The William Morris Project, Year 2, Weeks 5 & 6 {and four days late}

"Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful." This is weeks five and six of the Pancakes & French Fries William Morris Project, happening again, every thursday this Monday in 2013.

In the last two weeks I have not taken on many projects, rather I have created them. The very first thing I did when we moved into the new house was to change a light bulb. 'Whoopie!', you might say, but really, it was a big deal. Most of my life has been spent completely unaware of what the overhead lighting was like.  I remember a few lamps, but nothing really tremendous. Somewhere in the last few years I began to pay attention to the lights above my head, and it has really been fun to be able to change the feel of a room instantly with a different fixture, shade, or bulb. Once I received a mirrored light bulb for Christmas. For some reason I remember it cost $10. That seemed so extravagant, in fact, it still does. ITS A LIGHT BULB. But, I loved it. I put it in a plain light fixture, and just looked at it. It was shiny, and didn't hurt my eyes. The glow it cast reflected upwards, and the ceiling bounced it back down again, in a wonderful soft way. I was hooked. The day that light bulb burnt out was a sad day, and since I must prioritize my spending, I didn't get a new one, because there isn't always $10 laying around saying 'buy light bulbs with me!'. But, when we walked through this house, I noticed there was a mudroom off the kitchen that had a porcelain light socket on the wall, much like an enclosed porch. It was outfitted with a gigantic fluorescent floodlight that just about took my head off when I turned it on. I remembered Blake Dollahite and his fantastic bathroom {it has totally different lights in reality}, which made me think of The Brick House {and about a hundred things she's posted} and then about Roman Alonso, whose curtains I plan on making for this house...and I thought about that light bulb. So I ordered one. Actually two. One for the mudroom, and one for my bedroom, because on Amazon they were $5, and had free shipping. Long story short, I walked into the house, found my new light bulb, took out the old dinosaur floodlight and turned the back door industrial area into a soon to be charming mudroom. At least it has hope now. 
I'm making terrible gluten free cookies. I swear, I would rather have wheat issues and not eat disgusting food all the time. I mean it. What about the French? Do they have gluten intolerance? I doubt it. Certainly not Julia Child! Or M.F.K. Fisher, or anyone who lived through the depression. They just cooked and ate! They tried to make it delicious! They had no need for crazy allergy induced grit paste brick cookies.

Ok, I'm done. Alice