Homebody's Life Shift

Taking a break…a long one…52 weeks.

I should say I am taking a break from my own house.  I am here in sweltering South Carolina, about as far from Northern California as you can get.

I will be here another 3 weeks and so far have done a few jobs around the house because my daughter is gone to a photo shoot that is taking her on a 4 day trip.

I hope to get a table and set up her sewing area as a surprise for her birthday August 24th.  I am itching to go to the Dollar Store for some baskets for above her washer and dryer and her pantry (from ideas here at www.orgjunkie.com.  Her house is new and she is very busy with my granddaughter and her photography business.

So I don’t have any pictures, just want to say hi and I will be back!  Right now I am enjoying every minute with my youngest daughter’s husband and son-in-law.  This is my first visit to South Carolina and it is lovely here on the coast…..just too hot and humid for me to do too much.  No wonder life is slower in the south!

52 Weeks-Happy update!

Well after the crappy week last week, I am happy to saw I was rewarded on Saturday when I took my mom to the local quilt show.  There I found something I have been waiting for and thought I would have to wait until October to get it.  Thank you Jesus!

Ruby I love you!

I knew there was no getting my craft/office/quilting room organized and that awful table in the garage without some help.  In case you have forgotten:

Help came in the form of a cedar lined cabinet from Costco:

Good grief what is that crap on my drainboard up there?  Anyhoo, this cabinet helped me with two areas of badness…my office/quilt/craft room and the table set up to hold my laundry so I do not have to bend over and over to sort laundry (I have fibromyalgia/connective tissue disorder/autoimmune disease/lupus or something like that).  Don’t ya just love all that empty space!  This is what used to sit in this space, nice enough, but not enough storage space, notice latest picture of my darling granddaughter?

First I switched out some bins to make sure I had matching ones for the cabinet.  I got a great buy on the bins as posted https://allysgrandma.wordpress.com/2011/04/04/holy-canvas-bins-batman/.

I organized some of my bins that had Amy Butler, Kaffe Fasset, Mary Engelbreight, kids fabric, batiks, etc:

I am happy to report both areas are now much closer to how I want them to be.  I am not totally done with either area, but I am feeling much more comfortable in the areas and my creative juices are coming back.  So much so that I am going to a mini quilting retreat this weekend at http://scottiedogquilts.com/.  I called DH to tell him what I had decided yesteday and why didn’t he go camping (since he came home early last weekend to take me on my marathon medical appointment week).  He got home from work last night, packed up and left. Didn’t take much to push him out the door   His camping partner is retired, so he did the shopping while DH finished his work day and arranged the employees to cover the weekend.

DH was out and gone by 5:00 pm, just in time to call my next door neighbor to get caught up on the Batchelorette.  Perfect girl’s night in.  Here are my after pictures:

Isn’t it pretty, all bins filled with fabric and the top a bunch of recipe books (and the rest are in DH’s TV room). I need to label the bins, heck some still have the price tags on them!

I know you are probably still horrified at all the stuff in my craft/office/quilting room, but believe me it feels so much better.  Same with the laundry area.  For me it is 2 steps forward, 1 step back.  This week felt like 3 steps forward!

So Laura, yes I am rewarding myself with hopefullyclose to a finished quilt top this weekend!  Go check out the accomplishments of the other participant at http://orgjunkie.com/2011/07/52-weeks-29-celebrate-your-accomplishments.html.

Thank you Laura and everyone for all the incentive to continue on this journey, slowly though I go!

52 Weeks…..I am not close to done, will I ever be?

I had a bad week again, starting on Monday in Redding, having nerve conduction studies, an EMG, then driving to San Francisco t see another doctor, then home on Tuesday.  Wednesday I realized that I did not have the energy to make the strawberry jam that we stopped north of Hopland at a strawberry farm where we bought a flat of strawberries.  Then on Thursday I had a skin biopsy.  The anesthetic started to wear off when he started stitching, but I just wanted it over with!

So this week’s organizing would be me making jam.  I did it over a 2 day period of time.  I sat and watched DropDead Diva (DVR’d) while I cut the litte tops off the strawberries.  I washed and dried them, placing them in the frig.  My dermatology appointment was not until 4:00 pm on Thursday, so first thing I ran down to Ace Hardware and bought new lids and some Certo, which is in new little cannister thingees.  Cheaper I think in the long run. 

I dumped the strawberries in my largest pot, added the sugar, the Certo and cooked meanwhile finding all my little empty pint jars and rings.  I ran the jars in the dishwasher, started my water bath canner heating up and the lids and rings in a smaller boiling pot.

I also cleaned off my washer and organized the cleaners on the bottom shelf.  We stopped in Santa Rosa to get gas on our way home from SF, but instead bought a thing to hang my laundry on and a scale.  I am keeping the scale in the dining room, isn’t that a good idea!  

So I hope this counts here is how I organized my strawberries:

These are my lids and rings with the strawberry jam and canner also heating up.

Filling the jars and below the jars after being pulled from their water bath.  Then listening for the ping as they seal. 

