My Current Public Enemy Number One

Do you have something that drives you up a wall, makes you crazy and just seems to be determined to make your life a complete misery?? I do and I have done battle with it/them for years and I am 'bout to my breaking point.

What is it that has pushed me to the brink?? Lunch containers. Little plastic or glass or whatever they are made of containers to put your choice of luncheon food into. I have for years been in pursuit of the perfect set of containers and the end result is I have a ton of them and very few are actually the right sizes. If they are the right sizes the lids disappear into some black hole in my house. If I have the lid, the base is no where to be found. Amazingly the wrong sized ones are always right there, easy access.

Don't tell me to store the lids in a basket, or store them together or buy the ones that the lids snap on the bottoms so they are always together. I have tried every storage method I can think f  and I am fixin' to snap myself. The little bastards are livin' a life of their own when I am not looking. ARRRRGH!!!! My collection has now exploded out of the container cupboard and are taking over the laundry room. I hate them.

This morning I went in search of a container to put my yogurt in. All sorts of bottoms in the basket and not a lid in sight. I put them away together, I swear to goodness I do. I think they are like lemmings and leap to their death behind the deep freeze. They know that is not getting moved anytime soon because its a pain to do it. They are back there laughing at me. I can almost hear them.

I am to the point where I want to hurl them all out each and everyone but that would mean I would have to start all over again . I could give  up eating lunch I suppose. Yeah that is not going to happen anytime soon either.  I am defeated by little lumps of plastic.

I need to grit my teeth, get rid of the ones I do not use or that are just not the right size. The means I need to do battle not only with them but with my "oh my goodness, I may need this at some point in the future, I need to keep it". I am a my own worst enemy. I will do it though, and soon. I am fed up to the back teeth with seeing stupid plastic containers all over and yet never the right ones.

ok, moving on!!

I managed to get some more organizing done in the craft room. I swapped out some of the smaller plastic containers for bigger ones and purged out half a garbage bag of junk from the top half of the cupboard in the craft room

Before

After

There is now a spot to store my scrapbooking paper that is not on the floor of the craft room or on top of the boxes. I got rid of a ton of little bottles of craft paint that have been dried out for years. Things were put into boxes with other things that are similar. I will go through it again as I work my way around the room and thin it down even more. I need to go though my old sewing patterns and get rid of the ones I will never sew with again. It feels good to get this done. 

I emptied all of these:

Some I will use in other places in the house. One of them will be used to house my upholstery staplers and staples. One of them will be for my lovely new power drill (if it fits)  and the drill bits. Another for paint brushes to keep them from getting their bristles all bent up. The ones I can't use Teddy Bear and KitKat will take off my hands.

I am also purging some of the boxes I have just here and there. Stuff gets put into theses little cardboard boxes with out me really knowing its happening. Next thing I know I need something and then I don't know where it is. The boxes get shoved into this room and then it just all adds to the mess. My Mom tried her best to teach me to put things away when I drag them out, or put it where I would go looking for it. I never really learned that lesson. Not because of any failure on her part, just shear stubbornness on mine.  I am still trying to overcome this part of my nature,  at this point in my life. 

I do think as long as I keep trying, I am ok. Its the day I give up that I really have a problem!!

Toodles

Linda

Well That Did Not Go as Planned

So I took two vacation days this week and I had a great "to do" list made up. I was going to get some of the things done that I have been putting off, Things were going to happen, stuff was going to be accomplished. You know where this is going don't you? Not everything got done. In fact precious little on the list got crossed off. It the same old story over and over again. I am sure you are tired of it, I know that I sure am. But not tired enough to make the changes required.

It was Valentines Day last week. Mostly it does not bother me, but this year I have to admit I was feeling a tad sorry for myself. So I did what I usually do, I threw food at the problem. (Yes I have issues don't judge). I bought myself my all time favourite ice cream:

Expensive and oh so good and in trying to enjoy it, I ended up in a wrestling match with two furry little brats.

