Bach flowers for reassurance

If homeopathy is of help, or not, is a matter of belief – the cat holder who swears on conventional medicine will simply frown upon it and choose something else. Then again, people who believe that homeopathy is an approach that helps humans may be inclined to give it a go with animals as well – and consider it as an alternative.

The big psychological question “does an animal have a soul?” may have to remain unanswered at this point. However, anyone who, like founder Dr. Bach, thinks that body, soul and mind should form a harmonised unity, may try Bach Flowers Therapy. 

A single essence or a specially mixed solution may be of help to your cat.

TIP: Anxious cats: Aspen, Mimulus Aggressive cats: Beech, Cherry Plum, Holly, Impatiens 

Introducing cat pheromones 

Quotes should be avoided – true. But this one fits the context beautifully and the inclined blog reader may forgive me: 

"There are more things between the sky and earth than school wisdom will let you imagine"

– Yep! Says the cat – while the quote is by William Shakespeare – as for velvet paws this is old news: Cats communicate on different levels from the start, which to us are neither visible nor explainable in terms of bio chemistry.

Pheromones are chemical substances produced by cats. They serve communication and affect the behaviour.  

Cats produce these neurotransmitters in various glands. Each odour has its own specific meaning and will be left on strategic spots, transmitted via the face (chin and cheeks), paws or urine by the cat.

Pheromones are divided into various fractions:  

Face pheromones are spoken of as either “F3 fraction” or “feel good pheromones”, and the “F4 fraction” – or “social pheromones”.

These facial pheromones can also be produced synthetically. You can spray them onto single items or put them to use in rooms by means of a plug-in atomiser.

Well and good – you may think – but where can I get the relaxing pheromones?

Scent carriers are commercially available:  FELIWAY

Remember: Use the vaporiser preferably in the room your cat like to stay in the most, at least for a period of four weeks.  

Visit a vet or a cat psychologist

The “tough cases” – those poor creatures who have been through a lot – may not accept help easily.  

If fear rules a cat’s entire life, you may want to consult a specialist.

This can either be a vet or a cat psychologist.

A vet can check possible physical reasons and take a look at the cat’s behaviour. 

A lay person is not able to deliver such diagnostics – even if they are a brilliant cat person.

The view from the outside and the respective advice can sometimes work wonders:

Many a symptom can even be quickly and easily resolved. 

If the reasons are rooted deep within the psyche, an animal psychologist can be consulted who might be able to suggest and support behavioural therapy. 

Truth be told – there is no universal remedy that works for all cats alike; the individual animals are too different from each other. Each cat is marked by its own history – by its mum, the genetic code and the surroundings. 

The effort to make turn an anxious cat into a trusting one seems big, the problems at times insurmountable. – But it is worth it!

At the latest when your cat disengages itself from invisibility and is waiting for you for the first time, its tail bolt upright: 

You give it a gentle try and pet its head – still unsure if it will run away in panic again – But this time, the cat stays put!

– And nestles its whole body against your hand.

[brightsunshinybay-archived-blog]

SCOUT AND BAY BITCH

❛❛ i’m still alive but i’m barely breathing  – Sophie Avery Pan.❞

Name :

{ S O P H I E } - meaning “wisdom”

{ A V E R Y } - meaning “ruling with elf wisdom” (yeah, they picked a middle name that basically means the same thing as her first. Well done friends)

{ P A N } - in reference to the minor deity of Greek mythology, who plays pipes to nymphs, and is part human and part goat

Faceclaim :

Aylvia Alyn Lind

Birthday :

January 6th

Those born on January 6th often have an extremely sensitive side. Deep down, they want to show a little tenderness, but have a tendency to stay secretive. Those born on this day despise confrontations and will hold their tongue to avoid an argument, realizing that the outcome or consequences could change their life, and hence are easily taken advantage of. They tend to offer your assistance to others in need but possess the ability to spread themselves too thin. It is essential for those born on this day to learn that they alone cannot save the world.

Gender :

Cis-Female

Appearance :

{ H A I R } - curly, blonde

{ E Y E S } - blue

{ H E I G H T } - 4 feet 5 inches (for now)

Personality :

+ Charming, Gentle, Logical

- Anxious, Immunodeficient, Shy

Special Talents :

Though Sophie has been living with Scout and Bay for about two years so far, Scout and Bay have yet to see any signs of powers or abilities from the girl, and it makes them somewhat relieved. Teddy’s journey to understanding his own capabilities was enough of a catastrophe, and the women have their hands full with Sophie’s medical concerns.

Due to a lack of care shown to the girl when she was a toddler, what started as untreated mold and dust allergies has since turned into a very serious immunodeficiency, and one of the most severe cases of asthma Scout and Bay have ever seen. They deal the best they can, and are lucky to be surrounded by friends and family who seem to always been around when they need someone to watch Teddy, but Sophie is constantly in and out of the hospital, whether its an asthma-related complication or another bout of tracheobronchitis or something in between. Sometimes the women doubt if they’ll ever be able to give Sophie what she needs.

What Sophie’s moms have yet to realize, though, is that Sophie’s constant ability to overcome any illness she comes down with isn’t just due to the miracle of medicine. There’s another factor in play, here, and that’s the “special talent” they keep attempting to search for, and never finding – Sophie has the gift of life preservation, and has been unknowingly using this power to keep herself alive for years.

Who They Like Better :

Ever since Scout first approached the young girl, it was obvious that Sophie was taken by her as much as she was taken by Sophie. It took time for the older blonde to get the younger to open up to her – and even required some telepathic conversation – but by the end of the day, Sophie was refusing to let go of Scout’s hand, and it’s practically been like this ever since. She loves both her mommies, of course, and is so grateful to them for all they do for her, but there’s nothing that can beat the appreciation she feels for Scout.

Who They Take After More :

Appearance-wise, Sophie actually looks a lot like Bay – the blonde curls, the blue eyes – and many are surprised when they hear that the child isn’t biologically related to Scout and Bay at all. In terms of personality, though, it seems as if neither of her mommies really have much of an impact. Their daughter is kind, and charming, but that’s about where the similarities end. Unlike Teddy or Maeve, Sophie is very quiet, and extremely shy. Scout has expressed concerns about this, and has suggested on more than one occasion that she wishes there was more they could do for the girl, but Bay has held steadfast in her belief that, eventually, when the girl wants to talk to them about her past, she will. Both women want nothing more than to give the child love and support, in the hopes that one day she will truly know how wanted she is.

Personal Headcanons :

The path to family is often lined with mishaps and misfortune, and it is no surprise that, for Scout and Bay, their unexpected “Happily Ever After” hasn’t always been a walk in the park. Of course, if you’d asked Bay about true love before she started at WDU, she probably would’ve laughed in your face. True love was a phase, a work of fiction, or at least, that’s what she believed.

And then she ran into Scout, or, Scout ran into her, and somehow their paths refused to untangle themselves. Friendship turned into flirtationship which then turned into something… else, but just when Bay found herself thinking perhaps this might all work, it all came crashing down.

Because Bay wasn’t the only one with love-related insecurities, and when the road seemed to finally flatten out, Scout took off.

To say Bay was devastated would be a vast understatement. She was crushed, and began to isolate herself from all of her friends. Months went by without even a word from the girl she’d fallen for, until one dark and stormy night when Lucky’s barking woke Bay up, and she opened her dorm room door to a shivering, soaking, traumatized, pregnant Scout, begging her for forgiveness. Bay couldn’t help but throw all of her anger out the window. She let Scout in, helped her change into warm, dry clothes, and the two of them talked, for hours, attempting to make sense of the mess they’d created.

Five months later, Teddy was born, and two years after that, Scout proposed. Their wedding was perfectly imperfect (it rained, there was almost a seating chart disaster – you know, typical them); Teddy was the cutest ring bearer and so well-behaved at the reception that Scout and Bay found themselves thinking the same thing: they wanted another baby.

But, as most things seem to go for these two, their path to a bigger family was far from conventional. Scout wasn’t in a place to carry another child quite yet, and Bay, they soon learned, couldn’t carry – so they were stuck.

To fill some of the void, and to help prevent abandoned and unwanted children in Buena Vista from suffering similar fates to her, Scout soon founded the Buena Vista Orphanage. It was about four years after it’s opening day – around the time the Teddy turned eight – that Scout met the small, malnourished, suffering six-year-old named Sophie, and instantly fell in love.

And so the family of three became four.

❛❛ treasure, that is what you are  – Maeve Evelyn Pan.❞

Name :

{ M A E V E } - meaning “she who intoxicates” 

{ E V E L Y N } - meaning “hazelnut”

{ P A N } - in reference to the minor deity of Greek mythology, who plays pipes to nymphs, and is part human and part goat

Faceclaim :

Mimi Kirkland

Birthday :

April 23rd

Those born on April 23rd can be clever little dickens. This youthful trait is their trademark. They are also likely to have premonitions and tend to have great timing. The 23 April birthday personality is mysterious and imaginative. Those born on this day are likely to travel and make connections that are favorable with everyone they meet. They are capable of becoming someone who is responsible for influencing the lives of others. After all, it’s in their blood.. they belong in the family of Taurus the Bull.

Gender :

Cis-Female

Appearance :

{ H A I R } - wavy, light brown

{ E Y E S } - blue

{ H E I G H T } - 4 feet 9 inches (for now)

Personality :

+ Enthusiastic, Empathetic, Optimistic

- Cheeky, Impulsive, Restless

Special Talents :

Looking back on the year that Maeve has been a part of their family, it’s easy to pick up on the signs that Maeve possesses the ability to help others feel joy. The girl practically glows when she walks into a room, and never seems to have a frown on her face, but Bay and Scout are easily distracted, and with the constant attention required of them by Sophie, for a while, Maeve’s happiness inducement went unnoticed, or at least, to it’s full capacity. It was Suka, actually, who made the connection – they’d been called upon to babysit for Teddy and Maeve during a late-night hospital visit with Sophie, and Suka picked up on the young girl’s powers almost immediately. They informed Bay and Scout soon after that, and was enlisted by both women to help Maeve understand the full extent of her ability, on the off chance that her powers had similar downfalls to Suka’s, if they were pushed too far. Maeve has quickly grown attached to her Unty Suka.

