What's In Store For February

It's time to move into the February challenges.  Since January went so well, it has really motivated me for this next round.

With the upstairs KonMari repeat done I can now focus on making each room "sparkle".  Not just sparkling clean but a sparkle of personality too.  In other words, I'm going to do some redecorating/rearranging.  Starting easy by doing both bathrooms.  

My outside project is going to require three or four warm days.  We are putting in a planting bed on the south side of our house.  I want to plant flowers for cutting.  We got it started but hot weather stopped our progress.  (When you are working on the south side of a house in TN anything over 80*F becomes too hot fast.)

My kit of the month was inspired by the terrible train crash in Washington state.  We are putting together a compact trauma kit to keep in the trunk of our car.

For my personal fitness challenge I'm going to add some serious stretching to my routine.  I'm getting a little too stiff lately.  Besides basic stretches, I'm looking at learning some beginner yoga.

February is nails and make-up month.  Last month I KonMari-ed out a lot of my old products.  This month they will be replaced much more thoughtfully.  Less will be more, so to speak.

My spiritual challenge is to start (and keep going) a gratitude journal.  I have several ideas for this one!

My creative challenges are a bit easier this month.  For my mixed media project I'm going to work with dream catchers in many forms.  My creative project will be learning to weave.  I'll start small and hope by the end of the month to have progressed to working on a scarf.  Writing will be about some very personal events that I will publish for myself in a small Blurb book.

Photography challenge is to get some great shots of frost, ice, and snow.  (Should have had this one last month, eh?)  My photo album that will be worked on is our 2004 trip through the SW United States.  I just need to get my journaling done.  And my photo book for this month is Alaska.  I've been there twice and will get both trips done.

February is 'collecting' month for bonsai.  Meaning we go out and start digging up trees to start working with.  I have 7 right here in my yard that Himself is going to get for me.  I'm going to poke around in our woods to see what is there too.  Bonsai club has a couple collecting field trips lined up for March so I need to get my personal ones done now.

My continuing challenges are the KonMari ~ this time in my studio.  Want to have this FINISHED by the end of February.  Fitness ~ sloth running.  January was a bust and I have my 5K on the 17th of March.  Appearance ~ hair and skin.  Gotta remember to add to my routines!  Mixed media ~ again a January bust.  Want to get 2 done.  And finally, need to finish the photos cull/sort on my hard drive.  I am so close!

From Resolutions To Challenges

As I explained at the beginning of the month, I'm doing monthly challenges instead of resolutions this year.  January is at its end so it's time to see how it has gone for me.

Overall I am very happy with what I have accomplished.  I've discovered I was a bit ambitious in just how much I can do in a month so I have made adjustments here and there.  And as I explained to Himself, some challenges are to be finished by the end of that month and for some challenges the goal is to get started and continue... perhaps for the rest of my life.

My 'home' challenge was to KonMari the upstairs and our downstairs laundry room.  Got it done!  I was amazed at what I missed from the first go around.  This is one of the challenges that continues after the first month.  February I will finish my studio.  I've already started and am making huge progress.  A big part of that comes from deciding what creative projects I really want to do and enjoy doing.  Stash that doesn't work for those is going away.

For the yard I planned on pruning my lilacs.  They had gotten WAY tall and Himself took down about a third of their height.  I realize I won't have the best flowering this year but I'm OK with that.  And while he had the pruner out, he lowered the crepe myrtle and the hibiscus.

Making a shopping price guide was the kit of the month.  I'm not done with this one because it is pretty labor intensive.  I will be finished by mid-Feb and will show it then.  But so far it is proving rather interesting...

It has been so cold that my "sloth running" has been more like "stone running".  Snow, ice, and temperatures that didn't get above freezing stopped that.  Even the elliptical was a no go... my basement studio where it sits average 48*F.  No thanks.  

A new hair and skin routine didn't get far either.  Kept forgetting.  But earlier reviews of the coconut oil for skin is good.

In the creative challenges, that went a bit slower.  Didn't do a thing with my assemblage projects.  Again, too cold to work in my studio.  The quilting project I got started... the components for the two quilts I'm going to do this year have been gathered and put into a tub each.  And I decided to do a small lap quilt for Himself's auntie in MN.  It's called a "Fidget Quilt" and is a very tactile quilt that calms dementia patients.  That will also be done in a couple weeks and you'll see it then.

