Bye Bye February

Our snowy January turned into a rainy February.  We had over an inch of rain every week (18 of 28 days) ; to a total of 10.46" here at The Sticks.  Plus our town was hit by TWO tornadoes on the 24th (more or less on either side of us).

Needless to say, we got nothing done outside.  It's a muddy soggy mess.  That 'river' you see thru the trees is actually a small creek that you usually can't see at all!

On the bright side, that gave me more days to work on my studio KonMari and organizing.  It's all over but the decorating.  Decorating will be done at my leisure and my pleasure.  I'll show you how it turned out tomorrow.

I finished decorating the storm shelter/prayer closet.

And I pulled out all the stored items way in the back of the closet during the KonMari.  We decided that would be a good place to store things that we really should get rid of but won't.  (The curtain you see in the photo 2 up hides this stuff).  On the left are pillows to sit on during a storm and the weather radio.  On the right is Persia's stuff.

I also pulled out all the "spring months" decorations and gave them a KonMari.  I went from two 90 quart containers down to three 18 quart containers (Valentines, St Patrick's, and Easter).

Got the Valentine's decorations up on the mantle too!  (Even if I'm not quite done...)

With the January upstairs KonMari done, I've started my room by room "make it sparkle" (with personality) challenge.  I started with the hall bathroom basically because it was the easiest.  Paint and stain touch-ups, getting lime off the sink, and some redecorating was all that was needed.

And I figured out the perfect way to store my tea selections.  Instead of keeping them in the bags and boxes I bought them it, they are now stored in canning jars.  And if they came in a box, I cut the box label to fit over the lid.  Otherwise I wrote on the lid what was in the jar.

In November 1981, as a newlywed who knew nothing about cooking, I attempted to cook a beef brisket.  I broiled it...  Prettiest piece of rubber you've ever seen!  Even the cat couldn't chew it.

In February 2018 I tried again following the instructions of the meat cutter where we buy beef.  Success!!  

We got in a couple classes too.

First was at bonsai club where we learned how to collect trees from nature or yard more successfully.

Second was a Whole Foods class for Valentine's Day.  Individual Beef Wellingtons, Citrus Asparagus, and Potato Fennel Scallop.  Recipes for the last two will be coming this month.

February also brought the personal discovery that I was way, way too ambitious with my challenges.  I ended up throwing out about half of them!  I kept my home (ie "make it sparkle), yard (curb appeal), kits, KonMari, and my spiritual challenges.  In the creative area I went from 36 different things in 3 areas to 6 in one overall area ~ with those 6 being creative outlets I'm building a portfolio around.  But more about that later...

And now it is March... which looks like it will be even busier than February!

August In The Rear View Mirror

What a month!  The cool July slid into a hot and muggy August.  Outdoor projects came to a screeching halt.  This girl does not like to sweat!  There is always plenty to do inside...right?

Since I loathe sitting still, I did a makeover on our guest bedroom along with decluttering the closet.  Plus I started a makeover of our master bathroom.  I’m really hoping I get it done tomorrow!  Darn wallpaper slowed me down hugely.  It’s coming off inch by inch.  Ugh!

Our only trip was up for Little Bird’s 5th birthday.  The Little Pony fiesta was a hit with everyone and she added to her wee herd nicely. 

It’s been a social month, with visits to and from old friends and new.  A friend of Himself’s came for dinner for the first time and was a wonderful visit.  So much fun to make a new friend! 

Lots of events and meeting this month.  We had our first meeting for Operation Christmas Child shoebox collection.  It’s only 77 days until collection starts!! 

Oh...by the way, hope you have a fun Labor Day tomorrow!

July in the Rear View Mirror

Weather-wise, July was a strange month here at The Sticks.  Twice, for a week at a time, we had some really, really cool nights.  Cool as in the upper 50s!  Bad thing though… very little rain.  The yard is getting pretty well baked.  We have started bringing out the watering buckets (our 5 gallon buckets with a tiny hole drilled in them). 

No trips this month, except for a day trip to Nashville with my sister and family.  Yep… the babies came down to Tennessee!  What a blast that was!

We have done a lot of entertaining this month… large groups.  We did a spaghetti dinner for our Sunday School class and had a tea for my Homemakers club.  Fun!