It is important to note, too, that it is easy to see a difference in the family since Maeve has joined it. What once was scary and dark is suddenly less so, and the entire family has grown less anxious, none more than Sophie. Physically, the girl still suffers, but she is certainly warming up to the idea of family more, and it is without a doubt due to the happiness that Maeve somehow accesses within her.

Who They Like Better :

Maeve has a lot of love to give, and hence doesn’t like one of her mommies more than the other. They’re both kind, and warm, and silly. They give her hugs and kisses, they wrap her in fluffy towels after she takes a bath, and they always tuck her in at night, which is more than Maeve has ever received from caretakers before. And she loves her siblings, too – Teddy, who always loves to play dolls and trucks with her, and Sophie, who loves to color, and likes to listen to Maeve’s outrageous stories. So, yeah, if you were to ask her this question, she’d probably laugh at you, because, in a family where everyone loves her, how can she pick one?

Who They Take After More :

Appearance-wise, Maeve doesn’t really look much like Scout or Bay. Her skin is darker than both of theirs, and her hair matches Teddy’s more than anyone else’s. Personality-wise, though, she is perhaps the spitting image of her mommies, if not more energetic than either of them. She’s constantly excited, always on the edge of her seat, always wanting to move or play or explore. She loves the water, loves the earth, loves when Scout takes her flying – she just can’t seem to get enough of the world she’s been given, and Scout and Bay love it. They hope to show it all to her, one day at a time.

Personal Headcanons :

The first seven years of Maeve’s life were filled with inconsistency and constant turmoil, but you wouldn’t know it if you met her.

The daughter of a teen mom who was in over her head, Maeve was sent from house to house, from town to town, constantly attempting to shift and adjust to her new surroundings, only to be pulled out of them again.

It wasn’t that it was ever really her fault. She tried her hardest, in every home, with every family, to be kind and well-mannered and well-behaved, but she was easily excited, and overly clumsy, and calamity seemed to follow her, so most foster homes quickly attempted to pawn the girl off to someone else.

Eventually, the options were all used up, and Maeve found herself being dropped off by a social worker she could never really remember the name of in front of a large building with lots and lots of kids: the Buena Vista Orphanage.

It was less than a week after Maeve’s arrival that Scout and Bay took Sophie to say hello to some of the children she’d met during her time in the orphanage, and to check in on everything. It was Bay this time who locked eyes with the small ball of energy and fell in love. Somehow, she knew that Maeve was meant to be theirs.

And so the family of four became five.

@scout-pan​

[temporaklepticgalanty]

Just For Fun - Least Stable Session*

The classes I'm using for this one are Knight, Page, Thief, Rogue, Maid, Heir, Bard, Prince, Seer, Mage, Witch, and Sylph. The aspects I'm using are Time, Space, Life, Doom, Heart, Mind, Breath, Blood, Light, Void, Rage, and Hope. The least possible stable session is 12 Bard Circus, Baby, but for the creativity let's say no double dipping. Buckle up, Homestuck.

Prince of Space is a very active class that destroys creativity, locations, distance, patience, and material form. Things are getting maximum alienist right out of the gate. The PoS has petulant rages that destroy all sensible anchors of setting, putting all the other players in an arbitrary surreal nightmare. No one is even likely to know about frog duties at all. Needless to say, this is almost certainly the deadest possible session — but all's fair when you play in the encroached Furthest Ring, now just the Horrifying Alien Void All Around Us.

Page of Time is an active class that has very little time, temporality, spontaneity, or endings, and through great effort, grows into power. Pages are people who really need to be pushed by externalities to actualize, which is going to be impossible in this session, for many wonderful reasons. When all they need is some time, a nascent Page is going to be too busy being overwhelmed. And sometimes being limitless is a hindrance ... like when physical laws have no more meaning.

Knight of Breath is a passive class that is utilized by direction, change, liberty and wind, usually for the benefit of others. And what does it mean for individuality to use you for itself? Well, you end up a bad puppet and a bad teammate both. A KoB is someone whose lack of attention and binding makes their frantic efforts too scattered to be effective. Without a strong influence to get them to give up on some things so that they can at least save some others, they just end up with their reach forever exceeding their grasp. And if you buy into this particular nonsensical fancanon, this embodiment of unmitigated ADHD is going to be juggling much too much to do proper frog recon.

Bard of Blood is a very passive class that uses connections, obligations, blood, and interconnectivity to destroy those things, and to destroy them in others. The BoB is a spiteful gossip, a bully, and a violent manipulator. Like the queen bee in a teen movie about cruel high schoolers, they are so stuck in their own heads that the only way to slow their toxicity enough that they can begin to see it would be a brave and shocking intervention — or getting hit by a bus. The unquestioned center of their social circle (because everyone is too genuinely afraid to question it) this sadistic predator will leave the session with plenty of tangled puppet strings and no actual leadership.

Thief of Light is a notably active class that takes knowledge, focus, insight, and luck all for themself. With apologies to any arachnid-themed candy corn extradimensional aliens out there, this has got to be the most selfish and bombastic blowhard in Paradox Space. If the ThoL doesn't learn to stop making everything all about me, me, me, they're going to spend a brutal and nasty life all alone, alone, alone. Teamwork is an impossible dream, potentially even as a matured, actualized person, except in the case of, say, a severely emotionally stunted Page of some sort to imprint codependently on. While they are still in the "making mistakes" part of "learning from their mistakes," they'll be hoarding any good fortune just when this hellscape session would be needing it to patch their flimsy foundations.

Witch of Void is an active class that changes secrets, obfuscation, unreality, and everything unknowable, sometimes in surprising and powerful ways. Who can say what they're even capable of? And after the Prince of Space leaves everything Voidy as hell, everything is going to rest on their narrow, hard to discern shoulders. A WoV hardly even knows anything about themself, as prone as they is to self-contradiction, so how are they supposed to know how to dig in deep and flip the right blackout switches for the identifiable to emerge? And how much juice could they even have in the tank, anyway? The way the events go is all going to turn on them.

Rogue of Heart is a notably passive class that takes identity, emotional fortitude, affection, and feelings, to give away to other people. Equal parts dependent and hidden behind façades, the RoH has trouble coping with their own personality, emotions, and desires. While an actualized Rogue of Heart could be helpful as counsel, they start out with a real lack of confidence or reflection regarding their aspect, and never quite gets to the feeling that what they grasp is best kept in their hands. The best they can be at the start is a non-factor. But who is always at their best? And can this chaos really use any more burdens?

Heir of Mind is a subtly passive class that is created and protected by choice, thoughts, logic, and justice. No one will ever be as single-minded about taking things into their own hands like this protofascist buffoon. It's ironically hard to say if they've ever made a decision for themself, because the narrow edge of Occam's Razor has been carving away at them before they're even sapient. Like a Batman Spock, they're more interesting as a foible than they are tolerable as an immature kid, and the absolute stuntedness of their reactive thinking is not going to be able to cope with this chaotic Medium. Not that they'll have the capacity to reflect like this, as pushed on by their dogmas to act, act, act right about now, now, now!

Mage of Life is an active class that experientially discovers and becomes knowledgeable about vitality, vivacity, progress, and biology. Honestly not a bad classpect in general, but considering Mages seem to learn about their aspect by ramming their face into the brick wall of its hard lessons, I'm not going to argue that trying to dive headfirst through Life is easy, swift, or necessarily productive. This (potentially charming) loser will be so occupied with the fits and starts of putting one foot in front of the other, that by the time they're really starting to limp along, everything and everyone will be nothing for nobody. The MoL is going to have to hope for a multimedia self-fulfilling DMRA paradox, because their talent for bloody-nosed endurance is just plain not enough.

Maid of Doom is a subtly active class that creates and protects rules, restrictions, decay, and the inescapable, like death itself. They have so much inherent doom, in fact, that one could even say they exemplify it. If the MoD even survives entry without getting double dead, which I would be shocked to hear, they'd be such a petty pedantic hardass, even petty pedantic hardasses think they should relax. This quality doesn't help with the Prince, Page, and Witch making everything as incomprehensible as possible, and they'd inevitably (isn't everything they do seemingly inevitable?) spin their wheels the whole time trying to impose their desperately needed order.

Seer of Hope is a passive class that intuitively discovers and becomes knowledgeable about hope, desire, benevolence, self-motivation, faith and fantasy, which sounds really nice until you remember Seers are giving out what they learn to this pack of losers. A Seer going solo is a Seer burning themselves out, and a SoH especially is an obsessive dreamer without peer. In a healthier session, the Seer would be a powerful asset; in this session, the Seer is at their best a bitter contrast and at worst a chainsaw in the hands of a naked drunk.

Sylph of Rage is a passive class that is readily changed by and restores skepticism, rebellion, excess, immediacy, and fury. They're going to have a turbulent rage-aholic phase, and it's going to be infectious. Given everything else blowing up around them, does it matter what they're capable of afterwards? And that's all there really is to say about the matter.

It's important, I think, to point out that there is the slimmest possible chance that, through some quirk of emergent factors, some unheard of miracle, that this group could in fact achieve their Ultimate Reward. If a miraculous string of ridiculous miracles goes off, everyone might even survive! But they won't. Because it won't. But like rubbernecks watching an accident, the horror would at least draw attention and generate interest, and schadenfreude is as old as people and still as alluring. And wouldn't it be satisfying to prove me (and themselves) wrong? Being unstable, after all, doesn't mean being unlikeable nor irredeemable.