Ice Cream? Mama got ice cream? Share??

Ice Cream? Share? I love  Ice Cream!!!

I did not share. I am not sure chocolate is good for cats. Had it been vanilla they would have got to have a taste but no chocolate for the brats. Its not good for them or for me for that matter but I would get over it. We had quite the tussle but I won the day. 

So back to my days off. I did manage to get the kitchen and the living room sort of whipped into shape yet again. At least now someone could stop in with out me having to cringe. I made some more puppets and am currently three puppets ahead of schedule. I organized my yarn stash. Now all the puppet yarn is in one container, the dish cloth yarn in another and the odd bits in a third place. I emptied three baskets in the process which frees up some floor space in the living room. So nice to have the yarn together, makes it easier for me to know what I have and if  I need to hit the craft store.

 I did some scrapbooking, not something that was desperately in need of doing but its fun and I am easily distracted. So I can happily say this is 99.9% finished.

Just a few more pictures and some journaling and I can put it to bed. I also added some wedding pages to the Maritime album. Someone drew it to my attention that I needed to have some wedding pics in with the trip pictures. The Pilot and The Teacher getting hitched was the main reason I went down east in the first place after all. So I did that as well.

Oh yes fun  fact number 112, apparently my wrist does not like my lovely new wrist brace:

I have been very care to keep the brace clean and keep my wrist clean and dry but this happened anyway. Soooo incredibly itchy. I have managed to reverse it and still wear the brace. Strips of flannelette around my wrist has fixed the problem. Thank goodness!!  I have to wear the dang thing because The best thing ever is that this week I managed to hem a pair of pants. That act in itself was not impressive but I did it by hand!!

I have not been able to hold a fine needle since Christmas, so I take this as a wonderful sign. My fingers and thumb are still numb and tingly but they are getting better. Made me do the drunken monkey dance of joy let me tell you.

So that was my week in a nutshell. Not quite what I had planned but that's ok. I may not have done all the chores but I did some fun stuff too. The Banker and I  had a lovely breakfast out. We did No Cook as usual. Kit Kat, The Sailor and I went to see the movie, The Great Wall, then out for coffee afterward. We ran into Teddy Bear and a friend of hers and ended up having coffee together. Today Teddy Bear brought me a coffee this afternoon. She stores Christmas and Birthday gifts over here, far from curious little eyes and this safe storage usually gets me a coffee delivery. It was lovely. Birthday Twin and I have been texting up a storm, like we do when we are both at home.

I am trying not to think of work tomorrow. I am concentrating on the fact the house smells of roast chicken and I have the entire evening ahead of me to work on more puppets.

Toodles

Linda

Quiet Weekend

Pot of homemade chicken soup simmering on the stove, the cats are snoozing, first load of laundry chugging away in the machine, dish washer emptied and loaded again, puppet production is on schedule so  all is well with the world. At least my little corner of it. Its been a lovely quiet weekend.

I have been home most of the weekend. I finally got the last of the Christmas stuff put away. I figured it was time since it is almost Valentine's day. I am not sure what is up with me lately but I sure do not do things like I used to. I just don't seem to care like I should. Oh well I am working on it. Christmas is away and I spent most of this weekend puttering around the house, putting lots of things away and straightening up others. I have done a lot and I have a lot more to do.

I realized last weekend that I needed a container for the infamous circle punches. As always my first thought is to head to the store and buy something. I am trying to reverse that habit, so I try to make myself think about what I need before I spend money that I should not. Shop the house before I shop the store. It was because of this that I remembered these

These two containers had been stuffed full of old crochet cotton. What to do with the crochet cotton, it has to go somewhere so I can put the punches in their new home. More thinking,  which made me remember this:

The Banker was getting rid of this container sometime ago, so I took it and I stuffed a bit of material into it just for the time being. Now it looks like this:

I found a new spot for the material and the crochet cotton fits perfectly. Because this is a narrow container it stands on end and slides into the spot the other two containers came out of with no problem. Hidden away in the craft room.