We have been taking advantage of those cooler temperatures; we have been and are BUSY in the yard.  I’ll have several projects to share over the next few weeks.  I am so happy with what we’ve been getting done!

With the work outside and our entertaining, not much has happened inside.  The studio is coming along slowly but surely.  I have a couple room makeovers planned for August.  I’m excited about those!

In fact, August seems like it is going to be our Makeover Month!  Lots of changes planned…

June in the Rear View Mirror

Well, summer is here; by date and by temperatures.  As the song goes, ‘…those hazy, lazy days of summer…’ have applied to this month.  Our pace has slowed and we’re enjoying it.

We made one trip this month and that was up to Missouri for Little Hoss’ 4^th birthday.  The trip was more exciting than we had planned though.  One night lightning struck the tree next to my parent’s house and arced to the house!  Everyone is OK and there was not all that much damage.  You betcha there will be a blog soon on this.  I learned a whole lot about lightning and home safety in a short amount of time!  (Firemen are happy to tell you how to be prepared for trouble.) 

Back on the home front, we’ve been working on small outdoor projects to increase our curb appeal.  And inside I’ve been focusing on my studio.  A night of watching the weather radar made me realize that we had NO place to hide if those strong cells became a tornado. 

Next morning I was pulling all the boxes I’d stashed in the under-stairs closet to sort later, and putting them in an area in the garage.  A July project is to build a safe place for us to go to.

Otherwise, we’ve had a few friends over for meals, done a bit of dog sitting while friends go on vacation, worked a Whole Foods class based on ‘crab’ (YUM!), and we’ve hit a few yards sales. 

With my studio coming together, I’m more able to play with my creative projects and I’ve been having a blast with that! 

June has been a good month… can’t wait to see what July holds!

May In the Rear View Mirror

I feel like I should put up a sign on the street corner… “Lost: the month of May.”  I have no idea where the time went! 

A week was spent in Missouri over Mother’s Day.  We had an exceptionally nice visit. 

We made progress in the yard, focusing mainly on curb appeal and winter clean up.  Using Dad’s leaf blower we piled and burned enough leaves that we could have hidden an elephant in them!  It took days to deal with all of them.

You’ve already seen our front porch redo.  We also worked on the sidewalk area and around the front of the house, the herb bed, and in front of the shed.  I’ll be showing those soon. 

The bird garden is a work in progress… like the shed; we’ve decided to go deeper with the redo so it is taking longer.  But it is going to be worth the extra time and effort!  The iris I was planning on moving out finally decided they liked where they were planted and bloomed for the first time in several years.  So they are staying right where they are at!

Our compost pile got a jump start with some ‘cow dirt’ from a neighbor and Sunday School classmate.  He brought down a whole tractor bucket load of well composted manure from the area he feeds his cattle. 

Not much going on inside the house.  When I have time and energy I’m done some putzing in my studio. 

Also have been sorting thru tubs of clothing that are/were too small for me.  I am a very happy camper that some are now fitting again!  I’ve sorted the ones I still can’t wear into tubs labeled by size and they will be stored until I need them. 

We haven’t had anyone over this month… June will be the start of our entertaining.  But we did have two delightful meals with friends in their homes.

 Other outings have been the Amish plant auction I wrote about earlier this month and an original play put on by a local church.  Plus two times we have volunteered at Whole Foods cooking classes. 

And so it is onward into June.  We still have a decent amount of yard work to finish… something I am kind of dreading with the building heat…

April In The Rear View Mirror

What I thought would be a weeks’ work turned out taking a whole month of hard work. 

Yes… I would be talking about the shed…

Himself had thoughts to clean it out WAY more thoroughly than I had planned.  So while it has taken much longer than I planned (like all month), it is so much better than I had planned!

However, extra time in the shed meant yard stuff didn’t happen. 

So May will turn into an overall yard clean up and landscaping month!  Which isn’t so bad… maybe Spring will finally be here to stay.  We have a lot of plans for the yard.  

We spent Easter here in Tennessee, taking part in many events during Holy Week… Maundy Thursday, Passover Seder, and Easter sunrise service. 