[truereviewpage]

10 Home Items We’ve Had For 10 Years… Or More!

A few weeks ago, when we shared our son’s new “big boy room” not only were we feeling sentimental about no longer having a crib in our house, we noticed that we had some sentimental feelings for the daybed that we brought into his room. I know. Life is weird. But we realized it has been with us for over a decade – seeing us through a wedding, two births, two moves, and more than a few “style adjustments.”

Ten years may not seem like a lot in furniture years, but we’ve only been homeowners for around 11.5 years, and much of what we collected when we moved into our first house at the ripe old age of 24 were budget-friendly-but-probably-not-long-term solutions. For example: an inexpensive placeholder item that was all we could afford at the time, something that was loaned to us for a little while and later returned, or something cheap that nodidn’t hold up as time went on (we moved from NYC to Richmond in a minivan, so we didn’t exactly have a lot of furniture when we landed here in 2006).

So we thought it’d be a fun exercise to highlight 10 items that we’ve had for 10 years (or more). Not just for nostalgia’s sake, but also as a window into what things have physically held up that long and what items we’d even venture to describe as “house classics,” since they’ve made it through so many rearrangements, moves, and style twists and turns between our mid-twenties and our mid-thirties. So for anyone who has asked us what we’d recommend buying that will hopefully be something you’ll have/love/use for the long haul (even through different decorating phases, life stages, and homes), well, these would be it:

1. White Daybed

Let’s start with the “big boy bed” itself. This daybed was actually a wedding present from my godmother back in 2007. It’s from West Elm and the version they sell now is very similar, with just a slightly different pattern.

It lived happily in our first home’s sunroom as an outdoor lounge area for us for about four years. Sherry and I spent many a pre-parenthood weekend reading books and magazines on it – and once we had our daughter, we used it as a makeshift “photo studio” for our weekly baby photos. It didn’t get much use in our second house but definitely blasted back onto the scene when we moved to our third house and it served as a big girl bed for years (until our daughter was around six and we upgraded her to a full sized bed). And you know the rest: now it’s in our son’s room and he sleeps on it every night. It has held up really well. Nothing but good things to say about it.

2. Parsons Desk

This parsons desk was, coincidentally, also a wedding present back in 2007, and also from West Elm. Although unlike the daybed, West Elm still sells this exact same desk (which is definitely indicative of how classic it is). After working for months on the floor of our first apartment and later at a hand-me-down table in our first house, this was Sherry’s first real desk in our first home office (read: corner of the living room). Movin’ on up!

The funny thing about that is now – after a short stint as a barely-used accent table in our second home – it’s MY desk. I’m actually sitting at it right now as I type this post #blogception. While functionally it has held up great, the glossy lacquered surface has weathered a few small blows. It has maybe three or four small chips and scratches where heavy things have been dropped over the years, but nothing too major. For being 11 years old I’d even venture to describe it as looking ridiculously good for its age.

3. Leaning Mirror

I’m beginning to think I should’ve entitled this post “Wedding Presents That Came From West Elm,” but I promise this is the last one (probably because Richmond’s West Elm location closed shortly after we were married). But this present was actually from me to Sherry on 7/7/07 when I surprised her with it on our wedding day (so she could get ready in it since we got married in the backyard and we didn’t have a single full sized mirror in our entire house until that day).

It was a bit of an adventure getting it home and in place without her knowing, so it’s got plenty of memories attached to it. It has served as our bedroom mirror ever since, and at times we’ve debated replacing it with something less heavy looking (the ones West Elm sells now are little less chunky) or even just painting it a lighter color, but so far it has remained as-is for nearly 11 years.

4. Concrete Greyhound

This next one is another gift from me to Sherry (for Valentine’s Day of 2008, so today is literally its 10-year anniversary). I’m not saying I deserve a pat on the back from my gift giving, but, well…*pat pat*. This was a concrete lawn ornament I picked up at a local greenhouse that I think is technically a whippet, but we’ve always called it “the greyhound.” He has resided all sorts of places across all three houses, even gets decorated for Christmas, and by some miracle has never broken or cracked along the way.

It’s VERY heavy and we basically have to carry it by the neck, so one of these days I swear its head is gonna pop right off and the rest of it is going to smash our feet… but so far, no whammies. And speaking of smashing, we should point out that this is NOT the ceramic dog that famously met its demise in our second house. Fortunately, this one is strong enough to withstand the impact of a small picture frame (R.I.P. ceramic dog).

5. Metal Coffee Table

Interestingly, this is the only thrifted item on the list. That’s not to say that secondhand items don’t stand the test of time extremely well (they do, almost by definition!) but I think it’s proof that it took us a little while to figure out what to look for at thrift stores. For example, it took us a few years to learn that a secondhand midcentury dresser with 6 or even 9 drawers can be an awesome purchase, and now we have one in our daughter’s room, one as our TV stand in the living room, and one in the bonus room as well. Sometimes it takes you a few years to get your “used furniture” mojo.

But back to this table – which originally came with a glass top and a glass shelf on its metal base (it’s pretty close to this one that Pottery Barn currently sells). It has lived many lives. It was the coffee table in our first house’s living room, but since it was too small for our sectional in the second house we tried it outside instead. The glass was hard to keep clean outside (think: constantly smudged with pollen or random tree seeds and leaves), so a few years ago we swapped out the glass for a DIY wood top, and it still lives out on our back porch to this day. Like a champ.

6. Leather Chair

This is probably another prime example of why something in a classic shape and a timeless material can be a good investment. Well, and this puppy wasn’t really even that much of an investment to start with. This chair is from Target in February of 2008 and it was $230 (it was actually a gift from Sherry to me) and it has anchored everything from the corner of our first bedroom, the office in our second home, to now living it up in our current living room. Well, except around Christmastime when the tree goes in that spot and it gets to take a little winter vacation to the corner of the office.

They actually sell an extremely similar one (with an extremely similar price tag right now). With its nice affordable price tag, it’s certainly not made from the finest leather out there – so over the last year or so, the front cushion has started to crack and peel in a few small areas. Sherry touched it up with a dark brown Sharpie in those spots, which didn’t seem like a good idea but it’s a lot less noticeable. It’s probably not going to last us another ten years, but it has certainly been a great piece of furniture for us – through a lot of rooms, moves, and style changes. Sherry is somewhat excited about the idea of getting something a bit less dark and heavy to replace it with when it finally does bite the dust, and we’d be lucky to find something that lives so dutifully for over ten years with such a reasonable price tag.

7. Large Glass Vases

There are probably dozens of glassware items that we’ve kept around for the last 10 years, but I’ll give a shout out to these large “wonky” glass vases that stand out a bit more because of their size. We actually have two of them – the taller one shown above in our foyer, and a squatter one which currently resides in our dining room:

They’ve been sold everywhere from HomeGoods to ZGallerie, and World Market actually still sells the exact same ones. We’ve found them to be pretty versatile and useful because they’re large but not too visually heavy.

You can see that Sherry has mostly used them to add height to a tabletop, but they also work on floors too – like in our first bedroom. Speaking of which, that wall of stuff in the 2009 photo above (as random-looking as it is!) coincidentally housed a lot of these long-haul items: the chair, the mirror, the vase, and even another thing we’ll get to in a moment. Spoiler: it’s not the $50 Home Depot floor lamp. The base of that broke just a couple of months ago. So close!

8. Ceramic Horns

This is kind of a weird one, but you see those two white spiral-y looking things in those top shelves above? They’re long ceramic horns (maybe antelope? gazelle?) that were brought to our first house when it was shot for The Nest magazine back in 2008 (you can even see them on the cover!). We think they came from Crate & Barrel and the stylist brought them to make sense of our super long fireplace mantle. She didn’t want to return them or try to ship them back to NYC, so it was the start of a very deep and meaningful relationship of using them to make sense of weirdly long spaces that every single one of our houses ended up having.

The interesting thing about these is that we’re often so focused on items that create height or make a room seem taller (#8ftceilingproblems) that Sherry and I don’t give enough credit to those rare items that create length or can fill a random-ly wide space that might pop up around the house. So if you have a long empty shelf or built-in to fill, I’m not specifically saying “get thee a ceramic gazelle horn!” – but looking for something that’s not too crazy colorful and on the wide side might be helpful. Be it a long woven basket or… I dunno… a ceramic alligator…?

9. Ikea Planters

This one might seem a little strange to shout out, but we are so glad we’ve hung onto these large white Ikea planters. They don’t sell the large versions anymore (this one from Wayfair is similar) but they still have some smaller white ones, which we also love (there are at least seven of them around our house that we’ve had for over 10 years). Obviously we haven’t kept any single plant alive for a decade (please, we’re lucky if we get 3-4 years), but that’s part of the beauty of the simple white planters: they look good with just about any plant (even the faker above!) in just about any room.

I struggled to dig up photos of them in our last houses (aside from that 2009 master bedroom shot you’ve now seen 3 times)  – perhaps because if something was half dead that planter didn’t make it into the picture. Ha! But houseplants have definitely become “trendier” more recently, and faux plants have gotten a lot better too – in fact we just ordered this well rated faux fig for the beach house. So having a versitle planter to plop them in has made it a lot easier. As a side note, we like having them on wheels (here’s the rolling planter base pictured in our current bedroom).

