My mother is 70 and has only hired painters once that I can recall. She paints everything herself, including the inside and the outside of a lake cottage over the last couple of years. I need to live up to the legend!

I actually don’t mind painting. It’s the persnickety preparation work that gets to me. Plus, it’s not really good for my shoulders, but I get a sense of satisfaction out of doing it myself.

I’ve seen some truly horrible home paint jobs – like when people can’t hold the brush steady enough where the wall meets the ceiling or if you’re painting walls different colours and need to line up the corner where the two colours meet. I have no clue why I can do this. I shouldn’t have a steady hand. I’m a natural born klutz. But the painting thing seems like an inherited trait. It’s in the genes!

I hear you on the waste with the cards. At least we can recycle them now.

I have a love/hate relationship with Christmas cards. I like to string them up and see them collect, and calculate who loves me (just kidding! LOL) but I have a degree in environmental studies, and the waste just appalls me! So I send them out every few years when the guilt for not doing it overwhelms the guilt for doing it. LOL

Kudos on being done with the bathroom painting!

As for Christmas cards, my mom used to drape her cards on a string in the living room so they would become part of the festive decorations. I hope you receive lots of cards and have a wonderful holiday!

I’m not sure my mom even knew what we wanted to do with the cards, but it was a clever way to get rid of them or at least extend their life (no recycling back then). My older sister, younger brother and I are very close in age, so we were competitive about such things. One of us, probably my older sister, who was always into art, decided she wanted certain cards and my mom said, “After New Year’s.” Then the brother and I found out, so of course WE wanted cards, too. Thus the draw straws and take your turn system was born (better than the oldest always getting first pick, which was her idea, I might add!). Once we had our cards, it was the artsy sister, again, who got creative with them. So of course then I had to follow suit. LOL, if you have an older sibling, you know how it goes!

Yes, I paint – not paintings as my massage therapist thought for years, LOL, but rooms, sundecks, you name it. I shouldn’t do it. It exacerbates an old injury from a car accident. But I’m, um, too much of a DIY’er to pay someone $30 or $40 an hour to do something I know I’m fully capable of managing myself.

Someday I hope to be too busy with publishing contracts (and the resulting royalties!) to do the painting. THEN I’ll hire out.

I bet it feels good to have that bathroom painted. We had a power outage yesterday, and I did a few cleaning projects. Just because there was nothing else to do! I’m glad to get back to writing today.