I already have a carafe that is almost exactly like the example above. But this one has a beautiful oak ball as a stopper. And, in the photograph at least, the top looks like an orb floating magically over a miniature lake of red wine.

My carafe doesn’t have any of that, but it was a wedding gift, and I have used it regularly and loved it… until this one popped into my field of vision, tempting me with it’s organic addition.

But I will remain strong and walk away. One must remain faithful to one’s first love, if at all possible.

You, however, should go buy it right now. And then invite me over for a drink so I can live vicariously…

The time has come, as you can clearly see, for a new tea kettle. I don’t want to disclose exactly how many times I have almost burned the house down by forgetting all about the boiling water in the pot… only to be reminded by a sharp and pungent smell of burning metal. This past time, the entire bottom of the pot was glowing a dull red. Let’s just say that this particular pot has used up it’s nine lives.

So on to the next one!

I am, of course, shopping around and taking forever to decide which new model gets the place of honor on our stove top, but I think I’ve narrowed it down to these… Let me know what you think:

Yanagi tea kettle. It just sounds impressive. This is the one my oft mentioned friend Nancy covets, and since, when it comes to choosing stuff for the home, I’d happily follow her off of a cliff, I too am desperately in love with it. Yanagi is one of Japan’s most admired and prolific designers, so it’s got artisan cred, plus it’s made out of durable stainless steel which… well… does not stain.

One might think that all good kettles come from Japan, but that is not true. Only most of the really-beautiful-and-slightly-more-expensive-than-I-want-to-pay ones do. Remodelista (a pox on you for being such a treasure trove of lust-worthy objects) has also offered up this lovely kettle designed by Shoei Kogyo. Called the Kaico Kettle, it has a white enamel coating over it’s steel interior, creating a thermally efficient and easy to clean pot. Which is good, because it’s wooden handle means it’s not dishwasher safe (I don’t care as we are dishwasher-free here in Brooklyn, but that may matter to some of you people out there).

Also priceless is the below description of this kettle that I found (poetically translated into English) on the Japanese website Rakuten.com:

To mass consumption in the family in the summer barley, etc Kama in the capacity of a little may be unsatisfactory, but think minutes to consume at any given time to make the just the right size. Size also put at kitchen kettle is also not in the way, love the look is very nice. Using, enjoying the look in the eyes. It may be this comfortable communing daily design leads to attachment.

I mean, who can resist buying the Kaico after reading that testimonial?

But then I think… Hmmm… Should I go back to the white enamel style? Or should I get something made of sterner stuff so as not to worry (as much) about burning the pot again and again? This thought turns my gaze towards the Staub La Theiere cast iron pot, the sturdiness of which I’m sure would have pleased even Ma from Little House on the Prairie. It’s sold on Amazon (of course) but it looks like right now there’s a bit of a sale happening via Remodelista, so it might be worth checking there first if this is your model of choice.

Or do I just bail on the whole stove top concept and get all modern and European with this electric kettle by Dualit? It’s not bad looking, can hang out anywhere on your counter and evidently has no cord, so you don’t have to worry about trying to run the plug behind the sink and over the spice rack to reach the one outlet in the kitchen. This would constitute a major life change for me, and I admit I am not sure I’m up to it. But I am putting it out there, in case any of you are leaning in this direction.

So there you have it. A few tea kettles to consider. Now the big mystery is in figuring out just how long it’s going to take me to actually make a decision for myself…

Anybody who knows me or has followed this blog for awhile knows that I have a problem when it comes to accumulating stuff. I have “tried” all sorts of things, but I still find myself buried underneath the piles of books and kids art and records and photographs and clothes and glass bottles (for all that iced tea I’m always making?) and candles and papers and anything else you can imagine.

You name it, I probably have 6 of whatever it is, taking up space in our closet. Or, worse and yet more likely, on the dining room table.

About six months ago, I found the solution… Or actually a friend pressed it upon me… a miraculous book by Karen Kingston called Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui. And while I find trying to figure out Feng Shui next to impossible, this book is filled with all sorts of great suggestions for how to just get over yourself and clear out some space in your home and your life, damn it! The mystical energy flow stuff is just a bonus, should you choose to go there.

I actually cried when I read Chapter 5 which is called: How Clutter Affects You. Procrastination, depression, extra time cleaning, disorganization, exhaustion, spending a lot of unnecessary money… the list goes on. So many of her points rang true.

But six months later, our place looks pretty much the same as it did when I first got the book. Life gets in the way… you know how it is… and just about any time I cleared a tiny space, new clutter managed to seep in and take over.

Just recently, however, our daughter finally graduated from the bassinet/crib/toddler bed she’s had since she was born to a bonified big girl bed, with built in storage to boot! We had to clear out her room to make the transition, and her things are now all over the floors of just about every room in our place. Adding insult (even more kids books and hair ribbons and spangly jewelry) to injury (all of the stuff I already had piled up.)

