New Beginnings

Living room before I started

New Year's is of course about making resolutions. I'm not much for that, most of us will start off well and peter out before the end of the month. However I am taking advantage of the new year for a new beginning. There are so many things that I want to accomplish in my life over the next 5 years and to be able to do them I must be much more organized!

So here is what the living room was looking like the past week, leftovers from Christmas and things I brought home from cleaning out a store room at my moms. Yes, that is a drill press ;=0.

Living room after one 15 minute session.

So I did one 15 minute session and here is the result. Those little wall cabinets will eventually go in the studio to hold various small things. I think I will glue cork over the fronts so they can double as a bulletin board.

Living Room after a second 15 minute session

My second 15 minute session included transferring all of my seeds from a big plastic tub into the little storage table. Now I can get rid of the tub!

That space behind the storage table in this last picture is where my grow light set up will go. Since the living room is the warmest room in the house, this is where I start my seeds. When they are bigger then they go in the bedroom where it is a little cooler.

Make Do

The big crack around the back door

I have a great tendency to make do or do without. Sometimes of course I'm just procrastinating!

A long time back I got my new to me back door hung, but I never got back around to doing the rest of the work, like fixing the trim boards and putting in the doorstops and weather stripping.

I complained in my last post how cold my kitchen is, well a big part of that is the big draft from the crack around the door. So I finally decided to do something about it. I didn't really have what I needed to fix it properly so I scrounged around and thought about what i could fill up the crack with.

Big crack filled in

I just took some plastic grocery bags and stuff them in the crack around the door. That really helped stop the draft and it kept the kitchen at least 5 degrees warmer last night.

I know my younger daughter will call it "okie-fied" and it's ugly but it will do until I figure out what I need to do with it to fix it permanently. Took me less than five minutes! Why did I wait so long?

Gift Guides and Winter Weather

Snow in the garden, Dec 5, 2011

Well, it snowed the first weekend of Dec and even now a week later there is still some snow on the ground and ice on my front steps.

With winter weather comes new chores, like bringing in wood, making fires and cleaning out the stove.

I've not been keeping up with the house well at all because it's so cold. My kitchen has been 38-40 degrees at night. It's warmer inside my refrigerator!

I have been writing lots of new articles over on Squidoo, especially gift guides so if you are looking for gifts you might want to check these out:

Best Gifts for the Gardener-Cook has a lot of ideas for the folks on your list that grow their own food and preserve the harvest.

All Occasion Gifts for Artists has some different ideas for what the artists in your life might like since most people don't know what to get as far as art supplies go, this concentrates on other things artists could use.

 Gifts for Organic Gardeners has a lot of different gifts for the gardener in your life, not just seeds or tools!

Working Outdoors

Well I have been working outdoors a lot, trying to get things done before the weather gets nasty. This pic is of the back side walk, from my back patio looking up towards the falling down sheds. on the left is my little back garden. This was before I started cleaning up around the sidewalk.

This one is after I'd worked awhile on it. I spent the day working on various outdoor projects so I don't really know how long I spent on each thing; I didn't set the timer at all.

I've also been writing a lot over on Squidoo and making new products over in my Zazzle shop. So of course I haven't been working on cleaning house much. Just barely able to keep a trail through the living room and some of the clutter at bay. Perhaps when it's a bit colder and the garden isn't so enticing I can make more progress here indoors. In the meantime if you want to see more of the garden, what I'm harvesting, progress on the greenhouse and a free seed giveaway, check out my Edible Garden blog.

WORKING IN THE KITCHEN

The kitchen before

Well as you can see the kitchen is a big wreck. Stuff everywhere, can't hardly find a clean pot and tripping over things on the floor.

So working on it 15 minutes at a time today. And in between made some chicken and dumpling soup, yummy, just right for a cold rainy day.

kitchen after one 15 minute session

Well after one 15 minute session things are a little better, I've done some dishes and picked up some of the junk off the floor.

Kitchen after two 15 minute sessions

And here it is after another 15 minute session, beginning to look a lot better. Most of the dishes are done, most of the junk off the floor and two counters have had a lot of stuff removed from them, thrown or put away. I took out the trash too. Still aways to go before I can say it's finished, but definitely an improvement!

RAINY DAY=WORK INDOORS

Bedroom before I did anything

Well since I have been concentrating so hard on the outdoor work of course the house is a train wreck. But today is grey and rainy and I happen to have a day off, so I'm working indoors 15 minutes at a time.

Here's the bedroom before I did anything. Two weeks ago when the weather turned cooler I pulled out the boxes of winter clothes and there they are, still sitting there....


Now here it is after just one 15 minute session; looking a LOT better, don't you think?

bedroom after one 15 minute session

bedroom after one 15 minute session

bedroom after one 15 minute session

   


















I learned about the magic of 15 minutes from Marla Cilly, aka The Fly Lady. Her book Sink Reflections chronicles her journey out of CHAOS and gives you loads of help so you can do the same.

I Have Been Working Hard....

Stone Walls, down stream, right side

Wow I didn't realize how long it has been since I've posted here! Sorry about that! I have been so caught up in so many different things. Right now most other projects have come to a screeching halt while I try and finish up some of these rock walls before it starts freezing up at night. I took this picture Oct 18 and have made more progress since then, but I need to get a lot more done.

I've also been working hard in the garden, trying to get things cleaned up, compost and manure spread and things planted. I've been harvesting a few things, baby beets, baby carrots, some shelly beans and baby lettuce. I've been planting peas of all sorts every spot I can. I just love peas and winter-spring is the only time they grow here, so I plant tons and gorge during the season.

Harvest, 10-18-11 shelly beans, lettuce, beets

So of course the house is  a train wreck! My daughter and her girls stopped by the other day. When the weather got cool I pulled out the boxes of winter clothes to find something to wear to work. They are still sitting in the bedroom and the 8 year old wanted to know if I was moving!

I have decided though that I am not going to sweat it if the house isn't even decent. You know why? Some things just have to come in their own time! Right now I have to get the outdoor work done ASAP because when it starts freezing I won't be able to do it. When the weather gets yucky will be plenty of time to concentrate on the inside of the house. Oh, another thing I've been doing is writing tons of new articles;

All Occasion Gifts for Artists
Gifts for Organic Gardeners
Create Custom Christmas Cards
Italian Potato Soup, Tastes Just Like Olive Garden's!


So that is most of what I have been doing lately besides working the regular day job, which I have to get ready for now!