The circle punches have a proper container AND now I have an empty one as well just waiting to be the home for something in the future These containers have handles in the top so they are perfect for scrapbooking equipment.  All this without spending a dime !! Using things that I already have in the house!! When I take the time to think this stuff out and it works out like this it makes me so very happy. I am the first to admit, I think to buy something far to quickly. Gotta tighten the purse strings so I can get to Scotland. Small triumphs!!!

I have two days off this week. It will work out to a total of five with the long weekend. I have plans to do some things I have been putting off and to get some organizing done in the craft room. Maybe I will finish the 2016 scrapbook and get some pages added to my New Brunswick book. I already have a "to do" list made for those days. I have Teddy Bear's chairs to recover and a lampshade to recover and the list goes on and on. 

Craft sale prep is chugging along nicely. I have the little brown paper shopping bags purchased for putting the puppets into when they are purchased. Those 50% off coupons at the local craft store made that happen. I think I will get a couple of bundles if smaller ones for the people that will just buy dish cloths. I am making a point of taking advantage of those really good coupons when they come up. Giving those pennies all the pinches I can. 

So I am looking foreward to only three days of work this week. To having five days off and getting some things done around the house. I have not done much this week. Sort of just gave myself some days to do nothing, but now that needs to change. 

Now I need to change out the laundry and get back to puppets. I am one puppet ahead of schedule and I want to keep going. My fingers are still numb so I watch that I don't over do it but I need to work on them as much as I can since I am committed to the sale this fall. 

Hope you weekend is going well wherever you are.

Toodles

Linda

Gettin' Scrappy

The Banker, Kitkat the Sailor and I went to a scrapbooking workshop this weekend in a little town close to us. They called it a workshop but mostly we just had a day to work on our project uninterrupted, be fed really well and share ideas with new people. I am 99% finished my 2016 album.

We had a great day. The Sailor could not join us until noon. She had a previous hair appointment that she did not want to cancel. The three if us were there when the door opened. Even though I thinned down the supplies for just the one day, its still not a hobby for the faint of heart. Scrapbooking requires dedication and muscles!

.
Only four bags but those two blue ones are heavy. Paper is not light weight. I took more than I used but you need to. you never know how much of one colour you will require. I have some pages that need embellishments but I am very nearly finished. I have an entire shoe box full of embellishemtns and I still don't have all the right ones. I like the idea of one album per year. I got the idea from the Banker and it works nicely.

We had lots of space to work. The Sailor and KitKat were working new age, with their laptops while the Banker and I rocked it old school. A lady to my left was putting pictures on pre-printed pages. They looked really nice but it sort of stole the creativity out of it for me. I like any old excuse to use my circle punches and my paper cutters!!.

That was  my Saturday and on Sunday Teddy Bear and I went to see Manchester By the Sea. It was an odd movie in some ways but I really liked it. Much more true to life than some movies. I got up Sunday morning to the knowledge that I had no bread in the house!! No toast, so I went and bought breakfast instead. Breakfast and the movie took the lion's share of the day. I went for a few groceries after the show and my day was done. Fast weekend but super fun.

Best news.............. the Scotland trip is back on the table. Whoot Whoot!!!  We talked about it and we all still want to go, so the plan is 2018 we go to Scotland. This also means I need to get working on my mobility, my health and my bank account. Shingling the roof is another thing that needs to get done. Its actually top of the list. Then I can look into the fun stuff like traveling. The trip is back on the agenda and that makes me happy.

I had big plans to get lots done in the house tonight, did not happen. I got looking for a letter that I thought I had received but didn't. At least if I did i can  not find it . I spent most of the evening looking. My oh my I need to get this craft room sorted.

For now I am headed to bed. I am tired and I not much else is gong to happen here tonight.

Toddles,
Linda