10. Glass Kitchen Containers

When we finished our first kitchen remodel around this time in 2008, some of the first items we bought were two sets of glass containers: a pair of identical glass canisters for cereal storage on the counter, and a trio of glass containers with three staggered heights (seen above). This five-some of glass storage vessels has graced every counter we’ve owned since. The “cereal twins” still help wrangle whatever cereal the kids and I are currently feelin’ (right now: Honey Nut Chex) and one even occasionally moonlights as a popcorn containment device, just to keep things interesting. Meanwhile the triplets have always housed sugar, flour, and rice. And since we’re not bakers, I’d venture to guess that the sugar and flour might be around four years old (it’s no 10-year anniversary, but pretty disturbing to really think too hard about).

The cereal jars were from Target or Michaels or maybe even the now defunct Linens N’ Things (that’s where we registered for our wedding) and the other three were from… don’t hate me for this… West Elm. And they were a wedding gift at that. I know I promised we were done with those, but apparently it’s the theme that just won’t die. They don’t sell them anymore (they have similar versions with a black top now) and to tell you the truth, it feels kinda nice to end with these. Full circle moment, folks.

This list isn’t totally comprehensive obviously – since there are plenty of other home items we’ve easily had for a decade (big hardcover books, various baskets, cloth and leather photo albums, etc). I think I even spotted our current toaster in a picture of our first kitchen. So those are a few more things that I’d say you could have for a nice long time with a fair amount of confidence.

P.S. If you’re staring at any of the large photos above and wondering about wall colors or where we got other things in the pictures, here’s our Shop Our House page with that info for you. 

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post 10 Home Items We’ve Had For 10 Years… Or More! appeared first on Young House Love.

10 Home Items We’ve Had For 10 Years… Or More! published first on https://aireloomreview.tumblr.com/

[endlessarchite]

10 Home Items We’ve Had For 10 Years… Or More!

A few weeks ago, when we shared our son’s new “big boy room” not only were we feeling sentimental about no longer having a crib in our house, we noticed that we had some sentimental feelings for the daybed that we brought into his room. I know. Life is weird. But we realized it has been with us for over a decade – seeing us through a wedding, two births, two moves, and more than a few “style adjustments.”

Ten years may not seem like a lot in furniture years, but we’ve only been homeowners for around 11.5 years, and much of what we collected when we moved into our first house at the ripe old age of 24 were budget-friendly-but-probably-not-long-term solutions. For example: an inexpensive placeholder item that was all we could afford at the time, something that was loaned to us for a little while and later returned, or something cheap that nodidn’t hold up as time went on (we moved from NYC to Richmond in a minivan, so we didn’t exactly have a lot of furniture when we landed here in 2006).

So we thought it’d be a fun exercise to highlight 10 items that we’ve had for 10 years (or more). Not just for nostalgia’s sake, but also as a window into what things have physically held up that long and what items we’d even venture to describe as “house classics,” since they’ve made it through so many rearrangements, moves, and style twists and turns between our mid-twenties and our mid-thirties. So for anyone who has asked us what we’d recommend buying that will hopefully be something you’ll have/love/use for the long haul (even through different decorating phases, life stages, and homes), well, these would be it:

1. White Daybed

Let’s start with the “big boy bed” itself. This daybed was actually a wedding present from my godmother back in 2007. It’s from West Elm and the version they sell now is very similar, with just a slightly different pattern.

It lived happily in our first home’s sunroom as an outdoor lounge area for us for about four years. Sherry and I spent many a pre-parenthood weekend reading books and magazines on it – and once we had our daughter, we used it as a makeshift “photo studio” for our weekly baby photos. It didn’t get much use in our second house but definitely blasted back onto the scene when we moved to our third house and it served as a big girl bed for years (until our daughter was around six and we upgraded her to a full sized bed). And you know the rest: now it’s in our son’s room and he sleeps on it every night. It has held up really well. Nothing but good things to say about it.

2. Parsons Desk

This parsons desk was, coincidentally, also a wedding present back in 2007, and also from West Elm. Although unlike the daybed, West Elm still sells this exact same desk (which is definitely indicative of how classic it is). After working for months on the floor of our first apartment and later at a hand-me-down table in our first house, this was Sherry’s first real desk in our first home office (read: corner of the living room). Movin’ on up!

The funny thing about that is now – after a short stint as a barely-used accent table in our second home – it’s MY desk. I’m actually sitting at it right now as I type this post #blogception. While functionally it has held up great, the glossy lacquered surface has weathered a few small blows. It has maybe three or four small chips and scratches where heavy things have been dropped over the years, but nothing too major. For being 11 years old I’d even venture to describe it as looking ridiculously good for its age.

3. Leaning Mirror

I’m beginning to think I should’ve entitled this post “Wedding Presents That Came From West Elm,” but I promise this is the last one (probably because Richmond’s West Elm location closed shortly after we were married). But this present was actually from me to Sherry on 7/7/07 when I surprised her with it on our wedding day (so she could get ready in it since we got married in the backyard and we didn’t have a single full sized mirror in our entire house until that day).

It was a bit of an adventure getting it home and in place without her knowing, so it’s got plenty of memories attached to it. It has served as our bedroom mirror ever since, and at times we’ve debated replacing it with something less heavy looking (the ones West Elm sells now are little less chunky) or even just painting it a lighter color, but so far it has remained as-is for nearly 11 years.

4. Concrete Greyhound

This next one is another gift from me to Sherry (for Valentine’s Day of 2008, so today is literally its 10-year anniversary). I’m not saying I deserve a pat on the back from my gift giving, but, well…*pat pat*. This was a concrete lawn ornament I picked up at a local greenhouse that I think is technically a whippet, but we’ve always called it “the greyhound.” He has resided all sorts of places across all three houses, even gets decorated for Christmas, and by some miracle has never broken or cracked along the way.

It’s VERY heavy and we basically have to carry it by the neck, so one of these days I swear its head is gonna pop right off and the rest of it is going to smash our feet… but so far, no whammies. And speaking of smashing, we should point out that this is NOT the ceramic dog that famously met its demise in our second house. Fortunately, this one is strong enough to withstand the impact of a small picture frame (R.I.P. ceramic dog).

5. Metal Coffee Table

Interestingly, this is the only thrifted item on the list. That’s not to say that secondhand items don’t stand the test of time extremely well (they do, almost by definition!) but I think it’s proof that it took us a little while to figure out what to look for at thrift stores. For example, it took us a few years to learn that a secondhand midcentury dresser with 6 or even 9 drawers can be an awesome purchase, and now we have one in our daughter’s room, one as our TV stand in the living room, and one in the bonus room as well. Sometimes it takes you a few years to get your “used furniture” mojo.

But back to this table – which originally came with a glass top and a glass shelf on its metal base (it’s pretty close to this one that Pottery Barn currently sells). It has lived many lives. It was the coffee table in our first house’s living room, but since it was too small for our sectional in the second house we tried it outside instead. The glass was hard to keep clean outside (think: constantly smudged with pollen or random tree seeds and leaves), so a few years ago we swapped out the glass for a DIY wood top, and it still lives out on our back porch to this day. Like a champ.

6. Leather Chair

This is probably another prime example of why something in a classic shape and a timeless material can be a good investment. Well, and this puppy wasn’t really even that much of an investment to start with. This chair is from Target in February of 2008 and it was $230 (it was actually a gift from Sherry to me) and it has anchored everything from the corner of our first bedroom, the office in our second home, to now living it up in our current living room. Well, except around Christmastime when the tree goes in that spot and it gets to take a little winter vacation to the corner of the office.

They actually sell an extremely similar one (with an extremely similar price tag right now). With its nice affordable price tag, it’s certainly not made from the finest leather out there – so over the last year or so, the front cushion has started to crack and peel in a few small areas. Sherry touched it up with a dark brown Sharpie in those spots, which didn’t seem like a good idea but it’s a lot less noticeable. It’s probably not going to last us another ten years, but it has certainly been a great piece of furniture for us – through a lot of rooms, moves, and style changes. Sherry is somewhat excited about the idea of getting something a bit less dark and heavy to replace it with when it finally does bite the dust, and we’d be lucky to find something that lives so dutifully for over ten years with such a reasonable price tag.

7. Large Glass Vases

There are probably dozens of glassware items that we’ve kept around for the last 10 years, but I’ll give a shout out to these large “wonky” glass vases that stand out a bit more because of their size. We actually have two of them – the taller one shown above in our foyer, and a squatter one which currently resides in our dining room:

They’ve been sold everywhere from HomeGoods to ZGallerie, and World Market actually still sells the exact same ones. We’ve found them to be pretty versatile and useful because they’re large but not too visually heavy.

You can see that Sherry has mostly used them to add height to a tabletop, but they also work on floors too – like in our first bedroom. Speaking of which, that wall of stuff in the 2009 photo above (as random-looking as it is!) coincidentally housed a lot of these long-haul items: the chair, the mirror, the vase, and even another thing we’ll get to in a moment. Spoiler: it’s not the $50 Home Depot floor lamp. The base of that broke just a couple of months ago. So close!

8. Ceramic Horns

This is kind of a weird one, but you see those two white spiral-y looking things in those top shelves above? They’re long ceramic horns (maybe antelope? gazelle?) that were brought to our first house when it was shot for The Nest magazine back in 2008 (you can even see them on the cover!). We think they came from Crate & Barrel and the stylist brought them to make sense of our super long fireplace mantle. She didn’t want to return them or try to ship them back to NYC, so it was the start of a very deep and meaningful relationship of using them to make sense of weirdly long spaces that every single one of our houses ended up having.

The interesting thing about these is that we’re often so focused on items that create height or make a room seem taller (#8ftceilingproblems) that Sherry and I don’t give enough credit to those rare items that create length or can fill a random-ly wide space that might pop up around the house. So if you have a long empty shelf or built-in to fill, I’m not specifically saying “get thee a ceramic gazelle horn!” – but looking for something that’s not too crazy colorful and on the wide side might be helpful. Be it a long woven basket or… I dunno… a ceramic alligator…?

