Monday Moment with Minou

OMG are we doing this again?? Couldn't you wait until a girl is awake before taking her picture??

Saturday Reruns-----I like it

I am happy to announce that my plans to clean house on Saturday was changed again and I spent another great Saturday with the Banker. She does not have to work on Saturdays anymore so she was free to be out and about. It started out with us wanting to finish off the second season of Game of Thrones. She has it taped on her tv, so at No Cook she asked if I had plans and if not would we like to finish off the season. I had plans, cleaning, organizing, purging plans that I was 100% certain would wait for me if I decided to skip out  on them. Since they were not chiseled in stone I had no problem putting them on hold. Housework will always be there, fun days spend with wonderful friends are not always available.

So skip out I did. We got started early, we checked out a new fresh air market that has just recently opened downtown. They have a small mix  of vendors offering fresh veg, baking, and crafts. Its a nice little place and I am hoping that it takes off. I hope that they attract more vendors. Its a nice spot and we managed to buy a few things. I got some homemade soap and some new potatoes as well as some dip mix.

Then we went garage saling again. I just have to share some of the best buys of the day. I got some other things but they were not blog worthy, a small cooler, a little tea tin, and a stool for the kitchen. Nothing costing over $3.00. Here are the blog worthy things:

I got this fabulous metal wall hanging for $1.00 .  It will be hanging in the back yard once I get the little patio area done.

The bird house and planter wheel barrow were each a $1.00 The little bird house it called the Garden Inn, it's printed over the little heart shaped door.

This rustic little lantern and the shepherd hook hanger were 50 cents. Its a little rusty but I like the look of it. I put it in the front yard by my Mom's old wash tub full of petunias.

Gwillam the Gnome has a night light now as he smokes his pipe and watches the world go by from his shady spot under the petunias.

Ok I did not buy this plant stand at a garage sale this weekend, it was purchased awhile ago but I love how it looks with the impatients in my fancy pots  and my mosaic bird house that welcome you as you come to the door. ( I really need to do something with the floor of the veranda not to mention I need to power wash the whole veranda area)

The Quest was resumed today. I did eventually get the kitchen cleaned up, laundry done and I got a couple of puppets made today. I finally ran the dish washer. Running out of cutlery is a good indicator that you need to get those dishes done. So the schedule survived. The craft room is not 100% but its much better than it was. Now I just need to  maintain it and do some major purging if I wish to. I also stripped the bed, washed the sheets and hung them out to dry. It was so hot and windy today it was perfect for drying laundry. I will sleep in sweet smelling sheets tonight. Yahoo. I love that.

Oh yeah I was talking about my Saturday. We finished the garage sales, watched 6 HOURS of Game of Thrones, ate pizza, chatted and then on the way to my house for her to drop me off, we stopped and got a few groceries. Both the cat and I needed breakfast fixin's for this morning, I did not want to go out today. I wanted to have a quiet, stay at home day. I got what I wanted. I still have to make collars and name tags for the puppy puppets but once that is done I will have done all I wanted to this weekend and more. 

I hope your weekend was as good as mine!!

Toodles,

Linda

PS I forgot to show you the puppy puppets:  here are Nixon and Odis, two golden puppies with their little tongues out ready to give puppy kisses

Turtle Interuptus

Ok the craft room is going to take longer than planed. I should have pushed through last night. I had high hopes for tonight but I got interrupted ................by a turtle. A turtle puppet that is. One of my co-workers was looking for a gift for child and she thought a turtle puppet would be good, and a piggy too. The pig I had on hand, the turtle not so much so this little guy hi-jacked my evening. I am not about to turn down cold hard cash. So out came the crochet hook and the craft room got the shaft. Here is the finished product.

He is cute isn't he? Of all the puppets I have made this little critter is the most popular. I think its because not only is he cute but his shell is removable. Naked turtle is a hit with young and old alike. Whatever his charm is he holds the lead spot amongst the puppets.

BUT don't give up hope, don't think I have totally abandoned the QUEST. The craft room was not completely ignored. Remember how it looked last night?

