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!