9. Ikea Planters

This one might seem a little strange to shout out, but we are so glad we’ve hung onto these large white Ikea planters. They don’t sell the large versions anymore (this one from Wayfair is similar) but they still have some smaller white ones, which we also love (there are at least seven of them around our house that we’ve had for over 10 years). Obviously we haven’t kept any single plant alive for a decade (please, we’re lucky if we get 3-4 years), but that’s part of the beauty of the simple white planters: they look good with just about any plant (even the faker above!) in just about any room.

I struggled to dig up photos of them in our last houses (aside from that 2009 master bedroom shot you’ve now seen 3 times)  – perhaps because if something was half dead that planter didn’t make it into the picture. Ha! But houseplants have definitely become “trendier” more recently, and faux plants have gotten a lot better too – in fact we just ordered this well rated faux fig for the beach house. So having a versitle planter to plop them in has made it a lot easier. As a side note, we like having them on wheels (here’s the rolling planter base pictured in our current bedroom).

10. Glass Kitchen Containers

When we finished our first kitchen remodel around this time in 2008, some of the first items we bought were two sets of glass containers: a pair of identical glass canisters for cereal storage on the counter, and a trio of glass containers with three staggered heights (seen above). This five-some of glass storage vessels has graced every counter we’ve owned since. The “cereal twins” still help wrangle whatever cereal the kids and I are currently feelin’ (right now: Honey Nut Chex) and one even occasionally moonlights as a popcorn containment device, just to keep things interesting. Meanwhile the triplets have always housed sugar, flour, and rice. And since we’re not bakers, I’d venture to guess that the sugar and flour might be around four years old (it’s no 10-year anniversary, but pretty disturbing to really think too hard about).

The cereal jars were from Target or Michaels or maybe even the now defunct Linens N’ Things (that’s where we registered for our wedding) and the other three were from… don’t hate me for this… West Elm. And they were a wedding gift at that. I know I promised we were done with those, but apparently it’s the theme that just won’t die. They don’t sell them anymore (they have similar versions with a black top now) and to tell you the truth, it feels kinda nice to end with these. Full circle moment, folks.

This list isn’t totally comprehensive obviously – since there are plenty of other home items we’ve easily had for a decade (big hardcover books, various baskets, cloth and leather photo albums, etc). I think I even spotted our current toaster in a picture of our first kitchen. So those are a few more things that I’d say you could have for a nice long time with a fair amount of confidence.

P.S. If you’re staring at any of the large photos above and wondering about wall colors or where we got other things in the pictures, here’s our Shop Our House page with that info for you. 

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post 10 Home Items We’ve Had For 10 Years… Or More! appeared first on Young House Love.

10 Home Items We’ve Had For 10 Years… Or More! published first on https://bakerskitchenslimited.tumblr.com/

[billydmacklin]

10 Home Items We’ve Had For 10 Years… Or More!

A few weeks ago, when we shared our son’s new “big boy room” not only were we feeling sentimental about no longer having a crib in our house, we noticed that we had some sentimental feelings for the daybed that we brought into his room. I know. Life is weird. But we realized it has been with us for over a decade – seeing us through a wedding, two births, two moves, and more than a few “style adjustments.”

Ten years may not seem like a lot in furniture years, but we’ve only been homeowners for around 11.5 years, and much of what we collected when we moved into our first house at the ripe old age of 24 were budget-friendly-but-probably-not-long-term solutions. For example: an inexpensive placeholder item that was all we could afford at the time, something that was loaned to us for a little while and later returned, or something cheap that nodidn’t hold up as time went on (we moved from NYC to Richmond in a minivan, so we didn’t exactly have a lot of furniture when we landed here in 2006).

So we thought it’d be a fun exercise to highlight 10 items that we’ve had for 10 years (or more). Not just for nostalgia’s sake, but also as a window into what things have physically held up that long and what items we’d even venture to describe as “house classics,” since they’ve made it through so many rearrangements, moves, and style twists and turns between our mid-twenties and our mid-thirties. So for anyone who has asked us what we’d recommend buying that will hopefully be something you’ll have/love/use for the long haul (even through different decorating phases, life stages, and homes), well, these would be it:

1. White Daybed

Let’s start with the “big boy bed” itself. This daybed was actually a wedding present from my godmother back in 2007. It’s from West Elm and the version they sell now is very similar, with just a slightly different pattern.

It lived happily in our first home’s sunroom as an outdoor lounge area for us for about four years. Sherry and I spent many a pre-parenthood weekend reading books and magazines on it – and once we had our daughter, we used it as a makeshift “photo studio” for our weekly baby photos. It didn’t get much use in our second house but definitely blasted back onto the scene when we moved to our third house and it served as a big girl bed for years (until our daughter was around six and we upgraded her to a full sized bed). And you know the rest: now it’s in our son’s room and he sleeps on it every night. It has held up really well. Nothing but good things to say about it.

2. Parsons Desk

This parsons desk was, coincidentally, also a wedding present back in 2007, and also from West Elm. Although unlike the daybed, West Elm still sells this exact same desk (which is definitely indicative of how classic it is). After working for months on the floor of our first apartment and later at a hand-me-down table in our first house, this was Sherry’s first real desk in our first home office (read: corner of the living room). Movin’ on up!

The funny thing about that is now – after a short stint as a barely-used accent table in our second home – it’s MY desk. I’m actually sitting at it right now as I type this post #blogception. While functionally it has held up great, the glossy lacquered surface has weathered a few small blows. It has maybe three or four small chips and scratches where heavy things have been dropped over the years, but nothing too major. For being 11 years old I’d even venture to describe it as looking ridiculously good for its age.

3. Leaning Mirror

I’m beginning to think I should’ve entitled this post “Wedding Presents That Came From West Elm,” but I promise this is the last one (probably because Richmond’s West Elm location closed shortly after we were married). But this present was actually from me to Sherry on 7/7/07 when I surprised her with it on our wedding day (so she could get ready in it since we got married in the backyard and we didn’t have a single full sized mirror in our entire house until that day).

It was a bit of an adventure getting it home and in place without her knowing, so it’s got plenty of memories attached to it. It has served as our bedroom mirror ever since, and at times we’ve debated replacing it with something less heavy looking (the ones West Elm sells now are little less chunky) or even just painting it a lighter color, but so far it has remained as-is for nearly 11 years.

4. Concrete Greyhound

This next one is another gift from me to Sherry (for Valentine’s Day of 2008, so today is literally its 10-year anniversary). I’m not saying I deserve a pat on the back from my gift giving, but, well…*pat pat*. This was a concrete lawn ornament I picked up at a local greenhouse that I think is technically a whippet, but we’ve always called it “the greyhound.” He has resided all sorts of places across all three houses, even gets decorated for Christmas, and by some miracle has never broken or cracked along the way.

It’s VERY heavy and we basically have to carry it by the neck, so one of these days I swear its head is gonna pop right off and the rest of it is going to smash our feet… but so far, no whammies. And speaking of smashing, we should point out that this is NOT the ceramic dog that famously met its demise in our second house. Fortunately, this one is strong enough to withstand the impact of a small picture frame (R.I.P. ceramic dog).

5. Metal Coffee Table

Interestingly, this is the only thrifted item on the list. That’s not to say that secondhand items don’t stand the test of time extremely well (they do, almost by definition!) but I think it’s proof that it took us a little while to figure out what to look for at thrift stores. For example, it took us a few years to learn that a secondhand midcentury dresser with 6 or even 9 drawers can be an awesome purchase, and now we have one in our daughter’s room, one as our TV stand in the living room, and one in the bonus room as well. Sometimes it takes you a few years to get your “used furniture” mojo.

But back to this table – which originally came with a glass top and a glass shelf on its metal base (it’s pretty close to this one that Pottery Barn currently sells). It has lived many lives. It was the coffee table in our first house’s living room, but since it was too small for our sectional in the second house we tried it outside instead. The glass was hard to keep clean outside (think: constantly smudged with pollen or random tree seeds and leaves), so a few years ago we swapped out the glass for a DIY wood top, and it still lives out on our back porch to this day. Like a champ.

6. Leather Chair

This is probably another prime example of why something in a classic shape and a timeless material can be a good investment. Well, and this puppy wasn’t really even that much of an investment to start with. This chair is from Target in February of 2008 and it was $230 (it was actually a gift from Sherry to me) and it has anchored everything from the corner of our first bedroom, the office in our second home, to now living it up in our current living room. Well, except around Christmastime when the tree goes in that spot and it gets to take a little winter vacation to the corner of the office.

They actually sell an extremely similar one (with an extremely similar price tag right now). With its nice affordable price tag, it’s certainly not made from the finest leather out there – so over the last year or so, the front cushion has started to crack and peel in a few small areas. Sherry touched it up with a dark brown Sharpie in those spots, which didn’t seem like a good idea but it’s a lot less noticeable. It’s probably not going to last us another ten years, but it has certainly been a great piece of furniture for us – through a lot of rooms, moves, and style changes. Sherry is somewhat excited about the idea of getting something a bit less dark and heavy to replace it with when it finally does bite the dust, and we’d be lucky to find something that lives so dutifully for over ten years with such a reasonable price tag.

7. Large Glass Vases

There are probably dozens of glassware items that we’ve kept around for the last 10 years, but I’ll give a shout out to these large “wonky” glass vases that stand out a bit more because of their size. We actually have two of them – the taller one shown above in our foyer, and a squatter one which currently resides in our dining room:

They’ve been sold everywhere from HomeGoods to ZGallerie, and World Market actually still sells the exact same ones. We’ve found them to be pretty versatile and useful because they’re large but not too visually heavy.