Also I did clean my laundry area a bit:

I know I have a lot of cleaners/laundrystuff, some given to me from my elderly neighbor when she moved.  Here is my cleaned off washer:

Oh look, the whites are in the washer.  Here they are on the new hanging laundry thing from Costco and my line:

And now just for fun/to make you all feel better….this is how my office looks and where I am spending my day or week getting our paperwork organized from all our medical bills and coming up with a financial plan since THAT IS MY JOB NOW!

Yes things are bad right now…….diving in!

52 weeks-Getting there one day at a time!

Okay knowing when is enough enough…..good topic.  I have to hand it to Laura at http://orgjunkie.com/ , she always makes me think!   I strugge with this issue with food and fabric.  Not clothes so much….even though I have plenty.  I had been thinking I had plenty of fabric and then one of my favorite on-line fabric stores had a geat sale and I picked up some jelly rolls for a great price.  In my defense of fabric buying, I actually use it:

Well okay a charm pack and a fat quarter bundle too!  I have plans for all of it now.  As far as food goes.  I do stock up when I find things that I use on sale. 

I was just talking to myMIL about donating some clothes to the women’s shelter. I have an entie work wardrobe I will probably never use again, since I have been diagnosed first with fibromyalgia…..and now lupus.  My doctor told me that I would not be able to work and I have to agree with her.

So I am going to work on going through my work wardrobe and get rid of it before they get yucky just from sitting in  closet.  I plan to keep a few for social events I may go to that my daily jeans and T-shirts would be inappropriate.

This week I worked hard on my sewing/craft room, but it is still a mess:

So this week’s actual organizing was to show you how I organize my drugs!

and as you can see, I bought a larger pill organizer because I take so many pills a day:

I have spent a lot of time outdoors, but today this got done (entryway table):

Kitchen, dining room, livingroom:

Notice the furniture crammed onto the carpet so the laminate could be mopped well?  Well I wish I could say it was me, but it wasn’t.  MyDH was embracing his inner homemaker and cleaned like a madwoman today while I finished up a quilt for our oldest daughter’s friend.

So Happy 4th of July to everyone! and Happy Anniversary (the 5th) to my youngest daughter and wonderful favorite (and only) SIL!

52 Weeks-Trying to get back to the swing of things!

Because of a recent visit from:

I didn’t get much done.  Flights into Humboldt are expensive, so I picked up and dropped off my daughter and granddaughter in Sacramento (approximately 5 hours away) .  Ally kept me busy all week.  My daughter was shooting a wedding and another family photo shoot.  We baked cupcakes and worked in the garden, picked strawberries, played and played and played. 

I got home Monday afternoon and it took another day to rest up and recuperate.  I had so much paperwork piling up I decided to concentrate on that this week.  First I took the stack and organized into like items:

1.  Mailed checks and cards to 4 graduates.

2.  Filled out form to transfer DH’s Roth IRA from one broker to another (have been meaning to do this for so long it’s embarrasing).

3.  Matched EOBs and medical pills.

4.  Paid bills for our rental home.

5.  Inventoried and did a little grocery shopping.

6.  Brought home granddog from Sacramento (older daughter met us overnight to see her sister and niece), who then ran herself ragged and could barely walk after 3 days. Took her to the vet.

7.  Took both dogs to groomers yesterday, then ran to town and ran errands.

8.  Filled out paperwork for county sheriff’s office for our new alarm system.

9.  Filled out pink slip, signing our oldest truck (#3) over to my older brother.  Our girls in Reno were using it, but they were done with it and let’s face it….3 trucks are too many!  My older brother had asked what we were going to do with it.  We decided to just give it to him since it needs new brakes and we don’t know what else may be wrong with it.  Every vehicle we have ever owned has been given or sold for a minimal amount to a family member…..how weird is that?  He paid to have it shipped from Reno to Washington State where he lives.

10.  Did laundry, cleaned floors, cleaned bathrooms, cooked some, cleaned kitchen every night, made coffee every night for the morning and took my meds. 

11.  Updated Quicken and balanced checking/savings accounts.

Today I ran to Kohl’s to spend my $30.00 in Kohl’s cash.  I took DH along and he bought 3 new shirts.  We paid $6.27 for them after using Kohl’s bucks.  Then I ran up to a friend/former coworker’s to say goodbye.  When I got to her house, I had to help her.  She only has until Tuesday to pack as escrow closes on her house and she is moving to Michigan from here in Northern California.  I started helping her pack her books…..oh my so many books she is moving….. and we finished up in about 3 hours.  I did take a few breaks, but by the time we were done, I was ready to quit. 

DH has gone camping with his hunting partner, so I have the weekend to myself.  If the weather is nice, I will work in the garden.  If it is not, I will work on the house, especially this:

I will be traveling next weekend to my nephew’s wedding in Washington State, but the really exciting thing is my sister bought me an Ikea bookcase that has cubbies that has an attached work desk.  So I really need to get my office/craft room ready to really get organized when I bring that home!  Good thing I bought all those Kohl’s baskets!

So in the meantime, I am going over to www.orgjunkie.com and checking out what everyone else is accomplishing.  I try to leave a comment on everyone’s entry, but sometimes blogs will not accept my comments.  I am not sure why, but I do try to read every entry.  It helps me so much!

Until next time……