My writing challenge was haiku and this was definitely a 'starter' month.  So easy but so complicated too.  I'm working on a piece for an EHC writing contest, the deadline is the end of Feb.

Photos... oh my goodness!

For basic photography I made my first challenge to deal with the photos I've already taken... both on my laptop hard drive AND on my external back-up hard drive.  What a nightmare.  Double...triple... even quadruple mass saves from different times.  It all had to be consolidated and then the duplicates deleted and then deleting of all those photos I just didn't want (like when you take 50 photos of the baby playing with her new toy).  I worked every single day of January on this.  Seriously, I have deleted at least a quarter million photographs.  I have learned a lot in the process.  Not quite done, but I will be by mid month Feb.  This is NOT going to get this way ever again!!!

I finished ~ as in done-stick-a-fork-in-it ~ my photo album from my Mexico trip in 2006.  Journaling is complete and excess photos have been dropped in the trash.  Done!

My photo book on the Scotland 2011 trip is also done.  Blurb has put up a 40% off coupon so I am doing my last proofreading today and hitting 'publish' tomorrow.  (I'm only going to publish when they have a good coupon!)

And finally my bonsai.  I have planned my new bonsai garden for when they wake up in a couple months.  I've cleaned up my tools, taken stock of my pots, and reorganized what I have.  I'm ready for spring!

Challenges For January

I’m ready for my January challenges!  Here’s what I have lined up:

1.  Home – Time to KonMari again. A year has passed and there is definitely more to let go.

2.  Yard – Not much... it’s January for Pete’s sake!  However, I will get the lilacs, myrtles, and hibiscus pruned.  They are getting to be beasts!

3.  Kit – I’ll be doing a ‘shopping’ kit that will consist of a price comparison notebook and a coupon file.  I've done this before and it is well worth the effort of setting it up.

4.  Fitness – Starting back with my “Sloth Running” (I’ll get there when I get there!).  I have signed up for a 5K in mid-March so it is time to get real with this.  I hope to do a 5K each month IF I can find one near by that supports a good cause.   #USOTenMiler   

5.  Appearance – This month’s focus is hair and skin. Between being "a woman of a certain age", the stresses of the 2nd half of 2017, and having dry skin in general I need a lot of work on this!  I may take me to a spa for a day. 😉

6.  Spiritual – Get back to serving Him properly and with intention.  This month it is time to start being grateful again.  

7.  Assemblage/Mixed Media - My first month will be focusing on configuration boxes, shadow boxes, and rigid mountings. 

8.  Creative Focus Project – Quilting.  I'm starting two projects this month.  One is the is the 3 decade old sampler quilt which I WILL finish.  The second is a quilt that will use blocks, fabrics, and scraps from Himself's family heritage.  Of course I won't finish them in January but there will be a good start and I will aim to finish by next New Year.

9.  Writing – Write a haiku piece in octave form for the EHC writing contest. 

10.  My photos – Cull and organize the hard drive photos.  A daunting task as I've done about 4 different mass saves that I have to pick thru to find the few unique photos in each.  Uff-da!  Goal is to have only 2 complete copies - one on the external hard drive and the other on my lap top.  And to have it organized in such a manner that new photos can be easily transferred. 

11.  Photo albums – Finish my 2006 Mexico trip album journaling.  

12.  Photo books – Finish my 2011 Scotland trip album.  This is another biggie as there is just SO much to go thru.  

Happy Birthday to Me!

One month ago I turned 55.

Himself made me chocolate cupcakes and surprised me with this that morning.

My present to me was being healthier for my 55th birthday than I was for my 50th.  Those are a pair of pants I wore back then...

GO me!!

Taste of Scotland

  Getting back to doing my recipes from a different country each month.  Since July was 'my' month... the recipes are all Scottish!

For my meal I start with a appetizer of Scotch Eggs.

I'll have to work on getting a consistent and thin layer of sausage around the egg so it cooks evenly and quickly.

These were everywhere in Scotland.  You can even buy them pre-made.

