Smashy Smashy

I have a basket for things that need mending, and I took some time this morning working on some of them.  I put a battery back in a smoke detector and stuck it back on the ceiling.  I hot-glued some crafts that had come apart, promptly sticking my fingertip in the fresh glue before the repair was complete.  I had been saving a china saucer that I thought I could also superglue, but I was missing a bit of it.  Maybe I thought I would find it by now, but I didn't, so I took a moment and broke it up on the floor and tossed it.  I'm not a dummy, dummy.  I put it in a bag before I threw it down.  I have a small sewing repair to do and I'll be about done with that old pile of stuff.

The free stuff on the sidewalk finds have been slim this year, but that's just fine.  A round-the-corner neighbor has been giving away a lot of stuff lately, often questionable goods that others might term recycling (glass jars, outdated software manuals, etc.).  I got a couple ice cube trays last week.  They make great earring holders!  You can put a pair in each little cube area and they don't get tangled or separated!  I put the ones don't hang with hooks in these trays.

I have a a shower-caddy type thing I got at a thrift store for about 49 cents for hook earrings.  I I have a matching one right below it for sunglassess. 

A couple friends recommended the BBC series The Fall to me and I'm on season 2.  I was reluctant because Jamie Dornan, the star of the bumbling Fifty Shades of Grey film is the killer in The Fall.  Dude can act, I was really surprised.  He's from Northern Ireland though, he's not getting the American thing right.  Don't feel hurt Jamie, Kenneth Branagh does it badly too and he's Mr. Shakespeare.

Upstairs Downstairs

While perusing the DVD shelves of my local library yesterday I came across an unexpected gem.  It's a British reality show called Manor House; much like the 1900 House series of a few years ago.  Here's a description I read on IMDB:

"21 people from the 21st century are being brought together in an Edwardian Country House. 6 of them are the Upstairs family and the 15 others are the servants. For three months, these people have only the rulebook and each other..."

I put it down at first because as a rule I hate reality television, but then I realized this show fits right into my particular tastes.  The point of the show is to have the family and other people involved live with the social protocols and everything else contemporary to  the Edwardian manor house style. If you've ever seen Gosford Park (one of my favorite movies ever)  or Downton Abbey, these illustrate perfectly the kind of life this show is trying to have the participants recreate.  Thankfully, it's not a contest, but it is a challenge to the people involved to cleave to the social roles (as well as the lack of technology) from back then.  I love movies that take place in this kind of household.  I don't long for those times, let's make that clear, but I do think a (fictional) manor house is a perfect place to have dozens of intrigues going on at once.  Scandalous!

Here's a clip of Manor House!

As far the upstairs vs. downstairs in my own house goes, I'm finding that I have to be sure I'm not just hiding things from myself, that they really are being put away or given away.  The room I'm sitting in right now has become the defacto extra storage room, especially when guests arrive.  They think my house is so clean because the walls in here are straining with junk!  And that's what I'm trying to do away with in general.