Well this is this same spot tonight

So I have made some progress but as you can see there is more to go. I also got the far corner of the counter cleared off but I did not take pictures. I puttered away at it while I chatted on face book with Miss Miles. We have not talked in awhile so it was great to catch up with her. While we chatted I sorted, recycled and destroyed my way through a mound of paper work. I can actually move the mouse for the computer now without getting paper cuts or being seriously in danger of being crushed by a paper avalanche.

Tomorrow night is NO COOK so I will be out and about and not giving the cleaning a passing thought. I will be back at it on the weekend though. I plan to finish the main floor this weekend. Then next week I can start going deeper into the quagmire that is my house. Hopefully there will be crafting on the weekend to balance out the cleaning frenzy.

Wish me luck!!

Toodles,

Linda

The Quest is in a Quagmire

So I am on day two of my cleaning the house phase of my plan. The craft room was the target tonight and I am thinking that maybe doing it in one night is more than I care to do. Its not more than I could do but its more than I care to do. I worked for more than an hour tonight and this is what I got done

There is still a lot of room for further purging and organizing but at least you can see the counter tops. There was crap important stuff piled up high enough that you could not see the first row of baskets. So I sorted, put away, recycled and tidied to get it to this point. You will notice that I am only sharing a picture of half of the room. That's cause the other half looks like this:

Yikes!! I think I will tackle the other half tomorrow night. For now I am going to pat myself on the back that I have half of it done and the other half will be done tomorrow.  I have rationalized it to this point, if I get the house semi cleaned up now, then on my next round of cleaning I can purge deeper, organize deeper and get things even more under control. Makes sense to me

Lately I have been coming to think that I need to be realistic. There are things in this house I do not use or need or even want. It is time for them to go and I mean to hunt them out and get rid of them. Are you sick of me going on and on about this yet??

On to other matters I have this  chest of drawers in the entry way that I want to paint.

I now have to go googling to see if you can get Annie Sloane Chalk Paint in Canada. I have been drooling over the re-do's at  http://mypassionfordecor.blogspot.ca/ and she uses this paint for her stuff. I love The look she gets and I think my little chest in the hall would look lovely done in the old white with a stained wood top. I also really like the wax finish that she uses. I have used wax on furniture before and I love the feel that it gives the piece. This little baby needs to be freshened up and I am curious about this paint that has so many people talking. 


For now I need to go and make something to eat then make some puppets. Yes I am back doing them at the moment. Just two for now but who knows what will happen.

The Never Ending Quest

Some days it seems that all I do is go on an on and on about being healthier, being organized, being more frugal, being better at everything. I go along in fits and starts and I think (I hope) that I am making progress. I have worked on the meal planning and as a result I am throwing out a lot less stuff so that is progress. Financially, time wise and reducing waste wise it has helped a lot. Tonight I started another plan.

Its not a new plan, its one I have used before with great success but somehow got misplaced and I am just now getting back to it. Its taking a room each night and cleaning it. So simple and yet so easy to forget or ignore.  It usually only takes an hour at most and then its done. When I do this, it keeps the house reasonably presentable and I do not have to spend my entire weekend thinking that I should be doing or actually doing housework. Because I was not totally feeling 100%  yesterday, I did nothing but tonight I did the living and dining rooms. So inspite of a lackadaisical start this week I am on track now. It did not take long and it looks nice. I like my house to look tidy, I do not like a jumbled mess so I am working to get to the tidy place again. My Craft room will be tomorrow night and I fear that it will take more than an hour. Much putting away and much purging/sorting is needed in this room. I will be very happy to see it accomplished even if it takes me two nights to get it done.


What makes me wonder is when it takes so little time each day to work on the house and keep it up, why do I not just do it. Why do I let the crafty bits pull me away when just a scant hour would take care of it and then I would have the rest of the evening to be as crafty as I please? My darling Mom's voice is singing in my head even as I type. "if you do a little each day, you never have to do a lot on one day". Irritating when they are right about stuff isn't it??? She was also a big supporter of "put it back in its proper place when you are finished with it". Hmmm yeah, another piece of her wisdom that I struggle with. A complete time saver and frustration stopper when I cannot find something because I have failed to replace it where it should go. I do take ages to learn some of the simplest lessons some days. I am working on it. A complete work in progress that's me!!