This is the Scotch Egg I got at Smoo Cave Hotel in Durness, Scotland.  The egg is SOFT boiled.  Absolutely brilliant and I'm still trying to figure out how she did it.

Next course is Tomato and Basil Soup.

We've had an abundance of tomatoes AND basil.  This recipe is a perfect way to use them.

It is a thin soup, just right for sipping out of a cup.

It is delicious!

It is very much like the tomato soup we had at The Harbour, a restaurant on the southern part of Skye island.

Our entree is Finkadella...a beef meatball.  

Served as a main course soup.

Served as a meat selection with a gravy made from the broth.

The vegetable course has an even more fun name... Rumbledethumps!

Potatoes and cabbage with melted cheddar... Scottish comfort food, for sure!

And dessert was the light and delicious Cranachan.

Again from The Harbour restaurant on Skye, a raspberry cranachan.

Ahhhh.... wonderful memories....

To KonMari or Not To KonMari...

In March I wrote about the KonMari decluttering method and how I applied it to my closet.  (http://teri-gonewalkabout2.blogspot.com/2016/03/my-sorta-konmari-closet.html )

This summer I actually bought the book and read it.  Then I read it again.

In doing that it really started making sense to me (and I also realized that way too many of the usually negative reviews of the book were written by people who didn’t actually READ the book but rather skimmed it).  I also think there is a lot of culture bias/misunderstanding among readers/reviewers.  And finally, I think there is a whole lot of cattiness out there.

So...can an organizing method created by a young minimalist Japanese woman living in a Tokyo apartment work for a middle aged American woman who is visually stimulated traveler and creative person living on 5 acres in a 2300 sq foot house with a 2 car garage and a shed?

You bet I can KonMari!

There are several aspects I really like about the KonMari method.  First, she does not tell you how much to discard...only that you should discard things that don’t work for you any more (“spark joy”).  Reminds me of the of the popular William Morris quote: “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”  I like her thought that “we should be choosing what we want to KEEP, not what we want to get rid of”.

The ‘touch everything’ sorting method is brilliant.  You can’t breeze through and say “it’s all good” because after you’ve touched 50 shirts or 100 books it finally starts sinking in that you’ve got too much stuff.

She acknowledges that “the way each client puts it into practice will naturally differ because each individual is just as unique as the way he or she furnishes the house.”

Unique...that is how I will be doing the KonMari method.

Can’t wait to see how it works out...I’m starting today!

Nest Sweet Nest...A Chalkboard Birdhouse

My intense focus lately on getting home organizing and yard work done is so I'll have free time to do fun things.  I hope by the end of October to be in a state of maintenance with both.

Even now I'm having more time to play... and to start doing creative challenges again.

House of Hoff has a DIY challenge to use chalkboard paint.  I decided it would be fun to do a birdhouse.  The extremely textured wood made drawing a straight line impossible so I went with a folk art look.  I think this will make a perfect home for a bluebird, don't you?  They can fly right on in and have the cutest nest in the yard!

http://www.housebyhoff.com/

http://anythingbutcutechallenge.blogspot.com/2016/06/challenge-14-birds-and-bees.html 

http://takeaword.blogspot.com/2016/06/take-word-home.html  

http://tuesdaytaggers.blogspot.com/2016/06/i-believe-i-can-fly-is-our-new.html

Cool Mornings...Busy Days

The first 10 days of June has had some incredibly cool mornings and low humidity evenings.  We've been taking advantage of that every chance we could (whenever something else was not planned).  We've gotten a lot done outside.  This work was to set up a framework that we can build upon with multiple small projects.

Here's a bit of it (we've also been working in the shed, but I'm not ready to show that yet).

Our garage entry area.  It was a mess... let's leave it at that, OK?  We cleared and cleaned and did a few projects.  We've also dealt with the weedy driveway issue since this photo was taken.

One of those projects was this screening of the AC unit.  Those things are just ugly and ours could win the ugly contest.  Seriously... why don't the makers of those things put a bit of style to them?

I got the fence pickets at ReStore for about .50c each.  The big 4x4s came back from my Dad's stash and the 2x4 are from my stash.  The pots of blueberry bushes are sitting on a huge, heavy piece of slab wood...that is sitting on huge 'L' braces attached to the 4x4s.  Between the weight of the wood and the pots, it's not going anywhere.