Except for one unexpected overnight guest, we didn’t entertain this month.  We plan to make up for it in May!! 

No Whole Foods classes for April.  They were all cancelled!!   We made it to Mule Days tho.  What a hoot!  Definitely on our calendar to go back next year on a different day to see other events. 

May looks like it is going to be a slower paced month with a lot of putzing outside.  Gotta take care of those ‘May flowers’!

March in the Rear View Mirror

(In like a lion...)

What a busy month this has been! 

We started the month with our trip up to MO.  Little Bird was in her first play at 4 years old… the high school production of The Music Man.  She had a blast. 

Spring cleaning is DONE!!  I even got all the noncoated wood pieces oiled… lemon oil for furniture and olive oil for wooden kitchen items (cutting boards, etc).  So now I am back on my regular cleaning schedule to keep things looking good around here. 

We finished our work in the garage.  It’s so much easier to get things done in there now.  However, we had to take a hiatus on the shed, due to a combination of cold nasty weather (I’m not going to work out there when it’s freezing.  No way.) and a bunch of other commitments.  Shed work has been rescheduled for the first few days of April…weather permitting.

Also April will be clean up the yard month.  We’ve had several ice storms this year and there are soooo many little branches (and a tree!) on the ground.  Planting beds need attention too so we can start planting in May. 

Several times we had company in March, including some overnight guests.  Plus we were invited to a new friend’s home and had dinner out with our Sunday School class.  That gave us some fun breaks in our routine. 

Other fun things we’ve done include a couple of classes at Whole Foods, a book binding class for me, the reptile show and a couple of lectures. 

Nothing dull about this March!  And April is already looking exciting…  

(...out like a lamb!)

February In The Rear View Mirror

Wow, I can’t believe it is already the end of February!!  I realize it is a ‘short’ month but it really feels like it flew by.

My project of getting my studio back in order finished quickly.  That really shocked me.  I silently thought this one would flow into next month.  Now it is ready to use and create in.  And to start decorating.  Clean and orderly is great…but you know it has to be cute too!  There’s a lot of painting I need to do; which will wait until I can have open windows to air the place out.

Himself opted out of getting his study redone.  Truth be it, it’s not really too bad as it is.  The plus side for me is that he was more available to help me in MY studio! 

March will be the month for cleaning out the garage (not too bad) and the shed (downright scary!). 

We made our monthly trip up to see the babies.  They recharge my ‘battery’… everything is better after being with them.  Tired but better.  (You know, if I could tap into their energy I could get my monthly projects done in a week!)

There was another kidnapping too.  For Valentine’s (a few day late) I whisked Himself off to a local B&B.  I’ll be writing about that soon.  It was a great stay. 

We only did one volunteer class at Whole Foods.  It was an Italian class with some good recipes.  I’ll be sharing those soon.

Our big time consumer this month was our “2^nd Annual Sweetheart Banquet” at church.  Our Sunday School class is the one that puts it on.  Last year we did a 50s and 60s song night, plus pulled a joke on our pastor.

This year it was “Hee Haw”.  It was hysterical!  That’s yet another upcoming post… with lots of photos and even some video (I hope).  Himself was “Charlie Farkelson… KORN News”.  I was the photographer for couples photos and the event.  There were a lot of rehearsals and set making all thru the month getting ready for it. 

Hello March… whatcha got lined up for me?

January In The Rear View Mirror

The first month of 2014 was a good start for our year.

First, we made our goal of having the house (less our two ‘offices’) completely decluttered and organized.  Boy did we find a lot of lost items!  Now that is done, I can get back on a regular cleaning cycle without having to work around ‘stuff’.  Also I can start doing some redecorating and some make-over’s. 

February will be the month we focus on our personal rooms… my studio and his study! 

Culinary fun is in full swing, we did three classes at Whole Foods as volunteers.  We love being able to do the classes without the expense, plus get some perks too.  We learn, we eat, we get the leftovers, and we either get points towards taking a class or WF gift cards. 

I haven’t had a bit of time for creative projects.  I’m so looking forward to get my studio finished. 

For travel we made our monthly trip to see the babies, and the kidnapping I wrote about earlier.  I love those kidnappings… hehehe…

January has been a great month…can’t wait to see what February holds!