Potential renters came today. We had agreed with the landlady that she would screen well and we would show the people around.

As we approached the “showing” I realized that I have bought and sold so many pieces of property I ended up facing it like I was staging a home to sell it.I have spent several days collecting things in one room and rearranging them in another. I am in the HGTV zone. Scouring the house for things that go together in one place that are not there yet. Looking for bits of beauty among its “we have always been right here” kin.

By the time the people got here this whole 6,000 GSH (green shag house) was clean and things re-purposed from one room to another. I must say I am happy with how things came out. The big change is in the little apartment downstairs. It had been the housekeepers and as time passed since lived there it has slowly become as dreary as a brown paper bag in the rain.

I scoured all over the house and found bits and pieces of cheerful things, a french-summer beach scene oil painting, a Grandma Moses style painting of the original owners of the house. Several discount store cheerful and cute plaques. I found some sweet dishes with farm scenes on them that were in the same color pallet as the paintings. I found several red silk geraniums and scattered them about. I even found a round tin with a carousel on it.

I hung a ceramic butterfly (10 inches across!) made the the original lady of the house back in 1974. It is over the kitchen sink and its orange perfectly accents the orange counter tops which complement the black and gold shag carpet and the gold draperies.

I hung a wrought iron candle wall-sconce in the hall to give the illusion of light even if it was just that, an illusion. I guess you could burn candles in there. If you did, three votive candles would outshine the light put out by the hall ceiling fixture.

The bedroom is lovely in many ways but always fell short. The proportion of the room is nice, not large but nice. The doors are placed well and there is a fantastic giant walk in closet. Still, something just did not jibe.

I found three brown and neutral throw pillows and put those on the bed, a little better but not much. I put a pretty gold and ivory stripe hatbox on the dresser with two gold boxes too. Better, not yet. I moved in a bedside table and put a silk plant and a book on it, better still not there. I hung two sweet little children pictures over the head of the bed. Still not there. Hm……

Off I went with my green Kelty camping kitchen bag I had been lugging things around in to find more booty. I had been running around looking for stuff for hours and was getting really tired. I was rummaging through the cabinets of this very over-full house for a small tablecloth for the dinette table in the apartment. I did not find one but I found an absolutely stunning ivory silk bordered thing. It appears to be a table cloth but when I put it on the bed as a coverlet the room lit up. Tonight I absent mindedly wandered to the door of the room and came to a dead stop. I almost felt woozy things were so out of place. But wow, what good place! The room sparkled.

What I learned today is a lesson I knew and have known and will know but sometimes forget. In the environment around us there is always something of beauty if we only have eyes to see it.