Still have to pretty it up with a rock border.

The other project was to make a walkway from the back door to the patio.

Himself leveled in the stepping blocks and then went back to add in the roof tarp (BEST weed block ever!).  Then he had to fine tune the block leveling.

Several bags of egg rock and it was ready to go.

Our under-the-deck patio and wee garden.

You can barely see it... there is black chicken wire around the garden.

Doesn't it blend in great from a distance?

The large pots on the left are my 'nursery'; trees and raspberry bushes to be planted later.

On the table are my bonsai in training.

North side of the patio in the lowest (#3) terrace.  As you can see, it was a hot weedy mess.  Himself has taken it personal and is clearing it out.

After: (View looking down from deck)  He's cleared out about a 10' wide area.  He moved the 2 surviving rhubarb plants into the bed with the spearmint.  It gets just a bit of direct sun and the plants seem to like that.

Now up to the front of the house.

Court yard.  Not much different than last year's set up.

Looking the other way (#1 terrace).  Cleaned up of leaves and sticks.  Also moved a bunch of roof tarps that will go into #2 terrace area.  Then this fall (or when it's too dry for mowing) our yard guy will fill #2 terrace with gravel.

The driveway has also been cleaned out.

Left view from the court yard.

We added that huge bird bath (given to us by a friend).  Most of the area from the bird bath down had no gravel.  Yard guy dumped in the gravel (here and several other areas).  Himself then had the chore of spreading it.  This is large gravel (2-4 inches) and doesn't move easy.

And the right view of the court yard.

Heading down the sidewalk to the front door.

We added that 4' wide strip of gravel to tie the herb bed walkway to the main sidewalk.

(Still working on the herb bed...95% done).

Front door.

Yes... another bird bath.  We have 4 of them.

Those hibiscus on either side of the door have a story.

On a WalMart trip, we walked past a couple of pallets of large plants marked 75% off.  Well that's worth a look!  They had been moved from the 50% off area.  There were several VERY thirsty hibiscus but they were still in pretty good shape.   

Original price: $20.98.  Alrighty then!

When I got up to pay for them, the cashier said she couldn't do the extra off.  I told her they were 75% and that was the price they'll be.

She had to call someone.

"Someone" came and told me she'd give me "a couple dollars off".  I smiled and said "No, they are now 75% off.  Got them off the last pallet."  Her reply... "Well, that's what 'Susie' has been giving."

With my smile now gone, I told her, "That is incorrect math.  75% off of $20.98 should come to the price of $5.25 for the plants."  She actually argued!  I was just getting ready to demand the store manager when she huffed and rang them out.

Sheesh.

I got them home and filled a big tub with water.  I plunged them in and let them sit overnight.

Next morning...HAPPY hibiscus!

Aren't those peach colored flowers beautiful?

Become a Photo Journalist

I have always liked the idea of journaling.  But I am really miserable at keeping any sort of daily diary or doing one of those 'photo a day' challenges.

Oh well.

But then an idea came to me as I was working on a 'speed photo-scrapbook' of one of our trips.

I use these lovely albums from Home Goods for my travel albums.  They hold 500 photos... which comes out to 48 double page spreads.  Hmmm... there are 52 weeks in a year.  And I usually don't completely fill an album and have extra blank pages.

Eureka!

I could do a WEEKLY photo journal!

I keep the top left vertical pocket for my very simple journaling.  The other nine photo slots are for whatever I want to remember from that week.  I print my own photos but it would be easy to do a weekly download to your favorite photo lab.

The 4X6 pockets are also good for holding small memorabilia such as my number from my 5K and the blessed water cup from the half way point.  Just remember it can't be bulky because that will tear up the album so you might have to do some trimming or just use part of something.  I have included tickets, church bulletins, take-away menu sections, and so on.

I have plenty of extra blank pages so I can do 52 double page spreads.  You could also buy an extra album to use as a 'donor' for extra pages.

It is working very well for me.  I started my first one in January 2015 and made it all the way thru the year (which is a record for me).  Now in '16 it has become an easy habit.

If you aren't a steady journaler, this might be a good option for you.  (It would be a great idea to do for your kids!)