I have officially hit the wall.

Yesterday, in a conversation with some of my “other mother” pals during our kids’ Streb class, the Karen Kingston book came up again. So I dusted if off, took a photo of it and decided to try again. But this time, I will listen to the wise advice of my fellow stressed out never-enough-time mother and plan to attack just one small space at a time. And finish the task before moving on to the next one. It worked so well with my kitchen cabinet…

Sounds basic, and yet has been next to impossible to practice.

First step is just to put everything away, even if “away” isn’t the perfect ultimate place for the object in question. Once our place is neat and my daughter’s stuff has migrated back to it’s home in her bedroom, I can begin to make some strides.

Pray for me. I need all the help I can get.

I have always been a firm believer in having a wedding for one main reason. It is a time when you stand up, in front of a bunch of people who mean something to you, and promise that you are going to work really hard to make this relationship work. And you enlist their help in ensuring that the promise becomes a reality. There is something about stating this type of business in public that makes it all the more vivid, and makes one all the more motivated to keep up one’s end of the bargain, so to speak.

Same thing seems to go for taking a photo of the messy-ass left side of my desk yesterday. Because if I hadn’t posted that, I never would have spent 45 minutes this morning, filing, discarding, sorting and arranging all of those papers. I even found a couple of flash drives that I forgot I owned.

In a perfect world, I might upgrade to some prettier folders, though I like the fact that my overflowing to-do file has the word LIMBO written on it in huge bold letters.

Mind you Tiny steps parts 1 and 1.5 were completed and posted on this blog about a year ago, but I am clearly a person who likes to take her time with things.

I am now going to post this, and then go happily off to the shredder with a pile of paper which I will reduce to tiny little strips (fun!)

I would like to say that I am person who is entirely motivated by an unselfish desire to transform the world into a better place, to improve the lives of others thus covering their faces with smiles, to give without even the slightest consideration of reward.

But that is not entirely true.

I will, I admit, walk a bit faster when there is a carrot tied to the end of the stick in front of me. At least I can say I am honest about that. And while there are certainly times when that carrot takes the form of a smile, there are other times when it looks more like a new pair of pants from Maria Cornejo.

So I am currently in the process of figuring out what the carrots are for my particular 2014 resolutions. Or goals, lets just say goals. It feels less intimidating, somehow.

I am looking to take care of unfinished business, which in my language means clearing out the piles, for it is in the form of mountains of stuff that my unfinished business takes shape. Like when I recycle all of those junky plastic doorstops I keep around, I get to replace them with 2 of these nice ones (because I only ever need to prop open 2 doors anyway.)

Or when I organized the little shelf in our bathroom… (see before and after pictures below)

This completed task justified the purchase of the otherworldly cabin spray by Juniper Ridge that makes me feel like I’ve stepped out of the shower onto a secluded forest trail in Big Sur. I’ll take the mountain in the middle of Brooklyn any day.

This style of motivation works for me, and at this point, I stand firmly in the by-any-means-necessary camp when it comes to clearing out my situation. There is no harm in rewarding oneself for a job well done.

Now you may have noticed that I have made no mention of the-catastrophe-that-was-once-my-office, because I’ve been putting it off.

Natch.

But today is the first day of a bright new future. Today I begin tackling one corner of my desk, because I figure I’ll start with a clean work area, and then I can begin to face the music of the stacks of boxes, one by one. If there are any of you out there embarking on a similar project and you want to swap stories, or give me some tips, please oh please be in touch. I can use all the help (and company!) I can get.

So my office is not the only room that needs a little work… Our bathroom ceiling is pretty cracked, too, with huge amount of paint falling down, a broken light fixture… the works. Too embarrassing even for me to take a photo of. But we’re taking advantage of this little fix-it moment to really eliminate all of the eye sores at once (not counting my excessive stuff, which is going to take a long long time to expunge.)

We’re going for a super simple new fixture in the bathroom and changing the yellow color to a heather grey. We chose a charcoal grey for the light, but I secretly have a hankering for this red version, so I put it up here instead. Maybe one of you will get the red version and I can come over to visit it.

I’ll be sure to do a whole before/after story once we have an after to speak of.

Here’s what my office looks like currently. I have been waiting most of the day for our landlord’s son to turn up to fix the gaping hole in my ceiling. I am writing this as a means to alleviate some of the extreme feelings of frustration that are surging over my psyche in waves.

Bright side? We’ve also had leak damage in the dining room, bathroom and master bedroom that is going to finally be addressed. I’ve moved all sorts of stuff (oh I have too many things, I know!) into plastic covered piles which means we will be able to paint much of our apt while everything is a mess.

But man am I tired of this chaotic style of living. It’s exhausting. My husband doesn’t want to come home and my daughter keeps worrying that the house will never go back to normal…

Please everyone out there in the world, say a prayer for us. We are going to need all the help we can get.