You can see that Sherry has mostly used them to add height to a tabletop, but they also work on floors too – like in our first bedroom. Speaking of which, that wall of stuff in the 2009 photo above (as random-looking as it is!) coincidentally housed a lot of these long-haul items: the chair, the mirror, the vase, and even another thing we’ll get to in a moment. Spoiler: it’s not the $50 Home Depot floor lamp. The base of that broke just a couple of months ago. So close!

8. Ceramic Horns

This is kind of a weird one, but you see those two white spiral-y looking things in those top shelves above? They’re long ceramic horns (maybe antelope? gazelle?) that were brought to our first house when it was shot for The Nest magazine back in 2008 (you can even see them on the cover!). We think they came from Crate & Barrel and the stylist brought them to make sense of our super long fireplace mantle. She didn’t want to return them or try to ship them back to NYC, so it was the start of a very deep and meaningful relationship of using them to make sense of weirdly long spaces that every single one of our houses ended up having.

The interesting thing about these is that we’re often so focused on items that create height or make a room seem taller (#8ftceilingproblems) that Sherry and I don’t give enough credit to those rare items that create length or can fill a random-ly wide space that might pop up around the house. So if you have a long empty shelf or built-in to fill, I’m not specifically saying “get thee a ceramic gazelle horn!” – but looking for something that’s not too crazy colorful and on the wide side might be helpful. Be it a long woven basket or… I dunno… a ceramic alligator…?

9. Ikea Planters

This one might seem a little strange to shout out, but we are so glad we’ve hung onto these large white Ikea planters. They don’t sell the large versions anymore (this one from Wayfair is similar) but they still have some smaller white ones, which we also love (there are at least seven of them around our house that we’ve had for over 10 years). Obviously we haven’t kept any single plant alive for a decade (please, we’re lucky if we get 3-4 years), but that’s part of the beauty of the simple white planters: they look good with just about any plant (even the faker above!) in just about any room.

I struggled to dig up photos of them in our last houses (aside from that 2009 master bedroom shot you’ve now seen 3 times)  – perhaps because if something was half dead that planter didn’t make it into the picture. Ha! But houseplants have definitely become “trendier” more recently, and faux plants have gotten a lot better too – in fact we just ordered this well rated faux fig for the beach house. So having a versitle planter to plop them in has made it a lot easier. As a side note, we like having them on wheels (here’s the rolling planter base pictured in our current bedroom).

10. Glass Kitchen Containers

When we finished our first kitchen remodel around this time in 2008, some of the first items we bought were two sets of glass containers: a pair of identical glass canisters for cereal storage on the counter, and a trio of glass containers with three staggered heights (seen above). This five-some of glass storage vessels has graced every counter we’ve owned since. The “cereal twins” still help wrangle whatever cereal the kids and I are currently feelin’ (right now: Honey Nut Chex) and one even occasionally moonlights as a popcorn containment device, just to keep things interesting. Meanwhile the triplets have always housed sugar, flour, and rice. And since we’re not bakers, I’d venture to guess that the sugar and flour might be around four years old (it’s no 10-year anniversary, but pretty disturbing to really think too hard about).

The cereal jars were from Target or Michaels or maybe even the now defunct Linens N’ Things (that’s where we registered for our wedding) and the other three were from… don’t hate me for this… West Elm. And they were a wedding gift at that. I know I promised we were done with those, but apparently it’s the theme that just won’t die. They don’t sell them anymore (they have similar versions with a black top now) and to tell you the truth, it feels kinda nice to end with these. Full circle moment, folks.

This list isn’t totally comprehensive obviously – since there are plenty of other home items we’ve easily had for a decade (big hardcover books, various baskets, cloth and leather photo albums, etc). I think I even spotted our current toaster in a picture of our first kitchen. So those are a few more things that I’d say you could have for a nice long time with a fair amount of confidence.

P.S. If you’re staring at any of the large photos above and wondering about wall colors or where we got other things in the pictures, here’s our Shop Our House page with that info for you. 

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post 10 Home Items We’ve Had For 10 Years… Or More! appeared first on Young House Love.

10 Home Items We’ve Had For 10 Years… Or More! published first on https://carpetgurus.tumblr.com/

[yesterdaysdreams]

10 Home Items We’ve Had For 10 Years… Or More!

A few weeks ago, when we shared our son’s new “big boy room” not only were we feeling sentimental about no longer having a crib in our house, we noticed that we had some sentimental feelings for the daybed that we brought into his room. I know. Life is weird. But we realized it has been with us for over a decade – seeing us through a wedding, two births, two moves, and more than a few “style adjustments.”

Ten years may not seem like a lot in furniture years, but we’ve only been homeowners for around 11.5 years, and much of what we collected when we moved into our first house at the ripe old age of 24 were budget-friendly-but-probably-not-long-term solutions. For example: an inexpensive placeholder item that was all we could afford at the time, something that was loaned to us for a little while and later returned, or something cheap that didn’t hold up as time went on (we moved from NYC to Richmond in a minivan, so we didn’t exactly have a lot of furniture when we landed here in 2006).

So we thought it’d be a fun exercise to highlight 10 items that we’ve had for 10 years (or more). Not just for nostalgia’s sake, but also as a window into what things have physically held up that long and what items we’d even venture to describe as “house classics,” since they’ve made it through so many rearrangements, moves, and style twists and turns between our mid-twenties and our mid-thirties. So for anyone who has asked us what we’d recommend buying that will hopefully be something you’ll have/love/use for the long haul (even through different decorating phases, life stages, and homes), well, these would be it:

1. White Daybed

Let’s start with the “big boy bed” itself. This daybed was actually a wedding present from my godmother back in 2007. It’s from West Elm and the version they sell now is very similar, with just a slightly different pattern.

It lived happily in our first home’s sunroom as an outdoor lounge area for us for about four years. Sherry and I spent many a pre-parenthood weekend reading books and magazines on it – and once we had our daughter, we used it as a makeshift “photo studio” for our weekly baby photos. It didn’t get much use in our second house but definitely blasted back onto the scene when we moved to our third house and it served as a big girl bed for years (until our daughter was around six and we upgraded her to a full sized bed). And you know the rest: now it’s in our son’s room and he sleeps on it every night. It has held up really well. Nothing but good things to say about it.

2. Parsons Desk

This parsons desk was, coincidentally, also a wedding present back in 2007, and also from West Elm. Although unlike the daybed, West Elm still sells this exact same desk (which is definitely indicative of how classic it is). After working for months on the floor of our first apartment and later at a hand-me-down table in our first house, this was Sherry’s first real desk in our first home office (read: corner of the living room). Movin’ on up!

The funny thing about that is now – after a short stint as a barely-used accent table in our second home – it’s MY desk. I’m actually sitting at it right now as I type this post #blogception. While functionally it has held up great, the glossy lacquered surface has weathered a few small blows. It has maybe three or four small chips and scratches where heavy things have been dropped over the years, but nothing too major. For being 11 years old I’d even venture to describe it as looking ridiculously good for its age.

3. Leaning Mirror

I’m beginning to think I should’ve entitled this post “Wedding Presents That Came From West Elm,” but I promise this is the last one (probably because Richmond’s West Elm location closed shortly after we were married). But this present was actually from me to Sherry on 7/7/07 when I surprised her with it on our wedding day (so she could get ready in it since we got married in the backyard and we didn’t have a single full sized mirror in our entire house until that day).

It was a bit of an adventure getting it home and in place without her knowing, so it’s got plenty of memories attached to it. It has served as our bedroom mirror ever since, and at times we’ve debated replacing it with something less heavy looking (the ones West Elm sells now are little less chunky) or even just painting it a lighter color, but so far it has remained as-is for nearly 11 years.

4. Concrete Greyhound

This next one is another gift from me to Sherry (for Valentine’s Day of 2008, so today is literally its 10-year anniversary). I’m not saying I deserve a pat on the back from my gift giving, but, well…*pat pat*. This was a concrete lawn ornament I picked up at a local greenhouse that I think is technically a whippet, but we’ve always called it “the greyhound.” He has resided all sorts of places across all three houses, even gets decorated for Christmas, and by some miracle has never broken or cracked along the way.

It’s VERY heavy and we basically have to carry it by the neck, so one of these days I swear its head is gonna pop right off and the rest of it is going to smash our feet… but so far, no whammies. And speaking of smashing, we should point out that this is NOT the ceramic dog that famously met its demise in our second house. Fortunately, this one is strong enough to withstand the impact of a small picture frame (R.I.P. ceramic dog).

5. Metal Coffee Table

Interestingly, this is the only thrifted item on the list. That’s not to say that secondhand items don’t stand the test of time extremely well (they do, almost by definition!) but I think it’s proof that it took us a little while to figure out what to look for at thrift stores. For example, it took us a few years to learn that a secondhand midcentury dresser with 6 or even 9 drawers can be an awesome purchase, and now we have one in our daughter’s room, one as our TV stand in the living room, and one in the bonus room as well. Sometimes it takes you a few years to get your “used furniture” mojo.

But back to this table – which originally came with a glass top and a glass shelf on its metal base (it’s pretty close to this one that Pottery Barn currently sells). It has lived many lives. It was the coffee table in our first house’s living room, but since it was too small for our sectional in the second house we tried it outside instead. The glass was hard to keep clean outside (think: constantly smudged with pollen or random tree seeds and leaves), so a few years ago we swapped out the glass for a DIY wood top, and it still lives out on our back porch to this day. Like a champ.

6. Leather Chair

This is probably another prime example of why something in a classic shape and a timeless material can be a good investment. Well, and this puppy wasn’t really even that much of an investment to start with. This chair is from Target in February of 2008 and it was $230 (it was actually a gift from Sherry to me) and it has anchored everything from the corner of our first bedroom, the office in our second home, to now living it up in our current living room. Well, except around Christmastime when the tree goes in that spot and it gets to take a little winter vacation to the corner of the office.