Ah well, at least I keep trying!! 


Toodles


Linda

Best Laid Plans

So yesterday was the day I was going to get stuck in and work on the house. Tackle that "to do" list and make a bit old dent in it. Well that was the plan anyway. So on Friday night at No Cook, the Banker says "want to go to the Farmer's Market tomorrow". I did not even hesitate, I said "sure".  A simple sentence that lead to a wonderful day.

She asked if I had plans for the day and I said nothing that can't wait, so off we went at 8:45 am to the Farmer's Market for lovely, fresh, local grown veg and yummy baked goods. I have not been to the Farmer's Market in years. I just got out of the habit of going. Long story and I had my reasons. It was a little sad to be there but it was ok. We finished there, made a quick run to the Hostess' place to pick up some things, before we hit some garage sales.

Not a good day for garage sales in this fair city but I did get two nice sturdy chairs for $1.00 each for my sewing room. They are currently red but I will recover them into a nice blue to match the room. I also bought a cork screw for .25 cents. I was amazed the Banker bought much more than I did. I must be getting better at this stuff. I will be sharing pictures of my chairs when I do the recovering so you can see the before and after.

Next thing we knew it was lunch time, so we stopped at A&W for a snack. Next on the list was her house to watch season two of  the Game of Thrones. We managed three episodes before it was time to go to the theater and meet S to see Brave. What a good animated movie. The animation now is fantastically real, almost like a photo. Supper for we three at the Banker's place, chat, chat, talk, talk and its 9:30. S takes her leave, we watch another hour of Game of Thrones and then I head home. I was back in the house at 10:40. A long lovely day with good friends. I love days like that.

SO now I have had my Sunday sleep in, my big Sunday breakfast and now I need to do some things. Laundry is a must, dishes, vacuum the living room. I bought a couple of plants yesterday so I need to get those into the soil. I have some crocheting and knitting to work on today as I am THIS close to having a couple of projects finished. I have managed to unload the dishwasher this morning and started to fill it again.

What I would really like to do is make a pot of coffee and go park myself on the veranda with a book but I am not doing that today. A little household maintenance is needed and today is the day to do it. Its too hot for me to be outside anyway. In theory it would be lovely to be on the veranda but it reality I would be a sweaty puddle!! Yuk. I will stay inside, in the air conditioned cool and tend to my home.

Happy Sunday!!

Toodles,
Lina

Makin' a list

What a surprise I am making a list. I am making two of them actually. The first one is the usual "to do" list for the weekend. I always make one on Thursday. Its usually way to long and there is no way I could get all the stuff done but it gives me a goal. Something to shoot for. I like to cross things off lists so I most often give it a good try.

The second list is jobs that have lingered in the back ground, desperate to be done but happily ignored by me. I need to get off the proverbial pot and get my act together. So I started a list of these jobs and I hope to start to tackle each of them and thus be able to cross them off the list. Things like finally finishing the wall paper job in the laundry room, (it has been waiting for 6 years to be finished ACK!!!) Painting the trim in the main floor bath, etc etc.  Finish the mosaic stars and hang them on the shed, heck paint the shed, move the carpet, clean out my closet and on and on and on. As always I am in constant pursuit of becoming organized, tidy and on top of things. This has been a life long pursuit and lately it feels like an vertical climb up a mountain. 


Lately I have been far to good at making a list, formulating a plan and then ignoring it completely when I get home. What is up with that?? I like a tidy house, I like things in there place. I can live with clutter as long as its organized but for the longest time I have just let things got to hell in a hand basket. Well enough is enough. I am going to try to bring myself to heel. Take my self to task and get back to being better at keeping this house as it should be. 

I have no plans to go anywhere this weekend so I should be able to tackle the list with both feet first, crank up the music, pedal to the metal enthusiasm.  Anyone want to lay bets on how much I actually do???

Mama, I'll believe it when I see it.

Toodles,

Linda