My "Standing Desk"

Much has been written lately about the importance of standing as much as you can, or at least minimize sitting.  This prompted a visit to Ikea, but I couldn't find anything suitable for home.  So I improvized with an ironing board on blocks.  It has the advantage of being collapsible for when company is over. This barely qualifies as a home project, but posted under this label anyway...

The Positives of Pessimism

This article outlines some of the positives of being a pessimist in our society where positive thinking is thought to have almost mystical powers.  But the point that I thought was most interesting was this (the point is emboldened.)  I have found that it's a fine line between cheering yourself on and having a backlash.  Likewise, it's possible to arouse your inner brat by having a "to do" list that's too long or involved.  So I found this article to be validating in that regard.  Please click through if you want to read the whole thing.

. You undermine yourself.

A study from the University of Waterloo divided participants into two groups, those with high self-esteem and those with low self-esteem, using a scale from 0 to 35. After repeating positive affirmations like the ones above, participants with high self-esteem saw their self-esteem score rise seven points. On the flip side, the participants with low self-esteem who repeated affirmations saw their score drop seven points.

The researchers found that when people with low self-esteem repeated the affirmations, it actually sparked “resistance,” or a snarky inner voice that debated the truthfulness of those affirmations, which effectively lowered self-esteem

Read more: http://www.learnvest.com/2012/09/the-power-of-pessimism-how-negative-thinking-can-improve-your-finances/#ixzz25jPu0Yte

Follow up

So, no, not too much progress on the clean up.  And abstract still needs to be reworded to have 300 words and am at 520.  Yikes. Plus the projects are not cut out either.  So. Fail.

more Labor

one more before photo. Yikes!! How embarrassing is that. And then my game plan to finish the abstract today.  Onward.

Labor Day Labor

So this is the chaos I have to tame this labor day.  LABOR!

Need to fully tweak the attitude to make it orderly, and in addition finish my Abstract for submission to SARS.  Next post will be a perfect work space, a complete list for my business, and abstract link.  Think I can do it??  Sure you do!!  You'll see...

Oh, and two projects cut out too.

Chair Finally Done

Lame, I know, but struggled with this "found" chair for way too long.  Had to memorialize it's final completion. Originally, it was an ugly duckling dark brown, with worn maroon upholstery that looked like it had been used as a theater prop.  Found it on the sidewalk.

 Why are some projects so much harder to complete?  (Like this one.) Where others seem to get done much easier than anticipated? (Recent "drapes" projects.)  A mystery.  Maybe I'll add a bonus photo of drapes.
Now I just need a way to visually capture data entry and organization to post on my research project.