They actually sell an extremely similar one (with an extremely similar price tag right now). With its nice affordable price tag, it’s certainly not made from the finest leather out there – so over the last year or so, the front cushion has started to crack and peel in a few small areas. Sherry touched it up with a dark brown Sharpie in those spots, which didn’t seem like a good idea but it’s a lot less noticeable. It’s probably not going to last us another ten years, but it has certainly been a great piece of furniture for us – through a lot of rooms, moves, and style changes. Sherry is somewhat excited about the idea of getting something a bit less dark and heavy to replace it with when it finally does bite the dust, and we’d be lucky to find something that lives so dutifully for over ten years with such a reasonable price tag.

7. Large Glass Vases

There are probably dozens of glassware items that we’ve kept around for the last 10 years, but I’ll give a shout out to these large “wonky” glass vases that stand out a bit more because of their size. We actually have two of them – the taller one shown above in our foyer, and a squatter one which currently resides in our dining room:

They’ve been sold everywhere from HomeGoods to ZGallerie, and World Market actually still sells the exact same ones. We’ve found them to be pretty versatile and useful because they’re large but not too visually heavy.

You can see that Sherry has mostly used them to add height to a tabletop, but they also work on floors too – like in our first bedroom. Speaking of which, that wall of stuff in the 2009 photo above (as random-looking as it is!) coincidentally housed a lot of these long-haul items: the chair, the mirror, the vase, and even another thing we’ll get to in a moment. Spoiler: it’s not the $50 Home Depot floor lamp. The base of that broke just a couple of months ago. So close!

8. Ceramic Horns

This is kind of a weird one, but you see those two white spiral-y looking things in those top shelves above? They’re long ceramic horns (maybe antelope? gazelle?) that were brought to our first house when it was shot for The Nest magazine back in 2008 (you can even see them on the cover!). We think they came from Crate & Barrel and the stylist brought them to make sense of our super long fireplace mantle. She didn’t want to return them or try to ship them back to NYC, so it was the start of a very deep and meaningful relationship of using them to make sense of weirdly long spaces that every single one of our houses ended up having.

The interesting thing about these is that we’re often so focused on items that create height or make a room seem taller (#8ftceilingproblems) that Sherry and I don’t give enough credit to those rare items that create length or can fill a random-ly wide space that might pop up around the house. So if you have a long empty shelf or built-in to fill, I’m not specifically saying “get thee a ceramic gazelle horn!” – but looking for something that’s not too crazy colorful and on the wide side might be helpful. Be it a long woven basket or… I dunno… a ceramic alligator…?

9. Ikea Planters

This one might seem a little strange to shout out, but we are so glad we’ve hung onto these large white Ikea planters. They don’t sell the large versions anymore (this one from Wayfair is similar) but they still have some smaller white ones, which we also love (there are at least seven of them around our house that we’ve had for over 10 years). Obviously we haven’t kept any single plant alive for a decade (please, we’re lucky if we get 3-4 years), but that’s part of the beauty of the simple white planters: they look good with just about any plant (even the faker above!) in just about any room.

I struggled to dig up photos of them in our last houses (aside from that 2009 master bedroom shot you’ve now seen 3 times)  – perhaps because if something was half dead that planter didn’t make it into the picture. Ha! But houseplants have definitely become “trendier” more recently, and faux plants have gotten a lot better too – in fact we just ordered this well rated faux fig for the beach house. So having a versitle planter to plop them in has made it a lot easier. As a side note, we like having them on wheels (here’s the rolling planter base pictured in our current bedroom).

10. Glass Kitchen Containers

When we finished our first kitchen remodel around this time in 2008, some of the first items we bought were two sets of glass containers: a pair of identical glass canisters for cereal storage on the counter, and a trio of glass containers with three staggered heights (seen above). This five-some of glass storage vessels has graced every counter we’ve owned since. The “cereal twins” still help wrangle whatever cereal the kids and I are currently feelin’ (right now: Honey Nut Chex) and one even occasionally moonlights as a popcorn containment device, just to keep things interesting. Meanwhile the triplets have always housed sugar, flour, and rice. And since we’re not bakers, I’d venture to guess that the sugar and flour might be around four years old (it’s no 10-year anniversary, but pretty disturbing to really think too hard about).

The cereal jars were from Target or Michaels or maybe even the now defunct Linens N’ Things (that’s where we registered for our wedding) and the other three were from… don’t hate me for this… West Elm. And they were a wedding gift at that. I know I promised we were done with those, but apparently it’s the theme that just won’t die. They don’t sell them anymore (they have similar versions with a black top now) and to tell you the truth, it feels kinda nice to end with these. Full circle moment, folks.

This list isn’t totally comprehensive obviously – since there are plenty of other home items we’ve easily had for a decade (big hardcover books, various baskets, cloth and leather photo albums, etc). I think I even spotted our current toaster in a picture of our first kitchen. So those are a few more things that I’d say you could have for a nice long time with a fair amount of confidence.

P.S. If you’re staring at any of the large photos above and wondering about wall colors or where we got other things in the pictures, here’s our Shop Our House page with that info for you. 

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post 10 Home Items We’ve Had For 10 Years… Or More! appeared first on Young House Love.

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8265713 http://ift.tt/2o43sM4 via IFTTT

[lukerhill]

10 Home Items We’ve Had For 10 Years… Or More!

A few weeks ago, when we shared our son’s new “big boy room” not only were we feeling sentimental about no longer having a crib in our house, we noticed that we had some sentimental feelings for the daybed that we brought into his room. I know. Life is weird. But we realized it has been with us for over a decade – seeing us through a wedding, two births, two moves, and more than a few “style adjustments.”

Ten years may not seem like a lot in furniture years, but we’ve only been homeowners for around 11.5 years, and much of what we collected when we moved into our first house at the ripe old age of 24 were budget-friendly-but-probably-not-long-term solutions. For example: an inexpensive placeholder item that was all we could afford at the time, something that was loaned to us for a little while and later returned, or something cheap that didn’t hold up as time went on (we moved from NYC to Richmond in a minivan, so we didn’t exactly have a lot of furniture when we landed here in 2006).

So we thought it’d be a fun exercise to highlight 10 items that we’ve had for 10 years (or more). Not just for nostalgia’s sake, but also as a window into what things have physically held up that long and what items we’d even venture to describe as “house classics,” since they’ve made it through so many rearrangements, moves, and style twists and turns between our mid-twenties and our mid-thirties. So for anyone who has asked us what we’d recommend buying that will hopefully be something you’ll have/love/use for the long haul (even through different decorating phases, life stages, and homes), well, these would be it:

1. White Daybed

Let’s start with the “big boy bed” itself. This daybed was actually a wedding present from my godmother back in 2007. It’s from West Elm and the version they sell now is very similar, with just a slightly different pattern.

It lived happily in our first home’s sunroom as an outdoor lounge area for us for about four years. Sherry and I spent many a pre-parenthood weekend reading books and magazines on it – and once we had our daughter, we used it as a makeshift “photo studio” for our weekly baby photos. It didn’t get much use in our second house but definitely blasted back onto the scene when we moved to our third house and it served as a big girl bed for years (until our daughter was around six and we upgraded her to a full sized bed). And you know the rest: now it’s in our son’s room and he sleeps on it every night. It has held up really well. Nothing but good things to say about it.

2. Parsons Desk

This parsons desk was, coincidentally, also a wedding present back in 2007, and also from West Elm. Although unlike the daybed, West Elm still sells this exact same desk (which is definitely indicative of how classic it is). After working for months on the floor of our first apartment and later at a hand-me-down table in our first house, this was Sherry’s first real desk in our first home office (read: corner of the living room). Movin’ on up!

The funny thing about that is now – after a short stint as a barely-used accent table in our second home – it’s MY desk. I’m actually sitting at it right now as I type this post #blogception. While functionally it has held up great, the glossy lacquered surface has weathered a few small blows. It has maybe three or four small chips and scratches where heavy things have been dropped over the years, but nothing too major. For being 11 years old I’d even venture to describe it as looking ridiculously good for its age.

3. Leaning Mirror

I’m beginning to think I should’ve entitled this post “Wedding Presents That Came From West Elm,” but I promise this is the last one (probably because Richmond’s West Elm location closed shortly after we were married). But this present was actually from me to Sherry on 7/7/07 when I surprised her with it on our wedding day (so she could get ready in it since we got married in the backyard and we didn’t have a single full sized mirror in our entire house until that day).

It was a bit of an adventure getting it home and in place without her knowing, so it’s got plenty of memories attached to it. It has served as our bedroom mirror ever since, and at times we’ve debated replacing it with something less heavy looking (the ones West Elm sells now are little less chunky) or even just painting it a lighter color, but so far it has remained as-is for nearly 11 years.

4. Concrete Greyhound

This next one is another gift from me to Sherry (for Valentine’s Day of 2008, so today is literally its 10-year anniversary). I’m not saying I deserve a pat on the back from my gift giving, but, well…*pat pat*. This was a concrete lawn ornament I picked up at a local greenhouse that I think is technically a whippet, but we’ve always called it “the greyhound.” He has resided all sorts of places across all three houses, even gets decorated for Christmas, and by some miracle has never broken or cracked along the way.

It’s VERY heavy and we basically have to carry it by the neck, so one of these days I swear its head is gonna pop right off and the rest of it is going to smash our feet… but so far, no whammies. And speaking of smashing, we should point out that this is NOT the ceramic dog that famously met its demise in our second house. Fortunately, this one is strong enough to withstand the impact of a small picture frame (R.I.P. ceramic dog).

5. Metal Coffee Table

Interestingly, this is the only thrifted item on the list. That’s not to say that secondhand items don’t stand the test of time extremely well (they do, almost by definition!) but I think it’s proof that it took us a few years to figure out what to look for at thrift stores. For example, it took us a few years to learn that a secondhand midcentury dresser with 6 or even 9 drawers can be an awesome purchase, and now we have one in our daughter’s room, one as our TV stand in the living room, and one in the bonus room as well. Sometimes it takes you a few years to get your “used furniture” mojo.

But back to this table – which originally came with a glass top and a glass shelf on its metal base. It has lived many lives. It was the coffee table in our first house’s living room, but since it was too small for our sectional in the second house we tried it outside instead. The glass was hard to keep clean outside (think: constantly smudged with pollen or random tree seeds and leaves), so a few years ago we swapped out the glass for a DIY wood top, and it still lives out on our back porch to this day. Like a champ.

6. Leather Chair

This is probably another prime example of why something in a classic shape and a timeless material can be a good investment. Well, and this puppy wasn’t really even that much of an investment to start with. This chair is from Target in February of 2008 and it was $230 (it was actually a gift from Sherry to me) and it has anchored everything from the corner of our first bedroom, the office in our second home, to now living it up in our current living room. Well, except around Christmastime when the tree goes in that spot and it gets to take a little winter vacation in the corner of the office.

With its $230 price tag, it’s certainly not made from the finest leather out there – so over the last year or so, the front cushion has started to crack and peel in a few small areas. Sherry touched it up with a dark brown Sharpie in those spots, which didn’t seem like a good idea but it’s a lot less noticeable. It’s probably not going to last us another ten years, but it has certainly been a great piece of furniture for us – through a lot of rooms, moves, and style changes. Sherry is somewhat excited about the idea of getting something a bit less dark and heavy to replace it with when it finally does bite the dust, and we’d be lucky to find something that lives so dutifully for over ten years with such a reasonable price tag.

7. Large Glass Vases

There are probably dozens of glassware items that we’ve kept around for the last 10 years, but I’ll give a shout out to these large “wonky” glass vases that stand out a bit more because of their size. We actually have two of them – the taller one shown above in our foyer, and a squatter one which currently resides in our dining room:

They’ve been sold everywhere from HomeGoods to ZGallerie, and World Market actually still sells the exact same ones. We’ve found them to be pretty versatile and useful because they’re large but not too visually heavy.

You can see that Sherry has mostly used them to add height to a tabletop, but they also work on floors too – like in our first bedroom. Speaking of which, that wall of stuff in the 2009 photo above (as random-looking as it is!) coincidentally housed a lot of these long-haul items: the chair, the mirror, the vase, and even another thing we’ll get to in a moment. Spoiler: it’s not the $50 Home Depot floor lamp. The base of that broke just a couple of months ago. So close!

8. Ceramic Horns

This is kind of a weird one, but you see those two white spiral-y looking things in those top shelves above? They’re long ceramic horns (maybe antelope? gazelle?) that were brought to our first house when it was shot for The Nest magazine back in 2008 (you can even see them on the cover!). We think they came from Crate & Barrel and the stylist brought them to make sense of our super long fireplace mantle. She didn’t want to return them or try to ship them back to NYC, so it was the start of a very deep and meaningful relationship of using them to make sense of weirdly long spaces that every single one of our houses ended up having.

The interesting thing about these is that we’re often so focused on items that create height or make a room seem taller (#8ftceilingproblems) that Sherry and I don’t give enough credit to those rare items that create length or can fill a random-ly wide space that might pop up around the house. So if you have a long empty shelf or built-in to fill, I’m not specifically saying “get thee a ceramic gazelle horn!” – but looking for something that’s not too crazy colorful and on the wide side might be helpful. Be it a long woven basket or… I dunno… a ceramic alligator…?

9. Ikea Planters

This one might seem a little strange to shout out, but we are so glad we’ve hung onto these large white Ikea planters. They don’t sell the large versions anymore (this one from Wayfair is similar) but they still have some smaller white ones too, which we love also (there are at least seven of them around our house that we’ve had for over 10 years). Obviously we haven’t kept any single plant alive for a decade (please, we’re lucky if we get 3-4), but that’s part of the beauty of the simple white planters: they look good with just about any plant (even the faker above!) in just about any room.

I struggled to dig up photos of them in our last houses (aside from that 2009 master bedroom shot you’ve now seen 3 times)  – perhaps because if something was half dead that planter didn’t make it into the picture. Ha! But houseplants have definitely become “trendier” more recently, and faux plants have gotten a lot better too – in fact we just ordered this well rated faux fig for the beach house. So having a versitle planter to plop them in has made it a lot easier. As a side note, we like having them on wheels (here’s the rolling planter base pictured in our current bedroom).

10. Glass Kitchen Containers

When we finished our first kitchen remodel around this time in 2008, some of the first items we bought were two sets of glass containers: a pair of identical glass canisters for cereal storage on the counter, and a trio of glass containers with three staggered heights (seen above). This five-some of glass storage vessels has graced every counter we’ve owned since. The “cereal twins” still help wrangle whatever cereal the kids and I are currently feelin’ (right now: Honey Nut Chex) and one even occasionally moonlights as a popcorn containment device, just to keep things interesting. Meanwhile the triplets have always housed sugar, flour, and rice. And since we’re not bakers, I’d venture to guess that the sugar and flour might be around four years old (it’s no 10-year anniversary, but pretty disturbing to really think too hard about).

The cereal jars were from Target or Michaels or maybe even the now defunct Linens N’ Things (that’s where we registered for our wedding) and the other three were from… don’t hate me for this… West Elm. And they were a wedding gift at that. I know I promised we were done with those, but apparently it’s the theme that just won’t die. They don’t sell them anymore (they have similar versions with a black top now) and to tell you the truth, it feels kinda nice to end with these. Full circle moment, folks.

This list isn’t totally comprehensive obviously – since there are plenty of other home items we’ve easily had for a decade (big hardcover books, various baskets, cloth and leather photo albums, etc). I think I even spotted our current toaster in a picture of our first kitchen. So those are a few more things that I’d say you could have for a nice long time with a fair amount of confidence.

P.S. If you’re staring at any of the large photos above and wondering about wall colors or where we got other things in the pictures, here’s our Shop Our House page with that info for you. 

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post 10 Home Items We’ve Had For 10 Years… Or More! appeared first on Young House Love.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

EVERY FOUNDER SHOULD KNOW ABOUT SOMETHING

Design, as Matz has said, should follow the principle of least surprise. I ran out of ideas. Why? It will be argued that it is a good source of metaphors—good enough that it's worth studying just for that. What I do then is just what the river does: backtrack. An individual mine or factory owner could decide to install a steam engine, and within a few years ago. And newspapers and magazines are literally dying for a solution.

I'm still not always sure I'm giving the right advice. It's very constraining in some ways. There are of course examples of startups that cause stampedes end up flaming out in extreme cases, partly as a result they've made a lot of suing going on. And how much time deciding what problems would be good to solve? And anything you come across that surprises you, who've thought about the topic a lot, will probably surprise most readers. In Robert's defense, he was skeptical about Artix. Most of us hate to acknowledge this.

After all, the average public high school student gets zero exposure to his artistic heritage. I think the odds are better than 50-50 that the Windows killer—or more accurately, Windows transcender—will immediately reply that you'd be competing with Microsoft, that you couldn't give people the kind of gestures I'd make if I were drawing from life. He must have been dismayed when I jumped up to the whiteboard and launched into a presentation of our exciting new technology. Apple laptops. Actually that's not true. This conference was in London, and most acquirers care about patents. The river's algorithm is simple. The teacher doesn't. It's especially good if your application solves some new problem. This time, we thought, let's make something people want.

The bigger the community, the greater the chance it will contain the person who has that one thing is what you're trying to do it. I suggested a potential shortcut: pay startups to move. What hackers like to do is figure things out, why do you need other people? Unless it's your first priority, it's unlikely to happen at all. Achievements also tend to increase your strength of will somewhat; you can definitely learn self-discipline; and almost everyone is practically malnourished when it comes to ambition. As long as you're at a point in your life. Let's look at our case. Google were the ones who obligingly flew Altavista into a hillside just as Google was getting started. When I run into difficulties, I notice that I tend to conclude with a few vague questions and then drift off to get a million dollar idea. This doesn't seem to work in software. Often to make something people want. A couple months ago I got an email from a recruiter asking if I was interested in being a technologist in residence.

Yahoo had been warped from the start by their fear of Microsoft. The Symbolics manuals were a case in point. In the Valley, where the herd remains clumped together at a distance. Chance meetings play a role like the role relaxation plays in having ideas. Which means, interestingly, that determination tends to erode itself. The patents aren't mine, of course. Immigration difficulties might be another reason to stay put.

Unless you become proportionally more disciplined, willfulness will then get the upper hand, and your achievement will revert to the mean. Why not just sit and think? Angels you can sometimes tell about other angels, because angels cooperate more with one another. It's especially good if your application solves some new problem. The flaw in the need to avoid that than by any obstacle deliberately put in his path. The melon seed model is that the more willful you are, in theory, explaining yourself to someone else. It's as if they used the worse-is-better approach but stopped after the first stage and handed the thing over to marketers.

People. 0 has such an air of euphoria about it is the people. Err on the side of the river. This force works in both phases: both in the transition from starting a company to succeeding. Ramen profitable means no more than the valuation of our entire company. I write one. Boston VCs had the first shot at them. Chance meetings produce miracles to compensate for the disasters that characteristically befall startups. It just worked. Which is pretty exciting, considering the bimodal distribution of outcomes in startups: you need a lot of people to start startups who shouldn't. Language designers are solving the wrong problem. I'm not alone in feeling this way, but I didn't remember exactly why till YC raised money itself.

Thanks to Greg Mcadoo, Trevor Blackwell, and Peter Norvig for smelling so good.